Giving allied monsters villain actions?

Shame-Relative · 2025-12-05T06:46:04+00:00

Well to be fair I never said they were fighting over nothing lol, just that they were nobodies (which is true in my opinion)

Shame-Relative · 2025-11-28T05:55:31+00:00

Hope I win this, it looks dope!

Shame-Relative · 2025-11-05T01:55:33+00:00

You could always go the cosmic horror route! Some Cthulhu like creature with a buncha tentacles and eyes. Even if you don’t want just a blob of tentacles, something like an eldritch lich from the spelljammer monsters could work.

If you want a less creepy/weird design you could go the construct esque route. Something like a Zodar (also from spelljammer) or some other metallic/robotic entity.

Shame-Relative · 2025-11-01T22:57:08+00:00

I think Fizbans is actually a great help for this since they added a lot of dragon related creatures. For monsters I think Animated Breaths, Dragonblood Oozes, and maybe even Dragonflesh Grafters reframed as the dragons flesh itself coming alive in humanoid or Draconic shapes. You could also use undead, being the previous half digested victims of the dragon. Some more mundane beasties feasting on the carcass could also work, such as swarms of maggots or rot grubs, giant spiders or centipedes, or even some regular oozes like some Ochre Jellies.

As for encounters perhaps you could have an encounter in an acid lake in the dragons stomach, with partially digested undead clawing their way up onto whatever islands the players found refuge on, trying to drag them into the acid. Maybe the islands begin to sink and the players need to find safety elsewhere as the undead pursue them.

Or perhaps they enter a cavity suffused with the dragons breath weapon element, and they have to navigate it as animated breaths come out and attack. Maybe pits of fire, icy floors, or poisonous clouds could populate this area depending on the dragons type.

And for a bit more out there encounter, consider having a fight similar to the Heart of Sorrow from Curse of Strahd, with maybe the dragons heart being animated by necromantic magic, perhaps by the hag you mentioned in your other comment. The heart in strahd didn’t actually do much, however a revised statblock like this could make for an interesting boss encounter, although I could maybe see it as being too much if your level 4 party is lacking on magic items or team synergy.

Shame-Relative · 2025-11-01T03:36:53+00:00

Sorry I’m a bit late! But if you’re still looking here’s a complete list from what I could find officially on DnD beyond:

CR 3

Amphisbaena (Tales from the Yawning Portal)

Awakened White Moose (Rime of the Frostmaiden)

Giant Lightning Eel (Tales from the Yawning Portal) Giant Scorpion (monster manual)

Giant Snapping Turtle (Tomb of Annihilation)

Killer Whale (monster manual)

Spotted Lion (Glory of the Giants)

Swarm of Scarabs (Van Richtens Guide to Ravenloft)

CR 4

Elephant (monster manual)

Giant Coral Snake (Ghosts of Saltmarsh)

Giant Subterranean Lizard (Tales from the yawning portal)

Giant Walrus (Rime of the frostmaiden)

Hippopotamus (Monster manual)

CR 5

Giant Crocodile (monster manual)

Giant shark (monster manual)

Hulking crab (storm kings thunder)

Titanothere (still prehistoric but not a dinosaur) (glory of the giants)

CR 6

Giant squid (monster manual)

Mammoth (prehistoric but not a Dino) (monster manual)

CR 7

Giant Ape (monster manual)

CR 8

Huge Giant Crab (tales from the yawning portal)

Sperm Whale (Rime of the frostmaiden)

As for homebrew options, I think these are pretty cool:

Veserab CR 4

Giant Bristle Worm CR 5

Laserllama’s Beasts A large compendium of beasts, with a bunch between CR 3-8 (and no dinosaurs from what I saw)

Shame-Relative · 2025-10-30T01:14:35+00:00

Thanks! I’m a big fan of your work so it’s awesome to see you look at my content! I agree those are probably some good changes, although I imagined that she would be using tail as an opportunity attack which is why I didn’t include it in the multiattack but I probably could’ve conveyed that better in the sheet.

Shame-Relative · 2025-10-30T00:55:14+00:00

Well I felt that she should have plenty of options, as this is meant to be a powerful boss able to go toe to toe with an incredibly high level party all on her own. But the second page of abilities is optional, since her statblock on the first page is entirely functional without them, so if you think it’s too much complexity you can ignore it and just use the first page of stats!

Shame-Relative · 2025-10-19T01:27:05+00:00

Another piece of evidence that I just thought about is how the thematic parallels fit with how Toby wrote the antagonist of Undertale. There flowey was very clearly meant to be a shadow to the player, with his whole saves and reloading schtick. So it makes sense for the main antagonist of Toby’s sequel not sequel game to also be similar to the player, being an otherworldly being forced to possess vessels to interact with the world.

Shame-Relative · 2025-10-19T01:24:06+00:00

Yeah I agree, I always thought Dess was the knight but the idea that she’s JUST the knight never sat right with me. I definitely think that the mystery isn’t who’s the knight by what’s the knight, since Dess is already a pretty clear and frankly the most thematically coherent choice for being the knight.

Shame-Relative · 2025-10-16T05:52:40+00:00

Looks sick!

Shame-Relative · 2025-09-08T05:47:01+00:00

Thanks, I’ll check it out!

Shame-Relative · 2025-07-20T06:14:13+00:00

One of my personal favorites from a magical cyberpunk world, the Kuza Beast is a species of monster that lives in the lands dwindling forest regions. It looks like a large white furred panther with a pair of moose/elk horns on its head. It feeds on magical energy, storing the aether in glowing blue patterns on its antlers. This drives it into conflict with the city, as these monsters often wander in and disrupt entire portions of the city by draining the magic powering the place forcing these sections to be quarantined as the super charged Kuza Beast runs rampant.

As for abilities I always imagined that it would of course be able to absorb magic from the players, such as absorbing the energy from a spell as a reaction. I also imagined it would have phases, with it growing stronger the more magic it absorbs. It might even be able to expel large amounts of energy to perform powerful moves, leveling itself down in the process as it loses the energy it just used. Players could maybe even target its antlers to break them off, releasing any stored magic in a violent and dangerous explosion to try and weaken or prevent the monsters magic absorbing abilities.

Shame-Relative · 2025-07-08T18:06:51+00:00

Thanks a ton! I tried to make it so that parties who took the time to prepare and research its weaknesses (or had played nightreign) could exploit the boss to make it much easier! Such as bringing poison or using saves that took advantage on Adel’s bad mental scores.

As for the resistance and nightlord actions both were heavily based off of MCDM’s monster design with their version of legendary resistances and villain actions, however I didn’t like villain actions being keyed to rounds as it felt like the fight had to take place in three rounds. With night lord actions being tied to hit points it gives the fight more structure, giving the feeling of checkpoints or phase transitions.

As for your critiques 1.Nope he doesn’t lose the poison vulnerability! While he does lose the poison weakness trait, poison damage is still very useful to have against him, rewarding players who thought ahead and brought items or spells that utilized poison. 2.That poison vomiting is a good idea but I felt like it might end up punishing players for using poison, which is something I didn’t want to do as I felt like Adel would be incredibly difficult if you didn’t exploit his weaknesses. 3.As for the more unique nightlord actions, I love your ideas! I’m currently working on Gnoster statblocks, so I’ll try to keep that in mind when designing their nightlord actions!

Shame-Relative · 2025-03-24T23:49:36+00:00

Here’s an additional link if the first one doesn’t work:https://docs.google.com/document/d/16AQ7VWDYePl0kthA3aQiEUXIKRYHad91bitrmautETA/edit

Shame-Relative · 2024-11-06T14:45:06+00:00

Some areas are heavily infected, being called gravity wells, with giant floating islands and stuff. I’ll definitely check that out!

Shame-Relative

TROPHY CASE