This is a DnD 5e Boss Sheet+Monster Minion Sheet made for @spicymancer's Vincent Jericho and his Mecha Hands! This was made for a Pirate inspired Campaign I'm DMing and need to book! These character sheets are balanced for a lv 6-7 party to struggle and a level 10-11 party to have a fair challenge, but can be played at a lower level as long as you nerf his ability a bit. The idea behind this sheet was tri-fold. 1. Vincent is a lil shit who has had a permanent fixture in my frontal lobe since i saw his character sheet. 2. "ok. so hear me out, what if mage hand was good" 3. what does a non-wizard "zoner" in DnD 5e look like?
As I made him i got to interact with some interesting mechanics, such as fall damage and suffocation! (please play him with these effects in mind, he's a Lil' weak if you don't)
Either way I hope people like him! Leave feedback or suggestions in the comments below! this is a version 1.0 so he may not operate as intended
The demons seized me: it's been a long time since I've sank my teeth into giving notes on homebrew stuff, so sorry for the wall of text!
First off, up front, rad, and any notes I give are a testament to my interest in engaging with a rad build. I realize I'm dumping a ton of notes and critique but that comes from personal excitement to provide feedback to a project like this!
I might advise adding one more of the common save types (DEX, CON, WIS) to the proficient saves, at the moment a lot of really debilitating effects are relatively easy to apply
25 AC is quite high! I think that might be better reduced slightly. Even 22 is very scary.
Vulnerabilities to BPS damage types across the board is a bit unusual and pretty punishing! Martial characters can do a number on this guy. Though the defensive options you've provided do help a bit with that, because they're tied to reactions he's going to be limited in how often he can apply them.
I'm a little confused on Fuck Off. Is the intent that the target rolls a Dexterity saving throw and the DC is based off Vincent rolling a Dex check? I'd just make it a flat DC, that'll work more consistently, right now on average the target of this will likely be greatly favored to beat the save. Additionally, would be better to frame this in the typical 5e "make a save, on a failure, blank, on a success, blank" format to clarify behavior.
The Reactions section is a bit tricky: A few of these reference bonus actions, and either appear to be mis-logged as reactions by sections or things that are supposed to be reactions. Additionally, some of these are a bit ambiguous on the trigger, either not specifying it as clearly as one usually would or framing them in the middle of a feature so it's harder to spot when it applies on a quick scan. Additionally, there's the volume: a lot of reactions competing with each other for attention, especially when several are defensive options, means several probably won't get a chance to shine.
Fight Dirty is worded a bit confusingly. Firstly, this is labeled as a bonus action, but seems to resolve on the opponent's turn and its under reactions so I think that's a typo? I'd reorder the items in this text: start by describing the context and the viable target conditions. then specify that on a success, Vincent can choose any of the following, and list out the options available. I will also note, there are several defensive reactions that are specifically relevant for melee attack rolls, and with the overlap they have it might be better to streamline down. 6.2 Whoops! I think I get it now. So this is intended as a bonus action that I imagine just gives the target disadvantage on their next attack, check, or save. In that case, you can remove "Once per turn" as that's redundant with it being a bonus action, and you can also probably remove "that he can see coming" since that just leaves room to argue over whether or not he gets to use it for a situation following him taking the action. I'd remove the limiters here, if he won the contest, he applies the disadvantage to their next attack, check, or save. No need to restrict the range to 5 feet: while it encourages enemies to not get close, it also means weirdly Vincent is more effective up close. If the lack of range limits feels weird, I'd just make it something like 60 feet to feel in line with the hand movement.
Trash Talk can just specify the damage is rolled twice, no need to describe it as advantage on damage dice. This move is potentially too risky to use in most cases: Vincent takes double damage from weapons, basically, so it's likely this hurts him more than it hurts whoever he's protecting, even before the damage reroll. That said, I do like how this helps cover the vulnerable hands. It's also not specified what happens if Vincent isn't a viable target for the attack (ie: he's out of range or out of line of sight)
Villainous Knave has a few awkward bits: a. Without something explicitly "triggered" by disengaging, there's not really a benefit to specifying he's taking the Disengage action. Just stating the movement doesn't provoke attack of opportunity should be sufficient. This means you can remove Shifty as a trait (even without that change, you still wouldn't need to specify it up there if the feature calls that out). b. The feature happens when a creature makes a melee attack. I suspect the intent is if the target is out of range following the movement, the attack fails? That should be spelled out more specifically in the text. c. If the attack would fail on moving out of range, this is probably the most consistent defensive option you'd take controlling the character. Fight Dirty requires winning a contested check (an easy one with that +17, but still an extra step), and Parry is limited by the attack potentially still exceeding the AC after the bump and only applying to that attack. Moving away means not only does the first attack fail, but subsequent ones might not be available if the character is out of movement.
Let's get handsy! (phrasing): a. Mecha Hands may move on Vincent's turn, but it's not clear how much they move. He can spend an action to directly control them, but is the intent that the only ways the hands reposition is Vincent spending his action or Legendary Action to do so? b. Command Grab specifies 2-4 hands but seems to only account for 2 OR 4 hand options. If the user can't use 3 hands, I'd tweak the wording. You also can probably rephrase this in terms of using only 2 hands, then specify at the end: Vincent can alternatively use 4 hands for command grab. If he does so, the distance travelled is doubled, and the DC becomes 20. Similar to other sections, the phrasing should clarify the success vs failure conditions (It seems pretty clear but legibility is always key!) c. Similarly, Aw, not into choking? should lead with the save, then describe the consequence. I also don't think spending Vincent's action to lift them is worth it. Having him move them on the target's turn is unusual but cool, I'd lean into that. Then otherwise maybe just let him lift them 10 immediately as part of resolving the save to account for him doing it, and then he can use typical movement rules for the hands otherwise? d. I think the "after the move" text refers to Go, my hands! but it's a bit of a weird wording. I'd just say "All Mecha Hands then return to Vincent's Overcoat of Holding to be redeployed"
Cooldowns are a bit usual. Typically, the drawback is 5e often resolves in a short number of rounds, so a cooldown longer than one round ends up in practice just not resolving in some fights. This being a long bossfight (ideally), that's more okay. The more common way to resolve this would be a recharge feature but honestly just setting a fixed number is better in some ways so I'm cool with it.*
Owner's Box should specify the user rolls a d20 (that's the obvious interpretation, but should be spelled out).
On a larger scale, one issue with the hands is they're very vulnerable, both in general and in particular to AoE attacks like spells. Vincent can keep them spread out to address this a bit, but combined with the self destruct, it can things VERY fragile. The self destruct also adds a bit of annoying book-keeping for the DM: they have to make sure every Rocket Punch attack's movement doesn't inadvertently put a hand too close to another. Sure, they don't need to make the "optimal" move every time, but on the flipside: they shouldn't need to play optimally to avoid accidentally setting off the hands like a string of fireworks! Maybe keep the detonation but make the damage lower, so hands only chain reaction detonate if they're already damaged?
Rocket Punch is nasty and I kind of love it? Damage per movement is quite scary but here it feels very intentional for how it's balanced: it lets careful use of the hands deal some nasty damage, but requires the hand leave enough movement leftover to get out of harm's way. I would say you should specify the movement won't trigger attacks of opportunity. With the assignment in mind of making this a character "about" controlling a bunch of flying hands, the way the GM handles positioning with this is really fun, helps evoke the idea well.
The ability to take weapons is really fun. The long-term implication of Vincent stealing a PC's weapon, getting away, and later attuning to it is delightful. However, it looks like the mastery trait references actions I don't see referenced or recognize for base 5e? * Kai Tave better explains the issue with recharge features in some of his Lancer stuff: Basically the same issue as a cooldown, just less predictable. Sometimes you recharge a feature every opportunity, sometimes you never do! While cooldowns may be a funky way to resolve this, they do prevent the "oops I never recharged my feature" problem
