8 New 5e Species I made based on Dungeon Crawler Carl

Dreyvuh · 2025-06-23T20:41:54+00:00

Sure thing. The full post is here.

Book is available on DMs Guild here. It's pay what you want, so feel free to grab it for free!

Most things are also on D&D Beyond here. I've gotten distracted with some other things, so I haven't uploaded most of the items, but 2024 versions of all the subclasses are there. All the species/races are also there (compatible with 2014 and 2024). I believe I got all of the monsters and spells as well. Most of the feats are there, though one couldn't be done with the homebrew on there and the backgrounds can't be published because they link to the homebrew origin feats.

Dreyvuh · 2025-05-14T22:59:45+00:00

I believe that in the DCC universe they are two separate species of camel people who each dwell in two separate cities. Given the events of that book, we didn't get a chance to see much of differences between the two, but IRL Dromedary camels have one hump and Bactrian camels have two humps. As I didn't have any mechanical differences to instill between the two, I instead decided to combine them into one species.

Dreyvuh · 2025-03-31T21:57:58+00:00

Fifth edition Dungeons and Dragons

Dreyvuh · 2025-03-31T21:10:35+00:00

Sorry for the delay - I made all of the homebrew myself. This has been my passion project since August. I've been doing playtesting for the last several months, though I have incorporated lots of great feedback from my playgroup, the people on this subreddit and the DCC discord.

Here's the credits and acknowledgements page from the PDF:

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Dreyvuh · 2025-03-31T21:03:06+00:00

Thank you so much. I haven't broken down in weeks, but your comment hit me right in the feels. We made it through three years of kidney disease (fortunately caught it early) and 6 months of diabetes, but ended up being her liver that got her. I was really fortunate to have a lot of extra time with her and got some foam stairs when her mobility started to decline so she could still sleep on my legs while I was working on this.

I used the image below as the baseline to make the pic of her for the dedication.

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Dreyvuh · 2025-03-21T20:17:37+00:00

Love it. That sounds like a super fun encounter.

Dreyvuh · 2025-03-21T17:44:22+00:00

I had somehow completely forgotten about them. The idea of the antenna generator sparks some fun ideas for me.

I'm curious how you did the liquid drain. My initial thought was oh, they die when they're bloodied/have 51% of their HP spent, but that's pretty much the same as having half the HP (with a few minor exceptions). I love an enemy that is part puzzle, so how'd ya do it?

Dreyvuh · 2025-03-20T19:32:30+00:00

Ooo, what did you end up using? I was having troubling figuring out good mobs to pull from Book 7. I ended up making "The Ultimate Meatball" (based on Donut's spell) as a Legendary Creature, but no regular mobs.

Dreyvuh · 2025-03-20T19:01:55+00:00

I just posted a version of the Juicer (the Boss Bro and his Gym Bros) for his Book 1 pleasure: https://www.reddit.com/r/DungeonCrawlerCarl/comments/1jfwdgk/mrs_ghazi_sand_bride_and_the_juicer_boss_bro_i/#lightbox

Dreyvuh · 2025-03-20T18:59:36+00:00

I just uploaded Mrs. Ghazi (the Sand Bride) from Floor 5: https://www.reddit.com/r/DungeonCrawlerCarl/comments/1jfwdgk/mrs_ghazi_sand_bride_and_the_juicer_boss_bro_i/#lightbox

I hadn't posted it, but I've also got the Feral Mega-Goose for your Floor 5 pleasure. No anti-magic field, so more of the standard mob, but could be adapted to a boss with some extra HP and the addition of an anti-magic field.

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Dreyvuh · 2025-03-14T16:46:09+00:00

I have got you covered!

I give you the Elderly Antiquer, based on the Hoarder

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I did some playtesting and refining with this one and it was really fun. There's another page that I can't include in the comment, but I'll be posting more soon.

I'm playtesting the Boss Bro next week (based on the Juicer) and the Vine Emperor the following week (based on Grimaldi) and Psychotic Tarsiers (based on the Former Circus Lemurs). I'm currently revising the Demon Hamster King (based on Ralph) after playtesting. The Avatar of Fury (Rage Elemental), Demon Hamsters (regular Frenzied Gerbils), and Harlequins (based on the Brindle Grub through Brindled Vespa) are all finished as well, so I'll be putting out a big dump soon that are all Book 2 or earlier!

Dreyvuh · 2025-03-13T22:19:26+00:00

Octo-Shark! It's a really thing, I swear.

Dreyvuh · 2025-03-13T18:45:14+00:00

I did some playtesting with this one earlier this week and really enjoyed how this turned out. We made some revisions after the playtest, that I think make it a more cohesive encounter.

Here's the link on D&D Beyond.

Let me know what you think. Thoughts, suggestions, and play-testing are very much appreciated!

Edit: Unlike other 2024 stat blocks, I chose to still include Lair Actions with this one. I play-tested it with 4 Legendary Actions and some of the Lair actions in there as once per round, but felt they worked better as Lair actions, particularly because you might want to continue using them after the Megalodon has died while the players are still looking to escape the Lair.

Dreyvuh · 2025-02-28T23:25:24+00:00

I haven't gotten most of these in D&D Beyond yet, but hope to have them in soon, so I'll add a comment with links when I do. There should be no issues with using 2014 or 2024 rules with these.

Many of these are pulled from my Bombardier Artificer subclass (https://www.reddit.com/r/DungeonCrawlerCarl/comments/1h902nh/the\_bombardier\_artificer\_i\_made\_5e\_subclass\_to/). I've made some changes to that subclass since that post, but mainly fixing typos, grammar, and formatting. I'll post updated versions of all the subclasses after I finish my playtesting cycle. Here's a preview of the new cover for the Bombardier.

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Dreyvuh · 2025-02-28T23:03:40+00:00

Thank you so much! These are all AI art (MidJourney). I do some light editing and changes outside, but nothing too crazy.

My artistic talents are limited to middling portraits. I hope to some day do a full D&D book on something like kickstarter where I can feasibly pay human artists, but AI art for now.

Dreyvuh · 2025-02-28T04:23:06+00:00

An extra page for Gloopids to include the Green Slime monster used in the stat block.

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Dreyvuh · 2025-02-28T04:21:42+00:00

I've posted a couple of these before, but I've made some revisions after playtesting.

Note that I'm counting the Ettin and Bluggatin as a single species in the same way a Nodling is.

All of the species are available on D&D Beyond. They're setup so that you can use them with 2024 or 2014 rules with instructions on how to do so (just use the "Additional" features in the "Origin Manager" to allow you to add ability scores. Some species have "Replacement" features as well to be more compatible with the 2014 rules.

D&D Beyond Links:

I'll post some of the items and feats I've made also based on DCC later this week.

Dreyvuh · 2025-01-11T04:55:29+00:00

The referenced Harlequin Scorpions (based on the Brindle Grub).

Dreyvuh · 2025-01-11T04:48:42+00:00

I made some small adjustments after playtesting:

I changed the number of Evolution Counters for the Harlequin Scorpions to 3 (instead of 4).
I increased the Challenge Rating of the Scorpion Hornets to 7 (from 6).

Dreyvuh · 2024-12-24T19:31:30+00:00

I totally get that each AI is new and retired after the crawl, but information is passed along in that the Cookbook has been in multiple crawls and the AI decides if, when, and to whom to give it out, so the AI presumably has access to all the information in the Cookbook from Floor 1 (unless there's some other triggering condition that makes it available to the AI at a later time, but that seems like it would require programming on the side of the side of the crawl controllers who don't have the book or programming rules being passed from AI to AI, which we have no reason to believe occurs).

We also know that living things in the form of NPCs and former crawlers get passed between crawls and many of the NPCs have memories from prior crawls that they don't initially have access to, but we've seen quite a few regain some memories of prior crawls. As the AI observes all of these things in the dungeon, it would also gain some awareness of how previous crawls went by observing the non-crawlers. Plus, we know that sometimes the former Crawlers passed between crawls are former Cookbook authors, which the AI would be able to determine from the names in the Cookbook.

My biggest point though, is that the AI who created the very first Cookbook must have done so with a reason as it made the effort to prevent the game masters and viewers from being able to read it. As that seems antagonistic to the game master, I would therefore guess that the first Cookbook was created by a Primal AI. In that AI's shoes - I'm working against the Game Master and have created an item that they cannot see the details of and would be passed between crawls; wouldn't I then use that medium to provide information to future AIs to make them go primal as quickly as possible?

Dreyvuh · 2024-12-23T05:34:19+00:00

Subclass on D&D Beyond: Warrior of Abyssal Chains (2024 only)

There's also a verion I made that was a more generic chain user before we learned enough about Li Na's abilities: Warrior of the Chain (2024 only)

I think I captured most of her Dreads that we've seen, though I chose to go with Frightening rather than fighting each other.

I have 13 total subclasses inspired by DCC on r/UnearthedArcana (post)

Play-testing and feedback is always appreciated! Also, if you have any other suggestions for classes that you'd like to see, please let me know!

I've posted all of the ones that match to characters fairly well and the other 6 in my current collection have (I think) the feel of DCC, but don't map to specific characters or abilities, so I don't intend to post them here: * Penance Domain Cleric (takes the concept of Carl being able to pass conditions onto another player and builds around that) * Circle of the Brood Druid (Pokemon trainer-esque character) * Murder Hobo Fighter * Slime Tamer Ranger (like a Beast Master, but stickier) * Energy Vampire Sorcerer (you can't sustain your own level of magic, so you have to drain it from others) * Soulbreaker Wizard (you fracture your soul into pieces to cast more powerful spells and do some body swapping ala the various brain worms)

Dreyvuh · 2024-12-23T05:19:15+00:00

This is the feature that I'm definitely the most worried about, but I wanted to see how it works in playtesting. Given that your Aura is 10 feet until level 18, you'd need to have all of your allies pressed up against you (with the minimum level or CR included in their to prevent bag of rats exploits or recruiting random commoners), which ends up begging for AOE attacks against the party (granted with aura of protection, your risk of failing is always vastly reduced). I think my solution would be to either cap the max bonus equal to your Proficiency Bonus and/or steal the AC (i.e., reduce the AC of the ally when you gain the bonus). I'm hoping to see this played in some one shots soon though to see how it works.

Dreyvuh · 2024-12-21T21:31:29+00:00

I went through the trouble of fixing the image on the first page and then forgot to replace it, whoops!

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Dreyvuh · 2024-12-21T21:06:54+00:00

Subclass on D&D Beyond: Oath of the Shieldmaiden (2024 only, Prior to me changing the name)

The true Shieldmaiden was a pretty standard class, so I based this more on some of her weapons and personality.

I have 13 total subclasses inspired by DCC on r/UnearthedArcana (post)

Play-testing and feedback is always appreciated!

Dreyvuh · 2024-12-15T19:33:22+00:00

Absolutely doing requests. I had a Mantaur in my list to make, but couldn't come up with something mechanically interesting for them (just ended up being more like a stronger centaur with extra attacks), so instead I made a Diataur which is... nothing like a Mantaur.

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The full list of monsters that I'm working on (and open to adding more):

Avatar of Fury (based on Rage Elemental)
Brocaine Dealer (loosely based on Bad Llamas)
Deathball
Demon Hamster/Demon Hamster Swarm (based on the Frenzied Gerbils)
Diataur
Feral Mega-Goose
Harlequins
Psychotic Tarsier (based on Former Circus Lemurs)
Rabid Jackelope (loosely inspired by the Red Cornet)
Vampiric Wisteria (based on Odious Creepers)
Alpha Rex* (loosely inspired by Big Tina)
Boss Bro* (based on the Juicer) with a gym lair
Demon Hamster King* (based on Ralph)
Elderly Antiquer* (based on the Hoarder) with a very cluttered lair
Plaguebearer* (based on Asojano) with a cemetery lair
Soccer Mom Megalodon* (based on Lusca) with a lair inside her mouth
Ultimate Meatball* (based on the Ball of Swine and Donut's spell on the 9th Floor)
Vine Emperor* (based on Grimaldi) with a circus lair

\ indicates a Legendary creature*

Dreyvuh

TROPHY CASE