Hello my fellow dungeon masters 👋. I was looking through the monster manual for some unusual monsters to through against my party that they wouldn't know much about, to keep the world feeling dangerous and unknown aswell as something with a bit of flavour to it.
So, do any of you have any unusual or cool monsters, whether they be homebrew, official or from other sources.
All help would be greatly appreciated and thanks to all those who respond.
Hello my fellow dungeon masters 👋. I was looking through the monster manual for some unusual monsters to through against my party that they wouldn't know much about, to keep the world feeling dangerous and unknown aswell as something with a bit of flavour to it. So, do any of you have any unusual or cool monsters, whether they be homebrew, official or from other sources. All help would be greatly appreciated and thanks to all those who respond.
My favorite home brew is a "sand shark."
So in Star Frontiers they have "land sharks" - and I took the idea into my D&D world.
Except it's sharks that simply swim through sand as easily as sharks swim through water.
So they're fun to throw at the party in the desert (where they are currently). While submerged they have partial to full cover (depends if the fin isn't visible).
They do a "breach" where they can leap out of the sand and attack, and move (similar to the "fly by" ability where there is no attack of opportunity if they move away during the attack)
They do a lot of damage on top of that, should they hit.
And they have the Sahuagin ability - anyone who isn't full HP - they have advantage to hit. (Called "Blood Frenzy")
Now keep in mind, the party who keeps running into these things, are level 9.
But take normal monsters and give them a twist. For example, trolls take extra damage from fire (which stops their healing). What if they encounter trolls, where this isn't true. But rather, it's cold damage that actual stops their healing by "slowing down" the healing process?
You can throw off experienced players with just small things like that.
Hello my fellow dungeon masters 👋. I was looking through the monster manual for some unusual monsters to through against my party that they wouldn't know much about, to keep the world feeling dangerous and unknown aswell as something with a bit of flavour to it. So, do any of you have any unusual or cool monsters, whether they be homebrew, official or from other sources. All help would be greatly appreciated and thanks to all those who respond.
My favorite home brew is a "sand shark."
So in Star Frontiers they have "land sharks" - and I took the idea into my D&D world.
Except it's sharks that simply swim through sand as easily as sharks swim through water.
So they're fun to throw at the party in the desert (where they are currently). While submerged they have partial to full cover (depends if the fin isn't visible).
They do a "breach" where they can leap out of the sand and attack, and move (similar to the "fly by" ability where there is no attack of opportunity if they move away during the attack)
They do a lot of damage on top of that, should they hit.
And they have the Sahuagin ability - anyone who isn't full HP - they have advantage to hit. (Called "Blood Frenzy")
Now keep in mind, the party who keeps running into these things, are level 9.
But take normal monsters and give them a twist. For example, trolls take extra damage from fire (which stops their healing). What if they encounter trolls, where this isn't true. But rather, it's cold damage that actual stops their healing by "slowing down" the healing process?
You can throw off experienced players with just small things like that.
Thanks very much for taking the time to respond. Its a good idea to change things around like you were saying with the trolls and will definitely use that with other monsters
Adding a twist is a good idea. I threw a troll at my group that regenerated more if it didn’t take both cold and fire damage in the same turn. The party took awhile to figure it out and the troll just whacked them over and over until they did. Then a second troll came and it was a different type. Always nice to subvert what they think will work if they’re metagaming.
Adding a twist is a good idea. I threw a troll at my group that regenerated more if it didn’t take both cold and fire damage in the same turn. The party took awhile to figure it out and the troll just whacked them over and over until they did. Then a second troll came and it was a different type. Always nice to subvert what they think will work if they’re metagaming.
I also love d̶̡̼̥̻͙̣̼̿͂͐͘ę̴̢̨̛̼̙̤̻̞̠̗̳̝̦̹̹̦͍̉̏͛̽͠͠sţ̵̢̼̹̭̖͔͎̞̪͇͚̞̇̀̇̀̒͂̇̍͊̏ru̸̮̭̪̠͆̑̍́̈́̑̾̒̑̂̕ͅc̶̢̜͓̮̩͎͕̄́͑̃̈͋̈͌̑̽͠ͅͅţ̵̢̼̹̭̖͔͎̞̪͇͚̞̇̀̇̀̒͂̇̍͊̏io̵̪̭̞̗̝͙̝̬̥͕̒ͅn̸̨͖̳͓͍̜̬̗̪̜̪̗̺͆̏̆̊́̈́̿̎̅̈͠͝͝ in my campaigns! In other words, i'm an evil DM.
I once made a homebrew monster that's based off of the monster from the Alien movies.
Ironically just did the same a few sessions back.
The party acquired a spelljammer and went into the astral plane, where they saw a derelict (Illithid) ship floating in space. They boarded it - and I essentially took Intellect Devourers and turned them into Face Huggers.
Shadows are nice, give the party a reason to fear the dark, there’s few monsters who drain stats and once you hit and tell them their stats are affected they will take it seriously. There’s also monsters like the shadow assassin for higher AC fighting
if you want to go homebrew I’d suggest the vashta nerada, based on a dr who monster. Description as “the shadow that melts the flesh “ there’s homebrew on dnd beyond. They lurk in forests and could make the party second guess travelling at night
So I just reskin things. Take a ogre stats, change it to being a plant, describe as a large tree giant and its something different then theb playets have ever seen. The advantage is you got a good idea of its cr, not that that's very accurate.
One that scared my players was I made undead Medusa that instead of turning you to stone turned you into undead zombies.
If you're looking for ways to surprise experienced dnd players, I suggest looking through mythology and folklore and picking the weirdest stuff you find and homebrew it. I do it all the time and it is really fun. I don't mean finding the well known classical monsters like pegasus or a typical dragon, I mean the really weird stuff, like a giant sloth with a mouth on its belly. If any of your players look at you weirdly for coming up with such a wackadoo creature, just tell them that you found it in mythology. If you want some monster ideas to start with, here are some:
Aun pana- hairy fish monsters with arms that have some transformation magic.
Ahuizotl- spiky, aquatic dogs that have a clawed hand on the end of their long tail and like to eat teeth and fingernails.
Agropelter- a ape-like creature with whip-like arms that throw tree branches at lumberjacks and eats out the insides of trees to sleep in.
Psoglav- Russian ghouls that have horse legs, hairy, clawed torsos, and a one eyed dog head.
Cactus cat- a spiny cat with sharp elbow bones that is very fond of liquor.
Kludde- a shape shifting black dog with two hovering blue flames instead of eyes and is bound in chains.
Another thing you could do if the players you play with are experienced players who know a lot about dnd is put in well known fantasy facts that aren't used in dnd. For example, in many stories, trolls turn to stone in daylight but dnd trolls don't. You could have them come across a troll at night or in a dark and shadowy place like a cave and troll will turn to stone in daylight. Most dnd players know that dnd trolls aren't harmed by sunlight, so they won't try to use that against it, but when the dawn breaks, or when the shove the troll out of the cave and it becomes a statue, they will be pleasantly surprised. Another commonly known fantasy fact is, never hop on a friendly wild horse that you randomly come across, especially if you are near a water source. There are no water spirits in dnd that do this though, so the players probably won't realize this, even if they are familiar with kelpies and pookas. Just give a riding horse a swimming speed, a bite attack, and make it so that any creature that sits on it is grappled and you got yourself a kelpie. Then, when the unsuspecting player is suddenly pulled to the bottom of the lake, have all the other characters rush after him and kill the beast before the player drowns.
Hello my fellow dungeon masters 👋. I was looking through the monster manual for some unusual monsters to through against my party that they wouldn't know much about, to keep the world feeling dangerous and unknown aswell as something with a bit of flavour to it.
So, do any of you have any unusual or cool monsters, whether they be homebrew, official or from other sources.
All help would be greatly appreciated and thanks to all those who respond.
My favorite home brew is a "sand shark."
So in Star Frontiers they have "land sharks" - and I took the idea into my D&D world.
Except it's sharks that simply swim through sand as easily as sharks swim through water.
So they're fun to throw at the party in the desert (where they are currently). While submerged they have partial to full cover (depends if the fin isn't visible).
They do a "breach" where they can leap out of the sand and attack, and move (similar to the "fly by" ability where there is no attack of opportunity if they move away during the attack)
They do a lot of damage on top of that, should they hit.
And they have the Sahuagin ability - anyone who isn't full HP - they have advantage to hit. (Called "Blood Frenzy")
Now keep in mind, the party who keeps running into these things, are level 9.
But take normal monsters and give them a twist. For example, trolls take extra damage from fire (which stops their healing). What if they encounter trolls, where this isn't true. But rather, it's cold damage that actual stops their healing by "slowing down" the healing process?
You can throw off experienced players with just small things like that.
Check out my publication on DMs Guild: https://www.dmsguild.com/browse.php?author=Tawmis%20Logue
Check out my comedy web series - Neverending Nights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Wr4-u9-zw0&list=PLbRG7dzFI-u3EJd0usasgDrrFO3mZ1lOZ
Need a character story/background written up? I do it for free (but also take donations!) - https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?591882-Need-a-character-background-written-up
Thanks very much for taking the time to respond. Its a good idea to change things around like you were saying with the trolls and will definitely use that with other monsters
Adding a twist is a good idea. I threw a troll at my group that regenerated more if it didn’t take both cold and fire damage in the same turn. The party took awhile to figure it out and the troll just whacked them over and over until they did. Then a second troll came and it was a different type. Always nice to subvert what they think will work if they’re metagaming.
Thanks
I once made a homebrew monster that's based off of the monster from the Alien movies.
Monsters: Brathkal
Weapons: Sword of Ni , Bow of Ni
Spells: Zone of Ni
I also love d̶̡̼̥̻͙̣̼̿͂͐͘ę̴̢̨̛̼̙̤̻̞̠̗̳̝̦̹̹̦͍̉̏͛̽͠͠sţ̵̢̼̹̭̖͔͎̞̪͇͚̞̇̀̇̀̒͂̇̍͊̏ru̸̮̭̪̠͆̑̍́̈́̑̾̒̑̂̕ͅc̶̢̜͓̮̩͎͕̄́͑̃̈͋̈͌̑̽͠ͅͅţ̵̢̼̹̭̖͔͎̞̪͇͚̞̇̀̇̀̒͂̇̍͊̏io̵̪̭̞̗̝͙̝̬̥͕̒ͅn̸̨͖̳͓͍̜̬̗̪̜̪̗̺͆̏̆̊́̈́̿̎̅̈͠͝͝ in my campaigns! In other words, i'm an evil DM.
Ironically just did the same a few sessions back.
The party acquired a spelljammer and went into the astral plane, where they saw a derelict (Illithid) ship floating in space. They boarded it - and I essentially took Intellect Devourers and turned them into Face Huggers.
Check out my publication on DMs Guild: https://www.dmsguild.com/browse.php?author=Tawmis%20Logue
Check out my comedy web series - Neverending Nights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Wr4-u9-zw0&list=PLbRG7dzFI-u3EJd0usasgDrrFO3mZ1lOZ
Need a character story/background written up? I do it for free (but also take donations!) - https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?591882-Need-a-character-background-written-up
Shadows are nice, give the party a reason to fear the dark, there’s few monsters who drain stats and once you hit and tell them their stats are affected they will take it seriously. There’s also monsters like the shadow assassin for higher AC fighting
if you want to go homebrew I’d suggest the vashta nerada, based on a dr who monster. Description as “the shadow that melts the flesh “ there’s homebrew on dnd beyond. They lurk in forests and could make the party second guess travelling at night
So I just reskin things. Take a ogre stats, change it to being a plant, describe as a large tree giant and its something different then theb playets have ever seen. The advantage is you got a good idea of its cr, not that that's very accurate.
One that scared my players was I made undead Medusa that instead of turning you to stone turned you into undead zombies.
If you're looking for ways to surprise experienced dnd players, I suggest looking through mythology and folklore and picking the weirdest stuff you find and homebrew it. I do it all the time and it is really fun. I don't mean finding the well known classical monsters like pegasus or a typical dragon, I mean the really weird stuff, like a giant sloth with a mouth on its belly. If any of your players look at you weirdly for coming up with such a wackadoo creature, just tell them that you found it in mythology. If you want some monster ideas to start with, here are some:
Aun pana- hairy fish monsters with arms that have some transformation magic.
Ahuizotl- spiky, aquatic dogs that have a clawed hand on the end of their long tail and like to eat teeth and fingernails.
Agropelter- a ape-like creature with whip-like arms that throw tree branches at lumberjacks and eats out the insides of trees to sleep in.
Psoglav- Russian ghouls that have horse legs, hairy, clawed torsos, and a one eyed dog head.
Cactus cat- a spiny cat with sharp elbow bones that is very fond of liquor.
Kludde- a shape shifting black dog with two hovering blue flames instead of eyes and is bound in chains.
Another thing you could do if the players you play with are experienced players who know a lot about dnd is put in well known fantasy facts that aren't used in dnd. For example, in many stories, trolls turn to stone in daylight but dnd trolls don't. You could have them come across a troll at night or in a dark and shadowy place like a cave and troll will turn to stone in daylight. Most dnd players know that dnd trolls aren't harmed by sunlight, so they won't try to use that against it, but when the dawn breaks, or when the shove the troll out of the cave and it becomes a statue, they will be pleasantly surprised. Another commonly known fantasy fact is, never hop on a friendly wild horse that you randomly come across, especially if you are near a water source. There are no water spirits in dnd that do this though, so the players probably won't realize this, even if they are familiar with kelpies and pookas. Just give a riding horse a swimming speed, a bite attack, and make it so that any creature that sits on it is grappled and you got yourself a kelpie. Then, when the unsuspecting player is suddenly pulled to the bottom of the lake, have all the other characters rush after him and kill the beast before the player drowns.