#Dungeons and dragons homebrew monsters how to#

How big is your monster? WhatвЂ™sВ its type? WhatвЂ™sВ its alignment? Keep in mind a creatureвЂ™s size affects its hit points (more on that later) and creatures, unlike player characters, can be unaligned. Blood marmalades claim agony and fear make their prey more delicious. They delight in torturing their victims (by appearing as loved ones the ooze devoured if possible) before consuming them. Because all blood marmalades are descended from the original that consumed Maroc the Rotten, all have a touch of the wizardвЂ™s madness and malevolence. They use the visage of their former victims as disguises to lure new meals into their homes and travel among the living to enact their plans. Blood marmalades can take on the appearance of any humanoid creature they consumed. Any intelligent or fleshy organisms near blood marmalades do not last long, but the odd monsters keep mindless oozes as guards. They set elaborate traps for humanoids, particularly wizards, and try to draw sapient creatures into their lairs with tempting offers of treasure and lost tomes. Their hunger for flesh is only exceeded by their hunger to know more than any other creature in the world. Blood marmalades are intelligent oozes that gain the memories and knowledge of any creature they devour. The first blood marmalade traveled out into the Underdark, seeking more victims before it multiplied.Дevourers of Knowledge. His creation, a sanguine goop that preferred to take the vague shape of a humanoid, reasoned its way out of captivity and devoured the mage. His experiments resulted in the former, which meant Maroc never achieved the latter.

Thousands of years ago, a mad drow wizard named Maroc the Rotten became obsessed with creating a new ooze that could reason and carryout orders. HereвЂ™s what I wrote for the blood marmalade: In addition, youвЂ™ll want to include a little information on your monsterвЂ™s physiology if they donвЂ™t require food, water, or sleep. Start each new story aspect section with a bold and italic phrase that sums up that detail of your monster, so a DM skimming the passage can say, вЂњAh yes! I remember that the blood marmalade is an intelligent ooze that devours knowledge!вЂќ Each aspect of your monster should include a good story hook that helps GMs work the monster into their stories. Subsequent paragraphs should dive deep into specific story aspects of your monster. This paragraph describes where the monster lives, what the monster looks like, and how they fit into the larger world. Open with a paragraph that gives a general overview of the monster. Let your imagination run wild! What makes your creature different from all others.

#Dungeons and dragons homebrew monsters how to#

Damage resistances, immunities, and vulnerabilitiesДЇor this article, I wanted to show you how to create every aspect of a monster and build an expected terror for my players, so I settled on using a legendary ooze I named the blood marmalade as an example.All monsters have the following components you need to design: IвЂ™ll expand on whatвЂ™s provided and the steps in my process will vary a bit to give an even more in-depth look. The Dungeon MasterвЂ™s Guide provides guidelines for monster creation, which are great. If the monster youвЂ™re considering designing doesnвЂ™t already exist and canвЂ™t be built by tweaking an existing creature, itвЂ™s time to design your own. Can I reskin or tweak another creation to suit my needs?.

Does my creation already exist as official D&D content?.Before You Start, Ask the Important QuestionsД«efore you begin to design any new element of the game, donвЂ™t forget to ask these three questions, the importance of which are discussed in my backgrounds post: ThatвЂ™s why IвЂ™m going to walk you through the process of monster design step-by-step. Building new creature from scratch is a complicated task. IвЂ™m here to help you bring that fear to your players. Veteran players quake when a new monster hits the table, because a fresh creation brings an extra element of terror on top of claws and jaws: fear of the unknown. Players know what to expect when encountering them. While trolls, beholders, mind flayers, and ancient red dragons are great, those monsters have been around for decades. ThereвЂ™s nothing more satisfying than dropping an original monster on an unsuspecting group of players. If you want advice on how to build a background specifically in D&D Beyond, check out that version of the article. IвЂ™ve stripped most of the references to the D&D Beyond to keep the advice here more universal and streamlined. This article first appeared on D&D Beyond. Hey guess what? You can preorder my level 1 вЂ“ 20 fifth edition adventureВ right now!