Multi-headed and -limbed giants

D&D has a bizarre fixation with making every possible anatomical configuration of giants into a distinct race. For example, every two-headed giant is an "ettin," every three-armed giant is an "athach," every three-headed three-armed three-legged giant is an "ubue," every two-headed cyclops is a "biclops," every two-headed troll is a "two-headed troll" (at this point the writer gave up on trying to devise a new name, what a surprise!), etc.

This became so pervasive that Octavirate Presents: Lethal Lexicon Vol 1 parodies the two-headed cyclops by introducing its own "biclops": a cyclops with two eyes, oriented vertically, that give it better depth perception.

Retyping monstrosities

The inconsistent world building and rules in D&D drives me insane. I finally sat down and took a look at the fifty monstrosities in the MM and changed their type to something that is not literally a miscellaneous category. I included a commentary explaining my decision and, where applicable, the monsters' type in 4e D&D.

Magic and technology, or why I dislike Starfinder

Starfinder is a spin-off of Pathfinder which takes place in outer space. As with typical modernist fantasy, like its predecessor Dragonstar, it treats magic and technology as separate. In Starfinder specially, the use of magic is on the decline as its role is being taken over by the convenience of technology.

I consider this convention, in a word, stupid.

Epic, mythic and divine rules suck!

The 5e PHB divides character levels into four tiers, based on what the heroes are expected to be saving. These are: save the farm/village (1-4), save the city/kingdom (5-10), save the region/continent (11-16), and save the world/universe (17-20). You may notice that this ignores systems like "epic," "divine" or "mythic." Those systems are stupid and I will give three reasons why below the break.

Exemplars of Law

Exemplars of Law have been published in numerous d20 books over the decades. What follows is a list, by no means exhaustive, of creatures that could populate your planes of law.


Legends & Lairs: Portals & Planes

• P&P Automations, Dreadnaught
• P&P Automations, Spiked Demolisher
• P&P Automation, Vemonhacter
• P&P Champion of Law

Creature Weekly

• CW1 Dreadgem
• CW3 Emu-lok Template

Classic Play: The Book of the Planes

• CotP Inevitable, Jarut
• Exilarches

SRD v3.5

• SRD Inevitable, Kolyarut
• SRD Inevitable, Zelekhut
• SRD Inevitable, Marut

Penumbra Fantasy Bestiary

• PenB Zenzoga

Blood & Treasure

• Polyhedroids

Blood & Treasure Monster Tome

• Geometrons
• Metal monsters

PRD Pathfinder Reference Document

• Axiomites
• Inevitables
• Kytons

Tome of Horrors Complete

• N'gathau

Dark Roads & Golden Hells

• Axioms
• Maxim

Secrets of the Planes: Planar Races

• Neirut

I noticed a number of Recurring Archetypes:

• The Axioms/Axiomites/exilarches/etc are formed from mathematical formulae
• The Automations/Inevitables/etc are constructed
• The polyhedroids/geometrons/metal monsters/etc are living dice
• The kytons/n'gathau are cyborg torturers and stuff
• The maxim and neirut are planetouched

Inverted beasts

I'm of the opinion that the various fictional animals like owlbears and griffins in D&D are not unnatural abominations created by a mad wizard's experiments, but entirely naturally occurring fantastical animals that are natural to the fantasy world. That said, the universe could easily have a sense of humor.

Hence, the bearowl, noffig/noffirg, leogryph/leogriff, and other inverted beasts.

The bearowl appears in Behind the Monsters: Owlbear by Fat Goblin Games and Octavirate Presents: Lethal Lexicon Vol 1 by Octavirate Games. It is best described as a reverse owlbear or leftover owlbear. Maybe whichever god was responsible for creating owlbears decided to recycle the leftover parts.

The noffig is a reverse or leftover griffon. It appears in Octavirate Presents: Lethal Lexicon Vol 2 by Octavirate Games.

I'd like to explore more inverted beasts in the future.

Oriental dragons

Past editions of D&D included loads and loads of new kinds of dragons. The world building was ad hoc, so there wasn’t too much logic involved. The default dragons were Western-style dragons, so later oriental dragons were added. (Oddly enough, the gold dragon was originally depicted as an oriental dragon.) Most of their folkloric roots were absent. The interesting thing about oriental dragons in mythology is that they are literally gods. For example, rain dragons cause the rain and so forth. This is really interesting to me so I want to integrate it into my own settings.

Links

• https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_dragon
• https://1d4chan.org/wiki/Oriental_Dragon
• https://www.scribd.com/document/317737017/The-Dragons-of-the-Orient-for-5th-Edition-d-d