the spectral dead

D&D has numerous varieties of ghosts. I am going to treat them as variations of the same thing. What all spectral dead have in common is that they fly, move through solid objects and are resistant to physical attacks. One idea I saw elsewhere was that there is a distinction between the spectral dead and the ghostly dead: the former is visible and consumes energy with its energy drain attacks, while the later is generally invisible and generates its own power. Pathfinder 2e introduces the generic shorthand term “shade” to refer to all spectral/incorporeal dead. Shades would include: Shadow, specter, poltergeist, will-o-wisp, banshee, ghost, wraith, allip, etc.

My trolls are different?

Scandinavian mythology has a diverse array of creatures all referred to as trolls, ranging from dwarves to giants. D&D, on the other hand, has a single variety of troll whose shtick is that they are nearly impossible to kill without fire (they were copied wholesale from a single troll encounter in Poul Anderson's Three Hearts and Three Lions, which was presumably intended to be a unique individual rather than a race).  I decided to bring the mythological diversity into the game and expand the variety of trolls, using Trudvang Chronicles as a guide.

Ecology of plague doctors

Monsters of Porphyra 3 introduced plague doctors as a monster. It explains them as appearing to be benevolent doctors treating victims of plague epidemics, but they are secretly undead creatures which spread the plague as a pretense to euthanizing their patients. Plague doctors have a long history in real life.

lurking cephalopods

Lurking cephalopods are camouflaged ambush predators that seemingly originate from the Shadowfell. They include the darkmantle, decapus, tentamort, and sand kraken. Other fanciful nomenclature includes “tree octopus” and “land squid.”

Monster intelligence, part 2: undead

For my second post on intelligence scores, I decided to look at undead. Undead have changed dramatically in 5e compared to 3e (for whatever reason nobody remembers 4e). They are no longer mindless or lacking constitution scores, at least in the 3e sense of the terms. This is because 5e takes cues from 2e and earlier, but I digress...

Fantastical animals are not literally patchwork hybrids

I have already said my piece about the illogical and inconsistent treatment of fictional animals in fantasy gaming and the lack of consistent criteria for determining what constitutes a beast or monstrosity. In this post, I will explain the place of real and fictional animals (or beasts in the D&D rules) within my cosmology.

the Duckbunny

While typically derided as the class experiment of apprentice wizards, I would posit that duckbunnies are in fact a naturally occurring animal related to the platypus.

• http://www.terminally-incoherent.com/blog/2008/07/30/stupid-monsters-of-dd/
• http://www.terminally-incoherent.com/blog/2014/03/31/bizarre-bestiary-the-dreaded-duckbunny/
• http://dungeonsandduckbunnies.blogspot.com/2015/03/duckbunny.html

Terminology: living dungeons

Living dungeons, also known as mythic underworlds, are an explanation for dungeons. While many dungeons operate on the conceit that they have an explanation and ecology based on real world science (or some such), living dungeons are entirely fantastical entities that do not require a mundane origin or a functional ecology.

Ecology of the Rust Monster

The "rust monster" is a misnomer. Rusting refers specifically to the corroding of iron; tarnishing refers to corrosion of other metals. Since the rust monster corrodes all metals, it would be more accurate to call it the corrosion monster or oxidation beast. Of course, maybe that name does not roll off the tongue as well.

Most people do not have a detailed understanding of corrosion. At its simplest, corrosion is basically fusing metal with another substance (like oxygen) and making it impure. Rust is the same thing as ore. The smelting process involves melting the ore or rust and adding a reducing agent (like carbon) to separate and bond the non-metal.

The rust monster is a ceramic organism similar to the crysmal. It is characterized by its unique feeding process, which corrodes metal by contact with its antennae. This antennae are, in fact, an extension of the digestive tract. Contrary to popular belief, the rust monster does not ingest rust but produces it as a waste product. As all digestion occurs outside the body, the rust monster produces no spoor.

The rust monster prefers iron, which is abundant and readily corroded. It dislikes noble metals like gold, silver and platinum due to their resistance to corrosion. The tarnish monster is a subspecies that, by contrast, prefers lustrous metals and dislikes more abundant metals.

In the ecology of the underworld, rust monsters are equivalent to herbivores and preyed upon by ceramic predators.


Relevant links

• http://luduscarcerum.blogspot.com/2017/06/rust-monster-ecology.html
• http://daegames.blogspot.com/2009/06/review-ecology-of-rust-monster.html
• http://eco-mon.obsidianportal.com/adventure-log/rust-monster-ecology
• https://pathfinderwiki.com/wiki/Rust_monster#Ecology
• https://www.reddit.com/r/DnDBehindTheScreen/comments/3hc2c5/rust_monster/
• http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?271211-Ecology-of-the-Rust-Monster-Re-imagined-3-5-monsters
• https://d-infinity.net/game-content/tarnish-monster-nuisance-monster-pathfinder

Ecology of the (Lernaean) Hydra

In mythology, the hydra was a unique monster that terrorized Lerna. In fantasy gaming the hydra has been expanded into an entire species, one that is typically depicted as a naturally occurring animal with a place in the local ecology (which I find highly questionable). I was elated to discover that Rolang proposed a compromise between the two views: every hydra grew from the severed head of another hydra, going back to the original Hydra still living on Lerna.

Terminology: spontaneous generation

Spontaneous generation is an obsolete scientific theory dating back thousands of years. Ancient peoples believed that animals arose spontaneously from inanimate substances. For example: fleas from dust, maggots from raw meat, mice from grain, etc.

In my fantasy physics, this is true. Animals, fantastical animals, monsters and even people spontaneous generate all the time. They either find their niche or die off. (This also makes it easy to adjudicate dungeons without worrying whether they have a sensible ecology.) There is also lots of other ideas beyond that, so check out the links below the break!

"Legendary" monsters are just video game bosses

Legendary monsters, like the epic/divine/mythic rules, are a mechanic that sounds neat in theory but proves less than interesting in practice.