Which leads us all back to the best part of 2nd Edition, reaching the level where you’d get a cool title and build a stronghold and attract followers.3rd Edition Ogre Mages look atrocious. Depending on how you count. You can run them fairly straightforward, relying on their regeneration and glaive attacks to be a threat, but as you have a chance to use them (there’s a good likelihood they’ll recur as a monster given their regeneration and ability to escape combat), DMs can get a little more in-depth with their tactics.
For contrast here’s an Oni in peasant clothing from the Tokugawa era:You can see the resemblance–but you can also see the resemblance to the current Ogre Mage. Oni are presented as a distinct species from Ogres, only distantly related though they share some of the Ogres qualities, like size, musculature, and propensity to join forces with other evil creatures.In 5th Edition, Oni have 13 hit dice, and have a decent save DC–they also gain multiattack and their regeneration shoots up to 10hp per round, making them quite formiddable indeed.
These Oni are back to basics, returning to form with the same familiar powers we’ve known and loved through 4 other editions.
The Oni Mage, on the other hand, has the invisibility and cone of cold. The ogre mage is a more intelligent and dangerous variety of its mundane cousin. Its skin varies in color from light green to light blue, and its hair is black or very dark brown. The idea of an Oni/Ogre Mage is very clear: blue skin, horn, glaive attack–they get fly, invisibility, darkness, and can polymorph themselves into a human or humanoid form, and can regenerate. Ogre mage characters possess the following racial traits. And their flight is at its worst in terms of maneuverability. They keep many of the same powers, though they do lose the cone of cold ability. Their powers all suggest some built-in synergies–they can create darkness and become invisible, they can change their shape and shoot cones of cold–the key is that they have different avenues of attack. Hit: 11 (2d6 + 4) piercing damage. Hit: 13 (2d8 + 4) bludgeoning damage. An ogre mage stands about 10 feet tall and weighs up to 700 pounds. They retain their higher intelligence and spell like abilities, as always, and their fly speed gets a little bit of a buff. Rapacious and cruel by nature, ogre mages often lead organized raids for slaves, treasure, and food. They are complex monsters that come with some built-in tools to help both players and dungeon masters. Only fire or acid could overcome its native regeneration, which was 5hp per round. You have Oni of all varieties who are renowned for building cleverly hidden strongholds and garnering wealth and slaves and other resources to secure their place as rightful rulers deserving of other creatures’ respect. This is one monster that has changed very little throughout the editions.
And it had spell resistance. Actions Greatclub: Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. They are much tougher than their previous cousins, owing to the fact that they are Large in a system that rewards high attributes and size in addition to the changes to the way regeneration worked in 3.x. Ogre Source: 5th Edition SRD ↓ Attributes. Ogres are able to carry around 570 pounds or 258 kilograms, all day, comfortably, they can lift, drag or pull around 1140 pounds or 517 kilograms and can throw your average medium humanoid as an improvised thrown weapon as per page 148 of the players handbook, so anyone hit by the character takes 1d4+4 bludgeoning damage, and the character being thrown takes that impact damage, plus a … If the head or some other vital organ is severed, it must be reattached within 10 minutes or the creature dies. At will: blade ward, prestidigitation They appear in the Greyhawk 1975 supplement with its famously over-it Beholder.Even then, Onis were identified as Japanese Ogres–their origins in that mythology were reflected in the powers they had (and still have). Once per day they get the powers listed above–charm person, sleep, gaseous form, and cone of cold (though in 1st edition it’s still not codified as cone of cold, it’s just a ray of cold mimicking that from a cold wand that does 8d8 damage).They are straight up from Japan (though later they hail from Kara-tur), and adding to that idea of a teaching monster, they are often encountered with an Ogre Magi Chief who fights as a 9 hit die monster. They lost some of their unique flavor as well–gone was the special ogre mage only language that they spoke, replaced with Giant and Common.