Creepiest D&D Content

[Chainsaw Hobbit]

I'm rather fond of the implications of the future empire of the Illithids.

And Thoon. Thoon is nuts.

Thoon scares me. Too bad it came in so late and got basically ignored in 4e.

[willpell]

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Even if they are, motive matters to alignment. Your thoughts of retribution are thoughts of petty revenge, not divine punishment.

So, if you think your boss is a dill-hole and want to punch him, you're Evil, but if an archangel thinks your boss is a dill-hole and grants you the power to smite him, you're Good? What exactly makes the archangel Good anymore at that point? The more literal you are with paladins' (and other such zealots) authority to smite anything they deem smiteworthy, because they're definitionally Good no matter how many "Evil" creatures they murder on sight, the more thoroughly you are justfiying all the stupid alignment tropes.

[Mordokai]

You can also play the free game, Slender, which actually gives a good feel for him/it. It's a horror game, which doesn't tell you the controls and doesn't let you pause (if you press Escape, or alt+tab out, you go to the main menu, but you have to start a new game to play again). You have to look the controls up online, remember them well, use the restroom before you play, and make sure you don't have anything to do, because you're in for a long haul of no-pause horror.

The no-pause feature and the lack of plot killed it for me. But it does it's job; it's really quite scary, so YMMV.

When you say something like that, a link to home page or download or something similar usually goes a long way towards evoking more wish to try it, if you catch my meaning, winkwink.

[North_Ranger]

From D&D? Mindflayer reproductive cycle.

From Pathfinder? Urgathoa. Just... goddamn... Urgathoa.

[Hanuman]

This, definitely this.
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/3rd-pa...utocannibalism

[Kelb_Panthera]

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So, if you think your boss is a dill-hole and want to punch him, you're Evil, but if an archangel thinks your boss is a dill-hole and grants you the power to smite him, you're Good? What exactly makes the archangel Good anymore at that point? The more literal you are with paladins' (and other such zealots) authority to smite anything they deem smiteworthy, because they're definitionally Good no matter how many "Evil" creatures they murder on sight, the more thoroughly you are justfiying all the stupid alignment tropes.

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No, you're just having an evil thought. Whether or not you're actually evil depends on whether such thoughts make up the majority of your mental time, and what actions you take. Even if this thought is a nearly daily occurence, it can easily be outweighed by virtually any good action taken in the same week, and any thoughts of performing altruistic deeds, whether you actually follow through on those thoughts or not. Your alignment is the result of your overall patterns of thought and behavior. No one thing is responsible for your alignment unless its a spell that specifically changes your alignment or is an aligned act of at least regional, if not global importance. Thought patterns are easily the smallest portion of the alignment puzzle.

Also, neither the celestials nor the gods they serve determine what good is. Good in D&D is a cosmic force that predates all sentient creatures. As are evil, law, and chaos.

BTW, I'm rather firmly on record as saying that the only valid smite-on-sight targets are fiends. Check out the "Paladin and rogue in the same party, what's allowed and what's not" thread.

I remembered another creepy yesterday, but it's slipped my mind. I'll edit this if it comes back to me so as to stay on topic.

[Eldest]

When you say something like that, a link to home page or download or something similar usually goes a long way towards evoking more wish to try it, if you catch my meaning, winkwink.

There's this fascinating thing called Google. You may have heard of it.
First page that comes up.

[Sith_Happens]

One day, I found out that the Tome of Magic has two base classes in it besides just the Binder. Definitely one of the more unsettling things I've read in my life.

[Mordokai]

There's this fascinating thing called Google. You may have heard of it.
First page that comes up.

Google, Google... oh, I know!

You mean this one?

[Libertad]

Planar Binding. Nevermind that it's pretty much involuntary servitude and/or unlawful imprisonment by another name.

And the worst part? If you do it to an Angel, the spell's of the [Good] subtype, even if you force the Angel to do something morally wrong!

[Zeful]

Planar Binding. Nevermind that it's pretty much involuntary servitude and/or unlawful imprisonment by another name.

And the worst part? If you do it to an Angel, the spell's of the [Good] subtype, even if you force the Angel to do something morally wrong!

Only after an opposed charisma check.

[TuggyNE]

Only after an opposed charisma check.

"Everything's OK as long as you're awesome enough to convince people to do things for you."

... Yeah, that's pretty high up there in Unfortunate Implications.

[willpell]

The GM is WELL within his rights to apply a circumstance penalty to that check, of course....

[Zeful]

"Everything's OK as long as you're awesome enough to convince people to do things for you."

... Yeah, that's pretty high up there in Unfortunate Implications.

Goes the same way for the captive who can make a charisma check to escape the confinement, with no modifiers even if the captive makes it clear that you're going to get murdered if it escapes.

[Kelb_Panthera]

Planar Binding. Nevermind that it's pretty much involuntary servitude and/or unlawful imprisonment by another name.

And the worst part? If you do it to an Angel, the spell's of the [Good] subtype, even if you force the Angel to do something morally wrong!

Actually, planar binding has a clause that makes this a non-issue.

Impossible demands or unreasonable commands are never agreed to.

End of the 4th paragraph.

Then there's the fact that even if you win the cha check, you've only gotten the creature to promise service. If the creature isn't of the lawful subtype, it can just ignore the promise it made and try to find its own way home.

You can kidnap an angel and make him promise to do something that's not evil (requests to perform evil deeds would be unreasonable) but you can't actually make him do squat without other spells.

[Venger]

Number one for me is the wall of the faithless. if you don't worship a god, you're doomed to an eternity of torment, even if you lived a good life. like the problem with high proseltyizer and judging dragons by skin color, too close to RL thoughts/practices for comfort.

the infinite staircase from p110 of fiendish codex 1 is also surprisingly scary. it's a staircase with doors that lead everywhere in the universe, to all the planes and etc. but if you go alone (and only alone) then you see one secret, disused door, that you know in your bones has never been opened before.

you know that beyond it is your heart's desire. you need to make a will save to not open the door. if you succeed, you can continue on your way, but no matter how many times you come back, you will never see it again.

if you fail, you open it, go through, and...

your character is removed from play. Forever.

no one ever sees him again.

speaking of which, complete arcane's alienist has a unique twist on timeless body. you don't age, but the pasta is different when it comes to what happens to you when your time is up. rather than dying of old age, you are "stolen away by horrible entities...never to be seen again"

and time doesn't pass in the far realm. so whatever they do to you, they do to you forever.

[Libertad]

Actually, planar binding has a clause that makes this a non-issue. End of the 4th paragraph.

Then there's the fact that even if you win the cha check, you've only gotten the creature to promise service. If the creature isn't of the lawful subtype, it can just ignore the promise it made and try to find its own way home.

You can kidnap an angel and make him promise to do something that's not evil (requests to perform evil deeds would be unreasonable) but you can't actually make him do squat without other spells.

Thanks for spotting that.

But what if the summoner tricks the Angel/Outsider with magic? Like uses Illusion magic to make the Angel perceive a good guy in a market square as a rampaging demon?

[Venger]

Thanks for spotting that.

But what if the summoner tricks the Angel/Outsider with magic? Like uses Illusion magic to make the Angel perceive a good guy in a market square as a rampaging demon?

well then, the angel has unwittingly committed an evil act by killing an innocent person.

depending on the dm, s/he may have to go receive an atonement spell.

which you, as the unscrupulous individual you are in this hypothetical may well offer them if they do (insert real objective for summoning them) for you.

[willpell]

Number one for me is the wall of the faithless. if you don't worship a god, you're doomed to an eternity of torment, even if you lived a good life. like the problem with high proseltyizer and judging dragons by skin color, too close to RL thoughts/practices for comfort.

Agreed. The only way I will ever play in a Forgotten Realms campaign is if the DM either ditches the Wall or permits me to destroy it and liberate the atheist souls (possibly to lead them in a crusade of vengeance against the gods, possibly just letting them go free to whatever sort of non-deitic afterlives they'd prefer). I will probably not ever DM the Realms, being how complicated they are, but if I did I would certainly ditch the Wall, as in "it never existed, it's just a malicious rumor spread by the churches to consolidate their power, and finally someone has made the truth known".

if you fail, you open it, go through, and...

your character is removed from play. Forever.

no one ever sees him again.

Well, if he really did find his heart's desire, he probably wouldn't ever want to leave, knowing he might never be able to return. But the "know in your bones" part is no guarantee of accuracy, of course, so it does seem likely this is a trap.

[Eldan]

They made finding your own door that easy? If I remember correctly, Planescape had people who wandered the staircase all their lives, looking for that particular door.

Also, strange that it would show up in the Fiendish codex, of all places. Usually, it's linked to the chaotic good planes.

[willpell]

Also, strange that it would show up in the Fiendish codex, of all places. Usually, it's linked to the chaotic good planes.

Well it's not like wizards ever plans on publishing a Celestial Codex. Angels and faeries (well, eladrins technically) that love you and want to be happy aren't "dark and edgy", so they'll never sell to today's audiences.

[Venger]

Well it's not like wizards ever plans on publishing a Celestial Codex. Angels and faeries (well, eladrins technically) that love you and want to be happy aren't "dark and edgy", so they'll never sell to today's audiences.

more importantly, as outlined in OOTS, there are very few of them. not enough to make up a whole book, under the assumption that most adventurers are good aligned, so will fight evil monsters

see, wall of the faithless isn't just for atheists (which would be bad enough), but for people who are just ignorant about the existence of specific gods, which is far worse

anyone else horrified by the Mockery Bugs? the example of using them in play (along with that damn picture) is one of the scariest things I've seen in my life, in this game or not

[Kelb_Panthera]

Thanks for spotting that.

But what if the summoner tricks the Angel/Outsider with magic? Like uses Illusion magic to make the Angel perceive a good guy in a market square as a rampaging demon?

This is rather unlikely, since IIRC most angels have always-on trueseeing and at-will aligment detection, but if the angel is duped, then it's a tradgedy. The angel hasn't necessarily commited an evil act, however, since intention counts toward an act's alignment. He thought he was killing a rampaging fiend. The fact that he was wrong snatches the good right out of it, but I'd call it a neutral act at worst, providing the angel took at least some time to try to verify the target.

Being an angel, he'll almost certainly seek atonement anyway, but not from the guy that called him. That guy's got a great big plate of divine retribution headed his way. The angel might even call that his atonement. That and reviving the poor soul he was duped into slaying, after a quest on the outer planes to find the guy's new petitioner-self to explain the mixup and offer revival.

[hamishspence]

more importantly, as outlined in OOTS, there are very few of them. not enough to make up a whole book, under the assumption that most adventurers are good aligned, so will fight evil monsters

see, wall of the faithless isn't just for atheists (which would be bad enough), but for people who are just ignorant about the existence of specific gods, which is far worse

Deities & Demigods tones down the conditions for getting stuck in the Wall a bit. "Person with no patron deity" simply wanders the Fugue Plane until demons or devils snatch them up, or until they're lucky enough to be invited into a deity's realm by its agents.

Only people who "actively oppose the worship of the gods" get the Wall.

[Shir]

anyone else horrified by the Mockery Bugs? the example of using them in play (along with that damn picture) is one of the scariest things I've seen in my life, in this game or not

I try to spend every waking minute of my life forgetting Mockery Bugs exist.

[Kelb_Panthera]

I try to spend every waking minute of my life forgetting Mockery Bugs exist.

Where can I find these mockery bugs?

Sounds like something from Faiths of Eberron, if I had to guess.

[Shir]

Where can I find these mockery bugs?

Sounds like something from Faiths of Eberron, if I had to guess.

Monster Manual 5

[Chainsaw Hobbit]

Why has no one mentioned Pathfinder adherers? Those bastards are not only quite metal, they are also tentacle rapists with blood fetishes.

See Misfit Monsters Redeemed for more information. The section feels like it was written by an emotionally disturbed teenager.

[Deathkeeper]

Monster Manual 5

No, what have you done?!

[Libertad]

I realize now that I'm grasping at straws with my "Planar Binding an Angel" example. But the spells in and of themselves are tailor-made for ethically dodgy acts.

Other creepy stuff in D&D:

Ravages from the Book of Exalted Deeds.

"It's just like poison, except it's not Evil because it only affects Evil creatures!"

How about the Slayer of Domiel? "It's just like assassination, except it's not Evil because they kill only Evil creatures!"

This implies that the forces of Good share more in common with Evil than they'd like to admit.

Also, the Book of Vile Darkness, with its emphasis on gross-out evil. Also, people who enjoy kinky S&M sex are somehow all of Evil alignment. Like to get tied up and spanked by dominatrices? Sorry, but you register as Evil and are destined to the Lower Planes.

We're being a little close-minded, are we, Monte Cook?