D&D 5E Let’s Read Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse.

[Leatherhead]

Geryon (MToF)​

Geryon is an Archdevil, who lost control of the icy realm of Stygia, to Levestus, an Archdevil who is locked up in a block of ice. How the proud and mighty hunter got outmaneuvered by someone who is literally immobile is something that is often joked about in the Courts of Hell, as well as any sagely gatherings that study such events.

Geryon is more hands-on than the majority of his Devilish peers. He likes to wade into the thick of battle to claw at his foes and drink their blood. This approach has proven less than effective for gathering souls and establishing a hierarchy, which is probably why he isn’t the ruler of Stygia anymore. He also has a giant horn that can be used to summon minotaurs to his aid in combat, something that I am sure Baphomet would be interested in. Geryon spends his days hunting the strongest creatures from across the multiverse, coiling up on his treasure piles like a dragon, and amassing an army strong enough to depose Levestus, if not Asmodeus.

Despite his losses and disorganization, Geryon still has cultists. Mostly those Lawful Evil types who wholeheartedly believe that Might Makes Right and that the weak should serve the strong. Said cultists can enjoy a bonus action to increase their Melee Damage, while the cult leaders have a reaction to resist any kind of damage.

Recently Geryon has reclaimed Coldsteel fortress in Stygia, and thus has access to lair actions. He is unique in that he might be the first creature so far where all of three of his lair actions are useful. Banishment is great control. Chill Blast is a fine little AoE damage power, and Hateful Restraints is a ranged restrain that he doesn't have to concentrate on.

In combat, you must first determine if Geryon’s Horn is on cooldown or not, if it isn’t then he is going to have the immediate backup of up to 20 Minotaurs, and there is really no reason why he wouldn’t do that to open in any combat that he is in. For the rest of combat, he is a melee controller. While Wall of Ice is a very tempting spell, keep in mind it requires concentration, and he needs that for his Banish Lair action, which is definitely more useful. Ice Storm might be useful if he is facing an entire army, but his multiattack is generally more deadly. His claw attack also grapples for a bunch of damage, and deals extra damage while the target is grappled. Given that he can also fly, his combat routine should be grab, fly, sting. His Sting poisons (for a very long time!), which will grant disadvantage on trying to escape his grapple, and even if the target wiggles out, they will still plummet to the icy ground below.

For legendary actions, Geryon can Glare at a target to make them afraid of him for a turn, which is a nice smattering of control on the off turn. He can also teleport up to 120 in any direction, which is a nice way of quickly getting up to terminal velocity range for a grab and drop. If neither of those two options are particularly appealing at the moment, he can just stab whomever he is grappling again with his tail stinger for a bit of extra damage.

In the changeover, Geryon lost a few spells, but nothing that would really impact his combat performance (unless you like to set up Symbol traps). His claw was changed to cold damage, and his stinger was changed to force damage, to replace his magic weapons trait.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

I like Geryon he's been a staple of the game for a while.

 

[Weiley31]

I like the idea of Geryon grabbing you, flying up in the air, and then suplexing/piledriving a PC into the ground below.

 

[Leatherhead]

Giant Strider (VGtM)​

Giant Striders are large elemental lizards that look vaguely like a plucked chicken, and love to spit fire at their enemies. Naturally found in tropical and volcanic regions, they are often tamed by Firenewts as war mounts.

Giant Striders have a very rare ability (In 5e at least): Fire Absorption. A step up from fire immunity, instead of being damaged when exposed to fire, they heal from it. (At least in theory, their fire immunity might make that technically impossible, but we can clearly see what the dev team was going for here.) Which is an amazing gimmick, being able to not only indiscriminately firebomb the battlefield, but also directly benefit from doing so is a huge tactical advantage. It does beg the question though: Can they willingly fail a saving throw on a Fireball or the like? Better yet, should it just be an autonomous reaction to being lit on fire, where they “count as having taken the rolled damage as if they didn’t save against it”?

While this does make a battle with land-locked firenewts interesting, it can also be applied to basically any fire aligned creatures who happen to get their hands on the Striders.

When not ridden into combat, the Giant Striders will run up and start pecking their targets to death, then follow up with a close blast from their own Fire Burst, to hopefully heal themselves a bit in the process. When they are being mounted, the tactics are best left up to the creatures riding them, but hopefully the rider is at least resistant to fire.

In the changeover, the Giant Strider was turned into an elemental instead of a monstrosity.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

A lot of changing monster types. I wonder what the thinking is behind it. I mean, obviously there are many creatures that could belong to multiple monster types. Why don't they just give them multiple type keywords, rather than pick one (and then change it to another)? Have they changed what they think of as "important" to what defines a type, or are they just trying to fill out some types that don't have enough monsters in them?

 

[Faolyn]

A lot of changing monster types. I wonder what the thinking is behind it. I mean, obviously there are many creatures that could belong to multiple monster types. Why don't they just give them multiple type keywords, rather than pick one (and then change it to another)? Have they changed what they think of as "important" to what defines a type, or are they just trying to fill out some types that don't have enough monsters in them?

Well, a lot of monsters really shouldn't be of a particular type and were really mis-typed. Like cranium rats were intelligent and magical/psionic, but were classified as beasts. Other creatures were probably changed to prevent being affected by certain spells.

 

[MechaTarrasque]

At least until they redo the PHB (if they decide to change the spells in the PHB), there is still the conjure minor elemental spell, which now means your wizard or druid can summon a flock of giant striders.

 

[Leatherhead]

Giff (MToF)​

Spelljammer conf… oh wait that already happened, we are going to have to confirm something else now.

Anyway, Giff are vaguely imperialistic hippopotamus people who love guns and explosions. They hang out in Wildspace forming mercenary bands where they take payment in gold, jems, or gunpowder.

Speaking of gunpowder, this entry has rules for exploding kegs of the stuff, because that is the natural course of action when PCs are introduced to the substance. Of note, the Rules for the Keg have not changed from their entry in MToF.

Giff combat tactics, at least for the particular brand of mercenary printed in this block, have quite the range of options, most of which work best in close to medium range.

The Giff could hang back behind cover, shooting at the enemies with their muskets. Should the enemy decide to do the same, the Giff will flush them out using a fragmentation grenade attack.

Or they could elect to charge at the enemy with their longsword. When the hippo-person charges at an enemy, they can damage and knock them prone for no action! This Headfirst Charge power is worded in such a way that it can even be a Point Blank AoE, usable against any enemies standing near each other in any kind of formation. For extra relish, their longsword attacks have better damage potential than their muskets, especially against prone targets. It is worth noting, however, that the Giff do not have any form of extra movement power, or even a particularly fast movement speed. At the very least you can combine this passive power with a dash, so their turn isn’t used up by just getting in range.

Their pistol attack is interesting. While technically they can use multiattack with any weapon they have, and don’t have to worry about loading their guns, there is a limit to the number of hands a humanoid possesses. This gives the pistol a niche where it gets around the somewhat cumbersome handedness rules. It’s usable in the case where a Giff eliminates an enemy in melee, and then uses their other attack to attack someone at range, it’s also usable in the rare situation when the Giff needs to threaten in melee (for an OA) but also attack something at range. Other than that intricacy,, save the muskets for the troops in the back, and let the vanguard wield their swords so that the enemy can’t sneak past.

The Giff was not significantly changed for this printing. Unless you count that weird thing where half of the multiverse now pronounces Giff as Giff.

 

[Weiley31]

I like Hippo-Ramming being capable of being used at point blank range.

 

[Leatherhead]

Girallon (VGtM)​

The Girallon is a large ape-like creature with four arms and two legs. And really, that is the long and the short of them. They are a gorilla 2.0 for you to use in those times when you need a monstrosity instead of a beast. Girallons live in troupes, hunt in a pack, and can be somewhat taimed. Though they can only be trusted with simple tasks when semi-domesticated.

Because that is an extremely short entry, I’m going to talk about one of my favorite attacks, and the glaring lack of it on this creature: The rock attack. The rock attack is very simple, the creature simply throws a rock at the target for some ranged coverage. Any creature of sufficient strength that possesses an articulated limb should be capable of it. Apes use them, Giants use them, even Treants use them. So why not the Girallon? Who knows? Personally, I would give the Girallon a rock attack in-line with their claw attack, and let them multiattack with it 4 times to really sell the experience of fighting a brute with four arms.

Speaking of Combat, the Girallon isn’t totally helpless at range, they possess the Aggressive Bonus action, and superior mobility options to close gaps quickly. They have 5 hits on their multiattack, which means it’s very likely for them to score at least one critical hit against the PCs (though the crit will be lowish damage, the psychological pressure can’t be understated.) Furthermore, their four arms are decent for grappling multiple targets, and their climb speed enables them to do the drag and drop should the situation present itself. And let's face it, you were just aching to do a “King Kong” anyway.

In the changeover, the Girallon had their Keen Smell power folded into their perception score.