Anything BUT whatever dumb ass 💩 WotC has recently done or is currently doing, literally ANYTHING

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I’m currently running a campaign for a few friends, and they all want DnD monsters as pets. I told them if they can defeat a monster, I’ll let them have it as a pet, but they said that the monster would just die if they beat it. Now I’m trying to make a kind of pokeball esque amulet that absorbs a creatures essence, but I need help balancing it. Any suggestions?

 I think what Tawmis is trying to say is that you can’t make pets out of sentient creatures like dragons. Even raising a baby dragon would be more like taking care of a baby than raising a pet. What kind of monsters do your players want as pets?

 One wants an owlbear, another wants a blue dragon wyrmling, and the third wants a spirit naga

 
Consider their nature.

I'd absolutely love to have a wolf and a cheetah.

But chances are, they're both going to rip me apart because they're instinctively wild by nature.

Now that said, rescuing an owlbear (uh... pup?) because - say, Driders/Drow/Duergar - killed its mother - and raising it, sure. However, that's going to (or should, realistically) require quite a bit of animal handling skills (like if during combat, one of the party member rushes towards the enemy - that the owlbear doesn't go chasing after the person running and try to attack them). Downtime events should be spent trying to train the owlbear (again, animal handling).

Now the blue dragon, unlike the owlbear is inherently evil (lawful evil, by default). And extremely cunning. I'd say that a blue dragon wyrmling, if its parents were killed by adventurers, may allow itself to be "raised" by humans; but instinctively knows that it will, in time, turn on them. Which might make a cool moment in the game.

The Spirit Naga is even worse, as by nature it's Chaotic Evil.

In the end, it's your game - and if you can find a way to make it work, I say do it. But you also have to realize, as a DM, always catering to your players isn't going to work out - it's going to eventually break the game when they're like, "Oh, I want a vorpal sword" (and they're only level 3). 

It's not unreasonable for players to want pets - in one of my games there's a red panda, a cussing parrot, and a blink dog as a pet - all in one campaign. But every time the party leaves them at an inn to look into local trouble - the blink dog blinks out of the room finds the kitchen, blinks around gets food, the parrot cusses people out and the red panda shreds the sheets playing. So there's always cost and a bad reputation that follows the party.

QotD: What monsters are missing in official 5e material? Could be monsters you've thought up, from folklore, mythology, etc.

I would like to see more monsters from non-European folklore, for instance.

Quote from Gnomarchy >>

QotD: What monsters are missing in official 5e material? Could be monsters you've thought up, from folklore, mythology, etc.

 
Since D&D indirectly brought back Star Frontiers as player (Plasmoids are Dralasites, Tri-Kreen are Vrusks, Hadozee are Yazirians) - it would be cool to see them bring in some of the monsters that existed in Star Frontiers over into 5e (even if they were mostly Spelljammer type settings, it would still be great).

The Sand Shark was one of my favorites, as a GM for Star Frontiers, so I created a version of it for my game, and shoved them in this land that was shaped by a massive explosion of magic that changed the entire desert (formerly a jungle/forest) - and the sharks from the nearby ocean were radically changed to swim in the sand as if it were water and able to breathe air.

This is the Star Frontiers Sand Shark: https://starfrontiers.fandom.com/wiki/Sand_Shark

In my world, they still look like normal sharks.

Quote from Gnomarchy >>

QotD: What monsters are missing in official 5e material? Could be monsters you've thought up, from folklore, mythology, etc.

I would like to see more monsters from non-European folklore, for instance.

 I have pages upon pages of folkloric creatures that I would love to see in Dnd. I can't name all of them but here are the first few that come to mind:

The Ankou: An undead graveyard guardian. The last person to be buried in a graveyard each year becomes this undead spirit and protects the cemetery until the next year. I think there could be some cool interactions and roleplay opportunities with this spirit.

Snallygasters: Flying dragons with bulletproof hide, iron teeth, and a mouth full of tentacles. This beast lurks in the backwoods mountains and hunts moonshiners. 

Shojo: Shape shifting alcoholic monkeys from Japan. They would mess with so many parties because they can craft fine brews from nothing but sea water, but they can also cause their drinks to damage you if you're evil aligned. 

I also think there should be more oozes. 

I know Fizban’s finally added them, but I wish that the Sea Serpent was in the Monster Manual. It’s one of those iconic monsters that just seems like it should be in the core monster book. 

Leprechauns

Thunderbirds

I would also like more non-European folklore, assuming it’s done well. D&D doesn’t do accurate versions of most monsters, which is overall fine, but it tends to treat non-European monsters even worse. Rakhshasas, Devas, and similar monsters tend to be far less accurate than classic European creatures, like Satyrs and Minotaurs. 

It's possible that nobody on staff grew up with those types of legends. They kind of just make it up from what they hear or read, rather than get indoctrinated as kids and teens.

I think, also there is a sense of concern, that folks would scream about cultural references. Because it doesn't take much for someone to sniff something and either take it out of context or hyper focus on it and make it a point. I know there was a debate about orcs, or hobgoblins, or something and how they had cultural references and folks were upset.

So I can definitely see why they don't tackle some things these days. There's plenty of monsters that were in the 2nd Edition D&D Monster Manual that have not made their way over.

I'm not so convinced. There are plenty of defunct belief systems and collapsed civilizations from which to pull material. Nobody seems to care about our depiction of mummies, despite the fact that it may be insulting to an ancient Egyptian person, because there are no longer any folks who believe in that mythology. Or maybe there are, but not in any meaningful numbers.

Besides, WotC could always consult people from other cultures, just like they did successfully with Radiant Citadel.

Or they could, ya know, make up new stuff. I'd like to see a sentient sound, for instance.

Quote from Gnomarchy >>

QotD: What monsters are missing in official 5e material? Could be monsters you've thought up, from folklore, mythology, etc.

I would like to see more monsters from non-European folklore, for instance.

 
A major problem with a lot of non-European myths and references (and, really, anything that moves away from classical Roman Empire territory) is that they monsters don’t operate on the same principles and within the same ideas about magic, myth, and what can hurt them.

an agate sword may be needed to kill a certain monster from some Melanesian myths, but try and introduce a non-magical agate sword into the game and folks would urinate in the idea and like have worse things to say.

try to bring in the Loa as a spirit being and you have to alter the whole system around player agency.

or, the source material is deeply westernized like they did with a lot of the old Fiend Folio stuff. 

lastly, a lot of the designers tend to low stuff off as “well, that’s just a variant of X”, and then “you can homebrew that”.  There is a dearth of diversity within the designer group itself, especially culturally, and this creates a reliance on old models.

that said, if it is missing from the original monster manual or the 2e Monstrous Manual, then bring it back.

i find it curious I popped over today and saw this, as I am working on my listings of regular animals, and toying with my little AI program to create some images of common monsters.

So, you have heard of the gelatinous cube’s less pleasant cousin, the Stone Cube, right?

or the dreaded  Bearmoose

and who can forget the Wolfhorse?

You wanted more traditional monsters, though, so these likely don’t count…

Those are pretty awesome.

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that said, if it is missing from the original monster manual or the 2e Monstrous Manual, then bring it back.

 

I think these have not appeared (just some) - some may have...

baluchitherium
brain mole
brownie?
eye of the deep
Lammasu
leprechaun
Morkoth?
Shedu
Su-Monster?
titanothere

I’m pretty sure we already have the Morkoth, Su-monster, and titanothere.

And I loved the moose bear. I think I might be using that in my future games.

Quote from The_Summoning_Dark >>

I’m pretty sure we already have the Morkoth, Su-monster, and titanothere.

And I loved the moose bear. I think I might be using that in my future games.

 
IIRC, in the Avatar animated series, all the regular animals were gestalts of IRL animals.

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I’m pretty sure we already have the Morkoth, Su-monster, and titanothere.

And I loved the moose bear. I think I might be using that in my future games.

 
IIRC, in the Avatar animated series, all the regular animals were gestalts of IRL animals.

 They were. I remember the rulers of the earth part of the world had a plain bear and it was funny because it was considered an anomaly 

Queen: "and here is my bear"

Tourist: "youre bear-mole?"

Queen: "no..."

Tourist: "your bear-dog?"

Queen: "no."

Tourist: "you're goat-bear"

Queen: "NO! It's just a bear"

Tourist: "oh! Where did you get such an exotic pet?"

Of course, that isn't a direct quote from the show, but it emphasizes the point.

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I’m pretty sure we already have the Morkoth, Su-monster, and titanothere.

And I loved the moose bear. I think I might be using that in my future games.

 
IIRC, in the Avatar animated series, all the regular animals were gestalts of IRL animals.

 They were. I remember the rulers of the earth part of the world had a plain bear and it was funny because it was considered an anomaly 

Queen: "and here is my bear"

Tourist: "youre bear-mole?"

Queen: "no..."

Tourist: "your bear-dog?"

Queen: "no."

Tourist: "you're goat-bear"

Queen: "NO! It's just a bear"

Tourist: "oh! Where did you get such an exotic pet?"

Of course, that isn't a direct quote from the show, but it emphasizes the point.

 
Lol I remembered that scene but I couldn't conjure up a direct quote either. Hilarious and self-aware.

*whistles, strolling by*

*stops. Looks around. pulls a crate out of a bag of holding*

*sets the crate down, and climbs on top of it*

Good evening, or afternoon, or morning, my fellows. As some of you know, the council of our great Reclaimed City has employed a brave group of heroes to save us form eternal doom! The best of the best. The creme da le creme if you will. Word has reached our ears that one of those heroes has perished, and the Council seeks another hero to go and assist in the saving of all of civilization! if you wish to apply, do so at the: Council Headquarters (AKA, the recruitment thread)

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I’m pretty sure we already have the Morkoth, Su-monster, and titanothere.

And I loved the moose bear. I think I might be using that in my future games.

 
IIRC, in the Avatar animated series, all the regular animals were gestalts of IRL animals.

 They were. I remember the rulers of the earth part of the world had a plain bear and it was funny because it was considered an anomaly 

Queen: "and here is my bear"

Tourist: "youre bear-mole?"

Queen: "no..."

Tourist: "your bear-dog?"

Queen: "no."

Tourist: "you're goat-bear"

Queen: "NO! It's just a bear"

Tourist: "oh! Where did you get such an exotic pet?"

Of course, that isn't a direct quote from the show, but it emphasizes the point.

 
Lol I remembered that scene but I couldn't conjure up a direct quote either. Hilarious and self-aware.

 That was one of my favorite parts of the series. AtLA had such great world building.

Just spitballing on my sentient sound idea. It'd be incorporeal and invisible, and can travel through objects that conduct sound. Have an aura that makes it difficult to concentrate. The area of a silence spell causes it to become incapacitated. It can garble spells that require vocals. When it dies, it can infect a creature with an intrusive tune that acts like a disease, and ultimately causes them to sing a new sentient sound into existence.

What else could I add?

I'm also working on a new version of the 3e zeitgeist for the brewing competition. It's a fey entity that emerges from urban areas.

Immunity go Thunder damage, maybe being healed by it? Attacks that deal thunder damage and deafen with tinnitus.