D&D 30 Day Challenge — Day 20

Favorite Monster (Humanoid/Natural/Fey)

I’m going to extrapolate that “natural” is meant to cover magical beasts, beasts, and monstrosities (depending on which flavor of D&D is your favorite at present) and call this for the owlbear.

At the conceptual level — half bear, half giant owl — the owlbear is quite possibly the most nonsensical straight-up predator ever created. However, its backstory captures an important facet of the essential nature of the game — mad wizards experimenting in dark towers are constantly doing weird shit, and that weird shit will eventually try to kill you.

(Archive post from the personal blog.)

D&D 30 Day Challenge — Day 19

Favorite Monster (Elemental/Plant)

Shambling mound for the win, because it’s an intelligent heap of compost that bludgeons you into submission, then suffocates you to death.

Also, because Man-Thing.

In 3rd Edition D&D’s Savage Species supplement, the shambling mound was a playable race. Seriously, what are you waiting for?

(Archive post from the personal blog.)

D&D 30 Day Challenge — Day 18

 Favorite Monster (Immortal/Outsider)

Rakshasa. Even back to the original AD&D Monster Manual (before they were called outsiders), the rakshasa freaked me out.

I loved the idea of a worldly and civilized fiendish creature (perfectly epitomized in the original MM illustration by the iconic Dave Trampier) that would focus its destructive, carnivorous urges through cunning and malice, as opposed to the chaotic destruction of demons and the otherworldly malevolence of devils. The best expression of that probably came in the Eberron books I worked on for D&D 3e, in which rakshasas played a huge part in the past history — and possible future destruction — of the game world.

Also (though it’s unfortunately not rendered as clearly as it could have been in the Trampier illustration), the rakshasa’s hands are on backwards. That’s pretty badass.

(Archive post from the personal blog.)

D&D 30 Day Challenge — Day 17

Favorite Monster (Animal/Vermin)

Monstrous spider. As I suspect is true for an awful lot of people, The Hobbit was the childhood gateway drug that got me mainlining fantasy in later years, and so giant spiders have an awesome sense of nostalgia for me. Plus, I remember that In Search of the Unknown (the first legitimate adventure I ever played) was filled with wandering-monster spider encounters that I still recall with a horrific sense of (virtual) post-traumatic stress. Plus, Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan (the second legitimate adventure I ever played) had a trapdoor spider encounter that I remember nearly killing me. Plus, I can neither confirm nor deny that spiders freak me out in real life, so imagining them the size of horses can reduce me to a quivering mass of panic attack in short order.

(Archive post from the personal blog.)

D&D 30 Day Challenge — Day 16

Favorite Monster (Aberration)

Aboleth. Too often, aberrations are built around awesomely bugfuck mechanical features that make them amazingly fun to run (though arguably less fun to fight) in combat. However, those mechanics usually don’t lend a lot to an aberration’s presence outside of combat, or provide a lot of inspiration for ongoing campaign story. Aboleths, when they’re done right, are a big exception to that rule.

For whatever it’s worth, D&D 5e does the aboleth absolutely right.

(Archive post from the personal blog.)

D&D 30 Day Challenge — Day 15

Favorite Monster (Undead)

Lich. Because a monster that consumes souls, lives forever, has insanity as its default setting, and comes with 18th-level spellcasting is always a good time.

(Archive post from the personal blog.)

D&D 30 Day Challenge — Day 14

Favorite NPCs

These guys.

To find out why, you’ll need to read this.

(Archive post from the personal blog.)