Skip to content
CharGen Icon
CreatePricing
Playwright - AI-generated fantasy Monster

Playwright

The Playwright claims not to invent history, only to give it a shape people can remember. Its earliest works describe the founding of cities in terms that match no surviving record, yet those accounts have become accepted truth. Scholars disagree over whether the Playwright alters reality, influences memory, or merely writes so persuasively that nations willingly perform its versions.

Monsters
Medium humanoid · CR 13 · Unique

Playwright

A living author of history who writes the stories the world performs, shaping how kingdoms began and why their people remember the past as they do.
AC18
HP210/210
CR13
Init
STR
DEX
CON
INT
WIS
CHA
ConditionsNone

Combat

AC 18 · HP 210 · CR 13

Playwright

Medium humanoid (any), neutral
Armor Class18 (warded coat)
Hit Points210 (28d8 + 84)
Speed
30 ft.
STR
DEX
CON
INT
WIS
CHA
Saving ThrowsWisdomCharisma
SkillsDeceptionHistoryInsightPersuasionPerformance
Damage Resistances
Psychic
Immunities
Charmed
Weaknesses
The Playwright's magic depends on concentration and composure; effects that impose incapacitated prevent it from using actions or reactions.
It cannot use Cast the Parts on a creature that succeeds against that action for 24 hours.
Senses
Truesight 30 ft.,
Passive Perception 17
Languages
Common,
Two other languages of the GM's choice
Challenge13
Initiative+4
Proficiency Bonus+5
Spell Save DC18
Spell Attack Bonus+10
Legendary Spellcasting. The Playwright is a 15th-level spellcaster. Charisma is its spellcasting ability (spell save , to hit with spell attacks). It requires no material components and can cast the spells listed in its spell section.
Legendary Resistance (3/Day). If the Playwright fails a saving throw, it can choose to succeed instead. It can do so three times per day.
Author's Perspective. The Playwright has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects that would alter its memories or compel it to speak or act. This is a custom trait.

Spells

Minor illusion (cantrip, illusion). At will. The Playwright creates a brief, harmless sensory effect or a small sound or image, often resembling a stage cue.
Message (cantrip, transmutation). At will. The Playwright magically writes, speaks, or displays a message of up to twenty-five words to a creature it can see within range.
Detect magic (level 1, divination). At will. The Playwright touches a written object and learns whether it contains magic, along with the school of magic if applicable.
Misty step (level 2, conjuration). 3/day. The Playwright magically steps through a short-lived curtain of script and teleports itself up to 60 feet to an unoccupied space it can see.
Major image (level 3, illusion). 2/day. The Playwright creates a convincing illusion of a creature or object in a 20-foot cube. A creature can discern the illusion with a successful Intelligence (Investigation) check.
Teleport (level 7, conjuration). 1/day. The Playwright and up to eight willing creatures it can see teleport to a location it can describe, as per the spell.

Actions

Multiattack. The Playwright makes two Quillstroke attacks.
Quillstroke. Melee or Ranged Spell Attack: to hit, reach 5 ft. or range 120 ft., one target. Hit: 21 ( force damage). If the target is a creature, the Playwright can move it up to 10 feet to an unoccupied space it can see, as if marking its next position in the scene.
The Scene Turns. The Playwright writes a brief direction into the air. Each creature of its choice in a 30-foot cone must make a Wisdom saving throw. On a failure, a creature takes 31 () psychic damage and is frightened until the end of its next turn. On a success, it takes half damage and is not frightened. A creature that fails by 5 or more also falls prone. Once used, this action cannot be used again until the Playwright finishes a short or long rest.
Cast the Parts. The Playwright chooses up to three creatures it can see within 60 feet. Each target must make a Charisma saving throw. On a failure, the Playwright assigns it a role until the end of the Playwright's next turn: the Braggart has disadvantage on attack rolls against creatures other than the Playwright; the Witness cannot willingly move closer to the Playwright; or the Betrayer must use its reaction, if available, to make one weapon attack against a creature of the Playwright's choice within reach. A target that succeeds is immune to this action for 24 hours. This is a custom magical effect, not a charm spell.

Reactions

Edit the Moment. When the Playwright is hit by an attack it can see, it adds 3 to its AC against that attack, potentially causing it to miss. If the attack misses, the Playwright can move up to 10 feet without provoking opportunity attacks.

Legendary Actions

Cross the Stage. The Playwright moves up to half its speed without provoking opportunity attacks.
A Sharp Aside. The Playwright makes one Quillstroke attack.
Hold for the Line (costs 2 actions). One creature the Playwright can see within 60 feet must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw or have its speed reduced to 0 until the end of its next turn. The creature sees an invisible stage mark beneath its feet and is restrained by no physical force. This is a custom magical effect.
Scene Change (costs 3 actions). The Playwright magically teleports to an unoccupied space it can see within 60 feet. Each creature of its choice within 10 feet of the space it left must succeed on a Charisma saving throw or take 13 () psychic damage and be pushed 10 feet away from that space.
Role
Solo
Built for
Four characters of 13th level; adjust for party size, optimization, and magic items.

Gear

  • Silver Quill (Wondrous item, Priceless to historians; worth 250 gp as a finely made silver artifact)A magically durable quill used as the focus for the Playwright's script magic. It can be used as a spellcasting focus but is not a magic weapon.
  • Working Manuscript (Document, Potentially priceless, but dangerous political evidence)A weatherproof collection of drafts, witness statements, and finished histories. Some pages appear blank until read by a person named in the text.
  • Warded Traveling Coat (Wondrous item, Not normally sold)A dark coat embroidered inside with tiny, moving stage directions. It functions as the Playwright's warded clothing.

Notes for the game master

The Playwright is a custom monster, not a canonical D&D creature.
Spell entries describe spell-like abilities for ease of use. The Playwright is a 15th-level spellcaster, uses Charisma as its spellcasting ability, and requires no material components.
Legendary actions are available at the end of another creature's turn. The Playwright can take 3 legendary actions, regaining spent actions at the start of its turn.
The Playwright has 3 uses of Legendary Resistance per day. If it fails a saving throw, it can choose to succeed instead.
The role assignments from Cast the Parts are custom effects and are not charm effects.

Tactics

  1. Opening

    The Playwright begins with a polished introduction and uses Cast the Parts to assign disruptive roles. If the party attacks immediately, it responds with The Scene Turns when several foes are clustered.

  2. Mid-fight

    Use Cast the Parts to disrupt attackers and isolate a key threat. Make Quillstroke attacks against exposed or concentrating foes, repositioning targets into hazards or away from allies.

  3. End of the fight

    Below 70 hit points, the Playwright uses The Scene Turns to scatter or frighten its pursuers, then uses legendary movement to reach an exit, a portal, or a defensible position. It bargains if escape is impossible.

  4. Retreat

    The Playwright is not suicidal. At 40 hit points or fewer, it offers a bargain, uses dimension door if available, or retreats through a prepared backstage passage. It fights to the death only to protect a manuscript that could erase or rewrite a community's history.

How it fights

Use movement and cover to avoid being surrounded.
Assign roles with Cast the Parts to interfere with the party's formation and action economy.
Use Quillstroke to damage a vulnerable target and push it into a tactically inconvenient position.
Reserve Edit the Moment for a dangerous attack, especially a critical hit.
Avoid spending all legendary actions on damage when movement or control can deny the party a better turn.

Who it attacks first

A creature concentrating on a powerful spell.
A foe positioned to pin the Playwright in place or block its escape.
A character carrying, reading, or threatening a manuscript central to the Playwright's work.

Works well with

Illusionists can use the Playwright's theatrical effects to conceal real hazards among apparent stage scenery.
A lawful court, royal archivist, or political faction may provide protection and information while pursuing its own version of events.
Enemies that can restrain or grapple the Playwright can limit its repositioning, though its teleportation remains a threat.

How to beat it

Silence or antimagic can prevent spellcasting, but does not suppress the Playwright's explicitly non-spell traits.
Spread out to reduce the impact of The Scene Turns.
Use Wisdom and Charisma saving throw proficiencies, and protect creatures vulnerable to fear or forced reactions.
Pressure the Playwright with sustained damage so it must spend legendary actions defensively rather than repositioning or disrupting the party.

Ways to avoid a fight

The Playwright can compare conflicting accounts and identify where a testimony, chronicle, or official record was altered.
It may offer to write a lost person back into the accepted history of a community, in exchange for a dangerous favor.
It can provide a carefully sourced account of a realm's origins, while admitting which passages are its own interpretations.

Ecology

A composed, middle-aged figure in a charcoal traveling coat, with ink-dark fingertips and a face that seems subtly different to each observer. A silver quill rests behind one ear. When the Playwright speaks, faint stage curtains and handwritten directions appear in the air around it.

Behavior

Courteous, observant, and faintly amused. The Playwright treats conflict as a scene whose participants have forgotten their lines. It prefers bargains and theatrical warnings, but can become ruthless when someone threatens its manuscripts.

How it lives

The Playwright is a singular humanoid whose craft seems to predate the courts that employ it. It needs food and rest like other people, but its written histories can outlive nations. It often gathers oral traditions, contradictory records, and firsthand testimony before composing a version of events.

Lair

The Playwright's preferred lair is a theater, archive, or private study arranged like a stage. Here, curtains conceal exits, manuscripts are chained to lecterns, and lines of glowing script mark places where important scenes once occurred. The lair has no automatic combat effects unless the GM adds them.

Habitat
Libraries, royal archives, abandoned theaters, civic halls, and places where a nation's history is actively contested.

Signs that it is near

Fresh ink appears on old documents, recording conversations that have not yet occurred.
A theater's empty seats are arranged to face a blank wall covered in faint stage directions.
People remember the same local legend with identical phrasing, despite having learned it from different sources.

Tags

humanoid,
solo,
history,
theatrical,
reality-warping,
custom

Lore

The Playwright claims not to invent history, only to give it a shape people can remember. Its earliest works describe the founding of cities in terms that match no surviving record, yet those accounts have become accepted truth. Scholars disagree over whether the Playwright alters reality, influences memory, or merely writes so persuasively that nations willingly perform its versions.

What drives it

To make history legible and enduring, even when that requires suppressing inconvenient truths or assigning people roles they never chose.

After the fight

When the Playwright dies, every unfinished line in its current work fades to blank. Its completed pages remain, but the world may still remember the endings it wrote. Creatures whose histories were altered can reclaim lost memories by studying the manuscript, though the text may demand a price for each truth.

“Its earliest works describe the founding of cities in terms that match no surviving record, yet those accounts have become accepted truth.”
From its lore

Variants

For a less magical version, remove Legendary Spellcasting, reduce Charisma to 16, and replace The Scene Turns with a once-per-day effect.
For a campaign-ending mastermind, give the Playwright a lair with lair actions that alter cover and create illusory stage scenery, while increasing its challenge only after recalibrating damage and durability.

Hooks

Plot hooks

A new royal chronicle claims the party's patron betrayed the realm, and witnesses remember events that never happened.
The Playwright asks the party to recover a page stolen from its manuscript before the page's subject is erased from public memory.
A village's founding story has changed overnight, and the new account gives a nearby noble family a legal claim to its land.
The Playwright wants the party to provide testimony for a history that will decide whether a war is remembered as liberation or conquest.

How to use it

Use as a morally complicated solo antagonist whose writing has changed the official history of a kingdom.
Make the objective a manuscript, printing press, witness, or living archive rather than simply defeating the Playwright.
For a solo encounter, use a large room with multiple routes and pieces of cover so its movement and repositioning matter.
For a less lethal first meeting, have the Playwright seek a negotiation and demonstrate its power without using The Scene Turns.

Treasure

The silver quill and warded traveling coat.
A manuscript containing disputed histories, political secrets, and several pages that name the party.
Evidence of a past event that has been deliberately removed from the official record.

Media

0 images

No images yet.

Visual sheet

Turn Playwright into a sheet

A high-res, share-ready sheet you can post or print.