Let’s Play D&D In Hellraiser
If you have a character at your table who can’t not solve every puzzle they see, you have a perfect opportunity to play D&D in Hellraiser.
Hellraiser has been earning some attention this week with the casting of Jamie Clayton as the pin-cushiony Cenobite. Combined with everyone’s heightened Halloween interest in horror movies and all thing’s spooky, there isn’t a better reason to figure out how to add a little more of the Hellraiser franchise into your next D&D session.
The Lament Configuration
Sheet made on The Homebrewery.
Puzzle boxes already exist in 5E’s Baldur’s Gate, so I decided to work the Lament Configuration into the system by making it just another one of them. The boxes as they exist within Dungeons and Dragons describe their size and weight, and you can reference the specifics if you’d like. But for our purposes, I thought it may bog the item description down a little.
Same as the other puzzle boxes any creature can attempt to open them, only this one happens to be a hell portal that would likely start your next game arc and bring a new monster into play. Luckily, it will also take the same monster back out of play, but only if the character has good enough intelligence and wisdom.
Baldur’s Gate has failure to close puzzle boxes sometimes resulting in psychic damage, but I thought having to stay in a fight and wasting a turn not solving a puzzle would be punishment enough.
Pinhead
Sheet made on The Homebrewery.
Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on how you look at it), Pinhead is one of those character with a lot going on– so I had to pick and choose what powers to give him and how. Near-invulnerability came in the form of high hit points and armor class, but I didn’t want to make him impossible to kill because unwinnable fights are never fun.
Players can of course use the Lament Configuration to send him away, but opening the box in the first place can be dicey, even if the character has a high intelligence. A lower wisdom will make closing it really difficult.
If your group wants to play with this character and make it a little more challenging, something like Hellish Rejuvenation could keep Pinhead coming back after he’s been “defeated” until the party is able to figure out the box trick.
Magic Resistance, teleportation, and his chains were obvious choices for this sheet, both because they fit the character and would make for fun fights. But I also added a few spells for his illusion powers and those classic horror movie explosions that sometimes happen for seemingly no reason. With Multiattack, I thought this would give him a good mix of offense, movement, and general hard-to-kill-ability.
How would you make Pinhead and the Lament Configuration for D&D? What horror movies would you like to incorporate into your next D&D session? What shows, movies, or comics would like to see sheets from next? Let us know in the comments!
Happy Adventuring!
