Got a Harpy in my local Ogre bandit Lair. Faceless Joe the Ogre Chieftain is starting to get above himself. After his first meeting with the harpy he was charmed by her and invited her to come to his cavern base to sing Ogre Opera to his Bandit family. He has excavated an aerie for her and an opera chamber and basically supplies her and her two Grimlock husbands (for reasons) with all the live food they want for a performance once every couple days, which also keeps most of the ogre tribe in thrall to her. They also supply her with treasure, spectacular costumes and various random treasure items. Oh I like the Long Bow idea. Guess I'll give her that too. She has a stronghold to hide in and a bunch of useful idiots to protect her. Faceless Joe Feels like a classy patron of the arts, not a helpless charmed dupe and his tribe loves the admittedly great performance.
If the harpy is nested inside of a mountain range and chooses to sing, then the echoes of her song that pass through the range could probably be heard a lot further than 300 feet.
Yes I love harpies, and this was one spicy encounter indeed. I put harpies in a swamp hiding in trees in my one shot. I paired them with troglodytes hiding in the shallow waters and added some difficult terrain like deep muddy water and roots that could trip players to either immobilize them or knock them prone. This was also the first time I ever made a custom encounter and it was very unbalanced and nearly tpk'd my PCs.
The last time I used harpies in my campaign I put them in an abandoned watch tower, which they'd trapped the ground floor of since they don't need to use it, and they tried to get the party to walk off the top floor to their deaths with their song, which didn't really work cause the party was a bit over leveled, but that was alright. To power up my harpies though, I gave them a couple of pet Wyverns just to make sure it wasn't a cake walk.
Oh thank god you’re back! I was worried I wouldn’t get my weekly dose of Matt. Had to rewatch your troll, hydra, and nothic video to keep withdrawals from happening 😂
If there are four things that disgust me, those would be: World hunger Widespread poverty The fact that this channel has less than a thousand subs Not having biweekly D&D because of Covid
Harpies are particularly great for players that enjoy adding layers of RP in their combat decisions and I love how you can really lean into that here, Matt! The balance of the danger and cool factor in flying is a great way to entrance your players even more! Depending on how things go, having access to Feather Fall sounds like a great way to have that "just in case" insurance policy here as well and that might be good to add. Spicing it up even further... unbeknownst to everyone both Brundi and the party are looking for something specific that the harpies have. Whether it's the letter and/or something else entirely, this could add the potential for some twists that land smack dab in the middle of moral ambiguity and who doesn't love to make your players suffer with that?? As always, great video and CONGRATS on 1k!!! So proud of your accomplishments here! Keep up the great work!
Harpie's wings are supposed to be attached to their hands, so if i'd use the longbow I'd keep it +5 but make it so they need to be on the ground to shoot.
I'm very curious as to why harpies are the way they are in D&D; mixed with Sirens. In Greek mythology, Sirens are women-heaed birds that lure sailors to their deaths, whereas harpies were air spirits and servants of zeus. I'm thinking of using the current Harpy stat block for Sirens and making a similar one for actual harpies, probably making them either celestials or elementals. Even if the lore isn't getting changed, air-based abilities to reference them being spirits of sharp winds would be cool. A Harpy Matriarch with lair/legendary actions that let her control the winds to push and pull other characters would be cool, for instance.
Thanks for watching! If you enjoyed this video, check out the rest of the Let's Build an Encounter Series here: th-cam.com/play/PLN3EWMJpTElMPfoxgFTAMuY3qdC7sGz_7.html
My group just completed a 2-year campaign and we're about to start an Eberron world. This is a perfect setup for an intro/encounter/NPC/task all wrapped into one.
I actually ran an encounter similar to this but the harpies were perched up on a large cliffside shooting magic missiles from a wand and scorching rays from a headband. And it became this big shootout between three harpies and my Sorcerer and wizard. My fighter and warlock took a short rest during the encounter cuz they couldn't do anything. 😂
@@HiddenNerdySide Right now both of my groups just hit level 10. I'm actually using your Hydra encounter for my game tomorrow, which is what prompted me to subscribe. I think they'll like the change of pace from the political plot they've been doing for a year now.
@@christopheracea5835 Nice! Well if my memory serves me right the Oni, Fire Giant, Gith, Mind Flayer, and Vampire encounter are around that level range if you're interested.
Got a Harpy in my local Ogre bandit Lair. Faceless Joe the Ogre Chieftain is starting to get above himself. After his first meeting with the harpy he was charmed by her and invited her to come to his cavern base to sing Ogre Opera to his Bandit family. He has excavated an aerie for her and an opera chamber and basically supplies her and her two Grimlock husbands (for reasons) with all the live food they want for a performance once every couple days, which also keeps most of the ogre tribe in thrall to her. They also supply her with treasure, spectacular costumes and various random treasure items.
Oh I like the Long Bow idea. Guess I'll give her that too.
She has a stronghold to hide in and a bunch of useful idiots to protect her. Faceless Joe Feels like a classy patron of the arts, not a helpless charmed dupe and his tribe loves the admittedly great performance.
If the harpy is nested inside of a mountain range and chooses to sing, then the echoes of her song that pass through the range could probably be heard a lot further than 300 feet.
Yes I love harpies, and this was one spicy encounter indeed.
I put harpies in a swamp hiding in trees in my one shot. I paired them with troglodytes hiding in the shallow waters and added some difficult terrain like deep muddy water and roots that could trip players to either immobilize them or knock them prone. This was also the first time I ever made a custom encounter and it was very unbalanced and nearly tpk'd my PCs.
Hahaha, I've been there! The best way to learn is by making mistakes
The last time I used harpies in my campaign I put them in an abandoned watch tower, which they'd trapped the ground floor of since they don't need to use it, and they tried to get the party to walk off the top floor to their deaths with their song, which didn't really work cause the party was a bit over leveled, but that was alright. To power up my harpies though, I gave them a couple of pet Wyverns just to make sure it wasn't a cake walk.
Love this idea, from the smart trap placement to the fitting minions!
Harpies? With a pet dragon? Where have I heard that before…?
Oh thank god you’re back! I was worried I wouldn’t get my weekly dose of Matt. Had to rewatch your troll, hydra, and nothic video to keep withdrawals from happening 😂
Haha don't worry - I'm back to weekly vids!
I just had a very busy work week and made lots of tweaks to this video as I went.
Hidden Nerdy Side congrats on 1k subs! Now you’re 1% of how popular you should be
If there are four things that disgust me, those would be:
World hunger
Widespread poverty
The fact that this channel has less than a thousand subs
Not having biweekly D&D because of Covid
I'm honoured to have beaten out racism 😂
But hey, we're almost there!!
Harpies are particularly great for players that enjoy adding layers of RP in their combat decisions and I love how you can really lean into that here, Matt! The balance of the danger and cool factor in flying is a great way to entrance your players even more! Depending on how things go, having access to Feather Fall sounds like a great way to have that "just in case" insurance policy here as well and that might be good to add.
Spicing it up even further... unbeknownst to everyone both Brundi and the party are looking for something specific that the harpies have. Whether it's the letter and/or something else entirely, this could add the potential for some twists that land smack dab in the middle of moral ambiguity and who doesn't love to make your players suffer with that??
As always, great video and CONGRATS on 1k!!! So proud of your accomplishments here! Keep up the great work!
Absolutely. There are few instances where Feather Fall is really life saving - but is certainly would be here haha.
I love your content so much you deserve so much more praise I'm just waiting for your channel to spontaneously explode
Thank you! And you and me both, haha
Harpie's wings are supposed to be attached to their hands, so if i'd use the longbow I'd keep it +5 but make it so they need to be on the ground to shoot.
I'm very curious as to why harpies are the way they are in D&D; mixed with Sirens. In Greek mythology, Sirens are women-heaed birds that lure sailors to their deaths, whereas harpies were air spirits and servants of zeus. I'm thinking of using the current Harpy stat block for Sirens and making a similar one for actual harpies, probably making them either celestials or elementals.
Even if the lore isn't getting changed, air-based abilities to reference them being spirits of sharp winds would be cool. A Harpy Matriarch with lair/legendary actions that let her control the winds to push and pull other characters would be cool, for instance.
Thanks for watching!
If you enjoyed this video, check out the rest of the Let's Build an Encounter Series here: th-cam.com/play/PLN3EWMJpTElMPfoxgFTAMuY3qdC7sGz_7.html
I love your videos, they always help me when I need some inspiration
That's what I'm here for! Thanks for the kind words.
If you have a tabaxi in the party a harpys song should make them hungry lol
Thank you for this. I'm planning an encounter with harpies on a way to some mines, and this was inspirational :)
Excellent video!👍
Thank you, m'lord
Drop the treasure or I drop you is pretty good. I'm definitely using that.
My group just completed a 2-year campaign and we're about to start an Eberron world. This is a perfect setup for an intro/encounter/NPC/task all wrapped into one.
Love to hear it!
I'd like to see you do a Unicorn encounter.
I'll put it on the list!
You had me at fly spell
great video!
I actually ran an encounter similar to this but the harpies were perched up on a large cliffside shooting magic missiles from a wand and scorching rays from a headband. And it became this big shootout between three harpies and my Sorcerer and wizard.
My fighter and warlock took a short rest during the encounter cuz they couldn't do anything. 😂
Oh and you should make an encounter for Banshees
On the list!
I don't mean to HARP on this but ayyyyyy
Ayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy
New episode! 😍
😍
@@HiddenNerdySide Dang. Now I need to run a lower level game so I can run this encounter
@@christopheracea5835 what level is your group? I have some encounters for pretty much all levels at this point
@@HiddenNerdySide Right now both of my groups just hit level 10. I'm actually using your Hydra encounter for my game tomorrow, which is what prompted me to subscribe. I think they'll like the change of pace from the political plot they've been doing for a year now.
@@christopheracea5835 Nice! Well if my memory serves me right the Oni, Fire Giant, Gith, Mind Flayer, and Vampire encounter are around that level range if you're interested.
Wow .. talk about eating your emotions