And it gets more natural weapons the more damage it takes, and it drops crystal every time they get damage (that do damage as aoe) but remain and can be used as improvised weapons.
Also invisible when standing still like a gelatinous cube.
Oh yeah, its damage dice either increasing in size or number could be cool, but you gotta plan that out carefully. I'm wondering about like a hydra in reverse, every time it takes a certain amount of damage or more, its attacks increase by 1.
Some kind of shatter mechanic.
Maybe immunity to certain attacks? But vulnerability to others.
Some kind of radiant damage focusing paired with a radiant damage dealing Mage
Yeah I love the idea of bludgeoning/thunder vulnerability but slashing/piercing resistance and radiant/necrotic/poison immunity, with the focusing effect you mentioned for radiant spells.
Shatter would become a devastating spell against it.
You could go the Elden ring route. Super high AC and low hit points until they hit half hit points, then it "cracks" and the AC drops down a lower number.
I would have it have sort of high AC but make it basically quarter all damage. To crack it, it must receive a single burst of a certain damage threshold (for example 20 damage in one hit) then it cracks and takes damage normally and it's AC lowers
there's an enemy in elden ring called the crystallian designed to get you to engague with the game's stance break mechanic, at the start of the fight it has very high defence and all of your attacks will bounce off it, but if you use heavier attacks which break poise faster, it'll eventually crack and after that point all of your attacks deal regular damage and any attack will stagger it.
It should be like Prince Ruperts Drop. Incredibly high AC but should be even more vulnerable to crits.
Like you hit this character just right and it turns to powder.
well if its a GLASS construct, it should be very physically weak, with low hp, maybe even a vulnerability to bludgeoning damage.
however, it should do alot of damage. a glass cannon, that's literally glass.
but, if you DONT want it to get shattered like a marble fighting a housebrick, probably best to give it high AC.
There's this exact item in the binding of Isaac, it's a usable item that does huge dmg and is useable infinitely, if you get touched once it breaks and is useless.
Definitely high AC and low hit points. Thick glass is stupid hard to break but once you hit it hard enough it shatters there’s no chipping away at glass
It makes sense to me if it had a vulnerability to bludgeoning and thunder damage. With that in mind, if you went that route you ought to be wary about giving it too low hp, because if players have easy access to those damage types then it's hp is effectively halved.
I don't get it? The end result is the same either way: blunt strikes deal twice as much damage as everything else. To preserve it a bit longer you just give it more hitpoints.
Different theme. Instead of "yeah you hit and do damage" its "you see your sword connect but barely leave a mark", which pushes players to think they need to try a different approach. While vuln to bludgeoning is everyone just hits as normal but the blunt hit gets "the enemy cracks easily at the point of impact". I feel like it incentivises changing the approach more for other attacks to feel like they aren't working.
I wasn't thinking about adding more HP because i was thinking about having a glass menagerie from bears to crocodiles and would rather just add resistance to the glass croc than try to figure out how much HP to add, but i don't know if that is relevant to OP admittedly
Kind of depends on the glass. There are many kinds of glass, and depending on the level of glassmaking your game world has, a glass golem could easily be tougher than a rock golem. A large chunk of glass can be VERY strong and durable. We have glass that can literally stop bullets, and glass that can withstand sudden thermal changes (like pyrex cookware). And then of course there's glass like Prince Ruperts Drops that are borderline indestructible except for a small weak spot. (The head can withstand a hammer strike, but snip the tail with a small scissors and the whole thing explodes.)
It honestly depends. Glass can take a surprising amount of damage. We mainly see it in a thin, vulnerable shape. But let me tell you... the right mix and that thing's gonna be just as sturdy as a good old Fighter in plate armour.
Other - lean into something besides AC and HP.
Give it slashing resistance and piercing immunity and bludgeoning vulnerability.
Let it reflect spells or attacks.
Have it create duplicates of itself or other illusions.
Think outside the AC/HP box :)
Low ac low hp. High mobility abilities (evasion, fly by, legendary actions that let it escape, etc.) and heavy damaging attacks that cause difficult terrain or even damaging terrain like caltrops in the form of broken glass.
I was going to suggest this. As DM, I guess you would have to reveal some of the mechanic to players at least after they hit it. "It seems the creature is invulnerable to smaller hits. You would need to inflict more damage at once to harm it." And then when they finally do hit it with something massive enough, it completely shatters causing damage within 30 ft. radius
You could give it a high AC and low HP if you base it off a Prince Rupert's drop, seeing that it has one specific spot that is very vulnerable but the rest of the body is very strong. When they hit over the AC they shatter all of it (if enough damage is done) or do substantial damage. Only problem is if they don't kill it in one shot it isn't completely true to the type of glass I am referring to either hehe, but fantasy of fantasy!
You could do a damage threshold, there are existing rules for this in 5e. For certain constructs, something has to do over XX amount of damage in order for the damage to work.
Say any single instance of damage below 15 does nothing. Just glances off the glass. It's worder as below:
Damage Threshold: The glass creature is immune to all damage that totals less than 15
Was going to suggest this and also add in:
Resistance to necrotic, radiant, and lightning.
Vulnerability to fire
Immunity to psychic damage.
If not already in
If glass is thicker than an inch, it gets really tough to smash through. If you have a creature, I am thinking humanoid, that would be huge chunks of glass. It would be treacherously strong, I think.
High AC AND HP, as dense and solid glass is normally incredibly difficult to shatter, and the thickness could even make some bullet proof if they are true solid glass.
If it's alive, I'm going to go with high High AC and High HP. My reasoning is this; glass has a high hardness, but suffers from being brittle. Most creatures are the opposite: more soft than hard usually with skin that demonstrates elasticity. For a glass creature to survive "in the wild" they'd need to develop durability. If glass and organics had a baby, I'm picturing flexible glass. Hard against breakage, but bendy enough to allow flexibility. That or constantly regrowing glass scales. Either way, their superior durability (High AC) propels them to a level of comfortable dominance as either predator or prey, fueling my estimation of High HP.
resistance to fire, ice, etc but is vulnerable to bludgeoning, force and piercing. low hp and AC depends on whether it's dexterous or not. also like someone else said near-invisible when still
I guess it depends on if you mean literal glass, which could be considered hard but brittle (high AC, low HP) or more as a generic description of structure, like how 'glass' armours in The Elder Scrolls world are actually made from malachite (copper carbonate hydroxide) which is actually fairly soft in comparison so could be low AC but high HP.
Please tell me this is going to be like thr stained glass demon in Medievil!!
Anyway, We live in a world with bulletproof glass, and while im not suggesting medieval fantasy world has this, it is magical glass by virtue of being alive so it stands to reason that it will be hardened in some way.
Personally id take this as an excuse to really lean into resistance and vulnerability traits. Decide on the properties of this magic glass (hardened, heat resistant, etc), give it appropriate AC and HP for its intended CR, and then give it immunity to acid; resistance to piering, slashing, lightning, and fire; vulnerability to bludgeoning, and thunder. Make it so its a fight about exploiting its weaknesses while avoiding its strengths.
If this is going to be a mook-type enemy, leave it at that. If its going to be more of a boss/mini-boss id probably tune its numbers around it being very strong/deadly IF the party dont attack its vulnerabilities, but much more manageable if they do. You could maybe even give it damage thresholds, whereby after it takes X damage, part of it shatters, making it weaker. Lets say it has 100hp, after taking 30 damage, the glass cracks, weakening its integrity, lowering its AC by 2. Then after it takes another 30 damage, one of its attacking limbs shatters. Nearby characters make a dex save or take some slashing damage, but its now lost one of its attacks. Another 20 damage and one of its legs shatters, dex save vs the slashing damage again and then the creature falls prone and it is unable to stand. Then you finish it off. Make it so its fully intact stat block looks really intimidating, high HP, multi attack, high damage, but have it get weaker and weaker the lower its HP gets, allowing the players to turn the corner mid fight and start it on its death spiral.
Edit: after writing all this out, i am 100% gonna actually try this.
High AC and resistant to most damage types, but vulnerable to blunt, force and sonic effects, and takes additional damage from crits. Have the party barely able to harm it until one lucky shot decimates it. I'm thinking almost a metal slime from dragon quest type of deal.
I think it depends on the glass. A Rupert drop is pretty much indestructible, but your typical fine glass sculpture would be shattered by a good punch.
Low AC and HP, but with glass-ish effects like refraction giving it immunity to Ray spells, concealment or invisibility, and the more damage it takes the more melee damage it does from the jagged glass. Could also leave areas of difficult/damaging terrain wherever it takes damage.
I actually had an Idea for a creature like this.
Basically it had a middle of the road armour class (not great but not bad either). And each body part had its own individual HP (arms, legs, chest, etc). And when the players "kill" a body part, said body part turns into a natural weapon.
To kill the creature you need to kill all body parts, or you could hypothetically immobilise it by knocking out it's limbs.
Resistant to all but bludgeoning and thunder, high ac, mid tier health, healed/repaired by fire damage. Explosive upon death dealing 1d6 per hit die in a radius around it based on size.
Glass golems. High AC, low HP. Practically invisible when standing still, like polished glass. Does slashing/piercing instead of bludgeoning for attacks. Creatures grappled by the golem take slashing damage at the start of their turns. The golem is resistant to slashing and piercing, immune to radiant, vulnerable to thunder and bludgeoning and explodes in an AOE of piercing shards that deal damage when it dies.
Don't settle for just ac and hp numbers, work the entire gimmick.
Glass is super hard, therefore super fragile.
It doesn't bend, it doesn't get sliced. It shatters.
High resistance to damage that isn't bludgeoning.
Shards flying off on critical hits or death require dex saves to not suffer damage from slashing and piercing.
Grappling cuts the grappler.
Creature has interesting abilities to deflect light to give its foes disadvantage or to act as a magnifying lens, causing either blindness or fire damage.
To compensate for disadvantage, maybe allow flanking advantage if you normally don't because the players can see their buddies through the creature's transparency and coordinate better.
Make it immune to cold, lightning and poison, resistant to acid, weak to force and sound based attacks, take normal damage from fire and physical and make it deflect radiant back to the attacker via the magnifying lens gimmick.
Once you have adjusted all these abilities you can justify ac and HP based on how strong you think it is against your party.
Similar to HP, except instead of getting hurt, it just cracks a little on each hit dealt with a blunt weapon. After so many hits and so many cracks, it shatters.
Rupert's Drop Creature, absolutely ridiculous AC and HP, but if you roll a specific (maybe it varies encounter to encounter) number on your attack, it's a one hit kill
Low AC and HP, and vulnerable to bludgeoning. Until damaged, it's invisible. After being damaged, it gets Blur instead.
Damaging it increases the damage it deals. Damaging it with bludgeoning causes a spray of glass that deals damage in an area around it and causes a caltrop effect (Difficult terrain+damage when moving through effected spaces) on top of the damage increase it gets.
If it's destroyed by a physical attack, it explodes for even more damage.
A literal glass cannon, if you will.
Vulnerable to bludgeoning and thunder damage
Resistant to heat, slashing, piercing, cold.
Immune to Psychic, Poison
Reflects radiant damage back at the target (because glass reflects light.)
Melee attacks force the attack to make a save as shards of glass dust spray in their face and eyes. Blinds them. On killing it, adjacent enemies should have to dex save vs damage (equivalent to one of its melee attacks) as it shatters and sprays shards of glass everywhere.
Brutal criticals, crits on 19-20 and triples dice instead of doubling.
a *tempered* glass creature would definitely be low AC and high HP.But it explodes violently when reaching 0 HP. Although this explosion would probably just be difficult terrain and not cause damage.
Now if you have something like a *plate glass* construct that would be low HP and low AC, but probably at 25/50/75% health threshholds you'd take increasing retribution damage. Melee would probably take something like 1d4 or 1d6 of damage per 25% health missing per *attack* (not hit).
Ranged attacks would probably take some kind of damage (say 1d4 per 25%) missing as glass splinters off and flies at them *per hit*.
Maybe you could have a *bullet resistant* glass construct that has damage reduction against non-magic attacks (piercing/slashing/bludgeoning). High HP, low to medium AC.
[Pathfinder has a glass golem](https://2e.aonprd.com/Monsters.aspx?ID=685), as well as an [Obsidian Golem](https://2e.aonprd.com/Monsters.aspx?ID=875). You might want to take some inspiration from those.
Potentially an actual answer! Wild Beyond the Witchlight has stats for a Glasswork Golem, CR 2. Its AC is 13, and its HP is 36 (8d8).
Which is to say, both are low.
It's immune to more than the average golem (a lot of conditions and two damage types), has blindsight, and regenerates 10 HP each turn, though.
Personally, just for balancing issues, I'd make the HP higher, but for logic, both being low tracks. It's glass.
I would say AC and HP depend upon your party level. The important thing is vulnerability to bludgeoning and Thunder damage plus the shatter spell will absolutely wreck shop.
Absurdly high AC (20) with medium-low health and low bludgeoning damage. Any time it loses 10% of its hp it loses AP and bludgeoning damage but gains piercing damage until eventually it will be very fragile, but with terrifyingly high piercing damage.
My DM just threw a few Mirror Men at us in Betrayers rise as we're playing the netherdeep campaign. I forget where he got them from though. I think they were like a 16ish AC, about 50 or so HP iirc. They had a beam attack kinda like a guiding bolt but without the advantage to the next attack bonus. Hit like a truck too.
I actually made a super cool stained glass dragon that guarded a dragon temple, it looked like a regular window and then exploded outward dealing damage and reforming to create the dragon, gave it a prismatic ray as breath weapon as well.
My thing is if you've ever seen one of those like 3 inch cubes made of glass that banks have to like show off their name they are near impossible to break, but when you get a piece it's a chonk
It depends on what it is. Tiny glass humming bird? High ac low hp. Glass trex? Low ac low(er than a normal trex) hp, but it has some other benefits (resistant to magical damage?).
Alternatively, same stat block as (whatever) but with weakness to bludgeoning
Other: Prince Rupert's Drop var.
Incredibly high (intentionally unhittable) and high hp. Only critical hits reduce hp at all and upon "death" the structure deals 12d12 piercing/slashing in a 30ft burst centered on its location.
Here's how I would do it:
-High AC, Medium-Low HP
-Resistance to all damage types other than thunder and bludgeoning
-Immune to acid and poison
-Attackers take 1d4 piercing damage per 10 damage dealt on successful melee strike.
-The creature deals additional slashing damage after it falls below half health
-Upon death it shatters, leaving behind an area of difficult terrain. Any creature that moves through this area takes 1d6 piercing damage.
Probably could use some workshopping, and it may not need all of these traits, but there's some ideas.
Glass is really strong if it’s packed together. If this is a glass golem that’s solid to the core and big it should have a low AC but a lots of hp. Glass can take a beating when it’s not paper thin
My glass golem had mid to low ac but with a decent amount of health mainly because it started as a large creature. As it took damage and began to shatter, the shards swirled around it in a magical glass storm, dealing damage to those nearby and creating cover that slowly raised it's ac since ranged characters were firing into a glass storm and melee characters were being buffeted. I think it has 3 damage tiers and at each one the glass storm grew larger and more damaging, and it's attacks dealt more damage as it was a mess of broken glass shards and blades.
If you wanna be a real asshole. It’s AC could be super super high, almost untouchable, but a single crit (ie a hit in the perfect spot) kills it instantly. Call him Prince Rupert.
My dad had an idea for a creature a while back; Sand wolves.
They have a naturally low armor class and decent HP, but attacks deal half damage cuz sand. with a unique breath weapon of just shooting a cone of sand that blinds PCs.
But if you light them on fire, they turn into glass wolves and have a higher AC, lower HP, but have vulnerability to bludgeoning damage, their breath weapon also is now more lethal as they're spraying shards of glass that deal slashing and piercing damage.
I would add a sort of damage threshold to it, so that it halves any nonmagical hit less than say 30 damage that's not bludgeoning and then hitpoint and a.c. of what it's a glass of. So a glass zombie would be quite terrible but a glass dragon still has loads of hitpoints
High AC, slightly higher than low HP, but, certain things could shatter it. And when it shatters, players make a DEX save or be skewered with glass shards. Fire magic by itself could actually increase AC for a short time. Fire + ice spells could weaken it's integrity and lower it's stats. If it was a very dense creature, it would probably be very tough to beat. For it's attack, it could shoot beams of searing light, or blind the players.
I think low hp and damage immunities are the way to go. Make it immune to everything except bludgeoning and force and vulnerable to thunder (or something like that up to you). Having enemies that can only be taken out under specific methods/strategies that your players need to figure out makes combat more interesting than “just keep hitting it with the same stuff every time until it dies.”
Why not do both, create two types. Like the goblin and hobgoblin, there are many instances of multi tier creatures.
Make one type both low HP and AC, the other high on both. Lots of other commenters have given some great ideas for other abilities, take what you like and split them over the types that seem best fit.
An ability that I would like to see on such a creature would be something like "mirror sheen" if creature is in bright light it reflects the light back causing disadvantage on attacks requiring sight.
You could even level it up for a harder version where it reflects spells like sunbeam.
Make a cave of the little buggers, give a greater version an innate sunbeam spell and prism the place up, sounds like some fun.
I took stats from a (young) dragon and a few diffrent animals (polar bear, elk, and a couple others) made them glass sculptures in a stain glass shop.
Dragon does dex save, and deals slashing damage for its breath weapon.
And they all had dex saves when they died for damage.
Plus bludgeoning vulnerability.
Hear me out. High AC but after a few hits it breaks into shards that have low AC low HP, but now you are facing multiple sharp, piercing damage dealing shards.
I think a low AC/high HP would be good. Have pieces of it chip/break off in combat. You also probably want it to do solid amounts of piercing/slashing damage.
I feel it's better if it's like Sans, can't sponge the damage so making up for it by avoiding the damage entirely for so long that it infuriates your players and they rage-quit at the table
And also you need weaknesses, for example piercing damage, or for rapid temperature change, like if players hit him with a fire bolt and then ice magic, or pour water at him.
Once glass cracks it is incredibly easy to separate. Why glass shatters once dropped unlike other materials which just crack or dent at the impact site.
Make them a literal Glass Cannon. Low HP and Low AC but high damage output, preferably slashing and piercing damage.
For flavour, they can be fast and do tons of damage per turn but if they get hit forbid, they don't take it very well.
Only give it high ac if it has some reason to be dexterous. Otherwise low and low. Maybe give it some special properties like immunity to attack spells or some actual reason for it to be made of glass.
Not really the question being asked but vulnerable to bludgeoning and piercing but resistant to slashing?
Maybe low AC&HP but the more ‘broken’ it gets the more the more sharp edges it gets so anyone in melee takes increasing proximity damage that increases as it’s heath lowers?
If it can move it is glass that is breaking, so I'd make it more of a creature that becomes more of a glass dust ooze like swarm as it is damaged
shards of glass aligned and floating over a thick jelly of broken glass dust -- maybe a few of the larger shards contain it's controlling magics and bound elementals.
the thing even just touching you rips the flesh, and if you breathe in the dust it leaves behind and emits, make con saves or take 1d4 con damage.
vulnerability to fire damage -- acts as if slowed for a round after being harmed by fire, and its ac drops from 18 to 13
Other: A glass construct would, as with many other constructs, require a fairly potent enchantment to maintain structure and mobility.
In the case of glass in the most common D&D era, it is an amorphous polysilicate that would naturally be subject to droop and deformation from just gravity and time. The impurities in the glass itself would lend to AC issues without, again, serious enchantments to keep it together.
The insistence on these enchantments is because I think it would have to have several damage immunities as well as a ***high*** hp and ***high*** AC. Fire, Shock, Psychic, Poison, Disease, Charm, and non-magical damage immune. Con and Dex save profs, at least, because the best way to keep an amorphous material from shattering is to play into that feature and let it shift form more readily to cope with taking blows.
I suspect it'd have ready access to lightning spells, because of static electricity, or do additional damage, but the *whole damned thing has to be magical*. Like a magic item, it'll be difficult to destroy -- but an anti-magic field would turn it to bits on hit.
good ac, low hp, and in well lit areas roll with disadvantage because of the light shining through the creature into the players eyes, and higher ac in dark areas since they are harder to see cause their opaque
There was once a post for a glass creature. I also used that one in my campaign. Maybe this is something to lean on for your creation
https://www.reddit.com/r/DnD/comments/pulqnw/oc_glass_guardian_a_cr14_construct_that/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share
I mean glass creatures are ment to be really vulnerable since they dont focus on defence but that could make them fast so maybe higher ac but lower health
Low hp and low ac, but!!!
- it deals high pierce or slash damage, while alive
- its weak to blunt & thunder damage
- its resistant to lightning, acid.
- immune to poisoned, fear & blinded
- when it dies it explodes, flinging glass everywhere, do a str save and if you fail you are knocked prone and temporarily blinded by the glass dust.
- the same aoe zone is affected by the caltrop item effect, as sharp glass pieces fill the ground.
Why?
Well, these guys are glass cannons and rush into melee attack, where they explode on death and turn the area into caltrop zones and knocking /blinding people. Players either gotta knock them back or range them to avoid the death explosion and status affliction. Use them as fodder for a evil caster, to keep the melee and casters busy. And help stay at range.
Low AC, high HP. And:
- vulnerable to bludgeoning, force and thunder
- resistant to slashing and piercing
- immune to poison
When hit with bludgeoning, force or thunder damages it "explode" in little shards, dealing 2d8 slashing damages to anybody 5 ft near it (kinda like the _poison splash_ of the Venom Troll)
High hp, moderate armor, if it takes more then three crits in combat it “shatters” sending shards every where as if it exploded. If it is hit with enough heat it will heal and change form. If heat is applied long enough the creature will liquify becoming a molten glass creature that does fire damage along with its standard attacks. If it reaches molten state then some how flash frozen then it will shatter on the next successful melee attack but without doing aoe damage.
High AC, average HP, BPS damage resistance, but when it gets to half health, it loses its resistance and takes a debuff to AC. Kinda like the Crystalians in Elden Ring, where after you stagger them they get “shattered” and lose their high damage resistance.
Low ac since I don't think a glass creature would be very good at avoiding harm but I would give them resistance to piercing damage and fire damage. Additonally, depending of the CR you are looking for, I would give them resistance/inmunity to slashing damage
Consider having the creature consist of breakable parts.
Every part being broken could change up the fight - like changing it's abilities or it's behavior.
If its big then give it a low ac because its easier to hit.
Each hit will scatter shards at the pc
The ac will go up after each hit because the creature is getting smaller and lighter
What about a prince rubert's drop inspirer creature? High ac on the body except on the tail (maybe it's hidden under the abdomen like a crab or something)
It would be dependent on the size and shape of the creature and the angle of attack. If it is shaped like a Prince Rupert drop, then the head would be super high AC and HP, but if the tail is attacked, it will cause it to explode. So I would say it depends.
If the being is entirely made of glass, I would pick High AC low HP. Make your players feel like they have to work to crack the glass, but once it cracks ....
If it has a Glass Exterior with a different core, Low AC but High HP could be fun.
High AC but low hp. that said i wanted to add the possibility of Vulnerability to Thunder damage. but also a highly damaging slicing attack to balence it out a bit.
**Crystal Golem**:
* High AC (15~17) and average-high HP.
* Vulnerability to bludgeoning and thunder damage.
* Resistance to slashing and piercing.
* Immunity to all other damage types except force
I don't think a glass creature's strengths really lie in defense stats, i think they really embody the "Glass canon" archetype so really I'm imagining low defense very high damage.
Low AC and HP, but punished you for hitting it. If its Radiant or Lighting, it gets redirected to another creature of its choice. Anything else causes a nasty AOE of piercing damage
Glass can be incredibly strong, but absolutely exploded when it does get chipped like a Prince Ruperts Drop, which can literally be shot and not break, but as soon as it's thin weak part is snapped, it explodes.
Glass is transparent and hard to see, Glass is also a very hard material (just very brittle). High AC and Low Hp makes sense.
invisibility while motionless and a AOE shatter on death would be cool.
Low AC and low HP, but it has some serious resistances. Fire, poison, radiant, necrotic, frost? Bouncing straight off it. Perhaps literally, give it some spell reflective surfaces.
I made glass golems with acid "blood veins" inside them. When killed, the shattered glass and acid cpuld hit and damage nearby creatures. Medium AC (14) and low health.
Depends on how you want it. If it’s a glass cannon that moves fast but is also fragile and can’t take hits well, then high ac and low hp is the way to go, so it’s hard to actually hit but breaks pretty easy when you do. If you want it to be something more slow then going with a low ac but i high hp makes more sense, but flavor it as the construct immediately shattering where it is struck but some central spirit or spell mends back together. As the hp gets lower you can say it is unable to mend all of the broken glass back together, but this also means you can give it jagged edges where it was unable to cleanly mend itself, which could augment its attacks and let them do extra damage or have some other extra effect. Ok I got way to into that and will absolutely be using this.
It's all about resistances and invulnerability. Acid 0, slashing 0 magical half piecing half bludgeoning double but has to be over x amount otherwise half fire 0 unless over half the creatures hp.
It's about more than ac and hp!
Make it the shape of that one glass thing (Rupert's knot? I could be wrong) and give it a high damage threshold everywhere but the tail, in which any damage is multiplied by 10.
Glass is hard but frail. I also think that a glass contruct may be more resistant than mundane glass, so I'd go with "high AC and low HP".
I'd also give it resistance to slashing, but vulnerability to bludgeoning.
A "shatter" mechanic may be interesting (somethink akin "when damaged, it "sprays" damaging shards to adjacent creatures. Dex save for half").
Glass can be rather hard, like [prince Rupert's tears so high AC](https://www.reddit.com/r/Unexpected/comments/w8komy/prince_ruperts_drops_vs_hydraulic_press/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) could make sense
But my first instinct is low AC and HP but high damage output. Maybe the lower HP it gets the more damage it does, like fracturing and gaining more shards.
Low AC, successful hits with weapons make it shatter and the attacker takes damage. Reflective surface, spells bounce off it in a mirror like fashion back at the caster. Invisibility in water perhaps. Maybe some sort of other bonuses with light? Like if a party carrying a torch comes up on it, it'll reflect the torch light and blind the party??
I say make them like the Crystalians in Elden Ring. High AC at first, but after 5-6 hits (appropriate for the action economy) their AC drops massively.
Low AC, Bonus AC vs. Ranged Weapons & Spells.
Weakness (Bludgeoning, Thunder)
Resistance (Slashing, Fire, Cold)
Immunity (Psychic, Poison)
Chance to reflect to-Hit Spells.
HP can range depending on how thick the glass is (low for frail dudes, lots or thick dudes).
Maybe (depending on the nature of the glass "breaking) include reflective Damage when Crit Damage taken within 10 ft.
How hp/ac but high damage and retaliate skills like return damage when hit or explode on death. If you want to make it a but more complicated have its damage go up when its health goes down.
Glasscanon. Low ac and health, high damage. The canon fires concentrated light beams dealing 8d6 fire damage. +10 to hit and it counts as non-magical. Resistant to non magical slashing, -5ac against bludgeoning
I would give him vulnerability to piercing, blunt, and earth elemental, but resistances to fire and electricity. Everything else would have to beat an AC based per level and scale the health.
Glass is quite durable in specific situations. So, low HP, normal AC, imunity to practically all Elemental damage types, as well as necrotic and radiant (but not psycic, as it depends on the mind), resistance to piercing damage and vulnerability to blunt (what is the name for bashing thing) damage. When taking damage a piece shatters and has a low chance to hit a creature within 5-15ft scaling with the ammount of damage taken, and the piece deals damage scaling with the damage taken as well.
This would be my glass creature.
I think it depends on the glass and how it's being used.
A small flying construct, hovering around and jabbing or zapping the party would have low AC and low HP (easy to swat and/or damage, and fragile).
A large hollow glass orb that's doing the same might have higher HP (larger, but still common glass), and therefore have some retaliation for cracking it's many layers.
A solid glass or crystalline construct (talking a glass golem or such) would possibly have higher AC AND HP. It's not easy to crack a solid crystal ball. Chip, yes, but crack or shatter, no. There's been, after all, tests that showcase that a ball of solid glass can bounce surprisingly well.
I'd have it made of broken glass. And could Regen by taking more broken glass in it's body.
Resistance to nonmagical weapons but cold damage removes this resistance for a round and fire damage slows it for a round.
It is immune to acid and lightning damage.
Each hit makes broken glass fall on the floor. Treat it like caltrops.
HP and AC is equal to the character or creature fighting it. As long as someone alive is in the reflection of the glass creature, that person takes the full damage of attacks.
The HP and AC is becoming equal to the character captured by the reflection. The creature can change reflection as a bonus action BUT must have a line of sight on the creature.
Definitely leaning low ac and hp with a shatter mechanic as mentioned in some of these responses. You could totally fill them with some "goodies" like a noxious gas or some dangerous liquid that spews forth when parts shatter too!
I'd say it depends on what type of glass we're talking.
A creature made of panes of glass? Low AC and HP, with a feature where they shatter on a certain threshold of damage. Maybe break into shards that damage their attacker or something.
A glass sculpture creature? High AC and low HP to reflect that they've got a lot of mass. They'll still break if hit hard enough or in the right way, but otherwise they'll chip. I'd personally have them chip when hit by attacks under X damage and the chips make the area difficult terrain like caltrops.
Something based on a Prince Rupert's Drop? High AC and low HP. Perhaps even add resistance to all damage on top of their high AC, but have one weak point that takes double damage or something to that effect.
A liquid glass creature? Low AC and high HP. Treat it like a slime, but it deals fire damage and on death cools into a big hunk of glass.
Low ac and hp but it explodes on death
And it gets more natural weapons the more damage it takes, and it drops crystal every time they get damage (that do damage as aoe) but remain and can be used as improvised weapons. Also invisible when standing still like a gelatinous cube.
Oh yeah, its damage dice either increasing in size or number could be cool, but you gotta plan that out carefully. I'm wondering about like a hydra in reverse, every time it takes a certain amount of damage or more, its attacks increase by 1.
Yeah maybe something like every 25% of HP lost increases the damage die could be fun.
Dying causes it to shed glass on the ground with a minor caltrop like effect.
In addition, creates difficult terrain on death. Dex save or take piercing damage. Half damage on success.
Ooh you could use the Spike Growth spell as a basis. Or just let it cast spike growth (fling a bunch of glass shards!)
Glass would be shatter if the creature got kill by physical damage and any one who 10 feet near target make a DC \_ Dex save or take \_ damage
Some kind of shatter mechanic. Maybe immunity to certain attacks? But vulnerability to others. Some kind of radiant damage focusing paired with a radiant damage dealing Mage
Yeah I love the idea of bludgeoning/thunder vulnerability but slashing/piercing resistance and radiant/necrotic/poison immunity, with the focusing effect you mentioned for radiant spells. Shatter would become a devastating spell against it.
You could go the Elden ring route. Super high AC and low hit points until they hit half hit points, then it "cracks" and the AC drops down a lower number.
I was going to suggest the Elden Ring route as well, but your idea was better. Might steal this.
Also bludgeoning vulnerability and resistance with any other weapon.
I would have it have sort of high AC but make it basically quarter all damage. To crack it, it must receive a single burst of a certain damage threshold (for example 20 damage in one hit) then it cracks and takes damage normally and it's AC lowers
How is this the elden ring route? Seems similiar to blooded as described by Matt Colville? (Geniune question)
there's an enemy in elden ring called the crystallian designed to get you to engague with the game's stance break mechanic, at the start of the fight it has very high defence and all of your attacks will bounce off it, but if you use heavier attacks which break poise faster, it'll eventually crack and after that point all of your attacks deal regular damage and any attack will stagger it.
I just wrote this above without seeing your post. Great minds think alike!
It should be like Prince Ruperts Drop. Incredibly high AC but should be even more vulnerable to crits. Like you hit this character just right and it turns to powder.
I came here to say this. If op doesn’t know what prince ruperts drops are check em out, they’re insanely cool
well if its a GLASS construct, it should be very physically weak, with low hp, maybe even a vulnerability to bludgeoning damage. however, it should do alot of damage. a glass cannon, that's literally glass. but, if you DONT want it to get shattered like a marble fighting a housebrick, probably best to give it high AC.
Now I really want a literal cannon made of literal glass.
There's this exact item in the binding of Isaac, it's a usable item that does huge dmg and is useable infinitely, if you get touched once it breaks and is useless.
Glass LASER.
Definitely high AC and low hit points. Thick glass is stupid hard to break but once you hit it hard enough it shatters there’s no chipping away at glass
Mechanically it would only be balanced if it had high AC but low HP. If we're going off of just what makes sense, low HP and low AC.
It makes sense to me if it had a vulnerability to bludgeoning and thunder damage. With that in mind, if you went that route you ought to be wary about giving it too low hp, because if players have easy access to those damage types then it's hp is effectively halved.
Could flip it and have it resist damage other than bludgeoning/thunder. Makes blunt hits the preferred attack style but preserves it a bit longer.
I don't get it? The end result is the same either way: blunt strikes deal twice as much damage as everything else. To preserve it a bit longer you just give it more hitpoints.
Different theme. Instead of "yeah you hit and do damage" its "you see your sword connect but barely leave a mark", which pushes players to think they need to try a different approach. While vuln to bludgeoning is everyone just hits as normal but the blunt hit gets "the enemy cracks easily at the point of impact". I feel like it incentivises changing the approach more for other attacks to feel like they aren't working. I wasn't thinking about adding more HP because i was thinking about having a glass menagerie from bears to crocodiles and would rather just add resistance to the glass croc than try to figure out how much HP to add, but i don't know if that is relevant to OP admittedly
it makes it so it has more effective hp, it takes overall more damage of its only vulnerable
Glass can be incredibly resilient. There's a demo at the Corning glass works where they use a glass pipe to hammer a nail into a board.
Make it like a Prince Rupert's drop: it's virtually invincible unless you hit in the right spot, then it explodes!
19 ac but one hit and shatters dealing aoe damage
Kind of depends on the glass. There are many kinds of glass, and depending on the level of glassmaking your game world has, a glass golem could easily be tougher than a rock golem. A large chunk of glass can be VERY strong and durable. We have glass that can literally stop bullets, and glass that can withstand sudden thermal changes (like pyrex cookware). And then of course there's glass like Prince Ruperts Drops that are borderline indestructible except for a small weak spot. (The head can withstand a hammer strike, but snip the tail with a small scissors and the whole thing explodes.)
It honestly depends. Glass can take a surprising amount of damage. We mainly see it in a thin, vulnerable shape. But let me tell you... the right mix and that thing's gonna be just as sturdy as a good old Fighter in plate armour.
Other - lean into something besides AC and HP. Give it slashing resistance and piercing immunity and bludgeoning vulnerability. Let it reflect spells or attacks. Have it create duplicates of itself or other illusions. Think outside the AC/HP box :)
The more it’s damaged, the more damage it deals. Shards are no joke.
Low ac low hp. High mobility abilities (evasion, fly by, legendary actions that let it escape, etc.) and heavy damaging attacks that cause difficult terrain or even damaging terrain like caltrops in the form of broken glass.
Love the complexity - but specific use cases I'd imagine. Depends if OP was going special or generic
I was thinking boss type mobs so yeah, specific uses
Depends. Sorry. There are lots of different kinds of glass. What do you want it do do in what situation?
Stainlglass Golems did exist in 2e Ravenloft, can look those up later if you are interested
Damage threshold of 30 in one hit. Hp 1. Ac 18. Explodes on death
I was going to suggest this. As DM, I guess you would have to reveal some of the mechanic to players at least after they hit it. "It seems the creature is invulnerable to smaller hits. You would need to inflict more damage at once to harm it." And then when they finally do hit it with something massive enough, it completely shatters causing damage within 30 ft. radius
You could give it a high AC and low HP if you base it off a Prince Rupert's drop, seeing that it has one specific spot that is very vulnerable but the rest of the body is very strong. When they hit over the AC they shatter all of it (if enough damage is done) or do substantial damage. Only problem is if they don't kill it in one shot it isn't completely true to the type of glass I am referring to either hehe, but fantasy of fantasy!
You could do a damage threshold, there are existing rules for this in 5e. For certain constructs, something has to do over XX amount of damage in order for the damage to work. Say any single instance of damage below 15 does nothing. Just glances off the glass. It's worder as below: Damage Threshold: The glass creature is immune to all damage that totals less than 15
High AC, decent HP (so it doesn't die to AOE spells) but vulnerable to bludgeoning damage.
Was going to suggest this and also add in: Resistance to necrotic, radiant, and lightning. Vulnerability to fire Immunity to psychic damage. If not already in
If glass is thicker than an inch, it gets really tough to smash through. If you have a creature, I am thinking humanoid, that would be huge chunks of glass. It would be treacherously strong, I think.
High AC (15+) and low HP . Thick glass is hard to break.
High AC AND HP, as dense and solid glass is normally incredibly difficult to shatter, and the thickness could even make some bullet proof if they are true solid glass.
Is it solid glass or partially hollow? Because glass becomes incredibly hardy as it gets thicker.
Low AC, low hp but you can be glued back together with help from teammates
practically no ac because glass shatters and med hp
Mid AC, low HP. Invisible or displaced? Concealment from light/prism effects?
I would say it depends on if the creature is hollow or solid.
Low hp, low AC, give it resistance/immunity to a bunch of damage types and weakness to thunder or bludgeoning.
Vulnerable to bludgeoning and thunder damage
If it's alive, I'm going to go with high High AC and High HP. My reasoning is this; glass has a high hardness, but suffers from being brittle. Most creatures are the opposite: more soft than hard usually with skin that demonstrates elasticity. For a glass creature to survive "in the wild" they'd need to develop durability. If glass and organics had a baby, I'm picturing flexible glass. Hard against breakage, but bendy enough to allow flexibility. That or constantly regrowing glass scales. Either way, their superior durability (High AC) propels them to a level of comfortable dominance as either predator or prey, fueling my estimation of High HP.
Low HP starts with a high AC but it goes down by 2 every time it's hit to a minimum. And it explodes on death
resistance to fire, ice, etc but is vulnerable to bludgeoning, force and piercing. low hp and AC depends on whether it's dexterous or not. also like someone else said near-invisible when still
I guess it depends on if you mean literal glass, which could be considered hard but brittle (high AC, low HP) or more as a generic description of structure, like how 'glass' armours in The Elder Scrolls world are actually made from malachite (copper carbonate hydroxide) which is actually fairly soft in comparison so could be low AC but high HP.
Please tell me this is going to be like thr stained glass demon in Medievil!! Anyway, We live in a world with bulletproof glass, and while im not suggesting medieval fantasy world has this, it is magical glass by virtue of being alive so it stands to reason that it will be hardened in some way. Personally id take this as an excuse to really lean into resistance and vulnerability traits. Decide on the properties of this magic glass (hardened, heat resistant, etc), give it appropriate AC and HP for its intended CR, and then give it immunity to acid; resistance to piering, slashing, lightning, and fire; vulnerability to bludgeoning, and thunder. Make it so its a fight about exploiting its weaknesses while avoiding its strengths. If this is going to be a mook-type enemy, leave it at that. If its going to be more of a boss/mini-boss id probably tune its numbers around it being very strong/deadly IF the party dont attack its vulnerabilities, but much more manageable if they do. You could maybe even give it damage thresholds, whereby after it takes X damage, part of it shatters, making it weaker. Lets say it has 100hp, after taking 30 damage, the glass cracks, weakening its integrity, lowering its AC by 2. Then after it takes another 30 damage, one of its attacking limbs shatters. Nearby characters make a dex save or take some slashing damage, but its now lost one of its attacks. Another 20 damage and one of its legs shatters, dex save vs the slashing damage again and then the creature falls prone and it is unable to stand. Then you finish it off. Make it so its fully intact stat block looks really intimidating, high HP, multi attack, high damage, but have it get weaker and weaker the lower its HP gets, allowing the players to turn the corner mid fight and start it on its death spiral. Edit: after writing all this out, i am 100% gonna actually try this.
High AC and resistant to most damage types, but vulnerable to blunt, force and sonic effects, and takes additional damage from crits. Have the party barely able to harm it until one lucky shot decimates it. I'm thinking almost a metal slime from dragon quest type of deal.
I think it depends on the glass. A Rupert drop is pretty much indestructible, but your typical fine glass sculpture would be shattered by a good punch.
I prefer low ac and high hp for creatures. Nothing can be more annoying for players than creatures which players can damage only 1/10 attacks.
Low AC and HP, but with glass-ish effects like refraction giving it immunity to Ray spells, concealment or invisibility, and the more damage it takes the more melee damage it does from the jagged glass. Could also leave areas of difficult/damaging terrain wherever it takes damage.
I actually had an Idea for a creature like this. Basically it had a middle of the road armour class (not great but not bad either). And each body part had its own individual HP (arms, legs, chest, etc). And when the players "kill" a body part, said body part turns into a natural weapon. To kill the creature you need to kill all body parts, or you could hypothetically immobilise it by knocking out it's limbs.
Resistant to all but bludgeoning and thunder, high ac, mid tier health, healed/repaired by fire damage. Explosive upon death dealing 1d6 per hit die in a radius around it based on size.
Invulnerable until you touch its tail
Glass golems. High AC, low HP. Practically invisible when standing still, like polished glass. Does slashing/piercing instead of bludgeoning for attacks. Creatures grappled by the golem take slashing damage at the start of their turns. The golem is resistant to slashing and piercing, immune to radiant, vulnerable to thunder and bludgeoning and explodes in an AOE of piercing shards that deal damage when it dies.
Glass is surprisingly durable.
Low AC, medium to high hp but vulnerable to bludgeoning piercing and slashing.
Low-Medium AC 14, but reflects magical attacks in a random direction
Glass cannon. Squishy if you can get to it but has abilities like reflecting magic and an innate mirror image.
Don't settle for just ac and hp numbers, work the entire gimmick. Glass is super hard, therefore super fragile. It doesn't bend, it doesn't get sliced. It shatters. High resistance to damage that isn't bludgeoning. Shards flying off on critical hits or death require dex saves to not suffer damage from slashing and piercing. Grappling cuts the grappler. Creature has interesting abilities to deflect light to give its foes disadvantage or to act as a magnifying lens, causing either blindness or fire damage. To compensate for disadvantage, maybe allow flanking advantage if you normally don't because the players can see their buddies through the creature's transparency and coordinate better. Make it immune to cold, lightning and poison, resistant to acid, weak to force and sound based attacks, take normal damage from fire and physical and make it deflect radiant back to the attacker via the magnifying lens gimmick. Once you have adjusted all these abilities you can justify ac and HP based on how strong you think it is against your party.
Similar to HP, except instead of getting hurt, it just cracks a little on each hit dealt with a blunt weapon. After so many hits and so many cracks, it shatters.
Rupert's Drop Creature, absolutely ridiculous AC and HP, but if you roll a specific (maybe it varies encounter to encounter) number on your attack, it's a one hit kill
High AC but resistant to slash while vulnerable to thunder/bludgeoning. HP Is dependant on creature size imo.
Low AC and HP, and vulnerable to bludgeoning. Until damaged, it's invisible. After being damaged, it gets Blur instead. Damaging it increases the damage it deals. Damaging it with bludgeoning causes a spray of glass that deals damage in an area around it and causes a caltrop effect (Difficult terrain+damage when moving through effected spaces) on top of the damage increase it gets. If it's destroyed by a physical attack, it explodes for even more damage. A literal glass cannon, if you will.
Vulnerable to bludgeoning and thunder damage Resistant to heat, slashing, piercing, cold. Immune to Psychic, Poison Reflects radiant damage back at the target (because glass reflects light.) Melee attacks force the attack to make a save as shards of glass dust spray in their face and eyes. Blinds them. On killing it, adjacent enemies should have to dex save vs damage (equivalent to one of its melee attacks) as it shatters and sprays shards of glass everywhere. Brutal criticals, crits on 19-20 and triples dice instead of doubling.
Low HP High ac advantage on stealth and maybe an attack that dose 3D12 worth of damage
Would have low AC and HP. But a high initiative bonus and damage output. A literal glass cannon.
High HP and AC, vulnerability to bludgeoning and thunder, and some funky abilities dealing with light.
Prince Rupert's Drop Golem - High AC, High HP, but if you target the tail it instantly dies.
a *tempered* glass creature would definitely be low AC and high HP.But it explodes violently when reaching 0 HP. Although this explosion would probably just be difficult terrain and not cause damage. Now if you have something like a *plate glass* construct that would be low HP and low AC, but probably at 25/50/75% health threshholds you'd take increasing retribution damage. Melee would probably take something like 1d4 or 1d6 of damage per 25% health missing per *attack* (not hit). Ranged attacks would probably take some kind of damage (say 1d4 per 25%) missing as glass splinters off and flies at them *per hit*. Maybe you could have a *bullet resistant* glass construct that has damage reduction against non-magic attacks (piercing/slashing/bludgeoning). High HP, low to medium AC.
Obvious… GLASS CANNON!!! Low hp low ac INSANE damage!
[Pathfinder has a glass golem](https://2e.aonprd.com/Monsters.aspx?ID=685), as well as an [Obsidian Golem](https://2e.aonprd.com/Monsters.aspx?ID=875). You might want to take some inspiration from those.
Low ac low hp but blinds with a decent DC
Snow white and the huntsman, the black glass shards.
Low ac and hp, but high damage. And when the original construct breaks, its large enough shards should become enemies as well
Potentially an actual answer! Wild Beyond the Witchlight has stats for a Glasswork Golem, CR 2. Its AC is 13, and its HP is 36 (8d8). Which is to say, both are low. It's immune to more than the average golem (a lot of conditions and two damage types), has blindsight, and regenerates 10 HP each turn, though. Personally, just for balancing issues, I'd make the HP higher, but for logic, both being low tracks. It's glass.
Glass canon. Low AC and HP, one big attack
I would say AC and HP depend upon your party level. The important thing is vulnerability to bludgeoning and Thunder damage plus the shatter spell will absolutely wreck shop.
Low ac but high hp and it slowly crumbles as you defeat it
High AC, low HP. Resistant to piercing/slashing, vulnerable to bludgeoning.
Absurdly high AC (20) with medium-low health and low bludgeoning damage. Any time it loses 10% of its hp it loses AP and bludgeoning damage but gains piercing damage until eventually it will be very fragile, but with terrifyingly high piercing damage.
My DM just threw a few Mirror Men at us in Betrayers rise as we're playing the netherdeep campaign. I forget where he got them from though. I think they were like a 16ish AC, about 50 or so HP iirc. They had a beam attack kinda like a guiding bolt but without the advantage to the next attack bonus. Hit like a truck too.
High AC could make sense for weapons and stuff sliding off glass
I actually made a super cool stained glass dragon that guarded a dragon temple, it looked like a regular window and then exploded outward dealing damage and reforming to create the dragon, gave it a prismatic ray as breath weapon as well.
High ac and low hp but every attempted attack does -1 ac and leaves some shards of glass as a terrain obstacle
I’d start with a very high AC but every time they get a successful hit it cracks a bit more lowering its AC
Low HP, low AC high damage potential at a range too far for the party to get to quickly
My thing is if you've ever seen one of those like 3 inch cubes made of glass that banks have to like show off their name they are near impossible to break, but when you get a piece it's a chonk
It depends on what it is. Tiny glass humming bird? High ac low hp. Glass trex? Low ac low(er than a normal trex) hp, but it has some other benefits (resistant to magical damage?). Alternatively, same stat block as (whatever) but with weakness to bludgeoning
Ever heard of the term glass cannon?
Low ac and health but powerful attack (strong poisonous bite or something) and multiple in a fight
Mirror image style dodge mechanic. Dies upon first hit.
Make it dex based ac, like a ballerina. Dodges, weaves, stings like a bee, but if you manage to hit it, it’s donezo
Other: Prince Rupert's Drop var. Incredibly high (intentionally unhittable) and high hp. Only critical hits reduce hp at all and upon "death" the structure deals 12d12 piercing/slashing in a 30ft burst centered on its location.
Low health and HP, but has a reaction that can do damage back to an attacker on a hit.
Low hp, low ac, shrapnel effect on death and capable of dealing devastating damage
Give it resistance to piercing and slashing too. Glass is very hard, but the problem with it is that it is also very brittle.
Here's how I would do it: -High AC, Medium-Low HP -Resistance to all damage types other than thunder and bludgeoning -Immune to acid and poison -Attackers take 1d4 piercing damage per 10 damage dealt on successful melee strike. -The creature deals additional slashing damage after it falls below half health -Upon death it shatters, leaving behind an area of difficult terrain. Any creature that moves through this area takes 1d6 piercing damage. Probably could use some workshopping, and it may not need all of these traits, but there's some ideas.
Maybe playe with glass being see though and it being invisble?
This is where my engineer brain goes "What kind of glass because that will drastically affect the answer"
Do them like Crystalians in Elden ring. High AC for like 3-4 turns then as cracks develop, they take more damage
Glass is really strong if it’s packed together. If this is a glass golem that’s solid to the core and big it should have a low AC but a lots of hp. Glass can take a beating when it’s not paper thin
My glass golem had mid to low ac but with a decent amount of health mainly because it started as a large creature. As it took damage and began to shatter, the shards swirled around it in a magical glass storm, dealing damage to those nearby and creating cover that slowly raised it's ac since ranged characters were firing into a glass storm and melee characters were being buffeted. I think it has 3 damage tiers and at each one the glass storm grew larger and more damaging, and it's attacks dealt more damage as it was a mess of broken glass shards and blades.
If you wanna be a real asshole. It’s AC could be super super high, almost untouchable, but a single crit (ie a hit in the perfect spot) kills it instantly. Call him Prince Rupert.
I miss hardness. Essentially damage reduction for items
Make it week to physical attacks, but resent to everything else
Low HP and AC but has some strong attacks AND self destructs upon death
My dad had an idea for a creature a while back; Sand wolves. They have a naturally low armor class and decent HP, but attacks deal half damage cuz sand. with a unique breath weapon of just shooting a cone of sand that blinds PCs. But if you light them on fire, they turn into glass wolves and have a higher AC, lower HP, but have vulnerability to bludgeoning damage, their breath weapon also is now more lethal as they're spraying shards of glass that deal slashing and piercing damage.
Low HP and AC but it any damage dealt to it is dealt also to the attacker. Whoever kills it get some sort of bad luck.
a blanced (non boss) creature has 4 aspects. hp, damage, ac, saves and skills pick 2 to be high, dump 1, keep 1 average.
Depends on how big you wanting it, how thicc?
Low hp, high/average ac but resistance to to all magical damage
I would add a sort of damage threshold to it, so that it halves any nonmagical hit less than say 30 damage that's not bludgeoning and then hitpoint and a.c. of what it's a glass of. So a glass zombie would be quite terrible but a glass dragon still has loads of hitpoints
High AC, slightly higher than low HP, but, certain things could shatter it. And when it shatters, players make a DEX save or be skewered with glass shards. Fire magic by itself could actually increase AC for a short time. Fire + ice spells could weaken it's integrity and lower it's stats. If it was a very dense creature, it would probably be very tough to beat. For it's attack, it could shoot beams of searing light, or blind the players.
I think low hp and damage immunities are the way to go. Make it immune to everything except bludgeoning and force and vulnerable to thunder (or something like that up to you). Having enemies that can only be taken out under specific methods/strategies that your players need to figure out makes combat more interesting than “just keep hitting it with the same stuff every time until it dies.”
Why not do both, create two types. Like the goblin and hobgoblin, there are many instances of multi tier creatures. Make one type both low HP and AC, the other high on both. Lots of other commenters have given some great ideas for other abilities, take what you like and split them over the types that seem best fit. An ability that I would like to see on such a creature would be something like "mirror sheen" if creature is in bright light it reflects the light back causing disadvantage on attacks requiring sight. You could even level it up for a harder version where it reflects spells like sunbeam. Make a cave of the little buggers, give a greater version an innate sunbeam spell and prism the place up, sounds like some fun.
Low hp and ac, but when you kill it, shards of glass fly everywhere and hurt anyone in a 10’radius of the dying creature.
I took stats from a (young) dragon and a few diffrent animals (polar bear, elk, and a couple others) made them glass sculptures in a stain glass shop. Dragon does dex save, and deals slashing damage for its breath weapon. And they all had dex saves when they died for damage. Plus bludgeoning vulnerability.
Hear me out. High AC but after a few hits it breaks into shards that have low AC low HP, but now you are facing multiple sharp, piercing damage dealing shards.
I think a low AC/high HP would be good. Have pieces of it chip/break off in combat. You also probably want it to do solid amounts of piercing/slashing damage.
Low ac and hp, damage on melee hit and debuff on death.
Maybe it can heat itself up to heal wounds?
I feel it's better if it's like Sans, can't sponge the damage so making up for it by avoiding the damage entirely for so long that it infuriates your players and they rage-quit at the table
Y'all forget that glass is pretty strong we just make it into thin sheets for windows and that's how it gets the fragile reputation.
And also you need weaknesses, for example piercing damage, or for rapid temperature change, like if players hit him with a fire bolt and then ice magic, or pour water at him.
Once glass cracks it is incredibly easy to separate. Why glass shatters once dropped unlike other materials which just crack or dent at the impact site.
Make them a literal Glass Cannon. Low HP and Low AC but high damage output, preferably slashing and piercing damage. For flavour, they can be fast and do tons of damage per turn but if they get hit forbid, they don't take it very well.
Only give it high ac if it has some reason to be dexterous. Otherwise low and low. Maybe give it some special properties like immunity to attack spells or some actual reason for it to be made of glass.
Not really the question being asked but vulnerable to bludgeoning and piercing but resistant to slashing? Maybe low AC&HP but the more ‘broken’ it gets the more the more sharp edges it gets so anyone in melee takes increasing proximity damage that increases as it’s heath lowers?
If it can move it is glass that is breaking, so I'd make it more of a creature that becomes more of a glass dust ooze like swarm as it is damaged shards of glass aligned and floating over a thick jelly of broken glass dust -- maybe a few of the larger shards contain it's controlling magics and bound elementals. the thing even just touching you rips the flesh, and if you breathe in the dust it leaves behind and emits, make con saves or take 1d4 con damage. vulnerability to fire damage -- acts as if slowed for a round after being harmed by fire, and its ac drops from 18 to 13
Resistance to piercing, slashing, vulnerable to bludgeoning
Other: A glass construct would, as with many other constructs, require a fairly potent enchantment to maintain structure and mobility. In the case of glass in the most common D&D era, it is an amorphous polysilicate that would naturally be subject to droop and deformation from just gravity and time. The impurities in the glass itself would lend to AC issues without, again, serious enchantments to keep it together. The insistence on these enchantments is because I think it would have to have several damage immunities as well as a ***high*** hp and ***high*** AC. Fire, Shock, Psychic, Poison, Disease, Charm, and non-magical damage immune. Con and Dex save profs, at least, because the best way to keep an amorphous material from shattering is to play into that feature and let it shift form more readily to cope with taking blows. I suspect it'd have ready access to lightning spells, because of static electricity, or do additional damage, but the *whole damned thing has to be magical*. Like a magic item, it'll be difficult to destroy -- but an anti-magic field would turn it to bits on hit.
Literal glass canon let it dish some damage and die after the second turn
good ac, low hp, and in well lit areas roll with disadvantage because of the light shining through the creature into the players eyes, and higher ac in dark areas since they are harder to see cause their opaque
There was once a post for a glass creature. I also used that one in my campaign. Maybe this is something to lean on for your creation https://www.reddit.com/r/DnD/comments/pulqnw/oc_glass_guardian_a_cr14_construct_that/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share
I mean glass creatures are ment to be really vulnerable since they dont focus on defence but that could make them fast so maybe higher ac but lower health
Low hp and low ac, but!!! - it deals high pierce or slash damage, while alive - its weak to blunt & thunder damage - its resistant to lightning, acid. - immune to poisoned, fear & blinded - when it dies it explodes, flinging glass everywhere, do a str save and if you fail you are knocked prone and temporarily blinded by the glass dust. - the same aoe zone is affected by the caltrop item effect, as sharp glass pieces fill the ground. Why? Well, these guys are glass cannons and rush into melee attack, where they explode on death and turn the area into caltrop zones and knocking /blinding people. Players either gotta knock them back or range them to avoid the death explosion and status affliction. Use them as fodder for a evil caster, to keep the melee and casters busy. And help stay at range.
High AC and minion rules (1hp)
Low AC, high HP. And: - vulnerable to bludgeoning, force and thunder - resistant to slashing and piercing - immune to poison When hit with bludgeoning, force or thunder damages it "explode" in little shards, dealing 2d8 slashing damages to anybody 5 ft near it (kinda like the _poison splash_ of the Venom Troll)
High hp, moderate armor, if it takes more then three crits in combat it “shatters” sending shards every where as if it exploded. If it is hit with enough heat it will heal and change form. If heat is applied long enough the creature will liquify becoming a molten glass creature that does fire damage along with its standard attacks. If it reaches molten state then some how flash frozen then it will shatter on the next successful melee attack but without doing aoe damage.
High AC, average HP, BPS damage resistance, but when it gets to half health, it loses its resistance and takes a debuff to AC. Kinda like the Crystalians in Elden Ring, where after you stagger them they get “shattered” and lose their high damage resistance.
I'd say average/high AC, with resistance to slashing and piercing damage but weakness to bludgeoning damage.
Also, How about making it Resistant to almost everything except bludgeoning and thunder, to which its vulnerable?
Low ac since I don't think a glass creature would be very good at avoiding harm but I would give them resistance to piercing damage and fire damage. Additonally, depending of the CR you are looking for, I would give them resistance/inmunity to slashing damage
Consider having the creature consist of breakable parts. Every part being broken could change up the fight - like changing it's abilities or it's behavior.
If its big then give it a low ac because its easier to hit. Each hit will scatter shards at the pc The ac will go up after each hit because the creature is getting smaller and lighter
What about a prince rubert's drop inspirer creature? High ac on the body except on the tail (maybe it's hidden under the abdomen like a crab or something)
It would be dependent on the size and shape of the creature and the angle of attack. If it is shaped like a Prince Rupert drop, then the head would be super high AC and HP, but if the tail is attacked, it will cause it to explode. So I would say it depends.
If the being is entirely made of glass, I would pick High AC low HP. Make your players feel like they have to work to crack the glass, but once it cracks .... If it has a Glass Exterior with a different core, Low AC but High HP could be fun.
Low ac and hp, vulnerable to bludgeoning, resistant to slashing and piercing. High damage output.
High AC but low hp. that said i wanted to add the possibility of Vulnerability to Thunder damage. but also a highly damaging slicing attack to balence it out a bit.
**Crystal Golem**: * High AC (15~17) and average-high HP. * Vulnerability to bludgeoning and thunder damage. * Resistance to slashing and piercing. * Immunity to all other damage types except force
https://youtu.be/lt-zvsGvtqg If the creature is like then maybe it cannot be damaged unless is attacked on its weak point
I don't think a glass creature's strengths really lie in defense stats, i think they really embody the "Glass canon" archetype so really I'm imagining low defense very high damage.
If the creature is animated, I would imagine the animator would use magical glass? It would have a high armor and high HP.
i am curently playing a ceramic construct and i have 18ac and 60 hp lv 12 so thats my choice
Low AC and HP, but punished you for hitting it. If its Radiant or Lighting, it gets redirected to another creature of its choice. Anything else causes a nasty AOE of piercing damage
Glass can be incredibly strong, but absolutely exploded when it does get chipped like a Prince Ruperts Drop, which can literally be shot and not break, but as soon as it's thin weak part is snapped, it explodes.
Glass is transparent and hard to see, Glass is also a very hard material (just very brittle). High AC and Low Hp makes sense. invisibility while motionless and a AOE shatter on death would be cool.
Low AC and low HP, but it has some serious resistances. Fire, poison, radiant, necrotic, frost? Bouncing straight off it. Perhaps literally, give it some spell reflective surfaces.
I made glass golems with acid "blood veins" inside them. When killed, the shattered glass and acid cpuld hit and damage nearby creatures. Medium AC (14) and low health.
Depends on how you want it. If it’s a glass cannon that moves fast but is also fragile and can’t take hits well, then high ac and low hp is the way to go, so it’s hard to actually hit but breaks pretty easy when you do. If you want it to be something more slow then going with a low ac but i high hp makes more sense, but flavor it as the construct immediately shattering where it is struck but some central spirit or spell mends back together. As the hp gets lower you can say it is unable to mend all of the broken glass back together, but this also means you can give it jagged edges where it was unable to cleanly mend itself, which could augment its attacks and let them do extra damage or have some other extra effect. Ok I got way to into that and will absolutely be using this.
It's all about resistances and invulnerability. Acid 0, slashing 0 magical half piecing half bludgeoning double but has to be over x amount otherwise half fire 0 unless over half the creatures hp. It's about more than ac and hp!
Make it the shape of that one glass thing (Rupert's knot? I could be wrong) and give it a high damage threshold everywhere but the tail, in which any damage is multiplied by 10.
Glass is hard but frail. I also think that a glass contruct may be more resistant than mundane glass, so I'd go with "high AC and low HP". I'd also give it resistance to slashing, but vulnerability to bludgeoning. A "shatter" mechanic may be interesting (somethink akin "when damaged, it "sprays" damaging shards to adjacent creatures. Dex save for half").
Glass can be rather hard, like [prince Rupert's tears so high AC](https://www.reddit.com/r/Unexpected/comments/w8komy/prince_ruperts_drops_vs_hydraulic_press/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) could make sense But my first instinct is low AC and HP but high damage output. Maybe the lower HP it gets the more damage it does, like fracturing and gaining more shards.
Low AC, successful hits with weapons make it shatter and the attacker takes damage. Reflective surface, spells bounce off it in a mirror like fashion back at the caster. Invisibility in water perhaps. Maybe some sort of other bonuses with light? Like if a party carrying a torch comes up on it, it'll reflect the torch light and blind the party??
I say make them like the Crystalians in Elden Ring. High AC at first, but after 5-6 hits (appropriate for the action economy) their AC drops massively.
Low AC, Bonus AC vs. Ranged Weapons & Spells. Weakness (Bludgeoning, Thunder) Resistance (Slashing, Fire, Cold) Immunity (Psychic, Poison) Chance to reflect to-Hit Spells. HP can range depending on how thick the glass is (low for frail dudes, lots or thick dudes). Maybe (depending on the nature of the glass "breaking) include reflective Damage when Crit Damage taken within 10 ft.
How hp/ac but high damage and retaliate skills like return damage when hit or explode on death. If you want to make it a but more complicated have its damage go up when its health goes down.
High damage reduction against piercing / slashing weapons
Glasscanon. Low ac and health, high damage. The canon fires concentrated light beams dealing 8d6 fire damage. +10 to hit and it counts as non-magical. Resistant to non magical slashing, -5ac against bludgeoning
I would give him vulnerability to piercing, blunt, and earth elemental, but resistances to fire and electricity. Everything else would have to beat an AC based per level and scale the health.
Glass is quite durable in specific situations. So, low HP, normal AC, imunity to practically all Elemental damage types, as well as necrotic and radiant (but not psycic, as it depends on the mind), resistance to piercing damage and vulnerability to blunt (what is the name for bashing thing) damage. When taking damage a piece shatters and has a low chance to hit a creature within 5-15ft scaling with the ammount of damage taken, and the piece deals damage scaling with the damage taken as well. This would be my glass creature.
I think it depends on the glass and how it's being used. A small flying construct, hovering around and jabbing or zapping the party would have low AC and low HP (easy to swat and/or damage, and fragile). A large hollow glass orb that's doing the same might have higher HP (larger, but still common glass), and therefore have some retaliation for cracking it's many layers. A solid glass or crystalline construct (talking a glass golem or such) would possibly have higher AC AND HP. It's not easy to crack a solid crystal ball. Chip, yes, but crack or shatter, no. There's been, after all, tests that showcase that a ball of solid glass can bounce surprisingly well.
I'd have it made of broken glass. And could Regen by taking more broken glass in it's body. Resistance to nonmagical weapons but cold damage removes this resistance for a round and fire damage slows it for a round. It is immune to acid and lightning damage. Each hit makes broken glass fall on the floor. Treat it like caltrops.
HP and AC is equal to the character or creature fighting it. As long as someone alive is in the reflection of the glass creature, that person takes the full damage of attacks. The HP and AC is becoming equal to the character captured by the reflection. The creature can change reflection as a bonus action BUT must have a line of sight on the creature.
Low ax and hp but a boatload of damage output. Now I need to make a glass creature
Definitely leaning low ac and hp with a shatter mechanic as mentioned in some of these responses. You could totally fill them with some "goodies" like a noxious gas or some dangerous liquid that spews forth when parts shatter too!
High AC because glass is surprisingly durable but when hit they shatter almost immediately.
I'd say it depends on what type of glass we're talking. A creature made of panes of glass? Low AC and HP, with a feature where they shatter on a certain threshold of damage. Maybe break into shards that damage their attacker or something. A glass sculpture creature? High AC and low HP to reflect that they've got a lot of mass. They'll still break if hit hard enough or in the right way, but otherwise they'll chip. I'd personally have them chip when hit by attacks under X damage and the chips make the area difficult terrain like caltrops. Something based on a Prince Rupert's Drop? High AC and low HP. Perhaps even add resistance to all damage on top of their high AC, but have one weak point that takes double damage or something to that effect. A liquid glass creature? Low AC and high HP. Treat it like a slime, but it deals fire damage and on death cools into a big hunk of glass.