Matthew Perkins
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Custom Statblock #002: The Sleep Paralysis Demon
🕑 Added 2020-06-28 04:35:20 +0000 UTCThe Sleep Paralysis Demon exists in simultaneously in the ethereal plane and its victim's mind. When viewed from the ethereal plane, it appears as a tall, slender shadow, looming at the foot of its victim's bed. Imagine an Enderman from Minecraft. In its victim's subconscious, it assumes the form of its victim, but with pointed teeth and piercing, lidless eyes.
When you have an absent player you might consider subjecting your party to this monster. It locks its victim into a coma, and the only way to defeat it is to sleep next to the victim and join the dreaming. I've always wanted to run a subconscious adventure, so this is me pushing in that direction. Is there any interest in a little adventure outline for this The Sleep Paralysis Demon? I hope so!
JPG and PDF attached.
Comments
Matthew Perkins @heyitsMattyP
Oh yeah! For sure! Whenever I make a stat block, I'm usually doing so with the hope of it informing an entire adventure. I love the idea of changing the character sheets. I think I would just combine a bunch of stats arbitrarily — so your Strength is now equal to your Wisdom, your Dexterity is now equal to your Intelligence, your Constitution is now equal to your Charisma. I don't think I'd mess with the party's gear or abilities though, because I think that's the character's self-perception / ego. Though I imagine it would be cool to get the players to describe they look in their dream-state, giving them a little opportunity to let everyone at the table how their character perceives themselves. Also, I'd want the players to feel like they were still playing their characters, rather than some dream NPC I was forcing on them.
Adam
I think a subconscious adventure could be an interesting opportunity to really change the rules. Since you're not fighting with your actual weapons, should they really still have their normal stats for the players? What if you went all out on the dream nature of the fight... a weapon that normally uses strength now uses charisma, a weapon that normally uses dexterity now uses intelligence... Hit points aren't based on constitution, but wisdom. It would probably only be worth it if you were going to have a more fleshed out adventure in the subconscious, vs a single encounter to get rid of a sleep demon... But imagine handing each player a new character sheet that is their dream-world capabilities and see how their roles change up... You might need a few subconscious powers to help keep the brute fighter from being completely useless...
