Today we’re looking at two more factions in the city of Sigil: the Harmonium, a faction of militant peacekeepers (yes, that’s an oxymoron, and no, they don’t care), and the Transcendent Order, who practice their disciplines to the point where action no longer requires conscious thought. The Harmonium is associated with Arcadia, a plane that’s sort of good, sort of neutral but definitely lawful, and it attracts its share of lawful types that may not be evil, exactly, but do consider order more important than kindness, earning the factions’ members the nickname “Hardheads.” The Transcendent Order is associated with the neutral good outer plane of Elysium; I’m not entirely sure what the logic is there, but I’ll roll with it.
In Morte’s Planar Parade, the Harmonium is represented by the CR 3 Harmonium peacekeeper and the CR 8 Harmonium captain. Morte’s describes them both as “any alignment,” because that’s how Wizards of the Coast does things these days, but let’s be real: They should both be “any lawful alignment,” and that’s how I’m going to treat them.
First, the Harmonium peacekeeper. Heavily armored, very high Strength, high Constitution (and Wisdom, too, but for peacekeepers, this isn’t an offensive ability): This non-player character charges into melee without hesitation—but not without backup. The Pack Tactics trait tells us that peacekeepers don’t work alone, but rather in squads of six to 12, divided into teams of two to four. In low to mid-level play—tier 1 or 2—an encounter should always involve a team of peacekeepers, not a whole squad, at least at the outset. Other teams from the squad can be summoned as needed, but player characters shouldn’t be confronted by an entire squad at once except in higher-level play (or if they’ve really screwed up and you want to drive the point home).
Harmonium peacekeepers have only one melee weapon attack, Electrified Mancatcher (yikes). A hit on a Large or smaller creature with this weapon grapples and restrains the target and deals ongoing damage, but it also takes the peacekeeper who hit them out of play for as long as the target is caught. That complicates matters if the peacekeepers are outnumbered by their opponents. But peacekeepers have above-average Intelligence and high Wisdom. If they see they’re outnumbered, they call for backup immediately and wait to engage until that backup arrives.
Because the Electrified Mancatcher is a melee weapon, a peacekeeper can make either lethal or nonlethal attacks with it, like a Star Trek phaser that can be set on “stun” or “kill.” Lawful good peacekeepers keep theirs set to stun unless they’re battling a chaotic evil creature. Lawful neutral peacekeepers set theirs to kill when they’re up against a chaotic evil, neutral evil or chaotic neutral creature. Lawful evil peacekeepers leave theirs on “kill” all the time.
Harmonium peacekeepers maintain a tight formation in order to gain advantage on their attack rolls from Pack Tactics. A lone peacekeeper knows better than to break from the group, even to pursue a back-line foe or fleeing perp. If one needs to break off, so does a second, and they move together.
They’re well trained, not retreating unless they’re seriously wounded (reduced to 18 hp or fewer), and not even then if their opposition presents a clear and present danger to law and order in Sigil. If half their number are seriously wounded, the less wounded ones delay pursuit while the more wounded ones withdraw. If all but one are dead, unconscious or withdrawing, the last one goes, too; there’s no point in their hanging around alone. Withdrawing peacekeepers Disengage when they’re within reach of two or more melee opponents and Dodge most of the rest of the time. They don’t Dash unless they’re confronted by something terrifyingly more powerful than they are—say, CR 12 or greater.
A Harmonium captain is even better armored than the average peacekeeper, with extraordinary Strength, very high Wisdom and Charisma, and high Constitution. They’re also fearless fighters who favor melee and therefore lead from the front. They have two offensive actions, the Harmonium Blade weapon attack and the Dictate recharging ability, and their Multiattack allows them to use both in a single action—the blade three times, Dictate once, but Dictate can also affect up to three creatures. Harmonium captains do not have Pack Tactics, nor do they wield a weapon that limits their ability to attack after hitting, so they’re free to go where they’re needed. If there’s a troublesome archer or spellslinger who needs to be subdued, for instance, a Harmonium captain will take that duty upon themself.
As with Harmonium peacekeepers, a Harmonium captain’s alignment influences whether they seek to kill targets of their Harmonium Blade or merely knock them out. The rules are the same: A lawful good captain knocks out foes of any alignment except chaotic evil; a lawful neutral captain knocks out foes unless they’re chaotic evil, neutral evil or chaotic neutral; and a lawful evil captain always strikes to kill.
But alignment also determines whether a Harmonium captain uses Dictate alone when first confronting a group of foes or uses their Multiattack to both Dictate and attack. A lawful good captain begins a combat encounter by directing Dictate at those foes who are farthest down and to the right on the alignment chart, attempting to quell the disturbance at its presumed source and waiting to see whether this move succeeds before drawing steel. A lawful neutral captain Multiattacks in round 1, using Dictate against the most chaotic foes in the group but also attacking any of them who succeeds on their saving throw to avoid being affected. A lawful evil captain does the same, except that if every target of Dictate fails their save, the captain might go ahead and attack one of them anyway, or attack a different opponent who wasn’t a target of Dictate. Note that grappling an opponent deals no damage to them, so a captain can take a foe into custody by making a grappling attack in lieu of their Multiattack, then frog-march them away (at half speed).
If a Harmonium captain doesn’t need to be in any particular place to take care of something that their peacekeepers can’t, they position themselves so as to provide Pack Tactics advantage to any peacekeeper who needs it. The presence of a Harmonium captain also bolsters discipline among the peacekeepers under their command: None of them retreats unless the captain orders it, all peacekeepers must be seriously wounded for the captain to order a withdrawal, and they Dodge rather than Dash while retreating even in the face of a formidable foe—again, unless the captain orders it, which a lawful good captain might but a lawful neutral or lawful evil captain won’t. Additionally, when a captain is present, the captain’s alignment overrides the alignment of a peacekeeper under their command with respect to whether they attack to stun or kill—although a lawful good peacekeeper ordered to kill by their captain may visibly hesitate.
Members of the Transcendent Order are unlikely to initiate a fight except against evil creatures causing harm in their immediate presence. In strength, their agents parallel the Harmonium’s, with a CR 3 rank and file and a CR 8 leader.
The Transcendent Order instinct, distinguished by their very high Dexterity and Wisdom and lack of a ranged attack, is a shock attacker who seeks to finish fights quickly and decisively. In combat, they have little option but to run up on an enemy and Multiattack. On average, over two rounds, they’ll deal an average of 42 damage if all their blows hit; against an enemy with AC 15, they can expect to deal 23. Frankly, that’s not a lot: Against a single level 3 PC, it might be enough to score a knockout, but against any more than that, or anyone tougher than that, forget it. And as far as monsters go, 24 hp means a defensive challenge rating of just 1/8, so an instinct’s chances against any creature mightier than a town guard, unless it has a glass jaw, are poor. On the flip side, they’re tougher than they look, both in number of hit points (the average Transcendent Order instinct has more than the average Harmonium peacekeeper) and in their Deflect Blow reaction, which they can use three times per round rather than just once. These features enable them to hang in there for a third round, perhaps longer; I’m just not sure why they’d want to.
Based on their Wisdom, instincts choose their battles wisely, not starting fights they can’t win. But I’m skeptical that two instincts would be Deadly opponents against an equal number of level 3 PCs, as the encounter building guidelines in chapter 3 of the Dungeon Master’s Guide suggest, let alone that one instinct could hold out against six level 3 PCs, as per the guidelines in Xanathar’s Guide to Everything. Something about their CR 3 doesn’t feel right to me. Also, Deflect Blow seems like an ability that will turn a fight into a drawn-out slugfest, not a rapid takedown. So I have to think that Transcendent Order instincts don’t initiate combat unless they have some kind of advantage that makes them more likely to land hits—for instance, if all their foes have AC 13 or lower, or if some condition gives them advantage on their attack rolls.
Let’s not ignore that proficiency in Acrobatics, however. A more complex environment, especially a more three-dimensional one, may allow Transcendent Order instincts to go places their opponents can’t easily follow. What if we suppose that they remain engaged in melee for two rounds, but then they move out of reach at the end of the second round, intentionally provoking an opportunity attack that they know they can soften if it hits? That will allow them to make at least some of their opponents waste their turns, and they can deflect blows from those that do follow and counterattack on their own turns. At least now we’re getting some of the mobile vibe of a shock attacker. But I’d still prefer to see the instinct given some way to land KOs more easily.
If we accept the implication of the Transcendent Order’s association with Elysium that its members tend toward neutral good, then instincts attack to knock out, not to kill—unless, as previously supposed, they’re fighting evil creatures in the act of causing harm. If one or more instincts haven’t subdued their opponents in two rounds—all right, let’s say three—and they’re moderately wounded (reduced to 34 hp or fewer) or worse and their opponents haven’t been engaging in mayhem, they’ll withdraw, Disengaging or Dodging as they move away depending on how many foes they’re within melee reach of. If yes to mayhem, they’ll keep fighting until they’re seriously wounded (reduced to 19 hp or fewer).
Now, the Transcendental Order conduit possesses a few more of the kind of features I like to see in a shock attacker. Their Unarmed Strikes deal greater damage, and they also include optional riders that enhance the conduit’s mobility. Push is a good default, shoving the target up to 10 feet away on a hit—in a 3-D environment, that can mean “off a rooftop”—permitting movement away without provoking an opportunity attack and therefore without using up a Deflect Attack reaction. Push can also be used to move opponents around the battlefield, allowing the conduit to get at targets who thought they were safe behind their allies. Incapacitate is even stronger than Push, but only against a foe who’s going to fail that saving throw, i.e., someone who looks frail. (The conduit lacks the Intelligence to know for certain whether they are frail; they can only judge by appearances.) If that’s the case, then sure, the conduit chooses that option first, but if not, it saves Incapacitate until it’s already used Push. Unlike monks, with their Stunning Strike, the conduit doesn’t have ki, so it doesn’t cost it anything to try—but the sure thing comes first.
Generally speaking, the Transcendental conduit fights the same way the Transcendental Order instinct does, just with more panache. The one thing missing from the conduit’s stat block that I wish were included in Instinctive Reflexes, based on the content of the brief flavor text, is the inability to be surprised. My favorite feature in this stat block is Don’t Be There—whoever named that reaction gets a cookie—but it’s situational and reflexive, not really something that can made part of a strategy.
The “moderately wounded” threshold for Transcendental Order conduits is 67 hp or fewer, and the “seriously wounded” threshold is 38 hp or fewer.
Next: The Hands of Havoc, the Heralds of Dust and the Mind’s Eye.
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