D&D 5E Let's Read: Volo's Monsters

My only problem with them as written is that an individual rat is stupid, which makes it more difficult for the single rat to go and scout.

Increase their intelligence to 6, and they could be smart enough to follow people of interest before rejoining the swarm.

I love the circus idea by the way, very good.

Chaosmancer said:

My only problem with them as written is that an individual rat is stupid, which makes it more difficult for the single rat to go and scout.

Increase their intelligence to 6, and they could be smart enough to follow people of interest before rejoining the swarm.

Click to expand...

They start out at 15 INT, and lose one point per day spent away from the swarm, bottoming out at 4. So you have quite a bit of leeway, something like 5 days to work with before they are too dumb to act as a scout anymore and they should just return.

That can be further mitigated by having them act in one or two day shifts, each one passing off information to the next spy taking over.

I love the circus idea by the way, very good.

Click to expand...

Thanks, I think I am going to write out stat blocks for some of the other notable members of the Carnival. Sparkculease, the strongest Gnome in the world, springs to mind.

Leatherhead said:

They start out at 15 INT, and lose one point per day spend away from the swarm, bottoming out at 4. So you have quite a bit of leeway, something like 5 days to work with before they are too dumb to act as a scout anymore and they should just return.

Click to expand...

Completely missed that. Thanks

Leatherhead said:

Back when we were talking about the Gauths, I suggested putting one in charge of a thieves guild masquerading as a Carnival. I have a feeling that a Swarm of Cranium Rats would make for an excellent addition to their Ranks.

Effectively the second in command, the swarm poses as The Flea-Bitten Circus: A novelty act in the side show. Using a mind-controlled humanoid commoner as their "Ringleader" and spokesperson to the public; all of the rats have tiny hats, hoods, or masks on to disguise their true nature. During the Carnival's operational hours, the Ringleader serves as a twisted reflection of the Pied Piper, "commanding" the rats to perform tasks and stunts in much the same manner that an actual circus would do. An act that delights smaller children, and disgusts some of the upper crust. When the Carnival closes, they serve as spies, locating the towns treasures so that the other guild members can go about their thieving ways with as much haste and efficiency as a ragtag crew of wandering thieves can muster. They also act as an early warning system for the Carnival, quickly and quietly detecting any persons who come with the intent to investigate the gang.

In a dire pinch, they have been know to sacrifice their Ringleader and scatter, because nobody would think to track down a bunch of normal rats.

Click to expand...

Unfortunately, I don't think Cranium Rats as written have the capability to do what you described. IIRC they only get Dominate Person once per day, which allows them to control one person (who fails his saving throw) for one minute per day. Call it 40 seconds of control per day on average. AFB but they might get another forty minutes or so of Suggestion time, but not direct control.

I think this is a flaw in the Cranium Rat stat block and not in your suggestion, because what you suggest is awesome enough that it should be made possible.

I think that, like Mindflayers having no ability to permanently enthrall someone, this is a 'plot power'; it exists if the plot needs it to, but isn't worth describing in game terms. Of course, it isn't even suggested by the Cranium Rat entry. I think that the real problem here is the flavour text, which goes against the grain of Volo's by not explaining how the DM should really use these guys, what kind of story they'll appear in.

I wonder why the Fey didn't get lumped together in this book. I mean, Dragons and Demons each get one collective entry. Perhaps the thinking was that the Fey are all so different that they needed to be separated out to make them understandable. Regardless, we now meet the Darklings, strong contenders for edgiest guys in the Feywild.



The art in Volo's is pretty generic. The two Darklings are just sort of standing there, looking menacing. I think that they would have really benefitted from a background, perhaps a dark corner with a nearly-obscured painting behind them, to highlight their themes.

The Darklings have a pretty interesting story. Like many Fey, they got cursed by another more powerful Fey, in this case the Summer Queen. Is that different from Queen Titania? Who knows. Anyway, they got cursed to age prematurely under light, and so they keep themselves wrapped up to try and avoid it as much as possible. The way that this works is that they actually store the energy of the light, and upon death they explode in a little sunburst; which means that when one is close to death, the others would have to shun it for fear of dying themselves, which is a rather sad thought. Cursed to die alone!

The other sad part of this curse is that they have a love of art, and thus are driven to take the risk of an open flame just to peek at a painting. That seems like a really interesting plot hook; an art gallery hires heroes to find out who keeps breaking into the place but not stealing anything, and they meet one of these guys. I'd be strongly tempted to use such a Darkling as a PC ally, their 'man on the inside' to guide them into Fey society as it were. However, the flavour description also makes it clear that these guys operate as thieves and assassins, from caverns beneath "the towns of other species". Does that mean other Fey, or Humans and the like? I'm guessing that means the latter, despite there being basically no mention of Fey in any of the 5e books thus far. Either way, the Darklings are clearly not unambiguously good guys, and have the dreaded Chaotic Neutral alignment, so you've got a lot of room to use them as you see fit.

They can make for interesting bad guys, a more magical Assassin's Guild sort of thing, even as you can play up their tragic story at the same time as a means to building rapport between the two sides. You could try for a bad guys to good guys arc, having the players initially fight against the Darklings, and then be driven by pity, convenience, and a greater threat to work with them against other more powerful and malevolent Fey. The end result would be low level bad guys who feel very different from Goblins or Orcs.

Combat wise, the Darklings are like Rogues. They have good stealth scores, not much health, and they are afflicted by Sunlight Sensitivity. They have bonus damage when they have advantage, but not just for mobbing people. Happily, the CR 2 Elder version can cast Darkness, which will allow the Darklings to use their Blindsight to gain said advantage. Nasty. When they die, they let out a bright flash of light, which can inflict the Blinded condition, even better for the Darklings who can (rather oddly) ignore it and press the attack using their Blindsight.

Not the most complicated of critters, but distinctive and interesting, with a really poignant backstory. Definitely guys that I'm eager to use.

Charles Rampant said:

I think that, like Mindflayers having no ability to permanently enthrall someone, this is a 'plot power'; it exists if the plot needs it to, but isn't worth describing in game terms. Of course, it isn't even suggested by the Cranium Rat entry. I think that the real problem here is the flavour text, which goes against the grain of Volo's by not explaining how the DM should really use these guys, what kind of story they'll appear in.

Click to expand...

I like to solve these kinds of problems with complex rituals that aren't easy to replicate by PC's, and therefore impractical in all but the most plot-demanding of situations.

Anyway, Darklings!

They explode into light when they die. This is obviously intended to be a problem, but what if the PC's had need of an intense source of light? Imagine, if you will, a town shrouded in mists and darkness. There is a terrible multi-layered curse on this land, one that will send ripples out into the kingdom and as a result cause instability in the continent. The curse cannot be broken without shining a years worth of Sunlight onto a statue in the middle of town, but the mists and night-like conditions prevent this curse from ever leaving. This causes the PC's to search for anything that can be used as a proxy, and as it just so happens, the death of a Darkling will fit the bill nicely.

Now, there are all kinds of moral quandaries about kidnapping and sacrificing a sapient being, even if it is a chaotic neutral fey creature whom is cursed anyway. And the PC's are just going to have to either deal with doing a little bit of bad for the greater good, or perhaps try to find another way to suck the light out of one, which the Darkling may or may not like.

I love that artwork [MENTION=32659]Charles Rampant[/MENTION]

And another really amazing idea [MENTION=53176]Leatherhead[/MENTION].

It is interesting (still haven't gotten around to the Hag entry) to get a small look into Fey society from this. "Dark Crow" the actual fey who betrayed the Summer Queen was a member of a "House" and all Darklings are members of that house who have been cursed.

This either means clan, massive family, or servants included.

But, I think this is meant in a "Clan" context, so there would logically be other Houses in service to the Queen and others.

What I really think we need is the actual nobility of the Faerie, the people who command all these lesser fey, and we can make an assumption of what they would look like by reading the Darkling Elder description, since that seems to be closer to their original form.

There is certainly the hint of a wider culture here, and some hints of a house system, but other Fey - for example, Redcaps - don't come in clans. The Hag chapter is great, but makes it clear that they stand apart from wider Fey culture.


Sent from my iPad using EN World mobile app

A cult made of darklings would be utterly nasty.

Darkness in an area, have a chosen self-sacrifice on the other side of it while the main combat darklings suspend themselves from the ceiling in the darkness. Party comes through the magical darkness, the sacrifice plunges a dagger into their own chest, and the party is blinded while the rest of the darklings cut themselves free from the ceiling and move to attack.