The first H entry should be in two days, and Hobgoblins not long after that. Got to pace myself to avoid burning out on all these monsters, we are up to 119 so far, which is basically half the book done in 83 entries. I do hope they have some errata in the stand-alone book, there was at least one typo I found, and I'm horrible at spelling.
Grungs (VGtM)
Grungs are the other frog-folk, found primarily in rain forests and tropical jungles, and loosely inspired by poison dart frogs. For those of you wondering, the only place to get playable PC stats for Grungs is still just the One Grung Above adventure.
Grungs are amphibious, to the point where they require being immersed in water for at least 1 hour a day. But like Firenewts they don’t actually possess a swim speed, meaning they suffer a movement penalty when trying to use their semi-aquatic nature to their advantage. Fortunately, the Grungs in this book come equipped with a dagger, meaning they can at least attack normally when swimming. Grungs also have a climb speed (great for hanging out in trees) and the Standing Leap power, allowing them to jump up to 25’ of distance and up to 15’ high without a running start. Over all, despite their 25’ base speed and lack of a swim speed, their movement potential is arguably better than any non-flying, non-teleporting creature.
Grungs also have the Poisonous Skin ability, allowing them to poison anyone who touches or is touched by the Grung. The poison can do more if you are using the optional Variant Rules presented in this book, and you should, they are very fun. Either way, it makes for a heck of a rider on what would otherwise be a non-damaging shove (Grungs even have a bonus to Athletics in order to facilitate any shoving, despite their STR penalties). This poison is further condensed and coated on their weapons, allowing for a small damage boost.
The standard Grung statblock here is a CR ¼ humanoid, easily filling in for a bandit, guard, or other lower threat combatant. They come equipped with a poisoned dagger, which can be used in melee, or thrown at short range from above should melee combat prove too dangerous. Their movement options allow them to easily circumvent any frontline warriors and put pressure on the squishy backrows, where their poison will be more effective. And don’t underestimate their shoving potential, with a +2 bonus and the contact poison, they stand a very good chance of pushing around anyone who isn’t proficient in either athletics or acrobatics. Pushing someone off a tree is iffy, mostly because the people climbing trees at these levels are probably proficient at it (and thus hard for the little frogs to push around), but pushing someone into the water below the trees could prove devastating, especially if the target is also poisoned in the attempt, and thus has disadvantage on swim checks.
Grung Elite Warrior
The Elite warrior is a CR 2 Grung, armed with a poisoned shortbow for good ranged coverage, and the Mesmerizing Chirr power. The Chirr is a PBAoE stun on a 6 recharge, and should be used whenever they can make it work because stun is just that good. Otherwise they fight identically to a normal grung.
Grung Wilding
The Wilding is a Grung Ranger. It also has all of the abilities of a standard Grung and a poisoned shortbow for good ranged coverage, but at CR 1. Instead of the Chirr, it has spellcasting. And let me say, the Wilding’s spells are quite good.
Plant Growth is a spell that changes a 100’ of the combat map into super-difficult terrain (that may or may not stack with normal difficult terrain depending on how hard you want to be as a DM). And
Spike Growth, which makes difficult terrain that also damages anyone caught in it. Combining the spells creates a thicket of doom for the Grungs to herd and push the PCs into. Keep in mind, the Grungs can simply climb and jump over this mess, so they don’t even have to put up with it. The Wilding also has the
Cure Wounds spell, at a level of the game where it would actually be useful.
In the Changeover, the Wilding was the only Grung significantly changed. It lost the
Barkskin spell (in favor of a static AC boost) and the totally useless
Jump spell, which it couldn’t even use due to the fact they can already jump their total movement speed.
