I find it unfortunate that 5e excludes a decent portion of lore because of it being sensitive. With respect to those who have had experiences which taint their enjoyment of the game, I take Tolkien's approach: "Let their be wicked kings and beheadings, battles and dungeons, giants and dragons, and let villains be soundly killed at the end of the book" (the whole quote is much better than this excerpt btw). My point is that understanding the true evil makes their defeat have so much more value. The knife of evil ought to have an edge so that defeating evil it makes the world a better place. The victory is dulled when evil's true nature is tamed from its inception.
This. I hate the fact that a villain can't have a negative trait because it would be a reminder/depiction of that trait. The villain should be xenophobic and treat others with contempt, if it's a characteristic of that villain. If the villain has a tendency of doing some rather unsavoury acts, let them(i mean, depends on the group you play with of course.). Make the PC hate them. Not all of them has to be sympathetic or grey complex characters, that way when one is, it's new and refreshing. If i may add a small idea, take inspiration by real life mobsters. Some of them have families and complex life stories, some of them are just horrible p.o.s. .The chief of a thieves' guild doesn't always have to be a whimsical charming rogue, it could be a regular looking criminal that is just very good at his job and ruthless. The blackguard that leads the undead army doesn't always has to be a tragic figure of a paladin that fell from grace. Maybe they were always just a s.o.b. and actually enjoy what they are doing. There is this, imho brilliantly written, character in Marvel comics called Sauron(i know, i know) that has the power of altering DNA . Spider-man questions him on his actions:" You can rewrite DNA on the fly, you could cure cancer but you use this power to transform people into dinosaurs?" to which Sauron responds :" But i don't want to cure cancer. I want to turn people into dinosaurs". That's it. Simple but brutal. You love to hate him.
irl connections to Odin makes cast of Cyclops (Who were sacrificing one eye for divintion boons) far more interresting than what d&d tells us, but who the hell would dare to tell me i can't make any giant a base for a subtype of cyclop with added features
AJ, with your background in biology, don’t you imagine that a bipedal creature with a single eye in its skull would have a different nasal and sinus setup? All of the art shows a face that looks totally human (if terribly ugly) from the cheekbones down, and the forehead up. I imagine something like two separate noses, leading to differentiated sinus cavities, allowing the eye to sit where it does in the art but with an unimpeded view, and direct nerve access to the brain. Lack of stereoscopic vision is reason enough for their lack of ranged weapon usage, but perhaps they’d gain advantage on skill checks involving smell. What’re your thoughts?
Hmmm, pretty much the same page there, a cyclops would probably just have one nostril and hey, maybe a brain without a division into twin lobes like the human brain.
How big are fleas on a cyclops if they actually annoy them. do they have hamster sized fleas? house cat? golden retreiver? Just imagine killing the cyclops and trying to loot it and then 300 fleas attack you and they are all the size of a Duck.
I had an idea for a Cyclopes that somehow learned eye rays like a Beholder but to a limited degree, they only can use one of the rays per Cyclopes and its can has a limited number of uses per day.
Like it for the legendary/ epic Cyclops. Suprise the experienced party with regenerating Cyclops with an anti- magic eye beam , similar to a beholder. I Love it when my players jaws hit the floor.." what..is...that...thing ?!" I'm gonna fly up to it,and poke it's eye out !" Suddenly, your fly spell fails, and you fall 30' to the ground in front of it. Oh oh...
Hey just found your chanal really enjoyed it .. I'm new to d&d .. your representation of the source material is very helpful... you have yourself a new fan. Thank you for the Fantastic content
I wish the Monster Manual would actually state the height of monsters. We're largely left guessing. At least they posted the average height of the true giants.
I like that there are the common cyclops, dungeon dwelling monsters and the Greek ones from the dieties and demigods dnd books. that are gigantic and intelligent!!!!😉👍✌
For something to live as long as cyclops have existed with a major disadvantage in no depth perception i run mine with a heat sensory organ in the eye. so in the daylight with the warmth of the sun they have subpar vision. but in the cover of moonlight they can see sorta like snakes or the Predator.
Meanwhile, Pathfinder's default setting of Golarion makes cyclopes as descendants of ancient empires that spread around the world. Most important of them was Ghol-Gan, of which their mastery at divination was their greatest strength, and who achived great heights in literacy and astronomy (made easier by their huge one eye), which led them to worship of sun, moon, and celestial bodies. It spread both above and below the surface, but with decline of their military might and degeneration of their worship of celestial bodies to worship of nasty things that lurk in the void, it colapsed before Earthfall fit, destroying the great human magocracies of Azlant and Thassilon and creating the modern world, and only a scant amount of cyclopes loremasters and diviners that held onto their past achievements survived, hiding on the islands of Iblydos, which thanks to them became a magical Ancient Greece region. In a way, this is similar to the lore of cyclopeans you have mentioned.
Given that Gruumsh, the chief diety of all orcs, has one eye in the middle of his forehead it's only a matter of time he uses that fact to gain new followers. Yet Elves already know how Gruumsh lost his eye. It's probable that Othea probably had an affair with Gruumsh at one point hence the Cyclopses.
2 days ago I had the most interesting D&D campaign of my life. Not because the campaign's content was interesting, but because of how I played it. Me and my friend skyped my girlfriend (who lives all the way in texas) and played it with her.
In my campaigns, the Cyclops' single eye is no disadvantage. Their single eye allows the same depth perception and peripheral vision as most creatures' two frontal eyes. My veteran players giggle in silence when a new player tries capitalizing on their "lack of depth perception" or whatever. I also have it so they never get old. They can actually live and grow forever for as long as they have food. A super-huge ravenous Cyclops appears every few centuries because of his appetite, hunting, and eventual cannibalism created the "dead zone" he came from. I love the assumption that the dead zone created the "strange supernaturally created mutant cyclops." It's my campaigns' decaffeinated answer to a Tarrasque... hard battle but not an almost guaranteed party annihilator. Also, like a Minotaur, a Cyclops can slow down food and water needs through a lethargic life if nothing is going on... those strange incidents where an isolated monster somehow is still alive like it is waiting for a party to come by and get eaten.
I gave mine a snake like heat vision so they are at a disadvantage in sunlight and around big fires because the heat hrows them off but in the darkness they know exactly were you are. Do your cyclops have two pupils in the single eye? that would be really cool.
@@kyleellis9177 It's actually something I let biologically inclined players explore. The main difference is inside the Cyclops eye. The lens & control muscles are alternatively shaped, creating twin focal and overlay points on the same retina. Also, the optic nerve is a twin nerve. Earlier versions of my cyclopses did have two and sometimes three pupils. That alternative sense you added to yours is pretty cool too.
I like the intro. Don't think I would these guys on their own, maybe instead as the brutes to some giant who has convinced them his club is "very lucky" They fear him and his "lucky" *cough* magical *cough* club but he also fends off the occasional nightly visitor who thinks themselves clever enough to steal it. Of course few cyclopes ever really classify as clever.
The Dark master I kinda envisioned her as a bit more non caring about them and most things that aren’t in her visions. Her focus is drawn to a divine or cosmic level due to her connection to some form of higher power. The problems of her kind and of any other are insignificant compared to the visions of ruin on a interplanar scale. Perhaps she is seeing the effects of the Bloodwar spilling over to the Prime Material Plane? Perhaps it’s the result of the Dragon’s attempts to regain dominance? Perhaps it’s what remains after the Illithids gain control? She knows not what will cause what she is being granted visions of, but she knows it will happen, and if not stopped, it will cause the destruction of not only this plane but many others as well. Or at least that’s how I’m planning on using the idea. You do whatever you want with the idea. There are very few ideas and concepts in D&D that I feel are set in stone, and this is definitely not one of them. 👍
NButler1993 Well your inspirering me with that, hmmm, maybe she knows exactly what to do to stop the ominous event that is portented to? Maybe it's a combination of all of those events making each other possible, and she's a level 20 mage. But what she can't do, can't be, is be In every place at once to stop it. So she's manipulating the party and multiple various other groups with the pretence forsight in reality of her near omniscient perception, and all the big bads are aware of her agency via the unmistakable collective specifics of the actions the adventurers take. So while they see quests an adventures, it's really 4D chess. Accurate notes of advice she's given, create moves that alter the game drastically when heeded. I've always loved the trope of an oracle that really is all that they're cracked up to be and more but that's "your problem" cos you're doing the leg work. And your gonna get some serious sass too. Enough sass and precognition to humble even the most dedicated murder hobo. You could even have a devil refuring to the collective party by the oracles name. Or effectively fight much higher leveled enemies that would otherwize TPK just by heeding her advice. 👍
The Dark master Exactly. She’s blessed with knowledge, but unable to act on it because of physical limitations, the primary of which is that she’s a Cyclops and 9 out of 10 adventurers try to kill them on sight. She’s found a group willing to heed her portents, and she’ll send them to the places shown to her in her visions. Things like she sees a castle of flame with a pillar of fire coming out of it burning the very sky, and she sends the party to a long forgotten kingdom, now being used as a stronghold by fire giants. When the party clears the castle of giants they find some weird/special object which when presented to her will trigger the Oracle’s next vision, thus continuing the quest line. Have all of the bad guy factions you encounter being ran by one incredibly powerful interplanar bad guy who’s akin to a dark god of some sorts.
NButler1993 Aye, but the bad guy factions don't know that they're all being used by the dark god to complete an intricate grand magical ritual - which is all of them simultaneously achieving all there evil goals, like living spell ingredients & a prophesy combined. And thats what she's trying to stop, not the dragons, demons or ilithids. Great evils by surviving themselves not really knowing that they're surving a greater evil, needing each others success not realising that they are as much puppets as the P.C.s themselves are. Maybe the dark god could even communicate to the evil factions leaders/big bads indirrectly and annoymously, and you could dice roll to see if they take the advice, and if they do, it tip the scales of the quests to make them far more difficult to complete. If the P.C.s "win", they get to kill & loot all the evil factions, and prevent the appocalypse/birth of a great evil on their world. But if they "loose" the oracle is killed and looted by a sizable army of random adventurers coalescing to kill the "evil" cyclops oracle, dooming the world by slaying it's un imagined divinely chosen saviour. Maybe thats why she hates cyclopses? Because their savage reputation is the only thing that the dark god can actually use to take her out? 👍
I checked to see if there was anything related to cyclopses on 1d4chan. Dissapointingly there's only one or two paragraphs and a picture of a monster-girl cyclops.
1:10 Oh, wow. Didn't expect to see a Young Cyclops. Also, fun fact: the starter battlegroup (deck) you get in PoxNora is called "Burning Tree." COINCIDENCE!? _I think so..._
When I was a kid, I always, ALWAYS got stuck in Zork at the Cyclops part. Once among the hundred or so attempts at conversation with it, I mentioned Odysseus and it ran away in fear of the legendary Clops slayer. Superstition is a powerful weapon against the weak minded.
I think you tried too hard on Borboygmos ….. slow it down a bit, Bor - Bory - ga - mos ….. or just drop the Bor, and call him "Borygmos" Great video. lol, fun little giant to tinker with …….. So when them holding a beholder in high esteem. lol, what would happen if a beholder dreamed (and reproduced) a beholderkin/cyclops-kin hybrid lmao. and where in the Shining South book can that Cyclopsatorian playable race be found. page numbers would be awesome. lol,
I got a plastic cyclops mini from heroquest i think or dragonquest or whatever it was called.regardless the minis from the game survive the boards and cards and manuals are lost
8:36 Killed by predators such as tigers ?! How the fuck is a tiger going to kill a cyclop ? Is this a common occurence in DnD that tiger are just hunting cyclops for food ?
Tigers are quite large. About 12 feet (or about 4 meters?) from head to tail I think. Try to think how high the shoulders are on a creature that long. This is a creature big enough to kill pretty much whatever it wants.
Hi AJ, Just wanted to say thanks for all your great videos, I've found them very helpful when writing my campaign!Have you ever done a video on Star Spawn? If not, can I maybe request one?
I know I'm not a patreon subscriber but I just watched your Atropus video and it gives so much more better lore then the book. I would love to see more elder evils. Especially the one that's the thing that's broken in 2 and has it's mind trapped in a giant Crystal. (Forget the name and don't have book on me)
Pandorym. He's actually got a book dedicated to him in the Forgotten Realms setting. His entry into the Elder Evils book basically mirrors how you could run that book as a campaign for your players. Elder Evils was one of my favorite 3.5 books since it gave the template needed to make a "grand campaign" which you could then apply to any of the greater evils of the realm. Hell Juiblex is just the Demon Prince from the Abyss so you could use his entry as an example to play around with Grazzt, Demogorgon, or even Mephistopheles.
Greek mythology: Cyclops.. Those guys had massive amounts of third eye powers/abilities to use .(flying, lazor beams the list goes on and on and on) Some greek statues still have regular eyes when depicting a cyclops but they always felt unnecessary and some do not posses the regular eyes on the statue. Maybe that what happens when those guys only focus on the third eye for 100+ generations their regular eyes disappeared??. the Cyclops eye.. Kinda reminds me off Beholders. hmm ( the third eye is an organ inside the brain and thus some refer to it as the MINDS EYE) _after opening it, you can interact with spirits and all sorts of astral things. they can interact with you too.. so be very careful !_
I always thought of them as tall humanoids like elf's. I always thought they would have Thier noses in books, in a library or live in nature like druids. I always thought of them having dense skin, high intelligence or wisdom.
Never forget that the stats are just a template and they’re made to be changed. The stat block is just the average monster, so if you had a cyclops who was born smarter than others and found something that acted as a catalyst to lichdom I see no reason why a cyclops lich couldn’t be possible. Just really unlikely :P
Ecology of the Cyclops-Kin, it was in a DRagon, or dungeon magazine I own (In poor shape) but details a day in the life of a not quiet adult cyclops-kin, who killed a Troll, that is what you are reference some things like the lopped off foot, butter and cheese.
Give the chaotic neutral cyclops the half- celestial temple. Evil cyclops the half- fiend temple along with some squid/ fish features. Along with all the level/hd spell like abilites.
Beholder with a cyclopse army, telepathically linked to every single "eye" i can just hear it cackeling... All:"Am i cruel to the slaves? Well they're cruel to me, unlike my eyes that see, they're cruel most days in their under acknowledgment of me." reply "you're eating one of them now, there were still alive... When you started." ans "Oh i do that all the time here, we say to myself that fear frightened food is befit for my collective health, i do care. I'm not fattening, lo i am rippleling. Whats is being eaten alive, when one has a lifes live full of seeing me, muscular! and STRONG!?!?" *paladin and cleric in the party cross themselves* If not for your videos AJ, i would not have the monster that is in my mind here. 😈❤👍
I don't like the Cyclops D&D lore. It gives no respect to the Greek mythos by making them clumsy oafs. They made Posiden's Trident and Zeus's lightning bolts. Then you have the Fates that cyclops. Cyclops men should have been shepherds and blacksmith and have their wives being expert weavers. Cyclops future site should be the reason why they have one eye. They should also be able to manipulate the luck of any weapon. The spine and handle of weapon could hold all the good luck while the tip of the edge holds the concentrated bad luck.
Cold comfort, but actually didn't know this and adore this lore, so the cyclopsi in my setting are now going to reflect this. Thank you for the education
D&D Cyclopes are based on the race of Cyclopes as described by Homer and Euripides (i.e. cave-dwelling herders of sheep and goats, living either alone or with small family units over which the eldest male rules as unquestioned master, slaughtering and eating any who enter their land) rather than Hesiod (i.e. masterful craftsmen of the gods responsible for the making of divine weapons and the first altar). It is more-or-less accurate to Greek mythology, just not necessarily Hesiod. But it could also just be a matter of different Cyclopes, or different groups of Cyclopes, being different. It's not like Hesiod, Homer, or Euripides were describing all Cyclopes, or like their accounts really contradict each other. Who says all Cyclopes have to be the same?
The video **literally** points out that they're shepherds at about 7:28. Straight outta Greek mythos. ... no one claims D&D monsters are identical to Greek mythos. Or Norse/Scandanavian. Or Babylonian. Or Assyrian. or any place D&D monsters come from. For goodness' sake, in D&D a Gorgon and Medusa aren't even the same thing! And elves aren't the same as their inspiration. Nor Dwarves, nor halflings, nor anything else in the game. It's all just fantasy stereotypes. ... for goodness sake, Odysseus tricked the cyclops Polyphemus by telling him his name was "No man". ... literally, the cyclops didn't understand the phrase "no man". Sounds a little slow on the uptake to me. Which is not to say someone with a low, but normal, INT can't be a blacksmith, shepherd, or weaver. Just because they're not geniuses, doesn't mean they aren't capable. e.g Orcs.
I know this video is pretty old but I have a question. I have an idea for a villain but I’m not sure how to go about it. How would you run a cyclops king who much smarter than his common kin and seeks to better not only himself but his people as a whole. Noticing that cyclops are on the decline he seeks to carve his own kingdom where his people can thrive but at the same time get vengeance on those that have abused him and his people. How would you see this going down and is it even a good idea?
its a great idea, certainly see how the personality and straightforward, brutal tactics of the king play out with the player characters reactions. Always ready to adapt, every game is a little bit sandbox. 🙂
@@Im-Not-a-Dog Well i was not alone ^^ Still the best kill with acid breath was against a goblin that was hiding behind a wall and shooting arrows trough a arrow hole. i blow the acid trough the hole and melted him.
"Knowing their weakness, I sent wave after wave of my own men at them until they reached their limit and shut down." -Brannigan
"Who blinded you?"
"No one."
14:19 Kudos on dredging up the claymation cyclops from the old Sinbad movies!
I find it unfortunate that 5e excludes a decent portion of lore because of it being sensitive. With respect to those who have had experiences which taint their enjoyment of the game, I take Tolkien's approach: "Let their be wicked kings and beheadings, battles and dungeons, giants and dragons, and let villains be soundly killed at the end of the book" (the whole quote is much better than this excerpt btw).
My point is that understanding the true evil makes their defeat have so much more value. The knife of evil ought to have an edge so that defeating evil it makes the world a better place. The victory is dulled when evil's true nature is tamed from its inception.
This. I hate the fact that a villain can't have a negative trait because it would be a reminder/depiction of that trait. The villain should be xenophobic and treat others with contempt, if it's a characteristic of that villain. If the villain has a tendency of doing some rather unsavoury acts, let them(i mean, depends on the group you play with of course.). Make the PC hate them. Not all of them has to be sympathetic or grey complex characters, that way when one is, it's new and refreshing. If i may add a small idea, take inspiration by real life mobsters. Some of them have families and complex life stories, some of them are just horrible p.o.s. .The chief of a thieves' guild doesn't always have to be a whimsical charming rogue, it could be a regular looking criminal that is just very good at his job and ruthless. The blackguard that leads the undead army doesn't always has to be a tragic figure of a paladin that fell from grace. Maybe they were always just a s.o.b. and actually enjoy what they are doing. There is this, imho brilliantly written, character in Marvel comics called Sauron(i know, i know) that has the power of altering DNA . Spider-man questions him on his actions:" You can rewrite DNA on the fly, you could cure cancer but you use this power to transform people into dinosaurs?" to which Sauron responds :" But i don't want to cure cancer. I want to turn people into dinosaurs". That's it. Simple but brutal. You love to hate him.
Yay more A J Pickett videos.
irl connections to Odin makes cast of Cyclops (Who were sacrificing one eye for divintion boons) far more interresting than what d&d tells us, but who the hell would dare to tell me i can't make any giant a base for a subtype of cyclop with added features
One of my favorite original characters is a cutie cyclops. O3
Remember kids. Blind is a useful spell. Or trick them to drive.
AJ, with your background in biology, don’t you imagine that a bipedal creature with a single eye in its skull would have a different nasal and sinus setup? All of the art shows a face that looks totally human (if terribly ugly) from the cheekbones down, and the forehead up. I imagine something like two separate noses, leading to differentiated sinus cavities, allowing the eye to sit where it does in the art but with an unimpeded view, and direct nerve access to the brain. Lack of stereoscopic vision is reason enough for their lack of ranged weapon usage, but perhaps they’d gain advantage on skill checks involving smell. What’re your thoughts?
Hmmm, pretty much the same page there, a cyclops would probably just have one nostril and hey, maybe a brain without a division into twin lobes like the human brain.
heh, one eye two noses
I like the goat legged Cyclops the most.
Old school
Classic Ray Harryhausen
How big are fleas on a cyclops if they actually annoy them. do they have hamster sized fleas? house cat? golden retreiver? Just imagine killing the cyclops and trying to loot it and then 300 fleas attack you and they are all the size of a Duck.
YES! lmao!!! 👍
Funny as that is, I think it is a comment on how filthy they are. They are just completely covered in such parasites.
@@jacobfreeman5444 I was commentting on the part where the fleas irritate the giants and how also have thick skin.
@@kyleellis9177 Indeed, and I was commenting upon your comment.
@@jacobfreeman5444 No i mean AJ mentions the fleas irritate them. normal ones would do nothing and not even reach blood
cyclops combat doctrine: 'geek the mage first'
Are there any monsters in dnd that are like the hecatonceres (Hundred Handed)?
I had an idea for a Cyclopes that somehow learned eye rays like a Beholder but to a limited degree, they only can use one of the rays per Cyclopes and its can has a limited number of uses per day.
Like it for the legendary/ epic Cyclops. Suprise the experienced party with regenerating Cyclops with an anti- magic eye beam , similar to a beholder. I Love it when my players jaws hit the floor.." what..is...that...thing ?!" I'm gonna fly up to it,and poke it's eye out !" Suddenly, your fly spell fails, and you fall 30' to the ground in front of it. Oh oh...
@@aaronhumphrey2009 Actually the anti- magic cone sounds better then my idea of lasers, fits there hatred of magic and there melee fighting stile.
cyclops with rays! yes please!
Hey just found your chanal really enjoyed it .. I'm new to d&d .. your representation of the source material is very helpful... you have yourself a new fan. Thank you for the Fantastic content
Thanks Robert!
Hurray, another giant monster ecology video! I'll keep my 'eye' out for more, seems a w'eye'se move.
After seeing some of your kull videos, there was a great cyclops character in that movie. Thanks for reminding me 😀
Rell was a true hero.
Thank you for another great video!
Nice video AJ, gave me a bunch of story ideas actually, thanks.
I wish the Monster Manual would actually state the height of monsters. We're largely left guessing. At least they posted the average height of the true giants.
It used to be standard to do so.
I like that there are the common cyclops, dungeon dwelling monsters and the Greek ones from the dieties and demigods dnd books. that are gigantic and intelligent!!!!😉👍✌
For something to live as long as cyclops have existed with a major disadvantage in no depth perception i run mine with a heat sensory organ in the eye. so in the daylight with the warmth of the sun they have subpar vision. but in the cover of moonlight they can see sorta like snakes or the Predator.
Meanwhile, Pathfinder's default setting of Golarion makes cyclopes as descendants of ancient empires that spread around the world. Most important of them was Ghol-Gan, of which their mastery at divination was their greatest strength, and who achived great heights in literacy and astronomy (made easier by their huge one eye), which led them to worship of sun, moon, and celestial bodies. It spread both above and below the surface, but with decline of their military might and degeneration of their worship of celestial bodies to worship of nasty things that lurk in the void, it colapsed before Earthfall fit, destroying the great human magocracies of Azlant and Thassilon and creating the modern world, and only a scant amount of cyclopes loremasters and diviners that held onto their past achievements survived, hiding on the islands of Iblydos, which thanks to them became a magical Ancient Greece region. In a way, this is similar to the lore of cyclopeans you have mentioned.
Given that Gruumsh, the chief diety of all orcs, has one eye in the middle of his forehead it's only a matter of time he uses that fact to gain new followers.
Yet Elves already know how Gruumsh lost his eye. It's probable that Othea probably had an affair with Gruumsh at one point hence the Cyclopses.
I can totally see Othia having slept with Grummsh and that’s the reason Orcs can interbreed with Cyclops.
I like the cyclops in assassins creed odyssey the best, so I’ll try to recreate that fearful encounter in my d&d campaign.
2 days ago I had the most interesting D&D campaign of my life. Not because the campaign's content was interesting, but because of how I played it. Me and my friend skyped my girlfriend (who lives all the way in texas) and played it with her.
I lived in Sicily for several years, even taking part in a parade in a sainted town, costumed by fashion guru from Milan. XD. Cyclops, I got. XD
In my campaigns, the Cyclops' single eye is no disadvantage. Their single eye allows the same depth perception and peripheral vision as most creatures' two frontal eyes. My veteran players giggle in silence when a new player tries capitalizing on their "lack of depth perception" or whatever. I also have it so they never get old. They can actually live and grow forever for as long as they have food. A super-huge ravenous Cyclops appears every few centuries because of his appetite, hunting, and eventual cannibalism created the "dead zone" he came from. I love the assumption that the dead zone created the "strange supernaturally created mutant cyclops." It's my campaigns' decaffeinated answer to a Tarrasque... hard battle but not an almost guaranteed party annihilator. Also, like a Minotaur, a Cyclops can slow down food and water needs through a lethargic life if nothing is going on... those strange incidents where an isolated monster somehow is still alive like it is waiting for a party to come by and get eaten.
I gave mine a snake like heat vision so they are at a disadvantage in sunlight and around big fires because the heat hrows them off but in the darkness they know exactly were you are.
Do your cyclops have two pupils in the single eye? that would be really cool.
@@kyleellis9177 It's actually something I let biologically inclined players explore. The main difference is inside the Cyclops eye. The lens & control muscles are alternatively shaped, creating twin focal and overlay points on the same retina. Also, the optic nerve is a twin nerve. Earlier versions of my cyclopses did have two and sometimes three pupils. That alternative sense you added to yours is pretty cool too.
I like the intro. Don't think I would these guys on their own, maybe instead as the brutes to some giant who has convinced them his club is "very lucky" They fear him and his "lucky" *cough* magical *cough* club but he also fends off the occasional nightly visitor who thinks themselves clever enough to steal it. Of course few cyclopes ever really classify as clever.
I guess my point was the cyclops would be exelent mighty pychonic spellcasters. if there culture would be better
Anyone else remember Rell? A Cyclop from Krull? This movie is a cult classic.
Ah the best D&D movie that isn't D&D
Absolutely one of my all-time favorite movies, and yes, Rell is in the vid.
R.I.P Rell.
3:46 gives me an idea for a Cyclops Oracle that was driven from her tribe because of her connection to magic and the gods.
And she hates Cyclopses with a passion, this is a great idea for a quest giver.
The Dark master I kinda envisioned her as a bit more non caring about them and most things that aren’t in her visions. Her focus is drawn to a divine or cosmic level due to her connection to some form of higher power. The problems of her kind and of any other are insignificant compared to the visions of ruin on a interplanar scale. Perhaps she is seeing the effects of the Bloodwar spilling over to the Prime Material Plane? Perhaps it’s the result of the Dragon’s attempts to regain dominance? Perhaps it’s what remains after the Illithids gain control? She knows not what will cause what she is being granted visions of, but she knows it will happen, and if not stopped, it will cause the destruction of not only this plane but many others as well.
Or at least that’s how I’m planning on using the idea. You do whatever you want with the idea. There are very few ideas and concepts in D&D that I feel are set in stone, and this is definitely not one of them. 👍
NButler1993 Well your inspirering me with that, hmmm, maybe she knows exactly what to do to stop the ominous event that is portented to? Maybe it's a combination of all of those events making each other possible, and she's a level 20 mage. But what she can't do, can't be, is be In every place at once to stop it. So she's manipulating the party and multiple various other groups with the pretence forsight in reality of her near omniscient perception, and all the big bads are aware of her agency via the unmistakable collective specifics of the actions the adventurers take. So while they see quests an adventures, it's really 4D chess. Accurate notes of advice she's given, create moves that alter the game drastically when heeded. I've always loved the trope of an oracle that really is all that they're cracked up to be and more but that's "your problem" cos you're doing the leg work. And your gonna get some serious sass too. Enough sass and precognition to humble even the most dedicated murder hobo. You could even have a devil refuring to the collective party by the oracles name. Or effectively fight much higher leveled enemies that would otherwize TPK just by heeding her advice. 👍
The Dark master Exactly. She’s blessed with knowledge, but unable to act on it because of physical limitations, the primary of which is that she’s a Cyclops and 9 out of 10 adventurers try to kill them on sight. She’s found a group willing to heed her portents, and she’ll send them to the places shown to her in her visions. Things like she sees a castle of flame with a pillar of fire coming out of it burning the very sky, and she sends the party to a long forgotten kingdom, now being used as a stronghold by fire giants. When the party clears the castle of giants they find some weird/special object which when presented to her will trigger the Oracle’s next vision, thus continuing the quest line. Have all of the bad guy factions you encounter being ran by one incredibly powerful interplanar bad guy who’s akin to a dark god of some sorts.
NButler1993 Aye, but the bad guy factions don't know that they're all being used by the dark god to complete an intricate grand magical ritual - which is all of them simultaneously achieving all there evil goals, like living spell ingredients & a prophesy combined. And thats what she's trying to stop, not the dragons, demons or ilithids. Great evils by surviving themselves not really knowing that they're surving a greater evil, needing each others success not realising that they are as much puppets as the P.C.s themselves are. Maybe the dark god could even communicate to the evil factions leaders/big bads indirrectly and annoymously, and you could dice roll to see if they take the advice, and if they do, it tip the scales of the quests to make them far more difficult to complete. If the P.C.s "win", they get to kill & loot all the evil factions, and prevent the appocalypse/birth of a great evil on their world. But if they "loose" the oracle is killed and looted by a sizable army of random adventurers coalescing to kill the "evil" cyclops oracle, dooming the world by slaying it's un imagined divinely chosen saviour. Maybe thats why she hates cyclopses? Because their savage reputation is the only thing that the dark god can actually use to take her out? 👍
Love your content man, you and dungeon dad are awesome with this.
she lives in a royal court; she's a lore bard; she's a smart Cyclops!
let your PCs wrap that around their heads!
last time I was this early... ok I've never been this early
@FlyingAxblade That's right, TMG designs are enchanted to give dogs a massive charisma bonus.
15:41 This guy looks like the Gith equivalent of a Cyclops.
I checked to see if there was anything related to cyclopses on 1d4chan. Dissapointingly there's only one or two paragraphs and a picture of a monster-girl cyclops.
Fairly typical.
1:10 Oh, wow. Didn't expect to see a Young Cyclops. Also, fun fact: the starter battlegroup (deck) you get in PoxNora is called "Burning Tree."
COINCIDENCE!? _I think so..._
Wow, someone else knows about poxnora here. Nice!
When I was a kid, I always, ALWAYS got stuck in Zork at the Cyclops part. Once among the hundred or so attempts at conversation with it, I mentioned Odysseus and it ran away in fear of the legendary Clops slayer. Superstition is a powerful weapon against the weak minded.
*Blessed is the mind too small for doubt.*
I thought it meant they had pretty eyes? Thanks for sharing.
I like the thought of holding clubs to a standard. Sound advice from a cyclops...
Omg, is this a Giants intro? Hype.
Sure is!
@@AJPickett I love it. It's very appropriate
Whats up AJ? Hope alls well with you and yours bro! 😁
Did you just say. Tigers kill cyclops?
God i hate these videos. They make me want to put all these monsters in my campaign!!
I regret NOTHING
You are the real monster!
Borborygmos!!!! Time to cast Through the Breach them discard some lands for lightning bolts!!
I think you tried too hard on Borboygmos ….. slow it down a bit, Bor - Bory - ga - mos ….. or just drop the Bor, and call him "Borygmos" Great video. lol, fun little giant to tinker with …….. So when them holding a beholder in high esteem. lol, what would happen if a beholder dreamed (and reproduced) a beholderkin/cyclops-kin hybrid lmao. and where in the Shining South book can that Cyclopsatorian playable race be found. page numbers would be awesome. lol,
I got a plastic cyclops mini from heroquest i think or dragonquest or whatever it was called.regardless the minis from the game survive the boards and cards and manuals are lost
8:36 Killed by predators such as tigers ?!
How the fuck is a tiger going to kill a cyclop ? Is this a common occurence in DnD that tiger are just hunting cyclops for food ?
Don't underestimate just how formidable a Tiger is.
I've seen footage of tigers hunting human riding elephants... Which they were riding to intimidate the tigers to get from A to B.
Tigers crush a bear's skull in one strike. Tigers should strike fear into anyone's heart.
Tigers are quite large. About 12 feet (or about 4 meters?) from head to tail I think. Try to think how high the shoulders are on a creature that long. This is a creature big enough to kill pretty much whatever it wants.
Hey man long time no see. I think it is time to do a video on the molydeus
Well, they are certainly on my list (bumps them up a notch).
Cyclopses are some of my favorite mosnters to run due to their supestition.
Beholders have 1 eye?
Umm.....
In the center of the face, above their mouth, much like a... dun dun dun... cyclops. :)
@@AJPickett
The Roper is a single eyed creature possible closer akin to a cyclops than the Beholder... because the roper doesn't have eye stalks.
@@fhuber7507 Ropers will eat Cyclops though, Beholders at least, can look at Cyclops as something other than food.
Good video AJ
Thanks AJ.
Hi AJ, Just wanted to say thanks for all your great videos, I've found them very helpful when writing my campaign!Have you ever done a video on Star Spawn? If not, can I maybe request one?
You sure can. I've added it to my list.
Awesome, thanks! I'll be sure to keep an eye out for it :)
that Cyclops at 1:13, guess he has morning wood
3dagalathor That’s what a Cyclops Urinal looks like. The sheath like design prevents poor aim, which is a major problem when you only have one eye.
I know I'm not a patreon subscriber but I just watched your Atropus video and it gives so much more better lore then the book. I would love to see more elder evils. Especially the one that's the thing that's broken in 2 and has it's mind trapped in a giant Crystal. (Forget the name and don't have book on me)
Pandorym. He's actually got a book dedicated to him in the Forgotten Realms setting. His entry into the Elder Evils book basically mirrors how you could run that book as a campaign for your players. Elder Evils was one of my favorite 3.5 books since it gave the template needed to make a "grand campaign" which you could then apply to any of the greater evils of the realm. Hell Juiblex is just the Demon Prince from the Abyss so you could use his entry as an example to play around with Grazzt, Demogorgon, or even Mephistopheles.
Greek mythology: Cyclops.. Those guys had massive amounts of third eye powers/abilities to use .(flying, lazor beams the list goes on and on and on) Some greek statues still have regular eyes when depicting a cyclops but they always felt unnecessary and some do not posses the regular eyes on the statue. Maybe that what happens when those guys only focus on the third eye for 100+ generations their regular eyes disappeared??. the Cyclops eye.. Kinda reminds me off Beholders. hmm ( the third eye is an organ inside the brain and thus some refer to it as the MINDS EYE) _after opening it, you can interact with spirits and all sorts of astral things. they can interact with you too.. so be very careful !_
But still in the end of the day Cyclops are still stupid as hell like a hail Giants
My name is " No One."
My friend here is " Never Mind."
And that over there, the rest of us are ," Go Away !"
I would love to know how you do those intros, they are really good.
introchamp.com/
I always thought of them as tall humanoids like elf's. I always thought they would have Thier noses in books, in a library or live in nature like druids. I always thought of them having dense skin, high intelligence or wisdom.
Whomst dislike this???? The real monsters are YT trolls.
None, ever. Mistakes be damned, amirite? XD
So having low intelligence, there can't be a cyclops lich?
That's nothing a headband of intellect can't fix.
Never forget that the stats are just a template and they’re made to be changed. The stat block is just the average monster, so if you had a cyclops who was born smarter than others and found something that acted as a catalyst to lichdom I see no reason why a cyclops lich couldn’t be possible. Just really unlikely :P
Highly unlikely according to existing lore.
So a giant skeleton with a Death Tyrant as a head?
Ecology of the Cyclops-Kin, it was in a DRagon, or dungeon magazine I own (In poor shape) but details a day in the life of a not quiet adult cyclops-kin, who killed a Troll, that is what you are reference some things like the lopped off foot, butter and cheese.
in ancient Greek lore the cyclops are all the children of Poseidon
Give the chaotic neutral cyclops the half- celestial temple.
Evil cyclops the half- fiend temple along with some squid/ fish features.
Along with all the level/hd spell like abilites.
AJ do quaggoths at some point!
I'm getting there :)
Beholder with a cyclopse army, telepathically linked to every single "eye" i can just hear it cackeling... All:"Am i cruel to the slaves? Well they're cruel to me, unlike my eyes that see, they're cruel most days in their under acknowledgment of me." reply "you're eating one of them now, there were still alive... When you started." ans "Oh i do that all the time here, we say to myself that fear frightened food is befit for my collective health, i do care. I'm not fattening, lo i am rippleling. Whats is being eaten alive, when one has a lifes live full of seeing me, muscular! and STRONG!?!?" *paladin and cleric in the party cross themselves* If not for your videos AJ, i would not have the monster that is in my mind here. 😈❤👍
*female cyclops gives birth* "I am expAAAnd - ding!"
I can't quite parse what that word salad means.
I don't like the Cyclops D&D lore. It gives no respect to the Greek mythos by making them clumsy oafs. They made Posiden's Trident and Zeus's lightning bolts. Then you have the Fates that cyclops. Cyclops men should have been shepherds and blacksmith and have their wives being expert weavers. Cyclops future site should be the reason why they have one eye. They should also be able to manipulate the luck of any weapon. The spine and handle of weapon could hold all the good luck while the tip of the edge holds the concentrated bad luck.
Yes thank you!!! The three cyclopes who worked for Hephaestus were unsung mighty heroes in Greek Myth. And they didn't stink😉😉😉!
Cold comfort, but actually didn't know this and adore this lore, so the cyclopsi in my setting are now going to reflect this. Thank you for the education
I think the lore is drawn from the Polyphemus story to make them more monstrous, hence their crudity.
D&D Cyclopes are based on the race of Cyclopes as described by Homer and Euripides (i.e. cave-dwelling herders of sheep and goats, living either alone or with small family units over which the eldest male rules as unquestioned master, slaughtering and eating any who enter their land) rather than Hesiod (i.e. masterful craftsmen of the gods responsible for the making of divine weapons and the first altar).
It is more-or-less accurate to Greek mythology, just not necessarily Hesiod. But it could also just be a matter of different Cyclopes, or different groups of Cyclopes, being different. It's not like Hesiod, Homer, or Euripides were describing all Cyclopes, or like their accounts really contradict each other. Who says all Cyclopes have to be the same?
The video **literally** points out that they're shepherds at about 7:28. Straight outta Greek mythos.
... no one claims D&D monsters are identical to Greek mythos. Or Norse/Scandanavian. Or Babylonian. Or Assyrian. or any place D&D monsters come from. For goodness' sake, in D&D a Gorgon and Medusa aren't even the same thing!
And elves aren't the same as their inspiration.
Nor Dwarves, nor halflings, nor anything else in the game.
It's all just fantasy stereotypes. ... for goodness sake, Odysseus tricked the cyclops Polyphemus by telling him his name was "No man". ... literally, the cyclops didn't understand the phrase "no man". Sounds a little slow on the uptake to me.
Which is not to say someone with a low, but normal, INT can't be a blacksmith, shepherd, or weaver. Just because they're not geniuses, doesn't mean they aren't capable. e.g Orcs.
Do they inadvertently count as Tymora followers, due to their simpleton belief of "luck?"
If they devote any measure of belief to the luck portfolio, then Tymora is getting a piece of that, yes.
I know this video is pretty old but I have a question. I have an idea for a villain but I’m not sure how to go about it.
How would you run a cyclops king who much smarter than his common kin and seeks to better not only himself but his people as a whole. Noticing that cyclops are on the decline he seeks to carve his own kingdom where his people can thrive but at the same time get vengeance on those that have abused him and his people.
How would you see this going down and is it even a good idea?
its a great idea, certainly see how the personality and straightforward, brutal tactics of the king play out with the player characters reactions. Always ready to adapt, every game is a little bit sandbox. 🙂
Now this is a race for a freeza-like villain to (in his eyes) justify his xenophobia
nice
One of the first monster i encounter. And one of the first i melted with acid breath.
Cavare Envius Dragonborn Vs Cyclops is a fight I would watch.
@@Im-Not-a-Dog Well i was not alone ^^ Still the best kill with acid breath was against a goblin that was hiding behind a wall and shooting arrows trough a arrow hole. i blow the acid trough the hole and melted him.
is there a cyclop race in D&D similar to the cyclops of Greek mythology that are master craftsmen?
yay ejai, its t. cyclops, yay!
That lady orical Cyclops looks interesting I think I'm going to use her in a campin
Or she's a normal lady Cyclops but if I wanted to make an out cast that took up some kind of site seeing I could make an box that's an orical
What would cyclopes think of a nothic then?
"Bad Eating"