Dungeons and Dragons Lore: Basilisk 

We once fought one of these and were so terryfied of its gaze that we blindfolded ourself before entering its lair xD

I would think there would be some kind of ice basilisk, which rather than turning foes to stone, would have some kind of freezing gaze... maybe I'll include that as a homebrew monster in my next arctic campaign

Their leather is also top-tier material, especially the legged species ones, to be more exact its like the giant crocodilians but more sturdier with resistance to magical curses, poisons and acids, all come naturally infused into the scales, the durability is also overshadowed by the lightness and flexibility too, plus its water & cold-proof, A pair of good boots made from these things can bring you 500 gold pieces

Basilisks seem like they’d hunt in the same manner as crocs, but relying on their stone gaze. It hides in the shallows of a river or pond with only its eyes and nose poking out of the water. When a creature gets close enough, it opens its eyes and puffs a spray of water out of its nostrils. The spray gets the creature to look in it’s direction, if it makes eye contact, it’s turned to stone and falls. At this point, the basilisk feeds on the petrified victim, it’s magical stomach acid turning the stone back into flesh.

Great video sir!

God damnit . For a guy that died during the eruption that wiped Pompeii out that guy sure does show up a lot.

Who needs web DM? We have a Kiwi Lore master! :D

The perfect guard dog. Prove me wrong. You place a semi valuable item in a room with a crappy lock and one invisible basilisk. All you have to do is start selling the statues to afford a more valuable trinket.

Seems like a combo of horned lizard & komodo dragon - if anyone is seeking a real lifeform comparison. Blood spray from eyes and poison bite are akin to the attributes noted.

I like your breakdown of intelligence 1 and 2. I play my monsters way too dumb. Do you have a video talking about each intelligence level from 0 to 20?

Always thought a variant of the Basilisk that can turn invisible would be neat, plus its petrified victims could be turned to clear glass instead of stone.

Idk about basilisk hunting, but as we seen in HoMM3, they would do a job released and perhaps controlled on battlefield or siedge

'The basilisk often picks up the eggs gently with it's mouth' *shows slide of a basilisk with terrifyingly pointed teeth*

The nopiest rope.

All I see are creature combos! Grimlocks and basilisks. A grimlock ranger or barbarian who has two pet basilisks would be OP. He won't need to see you, and facing his direction would put you at risk of the basilisks gaze attack.

Is a blind man immune to it

We encountered one of these in our first campaign. In a nutshell one of us was petrified was forced fed a vial of perfume before being fed the contents of the right mystery vial and I got studded leather+1 made out of it's hide for my halfling EK out of the encounter. Good times.

Just watch Steve Irwin talk about Komodo dragons. It's perfect for learning why giant lizards just decide to chase something or run away.

I've seen two versions of the basilisk, the chicken/lizard hybrid and a giant serpent version; which makes more sense

Have my drink ready to get nerdy

11:00 Roughly the feeling you get in your muscles while getting dressed and/or going down a staircase the morning after the first time you go to a workout with USMC recruiters. But it sets in mid-sword-swing while a lizard the size of a pony tries to bite you.

Great video as always. As a zoology nerd i always love the details of biology you provide. In that vein remember that even in the common era not all reptiles are cold blooded. Thanks again, keep up the good work.

What if, Basilisk is a title and that's why there are so many different versions. Not saying I support that theory or that it's a theory but it would be interesting to explore that in a game where it's more important

There's so many kinds of dragons but I got a question is it possible that there is a dragon that has no wings and bipedal

Thanks AJ.

Loved the video AJ, Any chance of getting a Dracolisk video? Would kind of tighten up that loose end.

Very informative! I had never seen the comparison to a Commodo dragon or other monitor lizards before, and this completely changed how I look at a Basilisk. Perhaps because I've been watching animal rescue videos recently, but I've gotten much more familiar with lizard anatomy. Thinking of Basilisk as magically enhanced Commodos really changes how they look in my mind's eye. The picture shown of (I think) Dark Souls Ravenous Crystal Lizard is spot-on, especially the hands, legs, fingers, and claws of the creature. The D&D 5e image at the end of the video looks so wrong to me now! I guess it is a re-imagining of the creature or something? Cause that isn't what real lizards look like! But I digress, thanks for the video. Glad to have a much more insightful version of this lizard in my head now.

Nice A.J. I like the Basilisk,a great way to increase my wallet size by harvesting the blood and parts for alchemists and my own mages for research! Top notch video kiwi! Are you going to do one on the pyrolisk soon? 🤔

The name of the scent organ in the mouth would be a Jacobson's organ similar to the one found in snakes and other lizards that use their tongues to scent the air , at least one would think.

When you mentioned that the basilisk’s stomach has de-petrification properties. A thought pop to my head; if the basilisk can process petrified prey, could it be possible for the basilisk to feed on things that have been petrified by other monsters, like say victims from a gorgon?

3:57 Petrification gaze only exists in the monstrously large version. 9:30 Babies hatch with the full gaze capabilities of their parent at birth. I'm confused. (Not a hard feat to accomplish)

Can you cover the blade singer subclass if you haven't already please

Well i have the red copper....french bronze , 5% zinc 95% copper. Thats why brillant uncirculated old u.s and many other countries penny or one cent coins are bright red orange and super shiney.

Homebrew creature: The shadow beast. They resemble large, black, thin humanoids with only 4 digits on each end of the limb (somewhat comparable to fingers and toes) and a long, angular crest on the top of its head. It's form is uniformly black, and its "skin" seems to constantly be shifting. There is a reason for this. They are made up of very small (about as wide as a quarter) organisms that resemble domes with between 5 and 12 branching "arms". These limbs link to others of there kind to form somewhat of a colonial organism. Much less like your average monster and more like a siphonophore. They are stealth hunters, hunting by compressing there form and hiding inside the shadows of there prey. These creatures have an incredibly high reproductive rate, making it appear as if any wounds will instantly heal over (even if you remove a limb). The only way to kill a shadow beast is to kill all of its "cells" before they can reproduce. If even one survives, within about 20 seconds the shadow beast will reform and continue the fight.

11:50 Maybe the body calcifies, becoming of similar chemical construction as the shell of a snail, or bone. It would look like stone but not make the character necessarily get super heavy. They turn to stone alright, limestone.

I love the idea of different abilities and powers in other varieties. I know that cockatrices have a subset known as a pyrotrice which lights people on fire instead of turning them to stone. I would like to think there are many varieties of basilisk with other elemental abilities like turning someone to ice or lighting them on fire with their gaze. I had an idea of a psychitrice which is basically a cockatrice with psionic powers being far more intelligent and being able to hold people in place through psychic means. Heck, maybe even being able to control/endow other cockatrices with intelligence creating a far more dangerous encounter more akin to fighting gorgons (medusas) than mere cockatrices. The players think the birds are animalistic until they catch them building a catapult or drawing up plans to steal Farmer Jenkin's livestock. Kind of like a mix between moon rats (except keeping their intelligence at all times or when near the psychitrice) and gorgons. What a bizarre encounter that would be. XD

I've never played in a DND game where you couldn't declare that you were averting your gaze at the beginning of your turn to resist petrification. It makes basilisks hard because you have to attack at disadvantage and if you can't a spell that requires you to see it for a save now you both have to make saves.

Bless the Mighty GlueStick

But the most important question is what happens when you throw a weasel in their nest?

My party wants to raise a basilisk egg. I’m not sure how to handle it but saw a post suggesting a meter of tameness- in short, roll every week or few days for animal handling, and depending on whether it succeeded by a lot, a little, or failed by a lot or a little, go up or down the meter. I’m not sure what the number for fully tame should be!

I'm kind of surprised you didn't mention the glassalisk with flesh to salt gaze.

Damn why are so many monsters so different in theros?

6:42 those concepts are just brilliant.

Petrified enemies are fragile, saving friends who turned to stone involves taking the fight away from said petrified friend else the friendly statue would get damaged or shatter. They can endure the weather and typical contact, but anything violent enough to cause harm to their unarmored former bodies will cause damage. Well, relatively fragile compared to typical statues, but not "oops, I bumped it... there goes the nose..." level of fragile. Transporting? Not that fragile. Fighting around? It's gonna' break.

A basilisk *hiss* is also called *hiss* a cockatrice *hiissss*

There's an somewhat interesting basilisk NPC in _Out of the Abyss_ - and it's quite a character. In one of the earlier sections of the campaign's second half, the PCs and their expedition are trying to find a magical library called Gravenhollow somewhere in the Underdark. When they get close enough, they start hearing something singing. They soon find a basilisk that notices them, but it intentionally keeps its eyes down. It's an awakened basilisk (even though it technically SHOULDN'T be possible to awaken, since it's a monstrosity, IIRC), and it's supposed to guide the expedition the rest of the way. Later, inside the library, it can use its petrifying gaze to deal with rowdy individuals...and then un-petrify them with the reverse effect of _flesh to stone_ which it can use once per day.

In Polish folklore a Basilisk or Bazyliszek as we seem to call it, looks like a cross between a rooster and a dragon ;]

Dumb question, what if a character can't see without glasses?

Here's a question about a discussion I had with a fellow party member. He though he could setup a theater with about 10 people max and use a Basilisk to turn the audience to stone. He would then rob the audience since only the body gets turned to stone. I told him that it could only turn one person at a time to stone. What do you think?

There should be a goggles that one can wear to prevent one from turning it stone.

This and the medusa always conjures images of some villain who's turning people to stone and the party enters the lair to find stone heros who failed to defeat the enemy long ago

You have to remember the basilisk is an Int 2 wild animal. While it can distinguish friend form foe, it does so by smell; which is generally a slow medium for identification. A basilisk, in hunt and kill mode, being surprised with the appearance of another creature might instinctually use its gaze attack. I'm a bit sad you didn't talk about what it takes to train and rear them. I imagine trainers have to be extra carful not to meet their gaze or scare them greatly. I image the use of a bright vest or jacket they wear and never wash so that the basilisk can identify them easier. Great vid.

In the instance where a group is trying to trick a basilisk with a mirror or illusion I'd suggest rolling a d3 for it's actual int score. You never know, they may have run into a particularly smart/stupid basilisk. If it's a breeding pair and it doesn't smell it's mate it would probably attack imo.

Can a necromancer wizard be able to raise a basilisk that can still use it's powers.

Man talk about variations , cool video man

Cheers mate👏👍👏 question, "Nine Rings were gifted to the race of men, who Above All Else desire power". What would you say that they are? Are they Wraiths? If you had to categorize them, what would you say they are? Thanks AJ you're the best🐢☺

Great summary of the popular lore!

In all honesty I don't think I'll be using this for anything anytime soon but I always love it when they add extra limbs to a creature that doesn't really need to look any more intimidating than being a giant monitor lizard that can turn prey to rock by looking at it.

Yeah these ugly six leg lizards yeah but the Komodo dragons shine

Hey AJ could you do a video on how to do interesting mass combat and stuff like that also could you please do a hippogryph video?

I have several questions: do the eyes retain the petrification power? if so: can you preserve them and fix them to a shield or armor? if they dont look at each other, why even puff up or show intimidating displays?

How u kill it do a how u kill it series.an example of a party killing it series.lets kill the monsters

Basilisk vs Gorgon(Medusa)... Fight!

Looks like SCP 682 at the 5:55 mark :)

My god, 'thicket basilisk' looks like such a terrible card. I bet legacy magic was a weird time.

Wait 8 legs? well I know what I'm drawing tomorrow morning.

Awesome, but was hoping for lore on trained basilisk

could you do a video on ao

Good video AJ

I am the Barbarian who wants it as a pet....

8 legs? So it’s a spider snake

I love your videos I run a campaign based on the continent faerûn so any videos you do on the are awesome for me but I love all your vids

Please make a video about the devourer. The soul inside the ribcage kind

Fourteenth. Beotch! (Pliny is a good read)

Can you start uploading later in the day again?

💚

I was very into these as a kid.

Another great video aj keep up the good work

Basilisk's like its crocodilian cousins is sometimes one of the creatures many young adventurers overlook when it comes down to these magnificent creatures and contrary to popular belief a basilisk, unlike dragons, have a very poor vision, its main senses are hearing and it's forked togue with heat sensing pits, the whole petrifaction is only partial truth, simply looking into its eyes won't turn you to stone, this has been something I have documented, what actually happens it the basilisk can actually stun a target with its gaze but it requires a near point blank range, the truing to stone is done as a result of combination of deadly venom with its gaze at full power, the stunning is only a means of acquiring prey, the venom is at times worse, this is because it cause the nervous system to enter a state of shock, prevents blood coagulation and can cause cellular deconstruction, but in certain cases it can be used as a form of medicine, granted its safer to try and wrangle the creature then kill it in order to acquire it, a captive basilisk was once on display in Baldur's Gate, a combination of dwarven steel cage bars and sturdy steel glass ensured the public safety, to date there have been no known cases of getting stoned from the beast, its hide as mentioned can be worked clothing, armor or other useful things, it's naturally waterproof, sturdy, strong and tough enough for it to tank blade strikes on it, the bony backside from along the spine to be more exact, that is the best part for armor, in certain cases, I have seen and worn brigandine, jack of plates, coats of plates, scale mail or even studded armor made from it, granted its expressive but worth it, for boots or gloves, I suggest the belly side, however, there people such as myself that will go for the hidden metal toe tipped bony scaled back side boots and gloves.

I think a game where a warforged or warlock named Roko starts a cult that creates or summon a super intelligent Basilisk. The players fail from stopping this creation but come very close. Then the Basilisk schemes with its new cult to kill all that did not help it come to be. I think it could be a lot fun to dm lol

Personally my preferred version of the Basilisk is Tamora Pierce's description