5E: Monstrous Arthropods for Fifth Edition

[Cleon]

Mystaran White Dragonfly
Small monstrosity, unaligned
Armor Class 1# (natural armor)
Hit Points ## (#d6 + ##)
Speed 20 ft., fly 50 ft. (hover)

STR​	DEX​	CON​	INT​	WIS​	CHA​
## (+–#)​	## (+–#)​	## (+–#)​	## (+–#)​	## (+–#)​	## (+–#)​

Saving Throws Stat +#
Skills Skill +#, Skill +#
Senses ???vision/sense/sight ## ft., passive Perception ##
Languages ### —
Challenge # (### XP) Proficiency Bonus +#

Special Trait. ???.

Special Trait. ???.

Actions

Multiattack. The dragonfly makes two attacks: one with its bite and one with its breath weapon.

Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +# to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: # (#d# + #) ??? damage.

Breath Weapon. ???.
 ???.

Bonus Actions

Bonus Action. ???.
  Dashing Flight?


Description

???.
 ???.
 Subsection. ???.
 ???.

 Subsection. ???.
 ???.

(Monster designed by Casimir Liber and Cleon on Enworld.org's General Monster Talk Creature Catalog Forum; based on the Basic/Expert D&D dragonfly that first appeared in XL1 - Quest for the Heartstone (1984) by Michael L. Gray.)

 

[Cleon]

Mystaran Dragonfly Nymph

(Monster designed by Casimir Liber and Cleon on Enworld.org's General Monster Talk Creature Catalog Forum; based on the Basic/Expert D&D version of the Dragonfly that first appeared in XL1 - Quest for the Heartstone (1984).)

 

[Cleon]

I guess the first question is… what are we calling the dang things?

The original monster was simply a "Dragonfly" but that's a bit confusing if we've got a giant insect Dragonfly too.

My placeholders use "Dragon Fly" but that isn't much better.

Any preferences?

EDIT: Oh, and I've updated the Index of 5E Monster Arthropods and Want List of Monstrous Arthropods.

 

[Casimir Liber]

Well it depends what we see as canon really- in Mystara/BECMI they were just Dragon Fly - so strictly speaking, iuf that is the canon then we are stuck with that as a name

alternates could be draconic odonatid?

 

[Cleon]

Well it depends what we see as canon really- in Mystara/BECMI they were just Dragon Fly - so strictly speaking, iuf that is the canon then we are stuck with that as a name

It was "Dragonfly" (one word), splitting it into "Dragon Fly" was my doing.

The text of the monsters also has "giant dragonfly," which doesn't help much!

XL1, AC9 and DMR2 all have "There are five different colors of giant dragonfly" as the start of their third sentence. The Mystaran Monstrous Compendium has "Often called a giant dragonfly" as the start of the second sentence and "The giant dragonflies of Mystara" in Ecology.

Hey, the last offers a solution: Mystaran Dragonfly.

Alternatively, we could crib from the class of dragon they are hybrid with and call it a Chromatic Dragonfly.

Incidentally, the idea of splitting the word into "Dragon Fly" was inspired by the AD&D Sea Lion, the half-lion half-fish monster. In Third Edition the name "Sea Lion" was for the pinniped animal and the mermaid-style hybrid was renamed "Sea Cat" which seemed a bit dull to me. They could have at least called it a Sea Panther or Seapard so they sound a exciting. Sea cat sounds like a brand of budget water vehicles!

Looks up on internet…

…correction, SeaCat was a ferry service! The name came from them using catamaran ships.

I guess the Sea Lion => Sea Cat offers precedent for changing the Fly in our boys, but calling it a Dragon Insect is hardly inspiring.

 

[Casimir Liber]

I think I'd go with Mystaran Dragonfly, all things considered

 

[Cleon]

Mystaran Gold Dragonfly
Small monstrosity, unaligned
Armor Class 1# (natural armor)
Hit Points ## (#d6 + ##)
Speed 20 ft., fly 50 ft. (hover)

STR​	DEX​	CON​	INT​	WIS​	CHA​
## (+–#)​	## (+–#)​	## (+–#)​	## (+–#)​	## (+–#)​	## (+–#)​

Saving Throws Stat +#
Skills Skill +#, Skill +#
Senses ???vision/sense/sight ## ft., passive Perception ##
Languages ### —
Challenge # (### XP) Proficiency Bonus +#

Special Trait. ???.

Special Trait. ???.

Actions

Multiattack. The dragonfly makes two attacks: one with its bite and one with its breath weapon.

Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +# to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: # (#d# + #) ??? damage.

Breath Weapon. ???.
 ???.

Bonus Actions

Bonus Action. ???.
  Dashing Flight?


Description

???.
 ???.
 Subsection. ???.
 ???.

 Subsection. ???.
 ???.

(Monster designed by Casimir Liber and Cleon on Enworld.org's General Monster Talk Creature Catalog Forum; based on the Basic/Expert D&D Dragonfly that first appeared in Dungeon Magazine #6 (July/August 1987) in the adventure "The Tortles of the Purple Sage—Part 1" by Merle and Jackie Rasmussen.)

 

[Casimir Liber]

Agreed - ok, shall we aim to make them CR 2/3/4/5/6/7 for white/black/green/blue/red/gold dragonflies?

 

[Cleon]

Agreed - ok, shall we aim to make them CR 2/3/4/5/6/7 for white/black/green/blue/red/gold dragonflies?

That seems too high. The BECMI dragonflies ranged from XP 35 to XP 175 which is what, from a Giant Crab, Shadow or War Horse up to a Grizzly Bear, Gargoyle or Owlbear.

None of those are Challenge 7 in Fifth Edition.

A Mystaran Dragonfly is a nasty little bugger but even a Red Dragonfly is nothing like as lethal as a CR 6 or 7 creature like a Mammoth, Mind Flayer or Young Dragon.

I'm thinking somewhere more in the CR 1/2 to 2 or CR 1 to 3 range, although that might mean we'll have several dragonflies doubling up in the same Challenge Rating.

 

[Cleon]

Hold on a sec…

Agreed - ok, shall we aim to make them CR 2/3/4/5/6/7 for white/black/green/blue/red/gold dragonflies?

Gold Dragonflies? The Creature Catalogs and Quest for the Heartstone only have Chromatic Dragonflies, how did a Metallic sneak in?

Goes off to check…

…Oh yes, they're a New Monster in a Dungeon Magazine adventure.

Hmm, not sure whether to do those. I'm more in favour of just doing the Chromatics.

We can always add them later if we wanted to, but if we're doing the Gold I'd be thinking of doing the Brass, Bronze, Copper and Silver too while we're at it!