SPOILER ALERT TO MY ADVENTURERS! The following post contains spoilers for the up and coming campaign/session. You may want to avoid this post and join me in a future one. REMEMBER you have been warned.

So the Bagman has been seeded in the campaign. Which means I will need stats at some future session.

In Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft (where they introduce the Bagman) they use the stats for a troll (from the Monster Manual) as it’s base.

Then they do the following to make the Bagman unique, and feel like the Bagman.

“With tactics and traits in mind, you think of your troll as an abductor and give it the Grappler trait of a mimic and the Amorphous trait of a black pudding so it can sneak in anywhere. Finally, you don’t think of the troll as a minion, but you give it the Alien Mind trait to reflect its tormented psyche.” Page 225,Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft

Here are the relevant bits from the srd and Van Richten’s for those traits.

“Grappler. The Bagman has advantage on attack rolls against any creature grappled by it.”

With this trait I do need to remember this rule from the Monster Manual for any player the bagman is trying to abduct and is trying to escape.

“GRAPPLE RULES FOR MONSTERS
…
A creature grappled by the monster can use its action to try to escape. To do so, it must succeed on a Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics) check against the escape DC in the monster’s stat block. If no escape DC is given, assume the DC is 10 +the monster’s Strength (Athletics) modifier.” Page 11, Monster Manual

“Amorphous. The Bagman can move through a space as narrow as 1 inch wide without squeezing.” Taken from the srd 5.1 2023 covered under the Creative Commons

“Alien Mind. If a creature tries to read the minion’s thoughts, that creature must succeed on a Intelligence saving throw with a DC equal to 10 + the minion’s Intelligence modifier or be stunned for l minute. The stunned creature can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success.” Page 225,Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft

However in the Dragon+ issue 37 article about the creation of the bagman they drop the following that the “bagman should be an entity with high Stealth”.

So in addition to the additional traits that the WotC designers gave the Bagman I’m tempted to also give the Bagman this additional trait.

“Sneaky (Trait). This creature has advantage on Dexterity (Stealth) checks.” Page 12, The Lazy DM’s Forge of Foes sampler.

Plus an additional skill of Stealth +7

Which I think gives the Bagman that high stealth ability they thought he should have. So that the Bagman can recreate the idea of “nothing’s more disturbing in a horror movie than when something horrible is in the background and the main characters don’t see it.” Dragon+ 37

Going by the “MONSTER STATISTICS BY CHALLENGE RATING” table on page 274 of the Monster Manual the proficiency bonus for the Bagman is +3.

But does the Bagman need to be an “elite” monster? An “elite” monster as described by Mike Shea in his uncovered secrets volume 2 (a pdf for patreons of stuff that didn’t make it into the Lazy DM Companion) “elite monsters are equivalent of two characters of their level”.

“Elite monsters have the following additional traits:

• They have double the listed hit points.
• They inflict double the listed damage.
• They have one use of legendary resistance per day, letting them turn a failed saving throw into a success.

For that last one Mike describes Legendary Resistance as:

“Legendary Resistance (3/Day). If the monster fails a saving throw, it can choose to succeed instead.”

Let’s face it the Bagman will not be taking on the party with the aid of minions or any other creatures. So when they do finally face off against the Bagman he needs to be tough enough to last longer than a single round.

I think making the Bagman “elite” does that.

So that’s my initial thoughts for a hopefully easy to run Bagman. Now to just fit that all onto an Arcane Library blank monster card!