after designing shea’s and sennan’s masks i really had to try my hand at the rest of the gang and the possible masquerade also means.. dancing @virtues-end
quick portrait of my character for Arelith in NWN, Rhiain. Drow rogue.
boblin the goblin: a portrait (my husband's Arelith character😄)
Current plans for the homebrew game are to repeatedly introduce peculiar old women that AREN’T hags and see how long it it takes the PCs to get a murder charge.
Then a creepy old dude offers to help them out of the jam for a price… dude’s a he-hag.
Then… were any of the old ladies real? Were they creations of the dude designed to set them up because he knows his sisters fuck with adventurers to the point that any old woman is instantly suspect.
Excited to finally share the background I did for @//BrettUltimus (on twitter) for the ‘Into The Shadow’s Breach’ stream!! This was a real fun one to work on 😈✨
One day ill take it easy on the vibrant colors… one day…
Monster of the Month - Otyugh
Hullo, Gentle Readers. September is here, the heat seems to finally be dropping a bit, and we have a new Monster of the Month. This month, we're looking at that delightfully disgusting garbage-dweller - the Otyugh. As always, big thanks to Scott Fabianek for providing the wonderfully gross original art.
Otyughs are one of those monsters that're pure D&D. They aren't based on mythology or a story; one must assume they came out of Gary Gygax's imagination. appearing first in 1977's Monster Manual. I've seen speculation that they may be based on the trash-compactor monster from Star Wars (the dianoga if you're as geeky as me), but the Monster Manual came out only about seven months later, so that doesn't seem super-likely.
Otyughs inhabit an important place in a dungeon's ecosystem; they get rid of carrion, offal, and other nasty waste. It's not hard to imagine dungeon dwellers learning to take advantage of an otyugh's presence, throwing their leavings down a pit to be dealt with the nasty thing. "Dump that bucket down the well, but if you hear or see anything funny, move away quick. Old Slargbargh's down there, and he'll eat fresh as soon as rotten."
Looking at an otyugh's stat block, we see a lot of interesting stuff. They're aberrations, which suggests that they originally hail from the Far Realm. This makes sense, given their monstrous appearance, their tentacles, and their touch of psionic power in the form of their limited telepathy (more on that later). Their abilities are decent, but their high Constitution save makes them extremely hearty creature...makes sense that a beast that wallows in filth is unlikely to succumb to poison, disease, and the like.
It has a nice, solid multi-attack of a bite and two tentacles. Given that the tentacles have a 10 foot reach, and they enforce both the Grappled and Restrained conditions on their targets, this is clearly its primary mode of attack. The bite, although shorter in reach, does more damage and carries a very nasty disease. Not only does that impose the Poisoned condition, but it carries a wasting sickness as well that slowly drains the sick person's maximum hit points. While this sounds scary, characters able to take on the otyugh (with its challenge rating of 5) are likely to have access to the lesser restoration spell.
The really fun sounding ability an otyugh has is its power to tentacle slam creatures. The image of this bloated, monstrous creature either slamming grappled opponents into each other, the ground ,a wall, the ceiling, etc is very cinematic. And not only do they take a decent amount of damage (more than the original tentacle damage, actually), but they can be Stunned as well. Very dangerous situation for the PCs.
By far the most unique element of an otyugh encounter is the creature's limited telepathy. Otyughs only speak their own language, but they can transmit simple messages and images to creatures. Since they're not particularly stealthy, this seems like a good way for an otyugh to lure its prey in. As you get closer to the pit, you hear a cry, like a child, from within. You can't make out the words, but they sound so pathetic. Surely you can't abandon the tyke!
As I mentioned before, an otyugh seems like a really likely creature for other dungeon denizens to know about and to use. The bullywugs might pretend they have treasure hidden in the midden pit, or they might tell the PCs that's here they've got the prisoners stashed. When the PCs seem to hear a call for help, that'll add to the scene the bullyugs are laying. But what emerges as they approach, or lashes tentacles out at them, certainly isn't the prisoners. Let's hope the prisoners are elsewhere, because, otherwise, they're likely in the belly of the beast!
This is a monster I would be sure to describe in lavish detail, especially when describing the nauseating smell of it, the sucking, smacking sounds of its huge mouth, the pain of the piercing tentacle barbs, and the foul breath and rotten teeth as someone gets dragged into a bite. I would 100% play up the scene for complete grossness.
I hope this article has you drooling to add an otyugh to your adventure. Next month is October, so we're bringing a creepy creature of darkness from Japanese mythology into the light. Until then, may you spot the otyugh in the garbage before it spots you!
When the DM asks you to make a saving throw that your character is shit in.
Fucking Wis saves…
As a longtime fan of aasimar, I'm Big Mad about ardlings from the new Unearthed Arcana.
I've been saying for years that aasimar should be in the PHB. They are the other side of the planetouched coin with tieflings. So what's this business of, instead of giving the aasimar their due at last, putting out a whole new celestial planetouched race that completely steal the aasimars' entire steeze except they have animal heads like Egyptian gods and there's no Fallen option.
I'm just...why would you do this??????????????? DnD already has an assload of beast races to choose from, so we're not even giving anything new to the furries. We already have a perfectly good celestial planetouched race and they decided to shaft them again to give their seat on the PHB bus and their parallel with tieflings to a whole new race. Why, WotC? Why??????????
Like fine, if you want to have a whole Egyptian god animal head people thing, that's cool, but don't shaft another popular race to do it, please. Make it a distinctly different thing.
I would love Celestials that represent servants of deities from many different cultures. Aasimar are already a thing and Ardlings feel like “what if Aasimar had an animal head” instead of bothering to make them unique. That said, I want to reiterate that the celestials and fiends of all cultures should have a place in D&D.
Just like they changed Tieflings to have a common visually distinct appearance across the entire race instead of the infinite variations that were a thing in 3.5 they’re doing it to their celestial counterparts and sidestepping backlash by making it a seperate race.
I know they said Aasimar are still a thing but Ardlings are clearly being positioned as the opposite of Tieflings and that’s what Aasimar have been until now. Ardlings should make their own niche not squeeze something that already has a place and connection to D&D out of theirs.
If it’s just an attempt to make a beast race, import shifters or make a generic beast race with different animal type sub races…
