Santa – World Builder Blog

5e Santa Stats

Inspiration / Christmas, D&D, D&D fifth edition, D&D Next, D&D5e, DnD, dungeons and dragons, holidays, Monster, monster creation, pdf, Santa, santa claus / 10 comments

December 8, 2015

It’s the most wonderful time of the year. What time is that? It’s the time this site hosts the RPG Blog Carnival. The theme is “Homebrew Holiday Gifts.” I’m asking bloggers everywhere to share their RPG creations for their favorite systems with me. At the end of the month I’ll make a list linking all participating blog posts so everyone can checkout the fine homebrew creations in one place.

Of course all over the world many people are getting into the holiday spirit as well as celebrating the RPG Blog Carnival. So it is with that inspiration I present that latest fifth edition Dungeons and Dragons creature I’ve brewed up – Santa Claus. Of course if you prefer the third edition Santa, he lives over here.

Santa Claus

The story of Santa Claus is known throughout the land. This jolly old elf (actually a celestial) brings cheer to those on his nice list and punishes those on the naughty list. Common folk know him as a generous, kind giver of gifts, but his enemies know him only as a giver of pain.

Kind Old Man with a Righteous Spirit. Santa Claus’ appearance is one of an elderly human male dressed in warm red and white robes carrying a large sack of gifts. His cheeks are rosy, his eyes are twinkly, and a mop of white hair adorns his smiling, bearded face. This appearance leads some to believe Santa is no more than a kind grandpa, but this being is full of magical power fueled by the generosity of all good creatures.

Created by Generosity. Santa may appear humanoid, but he is really a product of something far more mystical. When a good creature performs a generous act, a small amount of positive energy is released. This energy travels as far North as it can. The first commingling of this energy created Santa Claus himself, the next created his wife, then his army of winter elves, and finally his workshop. Now the energy which travels North sustains these life forces and workshop.

Promoter and Protector of Good. Santa’s mortality is directly connected to good people. Thus he encourages kindness by rewarding all good folk with presents once a year. Less known is that Santa travels to defend groups of good creatures when their lives are threatened. Using his magic he has beaten many bands of marauding monsters, fiendish incursions, and things that go bump in the night.

Santa’s Lair

Santa’s lair is a magical workshop run by his winter elves (a size Small subrace of elves). Here these creatures make toys and other gifts. Various items symbolic to a plethora of Winter holidays decorate the walls of this grand mansion.

Most of the workshop is dedicated to the construction and delivery of gifts. There’s huge rooms dedicated to carpentry, mechanics, gift wrapping, candy-making, and stables for reindeer. The elves have a spacious dormitory, Santa and his wife have modest living quarters, and all residents share a dining hall and library. A special room in the center of the mansion gives Santa the ability to scry on any creature on the same plane.

While Santa’s workshop may appear harmless, the property is well protected. Only creatures of good alignment can actually see the mansion from the outside. Inside the workshop, seemingly harmless life-sized toy soldiers, teddy bears, and dolls come to life and attack intruders while magic traps controlled by Santa can blast enemies with cold energy and freeze them in place.

Lair Actions

On initiative count 20 (losing initiative ties), Santa takes a lair action to cause one of the following effects; Santa can’t use the same effect two rounds in a row:

Magic mistletoe grows down from the ceiling and attempts to grab up to three creatures Santa can see within 120 feet of him. Those creatures must succeed on a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw or be restrained until the start of Santa’s next lair action. On its turn a creature restrained this way can try and free itself as an action with a DC 15 Dexterity (Acrobatics) check. Another creature can attack the mistletoe and attempt to destroy it (AC 15, HP 20, immune psychic, vulnerable slashing).
Spectral jingle bells appear and sound. Each creature within 120 feet of Santa who can hear the bells must make a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw. Santa can slide any creature who fails 30 feet in the direction of his choosing.
Santa laughs and the ground shakes like a bowl full of jelly within a 60-foot radius around him. Every creature on the ground within the area other than Santa must succeed on a DC 15 saving throw or be knocked prone.

Regional Effects

The region containing Santa’s lair is changed by his magic, which creates one or more of the following effects:

All pack animals (such as horses, reindeer, and oxen) gain a fly speed equal to their speed within 6 miles of the lair.
For non-evil creatures any snow within 6 miles of the lair tastes like peppermint and provides nourishment. Such creatures automatically succeed on Constitution saving throws against exhaustion due to harsh climate within 6 miles of the lair, warmed by a delightful feeling which comes from within their hearts.
Snowmen created by creatures with the good alignment within 1 mile of the lair come to life and point the way to Santa’s workshop. Evil creatures who build snowmen within 1 mile of the lair find the creation explodes upon completion, dealing 11 (2d10) cold damage to anyone within 5 feet of it.

If the Santa dies permanently, the effects end immediately.

Santa Claus

Medium celestial, neutral good

Armor Class 20 (natural armor)

Hit Points 300 (40d8 + 120)

Speed 30 ft., fly 60 ft.

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA
18 (+4)	10 (+0)	16 (+3)	20 (+5)	22 (+6)	24 (+7)

Saving Throws Dex +6, Con +9, Wis +12

Damage Resistances bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage from nonmagical weapons

Damage Immunities cold

Condition Immunities exhaustion, petrified

Skills Animal Handling +12, Perception +12

Senses blindsight 60 ft., darkvision 120 ft., passive perception 22

Languages all

Challenge 20 (25,000 XP)

Amorphous. Santa can move through a space as narrow as 1 inch wide without squeezing.

Discern Alignment. Santa immediately knows the alignment of any creature he can see.

Discorporation. When Santa drops to 0 hit points or dies, his body is destroyed, but his essence travels back to his domain in the North Pole, and he is unable to take physical form for a time.

Flying Sleigh. When Santa drives a sleigh drawn by at least 6 pack animals, the animals and sleigh gain a 120-foot fly speed.

Legendary Resistance (3/Day). If the Santa fails a saving throw, he can choose to succeed instead.

Magic Resistance. Santa has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.

Magic Weapons. Santa’s weapon attacks are magical.

Master Artisan. Santa is proficient with all artisan’s tools. His proficiency bonus is +6.

Naughty List. Santa deals an extra 9 (2d8) cold damage to creatures of evil alignment with weapon and spell attacks.

Spellcasting. Santa’s spellcasting ability is Charisma (spell save DC 21, +13 to hit with spell attacks). He can innately cast the following spells, requiring no material components.

At will: bless, invisibility, locate creature, misty step, ray of frost, scrying, sleep, zone of truth

3/day: cone of cold, hold monster, mass cure wounds, sleet storm

1/day: teleport, time stop, wall of ice

Actions

Multiattack. Santa can make three sack of gifts attacks or two Jolly Holly attacks.

Sack of Gifts. Melee Weapon Attack: +10 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 15 (2d10 + 4) bludgeoning damage.

Jolly Holly. Ranged Spell Attack: +13 to hit, range 120 ft., one target. Hit: 28 (4d10 + 7) piercing damage and the creature must make a DC 21 Wisdom saving throw. A creature who fails this saving throw collapses in a fit of laughter, falls prone, and cannot stand until the end of Santa’s next turn.

Open Up Your Present. Santa hurls a random gift from his sack up to 90 feet. It explodes in a 20-foot-radius sphere. Creatures in the area must make a DC 21 Constitution saving throw. Creatures who fail take 21 (6d6) cold damage. Creatures who succeed take half. In addition creatures who fail the save suffer a random effect rolled on a d4. On a 1 they’re blinded, on a 2 they’re deafened, on a 3 they’re frightened of Santa, on a 4 they’re poisoned. The random effect lasts one minute. A creature can repeat the saving throw at the end of its turn, ending the effect early on a success.

Peace on Earth. Santa and any number of creatures he chooses within 30 feet fall under the effect of the sanctuary spell (DC 21). The effect lasts 1 minute, but ends early if Santa attacks, casts a spell, or chooses to end the effect as a bonus action.

Legendary Actions

Santa can take 3 legendary actions, choosing from the options below. Only one legendary action option can be used at a time and only at the end of another creature’s turn. Santa regains all spent legendary actions at the start of his turn.

Jolly Holly. Santa attacks with Jolly Holly.

Twinkly Eyes. Santa targets one creature he can see that can also see him within 30 feet. The target must succeed on a DC 21 Wisdom saving throw or become charmed by Santa until the end of Santa’s next turn. While charmed by Santa the creature cannot attack him.

You’ve Been Naughty. Santa shows a creature within 30 feet who can seem him its name on on the naughty list. The creature must succeed on a DC 21 Wisdom saving throw or suffer disadvantage on all attacks against Santa and his allies. In addition Santa and his allies have advantage on attack rolls against the target, and the target suffers disadvantage on saving throws against the effects of Santa’s abilities and spells. These effects last until the end of Santa’s next turn.

PDF

Would you like Santa in a PDF along with all the other fifth edition D&D creatures I’ve designed? Grab them below.

Santa Claus

All Monsters

If you don’t want to grab them now, but decide you want the PDFs at a future date, head on over to the Free Game Resources section of this site where the documents will live along with magic items, backgrounds, D&D fifth edition rules modules, spells, adventures, and more created by yours truly.

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Glacius and the Poles

Brass Tacks / cold, D&D, D&D fifth edition, D&D Next, DnD, dungeons and dragons, Glacius, gold, ice, mining, North Pole, Santa, sharks, South Pole, The Explorers' Guild, The Society of Seekers, undead, world building / 0 comments

April 3, 2014

You ever look at the North Pole and ask yourself, “Why in the Hell would Santa want to live there?” The answer is simple – his operation is so confidential he went to the one place no one could find him. Even if you know exactly where his operation is, good luck braving the elements to get there. I feel bad for the person who has to deliver all those letters to him. Seriously, a man with the power to see us at all times of the day should have an email address.

Exploration Age has blank spots on the map beyond The Damned Lands and Verda. The harsh environments of Glacius and the North and South Poles of Canus have kept even the toughest explorers at bay.

Glacius

Just North of Findalay lies a continent about the size of Parian covered in snow and ice. Glacius is one-third frozen ocean, one-third snow-covered plains, and one-third mysterious ice-covered mountain range with the occasional volcano and aberrant ruin thrown-in.

The snow plains of Glacius are a near constant blizzard, but thanks to the Society of Seekers and The Explorers’ Guild most of the area has been mapped. For those with the stomach for it, the snow plains offer some of the most spectacular sights in all of Canus. Rare beasts, a strange aberrant ruin full of mysterious labs, and bizarre weather phenomena make Glacius unlike any other place on the planet. All of these rarities are not as strange as the seemingly abandoned tunnels dug into the frozen snow. Where exactly the tunnels lead and what their purpose was is up for debate, as no expedition deep into the tunnels has ever come back.

Glacius’ frozen ocean is the most dangerous place to get rich quick. Frozen within the ice is gold dust. Ice-breaking ships manned by all-or-nothing crews make their way through the sea, trying to find the best places to saw out blocks of ice flecked with gold. These blocks are melted aboard the ship and the gold is then harvested. Of course, the frozen ocean has many of its own hazards such as weather, thin ice, hidden icebergs, polar bears, krakens, ice pirates, and more. Boats can get stuck inside the frozen ocean if they venture too far into the ice and the sea freezes their path behind them. In this case the crew can starve and freeze or abandon ship and try to survive out on the ice – a miserable existence. Perhaps the most frightening hazard upon the frozen ocean is The Undead Miner Army. Sailors tell tales of a greedy legion of wights who met their fate mining gold on the ice. These undead are always looking to increase their ranks and horde of gold by attacking the crews of the living. There may be truth to these rumors, since destroyed mining ships have been found with all their gold removed and not a single corpse ever in the bloodstained area.

The Ice Ranges of Glacius are the unmapped area of the continent. The ice-covered mountains have peaks higher than 20,000 feet. As a result, no one has ever ventured beyond the outer-most mountains so what occurs within the Ice Ranges remains a mystery. Occasionally a white dragon can be seen flying toward the mountains and those with keen ears can hear thunderous booms erupting from the inner peaks through the howling blizzard winds.

Two active volcanoes live in Glacius. Mt. Steam sits on an island in the frozen ocean. Some sailors claim to have seen a massive red dragon coming from or going to Mt. Steam, but those rumors have never been corroborated. The other volcano, Mt. Hyrias sits on Glacius’ coast and seems to constantly spew ash and lava into the sea. Mad soothsayers claim that the aberrants buried a weapon beneath this lava flow long ago and are soon going to return to use it and cover Canus in ash and fire.

The Poles

If Glacius is remote and dangerous than Canus’ poles are the hardest-earned suicide mission Exploration Age has to offer. Barely explored, and less often survived, few know what the poles have to offer. To some that is a reason to stay away, but for others the challenge has become a draw. The Society of Seekers and The Explorers’ Guild have a bit of an unofficial race going between them. The Society has an independent pet project of exploring the South Pole while The Guild is exploring the North. Both are hoping to prove their superiority over the other by filling in the blank spots of their pole’s map first.

While both poles are cold, icy masses of frozen ocean with treacherous terrain and more dangerous weather, each does have its own unique hazards. The North Pole’s winds are stronger than any other on Canus. Whirlwinds of snow and ice can kick up at any moment, or gusts of wind could blow so strong that a traveler without ice cleats may be lifted off of the surface of the frozen ocean and carried into the air. Flying is not an option on the North Pole for any but the most powerful creatures.

Below the surface of the North Pole swim predatory creatures known as ice-breaker sharks. These crafty beings use the bony growths upon their heads to weaken the ice in a given area then surprise their prey by either breaking through the weak spot or allowing their target to fall through it before attacking. Either way ice breaker sharks can sense footsteps through the ice from up to a mile away and will begin preparing a hunting ground with plenty of these weak spots. They often allow their prey to travel far into the hunting grounds before attacking so they can surround the victims with weak spots, giving no option for easy escape.

The South Pole is just as deadly as the North Pole. Winds are not as fierce, however the snow falls so heavily here it forms massive dunes that are treacherous to climb. The snow is uneven and could collapse at any moment, burying a traveler. As if the snow and weather weren’t enough, earthquakes constantly shake The South Pole, threatening to level and reform new snow dunes constantly, not to mention bury and knock adventurers off their feet. But the worst of the worst hazards in The South Pole is The Lingering Havoc.

No one is sure of The Havoc’s origin. Some say it is an ancient remnant of aberrant societies, some say it migrated from The Damned Lands or mysterious parts of Verda, and others believe there is a darker force somewhere deep within the South Pole controlling the force. Few have seen The Lingering Havoc and lived to tell of it. Those who have their minds permanently warped. Yet all those who describe The Havoc have a similar story to tell. Either coming out of the snowy depths or rising through the broken ice, a massive creature, more than 500 feet tall by many accounts. The Lingering Havoc is a hulking mass of bones and corpses of various humanoids, animals, and monsters that have somehow formed together into one colossal engine of destruction.

Other than their ongoing competition, why would The Society of Seekers and The Explorers’ Guild continue to risk it all over two seemingly worthless hunks of ice? Because there could be profit, adventure, glory, and discovery to be found over the next snow dune. Aberrant ruins that have yet to be picked over, a new race of intelligent beings, portals to other worlds, and more endless possibilities live in the minds of adventurers and PCs. It’s my promise to deliver on those expectations, provided they survive the harsh cold… and the ice breaker sharks… and The Lingering Havoc… you get the idea.

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