Critically Misused: World Enders
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- Опубліковано 15 вер 2024
- Welcome to Critically Misused, where we discuss potentially misused aspects of Dungeons and Dragons fifth edition. This episode, we will be covering monsters that could potentially destroy your world through rapid reproduction.
Could my setting survive?
Spawn of Chios: trust me, enough wars against the undead have been fought that the world powers could work to eradicate them.
Slaad: maybe if they were whacked immediately, but otherwise they are gonna annihilate everyone. Will avoid.
Clockwork horrors: yep, everyone is toast.
Totally not bodysnachers: only one major faction has a direct response (an Inquisition for anti supernatural security) and they aren’t that good.
Gnolls: too many strong militaries for them to get traction without help, worst they can do is destroy towns and cause havoc.
Totally not tyranids: they would leave behind millions of corpses but they could be beaten.
Most of the worlds I've designed would have no chance against these guys, which is why I wanted to make this video in the first place. I agree that Clockwork Horrors are the most dangerous of the bunch
Also, the zombies are called Spawn of Kyuss, not Chios. I say this not to be anal-retentive but to inform you if you ever want to use them in your home game.
Thanks! I will respell
I mean it depends on the setting, level of technological weaponry, and how many magic-users there are. And trust me, when the Tyranids come, they *will* eat, and they *will* slaughter everyone. They are singlehandedly one of the scariest enemies in WH40K, because even 8 foot tall supersoldier armies with automatic cannons arre having a tough time...
Most of my worlds gods:
You dont belong here.
*Delete monster*
I want to point out that zombies in d&d never had "spread by the bite" abbility, so there was nothing to remove for "game balance". They're inspired by legends of "voodoo zombies", who are just undead servants. In fact, D&D predates modern zombie and all but the first Living Dead movies.
I knew that they never had the ability to spread via bite, but somehow I thought the video game zombies that could came first. Whoops. Sometimes I forgot that this game is more than twice as old as I am
Now ghouls on the other hand...
If you want zombies like in the movies. Use Ghouls. Intelligent, spread by bite, and crave living or rotting flesh.
@@AbyssallAberrant Ravenloft had Hungry Zombies that did spread, but, like you said, we have ghouls; giving the abilities to zombies was unneeded.
@@thegayerest I'm pretty tired of the modern infectious zombies, too many games use them now. What I would like to see is the return of the advanced zombies from older editions. Nothing like having the party walk into "just another zombie bash" only to find out that they're facing "Ju Ju" zombies that the necromancer put extra work into so they still have their skills as the fighters they were in life.
Adventurers: “you are destroying our world and mining all our resources, what do you have to say for yourselves?”
Clockwork Horrors: “so we back in the mines, got our pickaxe swinging from side to side…”
I burst out laughing. Thank you!
The undead shadow always struck me as a pretty world-ending monster. With their feeding on Strength scores and super-fast spawning rate, they could probably overtake a whole world pretty quickly.
Don't forget they're incorporeal so most creatures can't even attack them (at least in older editions)
Remember trying to run a homebrew setting where ancient experimentation had basically burned the weave of magic and rendered the whole place a desert. Well the ghosts of the past were something else entirely.
What they amounted to were people thrown out of time and left to idly wander, often manifesting locally as ball lightning or as shadow humanoids. Sure you could dispel them forcibly, but that didn’t end their displacement and anyone killed would get displaced from time as well.
Your setting reminds me heavily of Dark Sun. I think you should check it out
Husk zombies are also complete world enders
Yes they are only cr1, but they spread so incredibly fast.Speed 35 feet, extra attacks for every kill and a turning time of 6 seconds after death.
And they can't not one hit IF they hit a commoner. Wich they will 80 percent of the time.
The spawn of Kyuss is WAY tougher, but after the ten minutes required to turn someone into a spawn, the husk zombie already ended the village wich is in it's entirety now roaming the map looking for more to kill running at 117% human speed and spreading.
And honestly one of them is enough to end a village, they just cascade so damn quickly.
I'm not sure if Matt knew what he created with the husk zombies, but they are truly nightmares.
I love Matt Mercer like I love good Italian food and I genuinely think he has some of the best ideas out there, but sometimes it seems like he'd struggle to balance a cinder block on another cinder block
@@thegayerest True the Husk is easily the scariest thing in the book. They seem limited in area so the curse may not work everywhere or have other restrictions because otherwise they are absolute undead nuclear bombs. Smuggle a few into a city, wait for some festival, distract the guards and unleash them on the crowd. Heck of a session for lvl 5 or so PCs as they deal with a unstopabble horde of undead and form pockets of resistance. One zombie escapes and walks into a home and in 1 minute an entire family walks out.
Add some variants to the zombie so there is variety in the fights and you have a great short adventure, survive.
@@thegayerest i suppose he is used more to balancing fights against 8 high level madmen xD
@@snakept69 they did have to deal with with them in the first episode of the second season so I think they can appear everywhere.
I don't know if the second husk zombie was as strong as the first though, but that could have just been Matt not wanting to tpk his Party.
So I think the curse works everywhere.
Plus the crazy thing about husk zombies is, forming a resistance might harm u. Giving husk zombies weak opponents just allows them to very quickly rise in numbers.
Even guards Fall under this, after a certain number ratio guards are nothing but food.
4 guards could beat a husk zombie on average, but only if they can kill the husk zombie before standing up, for example by decapitating the corpse.They really shouldn't mess that up though because otherwise they loose, HARD.
This means after a peasant household dies(just gonna work with 5 people here), you need 20 guards to stop them, half of wich will die if it's mellee combat.
Same goes for soldiers(albeit a different ratio)
And commoner's with weapons are always food, no matter the ratio.
Can put a hundred against a husk zombie, you'll just make em stronger.
U need to do what they couldn't in GoT, kill more then die by such a large margin that u win, just bad that u can only do that with strong individuals or really good planing.
Slaad also has the potential of introducing modron being sent to fight against the chaotic Sladd, and potentially adding a new threat to the party if they aren't careful.
Honestly, I believe that any of these creatures could very well be a major enemy for your homebrew world, so long as they fit the theme you are trying to convey and a good reason WHY they're here. To add to this, gnolls could very well be an apocalyptic tbreat, as they are known to have mass sacrifices to summon major demons and even avatars of Yeenoghu (I'm doing this for my own campaign). Meanwhile kythons could VERY easily overrun a planet, as while the drones may be easy to kill, the slaughterkings, impalers, and slaymasters will lead their troops with all the finesse of a veteran general (plus the youtuber Dungeon Dad made a 5e conversion for them).
There's also an honourable mention to the Bodak, an undead wraith-like creature that is lethal in close quarters combat, has an aura of death and can kill creatures just by looking at them - turning them into Bodaks too. Bodaks are intelligent, hate the living and have been known to work with other undead, implying they are capable of strategy and tactics. The only limiting factors for Bodaks are they hate sunlight and it takes >24 hours to make a new bodak. So unless all the local clerics are being distracted, they're likely to notice missing villagers or townsfolk before the bodakocalypse becomes too large to thwart
I ran a campaign that was centered around the rise of Kyuss (converted from 3.5e). It was significantly less extreme than a full blown zombie apocalypse, but it was fun making my players absolutely terrified of insects.
Wow i didn't realize you've only made 2 videos in this style and quite recently. I beleive that you will have success if you keep at it. i look forward to what types of content you will cover in the future.
Thank you lol. I had been procrastinating on this for years, but now I have the motivation to keep going.
I'd say zombies lack a plague not so much out of balance, but because it's sort of the more traditional 'necromancy' zombie than the Romero-style zombies. Those kinds of earlier zombies are more like bodies reanimated against their will to serve a powerful magician; they are originally a real-life voodoo thing but caught on in weird fiction and horror for a long while before Romero-zombies hit the scene. Developed further in fantasy works, that can have their own world ending aspect in other ways, notably once that powerful magician can get an army of these things.
Of course, fantasy is typically the only place you see these necromantic zombies, now.
Notably, D&D has no real issue with being absolutely brutal with it's plagues. Ghouls, for example, are also undead that spread disease and can turn you into a ghoul (At least in earlier editions.) And Mummies spread Mummy Rot, a disease that cannot be cured and which gradually desiccates you into dust.
If you want Resident Evil-style zombies, Ghouls are also not a bad choice, I would say. They definitely have that plague aspect, which can slowly turn you, if you want that. And a higher-level character turned by a ghoul rises as a stronger variant, so your undead plague has built-in 'bosses.' That being said, I always interpreted them as a little bit more of a nosferatu-type entity.
It all depends on the setting's technology and magic level.
The Forgotten Realms is roughly at a Rennaisance level of technology in the Human cities, with roughly 1 in 100 of their populations being capable of using magic, probably averaging out at casters with 2nd-3rd level magic, with only the especially strong mages going much further than that. Even so, such a world still has legendary Heroes, with mages capable of casting 9th level magic and warriors who can solo armies(player characters). For a setting like this, it would probably require a dedicated Slaad or Clockwork Horror invasion to truly get the job done.
If your setting is at a Dark Age level of technology with magic being as rare as it would be in a setting like The Witcher, then these would all be especially dangerous threats. In a world like this, anyone higher than 8th level would be a Hero of legend, and thus wouldn't really have the necessary individuals to repel such monsters.
But in especially High-fantasy settings, where warriors and casters of high-level are common and technology is comparable to what we would have on modern day Earth(albeit with magic items filling in for most of modern tech), then foes like these would be repelled on a regular basis.
small correction: the transformation into a red slaad is easy to stop. it's a disease and can thus be cured by lesser restoration or similar magic like lay on hands from a 1st level paladin. only after the target was brought to 0 max hp and transformed into a red slaad does it take a wish to undo it.
Thank you for that correction. I think it would be hard to reverse an entire town that has been infected, but I appreciate you catching something I missed
Excellent video. Hope your channel gets more recognition.
You got a new Sub. Well done, i like this content.
The Clockwork Horrors remind me of the Replicators from Star Gate.
Maybe a broken clockwork horror something happened to it during its travel another planet that cause its self-replication functions to be irreparably damaged
Give zombies numbers.
Just imagine an incredibky powerful necromancer who has decimated a country and now is attacking the partys one, and they have to defeat one or two hordes and then the necromancer notices and a giant one appears.
Want it to be crazier? Make the necromancer be an incredible magician who has conquered other worlds and has an nigh infinite source of zombies. Make the players fight an endless horde, the necromancer bringing more powerful undead aa the rift in reality grows allowing him to draw more power
The Skithrax are a hive minded insectoid species that range in size from microscopic to gargantuan and have a resemblance of a centipede with nearly perfect radial symmetry in one of the following numbers 2,3,4,8,16. These numbers are what determines the numbers and spacing of their limbs and mouth parts in addition what they are capable of. They have one real weakness and that is extreme heat however they gain resistance to heat as their numbers grow. They are known to strip entire worlds of all biological materials and all minerals. Their blood is so acidic that it is able to dissolve pure gems like diamonds are Sapphire without much effort and with greater speed than the fires of a volcano. The Skithrax use swarm tactics and have perfect sight and sensation sharing and can't be blinded and can still see normally invisible objects and through walls as if they are not their. There senses extend by 20 feet for each other one of their kind close by basically if one of them can sense you in any way they all can. They have a number of scythe like appendages at each end of their bodies equal to two or three times their symmetry score. Each of these limbs have their own attacks in addition to having a minimum of ×6 and maximum of ×10 from a crit with each. Most of them can spray a super glue like substance that is toxic on contact in addition to being able to spray a particularly powerful acid not being able to be suffocated by any means and producing a dampening field for all kinds of magic and magical like effect regardless of the origin. The creatures have the ability to travel in space usually because the planet has died and has collapsed and been torn apart. A single larvae is all that you need to start an infestation on a planet and those are the microscopic and present in the all parts of all of the worker, warriors ect and that is why they are so horrible for when you encounter them. However if you are able to disable a queen when present you can shut down the entire hive for a while. Killing the queen doesn't solve the problem. The most effective ways of dealing with them is to wish all members of the hive into something like a sun or somewhere else that they can't really harm you or your world. Remember removing the queen completely isn't going to really solve anything you would basically need to cause enough injury to disable her and start a regeneration cycle or nuke the entire hive in one shot this is every single member not just the ones in the hive but those that are probably all over the world too. They are fearcly competitive against other hives but creating another one of their hives won't solve your problems either because you will simply have an overmind develop eventually and now you will have a new and nastier problem to deal with. The next thing is that they can regenerate from any intact section of their bodies and can fire spikes at lethal speeds that are equal to getting hit by a seige weapon at point blank range and about the size of your arm.
I'm not surprised I missed these, there was no way I could cover them all. Are they from older editions of D&D, from Pathfinder, or a homebrew creation?
@@thegayerest They were from a supplement pamphlet that I only ever saw about three times. The pamphlet had about sixty creatures/ templates that you could apply to other creatures. It was a 3.5 thing however I don't think it was particularly popular. I'm currently working on a couple of campaigns involving these and the only two other creatures that I was able to memorize from the pamphlet. Among its templates there were elemental zombies and zombies that were infected with yellow mold and all sorts of things. The biggest creatures that I'm using in my campaigns are the Skithrax and the Hive of Scails. The second is a hive mind dragon queen she produces brood on a massive scale however she has the ability to take a "mate" it doesn't need to be male. But basically she will take the "mate" and the "mate" will go into a kind of hibernation/ suspended animation and then she can apply all traits of her Dragonoid "mate" to her brood selectively at will. Her "mates " are able to experience everything that she or her brood can at her will. It's one of the ways that any dragon is able to potentially live forever. The age of her hive determines how many "mates" she can have. She herself is immortal and if she is somehow killed if any of her brood are surviving then she will simply transfer to it if not she can take control over any other kind of dragonoid or the remains of a dragonoid and her influence will reshape it into a copy of her body over a period of time. The hive's age was rated in 100 year increments until 1000 then in thousands until they reached one million and so on. A hive queen can basically have a number of dragonoid mates equal to her age divided by 100 and her maximum power level of mate is equivalent to her equivalent draconic age category. So if she had an equivalent age of multiple ancient dragonoid creatures then she could have one ancient dragonoid creature as a mate for each time she reached that threshold plus however many other equivalent age categories. She herself is neutral along with her brood however she is something that a party basically couldn't fight after her hive reached a certain age. Imagine having to fight against a nearly endless supply of brood about the average size of a horse and they all have all of the benefits of being an adult gold/white/red dragon combination with none of their respective weaknesses and all of their skills completely intact and mostly Unlimited in use or so equivalent to that you are basically fighting any number of those three dragons each with all of the benefits of being all three of the ones I listed but without any problem of the dragons I listed in addition to having all of the spell slots and breath weapons available to them of all three in combination oh and you just happen to have a certain party member that is dragon kin and you don't know if he will turn on you and your party once every hour or so. Because yes she can make an attempt to dominate your dragon kin friend once every hour as long as he is within sight of one of her brood if they succeed then they are immune from further attempts for one hour and gets a bonus on the next save that stacks up to 16 times however if they fall asleep there bonus resets. Once a dragon kin has been dominated they don't receive any further options for an attempt to break it unless outside magical help is given and she can potentially also gain control over any subrace that that character has. I have another creature that I have used in the past in a campaign and it is fairly nasty and it's also from the same book. The book has a few other races and some classes that top off around level six or ten in some cases. The last creature I remember well from the book is the synergist they have the ability to make a magical construct from a special held item. The construct is not affected by dispell magic or anti-magic fields in a normal way it simply takes a bit extra damage for a while and that's it. The synergist has one of the following items as their focus a sphere, dagger, wand, staff, spike, short staff, club of some kind, magical orb, magical book. The synergist is able to cloak themselves and become nearly invisible normal invisibility detection works to find them extremely well in addition to them being able to just be found through observation if you look particularly well. The synergist can be up to 120 feet away from their construct or in an adjacent room whichever is first. If you want some more information on their mechanics I can supply them to you all I would need is an email address to send it to.
What if a group of clever minions just start teaching other minions things they've seen adventures do. So you end up with legions of minions using the same broken tactics as the players.
Then you like return to a city only to find it's been decimated by goblins and one of the goblins is ontrial by the other goblins for bard shenanigans but the judge is a beholder and he's accusing both the defendant and the plaintiff of plotting against him and he's already killed the jury for undermining his authority in an attempt to stage a coup. Their mistake was only finding the defendant guilty.
Then you step on a twig and every goblin that isn't within line of sight of the beholder casts darkness. The beholder goes into a soliloquy about how in the land of the blind the one eyed is king before the goblins chime out "I have abyssal sight" only to be fired upon by the beholder for their treachery in speaking against him.
Mind Flayers are very powerful, but I feel like the addition of the Elder Brain Dragon makes them even stronger (unless I’m misinterpreting what the Elder Brain Dragon is).
You're completely right. Mobility is the Elder Brain's biggest weakness, and having a dragon under control fixes that
Love these vids, keep it up!
I look forwards to any mindflayer content
Might have to wait a while, I keep getting distracted by new topics and shiny objects
@@thegayerest shiny objects you say? I await with bated breath.
I find the false hydra a really good world ender
Ohh yeah love those things
Could my homebrew world survive..
Spawn of Chios: Yes, easily. The world is already under constant threat from undead due to the way the world is constructed (most zombies also have zombie plague, a nonmagical disease that becomes magical over its progression). The saving grace being that the Spawn would be limited to a localized region due to other rules about the world. Leylines bisect the world and in the setting leylines are fonts of life energy (positive energy). Any zombie attempting to cross such a region would immediately burst into holy flame and given that the effect of leylines stretch for miles they would be easily contained. Could they body an unprepared Kingdom? Sure, but that's already true for the constant tide of undead that spawn from void (negative energy) tainted lands. There are also larger forces that would amend the situation should they become a threat. (Ancient Red Dragons want slaves, not undead gnawing at their scales)
Slaad: Hahahaha, Grung possessed by demons in my world. Same issue with the Spawn tho, they're kept in check by more powerful forces, also exceptionally rare, but one they are around, Slaad leading Grung war bands.
Clockwork horrors: Adamantine is a legendary material in my current world, so just one adamantine clockwork horror would be neigh unstoppable so long as it remains on the material plane. If it were every ported to a place other than the material realm it would be quickly demolished. Since its a purely material being it would have no ability to effect or combat purely magical beings like Fiends, Celestials, or Elementals in their home plane, but those same creatures would have free reign to pummel it into nonexistence. So a single Wish spell the teleports them all to a plane other than the material would solve the problem permanently.
Bodytaker Plant: Not going to say "WHERE", but its already in place. I did place a mild limitation on it, so its not too destructive (it can't move), but its still a threat that's in the world and actively makes moves.
Gnolls: The influence of Fiends isn't the same as it is in the home setting Gnolls come from. Gnoll tribals don't even exist, so no Gnolls.
Caithons: I didn't know they existed ~goes to see if they are worth stealing~
Jiangxi: Already exist, but in the asia land of "not japan" far from the party sleeping in long forgotten tombs just waiting for adventurers to come and disturb their rest. Mid to late game dung monsters that act as the regions Mummy / Tomb guardian variants. (Undead with a purpose)
Surlons: Didn't know they existed ~goes to see if they are worth stealing~
Oblixes: I don't want to risk spoiling too much, but the party already encountered a source for these.. a source that just straight up spawns them. They are kind of lugging it around and pretty much forgot about it. (which will come back to bit them in a couple more sessions, cuz they haven't even checked the box they sealed it in)
Dopplegangers: What happens when a Deamon of Envy gets into a mage. They reproduce more slowly, but they are a threat that can literally pop up anywhere.
Mind Flayers: Already exist in several places with much the same problem as the Chios and Slaad. Grow too fast and look like too much of a threat and they'll have much much more dangerous creatures breathing down their beaked throats. As good as they are, they just aren't up to par with the other forces in the world due to their limitation on growth caused by their diet. Did you know a nest of Mind Flayers with 5 members eats 60 sentient brains a year? They need a population of at least 192 humanoids per mind flayer just maintain a healthy diet (assuming raising the humanoids to a maturity of 16 before feeding so they can reproduce the next generation of food). That is a *huge* limitation that even Oblixes just don't have.
I wanted to read on the wiki about the creature on 8:25 but i can't find its name for the life of me, Sarlon? Zurlon? Sirloin? google doesn't give me results on whatever i hear so i guess it isn't written as it sounds?
Psurlon. WotC is messing with you specifically
Can you cover Pazuzu? Come to think about it, a cult of Pazuzu could have a similar effect on the world...
Oooo, that's a good one. Obyriths in general are sweet stuff
@@thegayerest Pazuzu is probably my favorite demon lord. My very first character was one of his warlocks
Could you do a video about the yaunti race?
Absolutely. How do you think they are misused? I'll do a lot of digging into their lore and try to find something misunderstood about them
@@thegayerest . One dnd took away their poison immunity. Also, the Yaun ti purebloods used to have an ability to take the serpentform a constrictor snake.
@@thegayerest . Misused in how they are portrayed in modules, yaunti were created as guards for the first serpentine empire.
There isn't much to them in the MM.
In 3.5 it is alluded that Yaunti have secretly replaced key leaders in Semberholm thru disguises and lead it in a direction beneficial to rebuild the old Serpentine Empire.
In 5e dnd, they are just another mob.
would my setting survive it?
spawn of kyuss: while these undead are deadly they are not smart. under normal circumstances, without a powerful leader they don't invade a town. an external way they can't climb up with archers will kill any wandering spawn. and the world is not a safe place for them. they are only really dangerous to humanoids as it can't infect other creatures so any creatures with acid or fire attacks can take it out (like a dragon).
slaad: like kyuss spawn slaadi have no order to them. the most ordered they get is putting infected people in cages if they didn't kill them. blue and red slaad actively hate one another. are they tough? absolutely. but their advance with be disorganized and their defence will be non-existent. a group of bandits have better organization then slaadi. civilization can fight back against it.
Clockwork horrors: these are a real fucking problem. they have nothing that stops their expanse. unless they are caught early (and this may be one thing mages and gods keep an active eye out for) they could destroy a world.
body taker plants: while not as bad as clockwork horrors they are much worse then the previous two. in a trusting society there's nothing in it's way. luckily the dnd world is not such a place. people know about shapeshifters, so in time people would start succeeding at the DC20 insight check or a podling may fuck up, this is when adventurers get hired to investigate.
gnolls: largely bandits but instead of robbing you they eat you. brutal and dangerous, but disorganized and obvious enough that they won't destroy a kingdom. large parts of countryside yes, but no respected kingdom will fall to them.
kython: apparently went extinct a couple editions ago so no longer much of a threat (;
Jiangshi: too exploitable weaknesses and too slow to reproduce to really destroy a setting.
doppelgangers are absolutely no threat as they don't wish to destroy a setting, they wish to be comfortable within it. they may have incredible power within a city, but you'll never find a city filled with nothing but doppelgangers.
I would love to see your take on a mind flayer invasion... in my world they haven't arrived and at one point down the road they are going to find and attack my world. I plane on having them be very much like the xenomorph from alien or Tyrineds from 40k in the sense of what the tadpoles infect might change how powerful the flayer that it turns into will be. Examples being dragons, fay, giants and the like.
I did Mind Flayers already. It's one of my more recent videos
@@thegayerest yes... I ended up finding it right after I watched this video.
pls I need to know about the walking worm-slug things
The Kythons or the Spawn of Kyuss?
@@thegayerest Kythons
@@alpacaofthemountain8760 Dungeon Dad did a pretty great cover of them:
ua-cam.com/video/5afGNNEzISc/v-deo.html
Sorry to be an old man, but, 2nd ed Clockwork Horrors were way better, in my opinion, visually. The new ones look like sci fi industrial robots. The originals looked a lot more like steampunk spiders. Edit, the 2nd pic used looks a lot more like the originals.
Body Taker? Huh. Why Rename the doppleganger plant?
Honestly, I agree. Not only did the old horrors look more unique, their appearance hinted at their magical nature with runes and gems across their body. I may have started in 5e, but I can still appreciate when older editions do things better.
The second pic is from 3e, and it illustrates the different types of horrors much better than the 2e art. Otherwise, I do prefer the 2e ones.
As for the bodytaker plants, I'll look more into it, but it wouldn't surprise me if they were around beforehand under a different name. Van Richten's has a habit of reworking old stuff rather than reprinting it
Slaad are world enders? Huh. Not in my campaign; an empty, dead world has no chaos, and would be boring.
Can't have a zombie apocalypse if there's no one left to zombify.
Yaunti