As we kobolds are fond of joking: “Dragon!!!” But seriously, mithral? Where’s the candy floss dragon? Like staying alive isn’t hard enough already. The mithral dragon spits metal shards. That’s how badass [and completely metal \m/] they are. This  shiny partykiller was originally designed by Mike McArtor and updated to 5E for the Tome of Beasts by Chris Harris with art […]
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We kobolds have a saying: “When a giant’s in the mines, workday’s over.” The flab giant is not someone you want to stop and ask directions from. It only wants you for one out of a handful of possible reasons… and none of them are good. This walking mountain was originally designed by Ryan Costello, Jr. and updated to
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This installment is about deconstructing dragons. The Monster Manual contains 20 chromatic dragons, 20 metallic dragons, 1 shadow dragon, and 1 undead dragon. The Tome of Monsters and the Southlands Bestiary introduce several more. With all those stat blocks spread over three books, you’d expect to find plenty of variety—and you’d be right. But even
Howling Tower: Monster Stats, Part 5 Read More »
This installment, you get a break from graphs and formulas—though not entirely. In honor of Thanksgiving, I had to include some pie charts. Instead of plotting trends, however, this time we count how often certain concepts occur throughout the Monster Manual, to help you get a handle on whether they’re common, uncommon, or rare. Before
Howling Tower: Monster Stats, Part 4 Read More »
In part 1 and part 2 of this series, we looked at ability scores and hit points. In this installment, we look at damage output for official fifth edition monsters. First, a note about how I calculated damage output (average damage per round, or DPR). This topic is covered in a good amount of detail
Howling Tower: Monster Stats, Part 3 Read More »
Come venture into dark and spooky areas with us as we approach one of the best times of the year: Halloween! We will share with you several weresheep over the next few days so that you may introduce them, in turn, to your adventuring group, who might end up a bit…sheepish if they fail to
Goref Tamerk, Weresheep of Famine Read More »
Come venture into dark and spooky areas with us as we approach one of the best times of the year: Halloween! We will share with you several weresheep over the next few days so that you may introduce them, in turn, to your adventuring group, who might end up a bit…sheepish if they fail to
Gromek Palebones, Weresheep of Death Read More »
Come venture into dark and spooky areas with us as we approach one of the best times of the year: Halloween! We will share with you several weresheep over the next few days so that you may introduce them, in turn, to your adventuring group, who might end up a bit…sheepish if they fail to
Lord Silas Nareshorn, Weresheep of Pestilence Read More »
We’ve been very pleased with the positive reaction to the Tome of Beasts previews, even—maybe even especially—when readers point out places where we’ve added numbers incorrectly or overlooked a modifier. In a few cases, however, readers have called out features as errors that we don’t consider errors at all. Instead, they’re cases where our philosophy
Monster Philosophy Read More »
In Part 1, we looked at ability scores and established a few useful rules for assigning them to monsters of your own design. In this part, we look at Hit Dice and hit points as they relate to challenge rating and extract a few lessons about monster defenses.
Howling Tower: Monster Stats, Part 2 Read More »
In the year since fifth edition came out, I’ve spent an inordinate amount of time deconstructing its monsters and putting them back together again. The lessons I’ve learned have been invaluable when developing new creatures for third-party monster collections such as Fifth Edition Foes from Necromancer Games and Southlands Bestiary and Tome of Beasts from
Howling Tower: Monster Stats Read More »
The imposing presence of this lion whose body is crisscrossed by scars is quite unsettling. Man-Eater Lion CR 5    XP 1,600    N Large Animal    Init +7; Senses darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision, scent; Perception +13 Aura frightful presence (30 ft., DC 12)
Monster Monday: Man-Eater Read More »
The mahamba is a freshwater cousin of the mosasaur, a large prehistoric marine reptile. The mahamba can reach a length of 50 feet. The aboriginals simply call it Nkoli and sometimes compare this terror to the nguna-monene, a sizeable lizard-like monster, even if the creatures are quite different. Although overly voracious, this cunning aquatic monstrosity
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The Impundulu, more commonly known as a lightning bird, is an avian with an insatiable thirst for blood, and many witches do not hesitate to offer a small amount of their lifeblood to control one. The lightning bird’s fat possesses incredible properties. A spellcaster can substitute the material components and focus of any spell having
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As soon as this yellow-bellied sea snake emerges from the river, it releases an ear-splitting yell. Ilomba    CR 5 XP 1,600 Any evil alignment (same as proprietor) Medium Construct    Init +6; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; low-light vision, scent; Perception +13 Defense    AC 15, touch 12, flat-footed 13 (+2 Dex, +3 natural)   Â
Monster Monday: Ilomba Read More »
An amazingly beautiful woman with flowing dark hair leisurely walks knee-deep in the river’s muddy waters wearing a diaphanous dress that reveals her slender form. Her body is nearly transparent underneath. An el naddaha is the daughter born from the rare union between a nereid and a janni. Although such offspring retains many characteristics of
Monster Monday: El Naddaha Read More »
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