Bright Flame the Magical Girl

With the Oriental Adventure conversions complete back to my actual campaign which involves a tournament to win the Mortal Blade.  To make sense of these entries you will need to look at the adventure flowchart which gives context and explains my changes but it’s essentially a conversion of the Ruby Phoenix Tournament but with a lot more anime/manga tropes pertinent to a “Tournament Arc“.

This was the most memorable fight of the entire tournament, and in fact, probably one of the most memorable fights I have ever run as my players still talk about it months later and its the main thing they remember about the tournament.

The rules of the match is that if you hit the floor – fall from the tower – you are out. Homura’s abilities are created in a such a way that its almost impossible to make prone/fall. In combination with her time stopping abilities she was slowly stripping them of their hit points without the party able to touch her.  And if that wasn’t bad enough her slug abilities were damaging the towers which were slowly falling apart and would eventually fall.  They were basically on a very strict time limit.

The PCs won by essentially using up her legendary resitences and soul point and then triggering the vortex ability of glass to teleport her to the ground. Homura bowed out honourably after that but the PCs had not scratched her – she was still full HPs.  Very clever use of abilities and a strategy to wear out Homura’s abilities even if they couldn’t touch her hit points.

I also used combat zones for this fight instead of it being purely “Theatre of the Mind” which I think helped.

Inspired by Homura from Madoka Magicka which has one of the greatest gun-fight scene in anime (in fact, all film. Only Equilibrium has such high quality gun fights).

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HOMURA

Medium humanoid (construct, human), neutral evil

Armor Class 18 (timelord buckler)

Hit Points 180 (24d8 + 72)

Speed 30 ft., fly 40 ft*

Saving Throws DEX +7, INT +7

Skills Acrobatics +7, Deception +7, Perception +6, Stealth +7

Senses passive Perception 16

Languages Common

Challenge 12 (8,400 XP)

Foresight. Homura is under a permanent foresight effect and can see into the immediate future. She can’t be surprised and has advantage on attack rolls, ability checks, and saving throws. Additionally, other creatures have disadvantage on attack rolls against her. A dispel magic or antimagic effect can suppress this trait for the duration of the spell effect.

Time Stealing. Each of her attacks can rob a target of an action. Targets hit by any of Homura’s attacks must make a DC 15 Charisma saving throw or lose a random action until the end of the target’s next turn. For each action so lost Homura gains either another soul point or another action per the table below (her choice) which she may store for later or use immediately:

• 1-4: Move Action (an additional move or reaction)
• 5-7: Reaction (an additional move, reaction, or bonus)
• 8-9: Bonus Action (an additional action of any type)
• 10: Action (an additional action of any type)

Soul Gem of Jikū Mahō (Recharges after a Short or Long Rest). As a reaction, bonus or legendary, Homura uses her time magic to trigger one of the below effect. Each effect costs soul points and Homura has 10 soul points. All her soul gem spells use Charisma and have a DC 15 for saving throws and +7 for spell attacks:

• If Homura fails a saving throw, she can choose to succeed instead (1 point).
• Homura gains resistance to a damage type of her choice until the end of her next turn (1 point).
• Homura makes an attack (1 point).
• Homura performs a surprising charge and takes the Dash action.  At the end of this movement she may make a slugspitter attack which does double damage so long as she moved at least 10 feet (1 point).
• Homura can use quick (haste) and slow (slow) (1 point).
• She can also stop/go a creature or object. She must touch the creature and what effect triggers depends on the situation. When time stop is active the creature is unfrozen and can act normally. If time stop is not active then the creature must make Wisdom saving throw or become paralysed. The creature can repeat the saving throw at the end of its turn to free itself.
• Homura uses bullet storm. She casts time stop and makes a number of slugspitter attacks as she can. These attacks do not cancel time stop and all trigger at the end of time stop or when Homura so chooses at any time after that point. These slugs damage (and any additional effects) is tallied and trigger in a 20 foot sphere centred on a point Homura can see (though she must pick this point during the time stop effect). Each creature takes the cumulative damage on a failed DC 16 Dexterity saving throw or half as much damage on a success (3 points).
• Homura stops time (as time stop but only for 1 round) and plants a bomb on a target. This bomb detonates when the time stop effect ends.  The target takes 17 (5d6) ballistic damage (bludgeoning/force) and any target within 20 feet also takes this damage on a failed DC 17 Dexterity saving throw or half as much damage on a success (4 points).

If the soul gem is exhausted Homura will turn into a witch (as a lich except her type is giant (fey), retains her current abilities in addition to the lich spells and her size gargantuan).

* This is a magical effect and can be dispelled. It reactivates at the start of Homura’s next turn. While this trait is active Homura can not fall. However she must voluntarily (or involuntarily) land at the end of her fly movement.

ACTIONS

Old. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: The target ages 1d4 x 10 years. For each 10 years of aging the target gains a bane on all STR, DEX, CHA and CON related rolls and a boon on all INT and CHA rolls. This effect is reversed if Homura is killed or she no longer has line of sight on the target.

Slugspitters. Range Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, range 50/150 ft., one target. Hit: See below. This attack triggers Homura’s time stealing trait. The slugspitter has the following options that Homura may change from attack to attack:

• Revolver: 13 ((2d8 +4)  ballistic damage (bludgeoning/force).
• Pistol: 11 (2d6 +4) ballistic damage (bludgeoning/force). This weapon scores a critical hit on a 19 or 20 and also hits 1d4+1 additional targets on a critical hit.
• Rifle: Homura targets a 10 foot cube in front of her and each creature in the cube must make a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw or take 15 (2d10 +4)  ballistic damage (bludgeoning/force), or half as much on a success.
• Shotgun: 13 (2d8 +4) ballistic damage, 26 ballistic damage if target is within 5 feet of Homura.

These weapons are stored in her time lord buckler and automatically appear in her hand when she reaches for them and teleport back when they are dropped or discarded.

REACTIONS

Witch Wings. If Homura is subjected to an effect that makes her fall she may use her reaction to gain a 30 foot fly speed until the end of her next turn.

LEGENDARY ACTIONS

Homura can take 3 legendary actions, choosing from her Soul Gem options. Only one legendary action option can be used at a time and only at the end of another creature’s turn. She regains spent legendary actions at the start of her turn.

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TACTICS

Homura will use her time-abilities to win the competition, in particular using time stop with bullet storm and time stop with freeze/unfreeze time fighting the PCs 1 on 1. She depends on her time stealing trait to increase her actions and recharge her spells.  She never uses her last soul gem point as this would trigger a witch transformation and, effectively, end her life.

COMBAT ZONES

20 Foot Tower. Starting, ending or moving through the tower triggers a trap. On a failed DC 17 Dexterity saving throw the target falls to the ground and is disqualified. A creature can only be targeted by the trap once per move action.

30 Foot Tower. Starting, ending or moving through the tower triggers a trap. On a failed DC 17 Dexterity saving throw the target falls to the ground and is disqualified. A creature can only be targeted by the trap once per move action.

40 Foot Tower. Starting, ending or moving through the tower triggers a trap. On a failed DC 17 Dexterity saving throw the target falls to the 20-foot tower where another trap triggers and the save repeated, failure means a fall to the ground and disqualification. A creature can only be targeted by the trap once per move action.

Precarious Rope Bridge. The rope bridge connects the 20-foot tower to the 40-foot tower and requires a DC 14 Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics) skill check to traverse. Failure means the target falls and is disqualified.

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Banner Credit: “Homura” screen cap from anime.