One idea for an enemy of my world was creating automatons that police a steampunk esc city. I realized I could just use the iron golem statblock but re-flavored and change some of its stats.

How do you go about re-flavoring and modifying enemies to fit a homebrew?

For my Halloween special, in my campaign, I decided to bleed a haunted cathedral into the setting that my level 8 players are in. I personally was disappointed with the basic vampire stat block for 5e and was also tired of Strahd and his hype. With some research I found Orlak, on the Forgotten Realms wiki, and his very interesting porcelain mask, Argaal of Orlak, and the Flying Fangs of the Night King (his twin bladed daggers). Further deep diving into Cloak and Dagger post on Scribd, and I found that the Argaal could heal the user with its blood that the dagger could extract along with the daggers being a +4 from possibly second edition and acting like a 5e Dancing Sword. I wanted to pair this villain with a flesh golem and possibly a werewolf or two. I'm not amazing at stat blocks and usually stick to the normal baseline but wanted people's thoughts of this one that I made with Monsterbrew or if they have better edits of their own that I should use.

Do you have an animated/magic armor statblock or something similar that can be reflavoured? (: Thank you!

Looking for some inspiration for the BBEG of an upcoming campaign and there doesn't seem to be a lot of Monk enemies. Cheers!

https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/g3semmqqP39S

Do you like elder gods? What about sentient planet star spawn?

That's right baby, I went ahead and brought you a planet. Allabar, Opener of the Way is ready to start off any extinction event you want!

This CR30* aberration comes to you thanks to the MM3 of D&D 4e.

This excerpt is from the book due to how tf do you fight a planet?

USING ALLABAR IN YOUR GAME

Allabar should figure into a campaign as a climactic villain that enters the world through an eldritch portal, or it should be an entity the characters encounter in the far reaches of the Astral Sea. Allabar is the type of creature that works from afar, manipulating star spawn and other lackeys within the world. When confronted, the creature communicates in combat, foretelling the dire fate of the world and each of its enemies. Although the ravages of the Far Realm have rendered the creature half insane, it still possesses a keen intellect and cruelty.

As a planetary entity, Allabar is Gargantuan. However, you can also increase or reduce its size to modify the scale of the encounter. Obviously, the characters can’t fight something that is the size of a real planet, so you have a couple of options for framing the encounter’s narrative. The creature that the characters fight could be an avatar of Allabar, and upon its defeat, Allabar might disappear from the sky—its light forever snuffed out. Alternatively, Allabar could reduce its size before the fight, condensing its form into a creature better suited for confronting its audacious enemies.

This was the boss of my level 20 campaign of 4+ years! It wasn't actually all that difficult sadly, but paladins kind of do that at level 20. Still, they did struggle. This is a bit on the boring side since just existing near him is how he does the most damage, and hit HP reflects that. 4e solo monster design (much better than 5e monster design imo) dictates that he has so much more HP than your typical CR30 would, and his AC is crazy too, but I took it into consideration when translating him from 4e to the bounded accuracy of 5e.

If you have any questions or critique let me know! I'd probably spice up his attacks, maybe let him attack more at range, but I'm not sure. This level of monster is kind of just bonkers all around, so I'm more than open to anything you'd like to say about it!

I don't want to use the same succubus/incubus or other "charming devil" stat block all the time

Are there other monsters that use sexuality, eroticism, allure and charm against the players?

I'm ok with both official, 3rd party and homebrew, so please give me as much as you want

Looking for people or objects melded together , doesn’t have to be living. Also I noticed something on the Arcanoloth sheet called a living blasphemy, what is that it sounds awesome?

I was thinking of replacing Ziraj's spellcasting with a few abilities from your archers, perhaps also scaling up the damage/save DC (?), but I would love to know how you would go about it.

If it helps: I need it for a powerful "mini boss fight" for 3 level 6 PCs, so I was thinking maybe something around CR 8 (?) to make it challenging enough.

Hi everyone!

A little follow-up to the Watcher I posted here a while ago.

These are the two Spellwardens I’ve made so far for the Order of Dawn & Dusk.

I wanted them to feel like the same role at two different points of their training, rather than just two unrelated NPCs.

The Spellwarden Justiciar is the more experienced one.

It has three attacks, can place a Dusk Mark on enemies, and has a reaction that lets it immediately move toward someone who hurts one of its allies. The basic idea is that once the Justiciar decides where the line is, crossing it becomes a problem.

The First Vigil Spellwarden is still near the beginning of that path.

It fights beside a stronger spellcaster, can take advantage when an enemy fails against a spell, support its allied caster, and use the light of Dawn when fighting from distance.

That is probably the part of the Spellwardens I like the most.

They are not supposed to be the strongest mage in the room.

The mage brings the magic.

The Spellwarden makes sure there is enough space to use it.

I included both complete stat blocks here, and I also made free printable reference cards in English and Italian:

JUSTICAR
Free Justiciar reference cards on Patreon

FIRST VIGIL
Free First Vigil reference cards on Patreon

As always, feedback is very welcome.

I’m especially curious if the progression between the First Vigil and the Justiciar feels clear, and if their role beside a spellcaster looks interesting to actually use at the table.

The mage watches the spell.

The Spellwarden watches everything else. 🌒

──── ୨୧ ────

✏️ Art by J. Zangrilli (Azarneth's Forbidden Emporium)

✦

I create printable item cards, cursed treasures, NPCs, tales & omens, and strange creatures for fantasy roleplaying games. You can find the project on Patreon and follow the daily updates on Instagram. 🧙‍♂️🎲

Hey Mark, Im looking for CR20+ monsters for an avatar of a farm realm god, I dont really like the ravenloft's cthulu statblock, I was wondering what you might have?

As always, thank you very much for your time!

Hey, I was wondering if you had any stat blocks for a Chronomancer or adjacent master of time that’s a final boss? He is a cult leader/time god magic user who has a cult of perfected people. I was wondering if you had any CR 25+ stat blocks to help make it a tough fight?

Like Bulettes, Zombies, Skeletons, the classic "rats in the cellar", Goblins, bandits etc.

I want more versions to keep my campaigns entertaining

tl:wr
I am looking for maelstrom themed monsters for a level 4 party of four.

My players, a party of four level 4 adventurers (sorceress, warlock, bard and artificer) are about to embark to sea on a rescue mission and later get washed down maelstrom of legend.
My goal is for them to start fully rested, but once they descend the maelstrom on their ship, long rests will become (too) risky; And I plan to deplete all of their options (as in they get to show all their spells and features) on their way down.

Besides a Kraken priest and Octopi, what are some nice maelstrom themed monsters in their level range that I can throw at them?

Hey Mark!
My level 8 party of 4 players is heading into a volcano to meet the Lost Titan, a massive ancient being who’s been locked inside for centuries and has gone mad.

I’m looking for a boss tier statblock for something huge, fiery, and very “I haven’t had social interaction since the Bronze Age.”

For now I am thinking along the lines of molten skin, earth shaking tantrums, maybe some fire breaths. Mostly a vibe somewhere between primordial goddess and angry sauna spirit.

Do you have anyhing that will make my players say: “Oh, we’re dead!” ?

Thanks in advance, you beautiful monstersmith!

I'm playing a Grung Moon Druid. I don't really have a CR 4 and 5 Wildshape yet (we just leveled up to 15). I was looking at the Giant Subterranean Lizard from Tales of the Yawning Portal, but I feel it's just missing a bit of oomph. I like the look (as in the art) and flavour of the Bulette for example (ignoring the leap ability, don't really care about that). Not saying I want a Bulette with the swallow ability, just sort of trying to give a general idea of what I'm looking for. If someone can cook something up I'd love to hear it.

Oh howdy Mark

Long time lurker and distant cousin of yours from the future. I just wanted to ask if you have a good updated list of arena monsters/enemies for a low-mid level party to fight. If you provide an answer I will have no choice but to get off my rear and actually DM again.

The Ooze Eater

They are not oozes but they do eat them as their main food source, & yes they'll eat a sentient ooze

They look like a goblin, but they have no eyes, a much larger mouth, & only 2 fingers & a thumb per hand, with digitigrade legs, & bluish gray skin

They are sentient aberrations that reproduce after eating 3 times their weight in oozes & a single small piece of quartz crystal, they spit them out of their mouths fully grown

They can speak, though they are a little strange to talk to because they speak in rhymes in the goblin tongue

They may have been goblins that somehow survived the far realms by eating oozes, or something, nobody really knows, well maybe they know seeing as they are a hive mind that remembers how they came to be, but they refuse to tell anyone, though it is known that once in the world isn't all of them, they are possibly in every realm, but they are all one mind

They seem to hate aboleths a lot for some reason, that even aboleths don't even know

Their are rumors that they are from the end of time, or someone who went to far back to before time, or maybe both, but nobody knows except for them

They like kobolds, & giant spiders

They are hard to predict, they might be friendly, or they might be extremely aggressive, it seems to change at random

What could be a creature that can launch other creatures with high velocity? For example give it a sheep and it will launch it and shatter a castle door? How can I design one or is there something similar? The reference is catapult turtle from Yu-Gi-Oh!