IADnDMN Stream Monsters! (2018/12/19)
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!
Water Griffon
Suggested by Patron and Discord regular @griffmac, continuing our series of planar griffons.
As the name might suggest, this species of planar griffon is native to the Elemental Plane of Water. Similar to the common griffons of the material plane, the water griffon's body is likewise comprised of a mix of a bird and another beast, but instead of an eagle and a lion, the water griffon is the hybrid of a pelican and a sea lion. The water griffon's throat pouch is large enough to allow it to carry smaller creatures inside: either as a means of transportation or a means to swallow prey.
Image credit: KaneshaCBryant on twitter.
Water Griffon
Large elemental, neutral
Armor Class 14 (natural armor)
Hit Points 93 (11d10 + 33)
Speed 25 ft., fly 30 ft., swim 80 ft.,
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA 19 (+4) 15 (+2) 17 (+3) 6 (-2) 14 (+2) 8 (-1)
Skills Perception +4
Damage Resistances acid, cold; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical attacks
Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 14
Languages understands Aquan but can't speak
Challenge 4 (1,100 XP)
Hold Breath. The griffon can hold its breath for 2 hours.
Keen Hearing and Sight. The griffon has advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on hearing or sight.
Pack Tactics. The griffon has advantage on an attack roll against a creature if at least one of the griffon’s allies is within 5 feet of the creature and the ally isn’t incapacitated.
Pelican Beak. The griffon can carry one Medium or smaller creature in its throat pouch.
Actions
Multiattack. The griffon makes two attacks: one with its beak and one with its claws. If the griffon is in water, it can substitute its claw attack for two water tendril attacks.
Beak. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 9 (1d10 + 4) piercing damage, and if the target is a Medium or smaller creature, it scooped into the pelican's throat pouch, becoming grappled (escape DC 14). Until this grapple ends, the creature is restrained.
Claws. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 6 (1d4 + 4) slashing damage.
Water Tendril. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 15 ft., one target. Hit: 8 (1d8 + 4) bludgeoning damage. The griffon must be at least partially submerged in water to use this action.
Swallow. The griffon attempts to swallow a creature in its throat pouch, forcing the creature to make a DC 14 Strength saving throw or take 7 (1d6 + 4) bludgeoning damage be swallowed. The swallowed target is blinded and restrained, it has total cover against attacks and other effects outside the griffon, and it takes 7 (2d6) acid damage at the start of each of the griffon's turns. The griffon can have only one target swallowed at a time. If the griffon dies, a swallowed creature is no longer restrained by it and can escape from the corpse using 5 feet of movement, exiting prone.
Water Blast (Recharge 6). The griffon unleashes a 5-foot wide, 30-foot long line of forceful water. Each creature in the area must succeed on a DC 14 Dexterity saving throw or take 14 (4d6) bludgeoning damage and be knocked prone.
A creature currently swallowed by the griffon is expelled, landing up to 15 feet away from griffon, within the area of the water blast. If this creature collides with an object or another creature, it and the expelled creature both take 10 (3d6) bludgeoning damage.
Image source: Aliens wikia.
Xenomorph
Suggested by a number of folks over on the IADnDMN discord server, based on the titular aliens from the Aliens franchise.
The creatures known only as "xenomorphs" are as alien as they are terrifying, and as terrifying as they are deadly. These incredibly strong and agile creatures use stealth and darkness to stalk their prey before pouncing from potentially great distances. Once it attacks, the xenomorph rends flesh with its diamond-hard claws and tail, finishing the prey off with an immensely powerful bite from a second, smaller set of jaws mounted at the tip of an extremely powerful tongue muscle set further back in the xenomorph's jaw.
It's said that the bite from this almost pneumatically-powered attack tongue can even puncture through a solid plate of adamantine armor.
Even if one does manage to injure this apex predator, they are rewarded with a spray from the creature's corrosive blood, which eats away at weapons and armor just as well as it eats away at flesh and bone.
Xenomorph
Medium aberration, unaligned
Armor Class 18 (natural armor)
Hit Points 65 (10d8 + 20)
Speed 50 ft., climb 40 ft.
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA 18 (+4) 19 (+4) 15 (+2) 4 (-3) 13 (+1) 10 (+0)
Saving Throws Dex +7, Con +5
Skills Perception +4, Stealth +10
Damage Resistances poison
Damage Immunities acid
Condition Immunities blinded, frightened, poisoned
Senses blindsight 60 ft., passive Perception 14
Languages —
Challenge 7 (2,900 XP)
Ambusher. The xenomorph has advantage on attack rolls against any creature it has surprised.
Corrosive Blood. A creature that touches the xenomorph when it doesn't have all its hit points, or hits it with a melee attack while within 5 feet of it takes 9 (2d8) acid damage. Any nonmagical weapon made of metal or wood that hits the xenomorph corrodes. After dealing damage, the weapon takes a permanent and cumulative −1 penalty to damage rolls. If its penalty drops to −5, the weapon is destroyed.
Nonmagical ammunition made of metal or wood that hits the xenomorph is destroyed after dealing damage.
The xenomorph's blood can eat through 2-inch-thick, nonmagical wood or metal in 1 round, if it suffers 10 or more damage in a single turn.Infiltration. The xenomorph is not slowed while squeezing through narrow spaces.
Keen Hearing and Smell. The xenomorph has advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on hearing or smell.
Spider Climb. The xenomorph can climb difficult surfaces, including upside down on ceilings, without needing to make an ability check.
Volatile. If the xenomorph suffers fire damage that reduces it to 0 hit points, it explodes, forcing each creature within 10 feet of it to make a DC 13 Dexterity saving throw, taking 7 (2d6) acid damage and 7 (2d6) fire damage on a failed save, or half as much on a successful one.
Actions
Multiattack. The xenomorph makes four attacks: one with its attack tongue, one with its tail, and two with its claws.
Attack Tongue. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 11 (2d6 + 4) piercing damage.
Claws. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 8 (1d8 + 4) slashing damage.
Spiked Tail. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 10 (1d12 + 4) slashing damage.
Acid Spit. Ranged Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, range 60 ft., one target. Hit: 9 (2d8) acid damage, and the target takes an additional 9 (2d8) acid damage at the end of its next turn, unless it spends its action to clean off the acid. On a critical hit, the target is also blinded until it regains hit points.
Graboid
Suggested by... myself? I dunno, it came up in a discussion on the discord server, and I wrote it in as a suggestion myself. So it was really a group effort. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
The purple worm is a legendary creature feared by all who have heard of it—which is just about everyone on the prime material. By comparison, the graboid is relatively obscure and nowhere near as infamous.
However, when a purple worm attacks it's a relatively quick affair: it bursts from the earth, swallows what it wants, then retreats and burrows away. Often times, the attack is over before the survivors really know what has occurred.
This is not the case with the graboid.
For those few who have survived an encounter with this ancient beast, their dreams are haunted ever more by the visceral screams of agony let out by the prey captured by a graboid's three prehensile, many-toothed tongues before being slowly reeled into the razor sharp beak of the massive worm.
If that weren't enough, a single hungry graboid will usually feast on three or four humanoids at a time before being sated. And the time between its strikes are fraught with terror as the beast's tremors can be felt all around as it moves beneath the earth, occasionally probing the surface with its horrible snaking tongues, sensing for where to breach next.
Image source: MonstersVault.com.
Graboid
Huge beast, unaligned
Armor Class 10 (natural armor)
Hit Points 225 (18d12 + 108)
Speed 5 ft., burrow 90 ft.
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA 25 (+7) 6 (-2) 22 (+6) 3 (-4) 10 (+0) 4 (-3)
Saving Throws Str +11, Con +10, Wis +4
Skills Athletics +11, Perception +4
Damage Resistances poison
Condition Immunities blinded
Senses tremorsense 300 ft. (blind beyond this radius), passive Perception 14
Languages —
Challenge 9 (5,000 XP)
Ambusher. The graboid has advantage on attack rolls against any creature it has surprised.
Charge. If the graboid moves at least 20 feet straight toward a target and then hits it with a ram attack on the same turn, the target takes an extra 14 (4d6) bludgeoning damage. If the target is a creature, it must succeed on a DC 19 Strength saving throw or be knocked prone.
Grasping Tongues. The graboid has three tongues. Each tongue can be attacked while the graboid is grappling a creature (AC 18; 15 hit points; resistance to bludgeoning damage; immunity to poison and psychic damage). Destroying a tongue deals 7 (2d6) piercing damage to the graboid.
Monstrous Fortitude. If damage reduces the the graboid to 0 hit points, it must make a Constitution saving throw with a DC of 5 + the damage taken, unless the damage is from a critical hit. On a success, the the graboid drops to 1 hit point instead.
Actions
Multiattack. The graboid makes one grasping tongue attack for each of its remaining tongues. Alternatively, it uses its reel action, then makes a bite attack.
Ram. Melee Weapon Attack: +11 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 21 (4d6 + 7) bludgeoning damage.
Bite. Melee/Ranged Weapon Attack: +11 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 33 (4d12 + 7) piercing damage. If the target is a Large or smaller creature, it must succeed on a DC 17 Dexterity saving throw or be swallowed by the graboid. A swallowed creature is blinded and restrained, it has total cover against attacks and other effects outside the graboid, and it takes 14 (4d6) acid damage at the start of each of the graboid's turns.
If the graboid takes 20 damage or more on a single turn from a creature inside it, the graboid must succeed on a DC 16 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 graboid. If the graboid dies, a swallowed creature is no longer restrained by it and can escape from the corpse by using 10 feet of movement, exiting prone.Grasping Tongue. Melee Weapon Attack: +11 to hit, reach 15 ft., one target. Hit: 9 (1d4 + 7) piercing damage, and the target is grappled (escape DC 17).
Reel. The graboid pulls each creature grappled by it up to 10 feet straight toward it.