D&D 5E How do you do Kaiju in 5e?

I'm starting to brainstorm kaiju for my own purposes and realized that nothing really works currently so trying to figure out my model.

One of my favorite failed projects was Reach of Titan where the idea is you have a team that takes them down and then uses their purposes for building equipment and sustainability.

The way I see it , there are three different ways to do Kaiju:

1. as a monster - they will need legendary actions and it's probably needed to separate the various body parts into separate monsters.

2. as a dungeon - probably can use a 5 room dungeon model to cover the fundamentals.

3. as a skill challenge - your often more trying to survive rather then fight godzilla/mothra/rodan/kong/gamera/etc.

also how do you change the scenerio if you end up as the pilot/transformed into your own kaiju. How do you make it feel epic without suffering from "my car is cooler then I am" syndrome while still allowing the abilities of the party to shine through?

What are your thoughts on how to do Kaiju in a way that plays to the strengths of 5e ?
 

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the Jester

Legend
I have a bunch of gargantua (D&D's kaiju) statted up as monsters. One of them in particular, the Island Shark (a shark literally big enough to eat a small island in one bite), is an epic level challenge where you have to "defeat" a bunch of its body parts (one eye, its mouth, its dorsal fin, and one gill) to drive it away, with each statted as a separate monster. I'll attach the document for my I monsters, where you'll find it, but here's the main mechanic that ties them all together (with slight differences for each body part):

My Notes said:
Part of a Greater Whole. The eye is but a part of a truly gigantic monster. They eye fills a circular space 1,500' in diameter, behind which the rest of the shark effectively forms a landscape.

If the eye is reduced to 0 hit points, it shuts, and that part of the island shark is defeated. Only if one eye, one gill, its mouth, and its fin are all defeated within 24 hours can the island shark be driven away.

I'd be happy to post some of my other kaiju conversions for you if you'd like; I have basically versions of King Kong, Godzilla, and Mothra, at least.
 

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dave2008

Legend
In my old 5e Epic Monster Updates I stated my Primordials as Kaiju sized monsters and made them in "parts." This is similar to @the Jester's suggestion. However, I also made a version of godzilla that was just a mythic statblock with multiple mythic stages. You could combine the two to make something truly terrifying!

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Godzilla by Vsales

Godzilla
Gargantuan dragon (kaiju), unaligned
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Armor Class 25 (Natural Armor)
Hit Points 717 (35d20 + 350)
Speed 400 ft., swim 1,000 ft
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STRDEXCONINTWISCHA
30 (+10)11 (+0)30 (+10)7 (-2)14 (+2)30 (+10)
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Saving Throws Str +19, Con +19, Dex +9, Cha +19
Skills Athletics +28, Perception +11
Damage Resistances acid, fire, force, necrotic, poison; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical Attacks
Damage Immunities lightning, psychic, radiant
Condition Immunities frightened, poisoned
Senses Darkvision 10,000 ft., Passive Perception 21
Languages understands Common but can't speak
Challenge 30 (155,000 XP) Proficiency Bonus +9
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Adamantine Weapons. Godzilla's weapon attacks are considered adamantine and magical for overcoming resistances and immunities.

Brutal. Godzilla's melee attacks deal an extra 140 damage of the attacks type on a hit (included in the attack).

Colossal. Godzilla is 350 feet tall and its space is 230 feet by 230 feet. Any creature without the Colossal trait can enter its space and must do so to hit it with an attack with a reach or range of 20 feet or less. Additionally, Godzilla has advantage on checks and saving throws to be pushed, pulled, or grappled by creature's without the Colossal trait.

Damage Threshold.* Godzilla is immune to all damage unless the attack or effect inflicts more than 20 hit points of damage, in which case it takes damage as normal.

(*Note: this trait is not factored in the CR, consider removing this trait if you wish to have PCs challenge Godzilla)

Giant Monster. When Godzilla moves, its space and the ground within 50 feet of it is violently rent. The area becomes difficult terrain and any Huge or smaller creature in the area must make a DC 27 Dexterity check or be knocked prone, loose Concentration. Structures in this area take 150 bludgeoning damage. Additionally, a creature in an area devastated by Godzilla, refer to Giant Monster, must make a DC 27 Constitution saving throw for each minute it spends in the area or become poisoned.

Kaiju (Mythic Trait, 10 per Rest). If Godzilla is reduced to 0 hit points, its current hit point total becomes 717, all conditions and effects it is suffering end for it, it recharges all of its abilities, and it can use its Mythic actions. Award a party an additional 155,000 XP each time Godzilla uses its Kaiju mythic trait (1,705,000 XP maximum).

Immutable Form. Godzilla is immune to any spell or effect that would alter its form.

Radioactive. When an attack or effect of Godzilla's inflicts the poisoned condition, it ignores immunity to the poisoned condition. Creatures poisoned by Godzilla loose 1 hit point from their hit point total every 24 hrs. A Greater Restoration or similar powerful magic can remove the condition.

Siege Monster. Godzilla deals double damage to objects, structures, and creatures of Huge size and larger.

ACTIONS
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +19 to hit, reach 40 ft., one target that has the Colossal trait. Hit: 342 (35d10 + 150) piercing damage. Each creature within a 20-foot radius of the target must make a DC 27 Dexterity saving throw or take the same damage as the target.

Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: +19 to hit, reach 75 ft., one target that has the Colossal trait*. Hit: 272 (35d6 + 150) slashing damage and the target must make a DC 27 Strength saving throw or be pushed up to 200 feet, knocked prone, or grappled, Godzilla's choice. Each creature within a 20-foot radius of the target must make a DC 27 Dexterity saving throw or take the same damage as the target.

*Godzilla can also use this attack against creatures on its body.

Stomp. Melee Weapon Attack: +19 to hit, reach 75 ft., one Gargantuan or smaller target or prone or incapacitated target with the colossal trait. Hit: 307 (35d8 + 150) bludgeoning damage and fall prone. Until Godzilla uses its Stomp again or moves, the target is restrained. While restrained in this way, the creature (or another creature within 5 feet of it) can use its action to make a DC 27 Strength check. On a success, the creature relocates to an unoccupied space of its choice within 5 feet of Godzilla and is no longer restrained. Each creature within a 30-foot radius of the target must make a DC 27 Dexterity saving throw or take the same damage, knocked prone, and restrained as the target.

Tail Attack. Godzilla can make on of the following attacks.
  • Tail Slam. Melee Weapon Attack: +19 to hit, reach 400 ft., one target with the Colossal trait. Hit: 307 (35d8 + 150) bludgeoning damage and the target must make a DC 27 Constitution saving throw or be stunned for 1 minute. The target can make a saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the condition on itself on a success.
  • Tail Sweep. Godzilla sweeps its tail in a 400-foot arc. Each creature in the area must make a DC 27 Dexterity saving throw, taking 307 (35d8 + 150) bludgeoning damage and knocked prone on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. Godzilla needs a full round to prepare this attack, taking no other actions before it use its Tail Sweep.
Breath Weapons. Godzilla can use one of the following breath weapons. Godzilla must charge its breath weapons for two full rounds, taking no other actions before it can use its breath weapons. A creature reduced to 0 hit points by Godzilla's breath weapons is disintegrated and dies. Additionally, targets that fail their saving throw by 10 or more (DC 17) take maximum damage from these attacks.
  • Radioactive Beam. Godzilla exhales a super-heated beam in a 5,000-foot line that is 30 feet wide. The first creature in the line must make a DC 27 Dexterity saving throw, taking 315 (30d20) fire damage plus 315 (30d20) force damage plus 315 (30d20) necrotic damage and poisoned on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. If a target is disintegrated by this attack, the beam continues to the next target in the line.
  • Radioactive Breath. Godzilla exhales super-heated flames in a 3,000-foot cone. Each creature in area must make a DC 27 Dexterity saving throw, taking 157 (15d20) fire damage plus 157 (15d20) force damage plus 157 (15d20) necrotic damage and poisoned on a failed save and be incapacitated until the end of its next turn on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.
LEGENDARY ACTIONS
Godzilla 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. Godzilla can use any unspent legendary actions at the end of each round and it regains spent legendary actions at the start of its turn.

Unstoppable. Godzilla removes one condition or effect it is suffering. It can do so if it has at least 1 hit point, even while unconscious or incapacitated.
Claw (Costs 2 Actions). Godzilla makes a Claw attack.
Regenerate (Costs 3 Actions). Godzilla regains 100 hit points.

MYTHIC ACTIONS
If Godzilla's mythic trait is active, it can use the options below as legendary actions for 1 hour after using Kaiju.

Bite (Costs 2 Actions). Godzilla makes a Bite attack.
Pulse (Costs 3 Actions, Recharge 1/Rest). After Godzilla's fourth use of its Kaiju mythic trait, it can create a wave of kinetic energy in a 1,000-foot radius centered on it. Each creature in the wave must make a DC 27 Strength saving throw or pushed to the edge of the wave and knocked prone.

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TheHand

Adventurer
In a lot of Kaiju movies, the humans need to research, discover and exploit a specific weakness of the monster; fighting it directly is impossible.

You could take that idea and weave it into a scenario, where your heroes need to survive the stompy monster and environmental destruction in order to activate/deliver the secret weakness.
 

Stormonu

Legend
I had a massive Kaiju-style golem run amok as the finale for my Guilds of Ravinca adventure. Like others above me, I divided the monster into parts, but also had "weak points" built into each section that the characters could discover to take it down faster. It usually required a bit investigation to discover there was a weak point, and then a sort of skill challenge to get at the weak points themselves so that there was a tradeoff of simply wearing down the larger portion or risking a more dangerous path to get (and possibly stay) at the weak point.

I had also been considering rules for PC-controlled Kaiju/mecha, where the players either controlled a single creature or possibly a megazord-style combiner like Voltron. I never really got anything down, but I would strongly suggest looking at the RPG Lancer for how to handle something like that - it uses 4E rules (which the 5E rules are laid over) and with some work could serve as a skeleton or reskin for your games. The Lancer player rules are free for download and their Compcon website can help with building out a couple character/enemies/ideas.
 


One of the things I liked about WEG Star Wars D6 is it had different scales of combat, and rules for when they interact (such as attacking a Star Destroyer in a speeder). So I did a kaiju sized monster by making it Capital Ship scale.

But I've done all of the OPs options. Fight individual body parts (typically tentacles) and use a plot McGuffin to deal with the creature, go inside and kill it's vitals (dungeon approach), and the single big monster.
 


Can you briefly explain how that works?
Not really, this was around 30 years ago! Someone who has played SW D6 more recently might be able to do it.

From what I can remember the tiers were personal, vehicle/Starfighter, capital ship and Death Star. I think if you were fighting against something in a different tier (such as attacking a starfighter with a lightsaber) your dice rolls were capped by one per tier of difference.
 
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