A perfect mount for a witch hunter or anti magic cleric in a low magic setting. I can always imagine a smaller version like a tapir, adorable blue snuffing critter kept as a pet at lvl 1 ,,, and then it starts rummaging in pockets and packs once you start getting loot 🤣
I had a group of players who didn't remember that trolls regenerate and "killed" the same troll about four times before someone thought to burn it. That same group made sure to carry non-magical and non-metal weapons on the off chance they might meet a disenchanter or rust monster. They only ever encountered one of each but they passed up on carrying a surprising amount of things just to keep those weapons.
I remember this. The DM made us run into one once. Long story short, we took the alignment hit and skinned the disenchanter alive. And then it took us about a week to forgive the DM enough to talk to him.
1. How long do you think it would take for a disenchanter to eat a whole mythal? 2. Ultimate weapon: load a disenchanter into a catapult and launch it onto an enemy spelljammer ship. 3. You're telling me that this thing HASN'T made its way to Eberron, the world that produces magic items on an industrial scale? Hmmm. Actually, maybe that's why Eberron is the way it is.
Enchanted intelligent weapons beware. I can just see an enchanter in his remote tower crafting all types of magical weapons, discarding the failed experiment down to a courtyard where a Disenchanter hungrily waits for its lunch. Or perhaps a partnership is established between the wizard and the Disenchanter die to the high level of intelligence the Disenchanter displayed in the past.
Awesome video AJ. Why awesome? You know disenchanters! Then you can understand how I trolled powerful party once... and I was one of those DMs who actually used disenchanters. I normally just have them in random encounters but this group was more gear hoarders than role-playing characters... who challenged me to make a mission that they would not just absolutely own. The party was hired to take out a group of camel riding goblins, 3rd "easy mission" of the week, that was escorted by giant beetles. The party was cocky and did a bee-line directly into the area, no scouting, no talking to witnesses, etc... just an easy "kings' ransom", the reward level was their first clue that they overlooked. On the way, they were attacked by worg riding scouts. The commander fled as his cronies charged the adventurers. After making quick work of the worg riders, they started catching up (moving full speed) with the remaining war rider... who seemed to be slowing down. They remember hearing some kind of horn sound, which was why they knew right where the rider was going. As the party started realizing they were running into a trap, exploding from the surrounding woods were goblins riding disenchanters with rust monsters scurring with them, smelling the party's wealth of metal. The party won but they won more like a mugged tourist group that limped to the hospital with zero possessions than a victory party.
I like the idea of a super powerful god-tier artifact having hundreds of disenchanters in the area. They feed, and they feed, but the power is so vast that they can never fully drain it, and this it renews itself. If the party wants the artifact, they'll have to kill the disenchanters to get it. And they'll have to do it essentially unarmed and naked. Also, you say no predators eat them, but I bet trolls don't mind. I don't think trolls actually have taste buds. Otyughs might prey on any that come too close as well.
"I used to be an adventurer, and a productive member of society, just like you...and then a elephant camel ate all my enchantments. This trash can? It used to be armor."
Like the Rust Monster, the Disenchanter is a shortcut to the players asking the DM "Why are you doing this to us?" Because they can. The answer is because they can.
Sort of like a Gauth, but isn't evil, isn't an aberration, can eat spells aswell as magic items, and needs to eat less often. Thinking about it, I wonder if a Gauth would eat a Disenchanter, its flesh must be saturated with magic. Maybe they could befriend a mage or wild creature with a spell casting ability, getting fed regularly in exchange for some service. I could also imagine Disenchanter skin fetches a high price if its invulnerability carries over after death.
The wizard see this thing instant disintegration, the cleric to party "what the hell was that, you killed an innocent animal" Druid "actually those things are a problem in the wild, they eat magic, good or bad. A real parasite in the fey community"
Someone's senior prank was painting a herd of camels blue and adding fake noses... if you know who, literally anyone on campus would love to hear about it.
I feel like this creature was invented *SPECIFICALLY* to punish players by the DM🤣 For petty or in game related reasons - You'd think dragons would hunt these things into extinction. Not for food (since they taste bad) but for being able to ruin their horde/collections - Can you imagine how pissed your players would be if they woke up from sleeping in a forest surrounded by a small herd of these?
I remember these 2e monsters! 😁 Based on how 5e, and more so mevin 5e, handles magic items, I'm relatively certain my parties would actively assault me, were I to drop this encounter into a game. They regularly choose not to accept that things they get can be taken away, as well, because 5e is all about feel goods, and the like. One of my players regaled me with how happy he was that Mordenkainen's disjunction didn't make it into 5e.😊
Oh yes, that is a great ides! Perhaps some pygmy disenchanters or something weird like that. Give them the ability to walk along any surface like a spider.
you prolly dont give a shit but if you're stoned like me atm then you can stream all the new movies and series on instaflixxer. Been streaming with my brother during the lockdown :)
@@llewelynshingler2173 I know artefacts are inedible to them, but it might be more because it's like trying to eat everything inside an infinite cornucopia.
I'd probably never use one of these to 'punish' players for acquiring powerful items. I'd use it as a plot element, for things I had already planned to be disenchanted. It also serves as a useful explanation as to why magic isn't used for absolutely everything. Imagine, people building a town using magic to hold up buildings instead of using proper architectural practices...and then some of these wander in... BIG OOF!
@AJ Picket it's got six more pages of details in the Pathfinder Book "Misfit Monsters Redeemed". It also features Flumphs, Dire Corby's, Adherers, Flail Snails and a few more. Great video as always!
I would automatically think the DM gave me some items that made me much more powerful than he ever Intended, I would set about keeping said power at all costs.
Given that these things are attracted to magic items you would think their natural predators would be dragons especially older dragons that have large amounts of magical items hidden in their horde and will eat anything that gets near it let alone something that makes it hoard less valuable
Most dragons are genius level intelligent and would know about these things, and they have no immunity to fire, cold lightning ect. These things are also smart enough to stay the F away from dragons. Edit: I was thinking the tongue might be "poisonous" to dragons tho, so if you can trick a dragon into eating it...?
@@Zasek2112 Not a D&D player yet, but these Dechanters could be a nuisance to younger dragons. Other than that an adult dragon and older could stash their hoard in a hard to find location and probably in several bags of holding.
This accurately represents that the Disenchanter is not accustomed to being hurt by physical attacks so doesn't avoid them, so when your character does lay into it with a magic weapon, it's quite easy to hit these large creatures. The hide is almost as thick as a rhino hide, but is not leathery and covered in blue fur :)
So like, what about Sorcerers. Would the internalized magic they carry within them be as attractive a meal as that of fae? How might that interaction affect the caster and pseudodromedary?
If sorcerers radiated magic all the time, they would be extremely easy for their enemies to find, so no, its only the active use of magic that the disenchanter can feed on.
Monsters like this are great! You can be very generous with magical items if you include enough disenchanters, oozes, rust monsters, and even just mundane thieves. Great video, AJ!
Makes sense that we haven't seen this at all in 5e given how much it adamantly refuses to let anything in the game (Not just players for once, but monsters too) target worn or carried objects.
I think these are cool, but I'd home brew it a little so that, if they're slain within a minute of disenchanting something, the enchantment has a chance to snap back to the item based on how well the enchantment process of the item went, (I think I'd rule it most often a pretty good odds chance). I also think it's pretty clear that their humps are just chock full of residuum, the 4e stuff that is left behind from disenchanting an item that can be used to enchant, or as a wildcard for spell components.
Aj Pickett, You should do a Dungeons and Dragons lore video on Kitsune. I found some stuff on them in the game, but not much and they're an interesting creature from Japanese mythology.
I assume higher level monks would probably be the best class to take these out, since I would assume Ki imbued strikes would count as magic damage, but are technically not magic. Hence they could pierce the disenchanter's natural defenses, and have no risk of losing their primary means of attack.
@@AJPickett I'm playing a Simic Hybrid Astral Monk right now lol. Astral Monks can capture the Ki of opponents who drop to 0 HP nearby. Technically a tentacled ki-vampire.
I say find a way to tame two or three of these and ride them as mounds. Keep them away from things that can physically attack them but always go into places that you know magical creatures are in. Surround and then kill. rip and tear.
Unrelated but important to me personally. Would you do a series on the actual creators of D&D? Gary Gygax was very important to my family, helping my Mom make friends and even some have met him in anonymous play testing of second edition. I know you check on comments and wanted to express my sincere appreciation for your diligence. Since I've started watching your craft my own homebrew universe has been filling out more and more! Thank you so much!
Great monster. Now combine it with the rust monster and youve got it all! Bet they hate "dead magic" zones. 😨😨😨 What do they do when the touch an artifact or relic AJ?
Time for everyone else to witness the greatest of beasts! As for more Pathfinder-specific info that did not make into Bestiary 3, disenchanters of at least Golarion from local area are known to gather every 5 years together, for reasons unknown. Even chained ones will seemingly disappear without trace, and tamed ones would wander into the wild, to return later. On Golarion, they are thought to be a creation of great wizard Nex to be used by his domain against the rival necrocracy of Geb. They are emblematic of the Mana Wastes, a margin of unpredictable magical wasteland between two nations; any disenchanters that manage to wander into them are quickly captured and deposed of, since they can pose immense danger to workings of both magocracies. Some have managed sneak past them into wider deserts of Qadira and Osirion, though there are inexplicable reports of disenchanters found in Land of the Linnorm Kings and around (now former) Worldwound. Also, variants that focus on single school of magic are not unheard of, often gaining special abilities off of such diet.
Once a DM let me find a ring of earth elemental control. I used it to make myself an underground dungeon and then sent it looking for gems and precious metals when it finished. The next session the DM tells me "You wake up and the ring is gone", so I'm like "ok are there any clues to where it went or footprints anywhere nearby?" He responded with "nope" and refused to talk about it more. Needless to say that game didn't go much further than that lol. At least if we had fought a disenchanter or something like that it would have been disappointing to lose the ring but there would have been some kind of explanation. He always hated when we would outsmart his plans so we tried it every time until he stopped running games lol
Thanks for waking me up with this notification on the day before my players land on a new planet. I now know what animals they're going to find a herd of. (Also please keep doing bizarre old creatures like this)
Great Vid as always. Question fir you AJ. Given the chance would a Disenchanter feed on a Molydeus' axe and if so what if any side effects could be possible? Demonized Disenchanter?
Doing this to a party will make them murder hobos in one turn. If the DM has a mind to gank your cool items you will start blasting anything that comes near you. Only a very peaceful and knowledgeable player would recognize the beast and say "oh put away your magical items". But the determined DM would just make it plod toward the bag nose out and **slllooorp** it eats your luck blade before anyone can react. Better to kill anything on sight. Weird or not weird :/
@@miscellaneousshadow7452 The other option is the spell mordencanen's disjunction, 9th level, gives magic items a spell save vs it, effects all magic items in 30feet, and if the save is failed it strips the magic from them permanently.
Or you can send it after murder hobos after they'd looted enough magic items. Bonus points if you decide to describe it as karma manifesting before them.
I've finally reached a point in my DMing career that I feel comfortable using rust monsters... then this video came along and I remembered the goofy goof derp from bestiary 3. Lol now that I know more about the disenchanter, I am developing some devious ideas of my own. This is a good day lol thanks AJ :)
AJ Pickett There are plenty spells to enchant ammunition. Although this does make me curious if spells like Cordon of Arrows that make the arrow shoot on its own would be counted as magically based damage.
One of my campaigns had a solution for these fucking things. We set out a magic item...unfortunately, I don’t know what it was exactly because this happened two years ago....that was cursed to automatically kill anything that tried to remove its magic properties.
Wouldn't the "curse" be disenchanted the moment the disenchanter touches it. If it was a +2 Sword with a curse of killing those who try to disenchant it, the sword becomes a normal sword and this creature is immune to non-magical weapons. Of course if the target cursed magical item was an artifact, that would be a different story.
Magic eating Elephant nosed blue camel. Spiffy. The Disenchanter brought to you by Winston Cigarettes. Okay in all seriousness I really have anything I can use this for right now but it is definitely a useful monster for more high level characters.
Bruh literally did a campaign in which the dm kept making encounters with a disenchanter. He did it to piss off our wizard because he had so many magical charms and stuff from the years we been playing. The DM's exact words were "I'm sick of you always having some magic gizmo for every situation" It was a fun campaign up until my enchanted dagger that was a family heirloom was disenchanted and crumbled to dust. Also my character died lol, got to make a new one any suggestions
It IS kind of a dick move to give players a magic item and then take it away. If you're running a more hardcore kind of game, fair enough. But if you just didnt want your players to have a certain game breaking item, why give it to them in the first place?
@@DkKombo I dont... Really understand what you mean by that. You're saying what if, in this hypothetical scenario, I, as a PC was able to use the disenchanter (somehow) myself, against the DM or something..?
Idea: A world much like our own, where technology is prominent but magic is absent, The biggest difference is that Disenchanters are common thus making it a BIG problem if the party gets there via magic. Now they are effectively STUCK.
These things are terrible, unless of course you have an evil enchanted/cursed area you want disenchanted. Had one group hire out to clear such areas, and as cheap cursed item disposal, using a herd of these.
Trying to lead players to somewhere fabled and forgotten? A small heard of disenchanters in the distance heading towards the location might serve as a hint; in both drawing attention to it and implying that magical loot may be present. The disenchanters could also serve as encounters for later on.
At least this version of the Disenchanter, possible mutations or related species could instead of draining magic items drain spell slots, i would probably limit it to lower levels.
I created a variant in my game on one world, breed to sniff out and drain casters and the other items/beings it usually can. That world was afflicted with a terrible fate though, Arcane magic was causing users of it to go crazy including items crafted after the “Mage Madness” started. In rules terms, it was like Wild Magic, but a “Wild Surge” caused the caster to also go mad and begin to fire any spell they could at anything around them. Using any magic item crafted after the “Mage Madness” started (about a century earlier) also required rolling for a Wild Surge, and if it went off, so did the wielder going into a berserk state, using the power of the item again and again. Which got real messy when it was an item that dealt damage. Only exhausting charges/uses made them snap out of it. Mages and magical creatures didn’t snap out of it, not while on that world. Luckily there was a world it was connected to without the issue, they rounded up magical creatures and Arcane casters and sent them there, along with constructing huge structures that siphoned the Arcane energies from their world to the other world in an attempt to stop the issue.
I would think there would be a fighter guild that hates casters with a passion to the point they breed these creatures in a way so they have a constant counterspell aura.
Could the disenchanter be trusted not to consume the rider's magical items? Assuming it is being properly fed. Seems like quite a good mount for a mage slayer specialist.
Even if they did eat your stuff, it would still be worth it. You could train one as a sort of magic finding bloodhound. They're smart enough, so why not?
Hm. Would be interesting to see what happens if it eats an item of cultural significance. Im guessing legendary items like vecnas eye arent included in its diet?
I imagine it would be like trying to eat all the food out of an infinite Cornucopia. And with an evil object of that scale it might even be a bitter or poisonous meal.
Monster must be used more. My brothers campaign is extremely stingy with money and even at level 8 I have less than 1k gold collected in my career. If we ran into a disenchanter it's just because we spent our gold poorly. We do not find magic items In this campaign, they must be made by us or for us.
Scrolling through the comments I can’t find where anyone mentions that the Fiend Folio is 1st edition AD&D, 2nd like you mentioned at the start of the video. As I remember it, I bought my copy before I learned that Gygax was no longer in charge of TSR, but I’m not sure how long before.
Gygax was still in charge, unless you bought your copy rather late; the Fiend Folio came out in 1981 and Gygax left TSR in 1986. Edit: and yes I noticed the edition error too; I was scrolling through the comments much like you did earlier. Let's just chalk it up to AJ's youth.😁
Tom Kerruish I only recalled that I learned about his change in circumstance after I got the book, didn’t mean to imply they happened immediately together.
Yep, you are are right, I got the date right but must have been reading the Monstrous Compendium when I typed that. My bad. Chalk it up to my crusty old brain Tom Kerruish (you whipper snapper, get off my lawn!)
The "I gave the party too much magic" monster. "This will fix it!" Even better, have them permanently shape changed to kittens by a practical joker wizard. They still eat magic. Its shape change, not polymorph.
That makes for a heck of a sabotage plot with two nations in conflict. One nation breeds these, then shape changes a bunch of them to kittens and puppies, leaving them in a box marked “Free to a good home” right near the other nation’s mage college. Rival adventuring guilds could pull this on each other as well, or competing mage colleges.
So I was wondering if you ever thought about publishing a book with the information you have gathered or books if necessary because I would definitely buy them and i can guarantee most if not all of your other subscribers would jump on that opportunity and if you already did where do i get a copy/copies
The Disenchanter...also known as “The Mage’s Rust Monster”.
As someone who like playing Artificers, screw these guys.
A perfect mount for a witch hunter or anti magic cleric in a low magic setting. I can always imagine a smaller version like a tapir, adorable blue snuffing critter kept as a pet at lvl 1 ,,, and then it starts rummaging in pockets and packs once you start getting loot 🤣
In a properly low magic setting, I'm not sure this species could survive.
Fighters have nightmares about rust monsters, casters have nightmares about these.
Disenchanters native to the fae realm must be very happy creatures indeed.
I had a group of players who didn't remember that trolls regenerate and "killed" the same troll about four times before someone thought to burn it. That same group made sure to carry non-magical and non-metal weapons on the off chance they might meet a disenchanter or rust monster. They only ever encountered one of each but they passed up on carrying a surprising amount of things just to keep those weapons.
I remember this. The DM made us run into one once. Long story short, we took the alignment hit and skinned the disenchanter alive. And then it took us about a week to forgive the DM enough to talk to him.
1. How long do you think it would take for a disenchanter to eat a whole mythal?
2. Ultimate weapon: load a disenchanter into a catapult and launch it onto an enemy spelljammer ship.
3. You're telling me that this thing HASN'T made its way to Eberron, the world that produces magic items on an industrial scale? Hmmm. Actually, maybe that's why Eberron is the way it is.
I think.. I hope.. mythals count as artifacts.
Just imagine the look on a lichs Undead face when he comes home to find a disenchanter eyeballing his phylactery Which it found easily XD
Ok THAT'S friggin funny! Lol!
These and the rust monsters are a DM's get out of jail cards.
Enchanted intelligent weapons beware. I can just see an enchanter in his remote tower crafting all types of magical weapons, discarding the failed experiment down to a courtyard where a Disenchanter hungrily waits for its lunch. Or perhaps a partnership is established between the wizard and the Disenchanter die to the high level of intelligence the Disenchanter displayed in the past.
Awesome video AJ. Why awesome? You know disenchanters! Then you can understand how I trolled powerful party once... and I was one of those DMs who actually used disenchanters. I normally just have them in random encounters but this group was more gear hoarders than role-playing characters... who challenged me to make a mission that they would not just absolutely own. The party was hired to take out a group of camel riding goblins, 3rd "easy mission" of the week, that was escorted by giant beetles. The party was cocky and did a bee-line directly into the area, no scouting, no talking to witnesses, etc... just an easy "kings' ransom", the reward level was their first clue that they overlooked. On the way, they were attacked by worg riding scouts. The commander fled as his cronies charged the adventurers. After making quick work of the worg riders, they started catching up (moving full speed) with the remaining war rider... who seemed to be slowing down. They remember hearing some kind of horn sound, which was why they knew right where the rider was going. As the party started realizing they were running into a trap, exploding from the surrounding woods were goblins riding disenchanters with rust monsters scurring with them, smelling the party's wealth of metal. The party won but they won more like a mugged tourist group that limped to the hospital with zero possessions than a victory party.
Mugged tourists! LOL
Oh, you shouldn't have let me know these bad boys existed. My party is about to hate me
I like the idea of a super powerful god-tier artifact having hundreds of disenchanters in the area. They feed, and they feed, but the power is so vast that they can never fully drain it, and this it renews itself.
If the party wants the artifact, they'll have to kill the disenchanters to get it. And they'll have to do it essentially unarmed and naked.
Also, you say no predators eat them, but I bet trolls don't mind. I don't think trolls actually have taste buds. Otyughs might prey on any that come too close as well.
Snuffleupagus.
The real reason Oscar now lives in a trash can.
"I used to be an adventurer, and a productive member of society, just like you...and then a elephant camel ate all my enchantments. This trash can? It used to be armor."
Like the Rust Monster, the Disenchanter is a shortcut to the players asking the DM "Why are you doing this to us?"
Because they can. The answer is because they can.
Diditallforthexp then simply cut them up to get lots of new magic to make items.
Sort of like a Gauth, but isn't evil, isn't an aberration, can eat spells aswell as magic items, and needs to eat less often. Thinking about it, I wonder if a Gauth would eat a Disenchanter, its flesh must be saturated with magic. Maybe they could befriend a mage or wild creature with a spell casting ability, getting fed regularly in exchange for some service. I could also imagine Disenchanter skin fetches a high price if its invulnerability carries over after death.
The wizard see this thing instant disintegration, the cleric to party "what the hell was that, you killed an innocent animal"
Druid "actually those things are a problem in the wild, they eat magic, good or bad. A real parasite in the fey community"
If the main party has a wizard, cleric and druid they should be running for the hills when they see this one
"Oh shit!"......Staaaampeeeeed!"----- Wizards school in Thay
Someone's senior prank was painting a herd of camels blue and adding fake noses... if you know who, literally anyone on campus would love to hear about it.
"grab yourself a nonmagical beverage."
- sets sweet tea down
I feel like this creature was invented *SPECIFICALLY* to punish players by the DM🤣 For petty or in game related reasons
- You'd think dragons would hunt these things into extinction. Not for food (since they taste bad) but for being able to ruin their horde/collections
- Can you imagine how pissed your players would be if they woke up from sleeping in a forest surrounded by a small herd of these?
The Monk without any magic items and whose unarmed strikes count as magical: It's like I was made for this
It looks like an ookapi which may be the closest thing to a magic animal on earth
Platypus? Immortal jellyfish?
@@AJPickett the platypus is proof that whatever higher power there is has a sense of humor.
I remember these 2e monsters! 😁 Based on how 5e, and more so mevin 5e, handles magic items, I'm relatively certain my parties would actively assault me, were I to drop this encounter into a game. They regularly choose not to accept that things they get can be taken away, as well, because 5e is all about feel goods, and the like. One of my players regaled me with how happy he was that Mordenkainen's disjunction didn't make it into 5e.😊
It used to be a deck of many things, now they're really cool coasters
They don't eat artifacts.
@@zacharyhawley1693 bet you're fun at parties lol
This is why we add emojis at the end of sentences to denote humorous intent, Jeremy.
@@AJPickett who is this "we" you speak of, cultists,zulkirs,cabalist, perhaps forces of the lowest planes?😁😂😆
Better?
I would love to make herd of Disenchanters that live in the underdark.
Oh yes, that is a great ides!
Perhaps some pygmy disenchanters or something weird like that. Give them the ability to walk along any surface like a spider.
you prolly dont give a shit but if you're stoned like me atm then you can stream all the new movies and series on instaflixxer. Been streaming with my brother during the lockdown :)
@@valentinojordy2185 I use saop2day
Svirfneblin ranchers?
I knew I shouldn't have invested all my funds in magical food at the grocery store.
I stocked up on magic toilet paper. . .
So long ring of sustenance...
@@AJPickett hahahahhaa
Like an unholy union between a tapir, a camel and a muppet
Do you have a specific Muppet in mind?
Also reminds me of the ancient Titanothere.
Now I want to make a villain with a Disenchanter Whip. Crafted from the tongue of one of the creatures.
Anaroch is a good place to find Netherese Items... That must be why Disenchanters live there...
Absolutely.
@@AJPickett Is there a way to re-enchant swords and so on?
And are Artefacts avoided due to being strongly good or evil in nature?
@@llewelynshingler2173 I know artefacts are inedible to them, but it might be more because it's like trying to eat everything inside an infinite cornucopia.
I'd probably never use one of these to 'punish' players for acquiring powerful items. I'd use it as a plot element, for things I had already planned to be disenchanted. It also serves as a useful explanation as to why magic isn't used for absolutely everything. Imagine, people building a town using magic to hold up buildings instead of using proper architectural practices...and then some of these wander in...
BIG OOF!
@AJ Picket it's got six more pages of details in the Pathfinder Book "Misfit Monsters Redeemed". It also features Flumphs, Dire Corby's, Adherers, Flail Snails and a few more. Great video as always!
I would imagine these guys would just keep following a Genasi should they meet one. It is free food that they can't really harm.
AJ: grab yourself a non-magical drink...
Me *drinking a coffee* : shit better hurry before it decaffeinates.
Ha! Clever ;)
I would automatically think the DM gave me some items that made me much more powerful than he ever Intended, I would set about keeping said power at all costs.
Given that these things are attracted to magic items you would think their natural predators would be dragons especially older dragons that have large amounts of magical items hidden in their horde and will eat anything that gets near it let alone something that makes it hoard less valuable
The breeding rate for the disenchanters is pretty high, so, it implies there is a fair rate of attrition for these creatures in the wild.
They would consider them pests to eradicate, but not food to hunt cause they taste awful. Thus, they can have many enemies but no natural predators.
Totally making that folktale of splitting true, enough magic absorbed and the hump splits off from its parent. Great creature
Not only could these guys give adventurers trouble, but dragons regardless of ad alignment wouldn't want one of these to wander into their lair.
Most dragons are genius level intelligent and would know about these things, and they have no immunity to fire, cold lightning ect. These things are also smart enough to stay the F away from dragons. Edit: I was thinking the tongue might be "poisonous" to dragons tho, so if you can trick a dragon into eating it...?
@@Zasek2112 Not a D&D player yet, but these Dechanters could be a nuisance to younger dragons. Other than that an adult dragon and older could stash their hoard in a hard to find location and probably in several bags of holding.
Thanks for this man these guys work well with what I want to do in my games
Why would I drink a non magical beverage? I ain't got none of those, mate.
Tough, thick, rhino-like hide very difficult to cut through with mundane weapons. AC 10.
This accurately represents that the Disenchanter is not accustomed to being hurt by physical attacks so doesn't avoid them, so when your character does lay into it with a magic weapon, it's quite easy to hit these large creatures. The hide is almost as thick as a rhino hide, but is not leathery and covered in blue fur :)
Team it up with a pack of rust monsters for maximum loot annihilation!
So like, what about Sorcerers. Would the internalized magic they carry within them be as attractive a meal as that of fae? How might that interaction affect the caster and pseudodromedary?
If sorcerers radiated magic all the time, they would be extremely easy for their enemies to find, so no, its only the active use of magic that the disenchanter can feed on.
AJ Pickett makes sense, thank ya sir.
Monsters like this are great! You can be very generous with magical items if you include enough disenchanters, oozes, rust monsters, and even just mundane thieves. Great video, AJ!
Makes sense that we haven't seen this at all in 5e given how much it adamantly refuses to let anything in the game (Not just players for once, but monsters too) target worn or carried objects.
Well, there are still rust monsters. Will rust monsters go after magic items? I forget...
@@shamusfarmer Rust Monsters like metal so if it is magic that is a bonus.
I think these are cool, but I'd home brew it a little so that, if they're slain within a minute of disenchanting something, the enchantment has a chance to snap back to the item based on how well the enchantment process of the item went, (I think I'd rule it most often a pretty good odds chance). I also think it's pretty clear that their humps are just chock full of residuum, the 4e stuff that is left behind from disenchanting an item that can be used to enchant, or as a wildcard for spell components.
Can you feed them rocks you've cast Light on?
Like popcorn.
Aasimar steed get
Aj Pickett,
You should do a Dungeons and Dragons lore video on Kitsune. I found some stuff on them in the game, but not much and they're an interesting creature from Japanese mythology.
I get one request every two months to do a video on them or various other Yokai.
yokai.com
Somethjng to watch when I wake up and head to work, thanks.
I assume higher level monks would probably be the best class to take these out, since I would assume Ki imbued strikes would count as magic damage, but are technically not magic. Hence they could pierce the disenchanter's natural defenses, and have no risk of losing their primary means of attack.
Tarson Talon Correct! Unless your GM happens to be an asshole and lets it drain Ki too. Though ki is life energy and would make it therefore vampiric.
@@robouteguilliman6662 vampiric disenchanter, that's *evil*, I love it 😈
Correct. (Hmm, vampire monk player character?)
AJ Pickett Hungry Ghost monk archetype from Pathfinder. Tons of decent sustain.
@@AJPickett I'm playing a Simic Hybrid Astral Monk right now lol. Astral Monks can capture the Ki of opponents who drop to 0 HP nearby. Technically a tentacled ki-vampire.
I say find a way to tame two or three of these and ride them as mounds. Keep them away from things that can physically attack them but always go into places that you know magical creatures are in. Surround and then kill. rip and tear.
Oh...these things.
*flashbacks to dming these and playing against them*
shudders...
Unrelated but important to me personally.
Would you do a series on the actual creators of D&D?
Gary Gygax was very important to my family, helping my Mom make friends and even some have met him in anonymous play testing of second edition.
I know you check on comments and wanted to express my sincere appreciation for your diligence.
Since I've started watching your craft my own homebrew universe has been filling out more and more!
Thank you so much!
Great monster. Now combine it with the rust monster and youve got it all! Bet they hate "dead magic" zones. 😨😨😨 What do they do when the touch an artifact or relic AJ?
Michael Kelligan those adventurers will be walking out of their dungeons buck naked! 😁
Artifacts don't ping as magical, so unless you house it in a magical container they will probably ignore it.
Well I would feed the thing only cursed weapons and armor every else would be in a bag of holding inside of a lead box I can keep on a belt.
Time for everyone else to witness the greatest of beasts!
As for more Pathfinder-specific info that did not make into Bestiary 3, disenchanters of at least Golarion from local area are known to gather every 5 years together, for reasons unknown. Even chained ones will seemingly disappear without trace, and tamed ones would wander into the wild, to return later. On Golarion, they are thought to be a creation of great wizard Nex to be used by his domain against the rival necrocracy of Geb. They are emblematic of the Mana Wastes, a margin of unpredictable magical wasteland between two nations; any disenchanters that manage to wander into them are quickly captured and deposed of, since they can pose immense danger to workings of both magocracies. Some have managed sneak past them into wider deserts of Qadira and Osirion, though there are inexplicable reports of disenchanters found in Land of the Linnorm Kings and around (now former) Worldwound. Also, variants that focus on single school of magic are not unheard of, often gaining special abilities off of such diet.
Once a DM let me find a ring of earth elemental control. I used it to make myself an underground dungeon and then sent it looking for gems and precious metals when it finished. The next session the DM tells me "You wake up and the ring is gone", so I'm like "ok are there any clues to where it went or footprints anywhere nearby?" He responded with "nope" and refused to talk about it more. Needless to say that game didn't go much further than that lol. At least if we had fought a disenchanter or something like that it would have been disappointing to lose the ring but there would have been some kind of explanation. He always hated when we would outsmart his plans so we tried it every time until he stopped running games lol
Thanks for waking me up with this notification on the day before my players land on a new planet. I now know what animals they're going to find a herd of.
(Also please keep doing bizarre old creatures like this)
I love the old and weird critters.
Only restraint prevents my your mom joke instincts, but is there a monster you dislike?
Great Vid as always. Question fir you AJ. Given the chance would a Disenchanter feed on a Molydeus' axe and if so what if any side effects could be possible? Demonized Disenchanter?
Nope, the axe is technically not an item, it is a demon.
@@AJPickett I figured as much, but that would be fun lol, Thank You
Mr. AJ vast across the vast oceans. I love you lore and stuff. keep pumping it out man!
I will never stop!
Doing this to a party will make them murder hobos in one turn. If the DM has a mind to gank your cool items you will start blasting anything that comes near you. Only a very peaceful and knowledgeable player would recognize the beast and say "oh put away your magical items". But the determined DM would just make it plod toward the bag nose out and **slllooorp** it eats your luck blade before anyone can react. Better to kill anything on sight. Weird or not weird :/
Hower, to play devil's advocate. What if you and the players agree it's too powerful then this is a cool way to give an in game explanation.
@@miscellaneousshadow7452 The other option is the spell mordencanen's disjunction, 9th level, gives magic items a spell save vs it, effects all magic items in 30feet, and if the save is failed it strips the magic from them permanently.
@@Nyghtking or a pudding is relatively safe.
Or you can send it after murder hobos after they'd looted enough magic items. Bonus points if you decide to describe it as karma manifesting before them.
I've finally reached a point in my DMing career that I feel comfortable using rust monsters... then this video came along and I remembered the goofy goof derp from bestiary 3. Lol now that I know more about the disenchanter, I am developing some devious ideas of my own. This is a good day lol thanks AJ :)
Psionics can get them!
Michael Kelligan So can arrows.
@@Im-Not-a-Dog Magic arrows.
AJ Pickett There are plenty spells to enchant ammunition. Although this does make me curious if spells like Cordon of Arrows that make the arrow shoot on its own would be counted as magically based damage.
One of my campaigns had a solution for these fucking things. We set out a magic item...unfortunately, I don’t know what it was exactly because this happened two years ago....that was cursed to automatically kill anything that tried to remove its magic properties.
Nice.
Scorched earth policy.
Dr Bright or just ya know feed it bad spells to cause sickness
Wouldn't the "curse" be disenchanted the moment the disenchanter touches it. If it was a +2 Sword with a curse of killing those who try to disenchant it, the sword becomes a normal sword and this creature is immune to non-magical weapons. Of course if the target cursed magical item was an artifact, that would be a different story.
awesome would like to throw one of these at my players at some point
I wonder if some mad (and *extremely* bitter) old wizard has made some wretched hybrid of the Disenchanter and Rust Monster
Laughs in THE CREEPING DOOM
This is really interesting, thanks for the video
Throw this and some rust monsters in a dungeon for a quick way for your players to break your face.
*turns hat backward and grabs a chainmail bag full of metal dice* Now you find out why they call me dungeon MASTER.
Magic eating Elephant nosed blue camel. Spiffy. The Disenchanter brought to you by Winston Cigarettes. Okay in all seriousness I really have anything I can use this for right now but it is definitely a useful monster for more high level characters.
Cool monster!!! One i will try to use more. Interesting situations to use them in. Thx and stay healthy.
Psionic enclaves try to encourage these.
Makes sense.
I could see that being a very helpful first assault or other form ov trickery used against magic users by psionic users. Dirty & wonderful tricks.
Bruh literally did a campaign in which the dm kept making encounters with a disenchanter. He did it to piss off our wizard because he had so many magical charms and stuff from the years we been playing. The DM's exact words were "I'm sick of you always having some magic gizmo for every situation"
It was a fun campaign up until my enchanted dagger that was a family heirloom was disenchanted and crumbled to dust. Also my character died lol, got to make a new one any suggestions
Vampire monk
A vampire monk that eats ki could wind up more like a mortal succubus. He would also have a completely different set of weaknesses...
@@AJPickett you sir have given me terrible advice. My monk on his journey to become a vampire had his throat ripped out by one instead
It IS kind of a dick move to give players a magic item and then take it away. If you're running a more hardcore kind of game, fair enough. But if you just didnt want your players to have a certain game breaking item, why give it to them in the first place?
Ooh, but what if you get the opportunity to use the disenchanter in return?
@@DkKombo I dont... Really understand what you mean by that. You're saying what if, in this hypothetical scenario, I, as a PC was able to use the disenchanter (somehow) myself, against the DM or something..?
@@shamusfarmer
Just like tame it or something
I really want a quality mini for one of these cuties
So if it ate all the magic off an item could you then use that item to create a new magic item? Or would it never hold an enchantment again?
Some folks rule the item is destroyed, I think not, so yeah, you could enchant it again.
Idea: A world much like our own, where technology is prominent but magic is absent, The biggest difference is that Disenchanters are common thus making it a BIG problem if the party gets there via magic. Now they are effectively STUCK.
Hey, why do we hide all our cool magic swag in the entry of the dungeon when we leave?
Disenchanter *squints*
I quite like the idea of a disenchanter that mutates and adapts to feeding on electricity instead, like the Mynocks from star wars
Amuzingly, silvered weapons would be the bane of these things. They're not technically magical. They just count as magical for resistances.
I think adamantine weapons would be more what you'd look for there, silver isn't magical in nature when considering resistances sadly.
These things are terrible, unless of course you have an evil enchanted/cursed area you want disenchanted. Had one group hire out to clear such areas, and as cheap cursed item disposal, using a herd of these.
One of my favorite, classic D&D monsters. Makes you wonder what game designers were smoking in the 80s.
Well, this was a fan-made creation after all :)
No, I’m drinking magic milk. Gulp Gulp gulp it’s now gone.
Trying to lead players to somewhere fabled and forgotten?
A small heard of disenchanters in the distance heading towards the location might serve as a hint; in both drawing attention to it and implying that magical loot may be present.
The disenchanters could also serve as encounters for later on.
...ok second one in a row that I am learning and this one I ain't even heard of I am stoked
I'm stoked to have the honor of introducing you to this classic weird critter :)
@@AJPickett smoked to be here lol
Sounds almost like a sidehill gouger but not about to kill you if you're close enough to see it
Thanks for the camel lore
If a disenchanter can drain fey creatures and such magical energy can they also drain spellcaster’s spell slots?
They drain active enchantments and magical effects, so, no.
AJ Pickett thank you!
At least this version of the Disenchanter, possible mutations or related species could instead of draining magic items drain spell slots, i would probably limit it to lower levels.
I created a variant in my game on one world, breed to sniff out and drain casters and the other items/beings it usually can. That world was afflicted with a terrible fate though, Arcane magic was causing users of it to go crazy including items crafted after the “Mage Madness” started. In rules terms, it was like Wild Magic, but a “Wild Surge” caused the caster to also go mad and begin to fire any spell they could at anything around them.
Using any magic item crafted after the “Mage Madness” started (about a century earlier) also required rolling for a Wild Surge, and if it went off, so did the wielder going into a berserk state, using the power of the item again and again. Which got real messy when it was an item that dealt damage. Only exhausting charges/uses made them snap out of it.
Mages and magical creatures didn’t snap out of it, not while on that world. Luckily there was a world it was connected to without the issue, they rounded up magical creatures and Arcane casters and sent them there, along with constructing huge structures that siphoned the Arcane energies from their world to the other world in an attempt to stop the issue.
I would think there would be a fighter guild that hates casters with a passion to the point they breed these creatures in a way so they have a constant counterspell aura.
I could see that lol
Love the videos. Keep up the good work.
Could the disenchanter be trusted not to consume the rider's magical items? Assuming it is being properly fed. Seems like quite a good mount for a mage slayer specialist.
Well, they are quite intelligent, so I guess it comes down to relationship and personality.
Even if they did eat your stuff, it would still be worth it. You could train one as a sort of magic finding bloodhound. They're smart enough, so why not?
I wonder how the spell plague affected them?
great video AJ
So its the non magic class party ultimate weapon.
hmmm.. A paladin summons a Disenchanter with their Find Greater Steed ability, campaign is now broken.
Hm. Would be interesting to see what happens if it eats an item of cultural significance. Im guessing legendary items like vecnas eye arent included in its diet?
I imagine it would be like trying to eat all the food out of an infinite Cornucopia. And with an evil object of that scale it might even be a bitter or poisonous meal.
@@NathtouLightbringer like a magical anthrax
Yeah, they can't eat artifacts :)
Monster must be used more. My brothers campaign is extremely stingy with money and even at level 8 I have less than 1k gold collected in my career. If we ran into a disenchanter it's just because we spent our gold poorly. We do not find magic items In this campaign, they must be made by us or for us.
so would a demonic item, say a soul drinking sword with a nabassu trapped inside it, be like a poisoned meal for the disenchanter.
Hmm good idea
It would end up eating the binding enchantment, then you have a freed demon.
Which would then kill and eat the disenchanter?
@@jacobfreeman5444 Probs
Will they try to drain a genasi or any of the other magical player races?
Nope.
Scrolling through the comments I can’t find where anyone mentions that the Fiend Folio is 1st edition AD&D, 2nd like you mentioned at the start of the video. As I remember it, I bought my copy before I learned that Gygax was no longer in charge of TSR, but I’m not sure how long before.
Gygax was still in charge, unless you bought your copy rather late; the Fiend Folio came out in 1981 and Gygax left TSR in 1986.
Edit: and yes I noticed the edition error too; I was scrolling through the comments much like you did earlier. Let's just chalk it up to AJ's youth.😁
Tom Kerruish I only recalled that I learned about his change in circumstance after I got the book, didn’t mean to imply they happened immediately together.
Yep, you are are right, I got the date right but must have been reading the Monstrous Compendium when I typed that. My bad. Chalk it up to my crusty old brain Tom Kerruish (you whipper snapper, get off my lawn!)
The "I gave the party too much magic" monster.
"This will fix it!"
Even better, have them permanently shape changed to kittens by a practical joker wizard. They still eat magic. Its shape change, not polymorph.
Ahahahaha! *takes notes*
That makes for a heck of a sabotage plot with two nations in conflict. One nation breeds these, then shape changes a bunch of them to kittens and puppies, leaving them in a box marked “Free to a good home” right near the other nation’s mage college.
Rival adventuring guilds could pull this on each other as well, or competing mage colleges.
They remind me of "Gremlin"s from Magic the Gathering plane of Kaladesh, which are basically this plus rust monsters, spooky combo.
Hmm the fey would crush em for that annoyance that’s be like crapping on someone’s kid the fry are brutal
So I was wondering if you ever thought about publishing a book with the information you have gathered or books if necessary because I would definitely buy them and i can guarantee most if not all of your other subscribers would jump on that opportunity and if you already did where do i get a copy/copies