D&D 5E Let's Read: Volo's Monsters

[Leatherhead]

The Picture of a Morkoth reminds me of the hat of undeniable wealth and respect. Though I am almost certain it's meant to be more like a squid flavored Junk Lady, or perhaps Larfleeze.

As for it's combat options, the Hypnosis ability inflicts the Charmed Status, which is handy because Charmed targets don't get to attack you. Also, I have figured out the main reason why the Morkoth wants to use it's hypnotize ability: It's an amphibian, and most of it's island is underwater including the area it's likely to be in. So yes, it's even stealing tactics, this one from sirens.

Another thing that Charles tends to skip are the Regional effects, and the Morkoth has some very fun ones to mess around with:

The Morkoth to make it's water island exactly as breathable and murky as it desires, which is going to be on the low end of the scale for both when it's being attacked.
The Morkoth can steal an item from any creature that rests anywhere on the island, something that is going to goad most adventuring parties into action.
And the Morkoth can use a less potent form of it's Hypnosis ability at any entrance to it's lair, luring people to their watery demise from all the way on the other side of the island.

Not listed in any of the traditional areas, a Morkoth knows every object that belongs in it's collection, and can track them down with ease with it's magical prowess, which will lead to any potential looters having a very hard time.

We should take a moment to talk about what other kinds of creatures can be found on this island "paradise" of theirs. I imagine the Morkoth finding golems and constructs to be highly desirable, considering they are both objects and loyal muscle. But given the islands ability to drift through planes, all kinds of inhabitants end up on it's shores, including a few who have been displaced from time due to their natural homelands ceasing to exist. Some of them even treating the Morkoth as a master or a god. A particularly desperate band of adventurers could book passage on such an island, hoping to escape whatever dire place they are currently trapped in. Or perhaps the island could serve as a starting area for the PC's to gather from, more interesting than the traditional tavern at any rate.

 

[Bitbrain]

In the description of the Morkoth, volo's mentions that the islands they inhabit are sometimes home to remnants of races that are now extinct (or something to that effect).

I'm thinking that this would be perfect for a session or two influenced by some combination or another of the Star Trek episode "For the World is hollow and I have touched the sky", the Doctor Who episode "the Beast Below", and Knowhere from Guardians of the Galaxy.

 

[Cap'n Kobold]

I'm thinking that a band of adventurers might actually be hired by a morkoth to collect specific things for them. It could be a good way of connecting a series of one-shot adventures from different settings.
The uncontrolled nature of the island gives a nice way of inducing time pressure: the party needs to get out, grab whatever the morkoth was after (and any other loot theymight want) and return to the island before it shifts away.

 

[Charles Rampant]

Some good ideas there. I think that the Morkoth has a lot of really interesting plot hooks, mostly thanks to its wee island. I'm looking forward to using one - they seem like great recurring NPCs, bouncing from campaign to campaign, world to world.

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I’ll be honest with you, dear readers: I’ve never read a single page of a Spelljammer supplement. It really isn’t my thing, though a modern reinterpretation (or AP) might catch my interest. And so I’m really in the dark for our next entry, the Neogi.

The art in Volos appears to be better than any of the other options on Google, so we can give it credit for that. The artist also managed to incorporate all three size categories of the Neogi at once, which is quite the feat, and gave them a very alien demeanour in both looks and personality at the same time. They seem to transition from ‘potato with legs’ to ‘Alien Chestburster + spider body’ to ‘giant spider + Gold Dragon head’. I don’t know what to say about that, really.

The Neogi have a really weird entry. It desperately skirts around some really obvious elements - Great Old One pacts and Spelljamming, for example - which gives the impression that the writer was trying to incorporate a cool race without being able to presume that it could make use of the things that made it cool. In addition, they are an intelligent, slave-owning, evil race. I wonder if there is a connection between the mainly American nationality of the D&D content creators, and a neurosis about slavery in D&D? That is probably a bit heavy for our purposes here, but it is really noticeable just how many of these races keep slaves, and it does rather make you wonder where they all come from! But then, if life in D&D-land was easy, you wouldn’t need adventurers…

The Neogi are given an alien mindset, one where age leads inevitably to use as combination cradle and buffet, where no emotions are worth noting, loyalty is only worth exercising in the face of clear authority, and hierarchy is all. To be honest, I think that I’d rather be enslaved by Devils than these guys, since at least the Devils sound like interesting conversationalists. The Neogi are determined to win prizes for evil, and have managed to win a reputation for this to the extent that basically only other mad and evil races - Drow, Illithids, fiends - will give their trading missions the time of day.

To be honest, adding all of this together, the Neogi kind of fail to explain what their purpose in the game is. I’ve mentioned this concern before - why use X race when race A, D, and K already exist? - and the Neogi fall into it pretty badly. They seem to fill a role that is already filled by Drow and Fiends (evil slave-trading race that everyone hates, which has an obsession with hierarchy and advancing up the ladder of command, and which uses nasty magic), beyond the Spelljamming stuff that their entry sidles around. They’d be a lot more interesting if they came with an AP which featured their ship, to be brutally honest.

Anyway, enough negativity, let’s talk about their profiles. There are three: a CR 1/8th Hatchling, a CR 3 Neogi, and a CR 4 Master. The Hatchling is, well, a potato with legs. By the time that you can face Neogi this will be a minor threat at best, so they are clearly just here to explain what a hatchery would be full of. The standard Neogi is much more interesting. They are essentially a spider creature with an elf’s resistance to sleep and charm, but with a nasty ability to use a charm ability of its own - Enslave - which they can only use once. The save is not impossible, being off of the reasonably common Wisdom score, but I can’t imagine a party would enjoy making lots of these saves to be honest, since it is pretty devastating. Unlike a Vampire’s Charm, however, you can break the effect on taking damage, so expect players to dedicate attacks to keeping the party in line. Finally, the Master is a full spellcaster, gaining 7 levels of Warlock goodness. They get what looks to me like a standard Warlock spell list - albeit with a souped-up Eldritch Blast - which gives them a lot of ranged oomph. These are not the kind of leader that buffs their allies much, but instead the one that lobbs heavy damage spells downfield while their minions rush the players. It’s a solid list, and the base Neogi stats are so interesting that I don’t think they really needed much more, so I think that this entry is a solid one.

Final thoughts: the Neogi have more interesting statblocks than story hooks, but seem to have plenty of utility for people who feel that D&D doesn’t have enough spiders in it. I’d like to see them in an AP, if only because I think that this entry doesn’t have the space to give full justice to the concept, but until then they are unlikely to get much use.

 

[Leatherhead]

I wonder if there is a connection between the mainly American nationality of the D&D content creators, and a neurosis about slavery in D&D?

Maybe, but I think mostly that slavery is a "failure state" for a game that isn't permanent, unlike death. Which means that the story can still attempt to recover and go on. And yes I know death isn't really all that permanent in D&D, but resurrection spells aren't exactly common in t1 of play, and some DMs find them distasteful enough to ban entirely on principle.

Anyway, Neogi have slaves, the most famous of which are Umber Hulks, an even stronger brute creature, that will have the PC's pulling out their hair over the amount of lost actions and saving throws they will be forced to do. A somewhat amusing image, and interesting bit of triva, is that adult Neogi (but not the Masters, cause they are too big) often ride around on their slave Umber hulks. In fact, past editions had claiming an Umber Hulk as a slave as a Neogi right of passage: They weren't considered a relatively free adult until they managed to have such a beast under their command.

The Neogi claim to fame is being space pirate-slavers who sail around in magi-mechanical spider ships. And it is a pity that they don't include more information on the ships here. Both the Nautiloid and the Mindspider are really impressive encounters in their own right. But I suppose such things would have to wait until a proper book covering ship combat comes out at least. They could even throw in the elemental Airships from Eberron if they needed more vessels for padding, those things were really popular.

A glaring omission, aside from all the lore, is a stat block for a Great Old Master. Their shtick was being a huge swollen and insane monstrosities that spit up baby Neogi in combat as an attack or when they are stabbed, an incredibly disquieting mental image and a super-memorable encounter. Such a thing would even give the stat block for the Neogi Hatchlings some merit. No quick and dirty stats for this, but I would aim for a Legendary CR 5 or 6 creature, with gobs of hp, moderate AC, and immunity to mind control (because they nearly mindless and insane from being eaten alive). Their attack routine should be the bite (with poison) claw, and an ability to spit out 2d4 Neogi Hatchlings. They need to have a special reaction that also spawns 2d4 hatchlings whenever they take damage. Their legendary actions should include directing and giving a combat bonus to the Hatchlings (unsubstantiated filler mostly, but it makes for an interesting fight), A significantly weakened form of the Enslave ability (possibly just something that inflicts stun), and their Bite attack. Regional effects include causing all normal Neogi in the area (most likely a ship) to come over and tend to them until all the eggs are hatched.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

Another thing about the relationship between Umber Hulks and Neogi. Is that the Umber Hulks have been submissive to them for so long the entire species does nothing to resist them and serves them without complaint or question.

 

[Chaosmancer]

I have to agree with Charles in one part.

With Fiends, Mind Flayers, Yuan-Ti and Drow (if you use the standard versions of these) what makes the Neogi as presented different and useful to use?

All of them are evil, use slaves, live within powerful hierarchies. Mind Flayers and Yuan-Ti have the creepy squick factor, Fiends, Yuan-Ti, and Drow all have the sneaky and powerful magic using factors.

I just wish there was something obvious about why I should use these guys instead of the more interesting options we already have.


Space ships could have done it, but that's something I could see other races utilizing as well.

 

[Demetrios1453]

Going back to the morkoth, I like the fact that it's a fairly powerful enemy from the start, rather than having to buff them via class levels as in previous editions. Whereas I have to complain about certain other creatures in VgtM that got seriously hit by the CR nerf bat, morkoths, along with flinds, got a nice and well-deserved boost.

I'm not too sure about the fluff though - morkoths have always been portrayed previously as having stationary lairs, especially in the Forgotten Realms, where morkoth societies were major antagonists under the Sea of Fallen Stars. One could always explain those away as morkoths whose islands have "run aground", or perhaps descendants of morkoths who ages ago somehow lost or became separated from their islands (and I imagine, once lost, they would be major pain to recover)...

 

[Charles Rampant]

I just wish there was something obvious about why I should use these guys instead of the more interesting options we already have.

I guess that not everyone likes Fiends, Yuan-Ti, or whatever, and so another option isn't necessarily a bad thing. They might also justify their own inclusion on purely name recognition grounds. I mean, how many 'good and interesting D&D monsters' can there be left? But that doesn't make them any more exciting to me.

or perhaps descendants of morkoths who ages ago somehow lost or became separated from their islands (and I imagine, once lost, they would be major pain to recover)...

Is that... that tinkling? Is that the sound of an evil PC party quest hook? "Hail, evil adventurers! I, the Great and Powerful Morkoth, demand that you find and retrieve my magical floating island - which is currently home to an order of virtuous Wizards and Paladins, and anchored in Bytopia..."

 

[Charles Rampant]

The last of the Illithids from Volo's, the Neothelid is radically different from its kin in size and game function. A big solitary hunter, the Neothelid is a very potent beast indeed.



The Neothelid art in the book is a solid effort, which really focuses the eye on the mouth. It basically looks like an eel with attitude, and thus is pretty disgusting.

This creature gets a fairly moderate amount of flavour text, most of which describes how they come about. It does pidgeon-hole these as the results of Illithid colony failure, and makes it tough to use one as a big brute in an Illithid colony dungeon, but you could always override it. The Neothelids are really described as being a solitary encounter in the Underdark, something rare and not encountered with allies of any kind. This makes them one of the rare CR10+ monsters that don't demand a boss-fight situation, unlike say a Vampire, Dragon or Elder Brain. I think that using multiple in the same campaign might make your players wonder just how many failed Illithid colonies there are in the area, but it would be pretty easy to reflavour the statblock as something else to get around that problem. Anyway, it is useful to have a CR 13 monster that you can just drop into any given adventuring day and not worry too hard about it, and they are going to fit wherever you can imagine a big animal that likes brains might end up; I like the idea of having one in the sewers, which could lead into an adventure to find whatever colony it came from, and see what the state of it is. Another option is to spend several sessions hinting at the weirdly melted remains that the players keep stumbling across, with the brains eaten; the horror only grows when they realise that the victims were Mind Flayers. And then, right when they've forgotten about that, and are distracted by another combat, the Neothelid comes erupting out of a side passage and begins lunchtime...

The Neothelid has both a difficult name to spell, and an interesting statblock. It gets the same psionic powers that Illithids get - including Levitate, Confusion and Feeblemind, which are all very combat spells, and Magic Resistance. It has absolutely bags of hitpoints, and no resistances for your players to ignore with magic weapons, so it will last a goodly while. Rather oddly, it has no multiattack option, meaning that you get a choice between a single melee attack, or an AoE spray. The former is very swingy, being a single attack for good damage, but it is +13 to hit, so pretty easy except for a Paladin who is trying hard to tank. This melee attack includes a swallow effect, and I'm pleased to see that it includes an explanation of what happens if the creature inside does damage, which I believe we already saw with another creature in this series. Anyway, it is good to have clarification built-in for the way to handle that. The rather more flashy option is the Acid Breath AoE, which is pretty simple; like all AoEs that operate off of Dexterity, be prepared for level-appropriate Rogues and Monks to take no damage, so aim this at the party's front line. Since the single big attack is good for swallowing and damaging one person, you should probably open with the Acid Breath and use it as much as possible, to put the hurt on the party. I've found that holding off on good abilities like this in 5e is a bad idea, since combats go so quickly, and players are, generally speaking, more impressed when everyone takes 10 damage than when one person takes 25.

A simple monster to include, and a simple one to run in combat, the Neothelid is a solid addition to your Underdark or Sewers random monster encounter table.