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Matuka
2019-03-30, 10:23 PM
How many homebrew monsters have you created/encountered in your time playing dnd and can you give any examples?

rferries
2019-03-31, 12:43 AM
Check my sig! I love creating monsters, though lately I find I prefer revising classic ones.

Matuka
2019-03-31, 08:35 AM
Check my sig! I love creating monsters, though lately I find I prefer revising classic ones.

Your sig thing doesn't work.

Bjarkmundur
2019-03-31, 09:30 AM
I've only made five, but I think me method is getting more and more solid as I experiment.

Check my sig :)

Bjarkmundur
2019-03-31, 10:02 AM
If your *spoiler* thing is talking about my reply, it is helpful, I'm telling him that the link in his sig doesn't work

I was actually talking about the "creating monsters" link. :)

I made a million monsters for 4e, but I don't have any of them on hand. I'd give you examples (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?584307-My-First-5e-Custom-Encounter) if my 5e monsters were any good. I've yet to make some cool original ones. The ones I've created have mostly just been bags of HP to support my narrative game.

Matuka
2019-03-31, 10:55 AM
I was actually talking about the "creating monsters" link. :)

I made a million monsters for 4e, but I don't have any of them on hand. I'd give you examples (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?584307-My-First-5e-Custom-Encounter) if my 5e monsters were any good. I've yet to make some cool original ones. The ones I've created have mostly just been bags of HP to support my narrative game.

Are there any 4e monsters that stick out in your mind? Like particularly fun encounters or dashing villains? I'm not looking for stats here, I just wanna hear about the monsters my fellow DMs have made.

Galithar
2019-03-31, 02:09 PM
I have one I call a devourer. It's a Homebrew creature I use as cannon fodder for one of the factions in my world. They are relatively weak, with no special attacks. What makes them dangerous is that they break action economy. It's an ability most DMs will tell you to avoid, but I give them 2 spots in the initiative order. It lets them feel very fast and overwhelming. (Think zerglings from StarCraft) without making too much of a mess of my battle mat with 10+ mobs.

They have lowish health (30ish) so they go down relatively quick and +5 to hit and a single attack that deals 2d6+3 so they can't wipe a party too fast even with the double turn.

Edit: They also have a low range blindsight, but that's just an aspect of their faction and all creatures from them have a minimum of 10 ft. Blindsight.

It can also be recreated by just doubling their speed and giving them a multiattack, but I feel the double turn had a bigger psychological effect on a battlefield (party). It makes them FEEL more overwhelming even though mechanically they would have basically identical threat levels.

Matuka
2019-03-31, 10:14 PM
I have one I call a devourer. It's a Homebrew creature I use as cannon fodder for one of the factions in my world. They are relatively weak, with no special attacks. What makes them dangerous is that they break action economy. It's an ability most DMs will tell you to avoid, but I give them 2 spots in the initiative order. It lets them feel very fast and overwhelming. (Think zerglings from StarCraft) without making too much of a mess of my battle mat with 10+ mobs.

They have lowish health (30ish) so they go down relatively quick and +5 to hit and a single attack that deals 2d6+3 so they can't wipe a party too fast even with the double turn.

Edit: They also have a low range blindsight, but that's just an aspect of their faction and all creatures from them have a minimum of 10 ft. Blindsight.

It can also be recreated by just doubling their speed and giving them a multiattack, but I feel the double turn had a bigger psychological effect on a battlefield (party). It makes them FEEL more overwhelming even though mechanically they would have basically identical threat levels.

My players have barely just figured out the rules, if I started throwing monsters like this at them, they'd just be confused and then mad.

Maelynn
2019-04-01, 03:44 AM
I mostly 'homebrew' by making tweaks to existing monsters. Either to make them a bit more/less of a challenge so that I'll still be able to use them in a fight that needs a higher/lower CR (like buffing a Werewolf so I don't have to throw in a dozen adds just to make it a challenging fight), or to throw off the more experienced players who tend to know what monsters can and can't do.

One that I really made from scratch was an NPC that I had to give a statblock, just in case the party would decide to take justice into their own hands and attack her. I made her into a Wild Magic Sorcerer and gave her some spells. I looked at a few spellcasting NPCs for inspiration and to better align her abilities to the CR I wanted her to be.

Oh, and I tweaked a few NPC statblocks to make opponents for 1v1 and 2v2 duels (for a Fighter's Festival I had created). One of the duos was Miguel and Tulio from El Dorado (Bard and Rogue), another was a dumbed-down version of my own 2 characters that I use(d) as a player myself.

Matuka
2019-04-01, 06:59 AM
I mostly 'homebrew' by making tweaks to existing monsters. Either to make them a bit more/less of a challenge so that I'll still be able to use them in a fight that needs a higher/lower CR (like buffing a Werewolf so I don't have to throw in a dozen adds just to make it a challenging fight), or to throw off the more experienced players who tend to know what monsters can and can't do.

One that I really made from scratch was an NPC that I had to give a statblock, just in case the party would decide to take justice into their own hands and attack her. I made her into a Wild Magic Sorcerer and gave her some spells. I looked at a few spellcasting NPCs for inspiration and to better align her abilities to the CR I wanted her to be.

Oh, and I tweaked a few NPC statblocks to make opponents for 1v1 and 2v2 duels (for a Fighter's Festival I had created). One of the duos was Miguel and Tulio from El Dorado (Bard and Rogue), another was a dumbed-down version of my own 2 characters that I use(d) as a player myself.

One monster I modified was from Volos Guide to Monsters *warning slight spoilers for anyone who hasn't read the book, don't read any farther* it was this little blue monster, born from the feelings of loneliness, often due to a widow right after losing her husband. A great mischief maker, perfect for a side quest. But if I had sent him in the way he was, he would have gotten murdered really quickly. So I gave him a few illusion and escape spells, gave him wings so he could fly, and constantly have the powers of spider climb. Took a good long while to finally catch the thing and impale it. They had fun trying to catch it and I had fun role-playing this Gremlin-like creature.

rferries
2019-04-02, 02:22 AM
Your sig thing doesn't work.

Hm I've just checked on both desktop and mobile and it seems to be working fine. Can anyone else confirm the link is broken?

Galithar
2019-04-02, 02:29 AM
Hm I've just checked on both desktop and mobile and it seems to be working fine. Can anyone else confirm the link is broken?

I get a blank page when I try to follow it. I've been having this issue with links in MOGs sig as well.

rferries
2019-04-05, 02:55 AM
I get a blank page when I try to follow it. I've been having this issue with links in MOGs sig as well.

Well shucks! Thanks, I suppose I'll have to report it.

Aniikinis
2019-04-06, 08:58 AM
I've sort of stepped away from 3.5 for the time being but I've made loads of homebrew monsters. Like 99% of them were off the top of my head for wilderness encounters in strange lands or flights of fancy for insane scenarios, but those that suck around I've got in a small little document on my computer. That I really should get around to putting on the site.

My favorite one that I used was in a game in Elga. The party was checking out an outpost that hadn't been reporting in for months and the place was a total murder scene.
Rotten and dessicated blood, guts, and viscera everywhere. Scorch marks along the walls and floor. Doors broken through and stairs about to collapse from loads of burns, both acid and fire, and what appeared to be axe strikes. On the top of the watchtower that made up the upper levels of the outpost, the only sane person in the party (Elgan-Drider Dread Necromancer) found what appeared to be a female gnoll's skull fused halfway through the floor with the jaws and part of the cranium visible, she then looked in the floor beneath to find the rest of the skeletal torso with all of the bones of the torso and spine fused into one superbone™ and the pelvis a charred remnant beneath. The rest of the party checked out the basement and saw a scene of mold, rot, and a destroyed stockroom. And writhing nothingness too.

So of course, they venture in. They get a few steps in and noticed what appeared to be a massive patch of black mold eating into the corner opposite them. Moving towards it, the gnoll fighter got a better look and saw the walls bulging inwards and the "mold" was actually slimy and the small pieces of wall he saw underneath was actually eyes. They started to move away and the walls heaved, the slime started to spread across the floor, boxes and barrels were engulfed in both flame and searing acid, and a subsonic roaring sound emitted from the corner. They got out immediately and nearly had to face a CR 14 encounter at ECL 10.

Essentially it was an aberration with partial ooze traits as well as abilities from the shoggoth, gibbering mouther, brown mold, hellhound, and grey ooze along with some additional bits like at-will spider climb, blink, and summon swarm

Matuka
2019-04-06, 10:18 AM
Essentially it was an aberration with partial ooze traits as well as abilities from the shoggoth, gibbering mouther, brown mold, hellhound, and grey ooze along with some additional bits like at-will spider climb, blink, and summon swarm

You were this close to a TPK, I think though I have never had such a power difference.

Aniikinis
2019-04-06, 12:03 PM
You were this close to a TPK, I think though I have never had such a power difference.

Fully aware of that, I already ripped that bandaid off in the first session though by having them make 2 sets of characters and using the (totally unexpected, they got way further than I thought they would) deaths of the first set to drive forward a plot point near the end of it all. That is also why I put in all of the environmental bits to warn them "run, this is way too above you". Even Leeroy Jenkins turned tail and ran. But then again this was also the campaign where in the session after that one they got literal god-weapons and there was a CR 50 templated-to-battor-and-back monstrosity wandering around the central swamps and the blasted wasteland just on the off chance they really wanted a fight.

rferries
2019-04-06, 04:35 PM
Right, I think I've fixed my sig now. In hindsight after looking through them, most of them aren't entirely original so much as inspired by existing creatures from D&D and other fantasy. Certainly Aniikinis's stuff is worth reading through if you want truly original material!

Matuka
2019-04-06, 05:05 PM
Right, I think I've fixed my sig now. In hindsight after looking through them, most of them aren't entirely original so much as inspired by existing creatures from D&D and other fantasy. Certainly Aniikinis's stuff is worth reading through if you want truly original material!

Definitely working

Galithar
2019-04-06, 05:11 PM
Definitely working

Yes. And holy cow that's a lot of Homebrew!!

Matuka
2019-04-06, 05:26 PM
Back when I was starting, I had the idea for a joke villain known as the black knight. He terrorizes his little corner of the land, stealing food, money, releasing criminals, and being a general thorn in the Lord's side. So he puts up wanted posters that the players inevitably find. One of the things they'd find is that although he looked intimidating, he was actually a goofball and a trickster at heart, using his array of escape magic to evade capture, laughing at them all the while. They would finally catch him at around level five in his crumbled castle and learn he's actually quite the combatant, he just prefers spreading chaos and being chaotic. Defeating him would earn the Lord's approval and respect, proving themselves ready for something a bit more serious.

Sgt. Cookie
2019-04-06, 07:55 PM
One monster I plan on throwing at my party is called a Chain Mannequin. It's an undead creature that, at first, looks like a normal humanoid. As the party draws near, its hands and head fly apart, connected to the body by long chains.

It's primary method of combat is to slam its arms into the party and then immediately initiate a grapple. If it succeeds on the grapple check, it starts constricting the life out of that PC, while lifting it off the ground. It can do this to two PCs simultaneously. All the while, its head lashes out with bite attacks attempting to protect its arms and body.

The arms, of course, can be attacked directly, causing that arm to no longer be usable for grappling, but it can still launch slams with what's left of the chain. The head, however, never stays stationary long enough to get an attack on it directly.

Matuka
2019-04-06, 09:16 PM
One monster I plan on throwing at my party is called a Chain Mannequin. It's an undead creature that, at first, looks like a normal humanoid. As the party draws near, its hands and head fly apart, connected to the body by long chains.

It's primary method of combat is to slam its arms into the party and then immediately initiate a grapple. If it succeeds on the grapple check, it starts constricting the life out of that PC, while lifting it off the ground. It can do this to two PCs simultaneously. All the while, its head lashes out with bite attacks attempting to protect its arms and body.

The arms, of course, can be attacked directly, causing that arm to no longer be usable for grappling, but it can still launch slams with what's left of the chain. The head, however, never stays stationary long enough to get an attack on it directly.

If it was me, I'd have it be a trap in the shop of a villain pretending to be a tailor.

Debihuman
2019-04-08, 07:22 AM
How many homebrew monsters have you created/encountered in your time playing dnd and can you give any examples?

I have a bunch of homebrewed critters in my signature. I also helped proofread monsters for the contests back when that was popular. You can browse throw the signature thread as it is now linked in the stickied Notable Threads.

If you can’t see the link try looking at Full Site on your mobile device.

Debby

Matuka
2019-04-08, 05:31 PM
I have a bunch of homebrewed critters in my signature. I also helped proofread monsters for the contests back when that was popular. You can browse throw the signature thread as it is now linked in the stickied Notable Threads.

If you can’t see the link try looking at Full Site on your mobile device.

Debby

I see the link but all I see when I click on it is white.

monworkbench
2019-04-10, 05:13 PM
It was blank white for me on IE, but worked fine on Chrome

rferries
2019-04-19, 06:50 PM
Definitely working

Thanks!


Yes. And holy cow that's a lot of Homebrew!!

Haha it's an addiction, yes.


If you can’t see the link try looking at Full Site on your mobile device.

Debby

Yeah this seems to be a problem with different browsers/devices. I think switching the sig link so that it links to the homebrew thread (like Aniikis's does) rather than directly to one's single post in the homebrew thread (like yours does, and like mine did until I copied Aniikis :D) also helps.

Aniikinis
2019-04-20, 03:52 AM
Yeah this seems to be a problem with different browsers/devices. I think switching the sig link so that it links to the homebrew thread (like Aniikinis's does) rather than directly to one's single post in the homebrew thread (like yours does, and like mine did until I copied Aniikinis :D) also helps.

Glad to know I helped solve a problem by accident :smallbiggrin:.

Ninja_Prawn
2019-04-20, 06:19 AM
If we're sharing monsters, I've been doing a thing (https://nailsofvecna.tumblr.com/tagged/stat-block-sunday) where I post a new monster (sometimes more than one) every Sunday for nearly 2 years.

There are also many monsters in my sig, assuming it works.

rferries
2019-04-23, 11:53 PM
There are also many monsters in my sig, assuming it works.

Works fine for me (desktop Firefox).