D&D 5E No Living Statues in 5E?

[graven13]

When will Wizards of the Coast create a Monster Manual Volume 2 that includes the monsters from all the previous editions?! I would SO buy that.

 

[Jer]

Living Statue aside, how did the MC describe the background of a Thoul? Specifically how was the first Thoul created?

In addition to what AaronOfBarbaria says about the MC's origin for Thouls, none of the core B/X books ever had anything more than that. The assumption is some wizard somewhere decided it would be fun to merge a Troll, a Hobgoblin and a Ghoul and therefore Thouls. My assumption has always been that Thouls can breed with Hobgoblins and they just occasionally are born into Hobgoblin clans. And when they do they tend to take over the whole group quickly (I like to throw a Thoul into the mix every now and again to keep my PCs on their toes).

IIRC there's an off-hand reference in the history section of one of the Mystara Gazetteers that says that Thouls were an experiment from some Nithian wizards to create a race of servants. I don't remember which one had that bit of info - who knows, I might be hallucinating it in my old age. I'll need to go look for it the next time I'm near my books. Those wacky Nithian wizards were always doing that - they also managed to accidentally create Mystara's Gnolls in a similar attempt to make a slave race.

 

[Stilvan]

If anyone is looking for an official substitute for the Living Statue in 5e take a look at the Stone Cursed from Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes

 

[Fenris447]

There is an official 5e statblock for a Living Iron Statue that can be found in Ghosts of Saltmarsh.

 

[Stilvan]

There is an official 5e statblock for a Living Iron Statue that can be found in Ghosts of Saltmarsh.

Yes that's true but it is a much higher CR creature.

 

[Quickleaf]

If anyone is looking for an official substitute for the Living Statue in 5e take a look at the Stone Cursed from Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes

Yeah, the stone cursed are very cool. Another one I've used from MToF is the sacred statue (listed under the eidolon), which – if you omit the Ghostly Inhabitant/Inert traits – is essentially a large brute version without the petrification effect. It doesn't have its own CR listed, but on its own is pretty close to a CR 9 or CR 10.

 

[The Glen]

Found this at Mystara Reborn Facebook, posted by Glen Welch. Thought u might be interested.
The Thoul is kind of an oddball to me. It is hard to define an origin of the creature combining properties of an undead ghoul and a hobgoblin. Why do they appear in the midst of hobgoblin population?

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Canon is Nithian experimentation. They have the regeneration of a troll, paralyzation of a ghoul and combat prowess of the hobgoblin.

Living statues appeared in goodman games conversation, though slightly different. Living statues were more intelligent than golems some of them bordering on sentience. Downside was they don't have the same immunities golems did.