Into The Jungle
The group I GM for has just started our latest campaign, this time using Daggerheart, and one thing I've immediately noticed is there is how much I used to rely on online content for D&D that hasn't quite been replicated for Daggerheart yet. I thought it might therefore be useful for me to post the home-brew creations I make for our games here in case anyone else is looking for some quick statblocks/environments etc. to use in their own games!
This week's post is a short one to kick things off - my players have just started exploring the enchanted jungle of Veridia that formed as the result of a spell at the end of a magical war. In the first couple of sessions, they've encountered a few of the monsters that lurk in its depths.
The first is a modified zombie from the Daggerheart rulebook, with some abilities picked from other stat blocks - nothing very original here. I merged it a bit with the Skeleton Warrior to better represent a fallen soldier from the magical war that continues to defend its home. (Note - I made this in a program to make them appear more like Daggerheart official stat blocks, but I'll include the PDFs at the end of the post for those who want the text not the image!)
The Festering Maw ability is a weaker version of the Brawny Zombie's Rip and Tear - this was for the group's first session, so I wanted a thematic but simple enemy so they could get used to Daggerheart combat again (the jungle humidity probably encourages rot and festering wounds from things like Zombie bites). We've only done a couple of one shots so I didn't want anything too complex for their very first enemy!
The second creature is from the second session, and was a bit more experimental. Predictably, the group tore through the Zombies with ease, so I wanted something a bit "meatier" for them to tackle. These panthers were a good level of challenge for a group of 5 - I used 3 of them in the encounter and it seemed to balance OK.
The stalk/ambush combo worked really well on a map with plenty of trees and bushes, and had the group watching their backs! The Pack Tactics and Vine Lash combo is also pretty sinister if the panthers get close together - I started them out surrounding the group to allow it to be a later combat surprise, but it would also work as a pack hunting together too for a more difficult ambush!
That's all I have for today - I have other jungle stat blocks prepared, but I'll reveal these next time as my party haven't got that far yet! I hope this is useful for someone - I'll include PDFs of the stat blocks below for those that can't view the images or want a copyable text source. Thanks for reading!