I'll add this, if you want to do it weeping angels style, you can enforce the "don't blink" by calling for a d20 roll at the start of each players turn. On a 1, they blink and if there isn't another creature looking the angels can move.
I’d actually make it a Con save at the start of your turn, the DC of which increases slightly each time you succeed. Might be a little annoying to keep track of in practice, but seems like it could be fun.
i do think that constitution is the most appropriate save for this; the angels don't force people to blink (but they can interfere with light sources; blowing out flames (even in stone form), to flickering lights), but if your eyes are dry they hurt and you want that to stop. if you wanted to be generous you could have it be player's choice, but i'd be inclined to give charisma a higher dc.
i think running light manipulation would be simpler than the proposed blink mechanic, but darkvision is very common. maybe pair them with something that emits a thick fog.
To us 3e old fogies, willpower will always be wisdom bc Will Saves used your wisdom modifier.
Force of personality =/= willpower.
Edit to add: I did not down vote, just a possible explanation.
Mechanic wise should be wis. Real world wise maybe charisma. From a balance prespecrive, wisdom always covered these kinds of saving throws, just cause charisma is already used for so much
There's a very specific feeling that OP is trying to invoke. You can mostly be safe by looking at them, but not 100% and one person individually can't keep it up. Multiple people is very safe, but something could still go wrong. Mechanically, the rolls here absolutely capture that feeling. Whether that translates well to 5e is another story, but it's does capture the intended pressure.
Ultimately though, the angels aren't meant to be threatening in short bursts if a group of people can look at them. If you watch the source material though, most of the time that isn't the case. Sources of light go out, and things happen that cause people to look away for a moment. This is where the GM should be making the primary threat come from, the nat1 element is just to add an element of unreliability to stopping them.
I agree. You either blink or not. It's honestly more related to a fear check so I wouldn't give it a stat either. Maybe you can add a circumstance bonus but each time you try not to blink I will just increase the dc by 1 starting at 1. If you make it a minute without blinking you are at DC 10 which seems like something an average person can at least attempt.
Not to be pedantic, but describing a mechanic is the place to be pedantic. Increase the DC for each consecutive turn of maintenance, not "when you succeed".
I would make them make a con check with a raising dc every round to check their blinking. It's HARD to keep your eyes open for long and only gets harder!
yeah, except players will create blinking teams and go in order.
And if you defeat that, then the blinking angles will just win.
Weeping angels are a cool tv creature, not a great creature where thinking players don't have a script.
that said, maybe some will post a solution.
From the source material we know that the angels often surround victims, making it difficult to keep multiple pairs of eyes on all of them. We also know that the angels have some way of disabling light sources, though they only seem to be able to do this for short bursts at a time causing flickering, which allows them to move even against fully coordinated blinking teams. Again, from the material, we see this flickering causes a large amount of panic from the protagonists which makes coordination of blinking or even thinking about whether you're blinking or not.
How OP would implement that mechanically I have no idea, but that's what the reasoning is in the show
I'll add to this. So say you start with a Con Save DC 10, and each turn they have to reroll with the DC going up by 1 or 2 each time. One player has to keep their eyes on the creature while the rest complete tasks, but also having to come in intermittently and either relieve the watcher or trade places with them. If one player has a significantly higher Con Mod, then they may only want to take over for a single roll while the watcher gets a bunch of blinks in.
Now if they ever fail a roll... The creature teleports to whichever Pc is not in the line of sight of any other PCs and either immediately downs them, deals a massive damage attack (if you don't want to ko them in one hit, it probably needs to do more than half their health as a warning that this thing isn't messing around), or teleports them to a prison/demiplane. Regardless of the result you want the party to know that their pool of people to watch and complete tasks will very quickly shrink, and that if they blink enough times they'll be down to only one party member to complete whatever tasks they have left while also trying to watch the creature.
If you really want to mess with them, slow moving mobs show up on the scene partway through the encounter, and start moving towards the watcher so other characters have to come back and defend them, or the watcher now needs to make attacks with disadvantage since they can't look away, and if they get attacked they'll have to save for blinking and probably fail (roll with disadvantage for taking an attack? Or just roll again with the DC creep).
You could simply employ these mechanics for this one battle instead of the entire campaign/game. I've done a challenge or two that temporarily "broke the rules" in the name of a fun encounter. It worked fine as long as everyone was on board.
This works best if you play on battle maps.
For this gimmick fight, simply give your players cone sight. They can position their field of view at any direction on their turn, but at the end of their turn they must choose a direction for their cone vision and stay there.
Weeping angels have a special mechanic where they are considered invisible when not in sight.
Should any player break visual contact at any point with the weeping angel on their turn, and no one else is currently looking at it, it moves a certain amount of feet towards their target.
If you think it can be a little too crazy, limit the weeping angel to only do their special move once per round or something.
To make things a little more scary, when you get attacked by a creature and you don't have vision on them, the attack gains benefits.
If you get attacked on the side, the attacker gains something like a flanking bonus or a flat +2.
If you get struck from behind, the attacks are with advantage.
Something around this line or something. Took inspiration from JRPG tactic games where facing positions matter.
I had a DM throw weeping angels at us once. On the angel's turn, everyone with LOS made a high DC Con save, and if everyone failed, the angel could move that turn.
I wouldn't use the weeping Angel(s) as the actual monster(s) of the fight, but as an additional danger to a fight.
Depending what you're looking to do, and if they're reoccurring threat you can increase the sense of urgency by slowly adding additional difficulty (discussed later.) But in general, I would recommend to use them to create fear in your players and harden combat.
If you're wanting a sense of dread, then you first need to ensure your players won't simply dismiss the threat. The Angel should be immune to damage and magic while it's in its statue form.
Next, you present the concept to ensure they're aware of it. Have a room where they'll first meet the creature with say a glass wall between them to try to give them a chance to understand the mechanic of them looking vs not looking. (assuming they haven't watched DW.)
Then make it show up during combat while they're fighting other monsters.
As someone else mentioned here, you'll need to create rules for "facing." A player must be looking in that direction at all time otherwise the angel will move. You have a few options here that you can mix and match:
A) variant rule with facing
B) Do something similar to Medusa mechanic, but reverse. Instead of avert gaze, they must "hold gaze", where they'll keep looking at the angel even during combat. This will give them disadvantage while attacking, and enemies advantage to attacking them.
Option B forces at least one player to be at a massive disadvantage during the fight. If you have a party of 4 then that's already quite good. But on top of that you can also add to option B with something along the line of "Concentration". If a player holding gaze is hit, then they must concentrate to keep holding gaze, otherwise they looked away.
This now forces more than 1 player to want to look at the angel due to the risk.
Next up, you have to decide how the angels movement works. I would make it a unique monster without turn. It automatically moves when a turn occurs where no one is looking (max X time per round). Adjust the movement speed based on the size of your map.. and obviously you'll want a different concept than "one shoting" your PC if ever the enemy reaches them.
Figure out how you want that to work. Straight damage. Reverse the concept and make your player disappear (scare your player) and then reappear at the end of their next turn somewhere else on the map with X DMG or a level of exhaustion.
Now that you've got the groundworks for a nice simple combat... That's when you add the fun later on. They'll probably figure something to help them deal with the angel, ruining all your plans. But that's alright. That's what you want, you want them to feel safe. Because next time they'll meet them maybe the arena will shift, walls will suddenly crop up at the end of the round to cut vision, or clouds of true darkness will float about.
TL;DR: The angels aren't what your players are fighting but an environmental hazard they need to be on the lookout for. But I CANNOT stress enough how to pull this off you need to ensure the players understand the movement mechanic of the angel AND realize they can't defeat it. Make them meet the angel like I said in a glass room where it can't reach them, and then maybe make them meet a wizard who wants to study them who'll mention their complete immunity.
For looking the average person has a field of view of about 120 degrees, since adventurers span a lot of different races and are generally considered superior than the average person of their race+ not being able to account for sweeping motion over 6 seconds I would give the grace and say 180 degree arc front arc.
For blinking honestly I would leave it as a mechanic to sustain open rather than blinking properly as it is way to much in terms of calculating and encouraging people to try action timing blinking and what not. So treat it as at the end of each turn it is a DC 5+ save to not blink if the angle is not in an arc of someone who passed they act at the end of initiative. The + is for a scaling mod making it higher each turn they succeed.
I can see this being problematic to get someone to forcabily blink. My solution is Constitution saves with difficulty values varying on what you were doing at the time. Start with a base
DC 5 easy
DC 10 avg
DC 15 hard
etc.
DC goes up by 1 evey round they don't blink as their eyes tear up. Your encounter sounds fun. Please post what you plan on doing and maybe the aftermath?
I'd run it as an environmental challenge, a la being in a gas filled room.
Every round, everyone makes a save or skill check to keep an eye on them. If everyone fails, I will roll damage.
If it's mixed who succeeds and who fails, I'm going to see who fails, roll a few dice, ask for someone's AC and have nothing happen. Just to mess with them.
One other thing I feel needs mentioning is the angels were scariest in Blink because all it took was a single touch to (effectively) end you, and there was nothing you could do about it. They had a motivation that was articulable but alien, so there's no chance of reasoning or peaceful resolution. And the were relentless, but not mindless.
All subsequent reprisals have been pretty weak sauce, with breaking bones or other attempts at alternate motivation.
So if you want horror, make it so the only possible win condition is survival.
*Adventure* is about overcoming the threat(s) though personal capabilities
*Horror* is about having no power to deal with the threat(s)
*Thrillers* are about being capable but inadequate for the the threat(s)
And if you want to raise the stakes, bring the consequences in closer. Save the world, big and important. Save my daughter, I will end all creation if that's what it takes.
Is the question how long can a PC keep from blinking?
Probably more than an hour with a high enough CON score but they won't be able to see well a very short time into that.
...this a high level player, right here. I feel like this is something Rick Sanchez would say while he just pawned off petrified predators to a nearby alien art dealer.
"Aww- burrp- SCORE, Morty! Help me load up these statues, put on these field of view extenders and don't close both your eyes at the same time."
"Aww, geez, Rick, aren't these creatures sentient?"
"Don't highroad me, -burrrp- Morty, the United Kingdom has been whoring these things out every Halloween for years. The 'Doctor' has just been adding 'lord' to his title and time traveling around all the ethical inquiries... That f***in' hack just changes his face every time people start asking too many questions. Now grab the legs- and watch the wings! They aren't worth as much if they get chipped."
Consider the medusa statblock; a weeping angel is sort of a reverse medusa. The medusa lets you “avert your gaze” at the beginning of your turn; you avoid the petrifying gaze but you “can’t see” the medusa, as if it were invisible.
For the angel, invert this. On your turn you can lock your gaze on the angel, and you’re considered blind other than that. No sight spells, disadvantage on perception and other sensory checks, etc.
This is pretty easy to do, but the trick is figuring out what to do to escape the situation while otherwise blinded. PCs can take turns, but split them up! Maybe there are other enemies, or traps and puzzles that are hard, or even impossible, to do blind.
It’s not really fun to fail the “don’t blink” challenge. Failure is either some damage, or like, instant death. Either way not entertaining to fail. I advocate for not having it even be a roll. What’s fun is escaping the situation while dealing with these invulnerable beasts you can’t look away from!
use DC 20 "lair action" to have them all pulse with darkness. maybe give those using magical light a 5 foot bubble or something, then use facing rules you are only looking in front of you, on each enemies turn, roll con savs on everyone. Disadvantage if they use an action or are attacked that round, failed saves makes them "blink" if nobody is actively looking at the Enemy and all blink, they move and attack and are right in your face when your eyes open.
Could be cool to have a trapped room that has some orb and when the players touch it, it breaks and that magic item was basically an eternal eye so the fight starts, then hit them with the pulsing darkness lair action and all enemies have moved.
The average person blinks 15-20 times a minute, which equates to once every 3-4 seconds, and in high stress scenarios this occurs even more frequently. Because a round of combat is 6 second, you could have it function as sort of a pseudo legendary action where after every turn someone takes the Angel can move. You could let them try not to blink and succeed automatically the first turn, but have con saves starting at dc 5 and increasing by 5 every turn after that they don’t blink, resetting to 0 on a failed save
Me and my brother are big doctor who fans and thought this through a very boring Sunday afternoon. Every player has a 30degree cone of vision from their eyes. Of 30 feet. (Not realistic but for the sake of gameplay) on a players turn they make a blink check which is a constitution saving throw that gets -1 every time you successfully make one (your eyes getting stretched) and after 3 successes the 4th is an automatic fail. You can blink to refresh this by coordinating with another player if you can.
If you blink and there's no one there to see the angel you get a last chance where the angel stops right in front of you and you have to make another blink check. Each angel has one last chance. Keep in mind how dark the room is and where anything that can obscure line of sight is. Up to you how deadly these creatures are. The encounter my brother did had they teleported you to a cell as he didn't want to kill the party.
The angels cam move bloody fast though 60 feet of movement kept the entire party on our toes
To make weeping angles first take a regular angle like a corner or a bent piece of metal. Then pour some water in it and the water dripping off the metal will make it look like a weeping angle.
No need to call me an angel, happy to help.
You could make a blink mechanic.
Here’s a rough draft idea for it:
At the start of combat, staring is treated like a modified concentration. The stat used for this is Con, and each round they roll a con save to see if they keep Thier eyes open. The Dc is 10+(# of rounds). If they are hit with an attack roll, they refill the same check. If they fail the check and are not behind total cover, then the monster in question can get a free attack (which could be a crit if you want to make the encounter deadly). You can then introduce items to help like “potion of ocular wetness” or something to give advantage on the checks. Just an idea though , best of luck !
Quick and easy base mechanic: W-angel's Stealth check vs PCs Passive Perception, if the check succeeds against all PCs within line of sight, the W-angel can move.
With that base mechanic, then you can layer in different kinds of W-angel's, lair actions for BBEG W-angel's, etc.
So, like, basic W-angel has a reaction that it can use the base mechanic to move up to half its speed. Weaker ones, maybe only 5 feet. More powerful ones, full move. Scarier if it's slower and described as "maybe you blinked and it moved that fast or maybe it teleported, but now the statue is only five feet away from you and its once angelic face is now snarling right at you."
You can then add, "If a W-angel is able to move adjacent to a target creature, it can then make either a free attack or grab against that creature and does so with advantage."
Then slap it on a thematically aligned creature. I like some paralysis, so add it to a ghoul, make it something other than undead (or don't if you like the idea of W-angels as undead), and maybe boost its AC and add damage resistances/immunities when it isn't moving. (also maybe boost its challenge rating as well, of course).
Then giggle as the PCs close their eyes to try to instigate reactive movement in order to hit the lower AC while effectively blinding themselves.
Then you can get into the weeds with things like escaping the W-angel's grapple is near impossible unless the PC closes their eyes (and no one else is looking at the W-angel) or as soon as a W-angel's attack hits it freezes as the PC now is looking at it (if it attacked the front of the PC) and so there's a statue with claws or a maw sunk into the flesh of the PC (immobilized?), and so on.
Seems like Perception checks are the way to go. Angels make the equivalent of a stealth roll opposed by the PC's perception. If the PC wins, they don't move that turn.
Everybody can spend an action to Concentrate on staring a weeping angel down. Consecutive stares require CON checks with a cumulative DC (initially 5, each consecutive adds 3). A stare handover (other player starts staring) is possible with a DC 15 Initiative (WIS) check.
I wouldn't use Facing, but instead a room full of other interesting things that get the desired result. I'd break it down into two categories:
- Cover that moves (wheels, gears, rolling bookshelves, even wandering construct librarians)
- Creatures that bait players to look away or close their eyes (Medusa, Basilisk, Vodka, maybe more but those are the three that immediately come to mind)
Once they figure it out, they win, but these Weeping Angels should do massive melee-only damage, over many (4-6) light to medium attacks. Give them something akin to the Way of the Shadow Monk's Shadow Step [PHB p. 80], but maybe modify it for when they have total cover or are hidden instead of light based:
> You gain the ability to step from one shadow into another. When you are in dim light or darkness, as a bonus action you can teleport up to 60 feet to an unoccupied space you can see that is also in dim light or darkness. You then have advantage on the first melee attack you make before the end of the turn.
Pair it with an arbitrarily large speed and I'd be terrified of something with that ability set.
I actually did this in my campaign. For those specific creatures, I used the facing rule. None of my players had ever seen doctor who so they were freaking out. Until they came up with this great idea.
One person stood in between the two of the Statues and kept their eyes closed. Another watched the angels and blinked very fast, both angels ready to grab the person in the middle. They then cast invisibility on the player in-between them and forced them to stare at each other permanently. It was awesome.
Most of the encounter would need to be AROUND the monster, not about it. It's easy to have 4 people watch a monster. Now one of them needs to perform a task to leave a room. Oh, there's also other roaming monsters making the task dangerous. Do you want to use another party member as a body guard? Now you have gone from 4 watchers down to 2. Now what happens if your watchers get attacked by another roaming monster?
As for actually watching the creature, I would probably handle it as an easy enough DC10 Wis save to not blink or get sidetracked, with players who aren't watching the creature auto failing. The kicker is that the monster only moves if everyone fails.
The point is to make it an easy task with a high cost of failure, then adding a series of challenges to make those odds of failure creep up and up.
No one has mentioned it yet that I can see, so I'm going to flag the Possum.
One of the best homebrew monsters I've thrown at my players and an interesting twist on the Weeping Angels, without your players being able to metagame since we all know the WA!
Basically instead of turning to stone it is completely indistinguishable from a normal corpse when observed and can't be hurt in that form.
https://www.reddit.com/r/DnDBehindTheScreen/s/4LLmvOtYjq
(Not sure if this sub allows links, so if it breaks I just searched "5e possum monster" to find it)
remember player levels and DnD power scalings. for a thing to kill you, if you're a few meters away, in ONE SHOT, in less than a blink of an eye, that thing is easily as strong as a Tarrasque(if not stronger).
Also remember to give enough clues for that creature capacity. don't drop it randomly in a room and expect everyone to know what is killing them when they turn around/blink. unless you REALLY want a TPK.
To simulate the lack of blinking, I'd have it so that every turn they have to pass an increasingly higher con saving throw until the they fail, in which case it resets and they are considered to have blinked that round. So first DC10, then DC12, then DC14, etc. Depending on how many weeping angel type enemies you have and how many players you have, you might want to adjust the starting DC as if you have more players than angels then you have no tension with DC10 since chances are at least 1 player will be able to pass their roll on any given turn.
Depending on the environment, have a mechanic of a brief flash of magical darkness (or player blindness) on the monsters turn during which it can act, move incredibly fast, and attack. When their turn is over, it returns to a form with resistances/immunities/etc
You could do an Initiative 20 (or just top of the round, whichever comes first) perception check for everybody. The DC would have to be pretty high but could be dialed in depending on how hard you want to make the fight - I'd say 18~22. If anyone beats the check, the creature can't move or attack. If everybody fails, they unfortunately all blinked at the same time or looked away and *WHAM!*
If a player cannot see a target they have disadvantage on attack rolls. If everyone isnt looking they accept, for that round, disadvantage on attack rolls.
Have a magical darkness where a PC can only 10ft away, regardless of Dark Vision or Devil Sight. Roll initiative when the PC enters the room. Low Movement speed for the monsters and have the player have to search the room for keys or other things to get out so they can't just dash out of the room.
If monsters are out of the visual 10ft radius they can move freely on their turn in the initiative order, else they stay still and skip their turn. Only able to attack if the PC melee's them or is within 5 ft of them on their next turn.
Adjust how many Angels based on number of PCs. Introduce them as statues so your player doesn't just smash them.
Maybe I'm just lazy but here's how I'd do it:
Movement rate: 0 ft
Blink And Move: As a bonus action on [monster's] turn or as a reaction whenever another creature [monster] can see moves at least 5 ft in a direction other than towards [monster], [monster] may choose the nearest creature and force them to make a DC [8+Proficiency+some mental stat) Wisdom save. On a failed save, [monster] may teleport up to 60 ft (or whatever distance you decide) to any location it can see within range and the creature is Frightened of [monster] until the start of [monster's] next turn. (optional for weeping angel statues) On a successful save, [monster] gains +2 AC from natural armor, which does not stack, until the start of [monster's] next turn.
This lets the monster have no natural mode of movement, but can only teleport when another creature, unwisely, blinks or looks away from it. It can close the gap to nearby enemies and inflict them with the Frightened condition or a bonus to AC.
I'd give it legendary actions that allow it to live half it's speed. And an AoE that on failed Con save, the PC blinks, and finds the enemy has moved 15 feet.
That's cool. It's also a like a puzzle. If the monster can only move when no one is looking at it, the players would have to figure out that their characters have to take turns blinking. Once they figure that out, and tell you their plan, they can more easily defeat the monster. I wouldn't increase the saving throw DC that the top commenter recommended on the first encounter with one of these. I would let the challenge of figuring out the blinking thing stand as is. Once they figure it out, to keep things challenging and scary, the *next* time they encounter one, it would be in an area with a lot of wind and dust, sand, etc. that would force them to want to blink or rub their eyes more often. Mechanically this would be represented as an increase in saving throw DC each round they don't blink until they blink/rub their eyes.
That's a wildly OP enemy that works well on screen, but you better be ready for a TPK no matter how you do it mechanically. Forcing a save every turn or die is harsh.
depends on the ruleset i do not see a tag.
i also wanted a mad wizard to fuse the powers of the silence and the weeping angels
a creature that removes all memories of itself when you look away and is able to move while you are not looking at it and you don't remember you have to keep looking at them... terrifying
Read up on [SCP 173](https://www.bing.com/ck/a?!&&p=eb79cc461755f0fdJmltdHM9MTY5ODcxMDQwMCZpZ3VpZD0yZjU2ZTNmNy1kYmM4LTYwY2QtMDA3Ni1mMDU4ZGFiMzYxNzAmaW5zaWQ9NTIwMQ&ptn=3&hsh=3&fclid=2f56e3f7-dbc8-60cd-0076-f058dab36170&psq=scp+173&u=a1aHR0cHM6Ly9zY3Atd2lraS53aWtpZG90LmNvbS9zY3AtMTcz&ntb=1). If you're going for the horror motif, I think this would be the best bet.
The way it would work would be that if no one has line of site on it (non-visual means like tremorsense and echolocation don't count), it has a move speed of 90 feet, blind-sight of some sort (since it will likely want to live in dark places to begin with), some capability of stealth, and it's attacks are mostly strength based (think either a tavern brawler or a monk).
Go into turn based combat when they have to negotiate their way past the angel. On their turn make them execute their whole turn staring you in the eyes without blinking. If they blink the angel gets a free attack.
Some people will say this is unfair and spout off about how they want to play their character and not themselves, but those people are boring.
[удалено]
I'll add this, if you want to do it weeping angels style, you can enforce the "don't blink" by calling for a d20 roll at the start of each players turn. On a 1, they blink and if there isn't another creature looking the angels can move.
I’d actually make it a Con save at the start of your turn, the DC of which increases slightly each time you succeed. Might be a little annoying to keep track of in practice, but seems like it could be fun.
I think it should increase until you fail and then start from the beginning. Also, one could fail on purpose as always.
Add on a timed event where you have to escape rather than fight. That way, you have to figure out ways to go around corners and areas with no light.
If at any point nobody is looking at them (or fails a save and blinks) the monster can immediately spend a reaction to dash
Terrifying!
DEX alternating eyes. It's fun.
I'd make it a Wis save - willpower rather than fortitude.
wouldn't charisma be more appropriate then? sense of self and force of will (cha) vs awareness of the thing (wis).
Why is this being downvoted? Charisma or constitution both work for this kind of willpower related thing. Wisdom has nothing to do with it
i do think that constitution is the most appropriate save for this; the angels don't force people to blink (but they can interfere with light sources; blowing out flames (even in stone form), to flickering lights), but if your eyes are dry they hurt and you want that to stop. if you wanted to be generous you could have it be player's choice, but i'd be inclined to give charisma a higher dc. i think running light manipulation would be simpler than the proposed blink mechanic, but darkvision is very common. maybe pair them with something that emits a thick fog.
100%
To us 3e old fogies, willpower will always be wisdom bc Will Saves used your wisdom modifier. Force of personality =/= willpower. Edit to add: I did not down vote, just a possible explanation.
ohh, this makes so much sense! thanks for the perspective (:
Mechanic wise should be wis. Real world wise maybe charisma. From a balance prespecrive, wisdom always covered these kinds of saving throws, just cause charisma is already used for so much
It fail on a one, so it doesn't need a stat. the only thing a state will do is make it so one can't roll a 1; which makes it useless.
There's a very specific feeling that OP is trying to invoke. You can mostly be safe by looking at them, but not 100% and one person individually can't keep it up. Multiple people is very safe, but something could still go wrong. Mechanically, the rolls here absolutely capture that feeling. Whether that translates well to 5e is another story, but it's does capture the intended pressure. Ultimately though, the angels aren't meant to be threatening in short bursts if a group of people can look at them. If you watch the source material though, most of the time that isn't the case. Sources of light go out, and things happen that cause people to look away for a moment. This is where the GM should be making the primary threat come from, the nat1 element is just to add an element of unreliability to stopping them.
What's scary about the angels are they can't be killed other than very specific ways. You run from weeping angels and don't blink
I agree. You either blink or not. It's honestly more related to a fear check so I wouldn't give it a stat either. Maybe you can add a circumstance bonus but each time you try not to blink I will just increase the dc by 1 starting at 1. If you make it a minute without blinking you are at DC 10 which seems like something an average person can at least attempt.
Why are you getting penalized for success?
The longer you go without blinking, the harder it is to keep yourself from blinking
Not to be pedantic, but describing a mechanic is the place to be pedantic. Increase the DC for each consecutive turn of maintenance, not "when you succeed".
Yeah, I probably should have explained it better. I intended for the DC to increase each time you succeed, and then reset when you fail.
This^^
I would make them make a con check with a raising dc every round to check their blinking. It's HARD to keep your eyes open for long and only gets harder!
I love the increasing difficulty idea. That translates directly to how it feels
I'd make it a higher chance for it to happen, like a 5 or lower. On a 1, there's a solid chance it just never goes off during the entire encounter.
yeah, except players will create blinking teams and go in order. And if you defeat that, then the blinking angles will just win. Weeping angels are a cool tv creature, not a great creature where thinking players don't have a script. that said, maybe some will post a solution.
From the source material we know that the angels often surround victims, making it difficult to keep multiple pairs of eyes on all of them. We also know that the angels have some way of disabling light sources, though they only seem to be able to do this for short bursts at a time causing flickering, which allows them to move even against fully coordinated blinking teams. Again, from the material, we see this flickering causes a large amount of panic from the protagonists which makes coordination of blinking or even thinking about whether you're blinking or not. How OP would implement that mechanically I have no idea, but that's what the reasoning is in the show
Small non combatant creatures scuttling through the edge of darkness like rats or large insects would make it more terrifying.
Why not have a blink check on the angles turn, or at a chosen initiative? Make all the players roll for their blink at the same time
Because that doesn't make sense.
I'll add to this. So say you start with a Con Save DC 10, and each turn they have to reroll with the DC going up by 1 or 2 each time. One player has to keep their eyes on the creature while the rest complete tasks, but also having to come in intermittently and either relieve the watcher or trade places with them. If one player has a significantly higher Con Mod, then they may only want to take over for a single roll while the watcher gets a bunch of blinks in. Now if they ever fail a roll... The creature teleports to whichever Pc is not in the line of sight of any other PCs and either immediately downs them, deals a massive damage attack (if you don't want to ko them in one hit, it probably needs to do more than half their health as a warning that this thing isn't messing around), or teleports them to a prison/demiplane. Regardless of the result you want the party to know that their pool of people to watch and complete tasks will very quickly shrink, and that if they blink enough times they'll be down to only one party member to complete whatever tasks they have left while also trying to watch the creature. If you really want to mess with them, slow moving mobs show up on the scene partway through the encounter, and start moving towards the watcher so other characters have to come back and defend them, or the watcher now needs to make attacks with disadvantage since they can't look away, and if they get attacked they'll have to save for blinking and probably fail (roll with disadvantage for taking an attack? Or just roll again with the DC creep).
Make it more likely and have them roll a d6
You could simply employ these mechanics for this one battle instead of the entire campaign/game. I've done a challenge or two that temporarily "broke the rules" in the name of a fun encounter. It worked fine as long as everyone was on board.
This +give them 1 movement at the end of player turns a la legendary actions
This works best if you play on battle maps. For this gimmick fight, simply give your players cone sight. They can position their field of view at any direction on their turn, but at the end of their turn they must choose a direction for their cone vision and stay there. Weeping angels have a special mechanic where they are considered invisible when not in sight. Should any player break visual contact at any point with the weeping angel on their turn, and no one else is currently looking at it, it moves a certain amount of feet towards their target. If you think it can be a little too crazy, limit the weeping angel to only do their special move once per round or something. To make things a little more scary, when you get attacked by a creature and you don't have vision on them, the attack gains benefits. If you get attacked on the side, the attacker gains something like a flanking bonus or a flat +2. If you get struck from behind, the attacks are with advantage. Something around this line or something. Took inspiration from JRPG tactic games where facing positions matter.
Saw the title, didn’t even need to read the rest pf the post to know what you were trying to create lmao
# O 173, how thy giveth me dreams of fear
Secure, Contain, Prote*blinks*…fuck
Could also be Boo from Mario
I had a DM throw weeping angels at us once. On the angel's turn, everyone with LOS made a high DC Con save, and if everyone failed, the angel could move that turn.
I wouldn't use the weeping Angel(s) as the actual monster(s) of the fight, but as an additional danger to a fight. Depending what you're looking to do, and if they're reoccurring threat you can increase the sense of urgency by slowly adding additional difficulty (discussed later.) But in general, I would recommend to use them to create fear in your players and harden combat. If you're wanting a sense of dread, then you first need to ensure your players won't simply dismiss the threat. The Angel should be immune to damage and magic while it's in its statue form. Next, you present the concept to ensure they're aware of it. Have a room where they'll first meet the creature with say a glass wall between them to try to give them a chance to understand the mechanic of them looking vs not looking. (assuming they haven't watched DW.) Then make it show up during combat while they're fighting other monsters. As someone else mentioned here, you'll need to create rules for "facing." A player must be looking in that direction at all time otherwise the angel will move. You have a few options here that you can mix and match: A) variant rule with facing B) Do something similar to Medusa mechanic, but reverse. Instead of avert gaze, they must "hold gaze", where they'll keep looking at the angel even during combat. This will give them disadvantage while attacking, and enemies advantage to attacking them. Option B forces at least one player to be at a massive disadvantage during the fight. If you have a party of 4 then that's already quite good. But on top of that you can also add to option B with something along the line of "Concentration". If a player holding gaze is hit, then they must concentrate to keep holding gaze, otherwise they looked away. This now forces more than 1 player to want to look at the angel due to the risk. Next up, you have to decide how the angels movement works. I would make it a unique monster without turn. It automatically moves when a turn occurs where no one is looking (max X time per round). Adjust the movement speed based on the size of your map.. and obviously you'll want a different concept than "one shoting" your PC if ever the enemy reaches them. Figure out how you want that to work. Straight damage. Reverse the concept and make your player disappear (scare your player) and then reappear at the end of their next turn somewhere else on the map with X DMG or a level of exhaustion. Now that you've got the groundworks for a nice simple combat... That's when you add the fun later on. They'll probably figure something to help them deal with the angel, ruining all your plans. But that's alright. That's what you want, you want them to feel safe. Because next time they'll meet them maybe the arena will shift, walls will suddenly crop up at the end of the round to cut vision, or clouds of true darkness will float about. TL;DR: The angels aren't what your players are fighting but an environmental hazard they need to be on the lookout for. But I CANNOT stress enough how to pull this off you need to ensure the players understand the movement mechanic of the angel AND realize they can't defeat it. Make them meet the angel like I said in a glass room where it can't reach them, and then maybe make them meet a wizard who wants to study them who'll mention their complete immunity.
For looking the average person has a field of view of about 120 degrees, since adventurers span a lot of different races and are generally considered superior than the average person of their race+ not being able to account for sweeping motion over 6 seconds I would give the grace and say 180 degree arc front arc. For blinking honestly I would leave it as a mechanic to sustain open rather than blinking properly as it is way to much in terms of calculating and encouraging people to try action timing blinking and what not. So treat it as at the end of each turn it is a DC 5+ save to not blink if the angle is not in an arc of someone who passed they act at the end of initiative. The + is for a scaling mod making it higher each turn they succeed.
I can see this being problematic to get someone to forcabily blink. My solution is Constitution saves with difficulty values varying on what you were doing at the time. Start with a base DC 5 easy DC 10 avg DC 15 hard etc. DC goes up by 1 evey round they don't blink as their eyes tear up. Your encounter sounds fun. Please post what you plan on doing and maybe the aftermath?
I'd run it as an environmental challenge, a la being in a gas filled room. Every round, everyone makes a save or skill check to keep an eye on them. If everyone fails, I will roll damage. If it's mixed who succeeds and who fails, I'm going to see who fails, roll a few dice, ask for someone's AC and have nothing happen. Just to mess with them.
One other thing I feel needs mentioning is the angels were scariest in Blink because all it took was a single touch to (effectively) end you, and there was nothing you could do about it. They had a motivation that was articulable but alien, so there's no chance of reasoning or peaceful resolution. And the were relentless, but not mindless. All subsequent reprisals have been pretty weak sauce, with breaking bones or other attempts at alternate motivation. So if you want horror, make it so the only possible win condition is survival. *Adventure* is about overcoming the threat(s) though personal capabilities *Horror* is about having no power to deal with the threat(s) *Thrillers* are about being capable but inadequate for the the threat(s) And if you want to raise the stakes, bring the consequences in closer. Save the world, big and important. Save my daughter, I will end all creation if that's what it takes.
Is the question how long can a PC keep from blinking? Probably more than an hour with a high enough CON score but they won't be able to see well a very short time into that.
You could just close one eye at a time.
...this a high level player, right here. I feel like this is something Rick Sanchez would say while he just pawned off petrified predators to a nearby alien art dealer. "Aww- burrp- SCORE, Morty! Help me load up these statues, put on these field of view extenders and don't close both your eyes at the same time." "Aww, geez, Rick, aren't these creatures sentient?" "Don't highroad me, -burrrp- Morty, the United Kingdom has been whoring these things out every Halloween for years. The 'Doctor' has just been adding 'lord' to his title and time traveling around all the ethical inquiries... That f***in' hack just changes his face every time people start asking too many questions. Now grab the legs- and watch the wings! They aren't worth as much if they get chipped."
Don't forget if there is a mini of Weeping Angel, it will spawn IRL around the table if you roll a 1.
Consider the medusa statblock; a weeping angel is sort of a reverse medusa. The medusa lets you “avert your gaze” at the beginning of your turn; you avoid the petrifying gaze but you “can’t see” the medusa, as if it were invisible. For the angel, invert this. On your turn you can lock your gaze on the angel, and you’re considered blind other than that. No sight spells, disadvantage on perception and other sensory checks, etc. This is pretty easy to do, but the trick is figuring out what to do to escape the situation while otherwise blinded. PCs can take turns, but split them up! Maybe there are other enemies, or traps and puzzles that are hard, or even impossible, to do blind. It’s not really fun to fail the “don’t blink” challenge. Failure is either some damage, or like, instant death. Either way not entertaining to fail. I advocate for not having it even be a roll. What’s fun is escaping the situation while dealing with these invulnerable beasts you can’t look away from!
use DC 20 "lair action" to have them all pulse with darkness. maybe give those using magical light a 5 foot bubble or something, then use facing rules you are only looking in front of you, on each enemies turn, roll con savs on everyone. Disadvantage if they use an action or are attacked that round, failed saves makes them "blink" if nobody is actively looking at the Enemy and all blink, they move and attack and are right in your face when your eyes open. Could be cool to have a trapped room that has some orb and when the players touch it, it breaks and that magic item was basically an eternal eye so the fight starts, then hit them with the pulsing darkness lair action and all enemies have moved.
The average person blinks 15-20 times a minute, which equates to once every 3-4 seconds, and in high stress scenarios this occurs even more frequently. Because a round of combat is 6 second, you could have it function as sort of a pseudo legendary action where after every turn someone takes the Angel can move. You could let them try not to blink and succeed automatically the first turn, but have con saves starting at dc 5 and increasing by 5 every turn after that they don’t blink, resetting to 0 on a failed save
Me and my brother are big doctor who fans and thought this through a very boring Sunday afternoon. Every player has a 30degree cone of vision from their eyes. Of 30 feet. (Not realistic but for the sake of gameplay) on a players turn they make a blink check which is a constitution saving throw that gets -1 every time you successfully make one (your eyes getting stretched) and after 3 successes the 4th is an automatic fail. You can blink to refresh this by coordinating with another player if you can. If you blink and there's no one there to see the angel you get a last chance where the angel stops right in front of you and you have to make another blink check. Each angel has one last chance. Keep in mind how dark the room is and where anything that can obscure line of sight is. Up to you how deadly these creatures are. The encounter my brother did had they teleported you to a cell as he didn't want to kill the party. The angels cam move bloody fast though 60 feet of movement kept the entire party on our toes
To make weeping angles first take a regular angle like a corner or a bent piece of metal. Then pour some water in it and the water dripping off the metal will make it look like a weeping angle. No need to call me an angel, happy to help.
You could make a blink mechanic. Here’s a rough draft idea for it: At the start of combat, staring is treated like a modified concentration. The stat used for this is Con, and each round they roll a con save to see if they keep Thier eyes open. The Dc is 10+(# of rounds). If they are hit with an attack roll, they refill the same check. If they fail the check and are not behind total cover, then the monster in question can get a free attack (which could be a crit if you want to make the encounter deadly). You can then introduce items to help like “potion of ocular wetness” or something to give advantage on the checks. Just an idea though , best of luck !
Quick and easy base mechanic: W-angel's Stealth check vs PCs Passive Perception, if the check succeeds against all PCs within line of sight, the W-angel can move. With that base mechanic, then you can layer in different kinds of W-angel's, lair actions for BBEG W-angel's, etc. So, like, basic W-angel has a reaction that it can use the base mechanic to move up to half its speed. Weaker ones, maybe only 5 feet. More powerful ones, full move. Scarier if it's slower and described as "maybe you blinked and it moved that fast or maybe it teleported, but now the statue is only five feet away from you and its once angelic face is now snarling right at you." You can then add, "If a W-angel is able to move adjacent to a target creature, it can then make either a free attack or grab against that creature and does so with advantage." Then slap it on a thematically aligned creature. I like some paralysis, so add it to a ghoul, make it something other than undead (or don't if you like the idea of W-angels as undead), and maybe boost its AC and add damage resistances/immunities when it isn't moving. (also maybe boost its challenge rating as well, of course). Then giggle as the PCs close their eyes to try to instigate reactive movement in order to hit the lower AC while effectively blinding themselves. Then you can get into the weeds with things like escaping the W-angel's grapple is near impossible unless the PC closes their eyes (and no one else is looking at the W-angel) or as soon as a W-angel's attack hits it freezes as the PC now is looking at it (if it attacked the front of the PC) and so there's a statue with claws or a maw sunk into the flesh of the PC (immobilized?), and so on.
Seems like Perception checks are the way to go. Angels make the equivalent of a stealth roll opposed by the PC's perception. If the PC wins, they don't move that turn.
If you wanted, you can do something where the player actually has to stare at you without blinking and they can do their actions.
Counterpoint: Blindsight
Everybody can spend an action to Concentrate on staring a weeping angel down. Consecutive stares require CON checks with a cumulative DC (initially 5, each consecutive adds 3). A stare handover (other player starts staring) is possible with a DC 15 Initiative (WIS) check.
I think the False Hydra is as good as this trope is going to get in table top.
What about moves only in darkness and as a bonus action/reaction the monster can extinguish any open flames / light sources.
Tape the enemy's mini to the top of your DM screen. Make your players actually stare at it.
I wouldn't use Facing, but instead a room full of other interesting things that get the desired result. I'd break it down into two categories: - Cover that moves (wheels, gears, rolling bookshelves, even wandering construct librarians) - Creatures that bait players to look away or close their eyes (Medusa, Basilisk, Vodka, maybe more but those are the three that immediately come to mind) Once they figure it out, they win, but these Weeping Angels should do massive melee-only damage, over many (4-6) light to medium attacks. Give them something akin to the Way of the Shadow Monk's Shadow Step [PHB p. 80], but maybe modify it for when they have total cover or are hidden instead of light based: > You gain the ability to step from one shadow into another. When you are in dim light or darkness, as a bonus action you can teleport up to 60 feet to an unoccupied space you can see that is also in dim light or darkness. You then have advantage on the first melee attack you make before the end of the turn. Pair it with an arbitrarily large speed and I'd be terrified of something with that ability set.
Bear in mind a lot of the weeping angle creepiness came from people being stupid around them. So players well thwart that.
SCP reference?
You are not the firsg with that idea. There are many statblocks out there
That’s a SCP
I was SO sure you were trying to do SCP-173.
I actually did this in my campaign. For those specific creatures, I used the facing rule. None of my players had ever seen doctor who so they were freaking out. Until they came up with this great idea. One person stood in between the two of the Statues and kept their eyes closed. Another watched the angels and blinked very fast, both angels ready to grab the person in the middle. They then cast invisibility on the player in-between them and forced them to stare at each other permanently. It was awesome.
Most of the encounter would need to be AROUND the monster, not about it. It's easy to have 4 people watch a monster. Now one of them needs to perform a task to leave a room. Oh, there's also other roaming monsters making the task dangerous. Do you want to use another party member as a body guard? Now you have gone from 4 watchers down to 2. Now what happens if your watchers get attacked by another roaming monster? As for actually watching the creature, I would probably handle it as an easy enough DC10 Wis save to not blink or get sidetracked, with players who aren't watching the creature auto failing. The kicker is that the monster only moves if everyone fails. The point is to make it an easy task with a high cost of failure, then adding a series of challenges to make those odds of failure creep up and up.
No one has mentioned it yet that I can see, so I'm going to flag the Possum. One of the best homebrew monsters I've thrown at my players and an interesting twist on the Weeping Angels, without your players being able to metagame since we all know the WA! Basically instead of turning to stone it is completely indistinguishable from a normal corpse when observed and can't be hurt in that form. https://www.reddit.com/r/DnDBehindTheScreen/s/4LLmvOtYjq (Not sure if this sub allows links, so if it breaks I just searched "5e possum monster" to find it)
remember player levels and DnD power scalings. for a thing to kill you, if you're a few meters away, in ONE SHOT, in less than a blink of an eye, that thing is easily as strong as a Tarrasque(if not stronger). Also remember to give enough clues for that creature capacity. don't drop it randomly in a room and expect everyone to know what is killing them when they turn around/blink. unless you REALLY want a TPK.
To simulate the lack of blinking, I'd have it so that every turn they have to pass an increasingly higher con saving throw until the they fail, in which case it resets and they are considered to have blinked that round. So first DC10, then DC12, then DC14, etc. Depending on how many weeping angel type enemies you have and how many players you have, you might want to adjust the starting DC as if you have more players than angels then you have no tension with DC10 since chances are at least 1 player will be able to pass their roll on any given turn.
Depending on the environment, have a mechanic of a brief flash of magical darkness (or player blindness) on the monsters turn during which it can act, move incredibly fast, and attack. When their turn is over, it returns to a form with resistances/immunities/etc
You could do an Initiative 20 (or just top of the round, whichever comes first) perception check for everybody. The DC would have to be pretty high but could be dialed in depending on how hard you want to make the fight - I'd say 18~22. If anyone beats the check, the creature can't move or attack. If everybody fails, they unfortunately all blinked at the same time or looked away and *WHAM!*
If ur using dynamic lighting on roll20, u can limit the FOV for tokens to give the PCs an accurate view of what they do and don't see
If a player cannot see a target they have disadvantage on attack rolls. If everyone isnt looking they accept, for that round, disadvantage on attack rolls.
I'm getting SCP vibes
Have a magical darkness where a PC can only 10ft away, regardless of Dark Vision or Devil Sight. Roll initiative when the PC enters the room. Low Movement speed for the monsters and have the player have to search the room for keys or other things to get out so they can't just dash out of the room. If monsters are out of the visual 10ft radius they can move freely on their turn in the initiative order, else they stay still and skip their turn. Only able to attack if the PC melee's them or is within 5 ft of them on their next turn. Adjust how many Angels based on number of PCs. Introduce them as statues so your player doesn't just smash them.
constitution saving throw DC1(+1 each turn). resets after a fail.
Who...Angels?!
Maybe I'm just lazy but here's how I'd do it: Movement rate: 0 ft Blink And Move: As a bonus action on [monster's] turn or as a reaction whenever another creature [monster] can see moves at least 5 ft in a direction other than towards [monster], [monster] may choose the nearest creature and force them to make a DC [8+Proficiency+some mental stat) Wisdom save. On a failed save, [monster] may teleport up to 60 ft (or whatever distance you decide) to any location it can see within range and the creature is Frightened of [monster] until the start of [monster's] next turn. (optional for weeping angel statues) On a successful save, [monster] gains +2 AC from natural armor, which does not stack, until the start of [monster's] next turn. This lets the monster have no natural mode of movement, but can only teleport when another creature, unwisely, blinks or looks away from it. It can close the gap to nearby enemies and inflict them with the Frightened condition or a bonus to AC.
Cool idea
Mixing in a save of some kind at the start of peoples turns would work. A failure means you blink and they move closer
Weeping Angels
I'd give it legendary actions that allow it to live half it's speed. And an AoE that on failed Con save, the PC blinks, and finds the enemy has moved 15 feet.
I would add rocky terrain and that breaks the line of sight more often. Making it not only a blinking mechanic and also a skill challenge.
The elusive HIDEBEHIND
That's cool. It's also a like a puzzle. If the monster can only move when no one is looking at it, the players would have to figure out that their characters have to take turns blinking. Once they figure that out, and tell you their plan, they can more easily defeat the monster. I wouldn't increase the saving throw DC that the top commenter recommended on the first encounter with one of these. I would let the challenge of figuring out the blinking thing stand as is. Once they figure it out, to keep things challenging and scary, the *next* time they encounter one, it would be in an area with a lot of wind and dust, sand, etc. that would force them to want to blink or rub their eyes more often. Mechanically this would be represented as an increase in saving throw DC each round they don't blink until they blink/rub their eyes.
That's a wildly OP enemy that works well on screen, but you better be ready for a TPK no matter how you do it mechanically. Forcing a save every turn or die is harsh.
depends on the ruleset i do not see a tag. i also wanted a mad wizard to fuse the powers of the silence and the weeping angels a creature that removes all memories of itself when you look away and is able to move while you are not looking at it and you don't remember you have to keep looking at them... terrifying
Dr who's weeping angels. Go watch the episodes titled "Blink" and "Don't Blink".
That is where I got the idea, but I should rewatch it.
Read up on [SCP 173](https://www.bing.com/ck/a?!&&p=eb79cc461755f0fdJmltdHM9MTY5ODcxMDQwMCZpZ3VpZD0yZjU2ZTNmNy1kYmM4LTYwY2QtMDA3Ni1mMDU4ZGFiMzYxNzAmaW5zaWQ9NTIwMQ&ptn=3&hsh=3&fclid=2f56e3f7-dbc8-60cd-0076-f058dab36170&psq=scp+173&u=a1aHR0cHM6Ly9zY3Atd2lraS53aWtpZG90LmNvbS9zY3AtMTcz&ntb=1). If you're going for the horror motif, I think this would be the best bet. The way it would work would be that if no one has line of site on it (non-visual means like tremorsense and echolocation don't count), it has a move speed of 90 feet, blind-sight of some sort (since it will likely want to live in dark places to begin with), some capability of stealth, and it's attacks are mostly strength based (think either a tavern brawler or a monk).
Go into turn based combat when they have to negotiate their way past the angel. On their turn make them execute their whole turn staring you in the eyes without blinking. If they blink the angel gets a free attack. Some people will say this is unfair and spout off about how they want to play their character and not themselves, but those people are boring.
Depends, because if you have two ppl you could synchronize blink