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

[MonsterEnvy]

I think the Rutterkin at CR 2 are decent for their jobs, they come in hordes after all.

 

[Leatherhead]

Sea Spawn (VGtM)​

Sea Spawn are fishy folks who have fallen under the influence of a master from the deep fathoms below. As a result, they have transformed from humanoids into piscine monstrosities.

The book goes incredibly in depth to provide ways to use these creatures in a campaign. Including a list of aquatic patrons (with examples for basically every tier of play, if you remember that Hag Covens exist) for these spawn to serve and a few reasons why someone might strike a deal with them. Furthermore, the book even outlines a village, including supporting creatures which would be good to use alongside the Sea Spawn.

I wish more monster entries had this level of detail. The only thing this entry lacks is a combat routine.

Speaking of which, the Sea Spawn is a Slow Melee Brute, with a few caveats. Firstly, they are only slow while on land. In the water they can easily outswim most PCs due to actually having a swim speed (I’m never going to get over Firenewts). Secondly, their fishy mutations provide a smattering of control options for them to abuse. Their tentacle attack can grapple someone underwater, while drowning isn’t likely to happen over the span of a combat, it can severely hamper a melee combatant with disadvantage. And their Poison Quills attack can poison, obviously. Being situationally subpar is fine, so long as you can engineer the situation where they are situationally better.

In the changeover, the Sea Spawn lost the ability to speak Aquan, and changed from a humanoid into a monstrosity. Also, their Piscine Anatomy action now has an optional random die roll to pick an attack, if you are into that kind of thing.

 

[renbot]

Suggestion: after the 10th post on a topic tangential to the OP you should probably start a new thread. No one clicked on "Let's Read MPMotM" for yet another endless digression into CR.

 

[QuentinGeorge]

Suggestion: after the 10th post on a topic tangential to the OP you should probably start a new thread. No one clicked on "Let's Read MPMotM" for yet another endless digression into CR.

 

[Leatherhead]

Shadar-kai (MToF)​

Sharar-kai are elves from the Shadowfell, and are infamous for being macabre servants of the Raven Queen. As such, they love to collect tragedies, either in the form of objects that have a tragic history tied to them, or by influencing events to cause new ones in an attempt to entertain their Queen.

The book goes on to describe the Fortress of Memories, the place where the Raven Queen stores these sorrowful keepsakes, and even a few souls that fit the bill. PCs could be tasked to retrieve some memento from the place, if you are looking for a reason for them to go there.

The Shadar-kai in this book all come with a custom weapon. Given the nature of the Raven Queen, it is up to the DM if these weapons are lootable, and what form they would take in the hands of a player.

Gloom Weaver

Gloom Weavers are shadow-magic warriors, or in a word, Hexblades. Though they lack the Warlock tag for some reason.

In combat, the Gloom Weaver should come pre-buffed. Mage Armor and Truesight will enable them to last longer and perform more tricks for their fight. Their main attack is a three-piece multiattack with their Shadow Spear, which can be used in melee or at range. One of these attacks can be swapped out to cast a spell. Heavy consideration should be given as to which spell should be picked. Darkness is always good, sending out spears at advantage, while making reprisal harder from within the bubble is a classic Warlock trick. Confusion is a way to eat up actions. Arcane Gate can relocate an entire combat force quickly, making it good for escape or ambush. And there can be an argument for Bane if you have two Gloom Weavers in the same combat. The rest aren’t particularly great options.

What is great is their Burden of Time aura, which inflicts disadvantage on saving throws for just standing next to the Gloom Weaver, something every caster can exploit. And their Misty Escape reaction power, which allows them to teleport and turn invisible when they are hurt.

In the changeover, the Gloom Weaver lost a bunch of its spells, its warlock casting mechanic, and for some reason became “Typically Neutral Evil” instead of just “Neutral”. In return, their Multiattack gained a third Shadow Spear Attack.

Shadow Dancer

Shadow Dancers are a type of melee skirmishing controller who uses a spiked chain, and teleports from shadow to shadow. Mapping them directly to a PC class is basically impossible due to their collection of themed powers.

In combat, the Shadow Dancer can lash out with their chain three times with their multiattack, which can attack with reach and has three different riders to pick from: Prone, Grapple, or extra damage. They can also teleport between shadows as a bonus action, and the stat block goes out of the way to point out they can do so in between their attacks. Despite being fairly simple, they hit all the marks required to be a competent melee unit, and do well in any encounter so long as there is dynamic lighting.

The Shadow Dancer was not significantly changed for this printing.

Soul Monger

I will start off with this disclaimer: Soul Mongers are significantly deadlier than their CR implies, use extra consideration when sending them against your PCs, especially if you send a group of them.

Soul Mongers are basically emotional vampires, and are another NPC that doesn’t map directly to any class. Which is great because they possess attacks that bypass HP.

In combat, the Soul Monger multiattacks with their Shadow Dagger on the first turn, and then casts a spell or uses its Wave of Weariness on the subsequent turn. The Shadow Dagger inflicts the target with disadvantage on saving throws, meaning that even CON saves have a good chance of landing. Even though the Shadow Dagger is a ranged attack, it is still best used in melee, where the Soul Monger can use their AoE speed reduction Aura to keep foes from escaping.

Important note: Wave of Weariness causes Exhaustion in an AoE, which means even PCs that survive the fight are going to need extra time to recover. Should there be multiple Soul Mongers in a fight, it can even lead to death, as Exhaustion quickly accrues stacking penalties on basically everything.

While waiting on Wave of Weariness to recharge, the Soul Monger can toss out a Bestow Curse to further hamper their opponents, or a Finger of Death to finish one off.

Another Important Note: when a Soul Monger brings an enemy to 0 hps, they gain a bunch of temp HP, and Advantage on all attack rolls while they have this HP, which can cause the encounter to quickly spiral out of control.

In the changeover, the Soul Monger lost a bunch of spells, but they are still extremely deadly.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Good ol' Shadar-Kai. If it were up to me, though, rather than elves, they'd be one of those "races" that can be any race that spent too much time in the Shadowfell, or is under the influence of the Raven Queen. In 4e, IIRC, they were humans. When I read that they had been elves before that, I made them whatever I felt like. I had halfling Shadar-Kai.

 

[Leatherhead]

Shadow Mastiffs (VGtM)​

This book has a stat block for Shadow Mastiffs, and Shadow Mastiff Alphas. Which is remarkable, because the Alpha previously didn’t have a proper stat block, it was just a (relatively simple) template to apply to the regular Shadow Mastiff. So the Stat block is new (mostly because it’s no longer completely derivative), but the monster isn’t New. Mostly, this gives some small hope to people that want the other templates from VGtM to make a return. I’m rooting for the Mind Flayer Psion and alternate Hag Covens myself.

Shadow Mastiff

Shadow Mastiffs are dogs that are native to the Shadowfell. Due to the corrupting nature of the plane, they have the ability to blend into shadows, to the point where they can become invisible, and bright light hinders them. The interesting part of this invisibility is that it also covers whatever the Shadow Mastiff is carrying, which includes people. A shadow Mastiff can drag someone off into the shadows to disappear. Even more dangerous is the possibility of a small sized rider benefitting from the added stealth, as the rider attacking doesn’t break invisibility. Shadow Mastiffs can also see into the Ethereal, which makes them great guard dogs for the people that summon them for such purposes.

In combat, in addition to all the stuff outlined above, the Shadow Mastiff can knock a target prone with their bite.

The Shadow Mastiff had their Keen Smell folded into their perception score for this book.

Shadow Mastiff Alpha

Alphas are the leader of their respective packs. They have all of the abilities of a regular Shadow Mastiff, more HP, more intelligence, and a Terrifying Howl that can scare all humanoids and beasts in a massive 300’ AoE.

Using this book, an Alpha has slightly more HP, and thus a higher CR. It too had it’s Keen Smell replaced with a flat bonus to perception.

 

[Leatherhead]

Shoosuva (VGtM)​

Shoosuva are hyena-demons, that are in the service of Yeenoghu*, obviously. They are often given as a gift to particularly noteworthy cultists*, including Gnolls, and especially Gnoll Fangs of Yeenoghu†. Any Gnoll who manages to receive such a boon is considered to be a high ranking member of their warband, only second to a Flind‡.

* Much Later in this book.
† Not actually in this book, they are in the MM, and confirmed to be in the Revised MM too I guess.
‡ Previously in this book.

I suppose the main takeaway from this is that despite Gnolls turning into Monstrosities or Demons in this book, there are still humanoid cultists of Yeenoghu that can run with the pack.

Shoosuva are, despite their relatively simple combat routine, more dangerous than their CR of 8 would imply. They have a multiattack with a Bite and a Tail Stinger. Demonic resistances. The Rampage feature that enables them to key off of Gnoll leaders (or just go on a rampage). And they are big and fast enough to make for an effective mount. What makes them stand out is the poison that their tail stinger comes with. This poison also paralyzes, which is a really bad status condition to have when you are surrounded by hungry Gnolls (or Canibal Cultists for that matter).

In the changeover, the Shoosuva lost their resistance to non-magic weapons, but at CR 8 basically everyone had one anyway. In return, they gained 26 HP, which is quite the windfall at any level.

 

[Leatherhead]

Sibriex (MToF)​

A Sibriex is a Legendary CR 18 Demon, and also one of D&D’s Extremely Dangerous Monsters. Though there are numerous ways to counter such deadliness at that level of play, it’s still worth noting. At any rate, it makes the Sibriex an appropriately dramatic “End Boss” monster for an adventure.

Unlike most Demons, a Sibriex isn’t all about destroying everything, they are about fleshcrafting everything into horrible nightmares. You could honestly separate Demons into the “Destruction is the Goal” and “Destruction is the means to get to the Goal” camps, with the latter being the more usable and interesting of the two. A Sibriex in particular is an excuse to use all the weird monsters you have been wanting to use. Throw in some cultists with bioorganic magitechnology (the Symbiotic magic items from Eberron are a great fit for this niche) and you have yourself the skeleton of an adventure.

In combat, a Sibriex is extremely deadly. They have an action called Warp Creature that targets up to three creatures and hits them with a level of Exhaustion and Poisons them. Furthermore, if the targets fail the ongoing save against the Poison, they gain another level of Exhaustion. Even more furthermore, the Sibriex can use this as a Legendary Action, stacking as many as 3 levels of Exhaustion per turn. It only takes 6 Exhaustion levels to kill someone, so we are looking at two turns to kill. And if that isn’t enough, any creature killed this way becomes a Manes, preventing resurrection.

There is even an Optional Variant table in the book, that gives random mutations whenever a creature fails their save against Flesh Warping, or when someone willingly approaches the Sibriex and sticks around for an hour to receive such “boons.” This table can add some body horror to the encounter, and serve as a source of inspiration for cultist mutations.

As a backup plan, they can hover just out of melee range to assault targets with their multiattack and damaging aura, while using their Legendary Actions to cast their control spells. Feeblemind, in particular, is a hard shutdown against any caster. But none of the options are bad, which is a surprise to be sure.

In the Changeover, Sibriexes lost their Bite attack, lost some damage from their Squirt Bile attack, and had their Chain attack changed into force damage. As for spells, they lost Charm Person, and 2 castings per day of Feeblemind. The two additional castings of Feeblemind actually pushed this monster over the edge in this case, as instead of shutting down one caster, they could effectively shut down most of the enemy casters.

 

[Leatherhead]

Skulk (MToF)​

Not all who wander are lost, but the same cannot be said of Skulks. Skulks are what is left after a person gets lost in the Shadowfell, an invisible soulless husk in the form of a humanoid. This alone gives you a few plot hooks: How long can a PC survive without being husked, how can you save someone who is already a Skulk. But there is more.

Skulks are played up for creepiness. Permanently invisible, save for three things, one of those things being the sight of a Child. You could have one stalking a kid, while none of the adults believe them. Heck, you could have an adventure where all the PCs are children (or characters under the age of 10), and they have to confront the Skulks without outside help. Which should be perfect for those friends of yours who are getting into D&D because of Stranger things.

And there is still more! Skulks can be summoned to the Prime via a Ritual. The summoner can task the Skulk with any quest that takes 30 days or less, after which the summoner no longer has control over them. The obvious uses are assasination, theft, and spying. But perhaps some careless summoner is using them to bake pies or something, you never know. At any rate, after the 30 days are up, the Skulk is freed into the world, where it likes to get violent, as death is the only surefire way back to the Shadowfell. If a group of Skulks get free, they can even upend an entire town. At which point the Skulks just kind of pretend to be the people they killed (because they have nothing better to do), making for a “Ghost town” experience.

Despite all that flavor, a Skulk is really a one-trick pony in combat: They are an invisible monster with some claws. And once the gimmick is revealed, they really lose their bluster, and a great deal of their danger.

In the changeover, the Skulk had their situational damage replaced with a reduced bit of static damage, and they lost their immunity to radiant damage. A real shame, because there aren’t many monsters that can boast an immunity to that damage type.