Of course, some would question the need for a template at all. The simplest solution for the GM is to change the alignment and behavior of the creature to suit their needs.
I personally go by the philosophy of undeath not necessarily undoing the moral fiber of the original creature, just straining it, consuming the weak-minded.
My view is a deathless creature should be variant enough that they could hardly be recognizable as undead, which changing alignments and behaviors probably wouldn't accomplish by themselves. To illustrate, it makes a lot of sense to set up shapechangers as a subtype of aberration and elementals as a subtype of outsiders, even if 3rd-edition D&D players such as myself had gotten used to thinking of them of as their own creature types. Mechanically they fit together, even though flavor-wise shapechangers and non-shapechanging aberrations have little in common, and elementals and fiends even less.
With the new system, where the subtype has almost no unique details, you can't combine types.
When I suggested smart animals such as cats, foxes, and dolphins should have a subtype, the purists screamed bloody murder at me. Being both intelligent and being able to become familiars at a high enough level that dumbing down was unnecessary, was too detailed for a subtype.
The Scariest monster I know of:
Splines are constructs with the ability to mold themselves into any flat shape or hollow enclosure, such as a wall, cylinder, or a sphere. At rest, a spline collapses into a flat disc, but no matter its shape it retains its smooth metallic surface. A spline retains whatever color its base metal had at creation. Splines are most commonly made of iron or steel, but varieties made of bronze, copper, or more exotic metals can also exist.
Splines cannot form complicated designs nor are they very good at hiding, but they do have the ability to cast Mass Suggestion at will, but this ability is always limited to some variant of: "pay no attention to that weird thing over there in the corner."
Splines are not designed for combat but are hard to kill and at least semi-intelligent. They often work in teams to corner and capture a designated target using their shapechanging ability, encasing the creature inside a giant collective-sphere, in order to carry the victim back to whomever created or hired them.
In honor of the release of Pokémon Black 2 & White 2 (as of October 7th for the NA release), I'd like to see a creature that mimics a quite unique Pokémon: Eevee. For those don't know, or care, Eevee is a ferret-like little rodent that has an irregular genetic code that allows it to take multiple forms depending on what evolution stone, time of day or location it gets. So far, the series has 7 of its evoltuons, and each of them is awesome on its own rights.
What I like to see for D&D is a creature that alters its shape, and gets stronger, depending on what spell it got affected by:
- Small or Medium Magical Beast (shapechanger)
- an ability that alters his shape depending on what spell afflected it
- a bunch of special attacks, qualities, immunities, resistances, weaknesses and stat modifiers depending on the new shape
- the shape is determined by the spell's descriptor, like fire, air, acid, earth, good, chaotic, fear, healing, etc.
- the shape stays for 1 round per HD or 1 minte per HD, whichever is more balanced
Are you up for it Meepo ? You might need a big chart to list the effects of all spell descriptors, but it would be awesome to see. Also, you could easily make a -1 CR variation that can make the creature unchangeable, but it remains in a set shape forever, like if you would create different types.
Thanks again, Meepo. Even though you didn't provide my suggestions with new stat-blocks, its nice to know how to pull them off. I'll be back with more SCP-based suggestions at a later date.
So I'm running a campaign loosely based on the Slenderman mythos, only I've taken the Slenderman and made him a quasi-deity of his own realm and such. I've been reskinning monsters and using them (like jellyfish that are just puffs of shadowsmoke that "swim" through the air), but I've latched on to an idea that I can't get myself to take seriously. So naturally I thought "Epic Meepo could do this." Or at least point me the right way.
I want a slender-touched unicorn. Something that remembers what it used to be and struggles to overcome the insanity that grips it even as it charges at the pure-hearted adventurers (two of which are the virgin maidens unicorns are stereotypically fond of).
If you end up creating a stat block for it, the only detail I would request is that it has swift dimension door at will factored in. Any CR is great. Glad this thread is still going! Thanks, Meepo!
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1) A Daemon that represents death from genetic degeneration and birth defects, often brought on by generations of inbreeding.
2) A Daemon that represents death from overeating and indulgent living
3) Predation from wild animals
4) Electrocution
5) Death from fire Fire
6) Dehydration
7) Radiation poisoning
8) Knowingly unjust execution (spawns from those who cause these deaths, rather than the victems themselves, think hanging judge type thing)
(not sure if you got my post before)
(I looked over Horsemen three times, and didn't find any duplicates of these)
I think that unjust executioners would rather be source of new kind of devils (corruption, favoring letter of law over justice) or demons (when choice to execute innocent is driven by sin).
Unjust judgement does not seem to fall in line with daemonic nihilism for me.
I could see a daemon spawning from the victim of unjust execution on the other hand, when her rage over false conviction makes her hateful of life itself.
@Foghammer: I know what Slender Man is, but I don't know what you mean by slender-touched.
Whoops! That's a term I half-made up (I might have borrowed it from the Tome of Slenderotica, but I had been working on this before I looked at that so I'm not sure).
The most basic definition in my words is "a creature that is warped by continuous or prolonged exposure to the Slenderman or the energies of his plane" (which is an amalgam of shadow, gravity, negative energy, evil stuff, etc).
So, like a blackened unicorn with creepy, elongated features that is insane and homicidal?
@Mystic_Snowfang (Re: deamons):
-Demons of gluttony are creatures of overindulgence, not daemons.
-Dhergodaemons are demons of predation.
-Leukodaemons are daemons of disease (likely including genetic disease).
-Meladaemons are daemons of hunger and thirst.
-Piscodaemons are daemons of poisoning (including radiation poisoning).
-Vulnadaemons are daemons of murderous betrayal.
The only really new ones you've suggested involve burning and electrocution.@Foghammer: I know what Slender Man is, but I don't know what you mean by slender-touched.
Really? I was under them impression that dhergodaemons were death by violent insanity.
I think that it's Meepo's interpretation. I looked for daemon of being mauled by wild beasts and haven't found anything matching but I think that I missed a few daemons.
I overlooked that one line - I associated violent insanity with more sapient lifeforms than rabid-animals.
*writes a note to oneself to make wild animal mauling-based daemon later*
Epic Meepo,
Is there a creature that behaves like the swarms of scarabs from The Mummy? I was thinking it would be a construct with swarm traits, and exist in several variants depending on the base material (clay, wood, bronze, steel, mithral...) A high speed but no flight, really good climbing. Aside from their (ex) ability to engulf their victim, their power to completely consume their victim would be supernatural in nature.
@SquirmWyrm and Drejk: Here's the quote from the dhergodaemon monster entry regarding predation:
These brutal daemons personify death resulting from violent insanity, such as being... torn to shreds by a pack of rabid predators.I suppose one could argue that death by non-rabid predators is different than death by rabid predators, but the end result for the prey is the same either way.
@Foghammer: I'm afraid I'll have to skip your slender-touched template, since it contradicts my existing version of slender man, which is not an extraplanar creature.
I really hate to argue semantics here, but I think the emphasis here is on the violent insanity, with the rabid predator example being used because being mauled by a rabid animal doesn't even have the rhyme or reason of the beast being hungry. Its brain is overheating, swelling, and dying, and its deranged mind lashes out at others. It doesn't even have to be a predator, it could be a rabid cow, or just some guy with advanced dementia or psychosis. The abilities of the Dhergodaemon also support this.
@Foghammer: I'm afraid I'll have to skip your slender-touched template, since it contradicts my existing version of slender man, which is not an extraplanar creature.
O...kay. I didn't really need/want a template though. I wanted a unique creature that had the feel of a twisted mockery of a creature seen as a beacon of light and a protector.
If I had never mentioned the Slenderman in my posts, I suppose there wouldn't have been a problem? I only mentioned him for imagery.
Cest la vie. Beggars can't be choosers.
Meh. I think daemons should be less nuanced than they already are, not more nuanced. I'll gladly use the dhergodaemon as a daemon of death by any form of savage violence before I create separate daemons of death by rabid beasts, death by hungry beasts, death by trained combat beasts, death by enraged ungulates stampeding on the second Tuesday of the month, etc. The motivation for the actual, physical cause of death should be irrelevant.
Then we are in agreement.
Anyway, I've got some more SCPs for your consideration.
SCP 615: A territorial mass of sticks, logs, and other plant debris.
http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-615
SCP 770: A slime mold capable of metabolizing dense materials in such a way that massive amounts of heat and radiation are released, which give it the energy to grow.
http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-770
SCP 808: A bizzare humanoid construct built as part of a larger mechanical engine, capable of influencing mechanical objects and other constructs with its strange song.
http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-808
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I'm intereted in throwing some of these at my party (by the way I'm slowly working on putting all your stuff in a Herolab homebrew thingy people can use)
Mare:
Mare is a female Vette, who gives people bad dreams at night by sitting on them in their sleep. She is a common belief in Germanic folklore, and appears in many different shapes. The Scandinavian words for Nightmare, are: Norwegian – Mareritt, Danish – Mareridt, Swedish – Mardröm, which directly translated means Mare-ride, and Mare-dream.
Fossegrimen:
Fossegrimmen, or just Grim (Foss is Norwegian for Waterfall) is a water-creature. He is a young, handsome man who sits naked under waterfalls, playing the fiddle. He plays the music of nature itself; the sound of the water, the wind in the trees, it all comes from his music. He is said to teach humans how to play if they secretly brought him a stolen piece of meat. Torgeir Augundsson (1801-1872), better known as Myllarguten, was a famous fiddle-player from Telemark, Norway who was so good it was rumored he had sold his soul in exchange of Fossegrimmen’s skills.
(we don't have enough sexy male fey, give us something for the ladies!)
How about some additional goblinoid races? One concept for a campaign might be to have a goblinoid counterpart or 'anti-particle' to every good aligned PC race (other than hybrids, which are their own antiparticle).
In honor of the release of Pokémon Black 2 & White 2 (as of October 7th for the NA release), I'd like to see a creature that mimics a quite unique Pokémon: Eevee. For those don't know, or care, Eevee is a ferret-like little rodent that has an irregular genetic code that allows it to take multiple forms depending on what evolution stone, time of day or location it gets. So far, the series has 7 of its evoltuons, and each of them is awesome on its own rights.
What I like to see for D&D is a creature that alters its shape, and gets stronger, depending on what spell it got affected by:
- Small or Medium Magical Beast (shapechanger)
- an ability that alters his shape depending on what spell afflected it
- a bunch of special attacks, qualities, immunities, resistances, weaknesses and stat modifiers depending on the new shape
- the shape is determined by the spell's descriptor, like fire, air, acid, earth, good, chaotic, fear, healing, etc.
- the shape stays for 1 round per HD or 1 minte per HD, whichever is more balancedAre you up for it Meepo ? You might need a big chart to list the effects of all spell descriptors, but it would be awesome to see. Also, you could easily make a -1 CR variation that can make the creature unchangeable, but it remains in a set shape forever, like if you would create different types.
Eevee is a fox type.
How about some additional goblinoid races? One concept for a campaign might be to have a goblinoid counterpart or 'anti-particle' to every good aligned PC race (other than hybrids, which are their own antiparticle).
@ Epic Meepo: I missed the restriction you placed in your original post about no humanoids. Does that include monstrous humanoids?
I'm thinking of starting a topic for all the things that don't fit here.
First off, Goth's Freakshow will have the vampire unicorn, but I'm having a hard time writing up the Were Cephlapoid(I know it's redundant).
I always liked the Nimblewright from Monster Manual 2. Those animated-armor constructs were plenty fast and fierce with their dual rapiers. The other major features--intelligence, personality, and vaguely elfin appearance--made them that much cooler.
Suppose there were similar constructs resembling some of the other core races? You can choose your own names if you want; mine are just placeholders. Certain nimblewright abilities (e.g. Alter Self, Haste) should extend to these variants unchanged, while others (e.g. Cat's Grace) ought to suggest some sort of substitutionary ability that fits the construct's nature.
"metal maulers": These look like suits of dwarven field plate, animated by spirits from the plane of earth. They are tougher and slower than nimblewrights but are efficient bludgeoners (dual maces) when need be. Whereas a nimblewright typically guards a living creature or may act as a spy, a metal mauler makes an effective defender of a static asset such as a treasurehouse or crypt. They are smart enough not to be taken out in the open, but will detect and track trespassers and eliminate them in hiding, and then assuming their identity in order to confuse and lure any remaining accomplices into a trap.
"stealthy snipers": These appear to be animated suits of halfling or gnome-proportioned chainmail (complete with chain coif shrouding a carved wooden mask that serves as its face), and animated by spirits from the plane of air. They are expert ambushers and sneak attackers. They also have a limited array of illusion magics which can distract or confuse the sniper's adversary. Stealthy snipers are as charismatic as nimblewrights but better suited for assassination missions rather than infiltration and information gathering. They will often assume the guise of an innocent party in the act of the assassination and make certain there are surviving witnesses in order to turn away any suspicion of the "newcomer" as a suspect, and to throw any nearby security forces into disarray as it attempts to hunt down and arrest the innocent party.
I didn't make an effort to consider what an elemental-fire construct would be like, but I guess one could exist for completeness' sake.
Very neat, thanks Meepo.
Edit: I have monster (template) idea, one that I am working on, but I would love to see your take as well, as your stat blocks feel professionally done.
This is an eldritch horror spinoff of lycanthropy. I was thinking, lycanthropy can turn a weak little person (or an already strong person) into a ferocious physical combatant, why not a mental version (I'm currently calling it a Cerebrothrope, as named by a friend)?
Here's what I have so far: This curse is an infection of the mind, an alien influence. Much like lycanthropy, when triggered, the subject (if afflicted) loses control of themselves (though does not become feral) as their skull splits, revealing their grey matter (of course, this heals up just dandy after they turn back to normal form). Their primary form of offense is a mind lock, in which they engage an opponent in a battle of minds. Each round if they succeed, they do some mental stat damage. Their opponents can spend their turn fighting back (possibly even overpowering the Cerebrothrope and locking him down?). If the opponent chooses to take another action, it should give the Cerebrothrope an opening for more nastiness). It should have access to some magical defenses (maybe blur or mirror image? Something to replace DR).
It delights in crushing minds of the weak and strong alike, and the "rampage" of a Cerebrothrope leaves dead townsfolk in its wake, brains liquified and oozing out. If a natural Cerebrothrope locks minds and does some damage but does not kill, the victim would have a chance of being infected.
I'm not sure what the trigger of the transformation is. I was thinking: If you fail a will save against a mind-effecting spell, you transform for 8 hours, and the transformation won't trigger again for 2d6 days. It doesn't feel quite right though.
How about an ascended Qlippoth? A LG CR 18ish mass of madness inducing Celestial goodness.
I'm thinking along the lines of an apex underground stalker. Something that could reasonably hunt, devour, and generally torment the denizens of the underground on it‘s own. I’m thinking in the CR 12~15 region. I’m specifically looking for something that could reasonably stalk and torment Drow and the like, but who would also be capable of taking down a Gug. I’m stymied at what to grant a creature that would stalk things already able to see in darkness without just tossing on visibility as an inherent trait.
Given the quality of your other designs, I am very interested to see what you have in mind.
I actually designed a program in Java to automatically calculate stats for monsters. I posted it for free on SourceForge here: https://sourceforge.net/projects/monstergenerato/files/
It takes input for a monster's desired type, size, and CR and calculates their hit dice, then lets you spend their attributes, feats, skills, and select their powers. It'll crunch all the numbers for you. Alternatively, you can even randomize parts of a monster or the entire thing.
That chaos ooze would be pretty creepy in an occasional encounter, and then frustrating in larger doses...cool. :)
How about a T-rex-like or wormlike or leviathan-ish magical beast or aberration that sends you to a familiar or a whole other plane when it swallows you (or any object) whole?
Can I suggest 4 monsters?
Your version of Cherufe (non lizard or dragon if possible)
Your version of the Kaimaitachi/Sickle Weasel.
Your version of the Tickle Demon/Mahaha from Inuit mythology, some long clawed horror.
And most importantly something never done before: Symplegades or Clashing Golems.
A twin set of stone golems that work together to crush enemies/victims between their two deformed stone arms, they look a bit like evolved stone golems with both one normal arm and one spikey-shield-like arm, one of them has a left deformed arm and the other has its right arm deformed so they can easily crush creatures who they force between them, this creature can also change to a non-humanoid creature, like two stone pachycephalosaurus-like creatures or two stoney turtles that crush creatures between the two of them, or closer to its mythological roots, two twin elemental Dunkleosteus made from living stone that crush ships. They are based on the Symplegades/Clashing rocks from the Argonauts/Greek myhology, I really dislike them being two normal rocks like in mythology, and like so many other mythological creaturs these can be changed to suit the game more.
Thank you for the trouble eventually!
I would like to see two or three more Qlippoth races. Having a "proto-fiend" set of CE monsters is interesting as a monster concept. The traditional fiends of D&D and its derivatives have tended to follow along mythological and Judeo-Christian traditions of what an evil spirit creature is supposed to look like and behave like, whereas the Qlippoth bend more toward mind-blowing Lovecraftian horror, and there are not enough Qlippoth races to really explore that brand of nihilistic evil.
How about a 'lesser Medusa'?