D&D 4E Should the Flumph be included in the 4E Monster Manual?

[LogicsFate]

Yes yes, a thousand times yes!

I, for one, would welcome our flumph overlords.


Dang, Looks like I need to find a new flumphatar.

 

[Aeolius]

... they'll have to find the great Flumph sage "Squishy" and beg its wisdom.

"I shall call him Squishy, and he shall be mine, and he shall be my Squishy."

In my "Into the Land of Black Ice" campaign, there was a small unsetting "sun" atop Rigodruok, the Land of Endless Summer. Turns out it was the flumph goddess, whose name is unpronounceable but sounds like

 

[CleverNickName]

Isn't the shrieker used to great effect as an alarm system, though? I like the owlbear and blink dog enough to have made my own minis of them, and one of my campaigns has seen them come up several times (randomly, actually, but they're becoming a fixture). They're quite intelligent, really. As for the owlbear, check out the free "Behind the Monsters: Owlbear" PDF by Bret Boyd at Tricky Owlbear Publishing. Maybe you'll change your mind.

'Course, none of this means the flumph isn't cool, too.

It's true, the shrieker could be used as an alarm system. Of course, so could an orc with a whistle...or a barking dog...or a trained monkey with a hand bell. Generally-speaking, if your monster concept could be replaced by a 1gp purchase at the local hardware store, you need a better monster.

But I will admit, the PDF on the Owlbear was better than I thought it would be. It didn't do much to change my mind about the lameness of the owlbear, but it was interesting to read.

Maybe Tricky Owlbear Publishing will do a piece on the Flumph next?

 

[Samuel Leming]

'Nuff said.

Hey, I remember you!

All true.
But ultimately:
A Flumph never has to be justified!

I can’t believe I forgot #5.

No.

I think I remember you too. Why’d you exchange the 'm' for a 'b', Mr. Sapien?

In fact, even though I've never used them in my game before I am now inspired to do so. The next time my PCs need an obscure bit of information, they'll have to find the great Flumph sage "Squishy" and beg its wisdom.

That’s the D&D spirit! Hope your PCs take plenty of rodents.

Sam

 

[CleverNickName]

Flumph power all the way.

In fact, even though I've never used them in my game before I am now inspired to do so. The next time my PCs need an obscure bit of information, they'll have to find the great Flumph sage "Squishy" and beg its wisdom.

New project: Let's create a new pantheon for the 4E cosmology, using nothing but flumphs! I'll start...

Splotch the Teacher
Greater Deity
Alignment: Neutral
Domains: Air, Knowledge, Magic
Favored Weapon: caustic flatulence
Symbol: a book with a flumph on the cover
Portfolio: flumphs, historians, sages, scribes, students, teachers, wizards

Splotch is the flumph patron of knowledge and wisdom. He appears as a silvery-white flumph with horned-rim glasses and a flowing white beard around the front of his, um, where his mouth would be if he had a face. He carries a leather-bound journal at all times, and his many tentacles are constantly dictating, taking notes, and recording information.

Splotch's home plane is the Demiplane of Clouds, which floats above the Elemental Plane of Air (at least it did, until the great dragon Io* moved it to the Elemental Chaos-thing.) This demi-plane is home to one of the largest libraries in the Great Wheel Cosmos Formerly Known As The Great Wheel, with books and scrolls on topics both great and terrible.

*Wizards of the Coast

 

[Korgoth]

Plurph the Pure
Greater Deity
Alignment: Lawful Good
Domains: Healing, Protection, Sun
Favored Weapon: Two-Bladed Swords (Holy Avengers)
Symbol: White Exclamation Point
Portfolio: Paladins, Good Flumphs, Law Enforcement, Food Processors

Plurph the Pure is the ideal of all Flumphdom: law, order, decency, self-sacrifice and righteous indignation. Plurph is truly a sight to behold: a Colossal flumph shining with a white radiance too bright to look at without proper eye protection. In each of his tentacles, he wields a ginormous Two-Bladed Holy Avenging sword. He constantly chants Holy Words as he lays waste to entire planes of evil alignment. It is for this reason he is also referred to as "The Destroyer of Naughtiness".

Plurph the Pure dwells on the slopes of Mt. Celestia. He is quite boring to talk to, unless you're interested in hearing about the time he destroyed all the archfiends on their home planes in the Great Flumph Crusade that ushered in the current cosmological era.

 

[The_Gneech]

Blorp the Depraved
Yessin Diety
Alignment: Chaotic Icky
Domains: Slime, Tentacles, Nastiness
Favored Weapon: Rubber Hose
Symbol: Inverted Question Mark
Portfolio: Unspeakable rituals, hentai, bubblegum

Blorp is the dark, outcast god of flumphs' baser thoughts. A wicked tempter who whispers in the night, leading people to a sticky end. Also the patron of flumph-tippers.

Blorp has no single home, but is a composite creature made of the floor of every movie theater across the multiverse. His most devoted servant is Evard the Black.

-The Gneech

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Yessin Diety

You may need to be suspended for that one.

 

[Simia Saturnalia]

Sweet holy Vecna no.

It's true, the shrieker could be used as an alarm system. Of course, so could an orc with a whistle...or a barking dog...or a trained monkey with a hand bell. Generally-speaking, if your monster concept could be replaced by a 1gp purchase at the local hardware store, you need a better monster.

Where is this hardware store? Mine charges 3gp a head for orcs.

 

[jeffh]

Flumphs are fun and have become something of a "classic" monster, even if the process started for all the wrong reasons. I think a core MM that includes them is long overdue.