Sauron (Patreon)

Introducing: the Dark Lord himself, Sauron.

Again I chose to create my own unique rendition of the character, which is a post War of the Ring Sauron. The concept here is that he, like most demon and devil creatures in D&D, discorporates when he is defeated. Basically saying: When Sauron drops to 0 hit points or dies, his body and belongings are destroyed but his essence travels back to “the Abyss” and he is unable to take physical form for a time.

Originally his statblock was much longer, including the passive ability Discorporation with text, but I wanted it to fit on a single page for my entry here, so I had to cut some things including the ability to Dismiss Demon, where he can dismiss the “Balrog” he summoned. Summoning a Balrog didn’t just sound fun, but I thought it felt appropriate as demons/devils can generally summon weaker demons in D&D. The idea being that I might create a printed card deck, with my illustrations, and a booklet with the full text (including lair abilities) in the future.

The way I see it, is that this Sauron is an ideal opponent for a custom homebrew campaign (not necessarily taking place inside the LOTR setting) or a short adventure where your party travels to the Abyss (or whatever location you think is appropriate for Sauron to have been returned to) and kills Sauron for good. It could be the behind the scenes tale of the actual heroes who defeated Sauron, but who were never given praise for it.

Designing my rendition of the Dark Lord, I wanted to incorporate some of his past like his cut off ring finger (although it might not be very clear in my artwork) and a reference to the iconic burning eye. In my concept of the character, it would only light up when he uses his legendary action: I See You. Since he already had so many unique nick names before, I decided to include my own addition to the list to mark him as separate from what came before.

A HQ version of Sauron will be included in this month’s Patreon Pack, including the artwork and linework