What They Don't Tell You About Ankhegs - D&D 

Hey guys! Do PLEASE check out my new Monster Classes 5 on my website: mrrhexx.store/ There's lots of dope stuff in there as well! Thank you so much for the support Also, sorry for the constant peaking on the microphone - and the way too overhyped narration hahah. I was recently prescribed Adderall and this was my first recording with it 😓 i had way too much energy. Will do recordings in the future without it.

The ankheg is everything the bugbear advertises itself to be, it is a bug… the size and ferocity of a bear

Correction- in AD&D the Ankhegs visions wasn't 12 feet, it was 12 INCHES. Distance in 1e was a carry over from wargaming and was expressed in inches. One inch was equal to 10 yards outside or 10 feet inside. So the original Ankheg actually had pretty good vision.

*Looks at Ankheg stat block and physiology* *Looks at Thri-kreen stat block and physiology* *Sudden urge to have insectoid knights charging at my players intensified*

Whoever wrote this definitely owned a tarantula. The moulting, breeding and conservation of venom which also acts as their digestion is just spot on. Although they also resemble vinegaroons in some ways.

Best DND lore channel on RU-vid fr.

Ankheg was the first monster I faced in D&D, about 25 years ago. The paladin rolled the lowest Moving Silently in the party and got attacked... and ended up dying. My friend (playing the paladin) had been using the character for a long time and went to cry in the toilet. That's when I realised how immersive RPG can be. [Our party was two Rogues, 1 Paladin, 1 Ranger (me)]

Most important fact: They can give you a ton of xp if you go north before going to Beregost and the Nashkel mines

6:12 That position is actually called "supine". Laying on the back. Prone is laying on the belly. So the monster manual is actually describing flipping the monster into a supine position in order to attack its belly, where the armor is weak.

Just a quick note Mr. Rhexx - 6" and 12" are 60 feet and 120 feet in 1st Edition D&D for indoors, 60 yards and 120 yards outdoors.

The 5e art always makes me think of a chunkier Hydralisk from Starcraft. Some Zerg homebrew monsters would be cool now that I think about it.

The original Boulders Gate was my first encounter with one. I have loved them ever since, they are just... well suited.

I liked the animations for this episode a lot! Very nice combination of animated scenes to get visuals across along with static images for an impressive array of artwork.

My favorite Ankheg memory is when the PC's were hired by a circus to reclaim a stolen giant hamster from a clan of Kobolds that lived in the city sewers. Instead of attacking the kobold clan outright they decided to try and parlay and make some kind of exchange for the hamster. The kobold's leader said that if they could bring him a live war turtle to use as a mount he would give them the hamster. One of the kobold's guided them to where they could find the 'war turtles' and it was a nest of ankhegs! For several glorious rounds of combat the PC's scrambled to protect themselves from ankheg attacks without harming them while the ranger used a Ring of Animal Friendship to finally charm one of them, it took his very last charge to accomplish the feat. The kobold's were suitably impressed with their ankheg wrangling skills and turned over the hamster, but then their leader wanted to try out his new mount and the PCs had to fight him and his ankheg anyway, but his warriors refused to reneg on their deal and didn't fight the PCs, which left their boss to fight (and die) on his own. The kobolds then became uneasy allies to the party.

I've started many a campaign with a simple Ankheg fight. Sometimes it's just an ambush on the road, sometimes it's a main quest for a new party. One time the party arrived at the homestead of a farmer in response to a posting at the local inn's work board requesting hunters for a monster killing the livestock, and arrive to find the halfing farmer standing on the roof shouting at them to 'Get off the ground for the love of the gods!" Just as they noticed the funnel shaped, blood soaked hole next to the horse feeder beside them, it attacked.

If you played Baldur's Gate, then you remember these shits and their battle tactics. And the image at 3:50 is gonna give you flashbacks (Unless you waited until after Nashkel before doing that quest). *burrows behind you* "nothing personal, kid" *one-shots your character* I love them.

They also don't tell you that Yeenoghu keeps two of them as pets. One is called Mr. Bitey and the other is called Paul.

I really liked the cartoon battle effect from top down. It looked almost like a video game.

Ankhegs... the armored wolves of D&D!!!

LETS GO!!! Whenever I get a notification for a new MrRhexx video, I'm immediately put into a better mood. This content is so good. I even showed my 60 year old mother your content before going to watch the Honor Amongst Thieves movie, and she said she understood the movie better because of it.

Legitimately one of the most interesting homebrew compendiums I've seen in a while. Fascinated to check it out.

New editing format. Nice. AND you didn't make us sit through four minutes of you advertising yourself at the start! Good job!

First comment? Anyway, before seeing the video, I want to share my 3.5e experience with them. We were a party of 3, meant to kill the adults and find the eggs in their hole (dude wanted the eggs, don't know why), I was a sorcerer with draconic feats from perfect arcana, we also had a druid and a warrior. We decided for what I thought was a good plan. Silence and distance with ranged weapons, so the fighter could engage. So, what happened. This thing can dig, we knew that, we also knew he was an ambush predator. What I thought it did, was come out of the ground and spit acid. Nope, not at all. It has the grappler feat for monsters with size large, that with str means +12 to grapple. So, he felt me on the ground (unlucky), Came out, grappled me and dealt damage. Hit dice is a d4, and I was lvl 2, so even with feats for hp in average I was on deaths door step. What insued was incredible. The fighter at lvl 2, with a +4 to grapple, used his movement and grappled the beast from behind. He manage to beat it. For a single round. Druid run for a round, while the fighter kept grappling the beast from behind. He started losing badly, but the creature had no way to bite him, so no grapple damage for now. We wacked each other for a round or 2, then that thing run away. Being an ambush predator and all. We were half dead at this point. We later killed it in his cave after stealing some of the eggs, and finding the dead body of another one half eaten. I wasted a spell slot on that fake body, because noone passed a 15 check to tell that it was dead. I also got spit in the face bit the other one. One the most dangerous sessions I ever experienced, and that same campaing we later fought a whole goblin village. For those wondering, village means goblins are in the hundreds, with different lvls for various roles (70% not fighter, those last 30 with a lvl 6-9 boss, multiple segeants lvl 3 and various lvl 1-2 combatant, also count in the wolfes and worges, they had a specialized militia with various roles). We were lvl 3. The lvl 6 goblin was a tribe boss, a class from the miniature manual. That thing could give +6 str at area, and he was accompanied by a cleric and a war-wizard. We never got to that point, campaign ended too soon, but al lvl 3 we fought one of the seargents. I got one shotted again, because we didn't check the whole area since we didn't have a ranger so he managed to sneak up to me in the middle of the fight, take me down and basically turn the fight on us. Then he escaped. This DM is wild. If we do something wrong, or we fail at something, someone is down. Last week, new adventure, we got almost creamted alive. He pulled out some loney toons lvl of stuff to give to 2 lvl 1 characters a chance against us, and in 2 lvl 3 we chased then for a whole city. It was totally fair and predictable, we just don't onow the game enought to be prepared and our builds aren't compensating for enought situations, but damn he is good and raising the stakes.

I really missed your videos, they are always a good time and I really needed something like them lately. Thank you very much for posting again!

Loving the new animations and music man! Great video as always

I like the sudden increase in production quality 👍.

I recently used the Ankhegs on a side quest in my campaign and it was pretty fun. In short they took over an old mine that some dwarfs decided to reopen and dig further, accidentally stumbling on an ankheg colony underground. It was pretty cool to run them because the whole thing turned like a horror episode of the players searching the mines in the dark for survivors, kill the queen and seal the tunnels.. all the while being ambushed by oversized insects comming from the walls and below. It gave of a Starcraft Zerg vibe but in medieval fantasy lol

For D&D 5e I find them great at lower levels, I'd like to see some stats like a "greater" Ankheg that could range in the CR 13 ish area. I could see with their exoskeleton that a greater Ankheg would have real high AC, much higher acid, claw and mandible damage, etc.

I'm so happy you are back with a new video! I was starting to worry that you are moving away from yt. Love your videos and your personality.

This looks and feels like a good starting foe for a budding adventurer. Pretty simple, having a complex enough encounter and just tough enough that any level 1-3 character will have issues with alone.

@MrRhexx I'm quite surprised that there wasn't a single mention of the Ankhegs Queens in the video. It's quite strange that you didn't include unique variants of these monsters as well.

Am i the only one that has never played D&D the board game but just love the deep lore of it all? Plus i love Rhexx voice he should make audiobooks

Apparently they compete with Giant Ants, and their young can be captured and enslaved by Giant Ants if they’re pushed out of their territory.

I love your content. I learned so much about dungeons and dragons. I started at fifth edition, and hearing the lore you spoke about in all of your videos just got me more and more interested, and now i'm addicted happily addicted lol years later and trying to get absolutely everyone to play!❤

I've always thought of gnolls as just another humanoid, so I was surprised by how much I like the gnoll class. Keep the monster classes coming. I hope you make a chromatic class and something inspired by Mimics next.

I can actually imagine some very clever kobolds taking advantage of ankhegs and their tunnels. A 5' tunnel could be annoying and cramped for a medium sized creature, but small kobolds?

That intro gave me the chills. The ankheg was a nightmare in BG1. (And a gold farm if you could kill them)

"Hey there Mrs. Tiller, I'm Verrin Silverholt from Grigglak's Pest Control. I've got my Smoking Orb and some Turpentine here, and we're gonna go ahead and take care of that Ankheg problem for you."

Just found these "what they don't tell you about..." videos. Despite the weird accent of the author, these videos are quite good. Never understood why people don't post videos in their native tongues, but still, it sates my D&D curiosity. I've only played D&D video games, never the pen and paper. Favorite series is Eye of the Beholder 1 & 2. I've fought Ankhegs in Dungeon Hack (I think that's what they are) but they don't burrow into the ground. I'd love there to be more dungeon crawlers like EotB or using the Legend of Grimrock engine to make some good D&D games.

15:06 Hmm mayby they need the enzymes in their acid to grow their new chitin, could also bee a cool thing to think they may use it to eat their old chitin and reclaim a small amount of nutrients and minerals from their old skin.

So, my brain decided to summarize ankhegs as large, burrowing acid spitting bug. Slight problem, they're not the only thing that fits that description, the other thing (that I know of) is kruthik hivelords... which kruthiks in general would be cool to have a video like this on, seeing as 5e doesn't mention kruthiks being the result of a tiefling civilization combining velociraptors with fiendish insects

Ill never forget the Ankhegs from BG1 and their crazy heavy carapaces

Okay... lets do this. *clears throat* ROCK AND STONE!

yoooo ultra rare Rhexx video. HYPE

You either got better at editing those vids or got yourself a good editor. Comparing your old and new videos is like night and day. Non theses the informations you convey are awesome as always keep it up man :D

17:55 I never thought I'd see a Signalis reference in one of your videos, I love that game!

Commonly believed myth, hibernation is not sleeping. A lot of the time a hibernating creature is awake.

"...resembles an enormous many-legged insect" - not to be confused with the common single-legged insects most of us are familiar with.

Glad to see Monster Classes 5! The earth elemental is so cool. Can you please make a fire elemental soon? I just started a campaign with two players who are using your monster classes (vampire and dragon), and I'm planning to give the vampire a chance way at the end of the campaign to make a deal with a fire god to become a fire elemental. I was gonna try to homebrew it myself based on fire genasi + a fire version of storm sorcerer, but I would love it if I could just hand her the fire elemental class pdf if she says yes! It'll probably take a couple years to get to that point, so no rush. 😊 No matter what you make next, I'm excited to see it!

I created a short, tutorial dungeon for new players or to see if a group is a good fit for me as GM. With the last version, I included an injured baby ankheg. The first group killed it mercilessly. The second group nursed it back to health and adopted it as the group pet. It even helped them defeat the boss. It nearly died in that fight, but they, again, nursed it back to health. The players really bonded with it. Warmed my heart.

What a cool monster to run for a young group. Awesome video!

Cool background. In addition, IMO ankhegs are one of a handful of non-beasts that are perfect thematically for druids for wildshaping

This is absolutely perfect - I'm actually running a one-shot with ankhegs as the main enemies tonight, so this is great lore material!

First ogres, now ankhegs? You're just going through my favorite monsters aren't you? What's next? Quaggoths? Bullywugs? Thri Kreen? A return to the Giants series? I do love ankhegs, like you said they're just a really fun monster. I do generally make them Beasts though, because I don't see anything that far fetched from nature in them. They're just giant bugs who dig and spit digestive acid, and god knows real bugs have some weird abilities(looking at you bombardier beetle with your acid spray and assassin bug with your corpse armor) Plus I like having weird animals, and ankhegs fit well.

I havent played dnd for too long, but i was making a homebrew druid class based around bugs specifically. I made a modified version of the Ankheg for that the druid can turn into.

Super awesome intro! I always love the old school introductions, but this was evocative

yoooooo this was just what I needed for a part of my next campaing, I love the big bug trope and the Ankheg took my atention when I seen it on the monster manual so this is just perfect at this time

Collapsable tunnel, the bane of wizards everywhere.

I remember the only time I encountered ankhegs in DnD media was from a webnovel by a Chinese author, translated to english. Story was called Abyss Domination. It was a DnD story that followed a Rogue and was set in 3.5e. Really enjoyed that story but sadly translation efforts died out at some point.

I really like the idea of attacking the party before they even get into the lair.

A fun quest line idea. After a previous ankheg attack, a vein of precious material is discovered within its tunnel. Now the town needs adventurers to protect the locals as they are turning the tunnel into a proper mine. Possible intrigues: The local who is leading the conversion is not very experienced but is working as hard as he can for the town's benefit (it's also on his land). The expert he wanted to hire would do so only if his company took a perceived exorbitant portion of all profit, so the local declined. That expert is now propositioning other elements within the town. Do the adventurers help the local or make deals with the other elements in town? A tunnel collapsed (sabotage or poor workmanship?), trapping most of the crew (local or hired) on the other side. What deals will be made so they will be rescued? Will those deals be honored? And how can the adventurers impede/help?

you are really one of the best youtube original creators out there..

Nice see you working again. Your work keep just improving

Im wearing earbuds and was not expecting that ringing at the beginning lol.

Excellent lore! Been missing these videos and looking forward to your adventure!!

One of my oldest characters in D&D has homebrew armor and weaponry made from the chitin and mandibles of an ankheg, so I’m hyped for this episode to see how I can flesh the details of that character out even more.

Awesome video. I loved the little adventure example and the animation there. Please keep posting.

I´ve never used them in my games, but I´ll for sure use it now at some point. Very cool. I never knew how fun it really is. Thanks a lot

8:18 Like a cross between a bulldog ant and an earwig. I like it.

A dm moving/playing the enemies how they would act in universe would be amazing. the dm i used to play with always mysteriously had them spread out enough to make hitting 2 or more at once with a single spell really hard after i got access to good area effect spells. Kinda made my character a cantrip bot cause there was never anything worth using a spell slot on. meanwhile the arakokra fighter was dominating pretty much every combat encounter with their ridicules speed and the magic weapon they got.

Pre-ordered the soft cover monster classes book. Plan to grab the pdf's of 4 and 5 at some point too. Keep up the good work!

Love to see the quality increase as always. It'd be great for you to cover Goliaths.

Imagine a tribe of clever little kobolds making use of the free tunneling service that is the ankheg. All they need to do is reinforce it and try not to get in it's way too much. Then fall happens and massmurder ensues as the ankheg gets voracious in preparation for hibernating. Oops!

One stunt I could see the Ankheg doing in winter would be 'burying' itself under some loose dirt in one of its tunnels. Its antennae can still sense visitors, and the burying will give them a slight advantage as any intruders won't notice the disturbed dirt as easily compared to a full-sized ankheg. Now a fun idea would be smarter ankhegs that set up lots of dirt along a tunnel, then bury itself under that loose dirt. If the players take time to examine all of the dirt, that will give the ankheg time to wake up fully. If the characters run forward to the end of the tunnel, then the characters have gone past the ankheg and are in a dead end. Even more fun is if the ankheg made a U-turn tunnel so the characters have to get within the tremorsense range while running down the tunnel. This gives the ankheg time to wake up before the characters get to the other part of the U-turn tunnel where the ankheg is located.

I was actually just wondering if this channel was active anymore! Glad to see the upload!

I love Ankheg, I threw them at my party and gave them acidic blood. Made some Ankheg spawn which exploded for 1d4 acid damage. Really helped add the "oh fuck we in a nest" vibe

Actually reminded me of the quest we got in 1st town we visited after fleeing from Candle Keep in 1st Baldur's Gate game,, actually snooping around for hidden loot and doing this quest could get us 2 sets fo Ankheg plate armor, insanely good for how early in game we got it

Yay a new episode ive been really hoping for another

Gotta get on that helldivers giant bug hype

7:00 can't believe I've run these at least 4 times and only now realize that a player simply needs a way to remove 1 intelligence from the mob and you got an insta-"kill" ability. Especially considering it has 13 Wis, meaning you'd have to roll around 13-15 at the least to succeed against your player.

The main continent of my original world has a sink hole in it known as The Hive. It goes nearly 300 feet deep and is a MASSIVE swarm of Ankhegs. It is avoided at all costs due to how dangerous it is to get to close to it. About every 27 years, the Ankhegs swarm and expand their territory. Will be a major arc in the Campaign I am currently running.

at 21:22 the text says "6 inches ultravision" but you say "6 feet ultravision" the 6 inches is measuring irl inches on a 1 inch battlemat so thats actually 30ft of ultravision in game

Did i hear a ROCK and STONE?

I love this new intro and way of reading entries with text highlights, keep these changes if able please❤. Just in time for my players are now in the desert and the ranger guide needed some favors for being a guide...

Ankhegs ambushing you in Darksun: Wake of the ravager could be a party wipe. Years later, I was pretty reluctant to face them in BG1.

Giant bug infestation poster might be not something you expected, and explains high pay

Love the editing man another amazing video! Can’t wait for your book 😁

Another thing they don’t tell you is that Ankheg is a good enemy to use in your campaign if you like miniatures and want to also play Tyranids in Warhammer 40k ! 😂

My players are VERY adamant about starting an Ankheg farm and now i need to watch this video like 10 times to prepare 🙃

I got one of your PDFs, and omg it was with ever dime

The new animations on the video looks amazing!

Crazy I was just grinding for xp from these monsters earlier this week in baldurs gate 1. Been fresh on my mind since. Glad I’m not the only one with these bugs on the brain.

I'm genuinely curious as to why Gnolls need to be a full monster class rather than a player race. They seem balanced enough for it

In my homebrew setting Ankhegs molt into Gigants after a couple decades

Just wrote an Anhkheg battle scene in my fantasy story this afternoon. Didn’t go well for the pour things at least the characters decided not to eat them once they were vanquished.

The new book is awesome, though it caused me to notice we lack a movie on Gnolls! What are the odds we will see a Gnoll movie before the Sands of Doom release? 🙃

Awesome! The channel, the content, the books are all awesome!

I can't help but notice this came out right after Helldivers 2. If you're playing I'd love to party up one day let's kill some bugs for the sake of managed democracy!

I feel. Need to bring up Baldur’s Gate 1 who mentions that they are useful to farmers as their tunnels help the soil. And so they are a somewhat protected species in some areas where you can only kill a few of them.

Have always loved this monster. It is simple and well designed scary for low level characters and a pack of them is still a challenge for mid level party’s