I am soon running some events that are tied to a cult of Orcus and I would like to use monsters that, according to the books, have a relation to Orcus. I have searched through the monster manual, mordenkeinen's and volo's but i mainly found the following creatures.
Bodak's, Devourer's, Ghasts & Ghouls.
Many different types of undead and demons can also be used to be minions of Orcus and also any type of Humanoid Cultist. But aside from those few there are no creatures that have a specific connection to him.
Mainly what I want to know is, are their any creature's I missed and what creature's could I use to expand the ranks of the cult?
I mean you've pretty much got it there. You could also use fiends and creatures who aren't necessarily demons, but are tamed by some demons (Like hell hounds). Also I know you said undead but I would like to mention incorporeal undead by themselves as I've seen a ton of people forget they exist for some reason (I'm not assuming you have). Also many liches serve Orcus. (Yes I know undead but you didn't mention it specifically) You could also on undead terms have cultists raise dead beasts back to life as protective guardians. Heck imagine a skeletal T-Rex coming back to life to fight the party in a grimdark temple. That sounds fun.
I have just had my party descend into an old dwarven temple.
At the heart of the temple a glowing red crystal has been placed having been "activated" by cultists. This crystal I am calling a Tear of Orcus, it is said that Orcus bled out these tears to give to his devotees and followers. When they activate one of them it sends out pulses that animate anything that has died in the vicinity.
So this Crystal has animated the 2 Dwarves who fought 900 years ago, one as a wight the other as an Alip, it has reanimated the dwarven skeletons, it has caused the souls of some of the dwarves to return as Wilo Wisps, Spectors and Poltergeist's, and, the thing that brought the party to this temple in the first place, the cemetery in the ground above this underground temple has been having the dead rise every night and return at sundown.
The crystal itself builds up pulsing more powerfully until sundown when it emits a surge of energy which resurrects the dead. Above ground the dead can exist until the sunlight returns, beneath the ground the dead have just been there since the crystal was activated. But, if the party don't figure out how to stop the crystal by Sundown then all the undead that have destroyed so far will return.
If the crystal is left indefinitely then it begins to warp the barrier between the planes and becomes a conduit through which Orcus can have more and more direct interaction with the world until eventually he forms around it, returning that part of his essence to himself and in doing so using it as an anchor to tie himself to the world.
But this meant I could basically go through to the monster manual, look for anything with the term undead, and link it to this cult.
Most Demons and Undead can align themselves with Orcus's interests. Some like Bodak's and Maurezhi are more strongly aligned with Orcus than other Demon Lords and Undead Gods.
Interesting, I like the whole expanding undead graveyard thing you've got going on. I hope you dont mind if I yoink some of those elements?
Feel free put it all in to give you some ideas to use. In my campaign this is all a ruse, the real bbeg is an aboleth and it’s agent in the town who is trying to make everyone think a cult is coming so he can take control of the town council. He is just using ancient artifacts to make chaos happen.
Refering back to the source book "Book of Vile Darkness" form 3.5e. There are a few demons Orcus can summon in the form of Vrocks, Glabrezu, Hezrou, Nalfeshree, Marilith Balor and Undead in the form of Wights, Spectres, Vampires or Mohrgs (although the Mohrg hasn't made it to 5e as far as I am aware). So I'd probably use those as the main sources of demon or undead creatures to be encountered.
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Think of powerful undead. A mummy lord who worships Orcus, A death lock from a broken pact, etc. There are many others from a great array of sourcebooks. Orcus is the demon of the dead. Consider that.
Among creatures related to Orcus are various demons such as Succubus, Tanari and undeads like Zombies, Ghouls, Wights, Specters, Vampires and Mohrgs.
In Dragon Magazine #42 (October 1980), we are presented with Orcus’ favorite horse, Hacamuli. It is actually one of the many messengers of the Demon Lord and it appears as a pale, gaunt horse covered in flies and pestilence. Its eyes are black as night, and those that gaze are drained of three levels of life, we can only assume that these are the most intense puppy dog eyes.
I am soon running some events that are tied to a cult of Orcus and I would like to use monsters that, according to the books, have a relation to Orcus. I have searched through the monster manual, mordenkeinen's and volo's but i mainly found the following creatures.
Bodak's, Devourer's, Ghasts & Ghouls.
Many different types of undead and demons can also be used to be minions of Orcus and also any type of Humanoid Cultist. But aside from those few there are no creatures that have a specific connection to him.
Mainly what I want to know is, are their any creature's I missed and what creature's could I use to expand the ranks of the cult?
To make a creature a zombie just give it undead fortitude, the undead type, immunity to poison, remove it's spells/lower and drop its mental stats very low. If you want to get fancy you might give it the limb dropping off feature of Strahd zombies.
You can do similar things with vampires, wight's, ghosts and lichs but the bulk of orcus's forces will be zombies. He may occasionally have vampiric or lich like captains, those may also be demons turned into vampires.
For vampires, give them vampiric weakeness, resistance to necrotic, regneration, spider climb, mist form, add the necrotic effect to their bite or give them a bite; and give them what ever stare and shape change you think appropriate. For example the vampire gnoll has those but with a unique stare ability and turning into a hyena instead of a wolf. A vampiric demon may have a paralysis or fear stare instead of charm and could turn into any beast you think appropriate for them.
Raise deceased Family members/friendly deceased NPCs of the party as undead and send them against the party as a sort of psychological warfare by Orcus.
It's important to keep with the undead theme because that's kind of his thing, but the whole point of a cult is that it can grab up anyone who is disaffected or lost or needs to belong to a group. You could have a cult of Orcus in any town, made up of commoners or dwarves or Ifreet in the City of Brass. They are motivated to spread their beliefs and perhaps provide more undead for Orcus in exchange for wealth or power or just to feel like they're on the winning team.
Not only does this give you the chance to introduce a greater variety of opponents, but it also poses some different challenges that may inspire different solutions. It's easy to face mindless undead - you just destroy them without a second thought and move on. What about a gang of brainwashed teenagers? A terminally ill spellcaster who sees lichdom as his only chance of survival? You can introduce some sympathetic elements to better illustrate the pervasive evil behind the cult.
Dear Dungeon Masters,
I am soon running some events that are tied to a cult of Orcus and I would like to use monsters that, according to the books, have a relation to Orcus.
I have searched through the monster manual, mordenkeinen's and volo's but i mainly found the following creatures.
Bodak's, Devourer's, Ghasts & Ghouls.
Many different types of undead and demons can also be used to be minions of Orcus and also any type of Humanoid Cultist.
But aside from those few there are no creatures that have a specific connection to him.
Mainly what I want to know is, are their any creature's I missed and what creature's could I use to expand the ranks of the cult?
I mean you've pretty much got it there. You could also use fiends and creatures who aren't necessarily demons, but are tamed by some demons (Like hell hounds). Also I know you said undead but I would like to mention incorporeal undead by themselves as I've seen a ton of people forget they exist for some reason (I'm not assuming you have). Also many liches serve Orcus. (Yes I know undead but you didn't mention it specifically) You could also on undead terms have cultists raise dead beasts back to life as protective guardians. Heck imagine a skeletal T-Rex coming back to life to fight the party in a grimdark temple. That sounds fun.
I have just had my party descend into an old dwarven temple.
At the heart of the temple a glowing red crystal has been placed having been "activated" by cultists. This crystal I am calling a Tear of Orcus, it is said that Orcus bled out these tears to give to his devotees and followers. When they activate one of them it sends out pulses that animate anything that has died in the vicinity.
So this Crystal has animated the 2 Dwarves who fought 900 years ago, one as a wight the other as an Alip, it has reanimated the dwarven skeletons, it has caused the souls of some of the dwarves to return as Wilo Wisps, Spectors and Poltergeist's, and, the thing that brought the party to this temple in the first place, the cemetery in the ground above this underground temple has been having the dead rise every night and return at sundown.
The crystal itself builds up pulsing more powerfully until sundown when it emits a surge of energy which resurrects the dead. Above ground the dead can exist until the sunlight returns, beneath the ground the dead have just been there since the crystal was activated. But, if the party don't figure out how to stop the crystal by Sundown then all the undead that have destroyed so far will return.
If the crystal is left indefinitely then it begins to warp the barrier between the planes and becomes a conduit through which Orcus can have more and more direct interaction with the world until eventually he forms around it, returning that part of his essence to himself and in doing so using it as an anchor to tie himself to the world.
But this meant I could basically go through to the monster manual, look for anything with the term undead, and link it to this cult.
Most Demons and Undead can align themselves with Orcus's interests. Some like Bodak's and Maurezhi are more strongly aligned with Orcus than other Demon Lords and Undead Gods.
Thanks for the mention of the Maurezhi I looked into them and will definitally be adding them to the campaign!
Interesting, I like the whole expanding undead graveyard thing you've got going on. I hope you dont mind if I yoink some of those elements?
Feel free put it all in to give you some ideas to use. In my campaign this is all a ruse, the real bbeg is an aboleth and it’s agent in the town who is trying to make everyone think a cult is coming so he can take control of the town council. He is just using ancient artifacts to make chaos happen.
Refering back to the source book "Book of Vile Darkness" form 3.5e. There are a few demons Orcus can summon in the form of Vrocks, Glabrezu, Hezrou, Nalfeshree, Marilith Balor and Undead in the form of Wights, Spectres, Vampires or Mohrgs (although the Mohrg hasn't made it to 5e as far as I am aware). So I'd probably use those as the main sources of demon or undead creatures to be encountered.
Many liches (including dracoliches) learned the way to lichdom through making deals with Orcus.
Think of powerful undead. A mummy lord who worships Orcus, A death lock from a broken pact, etc. There are many others from a great array of sourcebooks. Orcus is the demon of the dead. Consider that.
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Among creatures related to Orcus are various demons such as Succubus, Tanari and undeads like Zombies, Ghouls, Wights, Specters, Vampires and Mohrgs.
In Dragon Magazine #42 (October 1980), we are presented with Orcus’ favorite horse, Hacamuli. It is actually one of the many messengers of the Demon Lord and it appears as a pale, gaunt horse covered in flies and pestilence. Its eyes are black as night, and those that gaze are drained of three levels of life, we can only assume that these are the most intense puppy dog eyes.
FWIW Here's a extensive historical review of Orcus throught D&D's history https://dumpstatadventures.com/blog/deep-dive-orcus
Recently it seems Orcus has taken an interest in mindflayers, specifically undead ones. Check out Rage of Demons and Out of the Abyss. 😎
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Basically anything with a body as undead.
To make a creature a zombie just give it undead fortitude, the undead type, immunity to poison, remove it's spells/lower and drop its mental stats very low. If you want to get fancy you might give it the limb dropping off feature of Strahd zombies.
You can do similar things with vampires, wight's, ghosts and lichs but the bulk of orcus's forces will be zombies. He may occasionally have vampiric or lich like captains, those may also be demons turned into vampires.
For vampires, give them vampiric weakeness, resistance to necrotic, regneration, spider climb, mist form, add the necrotic effect to their bite or give them a bite; and give them what ever stare and shape change you think appropriate. For example the vampire gnoll has those but with a unique stare ability and turning into a hyena instead of a wolf. A vampiric demon may have a paralysis or fear stare instead of charm and could turn into any beast you think appropriate for them.
Raise deceased Family members/friendly deceased NPCs of the party as undead and send them against the party as a sort of psychological warfare by Orcus.
It's important to keep with the undead theme because that's kind of his thing, but the whole point of a cult is that it can grab up anyone who is disaffected or lost or needs to belong to a group. You could have a cult of Orcus in any town, made up of commoners or dwarves or Ifreet in the City of Brass. They are motivated to spread their beliefs and perhaps provide more undead for Orcus in exchange for wealth or power or just to feel like they're on the winning team.
Not only does this give you the chance to introduce a greater variety of opponents, but it also poses some different challenges that may inspire different solutions. It's easy to face mindless undead - you just destroy them without a second thought and move on. What about a gang of brainwashed teenagers? A terminally ill spellcaster who sees lichdom as his only chance of survival? You can introduce some sympathetic elements to better illustrate the pervasive evil behind the cult.
My homebrew subclasses (full list here)
(Artificer) Swordmage | Glasswright | (Barbarian) Path of the Savage Embrace
(Bard) College of Dance | (Fighter) Warlord | Cannoneer
(Monk) Way of the Elements | (Ranger) Blade Dancer
(Rogue) DaggerMaster | Inquisitor | (Sorcerer) Riftwalker | Spellfist
(Warlock) The Swarm
I'm not sure about a brainwashed gang....but a gang possessed by ghosts...now that could be interesting.