Libertad
Hero
Content Warning: Picture of an ettercap on the cover. I don’t know if that monster specifically triggers arachnophobia.
DM’s Guild Page
The concept of playing monsters has existed for a long time in Dungeons & Dragons, from Gygax allowing a homebrewed Balrog growing into their power to 2nd Edition’s Reverse Dungeon and 3rd Edition’s Savage Species sourcebook. 5th Edition has been more lenient in allowing monstrous races as starting-level options, such as fairies, lizardfolk, and yuan-ti.
However, there are few adventures designed to be played from the monster’s perspective in the vein of Reverse Dungeon. Turning the Tables walks a similar path in creating seven one-shots each built around a specific monster or related groups of monsters, with the plots relevant to their natures. For example, one adventure places the PCs in the roles of imps summoned to discredit a nobleman after their rival sold their soul for power. And another adventure involves a party of kuo-toa scouring the Underdark for monster parts to fashion into a living deity to replace their slain god.
Each adventure has rules for making monstrous PCs. Some adventures use the default stat block of the starring monster but with some customization options, while others build a fully-fledged 20 level monster class. I’ll be reviewing those as well, and their functionality beyond the confines of these adventures.
Arachnidnapped (Image spoilered In case of Arachnophobia)
Content Warning: Arachnids, animal cruelty.
Our first adventure stars a group of 4 PC ettercaps (equivalent level 10th) whose giant spider friends have been kidnapped by a gang of korreds for an animal fighting ring. The adventure is a rather straightforward investigation-to-combat scenario, with a countdown timer that causes more giant spiders to end up injured or dead if the PCs lose time due to failed checks and taking rests.
In terms of character creation the PCs don’t have classes or backgrounds, with a default ettercap race along with one of six archetypes that have class-like roles and spider types that serve as subraces. The ettercap race is a modified version of the base monster, such as a poisonous natural bite, natural armor, and a climb speed among other things. The archetypes provide race-like ability score modifications and skill proficiencies along with special abilities. They are the Eight Palms of Nature (pseudo-monk with abilities such as extra attacks, a stunning poison, and can make healing secretion akin to a paladin), the Equipped (begin play with bonus gear including a magic weapon, extra attack, proficient with martial weapons and shields, adds Intelligence modifier to single damage roll and can shove as a bonus action when making an attack), the Fey Hunter (ranger-types who things like extra attack, deal +2 dice of damage once per turn when hitting a few, and advantage on saves vs fey creatures), Follower of the Spider Queen (cleric/druid type with limited spellcasting, blindsight, can turn their poison into a magical ranged attack, and can halve damage as a reaction and deals extra poison damage with weapon strikes), Ripper (barbarian-lite with extra attack up to three times, adds CON to natural armor, reduce speed of struck creatures and bonus action attack when reduce enemy to 0 hp), and Web Stalker (roguelike with advantage on maintaining/escaping grapples, have a sneak attack like feature that deals bonus poison damage, can shoot webbing as a ranged attack and can turn their webbing into a garrote-style melee weapon that can grapple and suffocate targets).
The three subraces correspond to existing real-world and fictional arachnids. They all give a single useful feature, such as an Assassin Spider increasing their reach by 5 feet, a trapdoor spider granting a burrow speed of 30 feet, or a Phase Spider that lets you turn ethereal until the end of your next turn once per long rest.
The adventure itself is split into three parts. The first begins play with the ettercap party noticing that more spiders are missing from their flock, and investigating around the nest area with skill checks (and blindsight or being able to speak with spiders) can uncover korred hair, dropped equipment by the fey, and/or hidden tunnels sized for Small creatures. The korred took the kidnapped spiders to a circle of rocks known as a Fey Crossing, where they planeshifted into the Feywild. Stepping into the circle transports them into a bright, sweet-smelling forest with a shining purple-orange sun. Following the hairs leads the ettercaps to the korred lair, which is concealed within a hill in the middle of a vast grassland. Three dead giant spiders have been thrown out and left to rot, and examining their bodies finds whip marks on them. The korreds use Stone Shape to enter and exit the hill, so the ettercaps need to get in via a burrow speed, or Athletics to breach a segment of wall to get inside.
The korred lair is a seven-room dungeon, with the main opposition being three korreds cheering on a pair of giant spiders in the middle of a large cavern that serves as a fighting ring. There isn’t really anything in the way of unique treasure or gear besides the korred greatclubs, which ettercaps aren’t proficient with unless they have the Equipped archetype. There are also 3 gargoyles guarding the fey’s bedroom, and the other 5 giant spiders are kept in a pen and traumatized, needing Animal Handling (advantage if ettercaps can speak with spiders) to be trusted and Medicine to have their injuries healed. The korreds are intoxicated, so they can’t multiattack, and also used some of their abilities they normally have access to such as Otto’s Irresistable Dance and Conjure Elemental to create the gargoyles. Another factor in the PCs’ favor is that the spiders being forced to fight can join the PC’s side with a successful Animal Handling (they’d fight the PCs otherwise).
PCs who defeat the korreds will dissuade them and other fey from menacing the spiders of the forest, and the rescued spiders will be eager to return home.
Thoughts: The pseudo-classes and subraces for the ettercaps are clever and provide for some distinctive diversity in options. However, while the ettercap PCs in this adventure are considered to be 10th level, the lack of a scaling class prevents them from being easily adapted for lower-level play, and the archetypes have less stuff than a typical 10th-level PC. The Follower of the Spider Queen is pretty strong, as it gives a bunch of spells to be cast once per long rest each, while the Equipped feels the weakest in that the extra damage pales in comparison to the other archetypes, such as the Web Stalker’s sneak attack like feature or the Ripper’s triple attack. Its function may depend on how generous the DM is with letting you pick magic weapons.
As for the adventure itself, it’s a bit too linear for my taste. Investigation-based adventures are at their best when they’re more sandboxy in allowing for non-linear development. While there’s a variety of clues for PCs to take advantage of and some fail forwarding in the form of dead spiders, it still fundamentally follows the same path, and there are a few challenges that have to be passed or else the PCs are locked out unless they have a special ability like blindsight or a burrowing speed.
This adventure is more wholesome and PG-friendly in comparison to Arachidnapped. The PCs are an undescribed number of 1st-level blink dog puppies being trained by an adventurer and their elders in how to teleport accurately. But they must put their skills to the test when the lord’s son of the nearby village goes missing!
Blink Puppies are both a race and a 20 level class, gaining maturity at 5th level. They are predictably a mobility-focused melee fighter, with some customization in the form of Traits that are separated into Tiers. They begin play with a bite attack and the ability to teleport (both of which improve with level), the Perception and Stealth skills, and can choose from one of five Innate Traits that serve as their subrace, granting them proficiency in additional skills and saving throws along with special abilities such as Pack Tactics, Pounce attack that can knock a target prone, or Puppy Dog Eyes that makes a target suffer disadvantage on all attack rolls against the Blink Dog if they fail a Wisdom save. A Blink Pup/Dog gains a trait at 1st level based on their Innate Trait, and at 3rd level and every 4 levels after (save for 19, which is gained at 20th instead) they can choose to raise a trait up 1 tier or gain a new additional trait at starting tier. The traits and their tiers relate to aspects of blink dogs, such as more damage done with Pack Tactics, gaining double proficiency on the gained skills, or additional monster types and conditions that work with Puppy Dog Eyes.
For the adventure itself, it starts out innocently enough on one sunny spring morning, with the PCs coming out for training after a nice breakfast. A friendly adventurer by the name of Miranda and the blink dog elders as their instructor, and the training is a series of skill challenges where they learn to harness their teleportation powers. Blink puppies don’t have full control of it, so depending on the results of their skill checks can determine random harmless effects. The adventure provides a list of skills and how they can be justified.
Afterwards the PCs’ next challenge is a mock hunt, where they are to chase a clockwork rabbit through a forest to corner it and make it give up. The chase is a more involved challenge involving a mixture of Constitution saves to save vs exhaustion and Perception checks to quickly spot ideal places to teleport. Failing on Perception causes a Chase Complication to arise from a 1d20 table, such as a frightened deer taking an opportunity attack on a Blink Pup or a fox joining the chase against the rabbit unless it’s scared off via Intimidation.
PCs who do well during these tests are rewarded with Blink Biscuits, which if eaten restore 1 hit point, grant 5 temporary hit points, and Inspiration!
Things get serious when a man comes running up to the group with one of the adult blink dogs, saying that the lord’s son went missing and the entire town is looking for them. Miranda and the adult blink dogs kick into high gear, forming their own search parties, splitting up in ever-widening circles to cover as much ground as possible, with the PC puppies searching as a group. This section of the adventure is a DC 27 Survival check, but the DC is lowered by 3 for every PC who succeeds on a DC 15 Perception check in sniffing the scarf that belonged to the son. The DC can be lowered by 5 if they go slow, but that gives them fewer successful attempts to find him; going faster increases the DC by 3 but gives them 7 attempts.
If the PCs are successful in tracking down the boy, they find him screaming from a nearby rock crevice, menaced by the blink dog’s natural enemy: a displacer beast who is fortunately a younger member of the species.
Content Warning: Discussion of potential child death
If the PCs are unable to track the son down, his fate may differ depending on the DM’s whims: the displacer beast may have killed him, or perhaps the boy has been chased out of his safe spot in the crevice and is in more active danger by the time the party arrives.
In terms of stats the Young Displacer Beast is a weaker version of the default monster, having 33 hit points, an 11 AC, and can multiattack with tentacles that deal 9 damage total and can substitute a Displacement instead of an attack that imposes disadvantage on attack rolls targeting it.
The adventure’s conclusion presumes that the PCs saved the lord’s son. The puppies are praised as heroes, given a giant leg bone carved as a key as a reward, with a picture of their celebration posted on notice boards throughout the city.
Thoughts: Blink of Danger is a cute idea, and the biscuit treats granting healing and inspiration provide an in-game reward for doing well on the non-combat challenges. While there are means of reducing it, I feel that the Survival DC for tracking down the lord’s son is way too high for 1st-level PCs, who by all accounts likely have a +5 modifier at best and no double proficiency. The chase involving the clockwork rabbit may be my favorite part, as it’s pretty involved and has some random elements to liven up what would otherwise be a straightforward skill challenge.
As for the Blink Dog class, I will admit that at-will teleportation is a very useful ability. However, the class is a bit lacking in that it is fundamentally built for one role, with little in the way of variety. Compare this to the myriad Cleric domains or even Ranger Conclaves with their bonus spells and mixture of combat and utility stuff.
This one-shot is suited for 3-4 1st level Imps tasked with sabotaging the party of one Sir Brum Westley, an ever-present thorn in the side of madame Lenore Felik. Felik is desperate enough to sell her soul to the Nine Hells in order to get a leg up on the competition, and the PCs are tasked with making it a fair…well, fairer bargain. Unlike the prior adventures this one is primarily a stealth mission, where initiative may not even need to be rolled at all. In fact, the PCs need to find a way to screw up Westley’s soiree without leaving behind infernal evidence.
For character creation there are two suggestions: using the default imp stat blocks, or customized versions where the info is split up into a generic race and five subraces with their own unique abilities. The generic traits are ones we’re already familiar with, such as a poisonous stinger and fly speed. But the imp types include such interesting option as the euphoric Imp (can turn invisible up to one cumulative hour per long rest), bloodbag imp (can heal other fiends by letting them drink their blood), and familiar imp (has limited spellcasting in the form of cantrips).
The adventure begins with the imps being tasked by their devil boss, Dregonthyss the Harvester, in sabotaging the noble party before being summoned to the Material Plane. They end up in Felik’s manor just after she signed a contract with a bone devil, where she explains the details of the party and the mission. The mission is open-ended, but there are some general success/fail states: first off, the PCs must be discrete. If the Westleys think that the party was sabotaged by devils then that will bring in unwanted attention; staff members raving about devils are more likely to be dismissed, but the words of the noble guests carry more weight. Additionally, while sabotage that can be passed off as embarrassing accidents are preferred, murder that is done in a way that can be detected as such will also bring a failure to the mission. The intent of the mission is to make the nobility of the city think that Sir Westley is a poor party planner at best, an offensive boor at worst. An apparent murder in his estate may shift people’s attention away from Westley, and in some cases even bring pity upon him or a shared desire for justice to mete out the culprit. To succeed, at least two of the three events during the soiree must be sabotaged.
The Westley Manor has a lot of guards and guard dogs, although not much if anything in the way of magical defenses. PCs can sneak in via typical Stealth checks while also searching for unconventional entrances such as via the chimney or a glass ceiling in the exhibit room. The adventure notes that you shouldn’t have the mission be a failure due to one failed Stealth roll: for example, a dog barking at the presence of a devil that ducks into cover may irritate its less-perceptive master who then drags it away by leash, while a guard saying they spotted a devil may be chided for seeing things.
The Westley party has three events: a pedigree pet competition, an auction of valuable items, and a dinner party. Each event has a variety of ways it can be sabotaged. For instance, some of the pets may be vicious and can be provoked into lashing out, while the fish tank of a nearby aquarium may be broken and splash water onto nearby guests. As for the artifact auction, one of the items on display is a live colony of fire ants, while the dinner party takes place in a room full of chandeliers which can be unscrewed, and imps who can shapechange into rats can ruin the appetite of many a guest.
Thoughts: I love this adventure. It’s open-ended, has plenty of room for creative solutions, and has reasonable room for failure for a stealth mission. While there are mostly binary success/failure rates for the prior two adventures, Hell of a Party has more ways things can go wrong or right. It is one of my favorites of Turning the Tables.
Thoughts So Far: It’s one thing to make rules for monstrous PCs, but quite another to fashion adventures suited for said monsters. Turning the Tables is certainly creative as far as one shots go, and the novelty alone is a good drawing point for gaming groups. Of the three initial adventures, I’d have to pin Arachidnapped as my least favorite, as it feels too much like a typical adventure as well as being a bit too linear for my tastes. Blink of Danger follows a similar pace, although the creativity of the blink dog tests and the more light-hearted nature gives it more points in my favor. Hell of a Party really stands out in my eyes for reasons I outlined above.
Join us next time as we cover the next two adventures, one with PC hags competing in a tournament of unseelie fey and another with PC purple worms going on a kaiju rampage across the Underdark!
