The Aria Spectre
Spiciness: 5/5 (Boss Fight)
This performance is deadly; your players will need strategy to survive.
Feeds about 3-5 players, level 4-6
Scales for: Number of Players, Player Level
Ingredients:
Stat blocks are on the next page or Monster Manual!
- The Aria Spectre
- X Stage Hands (One Per Player)
- X Will-o-Wisps (One for every level over 4)
Scale the Save DCs: At level 6, add +1 to their Save DCs.
Preparation
The Aira Spectre is a hauntingly beautiful spectre. In life, she was the center of the show, and in death-- she refuses to yield the stage. After all-- the show must go on!
Based on the Banshee and Shadow statblocks, these two custom creatures have been modified to more perfectly compliment each other, with the Aria acting as a soloist performing massive AoEs attacks and debuffs, while the stage-hands remain hidden and protect her. At higher levels, I've added Will-O-Wisps to add an additional threat to the players, forcing them to heal their downed players or risk losing them!
Cooking the Will-O-Wisps
Round 1+: The role of the Will-o-Wisps in this fight is partially asthetic (I loved the idea of floating lights on the stage), and partly for their Consume Life ability. Consider keeping them invisible until someone drops to 0 (which may be immediately due to Killing Aria). Then, consume life as a bonus action and use your action to return to invisibility.
Defensive Note: Be sure to end their turns away from visible creatures to avoid them getting hit by a fireball while invisible! If they take any damage, they're likely to lose concentration on their Invisibility (+0 Con Save) or just perish outright (they only have 22hp)
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Cooking the Stage Hands
Round 1+: The Stage Hands have 3 jobs, keep Aria well-lit, remain in the shadows, and prevent people from stopping the show! Keep Cue Lights on Aria, try to use Fly Rigging to prevent melee people from getting close to her by hoisting them in the air, or finish off downed party members.
Reactions: Always try to end your turn next to party members to get the most use out of The Show Must Go On!
Don't forget! If you're not in bright light, use Preserve Immersion to stay Hidden. Otherwise, you must move to an area that isn't brightly lit. (After all, stage hands are not meant to be seen in the show!)
Cooking the Aria Spectre
Round 1: If she's in bright light, she can use her Killing Aria (which is her best ability). If your Stage Hands have used Cue Lights on her, or you can simply move to bright light, then do that. Otherwise, fly upwards and use your Tessitura to do a little damage. While it may be tempting to Coloratura, your Aria will damage all of them, so it would end the effect if used before that.
Round 2: If you've used your Killing Aria, use your Coloratura now to prevent the remaining party members from healing them (and giving your stagehands / will-o-wisps time to finish them off), using your bonus action for Arcane Crescendo. Otherwise, definitely use your Killing Aria now!
Round 3+: By now, it should be a cleanup job: Either the party has gotten lucky on their saves and avoided the worst of Killing Aria, or the party is in dire shapes. Either way, the strategy is the same: Keep your Coloratura active (it's concentration & recharges on 6), and throw in some extra damage through Tessitura when you have a free action.
When you reach 0HP for the first time: Your Cadenza activates, recharges all your abilities, and gives you an immediate action. If you're brightly lit, use Killing Aria. Otherwise, Coloratura might be enough to keep you alive until the start of your next turn.
Note on Cue Lights: Since your spotlight follows you, you can position yourself better before using Killing Aria to hit more party members, but be careful with your movement. You could accidentally reveal the location of the stage-hands by moving through them (and thus, brightly lighting them).
Aria Spectre
Medium undead, chaotic evil
- Armor Class 12
- Hit Points 58 (13d8)
- Speed 0 ft., fly 40 ft. (hover)
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA 1 (-5) 14 (+2) 10 (+0) 12 (+1) 11 (+0) 17 (+3)
- Saving Throws Wis +2, Cha +5
- Skills Performance +7 (expertise)
- Damage Resistances acid, fire, lightning, cold, psychic; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical attacks
- Damage Immunities necrotic, poison
- Condition Immunities charmed, exhaustion, frightened, grappled, paralyzed, petrified, poisoned, prone, restrained
- Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 10
- Languages Common, 2 it knew from life
- Challenge 4 (1,100 XP) Proficiency Bonus +2
Care Selve. Aria has resistance to Psychic Damage.
Incorporeal Movement. Aria can move through other creatures and objects as if they were difficult terrain. She takes 5 (1d10) force damage if she ends her turn inside an object.
Arcane Crescendo: While concentrating on a spell, the Aria may use a Bonus Action to continue singing the vocal components of that spell. Until the start of her next turn, creatures have Disadvantage on their saves against it.
Cadenza. When Aria would be reduced to 0hp for the first time, she is instead reduced to 1hp. Her abilities recharge, and she may immediately take an action.
Actions
Thunderous Tessitura. Aria projects a violent vocalization. Ranged Spell Attack: +4 to hit, 30ft range, one target. Hit: 12 (3d6 + 2) Thunder damage.
Coloratura. (Recharge 6) Aria may cast Hypnotic Pattern without a spell slot. When doing so, you sing until the start of your next turn, and the spell is centered upon you and does not effect Undead.
Killing Aria (1/day). Aria releases a powerful solo performance, provided that she is in bright light. This song has no effect on constructs and undead. All other creatures within 30 feet of her that can hear her must make a DC 13 Constitution saving throw. On a failure, a creature drops to 0 hit points. On a success, a creature takes 10 (3d6) psychic damage. Aria continues singing until the start of her next turn.
Stage Hand
Medium undead, chaotic evil
- Armor Class 12
- Hit Points 16 (3d8 + 3)
- Speed 40 ft.
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA 6 (-2) 14 (+2) 13 (+1) 6 (-2) 10 (+0) 8 (-1)
- Skills Stealth +6 (expertise)
- Damage Vulnerabilities radiant
- Damage Resistances acid, cold, fire, lightning, thunder; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical attacks
- Damage Immunities necrotic, poison
- Condition Immunities exhaustion, frightened, grappled, paralyzed, petrified, poisoned, prone, restrained
- Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 10
- Languages common, Thieve's Cant (theatre jargon)
- Challenge 1/2 (100 XP) Proficiency Bonus +2
Preserve Immersion. While in dim light or darkness, the shadow can take the Hide action as a bonus action. If a creature is singing or performing, they have advantage on this check.
Stage Fright. While in bright light, the stage hand is Frightened. While The Stage is frightened, it must use its movement to head towards dim lighting or darkness, if possible.
Actions
Cue Lights. The Stage Hand targets a creature it can see within 60ft. While the Stage Hand maintains concentration, that creature's space is brightly lit by magic, and the surrounding 20ft radius around it becomes dimly light (even if it was brightly lit before).
Fly-Rigging. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature. Hit: 9 (2d6 + 2) piercing damage, and the creature is Restrained. While Restrained in this way, they are hoisted 10ft off the ground via rope, which can be severed (AC 10, HP 5).
"Good Luck!". The Stage Hand casts Bane against a creature by wishing it luck.
Reactions
The Show Must Go On. When a creature adjacent to the Stage Hand would target a singing or performing creature with an attack or spell, the Stage Hand may use Fly Rigging against that creature.
Thank you for checking out this monster!
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