IADnDMN Stream Monsters! (2019/02/20)
As always, tune into ItsADnDMonsterNow's weekly monster-making stream on Twitch every Wednesday at 11am Pacific! We hang out, talk DnD, and make monsters together as I explain my process and share my tips for making fun and effective monsters that you can use in your own games!
Drow Mandrake
Suggested by @ScottyMcScotterson, based on the Dark Eldar unit from Warhammer 40K.
A mandrake is a drow that Lolth deems unfit even to become a drider. Usually these are drow that forsake their facade of civility in favor of frivolous, wanton violence.
Born of cruelty and brutality, a mandrake is an embodiment of darkness and pain, using these very concepts to empower itself by "paying tribute" to them, practicing an almost ritualistic sadism.
Mandrakes are spoken of only in whispered folklore, and even if a drow denies it, they almost certainly believe the legends are true. Using the term as a curse is considered extremely distasteful, even for the pitiless drow. The more superstitious even believe that to utter the term is to beckon one to your own house.
Art credit: Artstation user Igor Sid
Drow Mandrake
Medium humanoid (elf), chaotic evil
Armor Class 15
Hit Points 120 (16d8 + 48)
Speed 35 ft.
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA 13 (+1) 21 (+5) 16 (+3) 10 (+0) 13 (+1) 16 (+3)
Saving Throws Dex +8, Con +6, Cha +5
Skills Stealth +11, Perception +5, Survival +5
Damage Vulnerabilities radiant
Damage Resistances cold, necrotic
Condition Immunities frightened
Senses darkvision 300 ft., passive Perception 15
Languages Elvish, Undercommon
Challenge 7 (2,900 XP)
Power from Pain. The drow's skin is ribboned with dark sigils which pulse with energy when it kills another creature. When the drow scores a critical hit against a living creature, or reduces it to 0 hit points, it gains a use of its baleblast action, and any baleblast attacks it makes before the end of its next turn are made with advantage. even if this would raise its remaining uses above its starting value. Any uses above its starting value are lost when the drow completes a short or long rest.
Fey Ancestry. The drow has advantage on saving throws against being charmed, and magic can’t put the drow to sleep.
Shadow Blend. While in dim light or darkness, the drow can use a bonus action to become invisible, along with anything it is wearing or carrying. The invisibility lasts until the drow uses a bonus action to end it or until the drow attacks, is in bright light, or is incapacitated.
Shadow Step. The drow has the ability to step from one shadow into another. When the drow is in dim light or darkness, as a bonus action it can teleport up to 60 feet to an unoccupied space it can see that is also in dim light or darkness. It then has advantage on the first melee attack it makes before the end of the turn.
Sunlight Weakness. While in direct sunlight, the drow has disadvantage on attack rolls, ability checks, and saving throws.
Actions
Multiattack. The drow makes three attacks: two with its falchion, and one with its mandrake claws. Alternatively, the drow makes two baleblast attacks.
Wicked Falchion. Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 10 (1d10 + 5) slashing damage. On a critical hit, the target loses an additional 2 (1d4) hit points to blood loss at the start of each of its turns until it regains hit points, or uses an action to dress the wound.
Mandrake Claws. Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 10 (2d4 + 5) slashing damage plus 4 (1d8) cold damage.
Baleblast (3/Day). Ranged Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, range 60 ft., one target. Hit: 13 (2d12) cold damage. On a critical hit, all of this attack's damage dice are maximized.
Magma Whale
Suggested by @Kleinroux, based on some artwork of Pathfinder's "Fire Whale."
Found only meandering through the broiling space of the Elemental Chaos, or swimming in the bubbling caldera of an active volcano is a very rare, very ancient species of elemental called the magma whale. In the Elemental Chaos, these titans of earth and fire pass through novae of flames and crash through island-sized motes of earth with impunity—energized, even, by the intense heat they absorb.
It is incredibly rare for a magma whale to leave the "comfort" of either the Elemental Chaos or the elemental plane of fire. In fact, such a huge and volatile beast could only ever feasibly live on the material planes in the presence of nearly unlimited elemental heat; such as the interior of a volcano. A volcano inhabited by a magma whale becomes hyperactive: the whale's tremendous elemental energy (not to mention its sheer size and physical power) inevitably cause it to erupt violently and continuously for as long as it remains
there. This has led many cultures to worship magma whales as volcano deities, making offerings in vain attempts to appease it and quell the eruptions.
The volcano or lava fields inhabited by a magma whale are warped by its elemental presence, which creates one or more of the following effects: If the magma whale dies, is petrified, or leaves the plane, these effects subside over 1d10 days. Image source: based on the "Fire Whale" from the Pathfinder TTRPG; original artist unknown.Regional Effects
Magma Whale
Gargantuan elemental (titan), chaotic neutral
Armor Class 18 (natural armor)
Hit Points 410 (20d20 + 200)
Speed 20 ft., burrow 60 ft., swim 60 ft., fly 120 ft.
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA 29 (+9) 9 (-1) 30 (+10) 7 (-2) 20 (+5) 18 (+4)
Saving Throws Str +17, Dex +7, Con +18, Int +6, Wis +13, Cha +12
Skills History +6, Insight +13, Perception +13
Damage Resistances acid, lightning, thunder
Damage Immunities fire, poison; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical attacks
Condition Immunities charmed, exhaustion, paralyzed, poisoned, unconscious
Senses blindsight 120 ft., passive Perception 23
Languages Primordial, telepathy 120 ft.
Challenge 26 (90,000 XP)
Echolocation. The whale can't use its blindsight while deafened.
Fire Regeneration. At the start of each of the whale's turns, if it was subjected to 10 or more fire damage since the start of its last turn, the whale regains 10 hit points. If the whale is petrified, that condition ends if this trait is triggered on three consecutive rounds.
Legendary Resistance (3/Day). If the whale fails a saving throw, it can choose to succeed instead.
Magic Resistance. The whale has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.
Magic Weapons. The whale's weapon attacks are magical.
Magma Body. At the start of each of the whales's turns, each creature within 10 feet of it takes 21 (6d6) fire damage, and flammable objects in the aura that aren't being worn or carried ignite. A creature that touches the whale or hits it with a melee attack while within 10 feet of it takes 21 (6d6) fire damage. If cold damage reduces the whale to 0 hit points, it is petrified instead of killed.
Water Susceptibility. For every 5 feet the whale moves in water, or for every 5-foot cube of water splashed on it, it takes 5 (1d10) cold damage.
Actions
Multiattack. The whale makes two attacks: one with its bite, and one with its tail. It can't make both attacks against the same target.
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +17 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 35 (4d12 + 9) piercing damage plus 21 (6d6) fire damage. If the target is a Huge or smaller creature, it must succeed on a DC 19 Dexterity saving throw or be swallowed by the whale. A swallowed creature is blinded and restrained, it has total cover against attacks and other effects outside the whale, and it takes 21 (6d6) fire damage at the start of each of the whale's turns.
If the whale takes 30 damage or more on a single turn from a creature inside it, the whale must succeed on a DC 28 Constitution saving throw at the end of that turn or regurgitate all swallowed creatures, which fall prone in a space within 10 feet of the whale. If the whale dies, a swallowed creature is no longer restrained by it and can escape from the corpse by using 20 feet of movement, exiting prone.Tail. Melee Weapon Attack: +17 to hit, reach 20 ft., one target. Hit: 39 (6d12) bludgeoning damage plus 10 (3d6) fire damage.
Ram. Melee Weapon Attack: +17 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 33 (6d10) bludgeoning damage plus 10 (3d6) fire damage. If the target is a creature, it must succeed on a DC 25 Strength saving throw or be knocked prone. The whale can then make a bite attack as a bonus action.
Erupt. If the whale begins its turn burrowing or swimming, it can use its movement to emerge, using this action when it does so to violently erupt in a space that contains one or more other creatures. Each of those creatures, and each other creature within 10 feet of the whale when it emerges must succeed on a DC 19 Strength or Dexterity saving throw (target's choice) or be knocked prone and take 27 (4d8 + 9) bludgeoning damage plus 24 (4d6 + 10) fire damage. On a successful save, the creature takes only half the damage, isn't knocked prone, and is pushed 5 feet out of the whale's space into an unoccupied space of the creature's choice. If no unoccupied space is within range, the creature instead falls prone in its space.
Sonar Pulse (3/Day). The whale emits a shrill ultrasound pulse in a 120-foot radius. Each living creature in this area must succeed on a DC 18 Constitution saving throw or take 13 (3d8) thunder damage and 13 (3d8) psychic damage and be stunned until the end of its next turn. Succeed or fail, the whale immediately knows the location of all creatures in the area.
Inferno Breath (Recharge 6). The whale exhales in a 90-foot cone, filling the area with unbelievable heat. Each creature in that area must make a DC 26 Constitution saving throw, taking 66 (12d10) fire damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. All flammable objects and materials in the area not being worn or carried are incinerated. Surfaces in the area made of dirt, stone, or metal become semi-molten, becoming difficult terrain until the start of the whale's next turn. A creature that ends its turn on such terrain takes 10 (3d6) fire damage.