I love about half the creatures listed here. Sure they look a little.... unique, but they provide a little levity in a serious game or you can just run them serious, I had no issue with using flumphs and owlbears and my players didn't see them as jokes.
When I brought the 5e Monster Manual, I flipped it open to see, if that was the book I wanted to buy. I landed directly on the Flumpf, read it's entry and had immediately an idea for an adventure. I knew at this moment, to buy this book would be a good choice.
anyone else notice how many frog people there are in dnd? Slaadi, bullywug, grung, banderhobb, Nergaliid, Hezrou, Hydroloth... Also is it telling that I love every single monster in this video?
Dracons would've been more appropriate for a wider array of settings, hahaha ("centauroid dragon" would work in a lot of places, but might step on the toes of the Dragonborn if given PC stats due to its flatly superior aesthetics). In fact I think they chose the Giff specifically _because_ they don't look like they fit into other D&D settings with that outfit and gun.
@@wesleyvalk9129 Spelljammer _is_ D&D. This is like saying Dark Sun isn't D&D or Planescape isn't D&D just because I dislike some things from those settings and they don't translate well to all other settings. In fact, Planescape and Spelljammer are both parallel versions of how to travel from one setting to another.
yeah I like spelljammers but I add sci fi stuff, it basically becomes star trek with elves and wizards xD, if you want something like lord of the rings then dont add gith or mindflayers.
Okay, hear me out. While withdrawn, the tortle could still speak & ask the Goliath of the group or the Wizard of the group with the Catapult or Telekenesis spell to use them as a weapon. And if you're playing as a war cleric, a moon druid, or a fighter, having a friend use you as a living cannonball isn't all that bad of an idea
Now I want to include that Theodore Roosevelt hippoman in a game, maybe he's the master of a hunters guild and gives the party some hunting quests to prove their worth and be recognized by the guild.
11:53 here’s an idea for a DM. A small kingdom of Giff that are embroiled in the Civil War. The joke is that the reason for the war is whether their race should be pronounced as: Giff or Jiff.
From 5e UA 80: “The giff are split into two camps concerning how their name is pronounced. Half say it with a hard g, half day it with a soft g. Disagreements over the correct pronunciation have often blossomed into hard feelings, loud arguments, and headbutting contests, but rarely escalate beyond that.”
Not gonna lie, I actually like the owlbear. When I read through the Monster Manual and looked at the creativity of most of the monsters in it, the owlbear was there as one of the more simple creatures that I took a liking to. I saw it as the creators mixing it up. EDIT: And since you choose to improve the owlbear, I might do the same thing. I do this thing called "Bestiary Brawls" where I have random 5E D&D monsters fight. The next fight the owlbear is in. I'll give it keen hearing and climbing.
Ideas/ comments 10. I think if you combined the roleplay characteristics of the Flumph with the cooler appearance of the Netch's from Morrowind, you would get an entirely descent monster. Other way around, and you would get stupid looking floating cows. 9. To rethink the modrons, I would take inspiration from the Homeworld gems from Steven Universe, or at least take the same inspiration as they did. They are quite cartoony, but in a way that emphasises their axiomatic nature, harkening back to animated propaganda and the disturbing implications of childhood indoctrination. If you find these things creepy, there's a good reason for that, and we should make that clear. 8. These things remind me of one of the enemies in Darkest Dungeons that explodes some turns into the fight if you don't kill them fast enough. That would certainly give it something cool to do. 7. You think you're big because you pick on a baby? That's pathetic, man. Leave the tyke alone! 6. Am I wrong that Skyrim guards are actually pretty well balanced compared to most? They're definitely a threat at lower levels, but they don't scale too hard and you can see yourself mowing them down if you go on a rampage. 5. Any animal that can't tell that a colorful frog is especially dangerous won't be long for this world. It was nice knowing you, Esper. 4. I would love it if you could use your shell like a Koopa from Mario or Squirtle in Smash Bros. Use your own shell as an improvised weapon. 3. I just assumed this was an Eberon creature, this is from Mordenkainen's Tome? Wtf? They do mention that they're spacefaring mercenaries, but it would be much better to include them in some dedicated Spelljammer compendium in that case, wouldn't it? 2. I do like the idea of a mind flayer that's more squid than person. Imagine them scuttling around in the dark, it's vestigial body dangling limply from its head. I could make these horrifying. (In terms of CR, sometimes I think they give creatures such low rating just to make them low value for XP. You don't want to try to farm these things, it's not worth it, just avoid them at all costs. That's the message I think they're supposed to give.) 1. I like your variations with actual wings.
I would make Mane the evil souls so vile and uncontrollable that the devils just dumped into the abyss, that way they can still be the souls of evil mortals but they have a reason for being in the abyss and not the 9 hells.
Manes is a natural plural. It’s proper singular would be Mane, since it’s based on the Di Manes (spirits of the departed). The other enemy named like this is the Erinyes with its singular being Erinus (or just call them the Furies!).
About the tortle , i can say they are cool and very useful in homebrews or own module interprtation . And better yet they fit perfectly if your world has tortles and a hare-folk too which are contradicting folks for centuries . You can bring the turtle and the rabbit story into another level and it fits perfectly into D&D.
Modrons do take work to find their slot in the game, but when they do it's fantastic. Nordom and the modron cube in planescape torment are one of my favorite parts of that beautiful game. While I don't think they can just show up anywhere and feel right, I do leave a few modron figures that lead to the rubikon dungeon project in my settings.
I took an Owlbear, gave it a fly speed, climb speed and also the Pounce special ability. It was now like a sort of bulkier, less agile but tougher Gryphon type creature. I mean you already got Gryphons and Hippogryphs, I added Owlbear's to that similar niche of a mishmash of beasts with added fly speed.
On the point of what Manes are: Hell is for the Lawful Evil. There they may end up becoming a part of the plane, enduring torture for their sins, or become a petitioner. The Chaotic Evil descend into the madness of the Abyss. They may end up merging with the plane or becoming an abyssal petitioners, or they may just become a Manes. Also, I'm fairly convinced that no one actually uses the guard out of the MM and just creates first or second level fighter NPCs to use as the town guard for large settlements.
The only thing worse than a Grung is a Grung PC. Played one session with a Grung ally. It was really stupid. DM had to make a convoluted way to rehydrate the character despite us being nowhere near a body of water. Player missed the next session, and DM canceled the campaign after that.
My fix for Flumphs: Take away their eyes and mouths entirely. They are otherworldly and the closest the only human-audible vocalizations they can do sound like bees buzzing (or the jellyfish from Spongebob); they're not hostile unless attacked and not evil, but they are alien and otherworldly and need special measures to communicate with. While overall good, they do have a somewhat selfish interest in causing stress in others as stress feeds them, most of them actively abstaining from bringing more strife into the world because, being the Underdark, nobody needs any help with that. Take them out of that environment, though, and they start having issues with taking on an attitude somewhat more like an Internet troll (and suffering Troll's Remorse whenever not starving, feeling guilt over having caused suffering in others however minor). My fix for Modrons: Either make them more mechanical in appearance or less so. They should either look like physical embodiments of geometry or like perfectly crafted machines, not asymmetrical steampunk cyborg Mike Wazowskis. Mechanically, I'd give them abilities based on nullifying magic or other special powers, particularly powers that are chaotic in their origin (Fey Pact Warlocks, Wild Magic Sorcerers) or otherwise simplifying them. Maybe something to flatten/smooth out terrain, giving them advantage and others disadvantage as they flatten the hills and fill in the gaps. For the Manes: My first idea for a fix is to say their stat block (HP, basic attack, whatever) are _in addition to_ class levels or racial abilities of the appropriate former-mortal. I'd also clarify the methods to wind up in the Abyss rather than Hell if using the default D&D cosmology instead of lumping all fiendsinto a single faction. Yeti Tyke: Every monster should have stats for its young provided so we know how easy they are to kill. It's weird how few we get, if anything. If we're going to have a stat block for a full grown yeti we should absolutely have one for a baby yeti. Guard: I see literally no issue here. Character level 1, class of "slightly worse Fighter variant" (1d8 HP like a Cleric instead of 1d10 like a full Fighter; _this_ type of warrior is where the cleric's weapon proficiencies and HP come from instead of being squishy, poorly armed, and poorly armored like the other full casters), with stats 10 across the board is what an _average_ warrior is supposed to be. If anything his STR, DEX, CON and two HP dice instead of one listed in that stat block are rather generous. This is the measuring stick against which your player character warriors are meant to be compared. Random foot soldiers and conscripts shouldn't randomly be stronger and more competent than main characters. Basically, this guard makes _perfect sense_ from a worldbuilding perspective even if it's lackluster game mechanically; strong enough to credibly keep orcs and goblins at bay _when using the town's fortifications to his advantage as intended_ but weak enough that you can easily see why they're sending you and your pals to go clear out the infestation instead. Looking at his stats, if anything I'd say that the basic goblin and wolf are probably stronger than they should be, not that the guard is too weak. Grung: "Do we really need two species of frog people?" No, but we didn't need to have both gnomes and halflings, didn't need both wood elves and high elves (even before getting into the dozens of elf variants added later), didn't need both orcs and hobgoblins, didn't need all three of ogres, bugbears, and hill giants, didn't need a dozen colors of dragon (two at minimum for each "element" they could think of for a breath weapon) and the list goes on. D&D has always had a lot of redundancies (such as the shaky distinction between a cleric of a nature-focused deity and a druid, or between a cleric of a lawful and good deity and a paladin in 3e and earlier, or between what defines a valid warlock patron vs. a cleric patron deity). Being a system containing a huge mass of everything, including endless and at times pointless redundancies, is a big part of D&D as a system. Tortles: Were cool when tied to the lore of the setting they were originally from, but aren't appropriate to all others; as it does for most others, Faerun/Toril/Aebir-Toril/Forgotten Realms just nicks this cool and distinctive thing from another setting and unceremoniously plops it into its own without any consideration for how it got there (those sagacious elements you mention from other fictional turtles were there). The shell should absolutely be a Reaction to use! Giff: I'd use hippofolk in a campaign...as an excuse to make one a huge barbarian brute with a pot belly, a pair of spiked gauntlets painted bright red, and a comically tiny crown on his head. I'd pair him up with an evil wizard who specializes in a spell to polymorph others specifically into walking but otherwise defenseless eggplants. Gnome Flayer: Way to ruin a perfectly serviceable gnome antagonist by merging it with a mind flayer! Owlbear: "Look at these two stat blocks." _Sees one uses the word 'beak' and the other 'bite'_ I know which one is the Owlbear. Owlbear is actually outright stronger on every level, even if not by a lot; except Wisdom, LOL, I guess "wise owl" didn't translate here. Honestly I think the Owlbear should've had the full combined suite of all abilities from the owl and bear (flight, climbing) and some extras for the _memetic_ value of the two (higher intelligence and wisdom than a _real_ owl because it's a _fantasy_ owl) and so forth.
About the Manes:If you die in d&d, you go to the plane that best fits your alignment, souls that go to the abyss become manes Demons also buy Soul larva from Night hags in Hades and transform them to lesser demons, such as manes
I'm kind of with you at the modrons unless it happens to be the time of the modron March across the Planes then there's thousands and thousands of them Muhahaha
I love how every other D&D monster tier list and countdown video on your channel uses quotes from influential writers and philosophers, but here you used a quote from the Cookie Monster.
Personally I like the flumph because the underdark is a grim and evil place. I like this because it adds a beacon of light in a world of darkness. But yea the look goofy af
Advantage statistically gives you a +5 to attack. Tortles get +4 to ac when they go into their shell and go PRONE, which means melee attacks have advantage on them. They just make themselves easier for the fighter to hit.
With manes: I am reading from an interactive story app that has a lot of dnd style stories. In that story whenever a mortal dies the one with the strongest claim takes the soul. Any soul without a strong claim has a chance to be taken in in the abyss. Creatures with a tainted soul, such as happens when you become a vampire (in that world it is a form of demonic possession, not sure if it's the same for dnd), almost automatically go to the abyss. The most common way you end up in hell is to make a contract there. Don't forget that the dnd hell and christian hell are different. In Christianity there is only one god, in dnd there are many. Therefore it is logical that not all bad souls are automatically claimed by hell. If you go by the "asmodeus is only 1 god so can't claim all the bad people", a lot of the unimpressive will end up in the abyss.
how to kill a grung. Make them so happy they jump for joy. Standing Leap 15ft. over 10ft, 1d6 falling damage. Keep 'em jumping. Challenge them to jumping contest best 4 out of 7 wins!
i mean you still need the rabbits and the fodder in the underdark, Flumphs make the perfect cattle/ heard to hunt for the monsters not everything in the underdark can be an apex predator you still need prey
I actually remember saving two flumphs in out of the abyss when I was in a trap. I tried casting a spell, but the wild magic trap that where I was being sprayed with acid, and accidentally summoned them. I managed to break out of the trap using my own natural strength.
I don’t think the trouble is the monsters but the half ass stat blocks. How about a fiend touched Owl Bear. Making cutesy monsters deadly can be quite horrifying
After the two first entries, I thought I misread the title, because those 2 are some of the best. I think modrons have the possibility of even being creepy, if you really play the orderly hive mind well. The fact that they look goofy and cute can make it even scarier. The Flumph is just the best. Scary place, scary monster, and suddenly, out of the corner of your eye, you see ..... CUTENESS. The rest of the entries are great.
3:53 - I beg to differ. Here's what it can do. Besides being immune to mind effects, subdual damage, ability damage, energy drain, AND critical hits (yeah, crits don't work on them), it has darkvision, has some resistance to acid, cold and fire and gets extra actions based on what kind of Modron it is. Yeah, Monodrones are pretty weak, but if you throw in Quadrones (in AD&D, most Modrons are either Duodrones or Quadrones), or a Pentadrones, it becomes a very different fight. Pentadrones also have a paralyzing gas breath weapon, and are basically impossible to ambush (any competent DM will have at least one of these with a large group of Modrons).
Giffs are badass, you should try playing one. I use them as in a city-state based an a blend of ancient Egypt and the later Ottoman Empire, where they wield scimitars and flintlocks, and worship the Egyptian hippopotamus mother goddess. They are large and in charge, you do not mess with them.
How dare you put down the Tortle! Its a million times better than the other beastfolk with recycled features. Its shell ability isn't super useful but at least its flavorful and whimsical. And having inherent 17 AC is actually wonderful for spellcasters and other builds trying not to be M.A.D.
if you want good references for turtlefolk, stormblood from FFXIV has the Kojin, who are samurai turtles. Despite the TMNT description I gave, they look really cool
That makes no sense. The Nine Hells specifically was created to punish mortals who are evil (and to house the angels who became devils after fighting demons for ages). The Abyss is a timeless, boundless realm that spontaneously spawns demons.
I used Giff in a Planescape game. They were dressed in plate mail and armed with two-handed swords and maces. They were mercenary guards hired by an evil sorceress.
14:00 Honestly, while I completely understand why you would dislike the one with the lazer pistol as they do look way too cartoonish. I think the one with the huge head tentacles would fit really well in most settings. To ve fair I don't know their lore, but to me their look would fit really well for the results of some experiences the Illithid would run on gnome or other small humanoid creatures.
Tortles ... Reaction: Turn their back to foe, gain +4 AC (like shield spell), get to do this a number of times equal to DEX or some other stat. Lasts till end of turn (or) now facing the opposite way, turning back takes another reaction or part of move .. something like that. Maybe give advantage to save vs AOE spells, if doing it against a fireball or something.
@@Jeezusehchrist That's cool to know, thanks. Not a race I've ever considered, being a bit beyond the general species in most worlds I've played in, or ran.
I stalk low level parties with an owl bear who snatched their hirelings and ponies but I give them stealth and tracking skills and a nocturnal nature that forces overland travelers to sleep during the day and March through the darkness. All mundane but based in horror. They also have an armor breaking beak. Finding torn open shields and mail where the thing has ambushed should let them know that heavy armor might not help so much as alertness and swift movement.
Thanks for the new video! I don't feel as strongly about some of your selections but can understand why you chose them all. With you on the distaste for making cute d&d monsters, though flumphs might be an exception.
To me the owlbear looks like the creators said "well the idea of a predatory bird head mixed with a carnivores mammal worked really well with the griffin so why not try it again" but really badly dropped the ball, also the fact that it is a higher CR than the griffin makes me mad you know they only made it CR 3 so it wouldn't be irrelevant next to the polar bear/ cave bear.
I got so triggered when I saw the owlbear on screen. Then, I heard the reasoning and we completely agree. The owlbear is such a cool concept and lovable design, but completely falls flat on stats.
Fun fact about grungs: although they can jump up to15 feet high, there is nothing in their stat block about not taking fall damage after jumping, so enjoy watching them jump themselves to death.
hmm, aren't yeti tykes explicitly stated to be controllable by larger, threatening looking entities (e.g. just about all kinds of adventurers), have advantage to stealth in snow, have combat stats, etc.? in other words, small, hard to detect spies/scouts for the party, if they figure out ways to communicate... possibly raised into slightly more useful minions too... I mean, most monsters are worse than a +3 polearm, when you have polearm master and sentinel, amirite?
Every time I hear “abyssal chicken” I think of that kid from the Jurassic park. “It’s more like a 6 ft turkey!” I wish they had gone with “abyssal raptor” or something more serious. The owl bear in Baldur’s gate 3 can fly lol. Flight in that game is point and click movement. Not the free range Z access that tabletop suggests. So a gliding jump in 5e would be so cool!
For Guards, I'd would just take a basic human(or whatever race fits the setting) and give them a level or two in Fighter depending on how skilled they are. A higher level Guard like captain, commander, or knight can have a few more levels and even a subclass for more of a challenge. For flavor, you could add a level of Ranger if they were scouts, Rogue if they do reconnaissance, or Barbarian if they're a big, tough guy. But I agree the basic listed guard can be a conscript, recruit, militia, or if you just need some basic goons for a party to easily cut through.
Do not look at CR 5e does it badly I'd always look at stats. The Guardsman has AC 16 and 11 HP. The goblin has AC 15 and 7 hp. The goblin does an average of five damage a hit. The Guard does 4-5 dmg. The main deciding factor is the to hit if in a straight up fight. The guard kills the goblin in two hits vs the three on average the goblin has access to... They have the same chance of hitting each other. Of course the goblin has a good chance of a surprise attack. It pretty much becomes a coin flip in ini and higher dmg ranges. I'm more surprised they'd label them 1/8th simply because of the lack of bonus action ability. A Cow is also CR 1/4th. It can one shot guardsman with an average damage of 14 if it gets a gore in. The thing does more damage than a warhorse.
@@lemonZzzzs Yes... the medieval mad town-Wizard Sanders is opening up a new chain of taverns called AFC's. (Abyssal Fried Chicken) and in need of classes with a chef feat. For all the adventure parties on the go. Try the feast of "trough-o'-chicken vardo tail-gater" for the entire party needing rations in a dungeon, but for the lone adventurer to slay a dragon..., try the Abyssal Tenders with the honey-mead dipping sauce!
Grungs are adorable! How dare you! In all seriousness... that is the point. They aren't supposed to actually be threatening. They're humorous and make for cute characters. D&D needs more of that.
There actually were some improvements done on the owlbear at second edition - for example read Dragon 214 the Ecology of the Owlbear, but yeah it is a lame fifth Edition Monster. I personally tend to make encounters with monsters unique, and not every encounter needs to be a fighting encounter either. This said, I don't like 4th or 5th Edition that much, using them only sometimes for some random inspirations. I am using Pathfinder/3.5 and though I posess a copy of Pathfinder 2nd Ed. I am also not too fond of that one either. Among the classic D & D Monsters (since it even was in the OSR Game of the seventies) the Owlbear surely is the weakest, when it comes to storytelling. But it actually has a history, which isn't too nice either. A failed mages experiment that killed and escaped it's creator, now roaming the countryside as a magical freak... but yes, it's really mostly nothing more than a savage brute.
I'll never understand the appeal of the cutesy tone shift we're seeing in 5e. I'm fully on board with some of the changes made in this edition intended to be more inclusive, but I don't think chibi monsters pull new people into the hobby - they push dedicated players away. Maybe I'm wrong and there actually are players out there who want neopets monsters in their game, but I've played D&D with a lot of different kinds of people, and if I told any of them they were fighting cute gnome mind flayers, they'd probably ask if I needed to take a break.
I think that would be a consequence of D&D's transition to the "Overall Generic RPG." You can use the 5e ruleset to play most fantasy settings, with probably any kind of tone no matter how childish or mature. I has a bit of everything in it. I don't personally think the inclusion is bad. Even though most of my games are mostly serious, I sometimes find some way to include something light-hearted or even "cutesy," and my players tend to enjoy it. But no group is the same, and if you think they wouldn't like to see something like that, you might as well not use it.
I totally agree, i mean an occasional cutesy creature can be nice like a friendly kobold or a hydra that someone managed to magically shrink to the size of a squirrel, but these creatures should be firstly rare and secondly, they should be cute in the same way a pet bearded dragon or snake is or hell even just a normal cat or dog, but when you go full big adorable eyes it just seems like a total tonal shift from the rest of the game
Go play FATAL you salty boomer. The only reason why you think D&D was "dark" is because shit would kill you instantly for lulz. Even in my lightest games, there's a number of gruesome deaths and gory scenes that would make traumatize real people if they saw them as regularly as me and my fellow players do. Plus, most of the general "scary" monsters are in the game. Unless you're sad your favorite poo-poo cancer demon from Dragon Magazine #69 hasn't been converted to 5e.
@@esperthebard Your point about making Grungs and Bullywugs one race really fits here. I would rather have the Monster Manual have a section for "Seafolk" or even "Waterfolk" that expands on a whole ecology on how a water-based society works, and then have less ridiculous artworks. The Locathah acturally looked like Merfolk in the fucking 3e book, why reskin it to THIS monstrosity?
