Grimm Dawn

Duergar Zealot Barbarian / Assassin Rogue 

[6 min read]

Grimm Dawn is a villain created from a series of random rolls. For abilities, I used the 4d6 drop one method, but I also assigned the rolls to the ability scores in order - STR, DEX, CON, INT, WIS, CHA. This gave me a high strength and dexterity, which is not the easiest combination to work with when optimising a build. Then I used the Dungeon Master's Guide NPC random tables to create the backstory.

Background: Grimm is an older, experienced duergar assassin living on the surface after leaving the underdark early in his career. Fidgety since a child, the only time Grimm could release his pent-up energy was either playing the bagpipes (which he was not terribly good at), or in a battle frenzy. Grimm learned to control his hot temper and channel it into a cold rage of ruthless efficiency when fighting, making his services as a warrior sought after. He fell in with a zealous & militant religious order with a charismatic leader, who lured him to the surface with the promise of a purpose serving his dark god as an assassin. The tattoos on his person represent all the kills he has made in that service, and these cover most of his naked skin.

Personality Traits: Grimm is always calm, no matter what the situation. He never raises his voice or let his emotions control him. Grimm's rage is a cold and calculating fury.

Ideals: Honor. Grim doesn't kill or steal from others in the trade.

Bonds: Grimm wants to become the greatest assassin that ever lived.

Flaws: Grim has a “tell” that reveals when he is lying. He rubs a tattoo on his forearm, that represents his first ever victim as an assassin.

How would players encounter this villain? 

Grimm is an assassin in the employ of an evil villain who wants to fulfill an apocalyptic prophecy of a religious nature. This villain could be the 'big bad evil guy' the party are facing, and they become targets for Grimm. 

Skills and capabilities 

As an assassin, Grimm has high Perception to track his prey, and Insight to anticipate their actions. He uses an expertise in Stealth and also his duergar Invisibility to stay hidden. Grimm has high Acrobatics and Athletics to help him get into difficult to reach places to set up an ambush. Grimm is skilled with herbalist and poisoner kits, and so will use these to create healing potions for himself or poisons that will coat his weapons for extra damage.

Combat tactics

Grimm has two modes of fighting. The first, leveraging his Assassin abilities, is an explosive first round, ideally with surprise, where he attempts to take out one or two of the squishiest targets, especially if he can identify any healers. The second takes advantage of his barbarian rage and high hit points in a war of attrition where he aims to outlast the other targets he is trying to eliminate. Grimm is not adverse to fleeing and hiding, downing some healing potions, then returning to try and finish the job.

First round

An Assassin rogue gets advantage on attack rolls against any creature that hasn’t taken a turn in the combat yet, and any hit scored against a creature that is surprised is a critical hit, so that is what Grimm is aiming for. Having tracked the players, ideally Grimm would be hidden using Stealth and/or Invisibility to get the jump on them. Grimm's Shortsword of Warning gives him Advantage on Initiative too, so unless the party is really well actively searching and rolls really well, Grimm is likely get surprise and act high in the initiative order.

Grimm will attack with two short swords, prioritizing a healer or magic-user as targets. If he hits a surprised character, he can do up to 3 attacks with advantage (extra attack, bonus action off-hand attack), each a critical hit, one of which has sneak attack damage. If hitting with all attacks, the total damage would be on average 44 (10d6+9).

If the short swords are both poisoned with wyvern poison (7d6 damage Con save DC 15 for half), the first attack on average would do 61 damage (15d6+9 on a failed poison save) and in this case Grimm would use his bonus attack on a second magic-user as well (avg 40 damage 9d6+9 on a failed save).  

Subsequent rounds

Ideally at least one target would have been downed in the first round, and Grimm is acting first in the second round. This would give him advantage against any targets lower in the initiative order. Calling on the Path of the Zealot, Grimm would bonus action rage and then attack twice with Extra Attack but now with Divine Fury active, giving him an extra 1d6+2 necrotic damage on the first attack each round.

While raging Grimm will use reckless attack to give himself advantage every round, can make 3 attacks, and one has Sneak Attack (2d6) and one with Divine Fury (1d6+2 ) for an average damage per round of  36 (6d6+15). Priority will be to down any of the damaged, squishier targets first.

Grimm is difficult to kill, because being a Duergar plus a raging barbarian means he not only is resistant to piercing, bludgeoning and slashing damage, but has advantage on Dexterity saving throws and also against Charm, Stun and Poison effects. The party's best bet is to target his low mental ability score saves and incapacitate him.

If the fight is going poorly, Grimm would use Invisibility (if not used in the ambush) and/or Enlarge/Reduce to shrink him to a small size and get away through a crevice or hole somewhere in the environment, something Grimm may have noted before combat even started. Then he could down some healing potions and try and ambush the characters again, or flee with more knowledge of the character's capabilities to change tactics for a new attempt, with fresh charges of wyvern poison to coat his blades.

How to make this villain more memorable

As a high-level henchman of a big, bad villain, Grimm is probably not best used in a single encounter with no warning to the players. 

Rather, players might learn the villain has a legendary assassin as a follower, might even snatch glimpses of a stocky grey humanoid lurking in the shadows as he sizes them up. In fact, since Grimm believes he is the best assassin in the realm, he may be overconfident and even plan to creep the players out by letting them get a glimpse, or even better, have them hear the bagpipes being played mournfully in the distance.

Grimm could be a recurring sub-boss, attempting to take out a new player character in each ambush attempt, trying to thin their numbers while tracking them through one dungeon, or even following them into a subsequent adventure. 

Other notes

If Grimm gets surprise and targets a character with both poisoned weapons in the first round, there is a very real chance that they could be killed outright, making this a very dangerous encounter.  I would give the players some knowledge of Grimm's capabilities ahead of the fight and potentially foreshadow the ambush to put the party on alert in order to give them a chance to protect themselves. If they miss those clues or choose to ignore them, then I would have no problem making that mistake a lethal one.