Mind of tempest
(he/him)advocate for 5e psionics
During my recent illness, I began the dangerous task of thinking and concluded.
Dnd somehow does their categories wrong.
So, in my deranged wisdom, I have set out to catalogue aberrations and explain how to do them better without going back to square one. I want to ideally make them feel different from the deeply evil monster flavour: seafood mind devils.
List of categories of aberration:
aberration empires
lone monster
calamites
the misc stuff
Defining the aberration in ways that make sense
Aberrations being from or greatly influenced by the far realm and its denizens is a perfectly functional definition for a primer.
However, it is impractical for anything deeper, whether for clarity of definition, knowing what to expect in a fight or even how to make more.
At a minimum, they possess exotic biology resulting from metamorphic lifestyles, reproductive abilities, or simply their lifestyles.
More commonly, their biology works in part through mental processes, such as gaining energy or even location.
The far realm can warp native life to the point that it is almost unclassifiable and works according to rather different rules. One of the great fears with dealing with a major far realm incursion is that you will end up one of the horrors, for it acts like radiation only if the radiation works from the mind outwards.
Otherwise, they are more practical to classify by lifestyle or scale of effect, with the worst being unclassifiable as they equal or surpass demon lords, with the worst being more than a match for a full god.
aberration empires
The most comprehensible of all aberrations in basic motives, they operate civilisation of deep complexity but normally presently in a much-deminished state and exist in places that are hard to get to.
Normally, their end goals are broadly becoming massively powerful again or working towards an esoteric goal that does not easily translate to us.
Most present goals tend to end up with killing, enslaving or experimenting on the local people of the area or doing something really strange(people never seem to make the aberration make something seemingly good or perhaps genuinely good, to make use of for a plan)
The classics here are Aboleth and Mindflayers.
I find that too many of these categories have overlapping looks, modes of operation, and preferred environments. Some overlap is good, but too much is present right now.
I propose core locations defined
from the sea, from beneath the ground, dwellers in the sky, coming from the deep black of the void and horrors from other dimensions(as in they come from the astral or ethereal plane. most still have connections to the far realm) could also do time but atemporal asymmetric warfare is a bit hard to explain let alone make gameable.
If desired, I could try to make a few for each environment.
lone monsters
These are both the easiest to talk about, but the worst to define are the armies of strange horrors lurking about dungeons and such.
Most are dangerous but unable to form long-term groups, thus preventing them from becoming the empires mentioned above.
Some are merely alien animals, mutants touched by the far realm (I know there was a template for this, it was either pseudo-natural or far spawn), others are clearly sapient but mostly act alone or are too rarely seen for them to have much information on them.
Personal ideas on implementation, some are just utterly alien animals and are thus a sign the area is no longer normal.
The smart ones, I feel, should include beholders who do not make sense as an empire as they hate each other too much. Also, things like Goblin Punch's nobodies and Geminoids feel antiquely surreal to use as basic ideas.
links here: Cosmic Monster: Geminoids
goblinpunch.blogspot.com
Now, the mutants I feel would link in well with the calamities posted below, but I will leave three image examples to help explain my vision: pseudo-natural troll: https://i.pinimg.com/originals/d3/91/83/d39183dfa42079c14baf95be72fe4d60.jpg
pseudo-natural human: https://assetsio.gnwcdn.com/ff7-reb...00&fit=bounds&quality=70&format=jpg&auto=webp
Pseudo-natural dog:https://eldenring.wiki.fextralife.com/file/Elden-Ring/giant-dog-4-elden-ring-wiki-guide.jpg
Fundamentally, they are living beings warped into something else by eldritch forces.
calamities
Now calamities I hate the term elder evil as that infers a moral axiom to things that bring a pessimist nihilism to the setting as evil infers good may exist, secondly, I have played the new version of FF7 and Jenova The Calamity from the Sky feels like the sort of mythic name people would use from something that is outside of morality but deeply antithetical to everything but I have digressed from the work.
A calamity is an active greater aberration of such a scale as they massively warp an environment, a being terraformer, a singular far realm incursion, so to speak, but one with a core theme likely the same as whatever calamity is affecting you.
Those who worship them or work for them in more passive times call them a hundred names like old gods, great ones, outer entities, true gods, or other things said mostly by people who are either working for something horrible or are being had by someone.
I want to make a few of these at some point, ideally with concrete themes and what hell on earth they bring with them.
The misc stuff
here is the place with only one present example, the humble flumphs.
Here I have a vision aberration who are not primarily a foe, or at least neutral and open to working with the party towards goals.
I might make some hireable by evil or antagonists.
.
Basic ideas of some I am thinking of trying to make:
Dungeon merchants are some strange entities that can and will sell you nearly anything in exchange for stuff from gold to memories, running small-scale operations in the strangest of places example, in some small room in a mega-dungeon.
Some also run those shops that were never there yesterday that sell stuff that starts strange plots.
Guys who can resurrect you. Strange head-sized spider-looking things that ride on headless beings.
They have cracked perfect necromancy to the point they can exactly resurrect the dead- they will not share this secret with you, but you can be heir to resurrect the dead.
Your buddy's character or the bbeg.
They want interesting specimens for their plan to make the perfect being. Bring them specimens, dead or alive, is how you pay them, or you can work off your debt.
information dealers
metallic masked shadow things who feed on dreams, strictly mercenary in dealing, they can be hired, they work for anyone if they can be found in the area
A good guy who you might still get to fight
My vision is hazy here, but I want something sincerely good that, for complex reasons, you can often end up in armed conflict with, but you would naturally ally whenever an evil thing makes itself known
Dnd somehow does their categories wrong.
So, in my deranged wisdom, I have set out to catalogue aberrations and explain how to do them better without going back to square one. I want to ideally make them feel different from the deeply evil monster flavour: seafood mind devils.
List of categories of aberration:
aberration empires
lone monster
calamites
the misc stuff
Defining the aberration in ways that make sense
Aberrations being from or greatly influenced by the far realm and its denizens is a perfectly functional definition for a primer.
However, it is impractical for anything deeper, whether for clarity of definition, knowing what to expect in a fight or even how to make more.
At a minimum, they possess exotic biology resulting from metamorphic lifestyles, reproductive abilities, or simply their lifestyles.
More commonly, their biology works in part through mental processes, such as gaining energy or even location.
The far realm can warp native life to the point that it is almost unclassifiable and works according to rather different rules. One of the great fears with dealing with a major far realm incursion is that you will end up one of the horrors, for it acts like radiation only if the radiation works from the mind outwards.
Otherwise, they are more practical to classify by lifestyle or scale of effect, with the worst being unclassifiable as they equal or surpass demon lords, with the worst being more than a match for a full god.
aberration empires
The most comprehensible of all aberrations in basic motives, they operate civilisation of deep complexity but normally presently in a much-deminished state and exist in places that are hard to get to.
Normally, their end goals are broadly becoming massively powerful again or working towards an esoteric goal that does not easily translate to us.
Most present goals tend to end up with killing, enslaving or experimenting on the local people of the area or doing something really strange(people never seem to make the aberration make something seemingly good or perhaps genuinely good, to make use of for a plan)
The classics here are Aboleth and Mindflayers.
I find that too many of these categories have overlapping looks, modes of operation, and preferred environments. Some overlap is good, but too much is present right now.
I propose core locations defined
from the sea, from beneath the ground, dwellers in the sky, coming from the deep black of the void and horrors from other dimensions(as in they come from the astral or ethereal plane. most still have connections to the far realm) could also do time but atemporal asymmetric warfare is a bit hard to explain let alone make gameable.
If desired, I could try to make a few for each environment.
lone monsters
These are both the easiest to talk about, but the worst to define are the armies of strange horrors lurking about dungeons and such.
Most are dangerous but unable to form long-term groups, thus preventing them from becoming the empires mentioned above.
Some are merely alien animals, mutants touched by the far realm (I know there was a template for this, it was either pseudo-natural or far spawn), others are clearly sapient but mostly act alone or are too rarely seen for them to have much information on them.
Personal ideas on implementation, some are just utterly alien animals and are thus a sign the area is no longer normal.
The smart ones, I feel, should include beholders who do not make sense as an empire as they hate each other too much. Also, things like Goblin Punch's nobodies and Geminoids feel antiquely surreal to use as basic ideas.
links here: Cosmic Monster: Geminoids
Cosmic Monster: Geminoids
This is a continuation of my series on the non - Euclidean , this time a non-Euclidean monster . Imagine a 2-dimensional world, full of 2...
goblinpunch.blogspot.com
pseudo-natural human: https://assetsio.gnwcdn.com/ff7-reb...00&fit=bounds&quality=70&format=jpg&auto=webp
Pseudo-natural dog:https://eldenring.wiki.fextralife.com/file/Elden-Ring/giant-dog-4-elden-ring-wiki-guide.jpg
Fundamentally, they are living beings warped into something else by eldritch forces.
calamities
Now calamities I hate the term elder evil as that infers a moral axiom to things that bring a pessimist nihilism to the setting as evil infers good may exist, secondly, I have played the new version of FF7 and Jenova The Calamity from the Sky feels like the sort of mythic name people would use from something that is outside of morality but deeply antithetical to everything but I have digressed from the work.
A calamity is an active greater aberration of such a scale as they massively warp an environment, a being terraformer, a singular far realm incursion, so to speak, but one with a core theme likely the same as whatever calamity is affecting you.
Those who worship them or work for them in more passive times call them a hundred names like old gods, great ones, outer entities, true gods, or other things said mostly by people who are either working for something horrible or are being had by someone.
I want to make a few of these at some point, ideally with concrete themes and what hell on earth they bring with them.
The misc stuff
here is the place with only one present example, the humble flumphs.
Here I have a vision aberration who are not primarily a foe, or at least neutral and open to working with the party towards goals.
I might make some hireable by evil or antagonists.
.
Basic ideas of some I am thinking of trying to make:
Dungeon merchants are some strange entities that can and will sell you nearly anything in exchange for stuff from gold to memories, running small-scale operations in the strangest of places example, in some small room in a mega-dungeon.
Some also run those shops that were never there yesterday that sell stuff that starts strange plots.
Guys who can resurrect you. Strange head-sized spider-looking things that ride on headless beings.
They have cracked perfect necromancy to the point they can exactly resurrect the dead- they will not share this secret with you, but you can be heir to resurrect the dead.
Your buddy's character or the bbeg.
They want interesting specimens for their plan to make the perfect being. Bring them specimens, dead or alive, is how you pay them, or you can work off your debt.
information dealers
metallic masked shadow things who feed on dreams, strictly mercenary in dealing, they can be hired, they work for anyone if they can be found in the area
A good guy who you might still get to fight
My vision is hazy here, but I want something sincerely good that, for complex reasons, you can often end up in armed conflict with, but you would naturally ally whenever an evil thing makes itself known
