Weiley31
Legend
So, if they ever came out with Racial Feats for Tabaxi, Gnolls would technically be eligible to take them if they are related more to cats than dogs.
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NOW LIVE! Into the Woods--new character species, eerie monsters, and haunting villains to populate the woodlands of your D&D games.
D&D 5E Let’s Read Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse.
- Thread starter Leatherhead
- Start date
the Jester
Legend
Humanoids are the new demihumans.
It seems like the logic of creature types is being annulled in favor of a player-centric design. I'm of mixed mind about this.
FitzTheRuke
Legend
It's amusing to me that the only time I've ever used Derro, they were a sympathetic oppressed minority (or in other words, more human) while the Duergar were the monsters.
Micah Sweet
Level Up & OSR Enthusiast
Yeah, worldbuilding is being eaten by the tyranny of personal expression. Letting the players do whatever they want has somehow become more important than setting consistency.
FitzTheRuke
Legend
I'm not sure I follow you. How does designers changing monster tags make your setting inconsistent or let players do whatever they want?
Micah Sweet
Level Up & OSR Enthusiast
Sorry, I thought I was posting in a different thread.
Leatherhead
Possibly a Idiot.
Frost Giant Everlasting One (VgtM)
Frost giants live in a “Might makes Right” based society, where leadership is established by how many skulls you can bash. Unfortunately, even for a giant, natural strength of arms can only take one so far. Many resort to other means to augment their battle prowess, from powerful items to spells. The Frost Giant Everlasting One is a giant that has been “blessed” by the god Vaprak, granting them a trollish temperament and trollish regeneration, partially thanks to eating an entire troll. As expected, this gives them quite the advantage in battles against Frost Giants, because they don’t typically wield fire. Should an Everlasting one lose the blessing of Vaprak, their regeneration goes haywire, growing tumors, digits, limbs, even extra heads.
Aside from simply having a bigger and beefier giant to smash your PCs, this could be a buy in for the realm of political meddling. The players might want a particular giant to rule the tribe so they can form an alliance, only for the Everlasting One to stand in the way.
In combat, the Everlasting One is basically a Barbarian. They rage, they rush in, they smash. As an alternative to attacking with their Greataxe, they are specialized in grappling, but unfortunately have no particular synergies to use once they grab ahold of someone. In order to capitalize on that particular tactic, you should have hazards for the giant to throw people into. Unlike PC Barbarians, the Everlasting One has a competent ranged attack, the good old Rock, which they can even Multiattack with. Every Everlasting One has a 25% chance to have an extra head, granting them advantage on perception checks and a bunch of saving throws. To really show the idea of them regenerating “wrongly” consider having one grow an extra head during combat.
In the changeover, the Everlasting one had their Rock attack appended to their Multiattack.
Leatherhead
Possibly a Idiot.
Frost Salamander (MToF)
Frost Salamanders are huge elementals that also resemble amphibians. Unlike the true amphibians in this book the Frost Salamander is not aquatic, unless you count living in ice as living in water. In which case their burrowing and climbing powers combined with tremorsense make them better adapted to their environment than any of their peers.
Despite being a relatively intelligent elemental with the ability to speak, the frost salamanders have an ecology similar to a beast. These Salamanders live on the Plane of Ice, and sometimes wander to similarly frigid climates on the Material Plane. Despite being vulnerable to fire, they like to hunt down and devour heat sources, including warm-blooded adventurers and their campfires. Frost Salamanders are sometimes tamed by Frost Giants for their ability to dig out caves in ice. And Azers often hunt them (by using fire as bait) for their body parts to make weapons and armor.
In combat, the CR 9 Frost Salamander will use its burrowing speed and tremorsense to get into an advantageous position, preferably one where it can use its Freezing breath. While vulnerable to fire, this breath automatically recharges when damaged by any heat, making that particular tactic a case of burning the candle at both ends, unless the PCs are packing cold resistance that is. Their multiattack is divided up into 5 separate attacks, each with 10' or greater range. This means they are very likely to draw out at least one crit in any given combat, and they have precision control of their DPR, should they down a target after an attack or two, they can switch to a new one easily. The Frost Salamander lacks a ranged attack (other than the short range on their breath weapon), but has enough advanced movement options to where that isn’t a fatal flaw for them. A burrowing speed can be used to grant total cover for escape or tactical repositioning, and if I ever had the authority to change the Tarrasque, it's something I would slap on D&Ds most famous high CR chump in a heartbeat.
The only change to the Frost Salamander’s stat block was the inclusion of its proficiency bonus as a line item (and that’s not a change if you are currently using the digital stat block from D&D beyond) Though to be fair, the Frost Salamander is an almost perfect monster to begin with.
Leatherhead
Possibly a Idiot.
Gauth (VgtM)
Gauth are lesser beholders who love to eat magical items. They can also eat meat if they are hungry, but the magic from magical items keeps them anchored in the D&D world, if they starve themselves of magic, they are forced back to their home plane (presumably somewhere in the Far Realm). Gauth sometimes get to the material plane when the ritual to summon a Spectator goes wrong, and they often present themselves as either Spectators to feed upon the magic treasure they are “guarding” or as true Beholders, to intimidate and bully the summoning creatures into providing them with a constant stream of magic.
Even in combat, the CR 6 Gauth is simply a lesser beholder. Instead of the antimagic cone, they have a stunning gaze that can target anyone within 30’ of the Gauth who is looking at it. This is more of a defensive backup feature than a main attack, while the Gauth does have a hover speed it’s only 20’ meaning someone is likely to get in range before the Eye can fly away. The Gauth’s main weapons are their random eye rays. They can shoot up to 3 of them a turn. With a mix of control and damage that favors control, they are one of the few creatures in this book who could theoretically go for multiple rounds without dealing any significant damage (unless there is a nearby cliff to push someone off of) Rerolling any duplicate rays somewhat helps, but consider fudging the dice or altering the stat block into including at least one of the damage rays per turn. Otherwise, give them minions. Anything they can bully, even other lesser beholders, is fair game. In turn, they make excellent minions for True Beholders, should you want to beef up an encounter with the classic baddies.
In the Changeover, the Gauth was nerfed: Their HP was lowered, and their bite, which was only useful for OAs, had its accuracy lowered to be in line with the Gauth’s STR bonus.
Leatherhead
Possibly a Idiot.
Gazer (VGtM)
Gazers are the least of beholders, neither powerful, nor intelligent, nor even able to speak. When in the wild, they act like feral cats, an invasive species that preys upon the local wildlife, and sometimes acting as a nuisance to people. While they generally don't attack people-sized targets, a pack of them might be bold enough to try it. True Beholders sometimes keep them around as pets, and have the ability to see through the Gazer’s eyes, letting them serve as a remote spy drone.
The Gazer can be used as a familiar, joining the ranks of monsters that serve as rewards to the PCs, True Beholders often force them upon their spellcaster minions, partially as a “reward” but mostly to spy on any potential traitorous activity.
In combat, the Gazer hovers around and shoots two of its four eye beams. They also have a focus on control over damage. Should someone try to run from the mini-eye-tyrant, they also have the Aggressive Bonus action to close range.
The Gazer was changed for the new formatting.
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