Dungeons & Delvers: Red Book Banshee

In 2nd Edition Dungeons & Dragons, banshees were basically ghosts that could once per day try to kill you with a scream. Right away I have to note that I'm not a fan of the x times per day mechanic, unless it makes sense in-game. For example, something associated with the sun regaining the use of a sun-related ability when the sun rises or sets, whichever makes sense.

(Like, I have this sun priest Dungeon World class that I apparently almost finished and forgot about years ago. Its abilities are primarily powered through a point mechanic, kind of like Favor for Dungeons & Delvers clerics, just more to go around: you spend points to use various powers and miracles, and whenever the sun rises you regain the points you spent.)

Otherwise, the banshee had seven Hit Dice, could sense living creatures up to five miles away, forces anyone that sees them to save or run (dropping their shit 50% of the time), deal damage with a touch, and was immune to mundane weaponry, cold, and lightning attacks. They were not only immune to a handful of spells, but had 50% magic resistance against the rest. The big thing was that dispel evil just outright destroyed them.

Here banshees are the spirits of evil female elves. They are described as hating all living things (and even finding their mere presence painful), but since they cannot use their death-wail during the day they hide until nightfall, before venturing forth to kill everything they come across, man or beast. For some reason they hoard treasure, which is convenient enough for adventurers.

In 3rd Edition her Hit Dice get cranked up to a whopping twenty-six, she could permanently drain Charisma by touch, and Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution by simply looking at her. She can death-wail up to three times a day (bleh), but has to wait 1d4 rounds between each one. In addition to numerous undead-specific immunities, her incorporeal subtype makes it so that you need magic and magic weapons to harm her, but even then most things have a flat 50% chance of failing, anyway.

Here they are the result of any strong-willed, selfish individual, not just elves and possibly not even just women. As with 2nd Edition they can be a blight on the land, killing and withering many plants. But since it's 3rd Edition this is explained using a very specific mechanical effect, instead of just being mentioned as flavor text for the DM to do whatever with.

5th Edition dials her down to a comparatively meager thirteen Hit Dice, and her wail back to once per day. Her touch is a bit more potent damage-wise, but at least you don't have a chance to suffer permanent Charisma loss, and looking at her only has a chance to scare you. Being a ghost and all she's got an ass-load of resistances and immunities, but there's no flat 50% chance of wasting your turn even if you hit her and/or she fails a save.

Lore-wise they're back to being the spirits of elven women, this time being those who didn't use their beauty to bring joy to the world  (which sounds pretty vague). They can't move far from where they died, making them more like haunting ghosts, and they hoard jewelry and art objects.

Before porting them over to Dungeons & Delvers I decided to do a bunch of research, as I am wont to do. One thing I found is that banshees aren't actually dangerous or even malevolent. They keen, sure, but it's to warn that someone is about to die, typically a family member, and also done out of sorrow.

Size and appearance varies: they can look really small, pretty tall, like beautiful women, or ghastly corpses. Some are are missing heads, and the ones that wash clothing can have really saggy breasts.

There are also a few creatures that are similar to the banshee: the bean-nighe (washerwoman) and cyhyraeth. The baen-nighe would haunt streams and wash the clothes of those about to die. The cyhyraeth, on the other hand, was a disembodied voice that made a groaning or sighing noise three times before someone's death.

So with all that in mind, here's how we changed it up:

We reduced her level back to 2nd Edition, er, levels. We also changed her type to fae, because while some references we found implied that she could be undead, mostly she came across as a faerie creature.

She can sense when a family member is going to die within three days, and each night keens as a warning. During this time, if the family can figure out who is going to die, they can potentially avoid it, but if she keens on the third night it means death is imminent. We think this can make for some interesting, time-sensitive adventures.

As a guardian spirit, she will protect family members from harm unless they are "supposed" to die. She also defends burial mounds from theft. This can put her at odds with an adventuring party.

Her wail can frighten creatures (inflicts psychic damage) and mark a creature for death (which lasts until sunrise): they can't heal, suffer extra damage, have a harder time resisting damage, and get critted more often. We think this is more interesting and better fits the idea of her being a predictor of death.

If you carefully approach a banshee, or catch her unawares, she might provide information, including as to whether you or someone you know is about to die. This can give the PCs reasons to seek one out, instead of just being yet another evil ghost that the party needs to kill.

Here's what the page spread will look like (sans colored art: Melissa hasn't gotten around to it, yet):

Announcements

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