Monster Monday: Oni 

Haha, i used to bagger you on a lot of videos, thank you for remembering me

My players had recently come to rule a barony, they had their keep and a town several miles apart. They got word that goblins had ambushed one of the villages. They go to investigate (lvl8 party btw) and find the goblins kidnapped the children, one of the villegers points them to the tracks that lead to the warren, but there is no resistance as they go. They find two piles of corpses one of the children, one of the goblins. And laying between them is the corpse of the villager that pointed out the tracks, the one they left in the village.

In my campaign, I made being an Oni a curse that a mortal brings upon themselves. Took a few notes from the Wendigo myth, but essentially if you were already a bad person and a night hag made a deal with you then she could begin turning you into an Oni. The transformation would eventually leave the mortal very powerful but devoid of humanity.

Here's an interesting idea to explain the Oni in my universe. Oni are created when an ogre actually manages to catch and kill a unicorn. And by drinking the blood of a unicorn which is a shimmering silver colour, causes the ogre to shift and change. Their skin turns colour and their minds warp from simple and brutish to wise and cunning. They are forever altered and can spawn more Oni either by the ritualistic practice of making their clan members also drink of unicorn or by mating with regular ogres or other Oni.

In my setting, Oni are humanoids that once made pacts with demons thousands of years before the time of the campaign as part of an infernal invasion. After the conflict ended, the Oni were stripped of their powers but left their monstrous forms as Ogres, whose descendants still wander the world to the present day as the ogres the party would typically meet. If an ogre were to drink the blood of a powerful enough demon, they would regain their powers as an Oni and be able to terrorize the world once more.

In my campaign, the Oni was the child of a Night Hag and an Ogre the Hag magically forced to mate with her during a ritual.

Oni are a tough one for me, I can never skin them anything other than this japanese look. Flawless as per usual mate. Oni ni kanabo

The Oni in my world comes from the underworld, the dark plane of spirits, and like in Japanese folklore, can only attack at night. They are often immaterial, and phantasmal, making them very difficult opponents to fight. They can also cause nightmares where ever they walk.

I know another weakness of oni in japanese folklore is mistletoe, which could be interesting for the party to discover and use to combat an oni

awesome artwork as always! i'd love to see your rendition of a kirin/qilin

Timing on this was impeccable. My group has a monk that was looking for a demonic influence to his back story. The art was fantastic, some of your best detail work. I now feel really inspired, thank you

I would have it where Hags undergo a ritual. A coven ,of say three hags, fuse together (see talking chimera from fullmetal alchemist: Brotherhood) to become an Oni. Imagine hearing that a coven is trying to become a great oni and are seeking the child sacrifice to bind them. and lets you alter spell lists and make sea, green and, night oni variants Food for thought.

Lock the door, blow out the light The hungry Oni hunts the night Hide and tremble little one The Oni wants to have some fun Hear it scratching on the door See its shadow across the floor The sun won’t rise for quite a while Till then, beware the Oni’s smile

After seeing this vid, I dropped an oni into Tuesday's game, where it served as the perfect 'missing piece'. The timing of this vid couldn't have been better! Your drawings are definitely looking even better than before too :)

Oh I most definitely was not expecting that buttery smooth voice. You have my attention Mr. D&D-man.

Imagine what minions the Oni has to put on his gear...goblins with ladders? I cannot picture an Oni being alone, except maybe on the hunt for one night away from his posh pavilion and his scores of helpers, his Naga advisor, and a caged Rakshasa that he also has to feed, waiting for the night that he can Ritually Slay the Rakshasa and take it's coat.

Lesser Giantkind... Shapeshifters... corrupted by Rakshasa.... okay, thank you so much! I now know /Exactly/ how to integrate these into an Eberron campaign, partially inspired by the Oni-adjacent Eneko from the Korranberg Chronicle: Adventurer's Almanac. After the Giants of Xen'drik were almost completely destroyed, warped by epic Draconic magic and their empires crumbled to less than dust, some, against all odds, managed to escape. These were the Ogrekind, the Trolls, the Formorians. Horrific perversions of Giantkind, all that could survive, and driven to savagery by their own tormented existence, only barely able to remember what they should have been. Some of them, perhaps those whose minds still had a shred of integrity or whose hatred had pushed them through the draconic onslaught, called out. Lucky them, someone was listening. They're always listening. They called to the fiends. They called to the Lords of Dust. They called, in fact, to the Rakshasa, the horrific fiends imprisoned within the Silver Flame and, in the case of their minions, beneath the surface of the Demon Wastes. Fiends and Giant-Kin, both surviving, both wishing nothing but obliteration upon the surface of this world of Draconic domination and control, both seeing an opportunity. And so, the union was made and the pact forged; the Oni were born. To this day, it is not known what their plans are. They could be anywhere, any|one|. The fiendish answer to doppelgangers and changelings, they skulk in the shadows and dance through the light. It is thought, by those who have knowledge that others don't, that they oppose The Chamber and (to a lesser extent) The Undying Court in all things. They have learned from their forebears; to defeat the dragons you cannot merely wield the might to vanish a moon from the sky, but must instead wield the power of subterfuge, working within their precious "Prophecy". An aberrant mark here, a betrayal there, a whisper in the ear of a general or even taunting a sleeping dragon.... perhaps even The Mourning itself. It isn't known. They could be many or few, plans long-failed or only just coming to fruition... perhaps they don't exist at all. But, then again, is it worth the risk? They are the Oni. The giants gave them flesh and hate, while the Rakshasa just gave them a smile. And what a smile it is... (The video is excellent btw! Sorry, got carried away.)

I’ve always wanted to run an oni barbarian who is a contrast to his race as a quiet and remorseful warrior who enjoys diplomacy as much as he enjoys smashing his enemies with his large Kanabo The race were just a cousin to the ogre that somewhere down the road split off and inhabited a hellish location that lead them to evolve demon like features

I've just started running my first hexcrawl with a group. The general idea is that the realm has had too many wars between civilized folk to keep the wilds at bay, so now the wilds are starting to gain ground and fight back. An Oni (Oni Daiyamo from 3.5 but retooled for Pathfinder 2E) is helping a downtrodden orc tribe reclaim their 'rightful kingdom'. A warlord who has introduced ogres into the mix, creating ogrillions and strengthening the tribe. The catch? They also captured a hill giant wereboar, and are giving it's 'gift' onto the tribe as well. The natural balance between the hill giants and the former orcs was disturbed. Due to this, the Oni's legion is slowly wreaking havoc on an entire region.

I’m currently working on a unique one-off that takes place in a Japanese-esque setting. I based it loosely on the anime Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni (When They Cry, or literally When The Cicadas Cry). The players find themselves at a village in a mountain swamp/forest. They are invited to the festivities and are poisoned and TPKed. They respawn back at the bridge. They find themselves in a time loop and die in each timeline, along with a girl that is the descendant of the local godess. There is an Oni in hiding who is attempting to consume the child in order to reach godhood, but the goddess reverses time again and again in hopes of finding the Oni and stopping him from consuming the girl. The goddess’ power is waning and it’s a war of attrition and the goddess brings in the adventurers to stop the Oni. Clues point to an Oni living in an abandoned temple of the goddess along a path with hundreds of oni masks hanging and leering down from the trees. The Oni tries to make a deal with the players to allow him to consume the girl in exchange for divine favors once he achieves godhood.

Its like 3 am here in Canada don't know why I'm up but I am and I'm glad

Japanese yokia are always interesting types of creatures. One I recommend is the kitsune. (Also not sure if its in dnd) They generally are depicted as a semi seductive kind of creature, but after seeing you do the Succubis video I think you would probably have an interesting take on it. I am a big fan of yokai but I still haven't learned too much about any of them yet. Btw keep up the awesome videos, I absolutely love that you talk so much about the lore of the creatures as much as you do.

That did sound cool! Nice one.

*Gets flashbacks to Lorenzo from Critical Role* Oh nooooooooo.

There are some Japanese folklore where the Oni as benevolent being.

Oni are Fiends in my world, Devil and Demon are interchangable in my world. Oni are are essentially living nightmares, each Oni has some sort of thematic look as well as a tie to a specific phobia. Oni are the origin of the traditional phobias in my world. as a recent example of an Oni one of my party have encountered. a tall yellow-skinned female Oni whose hair is more than half her height, and she can extend or retract it using it as a form of chain to grapple foes. she haunts her victims causing nightmares of being trapped in this entangling silky black wire. the weapon she uses when finally facing the PCs in combat, is a Flail flavored as skulls of her previous meals entangled in her hair. (and depending on how many magic items i gave the party, may deal additional necrotic damage, and give her some extra spells).

In my game world, Oni were originally malevolent spirits that were driven from their homeland. Once abroad, they met and crossbred with Ogres, creating a powerful new form and earning the nickname "Ogre Mage".

I have a Oni in the campaign that I dm, is a hench-monster? for and old king-lich that is seal in a pocket plane and uses the oni to steal and kidnap the components and mortal sacrifices necessary to free himself. The party still doesn't know what are they facing.

Awesome job as usual. I like how you kept with the japanese art style. Not sure if you drew this but maybe the Wendigo

What I have noticed in my reading of Japanese folklore is that a lot of the monsters are centred around the idea of first appearing harmless. The scene is typically a traveler walking through the woods at night and they see an old man, or young woman similarly traveling but as they get closer they notice that they are not as they appeared. This might be that the lower half of the woman is that of a spider or that the old has eyes on the palms of his hands. If you want to have some more fun with some really creepy Japanese monsters I suggest for your next video try your hand at a homebrew of the Tenjō kudari.

Personally I prefer to use the Oni like a Wendigo. Oni in my D&D usually aren't born but made by an individual slowly slipping into madness and becoming obsessed with the acts of murder and cannibalism.

This horror-themed episode made me really want to see a Wendigo at some point!

Awesome lore and awesome drawing, Josh! Thank you for bringing one more monster to life!

Wow! a new personal favourite of mine. Which makes me excited to see you draw a Cacus Giant PS: the backstory behind ONI in my world is that in ancient times, an Ogre who could read found a Spellbook of a dead wizard. Who proceeded to teach it to others of his kind, at least who could understand what he was talking about. Gradually through a combination of new traditional teachings and sorcerous origins. The evolved into a new breed of Giant kin. With occasional individuals being born with a magical third eye called Oni-Yai

Another fantastic video, the Oni couldn't have appeared at a more important time for me as I am currently struggling with a monster design for my book called the Hanya (named based of the hanya mask) which is essentially an Ettin magi. Thank you once again for another week of much loved content.

I love the Oni. I suspect that it's because they seem so ethereal to me (a westerner), and so I have a deeper reaction to them that to stuff like Dragons (which are normally presented to us in a western style. Maybe it's about degrees of separation). But this... this is an amazing piece again, man. Lovely! And yes - the Yokai! I have a mashup-version of them in my homebrew (I've not settled on a real name for them yet). They are indeed 'spirits', but apart from undead, fiends and whatnot, spirits in my game are basically survivors of the previous universe: Aliens, in a very real sense. Currently the "Yokai" are the ruling caste of a homogenous colonial empire where all things live in peace together for the greater good - very presented as benevolent, but it's not. Players will discover that they are on a collision course for control of the Prime Material (which is the only plane that has contact points with every other plane, like the trunk of a tree) with the Illithid (and of course the conflict threatens everyone). The forces represented by the Couatl (Heaven) are trying to manipulate things as well, and so is Hell. This civilisation has a flourishing port town that everyone is really excited to trade with and develop relationships with... which won't end well. They're not intended to be front-and-centre, but depending on what the players do, they can become much more important. The Oni are their secret weapon abroad - at home, they form the weapon and secret police that everyone is afraid of, and keeps them in line. Prisoners are fed to them in private ceremonies involving gladiatorial combat and it's handwaved as 'banishment' because it's behind closed doors. Hopefully, the end state of the plot will be quite something to behold. Or it'll end in a TPK! :D

Great one Josh, makes me terrified of the homebrewed version of the Oni my DM has coming up in the possible near future 😂😂

I love to lean into the more demonic looking oni, where their face looks more like a horrid tusked mask than a real face. Super scary. Also obligatory request for the Oblex ^^

Thank you for making this vid. I'm making a campaign and one npc is an oni who may or may not be so friendly. The party has yet to identify his true nature

I know it's not in the d&d monster manual or volos and the like. But would you be interested in doing the kitsune? It's a japanese youkai fox that has 2 to 9 tails. It often shapeshifts to prank people and can be quite powerful.

My Oni are children of night hags and Giantkin. I have changed their statblock a bit to enhance their polymorph ability and changed their spells.

I really want to know what you used (or if you contacted someone) for that translation. I love the way it sounded! Also, I had just remembered the Oni yesterday and spent all of last night and this morning working on things about it for my game. My party is currently pursuing someone, but I'm probably gonna have some encounter ready for them involving an Oni. I haven't entirely thought it through, but I had an idea for Oni in my campaign. In my world, Oni are solitary creatures (as they usually are), nomadic in their travels. I took some inspiration from the Wild Hunt, in that the Oni naturally have an effect of causing it to snow or blizzard when they are within a certain distance. While most Oni kidnap and devour mercilessly, others might want to capitalize, in a sense, on the fear they give. These Oni have flying boats with space inside, the whole thing decorated in an original Japanese style. They travel around the world, bringing snow wherever they pass through, and peddle their wares: magical items. Some of these are likely smaller items (common or uncommon variety) and the Oni would accept larger than average sums of gold or trade ins with magical items. However, there might also be unique items as well. For these, the Oni might charge a different price. Maybe an heirloom of your family. Perhaps something a bit more... noticeable, such as your good arm. Maybe your friend or your child, if it's that important to you. Should you threaten the Oni, he casts darkness on the inside of his boat, blinding you. "You should have taken the deal." The victim hear's the door's lock click shut. They do not see light again. But yeah, that's just a thought.

Great work, great monster to cover. You gained a new subscriber. Would love to see a forge video on the phaerimm or the sharn.

yes! been waiting for oni I love the older mischievous spirit version of the oni known for cunning deception that are reflected in 5E's shapeshifting and stealth abilities when my D&D group was going to do a eastern themed campaign I had the idea of playing a samurai style barbarian that's unarmored defense was their skill with the blade to deflect attacks as opposed to tanking it to keep with the japanese theme I decided their race to be an oni styled tiefling, perhaps having oni heritage making them half oni or being possessed by an oni after they lost their family as a child. to reflect the oni's stealthy nature and to reflect the character being a ronin I took the urchin background so ironically as a barbarian he was also sneaky I didn't get to play Ronin but the shapeshifter and mischievous nature was transferred over to a fey character I'm playing, he has many personas he uses a disguises, one of which is a stealthy vigilante/thief that wears a grey cloak and a white oni mask to hide his identity in my own campaign setting I also have oni tieflings in a japanese inspired region of the world decedent from full oni that call the area home

Feel like they would fit as a fey

Onis are just another type of fiend in my Homebrew setting like in Pathfinder

oni are my favorite monster

My favorite monster is now also my favorite of your drawings

I love this! It looks so cool, and I am definitely going to use this instead of the monster manual version! I can't wait to see troll!

Lol I always called the weapon an oni bat lol thanks for the logic bro great work as always

honestly, I'd love if you just started drawing yokai stuff in general sometimes, this is so cool.

I would like you to draw star spawn.

Can you draw any of the linnorms

i always create my own creatures for my campaings, whit stats and all xD, its always a mess but its fun

So, are you going to draw a Naga?

Darkling? There’s a bit of mystery in their description

10:00 That's totally from Ghostbusters. I remember a version of it from Extreme GB. Gave me the creeps.

Amazing. I have an Oni guarding the ritual to raise a zombie dragon that my players are facing

Oni! Yesss! Sounding a bit tired there man, getting enough sleep?

Hazah! Just as I was about to go to bed as well ^-^

" Something's wrong, shut the light, heavy thoughts tonight And it ain't of Snow White" What song is this from?

So much like Djinn...

Can I say 69th comment on the 69th MM also can u do dragon born plz and Maybe start the entirety of the elf’s and perhaps some popular gods like the god of moon sun and death and I do know the names there just annoying to write it correctly

Not gonna lie I'm not a huge fan of how this is headed in an ASMR direction. Your voice is great but it's starting to feel uncomfortable with how close your words feel in my ears.

Timing on this was impeccable. My group has a monk that was looking for a demonic influence to his back story. The art was fantastic, some of your best detail work. I now feel really inspired, thank you