So, I think many of us have been there before. We're faced with a traditional D&D monster, and we think to ourselves, "But what if I deviated from the tried and true norm for no reason except for the satisfaction of my ever-present need to feel special and unique?" At least, I've been there before. So, about what creatures in your fantasy worlds can you confidently say "My Monsters Are Different"?
For me, it's dragons. Before Fizban's came out and made things all wacky, I decided that I was tired of what I then thought was a lot of dragon types and draconic races (poor, foolish, naive me) and I decided to consolidate a lot of them. In the majority of my worlds, dragons, drakes, half-dragons, dragonborn, kobolds, and urds are all the same species, just in different stages of life. When two adult dragons or drakes mate, they lay massive clutches of eggs, from which kobolds hatch. Rarely, an urd, a winged kobold, will hatch, though the chance is very low, and urds can only result from two dragons mating, not from two drakes. Kobolds are weak, flimsy beings, and most die young. A few, however, survive long enough to undergo their second hatching. A kobold finds a warm, safe spot, and begins to hibernate. Its scales grow thick and hard around it, becoming a sort of chrysalis. It then undergoes a transformation, emerging from its scaly cocoon as a drakeborn(dragonborn) or, if an urd, a dragonborn(half-dragon). It is at this point that a dragonkin's elemental color is chosen, which is determined by its environment.
As drakeborn, a clutch often travels together, especially if they have a dragonborn sibling that they are duty-bound to follow. These clutches do sometimes break apart, however, and it isn't infrequent that a few kobolds will survive from a mostly wiped out clutch, and mature on their own. Drakeborn are a lot sturdier than kobolds, and are often skilled warriors. Eventually, a drakeborn or dragonborn will undergo a third hatching, with a similar process as the second. When they hatch this time, they do so as either a drake or a dragon, depending on whether they were drakeborn or dragonborn. They also gain the biological equipment required for procreation, which is determined by the dragonkin before its metamorphosis. For the first and second stages of life, dragonkin lack a biological sex. Legends speak of a fabled fourth stage of life, but no dragonkin has ever been recorded to have reached it.
Dragonkin believe that in order to achieve metamorphosis, one needs to have lived a full life, full of notable experiences. That is why, rather than secreting themselves away until their transformations, kobolds and drakeborn can often be found adventuring, though the kobold idea of adventuring often involves setting traps, cutting purse-strings, and generally being a nuisance. Unfortunately for dragons and drakes, their adventuring exploits often result in a lot more destruction, so they are often forced to hole up in their caves, away from the pitchforks.
Dragonkin are naturally all chromatic. However, certain valuable metals and gems, when consumed in massive quantities, can transform one. A dragonkin that has become metallic or crystalline can no longer grow or metamorphose, essentially locking it where it is, but it also gains a great deal of power in exchange. Chromatics look down on these dragons, calling them "garish and shortsighted" for abandoning their destinies, while their shiny kin turn their noses up at the "pauper" dragons, too stubborn to abandon their hopeless quest for an impossible fourth metamorphosis.
Wyverns and pseudodragons are related to dragonkin, but aren't the same species, instead being artificial alchemical beings. Pseudodragons are created by wizards from dragon scales, and are generally very intelligent beings, making excellent familiars. However, they are unstable creatures, and this intelligence wanes with age. At a certain point in their lives, pseudodragons undergo a massive, almost explosive growth spurt, their bodies bloating and swelling, as they transform into ravenous wyverns. Many a wizard, too fond of their aging familiar, has woken up to find a wyvern's jaws bearing down on them.
Dragon turtles are similar to dragonkin, and likely related, but are also wildly different. When a tortoise reaches a certain, extremely venerable age, it decides that it is quite done with walking around on four legs, and stands up. The transition between tortoise and tortle is less obvious than that between kobold and drakeborn, but it just... happens, sometimes. Tortles never stop growing, and eventually reach such a size that they have to again walk around on four legs, and eventually heads into the ocean when its legs cannot support its bulk. That's right, every single tortoise is a dragon. Unlike dragonkin, tortoises retain their memories between every transition from one form to another, making them extremely wise creatures.
Faerie dragons are not dragons at all, but are instead residents of the Oneiroscape, created when someone has a strong dream about a dragon.
So, with that all finished, how are all of your monsters different?
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"Ignorance is bliss, and you look absolutely miserable."
I rarely change lore, because I’m happy with the existing lore, because I run published adventures so far (with modification).
However, I change statblocks often. I usually give monsters more skill proficiencies than they usually do, because there is a surprising lack of monster proficiency in anything besides Stealth or Perception. Even if it never comes up, it’s nice for me to know that a monster is good at Animal Handling, Intimidation, or Athletics, and they can give me a quick reminder on how to describe fluff and decide their behavior.
I personally like the idea of fey as dangerous, depraved immortals. Reading through the lore for fey in the Shadow of the Demon Lord rpg, the story is that since fey are immortal, they are deeply hedonistic and care more about satisfying their own boredom than moral considerations. Also, I like the idea of fey being vulnerable to cold iron weapons.
Goblinoids are like bees. Goblins are workers. Bugbears are brute force guards and heavy workers. Hobgoblins are warriors and directors. Somewhere deep in the warren, where no outsiders are ever allowed to go, is the queen.
Necromancers are just regular people when I world build. Souls matter, not bodies.
Mind control however is illegal and heavily penalized. The king does not like people that can with a wave of their hands, convince him to give them his gold, wife, and favorite horse.
I pretty much homebrew everything, and even when I do use a standard monster stat block, I change it a lot. I also give my monsters more personality and especially purpose.
I'm tired of "You enter the first level of the dungeon and are jumped by an orc ... you enter the next room. A dragon is inside!" Randomly throwing monsters with no story at the characters is a waste of time, a waste of story opportunities, and downright annoying.
It's the same thing for treasure. Honestly, why would there happen to be a spell scroll for the very spell that's your only hope at defeating the archvillain in said villain's lair?
But back to monsters. Gone are orcs and goblins and zombies and dragon wyrmlings. They should have a story, not just be filler enemies that populate a dungeon. That's also why I hate random encounter tables that don't go along with the story.
Meanwhile, my monsters have motivation, names, goals ... I remember how surprised my players were when I threw a pair of orcs at them and gave the orcs more dialogue than just "Huh? Where'd he go?", when I made the goblin sad and angry when the characters killed its companion. My monsters are not random, purposeless monsters who only want to kill the characters. They have depth. And I'm very depressed that many people aren't the way I am about this.
Necromancers are just regular people when I world build. Souls matter, not bodies.
Mind control however is illegal and heavily penalized. The king does not like people that can with a wave of their hands, convince him to give them his gold, wife, and favorite horse.
I run different types of necromancers that use different techniques. My theory is that necromancy is generally frowned on much like cannibalism and so as a result necromancers tend to piece together their techniques with what ever magic is available to them rather than it mean a single consistent school.
Binding: Where they some creature or spirit to pilots the corpse.
Soul splitting: Some creature or spirit splits their own soul among all the undead. This usually not very good for you
Magical animation: They use raw magical power like telekinesis or voodoo to control the corpse
It gives allot of variety because you can pick any type of creature and have it do any of those and its different. So a pixie could pilot a corpse and it could have like a druid craft effect where its covered in fungus, leaves a trail of mushrooms and summons vines to grab people. A powerful elemental like imix could split his power among a bunch of zombies creating a swarm of burning zombies that act with one mind. A wizard could use telekenisis to control a corpse and just constantly pick it back up again by burning more spell slots when its downed.
Edit: adding dragon stuff
As for dragons I usually vary how they work and have at time even changed their creature type. In fiction dragons are a massively broad range of creature ranging from god like celestials and elementals to demonic creatures or even mortals transformed. Fizban suggests allot of these as options and I make use of them. So I've had dragons which are elemental creature types that can transform into pure flame and resurrect like a phoenix. I've had devilish dragons that are summoned from the under world to scheme and make deals. I do also sometimes run normal flesh dragons where they are like animals, intelligent or animalistic. Its good to mix it up so players get a variety of challenges and always have something new to learn. In terms of consistency all that matters is it stays the same in one campaign
My dragons cast spells. May even have different spells then what is on the list for players. (homebrew or old school converted)
Anything with an average Intel can be a class of something if physically possible
I also subscribe to this philosophy. I think 5e tried to replace dragon spellcasting with clever lair actions, but some dragons will be sorcerers. I mean, dragons are the source of some sorcerers' power for crying out loud. Practically, I'm a fan of giving monsters pseudo-class abilities when appropriate. I have an entire out-of-date thread where I collect monster abilities that mimic class features.
In my campaign, Psionics do not exist but the BBEG is slowly phasing them in. So I usually adjust big monsters that are working for her to have a psionic twist or ability. I am also slowly adding things like beholders but the first one they will meet isn’t fully right yet so it will have a few less abilities etc.
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So, I think many of us have been there before. We're faced with a traditional D&D monster, and we think to ourselves, "But what if I deviated from the tried and true norm for no reason except for the satisfaction of my ever-present need to feel special and unique?" At least, I've been there before. So, about what creatures in your fantasy worlds can you confidently say "My Monsters Are Different"?
For me, it's dragons. Before Fizban's came out and made things all wacky, I decided that I was tired of what I then thought was a lot of dragon types and draconic races (poor, foolish, naive me) and I decided to consolidate a lot of them. In the majority of my worlds, dragons, drakes, half-dragons, dragonborn, kobolds, and urds are all the same species, just in different stages of life. When two adult dragons or drakes mate, they lay massive clutches of eggs, from which kobolds hatch. Rarely, an urd, a winged kobold, will hatch, though the chance is very low, and urds can only result from two dragons mating, not from two drakes. Kobolds are weak, flimsy beings, and most die young. A few, however, survive long enough to undergo their second hatching. A kobold finds a warm, safe spot, and begins to hibernate. Its scales grow thick and hard around it, becoming a sort of chrysalis. It then undergoes a transformation, emerging from its scaly cocoon as a drakeborn(dragonborn) or, if an urd, a dragonborn(half-dragon). It is at this point that a dragonkin's elemental color is chosen, which is determined by its environment.
As drakeborn, a clutch often travels together, especially if they have a dragonborn sibling that they are duty-bound to follow. These clutches do sometimes break apart, however, and it isn't infrequent that a few kobolds will survive from a mostly wiped out clutch, and mature on their own. Drakeborn are a lot sturdier than kobolds, and are often skilled warriors. Eventually, a drakeborn or dragonborn will undergo a third hatching, with a similar process as the second. When they hatch this time, they do so as either a drake or a dragon, depending on whether they were drakeborn or dragonborn. They also gain the biological equipment required for procreation, which is determined by the dragonkin before its metamorphosis. For the first and second stages of life, dragonkin lack a biological sex. Legends speak of a fabled fourth stage of life, but no dragonkin has ever been recorded to have reached it.
Dragonkin believe that in order to achieve metamorphosis, one needs to have lived a full life, full of notable experiences. That is why, rather than secreting themselves away until their transformations, kobolds and drakeborn can often be found adventuring, though the kobold idea of adventuring often involves setting traps, cutting purse-strings, and generally being a nuisance. Unfortunately for dragons and drakes, their adventuring exploits often result in a lot more destruction, so they are often forced to hole up in their caves, away from the pitchforks.
Dragonkin are naturally all chromatic. However, certain valuable metals and gems, when consumed in massive quantities, can transform one. A dragonkin that has become metallic or crystalline can no longer grow or metamorphose, essentially locking it where it is, but it also gains a great deal of power in exchange. Chromatics look down on these dragons, calling them "garish and shortsighted" for abandoning their destinies, while their shiny kin turn their noses up at the "pauper" dragons, too stubborn to abandon their hopeless quest for an impossible fourth metamorphosis.
Wyverns and pseudodragons are related to dragonkin, but aren't the same species, instead being artificial alchemical beings. Pseudodragons are created by wizards from dragon scales, and are generally very intelligent beings, making excellent familiars. However, they are unstable creatures, and this intelligence wanes with age. At a certain point in their lives, pseudodragons undergo a massive, almost explosive growth spurt, their bodies bloating and swelling, as they transform into ravenous wyverns. Many a wizard, too fond of their aging familiar, has woken up to find a wyvern's jaws bearing down on them.
Dragon turtles are similar to dragonkin, and likely related, but are also wildly different. When a tortoise reaches a certain, extremely venerable age, it decides that it is quite done with walking around on four legs, and stands up. The transition between tortoise and tortle is less obvious than that between kobold and drakeborn, but it just... happens, sometimes. Tortles never stop growing, and eventually reach such a size that they have to again walk around on four legs, and eventually heads into the ocean when its legs cannot support its bulk. That's right, every single tortoise is a dragon. Unlike dragonkin, tortoises retain their memories between every transition from one form to another, making them extremely wise creatures.
Faerie dragons are not dragons at all, but are instead residents of the Oneiroscape, created when someone has a strong dream about a dragon.
So, with that all finished, how are all of your monsters different?
"Ignorance is bliss, and you look absolutely miserable."
I rarely change lore, because I’m happy with the existing lore, because I run published adventures so far (with modification).
However, I change statblocks often. I usually give monsters more skill proficiencies than they usually do, because there is a surprising lack of monster proficiency in anything besides Stealth or Perception. Even if it never comes up, it’s nice for me to know that a monster is good at Animal Handling, Intimidation, or Athletics, and they can give me a quick reminder on how to describe fluff and decide their behavior.
I personally like the idea of fey as dangerous, depraved immortals. Reading through the lore for fey in the Shadow of the Demon Lord rpg, the story is that since fey are immortal, they are deeply hedonistic and care more about satisfying their own boredom than moral considerations. Also, I like the idea of fey being vulnerable to cold iron weapons.
Goblinoids are like bees. Goblins are workers. Bugbears are brute force guards and heavy workers. Hobgoblins are warriors and directors. Somewhere deep in the warren, where no outsiders are ever allowed to go, is the queen.
Necromancers are just regular people when I world build. Souls matter, not bodies.
Mind control however is illegal and heavily penalized. The king does not like people that can with a wave of their hands, convince him to give them his gold, wife, and favorite horse.
My dragons cast spells. May even have different spells then what is on the list for players. (homebrew or old school converted)
Anything with an average Intel can be a class of something if physically possible
I pretty much homebrew everything, and even when I do use a standard monster stat block, I change it a lot. I also give my monsters more personality and especially purpose.
I'm tired of "You enter the first level of the dungeon and are jumped by an orc ... you enter the next room. A dragon is inside!" Randomly throwing monsters with no story at the characters is a waste of time, a waste of story opportunities, and downright annoying.
It's the same thing for treasure. Honestly, why would there happen to be a spell scroll for the very spell that's your only hope at defeating the archvillain in said villain's lair?
But back to monsters. Gone are orcs and goblins and zombies and dragon wyrmlings. They should have a story, not just be filler enemies that populate a dungeon. That's also why I hate random encounter tables that don't go along with the story.
Meanwhile, my monsters have motivation, names, goals ... I remember how surprised my players were when I threw a pair of orcs at them and gave the orcs more dialogue than just "Huh? Where'd he go?", when I made the goblin sad and angry when the characters killed its companion. My monsters are not random, purposeless monsters who only want to kill the characters. They have depth. And I'm very depressed that many people aren't the way I am about this.
pm me the word "tomato"
she/her
I run different types of necromancers that use different techniques. My theory is that necromancy is generally frowned on much like cannibalism and so as a result necromancers tend to piece together their techniques with what ever magic is available to them rather than it mean a single consistent school.
Binding: Where they some creature or spirit to pilots the corpse.
Soul splitting: Some creature or spirit splits their own soul among all the undead. This usually not very good for you
Magical animation: They use raw magical power like telekinesis or voodoo to control the corpse
It gives allot of variety because you can pick any type of creature and have it do any of those and its different. So a pixie could pilot a corpse and it could have like a druid craft effect where its covered in fungus, leaves a trail of mushrooms and summons vines to grab people. A powerful elemental like imix could split his power among a bunch of zombies creating a swarm of burning zombies that act with one mind. A wizard could use telekenisis to control a corpse and just constantly pick it back up again by burning more spell slots when its downed.
Edit: adding dragon stuff
As for dragons I usually vary how they work and have at time even changed their creature type. In fiction dragons are a massively broad range of creature ranging from god like celestials and elementals to demonic creatures or even mortals transformed. Fizban suggests allot of these as options and I make use of them. So I've had dragons which are elemental creature types that can transform into pure flame and resurrect like a phoenix. I've had devilish dragons that are summoned from the under world to scheme and make deals. I do also sometimes run normal flesh dragons where they are like animals, intelligent or animalistic. Its good to mix it up so players get a variety of challenges and always have something new to learn. In terms of consistency all that matters is it stays the same in one campaign
I also subscribe to this philosophy. I think 5e tried to replace dragon spellcasting with clever lair actions, but some dragons will be sorcerers. I mean, dragons are the source of some sorcerers' power for crying out loud. Practically, I'm a fan of giving monsters pseudo-class abilities when appropriate. I have an entire out-of-date thread where I collect monster abilities that mimic class features.
In my campaign, Psionics do not exist but the BBEG is slowly phasing them in. So I usually adjust big monsters that are working for her to have a psionic twist or ability. I am also slowly adding things like beholders but the first one they will meet isn’t fully right yet so it will have a few less abilities etc.