D&D General Tell us about some of the interesting and unique creatures in your homebrew world!

[jgsugden]

I have binders and files full of them. There are so many. These are not the best, but they are the most "interesting" and "unique".

BUNNY FISH - In the coastal oceans of one of my continentsyou can see swarms that one could only describe as "mere-bunnies". They have the upper bodies of a rabbit and the tails of a fish. They range in size from 1 foot to 3 feet and they travel in swarms. However, those that sail the waters where these are seen know that these are not some innocent and friendly creatures to be cooed over - they are not really creatures at all. Instead, they are the drones of a stationary undersea creature sent out to sink ships, kill large sea creatures, and drag back treasureand food to the stationary body. These bunny fish ram into ships and large sea creatures and explode on contact. They continue to swarm a target until it is defeated, and then the remaining 'bunny fish' drag back the remains to the core creature. The core creature can launch drones, but it also has attacks of its own that work a bit like a roper.

SHOGGOTHS - Yes, from Cthulhu Mythos. These creatures are shape changers that can adopt forms as small as a tiny creature or as large as a huge creature. They can select from a list of abilities when they change forms giving them highly adaptable abilities. They're high CR threats intended to be a solo threat for level 11 PCs, and very high level threats at higher levels. The Far Realm and Cthulhu / Elder Things play a huge role in the mythos of my games, and these creatures play a huge role in their lore. They're one of the secretpowers of my game universe that drive the major storylines forward as they seek to crumble all of reality into the Far Realm.

NEZUMI - Anthropomorphic Rat Folk, the Nezumi grew out of a pun in the early 80s. As a DM running the Isle of Dread, I added a Wererat Pirate sailing the waters around the Isle of Dread. When the PCs encountered it, they call it a Pie-Rat and made pastry jokes. From there I evolved them to be the Nezumi, based upon a mix of Japenese Myths, AD&D and 3E OA entries, and pirate stories. They sail coastal waters in many parts of my campaign world, but they also sail in my equivalent to Spelljamming (which takes place in the Astral Sea) as a dominant species there. They pave resistance to poison, charm, and fear effects - and resistance to posion and psychic damage. They're very well suited to fighting aberrations and other psychic attacks. They exist in clans, but all clans have allegiance to a single Ancient Red Dragon, the biggest of them all, and they are amongst the most hates fors of both Githyanki and Githzerai. They are interesting to me because of how they evolved naturally within my setting into a place of high importance central to most of the major 'hidden agendas' of my setting. It seems that whenever something is brewing in my world, it turns out to only be natural that the Nezumi Empire would have their paws all over it.

 

[Silvercat Moonpaw]

I have a few elementals I'm kind of proud of:

• Wood: Imagine treants who are fast, stealthy, and covered in tangling vines.
• Bone: Collections of skeleton pieces with horns for claws, and that can rot wood or rust metal with a touch.
• Metal: Collections of metal plates and pins, skittering around on their points like gaunt metal arthropods. Very fast.
• Herd: An elemental formed out of any naturally-occurring large grouping of animals. Might seem like a normal swarm if formed from rats or locusts, but definitely imtimidating when one rises up out of a herd of bison.

Mantodendron: Instead of humanoid treants, they're shaped like praying mantises.

Grave Dust Zombies: Not really that unique, it's more about how they get summoned: rather than raise them from corpses, you throw out a cloud of dry dust from a grave and they appear out of it. They're also dry zombies, so they don't rot or smell.

Undead in general: Animated corpses are constructs. Undead are beings who've physically escaped from the afterlife.

 

[bedir than]

Taien Sahul – the ripper lizard
These fill a niche similar to wolves or coyotes. Based a bit on the velociraptor from the films, but tiny and fast. They are a hint that one of my Six Kingdoms has access to a space that isn't dominated by mammals.

Tunneling Nightmares
These huge underground monstrosities had mouths that consumed people like a sarloc, lair actions that created a fog of doom with a potent stench, generated skeletons, and tentacles that would burst from the ground a 100' away and attempt to throw a captured creature into the maw. Their breath weapon was called Bone Spew, and was a line of splintered bones.

 

[Bitbrain]

Echidna - body of a woman from the waist up, body of a tentacled slug from the waist down. They’re basically dark wombs from the Scarred Lands setting, only fearless and more attractive.

They’re also the heraldic animal of Dragonmarked House Vadalis in my Eberron.

Hungry Cube - picture a borg cube with a mechanical mouth on each of the six faces. They inhabit the Astral Sea, have gravity-warping powers, and only manifest on the Material Plane in areas over-saturated with arcane magic.

Temporal Hound - for the love of all that is holy, don’t use divination magic while in the Ethereal Plane. Or else you’ll be attacked by skinless dog-monsters from the end of time that can teleport through any barrier.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

I already posted some of my Homebrew creatures in your thread of the same topic on D&D Beyond, but since then I have created a few more types of homebrew creatures that I would like to share.

First, Shard Dragons. While this technically isn't my own homebrew world, it is a unique creature concept that I haven't seen before. One of my favorite D&D settings is Eberron, and while I also really like Gem Dragons, I don't think that the ones that most people are semi-familiar with work that well in Eberron. So, instead of having Amethyst, Emerald, Sapphire, Topaz and Crystal Dragons in my Eberron, I have 3 types of "Shard Dragons"; Khyber, Eberron, and Siberys. As you may have guessed, these types of dragons are fairly similar to Gem Dragons (in that they're made up of crystals/gems), but instead of being made up of Sapphires, Rubies, and similar common gemstones, they are made up of their respective Dragonshards. Here are the three different types of Shard Dragons and their defining features:

1. Khyber Shard Dragons are obviously) made up of Khyber Dragonshards, ranging in color from deep-blue to deep-purple. Like the Gem Dragons in Fizban's Treasury of Dragons, they have small floating "gem-motes" of Khyber Dragonshards held magically suspended from their body. Their Breath Weapon is a line of Necrotic Energy, they eat Dragonshards of any type in order to grow larger, and they are always of any evil alignment (being made up of the negative energy of the Mother of Demons on Eberron, being so suffused of her unholy energy that they're always driven to evil actions). Their Innate Spellcasting allows for them to cast Evocation, Necrotic, and Conjuration spells (Inflict Wounds, Vampiric Touch, Summon Fiend, etc).
2. Eberron Shard Dragons are made up of Eberron Dragonshards, ranging in color from light-pink to blood-red, and having noticeably more "gemmotes" of Eberron Dragonshards floating around their body than Khyber Shard Dragons. Their Breath Weapon is a Cone of Force Damage, they eat Eberron Dragonshards in order to grow, and can be any Alignment (but are only very rarely Evil). Additionally, they have Innate Spellcasting that allows them to cast some Abjuration spells to protect themselves and others (Wall of Force, Shield, etc).
3. Siberys Shard Dragons are completely made up of floating gem-motes of Siberys Dragonshards (symbolizing the fact that Siberys was shattered into a million pieces by Khyber), and have a Breath Weapon that is a Line of Radiant Energy. They don't eat, and instead grow larger by absorbing Siberys Dragonshards that it incorporates into its body to make new body parts, and are so suffused with Siberys's holy energy that they are almost always Good. Their Innate Spellcasting allows for them to cast typically "holy" Spells (Cure Wounds, Revivify, Summon Celestial, etc).

Secondly, Mistwraiths (no connection to the Scadrial's Mistwraiths, which would probably use the Unspeakable Horror Stat Block from VRGtR). This creature is a Merger of Souls, which I created because D&D is pretty lacking in creatures like this. Again, this creature isn't really a part of my homebrew world, but it is a homebrew creature that I've made to significantly alter the lore of an existing D&D setting (well, two settings for this one). In my D&D Multiverse, the Mists of the Mournland from Eberron are the same mists as the Mists of Ravenloft. My Mistwraiths are an incorporeal undead made up of the souls of those that died in the Mists, being fused into an insane amalgamation of potentially hundreds of souls, each of which adds to the madness of the already insane undead entity. Their main attacks are necrotic and psychic damage, and they also can possess hordes of people using a 1/day ability. Primary inspirations for this creature are the Soul Prowler from the Bellowing Wilds campaign setting and the Haunce from the 13th Reality series.

Third, Quetzalcouatls, which are powerful celestials, essentially Gargantuan versions of Couatls with prismatic attacks and psionics.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

Temporal Hound - for the love of all that is holy, don’t use divination magic while in the Ethereal Plane. Or else you’ll be attacked by skinless dog-monsters from the end of time that can teleport through any barrier.

oooooooh, I like this. It's a steal!

 

[Stormonu]

I've got 3 books worth of strange monsters, but I'll just pick a few favorites I've actually used in my own campaign:

Humslayer cypress trees that emit a whippoorwill-like sound to attract prey. Those who get too close can be hypnotized by the entrancing droll of their call. They attack those who get too close with tentacle-like branches, and stuff their prey into the gnashing maws in the side of their trunk.

Al'galue true dragonfolk with wings, claws, a fiery breath and a knack for magic. They are shunned and feared by other races, who tell tales of an ancient time when they enslaved humanity in their continent-spanning empire. Which they never did, and they are in truth almost paladin-like in their zeal to help others and hunt down evil.

Gorgona a chimeric creature with the body of a lion, wings of an eagle, the face of a woman and tail that ends in screaming baby heads. Voracious and evil, with a killing gaze, when these creatures devour prey the baby heads swell until they fall off and begin to grow into a gorgona of their own. They can decimate communities in a single feasting if they choose, but luckily prefer solitude away from society or lonely roads and dislike the competition created by their own gorging.

Burglarcat humanoid racoonfolk with a dashing flair and penchant for trouble. Think of a cross of Puss in Boots and Rocket Raccoon in a swashbuckling campaign.

 

[DeviousQuail]

Hearth Demon - A particularly powerful form of an Ash Wraith. They dwell in the hearths of destroyed, abandoned, or cursed abodes. It is common for priests/holy people to bless the hearths of these places to prevent the demons from taking root. When they do take hold they will use mental trickery to lure travelers to them, devouring them while they sleep.

Covo - Beasts of burden favored by traveling merchants and migratory groups. They look like a massive crocodile with 8 legs that is covered in thick green fur. End to end they are 30 to 40 feet (9 to 12 meters) and their ridged back stands above even the tallest humans. They have a unique ability to control their fur as capably as a human controls their fingers. Their riders will often stick objects into the fur for safe keeping. The Covo can move the items around their body, bringing them to wherever their riders need them. Attempting to steal from a Covo is asking for death by ingestion.

Gromkin - Think of anthropromorphic boar that favors swamps and you've got the right idea. They have the unfortunate ability to smell magic. Hunters seek them out to sell as guardians to those that can afford them.

L-01 Guardian - From a campaign that featured a dozen homemade constructs, this one was my favorite. It initially appears as a large greatsword wielding knight. It looks completely carved from stone except for a few small grooves emitting a purple glow. It is slow but has reach to its attacks. When it hits 0 HP it shrugs off its outer layers and becomes a four legged longspear wielder that can climb like a spider. When that form hits 0 it loses its layers again and becomes a purple ball of light with scraps of stone and metal circling around it. In this form it hovers, moves fast, and shoots radiant bolts at its opponents. Each time it transforms it removes all effects (positive and negative) on it and immediately takes a legendary action to move or attack.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

Shroombies: People who died while (superficially) infected by the shadow-spirit fungus. The spirit within the fungus causes it to prevent the body from fully dying, integrating with the flesh, slowly converting it into pure fungal mass. Not particularly dangerous, since the fungus is very slow to infect healthy adults, but still a threat especially in numbers.

Blood-obsidian Wraith: The product of twisted Shadow Druid experimentation, these wraiths toe the line between life and death. The raw life-essence of a living person torn from the body and bound to life-absorbing blood obsidian sand. Their touch freezes the blood and deadens the senses. but their hold on life is tenuous, stretched as they are between life and death.

Mudaqiq al-Yundab, "the Unyielding Auditor": A spirit corrupted by dark influences, the Auditor has attempted to twist and re-weave the strands of fate and time. Drawn to it are lost qarin, spirits of things that never were, or once were but now no longer reside in time's flow. Plying these strands, the Auditor could prise apart the personae of individuals, distort the natural flow of events to speed or sluggishness, and generally be a massive pain. After defeating the Auditor, the party purged it of its taint, restoring it to the kindly spirit of tradition and memory it had once been, Mudaris.

 

[RoughCoronet0]

The Yuan-Ti of my world split off into three different subspecies after the abandonment of the gods. Some continued down the dark and twisted path of self experimentation and even infusing themselves with greater psionic potential, believing that doing so would lead them to becoming more prefect servants to their long lost creators gods and convince these deities to return to them. These are more like the typical Yuan-ti only more aberrant-like and with psionic powers.

Other fled into the dark canopy of the Twilight Forest, a place infused with the energies of both the Feywild and the Shadowfell causing this mystical forest to always be bathed in shadows and a starry sky, when the world fell to chaos after the god's abandonment. Though many viewed the Yuan-ti as dangerous, a benevolent being known as Asherah the Twilight Serpent took these poor serpentfolk under her feathered wings and bestowed upon them her wisdom and teachings, acting as a protector and deity of sorts. These Yuan-ti are masters of divine magic, and often act as healers and wise serpents to those in need, and have become the devout agents of the Twilight Serpent.

Still others found themselves deep in the heart of the dragonlands, surrounded by a massive war between the different draconic sects that threatened to annihilate them. Desperate, they called out to the heavens for aid and found the very ground seem to move to wrap around the central valley of the dragonlands, holding it in his protective coils. Their cries had been answered by the elder draconic primal spirit known as the World Serpent, who with his great strength and titanic size caused the dragons to flee and war elsewhere on the continent. With the valley safe, the World Serpent led the yuan-ti to another elder Primal Spirit that resided at the center of the valley, the World Tree, who allowed the serpents to rest under her canopy and make a home in the valley where her roots stretch out. These Yuan-ti have remained ever since, becoming devout practitioners of the druidic arts and the Primal Way and venerate both of these Primal Spirits and nature itself.

Regardless of the subspecies, all Yuan-ti appear as Yuan-ti Half-bloods (some combination of half-human and half serpent) or as Yuan-ti Ascendant (the Abomination form). Yuan-ti Anathema are a rare and more power Yuan-ti, and often act as leaders of their people or as direct champions to those they venerate.