Dungeons and Dragons Lore: Froghemoth 

I'm now imagining Cthulu with like 3 of these on a leash because he thinks they're adorable. Like a biker with a tiny poodle.

Remember when Luke, Han, Chewy and Leia ended up in the garbage on the Death Star? Wanna make that scenario in DnD? Here ya go!

Adventurers walk into a Kuo-Toa shrine, only to find a levitating, laser shooting froghemoth that speaks german

0:58 Loki really has the *worst* luck with giant green things - 11:38 "Let them fight. . ."

Don't even play the game, just here for the monsters

Ribbiting absolutely ribbiting!.

I would think Froghemoths might behave like alligators or crocodiles would towards their young. The boys wouldn't care about the babies and would gobble them up but the females might recognize the young and at least tolerate their presence as long as there's ample food in the area.

What we got to remember is that active hunting is a high energy activity. Which is why the lower energy option, ambush, is prefered by many. Also, we warm blooded creatures assume all beings have the same metabolism. This is not true. One of the advantages of being cold blooded is a lower metabolic requirement. Thus why cold blooded ambush humters can seemingly sit placidly in one place for what may seem incredible amounts of time. That meal they grabbed yesterday may last them quite a long time. If they are not moving, that is. Thus, again, why they move only infrequently. It conserves that energy they just acquired for as long as possible. Thus they only move when there is need. As such...yes, you could buy off a creature as big and stupid as a froghemoth with a meal. As if they had already eaten a sufficient amount they may have no need to get more. Why waste energy and possibly take injury when you already have a full stomach? This may also explain how the eggs and tadhemoths escape their elders hunger. The elders may not feel the impulse to breed until they have eaten enough to last them through the breeding process. With unlucky males adding to the bounty. Then the adults, being sated in most ways they can be, wander off as to avoid territory battles with their fellows. Thus leaving the spawning grounds to the younglings. Who then go through a predictable cycle of predating on whatever comes near in their great need as they grow to adulthood. Thus it would be juveniles that would attack indiscriminately and the adults who attack to fill their stomach or when they feel themselves or their territory threatened.

I sometimes use a homebrew Gitrog Monster as a divinely transformed froghemoth. If a froghemoth is worshipped and has enough followers, it undergoes a metaphorasis into a Gitrog Monster that has a more frog-like appearance still with tentacles, with a higher intelligence, hypno-toad gaze attack, and venomous bite.

I can see them in a swamp downstream from a mad alchemist. Bane lizard folk and tentacle frogs. Seems like a great tag team.

Frogs and toads totally eat froglets. They just make so many that they don’t run out.

When you kiss a frog but it wants to stay a frog.

10/10 love this man’s content..Ribbit 🐸

This thing looks like the end result of a neo-otyugh and an abeloth getting their freak on.

Your growing laughter toward the end was so infectious and wonderful.

Love the old school lovecraftian abomination illustrations. I remember in the 90s they were terrifying. Now they are oddly quaint and adorable.

Thank you for reminding me that D&D isnt so ridged. I think its a pothole people can fall in.

Fighter: you prepared explosive runes this morning right? Wizlock: yeah? Fighter: *looks at clay golem the picked up last session.* I have an idea....

As much as I thank him for his early contribution to this game, Gary Gygax was definitely one of 'those' DM's.

Perhaps the tadhemothes secrete a clinging slime which allows it to survive being swallowed whole The tadhemothes want to be swallowed so as to survive inside the digestive tract of the adult, until it is large enough to out run the adult.

A Live Stream and a new video on the same day?!?! Aj, you spoil us.

Gonna have my players meet a little grey alien that crashed his ship and help him kill or capture the Froghemoth he was transporting, maybe he gives them alien technology in exchange for their help or something.

My main take away from this is that whenever I see a large body of standing/stagnant water I should probably (depending on what class I'm playing) cast Fireball, Eldritch Blast, Thunder Wave, Magic Miss ect, to see if one of these things is lying in wait, and hopefully flush it out

Re: Greyhawk -Toril connection I believe it's canonical that Volo knows about spelljamming and may even have traveled to other spheres.

So this is where they got the DNA for Simic Hybrids.

Man, the art of a T-Rex fighting a Froghemoth really drove home just how powerful these things are. I loved that art so much! Thanks for sharing this, AJ!

I love the idea of science fantasy aliens crash landing on a low fantasy world and the aliens/alien creatures escape into the world

I like the idea of them coming from weird metal cylinders. I might have my out of the abyss players find one of these down in the underdark with a froghemoth in stasis inside. Then let them accidentally wake it up!

Looking closely, I could totally believe that Demogorgon had a hand in creating these abominations.

I am definitely going to make an intelligent frog monsters wizard based on this creature.

I think you said they can breath air and water “unlike most amphibians” but A lot of amphibians can breath underwater by using their skin but breath with their lungs when above water. Sometimes their skin doesn’t provide enough oxygen but it can last them a hours to days and some amphibians even in the adult stage can live in water in perpetuity like the axolotls

Gamma World was awesome. If it got some legs, it would be hugely popular today.

There is nothing better than getting home from work and realizing there is a new AJ Pickett video!!!

Man I'd like to see a conversation of the insects, bugs, and other monsters from Skull Island.

Thanks I was just hoping for a new video. I forgot all about these. I still think you should do a series on pathfinder dragons since no one does these better, but this works too. Love that pic of this thing galloping along at like 06:00.

*"Hello There! Very Intriguing, thank you Master AJ!"*

Volo claims something that doesn't make sense? Noooooo, that can't possibly be true, he's the greatest bard of several generations after all, he knows Elminster personally! You should always trust Volo.

Good video. I recommend Locrius Planetoid’s video on the Froghemoth as further research. You won’t be disappointed.

Deffently a monster to put in a spelljammer campaign! 🐸

I want to make an extraplanar froghemoth and have the Slaadi worship it in a similar vein as the bullywugs worship the standard froghemoth in the prime material.

Feel wasted potential, perhaps a ancient one that has gained intelligence/size

Gama World, that's what I was trying to think of during the live stream. Froghemoth should have five attacks per round, 4 tentacle and one tongue/bite; with constriction every round to each opponent that was successfully grappled by each tentacle and tongue.

Here wuz Seamus! Seamus has no free time, but is happy to finally catch an episode.

The one dislike is the Tadhemoth that got nabbed by adventurers for it's anti Froghemoth spray

Thanks for the vid forgot about the froghemoth for a little bit there. Also didn't know it had such strange and interesting origins. Definitely seems like a fun creature to pair with some Neogi.

I'm running EttBP right now, so this is quite timely for me. Thanks AJ!

A frog hemoth in a pit can be cultured to bear tad hemoths that can then be harvested for their monster repellent fluids

I love everything about this monster

Man, the cane toads get bloody big in Faerun...

Great video AJ! I've always meant to read up on gamaworld, always thought it sounded cool when I was going but never got to play through it.

Perhaps a demonlord whose chosen shape is this or he is the progenater of them.

I actually enjoyed that a lot more than I thought I would. Bravo sir

See, now I just linked a previous comment of mine, with this one. Remember my idea about the Black dragon carrying oozes inside of its stomach to drop atop trespassers? I think that the same dragon spent her youth riding the gut of a froghemoth, thanks to acid immunity, and ate whatever it attacked and used dragon magic to direct it. I think the sight of a froghemoth barfing up a black dragon when its health reaches a certain point during the combat would...work nicely. Hmm...I think I have some Forgotten Realms fanfiction to write!

That's awesome. I have a buddy that DMs and told him to check out these videos because usually end up giving him ideas spawned from them. Thanks again AJ

This would give my mother a heart attack. This also is immeadiately an annoyance to me because I would be minding my own buisness and then a frog gives me its Scorpion impression. In other news, the idea of laying back as we go full nerd is actually the opposite of what I do. Paradoxically, I listen to things as I am working on engines or enjoying some combat in a game that is not DnD. I mention this souly because I find it humorous.

Hello AJ, I seen the video request comment on a previous video. That was really fast and really nice of you AJ. "Saving Throw" did this module on YT. They did a really great job. Really enjoyed the pictures you used in this video. Thanks AJ & have a great day.

I believe there is lore on the orgins of these monsters in the tomb of annihilation.

The movie ' love and monsters' has s creature that i believe was inspired by the froghemoth

Your opening music is always so epic

Almost at that 100k special :)

This is a perfect monster to have a party wake up and start a fight because with they just had to go explore that room where it was sleeping in.

The more common, lower-tier monsters are my favourites for these videos because there isn’t much specific lore to them. Drop them in an environment and they just work :D

This is a pain but is there a lore based version of Pegasus, turned Nightmares and having the item that flips alignment flip it back to good? and does it look like a nightmare or transform once more?

It looks like a mix of a frog and a Otyugh

So THIS is a froghemoth, it is as freaky as I had imagined.

hell yeah I love the froghemoth

This reminds me of the Momma Tyhrranoid from Ratchet and Clank. With this and your video on Bullywugs I'm getting a half way decent idea for a heist adventure. Thanks AJ. Edit: had to correct a spelling mistake

What a lovely morning surprise! Though I think I am going to miss the livecast today

wait.... three eyes, four tentacles..... Aboleth manipulations?

Gamma World! You DID look into it! lol awesome

I remember when Expedition module came out. I got it just because of the cover. We transcribed it to GammaWorld 2nd ed with Cotati from Marvels Kree Skrull wars

If these things would try to live in swamps, How might a black or green dragon react to finding one nearby? Likely just trying to get rid of the creature I suppose. But how?

I need stories like this keep up the good work

I have the updated 5e expedition to the barrier peaks module, it was worth every penny, great find!

I miss Gamma World. Never could find enough people interested enough to play it, though.

HEY IT'S HERE! great stuff AJ.

One of my favorite D&D monsters. If you've ever kept amphibians of any sort, you'll quickly observe that they really are like this, only tiny and adorable.

Have you considered taking a look at any monsters from the Tome of Beasts (1 or 2) from Kobold Press? There's some really amazing stuff in there, and though there isn't a huge amount of background research to be done, I've always liked it when you went off and explored your own ideas on what the ecology and story possibilities could be for a given monster. That said, I think you'd really like the books either way, and I always like boosting 3rd Party publications when I get the chance.

Always funny when scholars talk about some creature then mention that they know nothing about it. That? I dunno. I just saw it in a book.

Like a mix between a Giant frog, a Tendriculos and a Otyugh. I feel like an Ooze Paraelemental version would be pretty cool to see.

Would putting a circlet of int. on a one work?

What happened if you create a frog from the Cretaceous to the biblical monster Behemoth? You get the Froghemoth

have you done a video on corpse horse?

I played Gamma World (the Alternity version) throughout college and grad school. I miss that insanity.

The Barrier Peaks module, the module that spawned this monster, is what threw gas upon the fire of my home-brew. Keep in mind that module was pre-Spelljammer and I am old as dirt. I added technology, magi-tech, clockwork (illogical fantasy technology), and a crapload of other things to my AD&D multiverse (Loom of Magus) that I first had a mental tickle via Manual of the Planes (alternate Prime Material Planes) since 1st Ed, my primary multiverse is 2nd Ed. In related adventures relative to the players' actions, they explored the Froghemoth origins with a f^ck-ton of scrying adventures and expenses I HAD to reward. I gave them a location 5 light-years away from their world, a means of going there fast, and an understanding its dominant intelligent species was Lizard Man. That unlocked that world's version of Lizard Men as a player character race in my campaign world and was the precursor to me creating Loom of Magus. I created a lot of space travel AD&D rules that I had to later adapt to Spelljammer. Since then, the Loom of Magus is a crystal sphere that borders the Outer Planes in the most neutral place that is 80,000 light-years in diameter that is filled with stars that are actually stars (and radiating most fire and radiant light). Spelljamming ships within Loom are relatively immobile. They have no loss of speed. They are bolstered when in a path between stars as a matter of fact, far faster. But still, even with that speed boost, they are relatively immobile. Most space between stars is in light-years, so even trillion miles per day speed is almost no speed. A spelljamming ship entering Loom of Magus usually invites Subdiaboli (my version of Tiefling, pre-dating Tieflings) guilds to swarm upon them in their ships to drain all their riches and magic to upgrade their ship to have significant speed and ability within the Loom of Magus. They also explain why most of their gods got cut off from their clergy if within range of conflicting sphere of influence of a local Loom of Magus divine power. I did make a really great home-brew module of the Froghemoth homeworld. Its "humans" were really advanced lizard men and bullywugs that bombed each other into the stone ages on a regular basis, currently stoneage, and all of the wildlife there are to survive those warring beings. Their primates, goblinoids, and demi-humans were hunted to extinction eons ago due to how tasty they were. The entire planet is forest, swamp, or water. The polar areas are vulcanic. It was a warm and muggy planet. It's nice that later editions did not abandon the Barrier Peaks module in its aliens but altered the lore to embrace them, making the Barrier Peaks adventure still a valid canon adventure.

AJ, know how much you like cheese. Cheese being a healthy snack in moderation. I just saw a poor guy assaulted by a cheese fondue on the Daily Mail. Beware the cheese mimics.

Fun fact about my homebrew world; the froghemoths have an internal pouch capable of storing their maturing spawn as they develop. Something that immediately becomes apparent if the party does enough have slashing damage to the creature. 😈

Great video bro! Loved this one xD Also getting close to 100k!

I know that Sci-fi is part of many rpgs back in the day, both table top and video/computor games. but i cant help but feel its out of place to have a fantasy,medivel setting and then suddenly toss in robots and ray guns. One of the reasons i never got into play might and magic, i played the turnbased stratigy games heroes of might and amgic, but never the dungeon crawl ones and whean i learned of the sci-fi base of it i never wanted to play either. But thats the beauty of tabletop rpgs i guess. the developers just gives us the tools and pieces and its up to us to build from that. Sure Frogehemoth is a space alien monster, but maybe in my world its a odd,but natrually occuring animal.

Yay!

This is like D&D meets Classic Doctor Who, I love it!

I had forgotten about this creature. It would make a great abomination to a druid I imagine.

Good video AJ

you should do a wererhino lore video

Like something from the godzillaverse

Do we know of what kind of aliens were piloting the ship?

You can get exposition from the barrier peaks. It’s #3 for the original adventures recarnated

I’m considering running this adventure. I have all or the Original Adventures Revised from Goodmans-Games. The one I Really wanna run is coming out towards the beginning of next year. The Temple Of Elemental Evil!!!

14:50 Now I HAVE to include one of these into my game! 🤣

I loved these guys