Tag: creatures

March 11, 2008

Ramblings on monster diversity, combat, and Oblivion…

A lot of people love monsters. Personally, I like reading bestiaries for fun. I can sit down with a Monster Manual, Fiend Folio, or Creature Catalog and read it cover to cover. I think Angela has MMI-MMV and has made noises about acquiring others. Do we really need that many monsters, though? If so, why? I’m pretty sure it isn’t...

January 28, 2008

Smash!

This is part one of a follow-up to my last post. I’ve been thinking more about size and its effect upon combat in d20. I’ve come to a couple of preliminary conclusions. Primary among these is that the scaling of everything relative to “Medium” size and the 5′ square is a source of many problems. Here’s a simple fix that...

December 7, 2007

Creepy-crawlies that want to suck your brains out through your eyes…

At lunch today, I was thinking about this creature. I came up with a few quick sketches, more details on its life-cycle, and some notes toward some write-ups. I still don’t have a name. I’m pretty sure mindspider is taken. Any ideas?

December 6, 2007

Why aren’t humans weird?

About a month ago, Jeff wrote this nifty post describing religion in a home-brew campaign world he’s creating. In it, he describes how religion is a distinctly human activity and other races find it kind of creepy. Personally, I think the idea would work without his cosmology… even letting other races believe in the existence of gods without worship or...

November 5, 2007

Ticking goblins

What differentiates goblins from other creepy little monsters? I think there are a number of possible answers for this. I’m just going to focus on what makes goblins tick for me. To me, what makes goblins special is their adaptability. I see goblins as highly mutable. Hobgoblins and bugbears are, in my world, essentially mutant strains of goblins. The adaptability...

October 12, 2007

A new low?

I never expected to link to Something Awful… but today’s Photoshop Phriday is all D&D monsters… starting off with an owlbear.

October 11, 2007

Weird monsters

You thought the Fiend Folio was weird? Welcome to Japan. Check out the Obakemono Project. (they also have a great resource page…)

October 8, 2007

The Owlbear, Revisited

The Owlbear is a classic D&D monster: a goofy hybrid of owl and bear. Its origin is similarly goofy; along with the bullette and rust monster, it was one of the creatures that was based on some plastic toys that Gygax and friends used as miniatures. Growing up, I had a plastic rust monster and bullette, but I don’t remember...

September 5, 2007

Meat Elemental

Archmage Elmer researches led to the discovery of the Elemental Plane of Meat. He has been known to employ the grotesque Meat Elementals as warriors and, occasionally, as servants. The material enclosed in the box below is released via the Open Game License. Meat Elemental Meat Elemental, Small Size/Type: Small Elemental (Meat, Extraplanar) Hit Dice: 2d8+2 (11 hp) Initiative: +0...

August 16, 2007

Things coming together…

I have internet at home. This is a good thing. In celebration, I will share with you a happy beholder:(pen and pencil doodle created during an rpg session, colored quickly in Photoshop.)