Monstrous Races 2

Monstrous Races 2
Character Options for Playing Every Monster in

Volo’s Guide to Monsters
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Races 1
Monstrous Races 2
Character Options for Playing

Every Monster in the Monster Manual
The follow-up to Monstrous Races, this document contains additional
race options based on the new monsters presented in Volo’s Guide to
Monsters.
by Tyler Kamstra
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Races 2
Contents
Contents ........................... 3 Firenewt Giant Strider ................... 33 Wood Woad .................................. 75
Flail Snail ........................................ 34 Xvart .............................................. 76
Introduction ...................... 4
Froghemoth ................................... 35 Yeth Hound ................................... 77
How to Use This Document ............. 4 Giants ............................................. 36 Yuan-Ti .......................................... 78
Design Notes ................................... 4 Girallon .......................................... 39 Assorted Beasts .............. 82
Included Art ..................................... 4 Gnolls ............................................. 40
Aurochs ......................................... 82
New Rules & Rules Grungs............................................ 41
Cattle ............................................. 82
Clarifications ..................... 5 Guard Drake ................................... 43
Dolphin .......................................... 84
Healing Constructs and Undead ...... 5 Hags ............................................... 44
Rot Grub ........................................ 84
Monks and Natural Weapons .......... 5 Hobgoblins ..................................... 45
Ki-rin .............................................. 45
Feats ............................... 86
Templates ........................................ 5
Somatic Components ...................... 6 Kobolds .......................................... 46 General Feats ................................ 86
Tiny Creatures ................................. 6 Korred ............................................ 46 Racial Feats ................................... 86
Unconsciousness and Immunity ...... 6 Leucrotta........................................ 48 Design Notes ................................. 90
Monstrous Races .............. 7 Meenlock ....................................... 48 Backgrounds ................... 91

Mind Flayers .................................. 50 Born of Magic ................................ 91
Banderhobb ..................................... 7
Mindwitness .................................. 53
Barghest .......................................... 8 Dungeon Denizen .......................... 92
Morkoth ......................................... 54 Locale Spirit ................................... 93
Beholders ...................................... 10
Neogi .............................................. 56 Suggested Characteristics ............. 93
Bodak ............................................. 13
Neothelid ....................................... 57
Boggle ............................................ 14 Magic Items .................... 95
Nilbog............................................. 58
Catoblepas ..................................... 16 Spells .............................. 97
Orcs ................................................ 59
Cave Fisher .................................... 17
Quicklings....................................... 62 Spell Lists ....................................... 97
Chitine ........................................... 18
Redcap ........................................... 63 Spell Descriptions .......................... 97
Cranium Rats ................................. 20
Sea Spawn ...................................... 64 Appendix: Campaign Ideas
Darkling ......................................... 21
Shadow Mastiff .............................. 66 ....................................... 98
Deep Scion [Template: Acquired] .. 22
Slithering Tracker ........................... 67
Demons ......................................... 23 Appendix: Character Ideas
Spawn of Kyuss .............................. 68
Devourer........................................ 26 ....................................... 99
Tlincalli ........................................... 70
Dinosaurs ....................................... 28 Appendix: Party Ideas ... 100
Trapper .......................................... 71
Draegloth ....................................... 31
Vargouille ....................................... 71
Firenewts ....................................... 32
Vegepygmies .................................. 73
Races 3
Introduction
race, and design notes about the creation of the race
which are presented to help you adjust races if you
decide to do so.
This document is a supplemental text seeking to
expand upon the character options available to players. Design Notes
Each race presented in this document attempts to stay
Races in this document all built using my own Race
roughly balanced with the races included in the
Builder system, which is presented in the original
Player’s Handbook.
Monstrous Races. Races built with this system are
This document makes no assumptions of setting,
intended to fall roughly within a range of 8-10 Build
purpose, or usage. It is merely an attempt to open new
Points (BP) in order to keep them roughly balanced
and interesting options, and to allow you to do with
against published races and other races in this
them whatever you like.
document. The Design Notes in this document descrive
Monstrous Races is not required to use and enjoy
the process of adapting each creature’s monster entry
most of the races in this document, but the original
into a playable race using this system.
Monstrous Races document contains the base traits for
While this document does not contain the full race
some races which receive new options in the
builder rules with which to create or customize races,
supplement, plus additional content such as feats,
each race entry includes suggestions on making minor
backgrounds, and a more detailed explanation of the
adjustments to strengthen or weaken the race without
process and mechanics which I used to design and
need for the full Race Builder rules.
balance the races in this document. This document
All races are also assumed to be “intelligent”, and
contains variants, templates, and racial feats intended
are assumed to be in the normal range of Intelligence,
for use with races presented in the original Monstrous
Wisdom, and Charisma scores normally afforded to
Races document. These items may not be usable as-
Player Characters. Any in-game reasons behind this
written without access to the original Monstrous
sudden leap in mental capacity are left entirely to you
Races.
to determine, and options like the awaken spell make a
How to Use This Document fine explanation.
Many of the creatures presented in Volo’s Guide to
Allowing “monstrous” or otherwise abnormal races in Monsters are variations upon the creatures presented
your game is a decision which the DM should make, in the Monster Manual. Some of these are functionally
likely after discussing the subject with other members similar to the base creature with improved stats, like
of the group. Allowing monstrous races can have the Gnoll Hunter. In these cases, the monster entries
strange implications for your game that your group are ignored by this document, as they can be easily
should be willing to accept. For those groups brave replicated by using the race presented in Monstrous
enough to adventure as monsters, this document seeks Races and adding class levels.
to provide an easily-accessible source of new options. However, some of these creatures present new
If you choose to allow content from this document, features unique to the race and not available as class
you don’t necessarily need to allow everything features, such as the Storm Giant Quintessent. In many
contained herein. If your group wishes to allow a set of of these cases, the monster entry is presented as a
the contained races, but disallow others, that’s fine racial feat for use by the race presented in the original
too. For example: your group might allow a handful of Monstrous Races document.
specifically chosen races that fit a theme, or you might
consider allowing all humanoid races. Included Art
Once you have selected what content your group will
The art included in this document is all free art taken
allow, treat those races just like you would any race in
from the creator resources provided by Wizards of the
the Player’s Handbook while creating new
Coast on DM’s Guild. If you wish to reuse these images,
characters. The races in this document work just like
I encourage you to download the official creator
existing playable races, and use all the same rules.
resources for the original images.
Each race includes sections on the race’s flavor and
concept, the race’s traits, suggestions for playing that
Races 4
New Rules & Rules
to customize them. These templates include iconic
creatures like liches, lycanthropes, and skeletons.
While the existing rules work well for monsters, they
Clarifications
don’t function well for player characters, and granting
players a template like lycanthropy presents a huge
power increase, often at little cost.
While this document attempts to live within the The alternate rules presented here are intended as a
confines of existing rules, adapting some parts of the replacement for the existing rules, allowing players to
monster manual requires some new concepts and use templates without gaining an unfair benefit over
mechanics. other player characters, and presenting easily used
means to play iconic creatures like vampires and
Healing Constructs and Undead werewolves while still fitting into the normal bounds of
The most common magical healing options (cure the game.
wounds, healing word, and heal) do not affect
constructs or undead. This creates a unique challenge Natural vs. Acquired templates
for players hoping to play those creature types. Natural templates are templates which must be
Jeremy Crawford suggested on twitter that applied to a creature at creation. These templates are
constructs and undead could heal themselves by specific to some circumstance of the creature's birth or
resting, just as living creatures can, and also noted that creation, such as the half-dragon template or the
the Regenerate spell still applies to constructs and skeleton template.
undead. Acquired templates can be applied to a creature at
In addition to these options, I recommend any point as specified by the specific template, and
introducing matching spells which only affect represent a dramatic change to the creature at some
constructs and undead. Repair damage matches cure point in their existence, such as a creature and
wounds, word of repair matches healing word, and returning as a ghost, or a creature being afflicted with
repair matches heal. You might also introduce more lycanthropy.
spells for newer options like healing spirit, published in Some templates can be either natural or acquired,
Xanathar’s Guide to Everything. Any class which has such as the lycanthrope template. In these cases, the
the normal version of the spell on their spell list should template’s description elaborates on the mechanics of
have the “repair” version on their spell list. acquiring the template.
Alternatively, you could allow undead to be healed
by necrotic damage. However, since necrotic damage is Acquiring Templates
available as a cantrip, I don’t advise this. Natural templates can be applied to valid creatures
when the creature is created, and acquired templates
Monks and Natural Weapons can be applied to valid creatures at any time, as
specified by the template's description. All templates
Monks gain a superhuman ability to deal damage with
apply a set of traits immediately upon gaining the
their unarmed strikes. While this causes no issues for
template.
humans and similar races, creatures which have
powerful natural weapons already deal more unarmed
Template Levels
strike damage than 1st-level monks.
In addition to the traits applied when a template is
For the purposes of Martial Arts and Flurry of Blows,
initially applied, some templates also have "template
the bonus unarmed strikes made as a Bonus Action
levels." These levels function similarly to gaining levels
must be conventional unarmed strikes: punches, kicks,
in a class, but when you can or must take them is
etc. instead of relying upon claws, teeth, etc. These
dictated by the template itself. More powerful
attacks deal bludgeoning damage, and follow the
templates will require more levels.
standard Monk Unarmed Strike damage progression.
Template levels grant hit dice, as specified in the
Templates template's description. Template levels may only be
taken by characters with at least one class level. A
The Monster Manual introduces the concept of character's proficiency bonus advances with their total
Templates, which can be applied to existing creatures
Races 5
level, including any template levels, just as if they had remove the Reach property if the weapon possesses it
taken levels in a class. normally.
Weapons with the tiny property deal reduced
Removing Templates damage, as per the table below, and weigh one quarter
If a character ever loses a template, such as by being the normal weight for that type of weapon, and have
cured of a curse, they immediately lose any traits half the range of the normal weapon (if any). Ranged
gained from the template. If they have levels in the weapons, thrown weapons, and thrown improvised
template, they lose those levels and may replace them weapons with the tiny property have ranges equal to
with the same number of levels in a class upon half of their normal range, rounded down to the
completing a long rest. nearest 5 feet and to a minimum range of 5 feet. In
addition, weapons with the Tiny property ignore the
Somatic Components restrictions described in the preceding paragraph since
The rules for somatic components states that “the they are size appropriately for tiny creatures.
caster must have free use of at least one hand”. As Original Damage Tiny Damage
written, this requires an actual hand. However, the 1d4 1
core rules are clearly intended to cover humanoid 1d6 1
races, and this document ranges far beyond 1d8 1d2
1d10 1d3
humanoids, venturing into creatures like beholders and 1d12/2d6 1d4
rocs, which clearly don’t have hands. However, lack of Tiny creatures use armor which weighs less than
perfectly human-like hands should not prevent a race armor for small or medium creatures. Armor made for
from performing somatic components. tiny creatures weighs one quarter of the armor’s listed
Any creature can peform somatic components weight.
appropriate to their forms, whatever that form may be. Finally, tiny creatures can lift and carry one quarter
However, any circumstance which would prevent a the amount which a medium or small creature would
human from performing somatic components, such as be able to carry with the same Strength score.
being tightly restrained, similarly prevents monstrous
races from performing somatic components. Unconsciousness and Immunity
Tiny Creatures The Monster Manual presents a long list of creatures
with immunity to the Unconcious condition. However,
Due to their small stature, tiny creatures require it’s never explicitly explained what happens to these
additional mechanics not covered in the core rules. creatures when they drop to 0 hit points. The text in
Being the size of a house cat carries certain question, taken from the “Dropping to 0 Hit Points”
complications not faced by common humanoid races section, is as follows:
like halflings and elves. “When you drop to 0 hit points, you either die
Tiny creatures have difficulty using weapons which outright or fall unconscious”
small and medium creatures can wield comfortably. While this isn’t explicitly stated anywhere, it seems
Tiny creatures may not use weapons made for larger reasonable that if you’re presented with two options
creatures unless they have the Light property. Using and one options is disallowed, you must take the other
those weapons requires two hands and negates the option. Therefore, creatures that are immune to
Finesse property, and tiny creatures suffer unconsciousness are outright slain when they fall to 0
disadvantage on attack rolls with those weapons. Tiny hit points.
creatures may not use weapons for larger creatures to Several of the races presented in this document are
engage in two-weapon fighting, even though they have immune to the Unconcious condition. This presents a
the Light property, just as a medium creature cannot tradeoff for those races. They are immune to effects
use two two-handed weapons for two-weapon which would render them prematurely unconscious,
fighting. such as the sleep spell. However, they also lose the
Due to their inability to use weapons made for larger relative safety of falling unconscious during a difficult
creatures, tiny creatures usually wield weapons better fight. Expect these players to play more defensively
suited to their size. Such weapons add the Tiny weapon than usual, and possibly to flee when the possibility of
property, in addition to any other properties, and 0 hit points seems likely.
Races 6
Monstrous Races
Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 ft.
Bite. Your unarmed strikes deal 1d8 piercing damage
on a hit.
When you take the Attack action and make an
unarmed strike, you can use a bonus action to initiate a
grapple with the target of your successful unarmed
strike.
Can’t Speak. You are unable to speak, but are still
able to read, write, and understand any languages
which you know. You are unable to perform verbal
spell components.
Darkvision. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of
you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it
were dim light. You can’t discern color in darkness, only
shades of gray.
Natural Armor. While unarmored, your AC is equal
to 12 + your Dexterity modifier.
Resonant Connection. If you have even a tiny piece
of a creature or an object in its possession, such as a
lock of hair or a splinter of wood, you know the most
direct route to that creature or object if it is within 1
mile of you.
Shadow Stealth. While in dim light or darkness, you
can take the Hide action as a bonus action.
Tongue. As an action, you may use your extendable
tongue to draw foes toward you. Make a melee
weapon attack as though you were making an unarmed
strike against a creature within 15 feet. On a hit, you
deal as much damage as you would normally deal with
an unarmed strike, but the damage dealt is necrotic
damage rather than its normal damage type. In
addition, you pull the target into an adjacent
unoccupied space. If you pull the foe adjacent to you,
you can use a bonus action to initiate a grapple as
though you had attacked with your bite.
Languages. You can understand, read, and write in
Common.
Banderhobb Playing a Banderhobb

Banderhobbs are strong and make excellent grapplers.
Horrifying shadow creatures which resemble bipedal Their Tongue ability allows them to keep foes nearby,
toads with massive, toothy maws. and their ability to grapple easily makes them great at
isolating and overpowering single foes. Consider
Banderhobb Traits classes like barbarian and fighter which can capitalize
Banderhobbs share the following racial traits. on the Banderhobb’s capabilities in melee.
Creature Type. Monstrosity. Banderhobbs are summoned via a secret ritual for
Ability Score Increase. +1 Strength, +1 Constitution. some specific, nefarious purpose by an evil creature.
Alignment. Summoned for nefarious purposes and Banderhobbs pursue that goal as instructed with little
giving no concern to whatever pain or damage they care for anything else. In a party with a specific goal in
might cause, most Banderhobbs are neutral evil. mind, a benefactor might introduce a banderhobb to
Size. Your size is medium. the party, or one of the party members might discover
Races 7
the ritual to conjure a banderhobb to serve them. At 10 BP, the Banderhobb is at the top of our target
Consider who your master is, as you are wholly bound range of 8-10 BP. If you want to strengthen the
to follow their instructions, your brief existence ending Banderhobb, grant it a +1 Constition bonus or add
when your task is complete. natural armor. If you want to weaken the Banderhobb,
reduce its natural weapon damage.
Design Notes
Banderhobbs are mostly simple, but they have a few Barghest
interesting abilities which we haven’t seen before.
Canine fiends the size of horses, barghests were
We’ll tackle the easy stuff first, then dive into the
created to prey upon and consume the souls of goblins.
unique abilities once we have an idea of how much BP
we have to work with. Banderhobbs also have a Barghest Traits
Swallow ability just like the Giant Frog, so we’ll borrow share the following racial traits.
design decisions from the Giant Frog. Creature Type. Fiend.
Banderhobbs are monstrosities, costing 0.5 BP but Ability Score Increase. +1 Strength, +1 Dexterity
offering no specific abilities. Alignment. Fiends created to prey upon sentient
Banderhobb’s have excellent Strength and creatures, most barghests are neutral evil.
Constitution. Increasing both by 2 would make sense, Size. Your size is medium.
but we’ll need to conserve BP, so we’ll grant +1 to Speed. Your base walking speed is 60 ft.
Strength for 1 BP. Bite and Claw. Your unarmed strikes deal 1d8
From the stat block, we get medium size (down from piercing or slashing damage on a hit.
large), we’ll drop natural armor to save BP, 30 ft. When you take the Attack action and make an
walking speed, condition immunities to Charmed and unarmed strike, you can use a bonus action to initiate a
Frightened for 1 BP total, 60 ft. Darkvision (down from grapple with the target of your successful unarmed
120 ft.) for 2 BP, the ability to understand Common but strike.
no ability to speak for -1.5 BP, and Shadow Stealth for Darkvision. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of
1 BP. We’ll set the Banderhobb’s natural weapons to you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it
1d8 for 2 BP and add Grab for 2 BP to approximate the were dim light. You can’t discern color in darkness, only
trapple mechanic. shades of gray.
That brings us to 7.5 BP before we address the Fire Banishment. When you start your turn engulfed
Banderhobb’s remaining abilities. We still need to in flames that are at least as large as your space (5 ft.
address Resonant Connection, Tongue, Swallow, and square for a small or medium creature), you must
Shadow step. We’ve got almost no room to work, so succeed on a DC 15 Charisma saving throw or be
we’ll need to make cuts. instantly banished to Gehenna.
Like the Giant Frog, we’ll abandon Swallow because Instantaneous bursts of flame (such as breath
it’s too powerful to grant to players. We’ll also weapons or a fireball) don't have this effect on you, but
abandon Shadow Step, which isn’t normally available magically conjured fire which has a non-instantaneous
to players except as subclass-specific class features like duration (such as create bonfire) do. In the case of
the Way of Shadow Monk’s Shadow Step at 6th level. magically created fire, if you succeed on a Dexterity
That leaves Resonant Connection and Tongue. saving throw to reduce the damage taken, you do not
Resonant Connection is hard. It’s an extremely central need to make the Charisma saving throw to avoid
piece of the creature’s theme, so we absolutely don’t banishment.
want to cut it. Revenants get a functionally identical Natural Armor. While unarmored, your AC is equal
ability called Vengeful Tracker for 2 BP, so the same to 12 + your Dexterity modifier.
cost seems appropriate. Shapechanger. As an action, you can magically take
Tongue looks startlingly similar to the thorn whip the form of a Small goblin or return to your true form.
cantrip, which is a great start for approximating its BP Any equipment you are holding or wearing is not
cost. Banderhobb’s get to make an extra bit attack transformed. You retain all of your own statistics,
after the pull effect, but we’ll drop that piece to save except as noted below.
BP. We’ll allow the Banderhobb to use their normal To discern that you are disguised, a creature can use
unarmed strike damage, limit the reach to 15 feet, and its action to inspect your appearance and must succeed
we’ll call it 0.5 BP. on an Intelligence (Investigation) check. The DC of this
Races 8
check is 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Charisma presents a way to quickly remove you from your party,
modifier. be extremely cautious around open flames and
While in goblin form, your walking speed is 30 ft. and spellcasters, and consider improving your Charisma
you may not use your bite attack, so your natural saving throws to protect yourself.
weapons deal 1d8 slashing damage and may not deal Barghests are normally found in two places: among
piercing damage. goblins, and among yugoloths. Barghests found among
Soul Feeding. You can feed on the corpse of a goblins are actively preying upon them, but might still
humanoid that you kill, and that has been dead for less cooperate with a party of goblins long enough to
than 10 minutes, devouring both the creature’s flesh entrap them individually, or might wait until the
and its soul. This feeding takes at least 1 minute (but goblins grow strong and prestigious to elevant the
may take longer for exceptionally large humanoids like barghest’s own status upon completing its quota of 17
goliaths), and it destroys the victim's body. The goblin souls.
victim's soul is trapped in your stomach for 24 hours,
after which time it is digested. If you die before the Design Notes
soul is digested, the soul is released. Despite its low CR, Barghests have a long list of special
While a humanoid's soul is trapped in your stomach, abilities. We’ll need to make significant cuts to balance
any form of revival that could work has only a 50 them as a playable race without cutting into the
percent chance of doing so, freeing the soul from your defining parts of the creature. They share a lot of
stomach if it is successful. Once a creature's soul is design elements with Yugoloths, so we’ll borrow design
digested, however, no magic short of divine notes from the shared Yugoloth racial traits where we
intervention can restore it. can. Barghests are a weird combination of goblin,
Languages. You can speak, read, and write in yugoloth, and wolf, which makes them very interesting
Abyssal, Common, Goblin, and Infernal. but also very difficult to design.
Barghests are fiends, costing 0.5 BP but offering no
Playing a Barghest specific abilities.
Barghests spend most of their time pretending to be a Barghests have excellent ability scores, but Strength
goblin, so consider classes which goblins normally and Dexterity are their best, so we’ll grant +1 to each
pursue. Monk, ranger, and rogue are all great choices, for 2 BP.
but fighter is also an option. Because Fire Banishment
Races 9
From the stat block, we get medium size (down from Beholder Traits
large), +2 natural armor (down from +5) for 1 BP, 40 ft. Beholders share the following racial traits.
walking speed (down from 60 ft.) for 1 BP, Darkvision Creature Type. Aberration.
for 2 BP, and racial languages plus Common and two Speed. Your base walking speed is 0 ft.
additional fixed languages for 0.5 BP. We’ll set the Darkvision. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of
Barghest’s natural weapons to 1d8 for 2 BP. Barghests you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it
don’t have hands but can change shape into a were dim light. You can’t discern color in darkness, only
humanoid form which has hands, so we won’t apply shades of gray.
the No Hands BP adjustment. No Hands. You are unable to wield weapons or wear
We’ll drop all of the Barghest’s damage shields, and cannot use items which require
resistancesand immunities. We’ll also drop blindsight, manipulation, including spellcasting foci, wands, tools,
telepathy, Keen Smell, and Innate Spellcasting. Even etc.
with those reductions, we’re already at 9 BP and still Subrace. Choose one of these subraces. You gain the
need to tackle Shapechanger and Fire Banishment. traits listed under your chosen subrace in addition to
Shapechanger is different on every creature that has those listed above.
it. The Yochlol’s version is easily the closest, but the
Barghest gets much less from their shapechange Death Kiss Traits
ability. We didn’t apply the No Hands BP adjustment, Ability Score Increase. +1 Strength.
so there’s no BP change. We’ll call the ability 0.5 BP. Alignment. Violent and predatory, most death kiss
Fire Banishment is clearly a handicap, but it’s also beholders are neutral evil.
not likely to come up unless the DM makes it a plot Size. Your size is medium.
point. A 10-foot square fire is exceptionally large, so Blood Drain. Using the Attack action, you can make a
either someone would need deliberately create such a special melee attack to drain blood from a creature
fire, or a structure would need to catch fire. We’ll call which you are currently grappling. No attack roll is
Fire Banishment -0.5 BP and leave its mechanics required for this attack. Instead, the target makes a
unchanged. Constitution saving throw. The DC of this saving throw
The Soul Feeding sidebar presents rules for is 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Constitution
barghests eating the bodies on souls of humanoids. modifier. On a failed saving throw, the creature takes
This is a major component of the Barghest’s theme, but lightning damage equal to the damage dealt by your
only has a notable mechanical effect if someone wants unarmed strikes, and you can spend a hit die to heal
to raise the consumed creature from the dead. This yourself.
doesn’t come up often for enemies, so we’ll add this Flight. You have a flying speed of 30 feet, and can
capability for 0 BP. hover. To use this speed, you can’t be wearing medium
At 9 BP, the Barghest is within our target range of 8- or heavy armor. You are immune to the prone
10 BP. If you want to strengthen the Barghest, increase condition.
its natural armor or grant it telepathy. If you want to Damage Resistance. You have resistance against
weaken the barghest, remove its natural armor. lightning damage.
Tentacle. Your unarmed strikes deal 1d8 piercing
Beholders damage on a hit.
When you take the Attack action and make an
A variety of magical creatures identified by their shares unarmed strike, you can use a bonus action to initiate a
features: A floating, orb-like creature with a single grapple with the target of your successful unarmed
central eye, and some variety of tentacles or stalked strike.
growing outward from their body. Languages. You can speak, read, and write in Deep
Originally presented in the original Monstrous Races, Speech and Undercommon
this section adds additional Beholder subreaces. The
shared beholder racial traits presented in Monstrous Gauth Traits
Races have been altered below to reflect new Ability Score Increase. +1 Intelligence.
subraces. If you use Beholder subraces from the Alignment. Deceptive, manipulative, and willing to
original Monstrous Races, use the version of the racial enslave creatures to help it find magic items to eat,
traits presented there. most gauths are lawful evil.
Size. Your size is medium.
Races 10
Bite. Your unarmed strikes deal 1d6 piercing damage Eye Rays. You know the daze (see the Spells
on a hit. chapter), mage hand, spook (see the Spells chapter),
Death Throes. When you fall to 0 hit points, the and ray of frost cantrips. You may cast spells as though
magic within you explodes. Each creature within 10 you were using a magic focus, even if you are not doing
feet of you must make a Dexterity saving throw, taking so. Intelligence is your spellcasting ability for these
1d6 force damage on a failed save, or half as much spells.
damage on a successful one. The DC of this check is 8 + Flight. You have a flying speed of 30 feet, and can
your proficiency bonus + your Constitution modifier. hover. To use this speed, you can’t be wearing medium
The damage increases by 1d6 when you reach 5th level or heavy armor. You are immune to the prone
(2d6), 11th level (3d6), and 17th level (4d6). condition.
Eye Rays. You know the devour magic (see the Spells Mimicry. You can mimic any sounds you have heard,
chapter) and fire bolt cantrips. You may cast spells as including voices. A creature that hears the sounds can
though you were using a magic focus, even if you are tell they are imitations with a successful Insight check
not doing so. Intelligence is your spellcasting ability for against a DC equal to 8 + your Charisma (Deception)
these spells. bonus.
Flight. You have a flying speed of 30 feet, and can Languages. You can understand, read, and write in
hover. To use this speed, you can’t be wearing medium Undercommon, but are unable to speak except
or heavy armor. You are immune to the prone through your Mimicry ability.
condition.
Natural Armor. While unarmored, your AC is equal Playing an Beholder
to 12 + your Dexterity modifier. Beholders are all evil, aggressive, territorial, and
No Hands. You are unable to wield weapons or wear borderline insane. They rarely play well with others,
shields, and cannot use items which require and when they deign to cooperate with other
manipulation, including spellcasting foci, wands, tools, creatures, it’s typically because it has enslaved,
etc. dominated, or otherwise compelled the other
Stunning Gaze. As an action, you can incapacitate a creatures to work toward the beholder’s goals.
creature that you see within 30 feet of you with a look The beholders presented here differ from the
from your central eye. The creature must make a beholders presented in original Monstrous Races.
Wisdom saving throw. On a failed savem the creature Death Kiss Beholders are powerful melee combatants.
becomes incapacitated until the beginning of your next Gazers lack the intelligence to make natural wizards,
turn. The DC of this saving throw is 8 + your Proficiency but make for fine rogues, especially arcane tricksters.
bonus + your Intelligence modifier. Gauths make excellent wizards, and present a slightly
After you use this ability, you can't use it again until different set of traits more in line with Eye Tyrants and
you complete a long rest. Spectators.
Languages. You can speak, read, and write in Deep
Death Kiss
Speech and Undercommon
Death Kiss Beholders are all about grappling. Select a
Gazer Traits class that gets you proficiency with Athletics like
Ability Score Increase. +2 Dexterity. Barbarian and Fighter, and get into melee as quickly as
Alignment. Petulant, impolite, hostile, and generally possible to start grappling things. Blood Drain lets you
unpleasant and aggressive, most gazers are neutral use hit dice to heal quickly in combat so consider the
evil. Durable feat to make your hit dice a more reliable
Size. Your size is tiny. source of healing.
Aggressive. As a bonus action, you can move up to Motivated almost exclusively by the need to feed,
your speed toward a hostile creature that you can see. it’s unclear what might compel a Death Kiss Beholder
Bite. Your unarmed strikes deal 1d4 piercing damage to join a party. They might be bullied into service by an
on a hit. Eye Tyrant, or they might be persuaded to work
You can use Dexterity instead of Strength for the alongside cannibalistic monsters that don’t mind their
attack and damage rolIs of your unarmed strikes. Your prey being drained of blood immediately prior to
unarmed strikes count as a weapon with the Finesse consumption.
property for all effects which require it, such as Sneak
Attack.
Races 11
Gauth Beholder’s traits, so we’ll need to save BP We’ll grant
Gauths are much like eye tyrants in many ways: +1 Strength 1 BP total.
intelligent, evil, and magically powerful. While they From the stat block, we get mediumsize (down from
don’t have as many eye ray options as an eye tyrant, large), we’ll drop naturalarmor to conserve BP, 30 ft.
their Stunning Gaze is a reliable and potent way to fly speed for 4 BP, the ability to hover for 2 BP,
temporarily incapacitate foes. Like the Eye Tyrant, resistance to lightning (down from immunity) for 2 BP,
Gauths make natural wizards. condition immunity to Prone for 0.5 BP, and racial
Gauths are less xenophobic than eye tyrants, and are languages plus Common (Undercommon in this case)
more willing to team up with, hire, or enslave other for 0 BP. We’ll set their natural weapons to 1d8 for 2
creatures that might assist the Gauth in its goal of BP, and add Grab for 2 BP.
locating and consuming magic items. That brings us to 11 BP. We’re already over our BP
limit, and we still need to tackle Lightning Blood and
Gazer
Blood Drain. We could approximate Lightning Blood by
Gazers are small and nimble, and combined with their
reskinning Hellish Rebuke, but I think we’ll just drop it
ability to fly and hover, they make excellent rogues.
to save BP.
While they lack the raw magical power of other
Blood drain needs to have a low BP cost and it needs
beholders, Gauths can still succeed as Arcane
to have a usage limitation to prevent players from
Tricksters.
getting constant free healing. We’ve made other racial
Gazers like to serve creatures with magical power, so
healing mechanics consume hit dice, so I think it makes
a party with numerous spellcasters in it might find a
sense to do that here, too. We’ll allow Blood Drain to
gazer willing to join them. However, Gazers are bullies
replace an attack, and we’ll let the player spend a hit
who will pick on anything small enough or obviously
die when they use it. To maintain parity with the
weak, so they need frequent shepherding to prevent
originalability, we’ll also make it call for a saving throw
them from getting distracted by the urge to harass
from the target rather than another attack roll from
other creatures.
the beholder. We’ll call it 1 BP.
Design Notes At 12 BP, the Death Kiss Beholder exceeds our targer
range of 8-10 BP. If you want to weaken the Death Kiss
Beholders are the first monster type in Volo’s Guide to
Beholder, limit Blood Dragin to once per encounter or
Monsters that presents new subrace options, which is
once per short rest, or reduce its fly speed.
exciting from a design perspective. Taking a quick look
at the monster entries, I can see that the shared racial Gauth
traits we designed in Monstrous Races won’t work for Gauths are more similar to Eye Tyrants than any of the
the new beholders in Volo’s. That’s unfortunate, and I other new beholders in Volo’s Guide to Monsters.
think that’s going to be the norm. They’re basically just a smaller, weaker Eye Tyrant.
Looking at all three of the new types of beholders, Even their ability scores reflect the Eye Tyrant’s very
we can identify a few shared traits. All three types of closely. However, there are some major differences
beholders are Abberations for 0.5 BP, and they have a which differentiate the two: the Eye Tyrant’s antimagic
move speed of 0 ft. for -3 BP, 60 ft. Darkvision (down eye is replaced by Stunning Gaze and Death Throes,
from 120 ft.) for 2 BP, and no hands for -2 BP. and the Gauth’s eye rays have different effects.
That brings our total to -2.5 BP before we tackle With all of that in mind, we’ll start from the Eye
individual subraces, leaving us a huge amount of room Tyrant racial traits from the original Monstrous Races,
to work. which we valued at 9.75 BP. We rated the Eye Tyrant’s
central eye at 2 BP, and we granted 4 eye ray cantrips
Death Kiss
for 2 BP total, so we’ll remove that and we’re left with
Death kiss beholders are all about lightning damage
5.75 BP before we look at the Gauth’s traits.
and grappling. They have impressive 20 ft. reach, and
Death Throes works a lot like the Magmin’s Death
their Blood Drain ability is very powerful. We’ll need to
Burst trait, so we’ll duplicate it and change the damage
make a lot of cuts to make them work as a playable
type for 1 BP. Since Force damage is almost never
race.
resisted, we’ll drop the damage die to d6’s.
Death kiss beholds are melee fighters, unlike other
Stunning Gaze is hard to approximate. I frequently
beholders, and their ability scores reflect it. But we’re
look at spells as a good basis, but spells that inflict the
going to have a love of trouble adapting the Death Kiss
Stunned condition are all high level. If we drop the
Races 12
condition to Incapacitated, it’s still really strong but not
as bad. Hypnotic Pattern renders groups of creatures
charmed and then incapacitated, and it’s only 3rd-level.
If we limit Stunning Gaze to a signle creature and only
allow it to be used once per day, I think we can call it 2
BP.
We’ve got roughly 1 BP left, which means we can
select two cantrips to approximate the Gauth’s eye
rays. Enervation Ray and Fire Ray can be approximated
by chill touch and fire bolt, respectively, but I really
want to keep the Devour Magic Ray because it fits the
theme of a magic item-eating beholder so well. The
effect doesn’t seem any more powerful than a cantrip,
especially consider how infrequently it would be
important, so we’ll borrow a note from the Triton racial
traits entry in Volo’s Guide to Monsters and write a
new spell specifically so that we can grant it as a racial
trait. We’ll keep fire bolt because everyone enjoys fire
damage, and the two cantrips will cost 1 BP total.
At 9.75 BP the Gauth is within our target range of 8-
10 BP. If you want to strengthen the gauth, add chill
touch to the list of cantrips it knows, or allow it to use
Stunning Gaze once per short rest. If you want to
weaken the Gauth, remove its natural armor.
Gazer
Gazers, being the weakest published beholder, are also
the easiest to design. Nearly all of their traits are
covered in races which we’ve designed in the original
Monstrous Races, with the exception of a couple of
their eye rays. Since Gazers are normally unintelligent,
we’ll need to treat them as awakened and allow them
frost, though ray of frost adds a speed debuff.
to at least understand Common.
Telekinetic Ray can be approximated by mage hand,
Unlike other beholders, Gazers have impressively
though we’ll lose the ability to push creatures away.
high Dexterity. We’ll grant +2 Dexterity for 2 BP.
Dazing Ray and Fear Ray are harder because there
From the stat block, we get tiny size for -1.5 BP, 30
aren’t cantrips which approximate those effects. So, as
ft. fly speed for 4 BP, the ability to hover for 2 BP,
we did with the Gauth, we’ll add two more new spells.
condition immunity to prone for 0.5 BP, Aggressive for
Both of the reffects, as written, are safe enough that
1 BP, and Mimicry for 1 BP. We’ll add the ability to
the designers at Wizards were comfortable with them
understand Common, but not to speak it. We’ll raise
being on a CR ½ creature, so I think it’s safe to copy
the gazer’s natural weapons to 1d4 for 0.5 BP and add
their effects as written.
Natural Weapon Finesse.
With four cantrips in total, that’s 2 BP.
The version of mimicry in the Gazer’s monster entry
At 9 BP, the Gazer is within our targer range of 8-10
is worse than the Kenku’s, and Gazers can only mimic
BP. If you want to strengthen the Gazer, add natural
the “simple sounds of speech”, but I think it’s safe to
armor or increase its natural weapon damage. If you
attribute that to the Gazer’s 3 Intelligence and 7
want to weaken the Gazer, reduce its natural weapon
Charisma. A gazer with human-like Intelligence could
damage to 1 or remove some of its cantrips.
almost certainly match the capabilities of a Kenku.
That brings us to 7 BP before we consider the Bodak
Gazer’s eyre rays, which gives us lots of room. Gazers
only have four eye rays, so giving them four cantrips Evil undead created when a follower of Orcus willingly
makes sense. Frost Ray can be approximated by ray of performs a ritual upon themselves.
Races 13
Bodak Traits Bodaks are devout worshippers of Orcus. As such,
Bodaks share the following racial traits. they are at home in a party of demonds, undead, or
Creature Type. Undead. You don’t require air, food, Orcus adherents.
drink, or sleep. Instead, you enter a restful state,
remaining semiconscious, for 4 hours a day. While Design Notes
resting, you can dream after a fashion; such dreams are Bodaks are reasonably simple, complicated only by
reflexive mental exercises inherent to your Aura of Annihilation and Death Gaze.
consciousness. After resting in this way, you gain the Bodaks are undead, costing 1 BP.
same benefit that a human does from 8 hours of sleep. Bodaks have good physical ability scores, but they
Ability Score Increase. +1 Strength, +1 Dexterity, +1 rely on their gaze attacks over anything else. I think
Constitution. we’ll grant +1 Strength, +1 Dexterity, and +1
Alignment. Murderous undead utterly loyal to Constitution for 3 BP total.
Orcus, most Bodaks are chaotic evil. From the stat block, we get medium size, +2 natural
Size. Your size is medium. armor for 1 BP, 30 ft. walking speed, we’ll drop the
Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 ft. Bodak’s resistances, resistance to lightning (down from
Darkvision. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of immunity) for 2 BP, Poison Immunity for 2 BP, 60 ft.
you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it Darkvision (down from 120 ft.) for 2 BP, and 1d4
were dim light. You can’t discern color in darkness, only natural weapons for 1 BP.
shades of gray. That brings us to 10 BP, and we still need to consider
Death Gaze. As an action, you can turn your deadly Aura of Annihilation, Death Gaze, Sunlight
gaze upon a creature to harm it. A creature within 120 Hypersensitivity, and Withering Gaze.
ft. than you can see and that can see you must succeed Sunlight Hypersensitivity first appeared on vampires,
on a Constitution saving throw, or take 1d10 necrotic which we covered in the original Monstrous Races.
damage. The DC of this saving throw is 8 + your Vampires take four times as much damage, so we’ll
proficiency bonus + your Constitution modifier. reduce the size of the BP adjustment. -3 BP seems
Unless surprised, a creature can avert its eyes to reasonable, since it’s half-way between -2 for Sunlight
avoid the saving throw as a reaction. If the creature Weakness and -4 for the Vampire’s version of Sunlight
does so, it has Disadvantage on attack rolls against you Hypersensitivity.
and you have Advantage on attack rolls against it until I can’t think of a safe way to make Aura of
the end of your next turn. If the creature looks at you Annihilation work, so we’ll drop it.
in the meantime, it must immediately make the saving Death Gaze has a save-or-die mechanic which we
throw, taking the damage on a failed save as normal. absolutely can’t retain. Once we remove that, Death
This damage increases to 2d10 at 5th level, 3d10 at Gaze and Withering Gaze are almost identical, so we’ll
11th level, and 4d10 at 17th level. Charisma is your roll them into one ability. The damage and save look
spellcasting ability for this attack. very similar to the chill touch cantrip, so we’ll start with
Fist. Your unarmed strikes deal 1d4 bludgeoning chill touch and reskin it and tweak it a bit. I like the
damage on a hit. averting eyes mechanic, so we’ll add that in and bump
Natural Armor. While unarmored, your AC is equal the damage dice up from d8’s to d10’s. We’ll call that
to 12 + your Dexterity modifier. 0.5 BP.
Undead Nature. You have resistance to lightning At 7.5 BP, the Bodak is below our targer range of 8-
damage. You have immunity to poison damage, and to 10 BP. Despite the low BP, it’s an extremely appealing
the poisoned condition. race that can succeed in a variety of classes. If you
Languages. You can speak, read, and write in want to strengthen the Bodak, increase the damage of
Abyssal. Death Gaze or its natural weapons.
Playing a Bodak Boggle

Bodaks are physically strong and resilient, so they can Small fey born out of a feeling of loneliness, boggles
succeed in a variety of classes. Their Death Gaze offers resemble mishshapen humanoids covered in thick,
a potent ranged option, allowing them to deal necrotic black oil.
damage, or force a creature to look away from the
Bodak, affording the Bodak a significant advantage.
Races 14
You instantly emerge from another suitable frame
within 30 ft. of the first frame.
Oil Puddle. As an action you create a puddle of oil
that is either slippery or sticky (depending on the
current state of your Boggle Oil trait). The puddle is 1
inch deep and, and fills a 10 ft. square area. The puddle
is difficult terrain for all creatures except boggles and
lasts for 1 hour.
If the oil is slippery, any creature that enters the
puddle's area or starts its turn there must succeed on a
Dexterity saving hrow or fall prone.
If the oil is sticky, any creature that enters the
puddle's area or starts its turn there must succeed on a
Strength saving throw or be restrained. On its turn, a
creature can use an action to try to extricate itself from
the sticky puddle, ending the effect and moving into
the nearest safe unoccupied space with a successful
Strength check.
Boggle Traits The DC of these saxing throws and ability checks are
Boggles share the following racial traits. 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Constitution bonus.
Creature Type. Fey. After you use this ability, you can't use it again until
Ability Score Increase. +1 Dexterity. you complete a long rest.
Alignment. Unreliable, flightly, and often annoying Pummel. Your unarmed strikes deal 1d4 bludgeoning
though rarely malicious, most boggles are chaotic damage on a hit.
neutral Languages. You can speak, read, and write in Sylvan.
Size. Your size is small.
Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 ft. You have a Playing a Boggle
climb speed of 30 ft. Nimble, slippery, and surprising, boggles make
Boggle Oil. You naturally excrete a nonflammable oil excellent monks, rangers, and rogues. Oil Puddle is a
from your pores. You can choose whether the oil is useful option for trapping foes in place, or otherwise
slippery or sticky, and can change the oil on your skin making it difficult for your enemies to move.
from one consistency to another as a Bonus Action. Brought into being by profound feelings of
Slippery Oil: While coated in slippery oil you gain loneliness, boggles might suddenly appear to join a
Advantage on Dexterity (Acrobatics) checks made to solitary adventurer, or one who surrounds themselves
escape bonds, squeeze through narrow spaces, and with allies with whom they have trouble connecting
end grapples. emotionally, like a long-lived elf wizard in a party of
Sticky Oil: While coated in sticky oil, you gain short-lived goblins. In any case, boggles are
Advantage on Strength (Athletics) checks made to unrepentant tricksters, and love all manner of practical
grapple and any ability check made to maintain a hold jokes, surprises, and even the occasional jump scare.
on another creature, a surface, or an object. You can
also climb difficult surfaces, including upside down on
Design Notes
Boggles have several complicated and unique abilities,
ceilings, without needing to make an ability check.
but are otherwise ver similar to humanoids.
Boggles are fey, costing 0.5 BP, but offering no
specific abilities.
Boggles have excellent Dexsterity, so we’ll grant +1
shades of gray.
Dexterity for 1 BP.
Dimension Rift. As a Bonus Action you create an
From the stat block, we get small size for -1 BP, 30 ft.
invisible rift in space and step through it. You create
walking speed for 0.5 BP, 30 ft. climb speed for 2 BP,
this rift in an immobile, enclose frame that you can see
Darkvision for 2 BP, and only racial languages for -1 BP.
within 5 feet, such as an open doorway or window, the
We’ll reduce the Boggle’s natural weapons to 1d4 for 1
space between bards of a cell, or an open container.
Races 15
BP. We’ll drop resistance to fire and Keen Smell to save were dim light. You can’t discern color in darkness, only
BP. shades of gray.
That brings us to 5 BP before we tackle Boggle Oil, Death Ray. As an action, you may target one
Dimensional Rift, and Oil Puddle. creature you can see within 30 ft. of you. The target
Boggle Oil combines three important points: must succeed on a Constitution saving throw or take
Advantage on checks to escape grapples, Advantage on 1d8 necrotic damage. The DC for this saving throw is 8
checks to hold onto stuff, and Spider Climb. Spider + your proficiency bonus + your Intelligence modifier.
Climb is 1 BP. Unfortunately, we don’t have a good The damage increases by 1d8 when you reach 5th level
precedent for the rest. Chameleon Skin provides (2d8), 11th level (3d8), and 17th level (4d8).
Advantage on checks with a skill for 2 BP, but Boggle Keen Smell. You have advantage on Wisdom
Oil covers two very specific uses of two different skills. (Perception) checks that rely on smell.
We’ll call it 1 BP, making Boggle Oil 2 BP total. Natural Armor. While unarmored, your AC is equal
Dimensional Rift is really interesting, but also to 13 + your Dexterity modifier.
extremely abusable. As written, a boggle might be able No Hands. You are unable to wield weapons or wear
to shove its hand into something like the opening of a shields, and cannot use items which require
backpack and attack anything within 30 feet. The manipulation, including spellcasting foci, wands, tools,
primary purpose of the ability is to allow limited etc.
teleportation, so we’ll look at misty step as a basis. If Stench. As a bonus action you can exude a horrifying
we require that the boggle use a fixed frame of some stench for up to one minute. Any creature which starts
kind in an adjacent space, and limit usage to once per its turn within 5 ft. of you must succeed on a
day, I think we can call it 1 BP. Constitution saving throw or be poisoned until the start
The slippery version of Oil Puddle looks an awful lot of its next turn. The DC for this saving throw is 8 + your
like grease. In fact, aside from the area of effect and proficiency bonus + your Constitution modifier.
duration the wording is functionally identical. The You must maintain concentration during that time,
sticky version is matches entangle almost as closely. I as if you were casting a spell. If you lose concentration,
think if we set the area of effect to a 10-foot square affected creatures are no longer poisoned by this
and allow it in either version once per day, we can call ability.
it 1.5 BP. After you use this ability, you can't use it again until
At 9.5 BP, the Boggle is within our target range of 8- you complete a short or long rest.
10 BP. If you want to strengthen the Boggle, increase Tail. Your unarmed strikes deal 1d8 bludgeoning
its Dexterity increase, or allow it to use Oil Puddle once damage on a hit.
per short rest. If you want to weaken the Boggle, limit Languages. You can speak, read, and write in
the area of effect of Oil Puddle to a 5-foot square. Common.
Catoblepas
Loathsome, foul-smelling quadrupedal swamp
creatures, the presence of a catoblepas is seen as a bad
omen, and brings corruption and disease to wherever
it resides.
Catoblepas Traits
Catoblepas share the following racial traits.
Creature Type. Monstrosity.
Ability Score Increase. +1 Strength, +1 Constitution.
Alignment. Normally unintelligent beast-like
creatures, most catoblepas are neutral.
Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 ft. Playing a Catoblepas
Darkvision. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of Strong and touch with good natural armor and Stench,
you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it the Catoblepas is a strong melee threat. Consider
Races 16
classes like barbarian and fighter which play to the Alignment. Normally unintelligent beast-like
catoblepas’s stengths. creatures, most cave fishers are neutral.
Catoblepas are normally solitary creatures, but Size. Your size is medium.
occasionally hags keep them as pets, and legends tell Speed. Your base walking speed is 20 ft.
of evil knights two have tamed a catoblepas to use as a Claw. Your unarmed strikes deal 1d8 piercing or
mount. slashing damage on a hit.
Filament. As an action, you can fire a sticky filament
Design Notes up to 60 feet in a straight line. This line is blocked by
Despite its flavor, the Catoblepas is basically just a total cover. The filament adheres to everything that it
beast. It’s only uinique abilities are the stun on its tail touchs. You automatically attempt to grapple every
and Death Ray, but those shouldn’t be difficult to deal creature adhered to the filament, maging a Strength
with. Like other creatures, we’ll treat the Catoblepas as (Athletics) check opposed by their Strength (Athletics)
awakened. or Dexterity (Acrobatics) check as normal. If a creature
Catoblepas are monstrosities, costing 0.5 BP but adhered to the filament has half or three-quarters
offering no specific abilities. cover, they receive Advantage on this check because
Like beasts and other similar creautres, the less of the filament strikes them. Creatures that fail this
Catoblepas has excellent Strength and Constitution. opposed check are grappled by you.
We’ll grant +1 to each for 2 BP total. Creatures adhered by the filament may attempt to
From the stat block, we get medium size (down from escape the grapple as normal, but no longer gain
large), +3 natural armor for 1.5 BP, 30 ft. walking speed Advantage if they had cover when you fired the
for 0 BP, 60 ft. Darkvision for 2 BP, Keen Smell for 0.5 filament. In addition, the filament may be attacked. It
BP, Stench for 2 BP. We’ll add the ability to speak has an AC of 8 + your proficiency bonys + your
Common for 0 BP since we’re treating the Catoblepas Constitution modifier. It has hit points equal to your
as awakened. Catoblepas have no hands for -2 BP, and number of total hit dice + your Constitution modifier.
we’ll set their natural weapons to 1d8 for 2 BP. The filament is immune to poison and psychic damage.
That brings us to 8.5 before we tackle the stun effect It uses your Strength and Constitution saving throws, if
on the Catoblepas’s tail and Death Ray. applicable, but automatically fails any other saving
We’ll need to drop the stun effect because it’s simply throws.
too powerful. Even if we require a successful hit and a You may release the filament as a reaction. If you
failed saving throw and apply a usage limitation, the move after firing the filament, become incapacitated,
closest thing we can compare it to is Power Word Stun, or die, you automatically release the filament. When
which is far too powerful to grant as a racial trait. you release the filament, creatures remain adhered,
Death Ray is easily replicated by reskinning chill but have Advantage on their ability checks to escape
touch. We’ll limit the range to 30 feet, but otherwise and on attack rolls to damage the filament.
leave it unchanged for 0.5 BP. If you begin your turn while still holding the filament,
At 9 BP, the Catoblepas is within our target range of as an action you can reel in a creature or unattended
8-10 BP. If you want to strengthen the catoblepas, object which your filament has adhered to. If you do
increase its ability score increases or increase the range so, all other targets of your filament are immediately
of Death Ray. If you want to weaken the Catoblepas, released. The target must weigh no more than your
reduce its natural armor. carrying capacity (your Strength score multiplied by
15). If the target is a creatue, you must make a
Cave Fisher Strength (Athletics) check opposed by their Strength
Pale monstrosities resembling a spider with crab arms, (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics) check. On a
cave fishers are dangerous ambush predators whose successful check, you pull the target into an
whole bodies are prized for their numerous valuable unoccupied space within 5 feet of you. The target
components. remains grappled by you, and you may make an
unarmed strike against the target as a bonus action.
Cave Fisher Traits Flammable Blood. While your current hit points are
Cave fisher share the following racial traits. equal to or less than half of your hit point maximum,
Creature Type. Monstrosity. you have vulnerability to fire damage.
Ability Score Increase. +2 Strength.
Races 17
Natural Armor. While unarmored, your AC is equal Cave Fisher can use Filament on its next turn to reel in
to 14 + your Dexterity modifier. one of the grappled creatures and attack it. That’s a
Spider Climb. You can climb difficult surfaces, really cool combination, but we don’t have anything
including upside down on ceilings, without needing to that we can easily use as a comparison. Thorn whip is
make an ability check. the closest thing I can think of, but even that doesn’t
Languages. You can speak, read, and write in quite match. We’ll need to get creative.
Undercommon. I don’t think either ability is too much of a problem
on its own. It’s the only unique active ability on the
Playing a Cave Fisher Cave Fisher, so I really want it to be a big part of how
Cave fishers thrive in melee. They have excellent the Cave Fisher functions. At the same time, I don’t
natural armor, and their Filament allows them to reel want it to be the only thing that the Cave Fisher does
in foes who are too far away or too quick for the Cave because they’re going to have fun class features. I think
Fisher to catch. Consider classes like barbarian, limiting usage to once per short rest is a good start.
especially because it improves your movement speed. We’ll also need to make some tweaks to the math of
Chitines and hobgoblins both tame cave fishers to the abilities. We’ll replace the saving throws with
serve as guards or beasts of war, so a cave fisher might ability checks, which are the norm for players initiating
fit into a party with a chitine or hobgoblin to command a grapple, and we’ll remove the automatic
them. Because cave fishers have an instinctive fear of Disadvantage on ability checks to escape because that
fire, characters who use fire spells, breath fire, or weild would be far too powerful in the hands of a player.
magical flaming weapons might have trouble We’ll also tweak the 200 pound weight limit. I think
befriending a cave fisher. limiting it to the Cave Fisher’s carrying capacity seems
reasonable. Beyond that, I think the ability is fine as-
Design Notes written. I’ll adjust the text to make it a bit clearer how
Cave Fishers are mostly simple, but their Adhesive it works, and we’ll call the whole thing 4 BP.
Filament and Filament abilities will need some extra At 9.5 BP, the Cave Fisher is within our target range
work. We can hopefully borrow ideas from giant of 8-10 BP. If you want to strengthen the Cave Fisher,
spiders and ettercaps (covered in the original allow it to use Adhesive Filament once every time it
Monstrous Races). Like other creatures, we’ll treat the rolls initiative (and any time that it is not stressed or
Cave Fisher as awakened. distracted out of combat), or increase its natural armor
Cave fishers are monstrosities, costing 0.5 BP but by 1. If you want to weaken the Cave Fisher, reduce its
offering no specific abilities. natural armor or reduce the range on Adhesive
Cave fishers are melee fighters with no ranged Filament to 30 ft.
options except Filament, and Strength is their highest
ability score, so we’ll grant +2 Strength for 1 BP. Chitine
From the stat block, we get medium size, +4 natural
Creatures with features of both arachnids and
armor (down from +5) for 2 BP, 20 ft. speed for -1 BP,
humanoids, chitine are fiercly loyal servants of Lolth,
20 ft. climb speed for 1.5 BP, Spider Climb for 1 BP, and
and exist to carry out her revenge upon disloyal Drow.
the ability to speak Common (we’ll say undercommon
since cave fishers are subterranean). We’ll drop Chitine Traits
blindsight to save BP. Cave fishers have no hands for -2 Chitines share the following racial traits.
BP, and we’ll set their natural weapons to 1d8 for 2 BP. Creature Type. Monstrosity
That brings use to 6 BP before we tackle Adhesive Alignment. Fanatically devoted to Lolth, and created
Filament, Flammable Blood, and Filament.
to exact cruel revenge upon her disloyal worshippers,
Resistance to fire is normally -1 BP, but Flammable most chitines are chaotic evil.
Blood only applies when the cave fisher is severely Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 ft. You have a
wounded. We’ll call it -0.5 BP. climb speed of 30 ft.
Adhesive Filament and Filament are built to work
together. They form a sort of combination attack: on you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it
the first turn, the Cave Fisher uses Adhesive Filament were dim light. You can’t discern color in darkness, only
to grapple creatures in a 60-foot line. The creatures get shades of gray.
their turn to attempt to escape, but if they fail the
Races 18
Fey Ancestry. You have advantage on saving throws + your Constitution bonus, escaping from the webbing
against being charmed, and magic can't put you to on a success. The effect ends if the webbing is
sleep. destroyed. The webbing has AC 10, 5 hit points,
Spider Climb. You can climb difficult surfaces, resistance to bludgeoning damage, and immunity to
including upside down on ceilings, without needing to poison and psychic damage.
make an ability check.
Web Walker. You ignore movement restrictions Playing a Chitine
caused by webbing. Chitines have uncomfortable relationships with drow.
Languages. You can speak, read, and write in They worship the same deity, and perform many of the
Undercommon. same activities like rearing giant spiders, but drow view
Subrace. Choose one of these subraces. You gain the chitines like wayward slaves, and chitines view drow
traits listed under your chosen subrace in addition to like less-devout adherents of the same religion.
those listed above.
Chitine
Chitine Traits For a monstrosity, chitines are remarkably similar to
Size. Your size is small. humanoids. Their high dexterity and multiple arms
Ability Score Increase. +2 Dexterity make them excellent at using finesse and ranged
Arachnid Skills. You are proficient in Athletics and weapons, able to quickly switch from melee to ranged
Stealth. weaponry, without needing to sheeth or drop a
Four Arms. You have four arms, and may hold and weapon. Consider classes like fighter, ranger, and
use items in each of your hands. rogue which can capitalize on these strengths, but
If you have Extra Attacks, when you take the Attack don’t overlook monk as a potential option.
action you may make each of your attacks using any Chitines are divided into strict worker and warrior
weapon you are holding. castes, and serve the good of their colony in whatever
When you take the Attack action and attack with a capacity they are assigned. They might naturally follow
weapon which qualifies for use with two-weapon a Choldrith party leader on an adventure. Chitines are
fighting, you can use a bonus action to attack with a also occasionally re-enslaved by the drow, in which
different qualifying weapon. You don’t add your ability case a chitine might be found in party with one or
modifier to the damage of the bonus attack unless the more drow characters.
modifier is negative or you have an ability which allows
Choldrith
you to add your ability modifier to the bonus attack
With high Dexterity and Wisdom, choldrith make good
granted by two-weapon fighting. If you choose to make
clerics, druids, rangers, and rogues. They’re not quite
this additional attack, you may not benefit from using a
as capable with weapons as chitines, but their innate
shield until the beginning of your next turn.
spellcasting offers some useful options, and the Web
If you use a weapon with the Heavy property or use
trait allows them to easily inhibit their foes without
a Versatile weapon two-handed you may not benefit
relying on magic.
from using a shield until the beginning of your next
Choldriths are the leaders of Chitine society, and
turn, but you may switch between multiple Heavy or
despite their hatred for the Drow they they share many
Versatile weapons with each attack.
similar tendencies. Choldriths constantly vie for
Choldrith Traits position, but differ from drow in that choldriths always
Size. Your size is medium. place the good of their colony above their own
Ability Score Increase. +1 Dexterity, +1 Wisdom ambitions.
Innate Spellcasting. You know one Cantrip of your
choice from the cleric spell list. At 3rd level, you may Design Notes
cast spiritual weapon (dagger) once per day. Wisdom is Chitine come in two varieties which share a number of
your spellcasting these spells. traits. They’re created from drow and spiders, and
Web. You may shoot sticky webs from your body as share traits with both. We should be able to borrow a
a ranged weapon attack. This attack has 30/60 range. lot of elements from drow, giant spiders, and ettercaps
On a hit, the creature is restrained by webbing. As an (covered in the original Monstrous Races), which
action, the restrained creature can make a Strength should make adapting chitines simple.
check against a DC equal to 8 + your proficiency bonus
Races 19
Chitines are monstrosities, costing 0.5 BP but BP, and we’ll grant Spiritual Weapon (Dagger) 2 levels
offering no specific abilities. early for 2.25 BP.
Both varieties of chitine share 30 ft. climb speed for At 9.75 BP, the Choldrith is within our target range of
2 BP, 60 ft. Darkvision for 2 BP, Fey Ancestry for 0.5 BP, 8-10 BP. If you want to strengthen the Choldrith, allow
Sunlight Sensitivity for -2 BP, and Web Walker for 0.5 it to cast Bane once per day starting at 3rd level. If you
BP. We’ll drop Web Sense, as we’ve done previously want to weaken the Choldrith, delay Spiritual Weapon
with ettercaps and giant spiders. Both varieties also to 5th level or replace it with Bane.
speak Undercommon for 0 BP.
That brings us to 3.5 BP before we consider Cranium Rats
individual subraces. Normal rats subjected to considerable psychic energy
Chitine by mind flayers in order to create a breed of creatures
For a monstrosity, chitines are remarkably similar to capable of forming a hive mind.
humanoids.
Chitine’s best ability score by far is Dexterity, and Cranium Rat Traits
their other ability scores are unremarkable. We’ll grant Cranium rats share the following racial traits.
+2 Dexterity for 2 BP. Creature Type. Beast
From the stat block, we get small size for -1 BP, 30 ft. Ability Score Increase. +2 Dexterity.
speed for 0.5 BP (remember that 25 ft. is normal for Alignment. Normally unintelligent beasts, most rats
small size). Chitines have four arms for 1 BP. are neutral.
That brings us to 6 BP, and we’re mostly out of Size. Your size is tiny.
material. As we’ve done in similar situations in the Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 ft.
original Monstrous Races, we’ll take a look at the Bite. Your unarmed strikes deal 1 piercing damage
Chitine’s skill proficiencies. Chitines list Athletics and on a hit.
Stealth, so we’ll grant proficiency in both for 1 BP total. You can use Dexterity instead of Strength for the
That’s still only 7 BP, but without deviating from the attack and damage rolIs of your unarmed strikes. Your
original creature I don’t know what else we can add. unarmed strikes count as a weapon with the Finesse
At 7 BP, chitines are below our target range of 8-10 property for all effects which require it, such as Sneak
BP. If you want to strengthen the Chitine, give it Attack.
natural weapons that deal poison damage on a bite. If Darkvision. You can see in dim light within 30 feet of
you want to weaken the Chitine, reduce its walking you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it
speed. were dim light. You can’t discern color in darkness, only
shades of gray.
Choldrith Keen Smell. You have advantage on Wisdom
Choldrith are clearly more powerful than chitines. Their (Perception) checks that rely on smell.
stat block includes an impressive innate spellcasting No Hands. You are unable to wield weapons or wear
arsenal which borrows heavily from the cleric spell list. shields, and cannot use items which require
Still, aside from trimming their innate spellcasting it manipulation, including spellcasting foci, wands, tools,
won’t be difficult to adapt the Choldrith. etc.
Choldriths have excellent Dexterity and good Telepathic Shroud. You are immune to any effect
Wisdom. I don’t want the Choldrith to just be a larger, that would sense your emotions or read your thoughts,
better Chitine, so we’ll grant +1 Dexterity and +1 as well as all divination spells.
Wisdom for 2 BP total. Telepathy. You can communicate telepathically with
From the stat block, we get medium size and 30 ft. any creature that knows a language within 30 ft.
walking speed. We’ll duplicate the Ettercap’s Web trait Languages. You can speak, read, and write in
for 1 BP since the text is basically identical. Common.
That brings us to 6.5 BP before we consider the
Choldrith’s innate spellcasting. They have mostly Playing a Cranium Rat
generic cleric spells, which doesn’t make it easy to Cranium rats are just as sneaky and nimble as regular
choose what to keep. We want to stay somewhere in rats, but are considerably faster and smarter. Their
the range of 3 BP worth of spells, so we can’t keep a Dexterity and their ability to communicate
lot. I think we’ll allow the choice of a cleric cantrip for 1 telepathically allow them to operate silently while still
Races 20
cooperating with their allies. However, be wary of the While you are at 0 hit points and dying, you cast
fact that you brain is visible atop your head, clearly bright light within a 10-foot radius, and shadowy light
distinguishing you from normal rats. Consider classes for an additional 10 feet. If you are stabilized or regain
like monk and rogue which can capitalize on your hit points, this effect immediately ends.
capabilities. When you die, your body gives off one final flash of
Cranium rats are created by mind flayers, and serve light as your body and your possessions burn to ash.
them as spies. A cranium rat might fit into a party with Any equipment that you were carrying or wearing is
a mind flayer, or with other mind flayer servants like immediately destroyed, excluding any metal or magical
intellect devourers. items.
Light Sensitivity. While in bright light, you have
Design Notes disadvantage on attack rolls, as well as on Wisdom
Cranium rats are basically normal rats with some extra (Perception) checks that rely on sight.
abilities tacked on, so we’ll start from the original Rat Superior Darkvision. You can see in dim light within
(covered in the original Monstrous Races), and add 120 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in
from there. Like the original Rat, we’ll treat the darkness as if it were dim light. You can’t discern color
Cranium Rat as awakened. Basic rats sit at just 0.5 BP, in darkness, only shades of gray.
so we’ve got lots of room for new abilities. Languages. You can speak, read, and write in Elvish
Cranium rats have 30 ft. speed (up from 20 ft. for and Sylvan.
basic rats) for 1 BP, Telepathy for 2 BP, and Telepathic
Shroud for 3 BP. That brings us up to 6.5 BP, which still Playing a Darkling
isn’t great but it’s much better than a normal rat. Darklings are nearly humanoid, making them an
At 6.5 BP, the Cranium Rat is below our target range excellent choice for a player who wants to play a fey
of 8-10 BP. If you want to strengthen the Cranium Rat, without a lof of complicated traits. Their Dexterity,
add a +1 Intelligence increase. If you want to weaken speed, and small size make them excellent rangers and
the Cranium Rat, reduce its Dexterity increase. rogues, and their blindsight and Darkvision make them
adept at working in complete darkness. However, their
Darkling light blindness means that they may have trouble
Fey cursed by the queen of the Summer Court, fighting creatures that need light to see, especially in
darklings are cursed to suffer rapid aging when they melee combat.
are exposed to light, and so they live out their lives in Darklings sell their services, so a mercenary darkling
complete darkness, covering themselves head to toe to could fit into many parties. However, their light
ward off any trace of light which might fall upon them. sensitivity may make it difficult for them to work
For Darkling Elders, see Racial Feats, later in this alongside races which lack Darkvision.
document. When you have gained a few levels and built prestige
in the Darkling community, consider taking the Darkling
Darkling Traits Elder feat.
Darklings share the following racial traits.
Creature Type. Fey. Design Notes
Ability Score Increase. +1 Dexterity. Darklings come in two varieties: the standard Darkling,
Alignment. Natural thieves and assassins, most and the Darkling Elder. Darkling elders are an advanced
darklings are chaotic neutral. form of the basic Darkling, so instead of presenting
Size. Your size is small. them as a subrace, we’ll make them a racial feat so
Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 ft. that players can start as a standard darkling and
Blindsight. You have blindsight 30 ft. advance by taking a feat if they choose to do so. I’ll
Death Flash. When you fall to 0 hit points, include the design notes for the Darkling Elder below.
nonmagical light flashes out from you in a 10-foot Darkling
radius. Each creature within 10 feet of you which can Darklings are basically humanoid, which makes them
see the bright light must make a Constitution saving easy to design. Death Flash and Light Sensitivity are
throw or be blinded until the end of their next turn. both new, but can be easily adapted from traits which
The DC of this check is 8 + your proficiency bonus + we have designed previously.
your Constitution modifier.
Races 21
Darklings are fey, costing 0.5 BP but offering no also lose Light Sensitivity, which is a considerable gain
specific abilities. for a darkling. Finally, they get the ability to cast
Darklings are described as thieves and assassins, and darkness once per short rest.
their ability scores reflect this. Their ability scores are Next, we should figure out how much BP everything
all good (except their Intelligence), but their Dexterity is worth. Upgrading from small size to medium size is 1
is clearly their best. We’ll grant +1 Dexterity for 1 BP. BP. Adding damage to Death Flash is probably around
From the stat block, we get small size for -1 BP, 30 ft. 0.5 BP if we make it all or nothing instead of save for
walking speed for 0.5 BP, 30 ft. blindsight for 6 BP, 120 half. Removing Light Sensitivity is 2 BP. Casting
ft. Darkvision for 3 BP, only racial languages plus one darkness once per short rest is 5 BP.
fixed language for -0.75 BP. That’s a total of 8.5 BP, which is obviously out of the
That brings us 10.25 BP before we cover Death Flash question for a feat since our target range is 2-4 BP.
and Light Sensitivity. Light Sensitivity is similar to Darkness is by far the biggest source of BP cost, and I
Sunlight Sensitivity, but where Sunlight Sensitivitiy think it’s also the least interesting part of the Darkling
requires direct sunlight, Light Sensitivity only requires Elder, so we’ll drop it. That brings us to 3.5 BP, which is
bright light like that cast by a torch. It’s also important within our target range.
to note that attacking a creature which is in bright light
doesn’t affect the Darkling; the Darkling itself must be Deep Scion [Template: Acquired]
in bright light. This seems like it could be an even trade, Shapechangers coerced into undergoing a horrifying
especially consider that darklings have 120 ft. ritual, deep scions serve their aquatic masters as spies
Darkvision, so we’ll call this -2 BP. and assassins, venturing onto dry land where their
Death Flash works the same way that the Magmin’s masters cannot.
Death Burst does, so we’ll borrow borrow from the
design work we did in the original Monstrous Races. Becoming a Deep Scion
However, unlike Death Burst, Death Flash doesn’t deal Any living humanoid of 5th level or greater can become
damage, and instead blinds creatures for a round. The a deep scion. Lower-level humanoids are typically not
weakest spell which inflicts blindness is powerful enough to attract the notice of the powerful
blindness/deafness, which is just 2nd-level and has a creatures with the knowledge and power to create
one-minute duration, so I think a single round of deep scions.
blindness is safe to call 1 BP. Becoming a deep scion is a bargain made with the
Death Flash also notably destroys any of the humanoid’s new master. While it is technically possible
Darkling’s non-metal and non-magical possessions. to enter this bargain willingly, most deep scions are not
While that’s fine on a monster, it could be a problem so fortunate. The bargain is traditionally offered to a
for a party of players if the Darkling is carrying humanoid facing the certainty of drowning, and
important things like letters, maps, food, etc. that the transformation and subjugation are offered as an
rest of the party needs. It’s still really cool, and I want alternative to death.
to keep it, so we’ll make it a secondary effect on Death Once the ritual is complete, the subject is released
Flash that occurs when the Darkling actually dies. safely, typically on dry land. The effects of the ritual
At 9.25 BP, the Darkling is within our targer range of may not be immediately obvious.
8-10 BP. If you want to weaken the Darkling, reduce its The next time the character gains enough experience
blindsight range. If you want to strengthen the to gain a level, instead of selecting a class in which to
Darkling, increase its Dexterity increase. take a new level the character immediately gains the
Darkling Elder single level of the Deep Scion template.
This is going to be my first time designing a racial feat,
which is very exciting. I’ll discuss general racial feat Deep Scion Traits
design notes in the Racial Feats chapter later in this All deep scions have the following traits, adding these
document. traits to their existing racial traits upon gaining the
To start with, we should figure out what darkling template.
elders get that regular darklings don’t, and use those Hit Points
elements as the basis for our feat. Darkling elders grow Hit Dice. 1d8 per revenant level
to medium size, upgrade Death Flash to Death Burn,
which adds some radiant damage to the effect. They
Races 22
Hit Points at Higher Levels. 1d8 (or 5) + your Deep scions add the shapechanger subtype for 0.5
Constitution modifier per deep scion level BP.
To identify the traits that are unique to the Deep
Traits
Sion, we need to get an idea of what the base creature
Deep scions gain the following traits at each level, as
was intended to be. I think we can assume that it was a
indicated on the table below.
human since humans are always a good baseline for
Level Features creatures like this. We’ll also need to tackle
1 Creature Type, Alignment, Speed, Languages, Shapechanger, which is a unique ability every time, and
Bite and Claw, Psychic Screech, Shapechanger Psychic Screech.
Creature Type. You gain the Shapechanger subtype. Deep scions speak Aquan, Common, and Thieve’s
Aligmment. Your alignment changes to neutral evil. Cant. I think we can assume that the base human may
Speed. You gain a swim speed of 40 feet. have been a rogue to explain Thieve’s Cant, so we’ll
Languages. You learn the Aquan language. add Aquan for 0.25 BP.
Amphibious. You can breathe air and water. While in piscine form, deep scions have a 40 ft. swim
Bite and Claw. Your unarmed strikes deal 1d6 speed for 1.5 BP, 120 ft. Darkvision for 3 BP,
piercing or slashing damage on a hit. amphibious for 0.5 BP, and 1d6 natural weapons for 1
Psychic Screech. As an action you can emit a BP. To simplify things, we’ll drop the reduction to land
horrifying screech that can be heard clearly within 300 speed. That will mean that deep scions won’t feel the
feet. Creatures within 30 feet of you must make a need to disguise themselves in combat just to move
Wisdom saving throw or be frightened for until the end around better.
of your next turn. The DC of this saving throw is 8 + Shapechanger is basically a disguise for the deep
your proficiency bonus + your Constitution modifier. scion. They give up most of their new traits in exchange
In water, psychic screech also telepathically for the ability to pass as a normal humanoid. Like we
transmits your memories of the last 24 hours to your did for the Doppelganger, we’ll approximate this with
master (the creature which make you a deep scion), disguise self once per day for 1 BP.
regardless of distance, so long as you and your master That just leaves Phychic Screech. It’s fine for a solo
are in the same body of water. monster like the Deep Scion, but for a player it’s far too
After you use this ability, you can't use it again until powerful. Stunning creatures is significant, and spells
you complete a long rest. that stun creatures are generally high level. We’ll need
Shapechanger. You can cast Disguise Self once per to find a less powerful crowd control effect. Frightened
day. Charisma is your spellcasting ability for this spell. seems reasonable, since it achieves the desired effect
of keeping enemies away from the Deep Scion. The
Design Notes fear spell is a good basis. If we reduce the duration
Deep Scions are not a unique race: they’re a humanoid from one minute to one round, reduce the effect to
which has undergone a ritual performed by a powerful just the Frightened condition, allow it to be used once
aquatic creatures like a kraken. So we’ll present the per long rest, and change the effect from a cone to a
Deep Scion as a template. They have no racial radius centered on the Deep Scion, I think we can call it
drawbacks aside from being ugly and smelling like fish, 2 BP.
so we’ll need to make the Deep Scion a leveled That brings our total to 9.75 BP before we consider
template. per-level hit dice and start breaking things up into
Before we decide how many levels we’ll need, we levels. Our target range for single-level templates is 8-
need to figure out tht total BP of the traits added by 10 BP, which we’ll very slightly exceed if we award
the Deep Scion. Leveled templates shoot for 8-10 BP everything at one level, but I think that’s better than
for their first level, and 4-5 BP for additional levels. trying to break things up and having two weak levels.
Once we know how many BP we need to split up, we If you want to strengthen the Deep Scion, increase
can decide how many levels to use for the template. the duration of disguise self to 24 hours. If you want to
We also need to remember that hit dice have a per- weaken the Deep Scion, reduce its natural weapon
level BP cost. damage.
Deep scions use d8 hit dice. They’re intended to be
sneaky and deceitful like rogues, so I think that makes Demons
sense. That costs 0.5 BP her level of the template.
The vile denizens of the Abyss.
Races 23
This section expands on the demon options Weakening Gaze. Starting at 3rd level, as an action,
presented in the original Monstrous Races. The core you can weaken one creature within 20 feet that you
racial traits are identical in both documents. can see. The target must make a Constitution saving
throw. On a failed save, the target deals only half
Demon Traits damage with weapon attacks that use Strength for 1
Demons share the following racial traits. minute. The target can repeat the saving throw at the
Creature Type. Fiend (demon) end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a
Alignment. Embodiments of chaos and evil, most success. The DC of this saving throw is 8 + your
demons are chaotic evil. Proficiency Bonus + your Wisdom modifier.
Darkvision. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of After you use this ability, you can't use it again until
you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it you complete a long rest.
were dim light. You can’t discern color in darkness, only Languages. You can speak, read, and write in.
shades of gray.
Maw Demon Traits
Subrace. Choose one of these subraces. You gain the
traits listed under your chosen subrace in addition to
those listed above.
Babau Traits Bite. Your unarmed strikes deal 1d8 piercing damage
Ability Score Increase. +1 Strength, Dexterity, or on a hit.
Cosntitution, and +1 Wisdom. Can’t Speak. You are unable to speak, but are still
Size. Your size is medium. able to read, write, and understand any languages
Speed. Your base walking speed is 35 ft. which you know. You are unable to perform verbal
Claws. Your unarmed strikes deal 1d8 slashing spell components.
damage on a hit. Natural Armor. While unarmored, your AC is equal
Natural Armor. While unarmored, your AC is equal to 13 + your Dexterity modifier.
to 13 + your Dexterity modifier. Rampage. When you reduce a creature to 0 hit
points with a melee attack on your turn, you can take a
bonus action to move up to half your speed and make
a bite attack.
Three Arms. You have three arms, and may hold and
use items in each of your hands.
If you have Extra Attacks, when you take the Attack
action you may make each of your attacks using any
weapon you are holding.
When you take the Attack action and attack with a
weapon which qualifies for use with two-weapon
fighting, you can use a bonus action to attack with a
different qualifying weapon. You don’t add your ability
modifier to the damage of the bonus attack unless the
from using a shield until the beginning of your next
turn, but you may switch between multiple Heavy or
Versatile weapons with each attack.
Unwavering Hunger. You are immuned to the
Charmed and Frightened conditions.
Races 24
Languages. You can understand, read, and write in Languages. You can speak, read, and write in Abyssal
Abyssal. and Gnoll.
Shoosuva Traits Playing a Demon
Size. Your size is medium. Babau
Speed. Your base walking speed is 40 ft. Babaus are mechanically simple, and their flexible
Bite and Sting. Your unarmed strikes deal 1d8 ability scores make them very versatile. They make
piercing damage on a hit. Attacks made with your sting good clerics, fighters, and rangers, and can rely on their
are made with an additional 5 feet of reach. natural armor in place of manufactured light armor.
Natural Armor. While unarmored, your AC is equal Weakening Gaze provides a means to physically
to 13 + your Dexterity modifier. weaken enemies before overpowering them in melee
No Hands. You are unable to wield weapons or wear combat.
shields, and cannot use items which require Babau are described as more clever than typical
manipulation, including spellcasting foci, wands, tools, demons, but they still have normal demonic
etc. tendencies. A babau could fit into a party of evil
Rampage. When you reduce a creature to 0 hit characters, especially if their activites tend to be
points with a melee attack on your turn, you can take a chaotic and violent.
bonus action to move up to half your speed and make Maw Demon
a bite attack. Maw demons exist almost exclusively to eat stuff.
Unwavering Hunger. You are immuned to the Consider classes like barbarian which get you into
Charmed and Frightened conditions. melee quickly so you can get right to eating stuff. Maw
demons have three arms, which allows you to easily
switch between weapons and shields, but remember
that your primary goal is still to eat stuff.
Created by Yeenoghu to fight alongside gnoll war
packs, maw demons are at home in a party of gnolls.
However, they tend to be a silent party member. With
no capacity for speech, and little interest in doing
anything except eating stuff, a maw demon is a
welcome addition to a party with an established
command structure and a lot of eating stuff to do.
Shoosuva
The Shoosuva is a strong melee combatant, and has
extended reach with its sting. Consider classes like
barbarian and fighter, and capitalize on the Shoosuva’s
high speed to stay out of reach of slower foes with
shorter reach than you.
Shoosuva appear as a boon from Yeenoghu granted
to gnoll leaders after a major success. A shoosuva in
the party might be a divine boon for one of the party
members in a gnoll party, or they might be sent by a
gnoll leader who has sent the party forth on some task.
Design Notes
Volo’s Guide to Monsters expands the demon options
presented in the Monster Manual, adding three new
varieties. Like the demons which we covered in the
original Monstrous Races, the three new varieties
share little beyond their creature type. That also means
Races 25
that we can use the same shared racial traits that we for 1 BP total. Maw demons know only racial languages
did for demons in the original Monstrous Races. for -1 BP, and they can’t speak for -1.5 BP. We’ll add
That brings us to 2.5 BP before we explore individual Rampage for 2 BP, and set the Maw Demon’s natural
demon subraces. weapons to 1d8 for 2 BP.
It’s not entirely clear if Maw Demons have functional
Babau
hands. The official art portrays them as having 3 amrs
Babau are roughly-humanoid demons with a mildly
ending in clawed appendages, but they don’t have
interesting origin story. The vast majority of their
claws listed as an attack options so it’s unclear if the
abilities are tied up in innate spellcasting, but there is
claws are noteworthy. They don’t appear to have
nothing about the Babau which makes it difficult to
opposable thumbs, either, but two sets of opposable
adapt.
digits on one appendage is probably as good as a
The Babau’s best ability scores are its physical ability
human hand for everyting except playing a piano. We’ll
scores. They’re described as being “as clever as devils”,
grant three arms for 0.75 BP.
but this is not reflected in their ability scores. Still, I
At 9.25 BP, the Maw Demon is within our targer
want them to a clever, crafty demon, so we’ll grant a
range of 8-10 BP. If you want to strengthen the Maw
semi-flexible (physical ability scores only) +1 and a +1
demon, increase its ability score increase. If you want
to Wisdom for 2.5 BP total.
to weaken the Maw Demon, reduce its natural armor
or apply a Charisma reduction.
armor (down from +3) for 1 BP, 35 ft. walking speed
(down from 40 ft.) for 0.5 BP, only racial languages for - Shoosuva
1 BP, and 1d8 natural weapons for 2 BP. Similar in function to maw demons, but less “giant
That brings us to 7 BP before we tackle the Babau’s mouth” and more “demon hyena”, the Shoosuva is a
innate spellcasting and Weakening Gaze. Weakening weird creature. Its abilities aren’t especially unique,
Gaze is basically identical to ray of enfeeblement. The and its design is very similar to that of the Maw
only difference is the range, which isn’t enough to Demon.
make a moteworthy BP difference, so we can call it 2 The Shoosuva’s best ability scores by a wide margin
BP. We’ll allow it 2 levels early for an additional 0.25 are Strength and Constitution, so we’ll grant +1 to each
BP. for 1 BP.
With so little room left to add more traits, I think From the stat block, we get medium size (down from
we’ll abandon the Babau’s innate spellcasting. They’ll Large), +3 natural armor for 1.5 BP, 40 ft. walking
make excellent clerics, so they can get spellcasting speed for 1 BP, condition immunities to Charmed and
from their class. Frightened for 1 BP total, only racial languages plus one
At 9.75 BP, the Babau is within our target range of 8- fixed language for -0.75 BP total, and Rampage for 2
10 BP. If you want to strengthen the Babau, allow it to BP. We’ll drop telepath to save BP. Shoosuva have no
use Weakening Gaze at 1st level. If you want to weaken hands for -2 BP, and we’ll set their natural weapons to
the babau, reduce its natural armor. 1d8 for 2 BP. We’ll drop the poison/paralysis on the tail
because it’s too powerful to grant to a player, and we’ll
Maw Demon
add Natural Weapon Reach for 0.5 BP.
Resembling a gigantic mouth with legs and stumpy
At 9.75 BP, the Shoosuva is within our target range
armor, the maw demon exists to eat stuff, which is
of 8-10 BP. If you want to strengthen the shoosuva,
then magically transported to Yeenoghu’s gullet.
increase its natural weapon damage. If you want to
Ignoring the inconvenience of having food magically
weaken the shoosuva, reduce it natural armor.
appear in your throat at random, that’s a pretty great
deal for Yeenoghu. Maw demons don’t have a lot going Devourer
on. Their only special ability is Rampage, which we
designed for Gnolls in the original Monstrous Races. Fiends devoted to Orcus may be deemed worthy and
Maw demons’ ability scores aren’t great, but transformed into a Devourer, a horrifying fiend that
Strength and Constitution are their best, so we’ll grant eats the souls of living humanoids.
+1 to each for 2 BP.
From the stat block, we get medium size, +3 natural Devourer Traits
armor (down from +4) for 1.5 BP, 30 ft. move speed, share the following racial traits.
and condition immunities to Charmed and Frightened Creature Type. Fiend
Races 26
Ability Score Increase. +1 Strength, +1 Constitution. at 17th level. The DC of this saving throw is 8 + your
Alignment. Fiends that worship Orcus and seek to proficiency bonus + your Charisma modifier.
bring everlasting death to all reality, most devourers Languages. You can speak, read, and write in
are chaotic evil. Abyssal.
Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 ft. Playing a Devourer
Claw. Your unarmed strikes deal 1d8 slashing Devourers are primarily a melee threat, and they’re
damage on a hit. most effective when facing numerous relatively weak
Darkvision. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of intelligent creatures, like a pack of goblins or a squad
you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it of city guards. Reduce a target to 0 hit points, then
were dim light. You can’t discern color in darkness, only imprison them. When they die, you can either recover
shades of gray. some lost hit points or release a soul rending wave to
Natural Armor. While unarmored, your AC is equal damage enemies in an area round you. In an ideal
to 13 + your Dexterity modifier. situation, you may be able to imprison creatures in
Imprison Soul. As an action, you may absorb a living, successive rouds, repeatedly releasing soul rending
intelligent creature within 30 feet with 0 hit points. waves and imprisoning the dying victims. Consider
That creature is teleported into your ribcage and classes which will boost your damage output and
imprisoned there. If the creature was stabilized before provide offensive options when Imprison Soul isn’t
being imprisoned, it again begins dying. While useful. Barbarian and Fighter both work, but you may
imprisoned, the creature has disadvantage on death find options like Monk or Ranger viable, too.
saving throws. You may only have on creature Devourers are devout worshippers of Orcus, so
imprisoned at a time. they’re at home in a party of undead, necromancers, or
While imprisoned this way, the creature is reduced possibly other fiends who might revere Orcus.
in size in order to fit inside your ribcage, if necessary,
and is clearly visible to creatures which can see your Design Notes
torso. The creature has three-quarters cover. Any Devourers are mostly simple, but Imprison Soul and
attempt to touch the creature must overcome your Soul Rend are both very unique. We’ll need to
own AC plus the bonus for three-quarters cover. You approach them both cautiously. We’ll also borrow
may choose to resist any spell which targets the design decisions from demons, since devourers are
creature (including beneficial ones) by making a saving closely related.
throw against the caster’s spell DC. If the spell does not Devourers are fiends, costing 0.5 BP but offering no
list a saving throw, you may make a Charisma saving specific abilities.
throw against the caster’s spell DC, negating the effect Devourers are melee monsters with high Strength
on a successful saving throw. and Constitution, so we’ll grant +1 to each for 2 BP.
If you are reduced to 0 hit points or if the creature From the stat block, we get medium size (down from
regains hit points, the imprisoned creature is released large), +3 natural armor (down from +5) for 1.5 BP, 30
into an adjacent unoccupied space, chosen at random. ft. walking speed, 60 ft. Darkvision for 2 BP, and only
You may intentionally release the creature as a bonus racial languages for -1 BP. Like we did with demons,
action, releasing it into an adjacent unoccupied space. we’ll drop the devourers damage resistances, and we’ll
If the creature dies while imprisoned this way, you drop Telepathy to save BP. We’ll set the devourer’s
may absorb and use a portion of its soul as the soul natural weapons to 1d8 for 2 BP.
departs the body. At the beginning of your turn, you That brings us to 7 BP before we tackle Imprison Soul
must release the body as a Bonus Action. In addition, and Soul Rend. Both abilities are very powerful, but
you may choose to spend one hit die to recover hit notably only affect humanoids. While that’s fine for a
points, or you may release a wave of soul-rending monster that will typically be fighting a party of
necrotic energy. If you choose the soul-rending wave, humanoid players, that’s basically worthless for a
each living, intelligent creature within 30 feet of you player who could be facing anything in the monster
must make a Constitution saving throw. The creature manual. I think if we change to limitation to living
takes 1d6 necrotic damage on a failed saving throw, or intelligent creatures, I think that will make the ability
half as much on as successfulone. This damage useful without changing the flavor too much.
increases to 2d6 at 5th level, 3d6 at 11th level, and 4d6
Races 27
We also need to discuss the specific effects of the Dinosaur Traits
abilities. Imprison Soul allows the devourer to absorb a Dinosaurs share the following racial traits.
dying target, which is central to the Devourer’s flavor. Creature Type. Beast
If the creature dies, the Devourer gets a ton of cool Alignment. Simple animals motivated by little
stuff. We can’t grant a player a bunch of healing, a free beyond basic survival instincts, most dinosaurs are
action, and an undead ally. neutral.
Soul Rend is a big area damage effect. It does Languages. You can speak, read, and write in
additional damage for each dying humanoid in the Common.
area, which makes it important for players facing a Subrace. Choose one of these subraces. You gain the
devourer to keep their allies conscious. But for a player traits listed under your chosen subrace in addition to
playing a devourer, it provides an incentive to knock those listed above.
out but not kill as many enemies as possible before
they use Soul Rend. That also means that encounters Brontosaurus Traits
with large numbers of enemies become exponentially Ability Score Increase. +2 Strength, +1 Constitution.
easier for the Devourer. We’ll need to reduce the base Size. Your size is medium.
damage and the scaling significantly. Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 ft.
I think we can get away with mashing Impison Soul Natural Armor. While unarmored, your AC is equal
and Soul Rend into one ability. We’ll keep the to 15 + your Dexterity modifier.
mechanic about absorbing dying enemies unchanged, No Hands. You are unable to wield weapons or wear
but we’ll change basically everything else. After the shields, and cannot use items which require
creature dies, we’ll allow the Devourer their choice of manipulation, including spellcasting foci, wands, tools,
two effects on the following turn. We’ll allow them to etc.
either spend one hit die to recover hit points, or Stomp and Tail. Your unarmed strikes deal 1d10
release a pulse of necrotic energy to damage living bludgeoning damage on a hit.
creatures. We’ll make both options require a bonus Trip. If you hit a creature with an unarmed strike,
action which expels the entrapped creature, and we’ll you may attempt to shove the target prone as a bonus
set the necrotic energy option to match the damage action (see “Shoving a Creature”, page 195 of the
scaling on Chill Touch. We’ll call the whole thing 3 BP, Player’s Handbook).
but it’s a very unique ability so it’s difficult to assess a Deinonychus Traits
realistic BP value. Ability Score Increase. +1 Strength, +1 Dexterity, +1
At 10 BP, the Devourer is at the top of our target Constitution.
range of 8-10 BP. If you want to strengthen the Size. Your size is medium.
Devourer, increase its natural armor or allow it to use Speed. Your base walking speed is 40 ft.
Imprison Soul to imprison a dying creature as a bonus Bite and Claw. Your unarmed strikes deal 1d8
action. If you want to weaken the devourer, reduce its piercing or slashing damage on a hit.
natural weapon damage or limit Imprison Soul to once Keen Senses. You have proficiency in the Perception
per short rest. Keep in mind that Imprison Soul is a skill.
complicated and somewhat experimental ability, so Natural Armor. While unarmored, your AC is equal
you may need to adjust it if it proves problematic in to 11 + your Dexterity modifier.
your game. Pounce. If you move at least 15 feet straight toward
a creature then hit it with an unarmed strike on the
Dinosaurs same turn, you may attempt to shove the target prone
Dinosaurs vary wildly in size and appearance, but the as a bonus action (see “Shoving a Creature”, page 195
most iconic dinosaurs are typically giant reptilian of the Player’s Handbook).
creatures. In many Dungeons and Dragons settings, Dimetrodon Traits
dinosaurs still exist in a handful of locations throughout Ability Score Increase. +2 Strength, +2 Constitution.
the world. Size. Your size is medium.
This section expands on the dinosaur options Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 ft. You have a
presented in the original Monstrous Races. The core swim speed of 20 ft.
racial traits are identical in both documents.
Races 28
Bite. Your unarmed strikes deal 1d10 piercing No Hands. You are unable to wield weapons or wear
damage on a hit. shields, and cannot use items which require
Keen Senses. You have proficiency in the Perception manipulation, including spellcasting foci, wands, tools,
skill. etc.
Natural Armor. While unarmored, your AC is equal Tail. Your unarmed strikes deal 1d10 piercing
to 12 + your Dexterity modifier. damage on a hit.
No Hands. You are unable to wield weapons or wear
Velociraptor Traits
shields, and cannot use items which require
Ability Score Increase. +1 Dexterity, +1 Constitution.
manipulation, including spellcasting foci, wands, tools,
Size. Your size is tiny.
etc.
Hadrosaurus Traits Bite. Your unarmed strikes deal 1d6 piercing damage
Ability Score Increase. +2 Strength, +2 Constitution. on a hit.
Size. Your size is medium. Natural Armor. While unarmored, your AC is equal
Speed. Your base walking speed is 40 ft. to 11 + your Dexterity modifier.
Keen Senses. You have proficiency in the Perception Pack Tactics. As a bonus action you may take
skill. advantage of the presence of your allies. You gain
No Hands. You are unable to wield weapons or wear Advantage on the next attack roll you make this turn
shields, and cannot use items which require against a creature if at least one of your allies is within
manipulation, including spellcasting foci, wands, tools, 5 feet of the creature and the ally isn’t incapacitated.
etc.
Tail. Your unarmed strikes deal 1d10 bludgeoning Playing a Dinosaur
damage on a hit. Dinosaurs are simple creatures with few special
abilities, but they’re also built to survive on their own
Quetzalcoatlus Traits
without the aid equipment of magic.
Ability Score Increase. +1 Strength.
Like many other creatures, being awakened has a
Monster Manualgreat deal of influence on your
character’s personality. Consider what effect granted
Bite. Your unarmed strikes deal 1d8 piercing damage
your character superior intelligence, and how that
on a hit.
effect shaped your character’s personality.
Dive Attack. Once per turn, if you dive at least 30
feet toward a creature and hit it with a melee weapon Brontosaurus
attack, the target takes an extra 1d6 damage from the The brontosaurus is well defended, even without
attack. This damage increases to 2d6 at 5th level, 3d6 at armor. Its tail does incredible damage with its tail, and
11th level, and 4d6 at 17th level. has the ability to knock foes prone. However, it has
Flight. You have a flying speed of 40 feet. To use this trouble dealing with challenges which can’t be solved
speed, you can’t be wearing medium or heavy armor. by knocking them down.
Flyby. You may perform the Disengage action as a
Deinonychus
bonus action.
Fast and with excellent physical ability scores, the
Deinonychus makes and excellent melee character.
Barbarian and fighter are both great class options, and
be sure to capitalize on Pounce. However, because
shields, and cannot use items which require
their natural armor if poor you’ll want to consider
manipulation, including spellcasting foci, wands, tools,
manufactured armor.
etc.
Dimetrodon
Stegosaurus Traits
Dimetrodons are slow swimmers, but their ability score
increases and their natural weapon damage are both
excellent.
Races 29
Hadrosaurus 1.5 BP. We’ll set the deinonychus’s natural weapons to
Hadrosaurs are very simple. With no active abilities but 1d8 for 2 BP.
with decent numerical traits, they’re a great simple At 7.5 BP, the deinonychus is slightly below our
basis for a character if you want to play a dinosaur. target range of 8-10 BP. If you want to strengthen the
Deinonychus, increase its natural armor. If you want to
Quetzalcoatlus
weaken the Deinonychus, reduce its speed.
Powerful flyers, Quetzalcoatls thrive when they have
room to use Dive Attack and to escape using Flyby. Dimetrodon
Dimetrodons are a bit like less-interesting crocodiles.
Stegosaurus
Like other dinosaurs, dimetrodons have good
Fast for such a bulky creature, and with excellent
Strength and Constitution. They don’t have any special
natural armor and natural weapon damage,
abilities, so we’ll grant +2 to each for 4 BP total.
stegosauruses make great melee characters.
Velociraptor armor for 1 BP, 30 ft. walking speed, 20 ft. swim speed
Velociraptors are tiny, but otherwise resemble the for 0.5 BP, and proficiency in Perception for 0.5 BP.
deinonychus or the tyrannosaurus. Pack Tactics and Dimetrodons have no hands for -2 BP, and we’ll set
increased Dexterity make the velociraptor an excellent their natural weapons to 1d10 for 3 BP.
rogue, but don’t overlook Monk or Ranger as options. At 6.5 BP, the dimetrodon is below our target range
of 8-10 BP. If you want to strengthen the dimetrodon,
Design Notes increase its swim speed or natural armor. If you want
Dinosaurs are among my least favorite monsters to to weaken the dimetrodon, reduce its natural weapon
adapt. They’re mostly only interesting because of their damage.
size, and they almost never have interesting special
Hadrosaurus
abilities. They’re fine monsters to throw into an
Even for dinosaurs, the Hadrosaurus is boring. Its stats
encounter which isn’t intended to be a major plot
are bad, and it doesn’t even have an extra movement
point, but aside from their size they’re just not
type. At CR ¼, that’s hardly a surprise.
interesting. That’s not to say that they aren’t playable,
Hadrosaurs have good Strength and Constitution, so
just that they’re not very interesting.
we’ll grant +2 to each for 4 BP because I don’t know
We covered dinosaurs in the original Monstrous
what else to do here.
Races, and the shared racial traits we decided upon still
From the stat block, we get medium size (down from
work for the new dinosaur options. Of course, that only
large, +1 natural armor for 0.5 BP, 40 ft. walking speed
covers creature type and languages, so it’s not a great
for 1 BP, and proficiency in Perception for 0.5 BP.
deal of time saved. The core racial traits bring us to -0.5
Hadrosaurs have no hands for -2 BP, and we’ll set their
BP before we consider individual subraces.
natural weapons to 1d10 for 3 BP.
Brontosaurus At 6.5 BP, the Hadrosaurus is below our target range
The Brontosaurus is a fantastic example of the point I of 8-10 BP. If you want to strengthen the Hadrosaurus,
made above regarding dinosaurs being boring. After increase its natural armor. If you want to weaken the
adjusting for size, its traits are identical to the Hadrosaurus, reduce its natural weapon damage.
Ankylosaurus, which we covered in the original
Quetzalcoatlus
Monstrous Races. Rather than duplicate that effort, I
The Quetzalcoatlus is a really cool dinosaur if you’re
encourage you to see the deisgn notes for the
not familiar. It’s like a gigantic pterodactyle, but with a
Ankylosaurus, presented in the original Monstrous
ridiculously disproportionate head. Go look at pictures,
Races.
they’re super cool. Mechanically, they’re fun to
Deinonychus compare to pterodactyls, which we covered in the
After adjusting for size, the deinonychus is basically a original Monstrous Races. While the Pterodactyl is
faster and more agile version fot he Allosaurus, which nimble and focuses on Flyby, the Quetzalcoatlus is
we covered in the original monstrous races. strong and relies on Dive Attack. This gives us two
The Deinonychus’s physical ability scores are all cosmetically similar, but functionally different races.
good, so we’ll grant +1 to each for 3 BP. The Quetzalcoatlus’s ability scores aren’t fantastic,
From the stat block, we get medium size, +1 natural but Strength is its best, so we’ll grant +1 Strength for 1
armor for 0.5 BP, 40 ft. speed for 1 BP, and Pounce for BP.
Races 30
From the stat block, we get medium size (down from Ability Score Increase. +1 Strength, +1 Dexterity.
huge), +2 natural armor for 1 BP, 10 ft. walking speed Alignment. Fiends barely cowed by the commands of
for -2 BP, 40 ft. fly speed (down from 80 ft.) for 5 BP, their drow masters, most draegloths are chaotic evil.
Dive Attack for 2 BP, and Flyby for 2 BP. Quetzalcoatlus Size. Your size is medium.
have no hands for -2 BP, and we’ll set their natural Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 ft.
weapons to 1d8 for 2 BP. Claws. Your unarmed strikes deal 1d8 slashing
At 8.5 BP, the Quetzalcoatlus is within our target damage on a hit.
range of 8-10 BP. If you want to strengthen the Fey Ancestry. You have advantage on saving throws
Quetzalcoatlus, increase its Strength increase. If you against being charmed, and magic can't put you to
want to weaken the Quetzalcoatlus, reduce its natural sleep.
armor or speed. Four Arms. You have four arms, and may hold and
use items in each of your hands.
Stegosaurus
If you have Extra Attacks, when you take the Attack
The Stegosaurus is another dinosaur with no special
action you may make each of your attacks using any
abilities.
weapon you are holding.
The Stegosaurus’s best ability scores are Strength
When you take the Attack action and attack with a
and Constitution, so we’ll grant +2 to each for 4 BP
weapon which qualifies for use with two-weapon
total.
fighting, you can use a bonus action to attack with a
From the stat block, we get medium size (down from
different qualifying weapon. You don’t add your ability
huge), +4 natural armor for 2 BP, and 40 ft. walking
modifier to the damage of the bonus attack unless the
speed for 1 BP. Stegosauruses have no hands for -2 BP,
and we’ll set their natural weapons to 1d10 for 3 BP.
At 7.5 BP, the Stegosaurus is just below our target
range of 8-10 BP. If you want to strengthen the
stegosaurus, increase its natural armor. If you want to
weaken the stegosaurus, reduce its natural weapon
damage.
Velociraptor from using a shield until the beginning of your next
Tiny pack hunters, most of the Velociraptor’s BP will be turn, but you may switch between multiple Heavy or
eaten up by Pack Tactics, but otherwise it will resemble Versatile weapons with each attack.
a tiny deinonychus. Natural Armor. While unarmored, your AC is equal
The velociraptor’s best abilities are Dexterity and to 12 + your Dexterity modifier.
Constitution, so we’ll grant +1 to each for 2 BP. Superior Darkvision. You can see in dim light within
From the stat block ,we get tiny size of -1.5 BP, +1 120 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in
natural armor for 0.5 BP, 30 ft. speed for 0 BP, and darkness as if it were dim light. You can’t discern color
Pack Tactics for 5 BP. We’ll set the velociraptor’s in darkness, only shades of gray.
natural weapons to 1d6 for 1.5 BP. Languages. You can speak, read, and write in
At 7 BP, the velociraptor is below our target range of Abyssal, Elvsih, and Undercommon.
8-10 BP. If you want to strengthen the Velociraptor,
increase itsnatural armor or natural weapon damage. If Playing a Draegloth
you want to weaken the velociraptor, reduce its Draegloths are very versatile. Their natural armor and
natural weapon damage. natural weapons allow them to fight effectively
without manufactured equipment, but their four arms
Draegloth make them able to weild manufactured weapons,
Enormous drow-demon hybrids used as muscle and as spellcasting foci, and other items with ease.
a status symbol for drow households that are favored Draegloths are created by drow in a ritual, and serve
by Lolth. the house of their creator. This makes them a good
addition to a party which includes drow or other drow
Draegloth Traits associates and servants. Occasionally a draegloth sets
Draegloths share the following racial traits. out on their own, so they may also fit into a party of
Creature Type. Fiend (demon). former drow servants such as svirfneblin or chitines.
Races 31
Design Notes Ability Score Increase. +2 Dexterity, +1 Constitution.
Draegloth are a mix of Glabrezu demons and Drow. Alignment. Aggressive, wathful, and cruel, most
That’s wonderful because we can easily build a race by firenewts are neutral evil.
mixing and matching traits from the two races. Drow Size. Your size is medium.
are covered in the Player’s Handbook, and we covered Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 ft.
Glabrezu in the original Monstrous Races. However, it’s Amphibious. You can breathe air and water.
also a problem because Glabrezu and Drow are 10.5 BP Damage Immunity. You are immune to fire damage.
and 11.5 BP, respectively, so it’s likely that the Spite Fire. You can use your action to spit fire at a
Draegloth will come out on the high end of the BP creature within 10 feet of you that you can see. The DC
spectrum. We’ll need to make many of the same cuts for this saving throw equals 8 + your Constitution
that we did for demons in the original Monstrous modifier + your proficiency bonus. A creature takes 2d8
Races. damage on a failed save and half as much damage on a
Draegloths are fiends, which costs 0.5 BP but offers successful one. The damage increases by 1d8 when you
no specific abilities. reach 5th level (3d8), 11th level (4d8), and 17th level
Draegloths have excellent physical ability scores. (5d8).
Strength and Constitution seem like obvious options, After you use this ability, you can't use it again until
but we should also consider the Draegloth’s parentage. you complete a short or long rest.
We granted the Glabrezu increases to Strength and Languages. You can speak, read, and write in
intelligence, while the Drow grants increases to Draconic and Ignan.
Dexterity and Charisma. We can’t do all four of those,
so I think we’ll go for +1 Strength and +1 Dexterity for 2 Playing a Firenewt
BP. Nimble and tough, firenewets make excellent fighters,
From the stat block, we get medium size (down from monks, rangers, and rogues. Their society worships the
large), +2 natural armor (down from +3) for 1 BP, 30 ft. evil prince of elemental fire, and many firenewts
walking speed, 120 ft. Darkvision for 3 BP to reflect become warlocks. If you choose to explore pact magic,
their Drow heritage, racial languages plus Common consider the Imix’s Blessing feat.
(Undercommon in this case) plus one fixed for 0.25 BP, Firenewts worship elemental fire, so they’ll likely
Fey Ancestry for 0.5 BP, and 1d8 natural weapons for 2 cooperate with any creature that is similarly fire-
BP. themed. Azers, fire elementals, and fire giants all seem
Draegloths notably have 4 arms for 1 BP. like great allies for an adevturing Firenewt.
Glabrezyuonly have claws on their additional set of
arms, but every piece of art I can find depicting Design Notes
draegloths depicts them with full hands on all four Amazingly, the Firenewt is the first humanoid to
arms. That brings us to 10.25 BP, so unfortunately we’ll appear in the Volo’s Guide to Monsters. Humanoids
need to forego innate spellcasting. are fun to design because they typically have a low CR
At 10.25, the Draegloth is slightly above our target and easily-adapted abilities. The Firenewet is no
range of 8-10 BP. If you want to strengthen the exception.
Draegloth, give it some innate spellcasting based on Firenewets are humanoids, costing 0 BP and offerin
the Drow’s Drow Magic trait. If you want to want to no specific abilities.
weaken the Draegloth, replace its ability score increase Firenewts have only two ability scores with positive
with a flexible +1 increase to one ability score, or modifiers, so we’ll grant +2 Dexterity and +1
reduce its Darkvision range. Constitution for 3 BP.
From the stat block, we get medium size, 30 ft.
Firenewts walking speed, fire immunity for 5 BP, Amphibious for
0.5 BP, and only racial languages plus one fixed for a
A race of amphibious humanoids that worship total of -0.75 BP.
elemental fire, and resemble human-sized orange That brings us to 7.75 BP before we address Spit Fire.
newts. Conveniently, it’s already written to recharge on a
short or long rest. It’s astoundingly similar to breath
Firenewt Traits weapons, but instead of a cone it affects a single target
Firenewts share the following racial traits. and does slightly more damage. We’ll keep it as-
Creature Type. Humanoid (Firenewt).
Races 32
written with the addition of level-based damage scaling Natural Armor. While unarmored, your AC is equal
for 2 BP. to 12 + your Dexterity modifier.
At 9.75 BP, the Firenewt is within our target range of No Hands. You are unable to wield weapons or wear
8-10 BP. If you want to strengthen the Firenewt, shields, and cannot use items which require
increase its constitution modifier. If you want to manipulation, including spellcasting foci, wands, tools,
weaken the Firenewt, reduce its fire immunity to fire etc.
resistance. Languages. You can speak, read, and write in Ignan.
Playing a Giant Strider

Fast and durable, giant striders make excellent front-
line melee characters. Consider classes like barbarian
and fighter. Due to your Fire Absorption ability, having
someone in the party who deals fire damage can be a
useful source of healing. A wizard who likes to cast fire
spells with area effects can be especially effective as
they incinerate your foes and heal you in a single turn.
Giant Striders are generally only used as mounts by
Firenewts. However, other fire-elemental creatures
might find themselves fighting alongside a giant strider,
especially if they share devotion to evil elemental fire.
great deal of influence on your character’s personality.
Consider what effect granted your character superior
intelligence, and how that effect shaped your
character’s personality.
Design Notes
Giant Striders are the mount of choice for Firenewts.
When you live in volcanoes and other places with
intense heat and abundant magma, immunity to fire is
Firenewt Giant Strider a crucial trait for a mount. Unfortunately, the Giant
Typically referred to simply as “giant striders”, these Strider has several complicated abilities that may cost a
bidepal reptilian beasts serve fire newts as mounts. lot of BP to adapt. We’ll treat the Giant Strider as
awakened, as we’ve done with similar creature.
Giant Strider Traits Giant striders are monstrosities, costing 0.5 BP but
Firenewet Giant Striders share the following racial offering no specific abilities.
traits. Giant striders have good Strength and Constitution
Creature Type. Monstrosity. like most creatures commonly used as mounts, so we’ll
Ability Score Increase. +1 Strength, +1 Constitution. grant +1 to each for 2 BP total.
Alignment. Normally unintelligent beasts, many From the stat block, we get medium size (down from
giant striders are neutral, but many are also neutral large), +2 natural armor (down from +3) for 1 BP, 40 ft.
evil due to their close association with firenewts. walking speed (down from 50 ft.) for 1 BP, and fire
Size. Your size is medium. immunity for 5 BP. Giant striders have no hands for -2
Speed. Your base walking speed is 40 ft. BP, and we’ll set their natural weapons to 1d8 for 2 BP.
Bite. Your unarmed strikes deal 1d8 piercing damage Normally when we treat a creature as awakened we
on a hit. grant it the ability to speak Common, but in this case I
Damage Immunity. You are immune to fire damage. think we’ll give giant striders Ignan since they’re most
Fire Absorption. Whenever you are subjected to fire likely to be awakened by a firenewt. Not speaking
damage, you take no damage and instead heal Common means that the Giant Strider speaks “racial
yourself. As a reaction, you may spend one hit die and languages” only for -1 BP.
regain the number of hit points rolled.
Races 33
That brings us to 8.5 BP before we consider Fire d6 Features
Absorption and Fire Burst. That’s not a lot of room to 1-2 You are unaffected, and the effect is reflected back
work, so whatever we decide upon will probably need at the caster, using the spell slot level, spell save
DC, attack bonus, and spellcasting ability of the
to be small. Fire Burst is basically a better version of
caster.
the Firenewt’s Spit Fire, which is boring, so we’ll drop it
3-4 No additional effect.
and focus on Fire Absorption. 5-6 Your shell converts some of the spell's energy into
Fire Absorption is similar to regeneration, but it a burst of destructive force. Each creature within 30
requires fire damage to trigger it. The Giant Strider feet of you must make a DC 15 Constitution saving
monster could sit in a lit fire and rapidly heal to full throw, taking 1d6 force damage per level of the
health. That’s obviously not acceptable for a player, so spell on a failed save, or half as much damage on a
we’ll need to add some limitations. successful one.
Like we did with Regeneration in the original Darkvision. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of
Monstrous Races, we’ll limit the ability to work based you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it
on hit dice. That provides a nice built-in daily usage were dim light. You can’t discern color in darkness, only
limitation. We’ll also make it require an action of some shades of gray.
kind. It triggers when the Giant Strider takes fire Flail Tentacles. Your unarmed strikes deal 1d8
damage, so we’ll make it a reaction. I think we can call piercing damage on a hit.
that 2 BP, but if it becomes a problem you should Natural Armor. While unarmored, your AC is equal
definitely impose an additional usage limitation so that to 17. You gain no benefit from wearing armor.
it can only be used once per short or long rest. No Hands. You are unable to wield weapons or wear
At 10.5 BP, the Giant Strider slightly exceeds our shields, and cannot use items which require
target rang eof 8-10 BP. If you want to strengthen the manipulation, including spellcasting foci, wands, tools,
Giant Strider, increase its speed. If you want to weaken etc.
the Giant Strider, limit Fire Absorption to once per Scintilating Shell. You shed bright light in a 10-foot
short or long rest. radius and dim light for an additional 10 feet. You may
suppress or re-activate this ability as a bonus action.
Flail Snail Shell Defense. As an action, you can withdraw into
your shell, gaining a +4 bonus to AC until you emerge.
Enormous snail-like creatures with magic-repelling
While withdrawn in this way, you can’t take the Attack
shells and flail-like appendages used to repel
action, and you can’t target objects or other creatures
predators.
with spells or abilities which require line on sight, and
you gain the blinded and restrained conditions.
Flail Snail Traits
You can emerge from your shell as a bonus action on
Flail snails share the following racial traits.
your turn.
Creature Type. Elemental.
Languages. You can speak, read, and write in
Ability Score Increase.
Common.
Alignment. Normally unintelligent creatures, most
flail snails are neutral.
Playing a Flail Snail
Slow, but extremely durable, flail snails are crawling
tanks. Their natural armor is nearly as good as full
Antimagic Shell. Any time that you are targeted by a
plate, and their ability to reflect spells make them
a line spell, or a spell that requires a ranged attack roll,
dangerous to engage with magic. The Flail Snail’s poor
you have a chance to reflect the spell off of your shell.
speed can be a problem, especially in large areas, so
If the spell requires a saving throw, you may do so by
look for ways to increase your speed or consider the
rolling a natural 20 on the saving throw. If the spell
Charger feat so that you can use Dash to compensate
requires a ranged attack roll, you may do so when the
without losing the ability to attack every turn.
caster rolls a natural 1 on the attack roll. In either case,
roll a d6 and consult the table below.
great deal of influence on your character’s personality.
Races 34
Design Notes the flail snail until it takes a bonus action to exit its
Flail Snails are a weird creature. Both in concept, and shell. For a normal flailsnail this isn’t a big deak, but for
mechanically. The stat block for the monster is the full a player this is time to cast spells, wait for help, etc.
height of the page, and most of it is totally unique. We’ll add some limitations explicitly preventing the
Even their basic stats are difficult to reverse-engineer. Flail Snail from attacking or targeting other creatures,
That means that the flail snail is a fun and difficult and we’ll call it 0.5 BP.
design challenge. Because flail snails are normally Scintillating Shell is the next easiest ability to design.
unintelligent, we’ll treat them as awakened. If we just keep the light effect, it’s basically
Flail snails are elementals, costing 0.5 BP because Illumination, which costs just 0.5 BP. I think we’ll do
they still require food, drink, and sleep like most living that to leave room for Antimagic Shell.
creatures. That brings us, at last, to Antimagic Shell. It’s
Flail snails are all about being hard to kill, and their immediately problematic, because the Flail Snail gets
high Constitution reflects it. We’ll grant +1 Strength Advantage on saving throws against all spells, which is
and +2 Constitution for 3 BP. 5 BP on its own. We’ll need to totally rework the ability
From the stat block, we get medium size (down from to keep the flavor, but abandon the mechanics. We did
large), 20 ft. walking speed (up from 10 ft.) for -1 BP, something similar with the Tarrasque in the original
fire resistance (down from immunity) for 2 BP, Poison Monstrous Races, which provides useful design
Resilience (down from immunity) for 1 BP, 60 ft. inspiration. However, the Tarrasque’s Reflective
Darkvision for 2 BP, and the ability to speak Common Carapace can only reflect spells, while the Flail Snail’s
for 0 BP. Flail snails have no hands for -2 BP, and we’ll Antimagic Shell can also produce an explosion effect.
set their natural weapons to 1d8 damage for 2 BP. I think we can start with the adapted version of
We’ll drop Tremorsense to save BP. Reflective Carapace, and make some small tweaks.
That brings us to 7.5 BP before we address the rest We’ll remove the bit about magic missiles, and instead
of the Flail Snails traits. We need to discuss natural of always reflecting the spell, we’ll keep the 1d6 roll to
armor, antimagic shell, the tentacle death mechanics determine the result, we’ll keep the effects. This means
of Flail Tentacles, Scintilating Shell, and Shell Defense. that the spell may be reflected (usually good for the
The flail snail’s natural armor is hard to pin down. flail snail), but it may also cause an explosion,
They have a -3 Dexterity modifier, and it’s not clear if potentially damaging the snail’s allies, or potentially a
this affects the flail snail’s AC. If it does, they get +9 crowd of the snail’s enemies. This isn’t significantly
natural armor and still apply Dexterity, which is too better or worse than the Tarrasque’s version, so we’ll
much for a player. If Dexterity doesn’t apply, they have retain the 1 BP cost.
a fixed 16 AC and dexterity doesn’t apply, which is hard At 9.5 BP, the flail snail is within our target range of
for a player when they need to compete with full plate. 8-10 BP. If you want to strengthen the Flail Snail,
I think we’ll give them a fixed 17 AC, which matches increase its Strength increase. If you want to weaken
Tortles (see the Tortle Package) and Umber Hulks the Flail Snail, remove its Strength increase or reduce
(covered in the original Monstrous Races). its natural armor.
The Flail Snail’s tentacles have an interesting
mechanic which causes the tentacles to die when the Froghemoth
snail takes a certain amount of damage, then the snail Enormous, frog-like creatures with three eyes and
curls up in a ball and wails until it withers away and reaching tentacles.
dies if the snail somehow falls in the 2-hit point gap
where all of its tentacles may have been destroyed, but Froghemoth Traits
the snail isn’t unconscious. This is great for a monster Froghemoths share the following racial traits.
because the players can wear down the flail snails Creature Type. Monstrosity.
damage output, but it’s a nightmare for players to Ability Score Increase. +2 Strength, +1 Constitution.
track throughout the day. We’ll just drop the mechanic, Alignment. Normally unintelligent beasts, most
and leave it up to the players to explain cosmetically. froghemoths are neutral.
I want to look at Shell Defense next because it’s Size. Your size is medium.
relatively simple. Most creatures can take the Dodge Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 ft. You have a
action, which has a similar effect mathematically. The swim speed of 30 ft.
biggest difference is that the effect stays in place for
Races 35
Bite. Your unarmed strikes deal 1d8 piercing damage Like many other creatures, being awakened has a
on a hit. great deal of influence on your character’s personality.
When you take the Attack action and make an Consider what effect granted your character superior
unarmed strike, you can use a bonus action to initiate a intelligence, and how that effect shaped your
grapple with the target of your successful unarmed character’s personality.
strike.
Darkvision. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of Design Notes
you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it Froghemoths, despite the extra tentacles, strongly
were dim light. You can’t discern color in darkness, only resemble giant frogs, which we covered in the original
shades of gray. Monstrous Races. Froghemoths are normally
Natural Armor. While unarmored, your AC is equal unintelligent, so we’ll treat them as awakened as we’ve
to 13 + your Dexterity modifier. done with other creatures.
No Hands. You are unable to wield weapons or wear Froghemoths are monstrosities, costing 0.5 BP, but
shields, and cannot use items which require offering no specific abilities.
manipulation, including spellcasting foci, wands, tools, Froghemoths have massive Strength and
etc. Constitution, but they also have a ton of other abilities,
Shock Susceptibility. When you take lightning so we’ll grant +2 Strength and +1 Constitution 3 BP
damage, you suffer several effects until the end of your total.
next turn. Your speed is halved, attacks against you From the stat block, we get medium size (down from
gain Advantage, you take disadvantage on Dexterity huge), +3 natural armor for 1.5 BP, 30 ft. walking
saving throws, you can’t take reactions, and on your speed, 30 ft. swim speed for 1 BP, 60 ft. Darkvision for
turn you may take an action or a bonus action, but not 2 BP, Amphibious for 0.5 BP, and we’ll add the ability
both. to speak common for 0 BP. Froghemoths have no h
Tongue. As an action, you may use your extendable ands (their tongue doesn’t count) for -2 BP, and we’ll
tongue to draw foes toward you. Make a melee set their natural weapons to 1d8 for 2 BP, and we’ll
weapon attack as though you were making an unarmed add Grab for 2 BP.
strike against a creature within 15 feet. On a hit, you That brings us to 10.5 BP before we address the
deal as much damage as you would normally deal with Froghemoth’s resistances, Shock Susceptibility, and
an unarmed strike, but the damage dealt is necrotic Tongue. We’ll duplicate the Tongue trait we designed
damage rather than its normal damage type. In for the Banderhobb for 0.5 BP. We’ll drop the
addition, you pull the target into an adjacent resistances entirely.
unoccupied space. If you pull the foe adjacent to you, Shock Susceptivility is an interesting handicap. Shock
you can use a bonus action to initiate a grapple as Susceptivility applies -2 penalties to some things, which
though you had attacked with your bite. feels very 3rd-editon. We’ll replace those penalties with
Languages. You can speak, read, and write in disadvantage, but otherwise we’ll only adjust the text
Common. to fit player characters. I think that’s probably only
worth -1 BP.
Playing a Froghemoth At 10 BP, the froghemoth is at the top of our target
Strong and able to quickly grapple foes, froghemoths range of 8-10 BP. If you want to strengthen the
are dangerous melee predators. Their ability to breath froghemoth, increase its Constitution score. If you
underwater and swim allows them to function in a want to weaken the froghemoth, reduce its Strength
variety of environments. Consider classes like increase or its natural armor.
barbarian and fighter which capitalize on the
froghemoth’s melee capabilities, but also consider Giants
ranger for its ability to get you into melee unnoticed. The options below are additional options for the giant
Frog giants are revered by bullywugs, which make races presented in the original Monstrous Races.
the two natural allies. A party of bullywug characters The Frost Giant Everlasting One template is
might form to follow, serve, and worship a froghemoth presented below. For other giants, see the Racial Feats
character. However, froghemoths are usually section later in this document.
inintelligent, which introduces complications.
Races 36
Frost Giant Everlasting One [Template: body parts, the missing body parts regrow and the
Acquired] original body parts wither and die.
Power-hungry frost giants sometimes turn to the giant Extra Heads. Your regeneration occasionally causes
deity Grolantor for an unconventional blessing. By you to grow disformities, most notably additional
consuming a faithful troll, the frost giant can gain the heads. At any given point you have between 1 and 4
trolls powers of regeneration. additional heads, each of which might die and fall off as
you are injured or regrow as you recover.
Becoming an Everlasting One While at least two of your heads are awake, you
The choice to become an everlasting one is presented have advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks and on
to a frost giant who is desperate for power. First, saving throws against being blinded, charmed,
Grolantor presents them with visions of power, deafened, frightened, stunned, and knocked
followed by horrifyin nightmares of the giant unconscious.
committing cannibalistic acts. If the giant does not
reject these nightmares, Grolantor offers them his Design Notes
blessing. The giants included in Volo’s Guide to Monsters are all
When the frost giant attains enough experience to advanced versions of the base giants presented in the
gain a level, a willing troll selected by Grolantor from Monster Manual. Representing advancement with a
among his faithful presents itself to the giant. The giant new race doesn’t make sense, so we’ll design the new
must then eat the troll in its entirety (including the giants as racial feats.
bones). Upon doing so, the frost giant immediately
Cloud Giant Smiling One
gains the single level of the Frost Giant Everlasting One
Smiling ones are distinguished from their normal cloud
template.
giants by two abilities: spellcasting, and Shapechange.
Everlasting One Traits Their spellcasting seems to be Bard spellcasting, which
All Everlasting Ones have the following traits, adding fits the flavor of the creature, but it’s not helpful for a
these traits to their existing racial traits upon gaining feat.
the Everlasting One template. That only leaves Shapechange. Every creature with
Shapechange has a different version with different
Hit Points
effects, and the Cloud Giant’s version seems to be one
Hit Dice. 1d10 per everlasting one level
of the least complex. It allows the giant to polymorph
Hit Points at Higher Levels. 1d10 (or 6) + your
into a humanoid. Normally for creatures with similar
Constitution modifier per everlasting one level
abilities, including notable shapechangers like
Traits doppelgangers, we’ve approximated this with disguise
Everlasting Ones gain the following traits at each level, self because allowing a polymorph effect for a low-
as indicated on the table below. level character is problematic. We can do the same
Level Features thing, but it’s not enough on its own.
1 Regeneration, Extra Heads Looking at the Smiling One’s listed skills, it seems to
Regeneration. You are able to recover from wounds have Expertise in Deception and Sleight of Hand. While
with horrifying speed, and can even regrow severed this can also be attributed to Bard levels, I think we can
body parts. As a bonus action, you may spend a Hit Die still use it. If we grant Expertise in one skill, Disguise
to recover hit points. Self, and a +1 Charisma increase, I think we have a
If a part of your body is removed or destroyed usable feat.
(including your head) but you are not killed, you may
re-attach the body part as an action. Fire Giant Dreadnought
You are vulnerable to acid and fire. If you take acid Dreadnoughts are really cool. They wear full plate
or fire damage, you may not use your regeneration armor, and two shields. This makes them equal parts
trait to recover hit points or re-attach limbs until the armor-clad tank and two-weapon charger. They also
end of your next turn. have cool spiked, flaming shields, which means that
When you take a short or long rest, you regain spent there’s also a cool item in play here. It’s a fun monster,
Hit Dice, up to a number of dice equal to half of your but it introduces complications for players. We need to
total number of them, rounded up. If you have lost any answer several questions: what happens with the
Races 37
giant’s AC? How do we handle using shields as Mouth of Grolantor
weapons? What do we do about Shield Charge? I’m at a loss here. The Mouth of Grolantor is basically a
The first question is the easiest to handle, as we can randomized set of actions applied to a creature. While
look at the Fire Giant Dreadnought’s AC and reverse- it makes for an amusing monster, it’s a terrible option
engineer it. Full plate starts us at 18, and disregards the for a player. They lose all control over their own
giant’s low Dexterity. A shield grants another +2, actions, and they don’t appear to get much in return.
bringing us to 20. That means that the second shield Their bite heals them, but other than that it’s all just
must cover the last +1 AC to get us to 21. That lines up running around and smashing things.
with the Dual Wielder feat, so we’ll keep it. We gave I see two ways we could tackle this. The first is to
the Marilith +1 AC for 2 BP, but didn’t require wielding lean into the random actions, and let players willingly
two shields. I think we can call this 1 BP. enter a rage-style state where they attack the nearest
Turning shields into weapons isn’t especially difficult, thing but essentially can’t make decisions. The second
but I want to make sure that the stats and properties is to let players play insanity however they like, and
make sense. We’ll make shields a martial weapon with give them the tools they need to smash and bite stuff. I
the light property and 1d6 damage. We’ll have them like the second option better.
deal bludgeoning damage normally, or piercing We can set the Mouth of Grolantor’s natural
damage if the shield is spiked. weapons to 1d8 for 2 BP. The healing mechanic is
Finally, we need to tackle the charge/push effect. conveniently similar to the Lizardfolk’s Hungry Jaws
Normally players must rely on the “shoving a creature” trait, so we’ll steal it. We called it 1 BP in the original
rules to do stuff like this, but players are limited to Monstrous Races’ assessment of published races,
pushing creatures 5 feet at a time. Fire Giant which puts us right at the 3 BP target for a feat.
Dreadnoughts are also limited to pushing creatures If you want to strengthen the feat, allow the bite
smaller than they are, which is a frustrating limitation mechanic to grant temporary hit points equal to the
for a medium creature. We’ll need to take some damage dealt rather than the giant’s Cosntitution
liberties, but we’ll try to maintain the feel of the ability. score.
I think we can take a lot of the design from Pounce,
Stone Giant Dreamwalker
which is 1.5 BP. We’ll require moving half of the giant’s
Dreamwalkers get two new abilities: Dreamwalker’s
speed as a build-up, then we’ll require a successful
Charm and Petrifying Touch. Dreamwalker’s Charm is
attack and a bonus action to shove the creature. For
similar to charm person on anything within 30 feet of
simplicity, we’ll make the decision to push the target or
the giant, and petrifying touch works like any other
knock them prone an either/or decision.
petrification ability, with the exception of the ability to
It’s really difficult to assess a BP cost for this feat
adhere things to the giant’s body.
because it’s so unique. I would call it a minimum of 3
Dreamwalker’s Charm isn’t okay to grant to players.
BP, but I can’t say for certain what the value would be.
Walking into every encounter with the enemies
If this feat proves to be problematic, reduce the shield
charmed doesn’t make for an exciting game. I think we
weapon damage to 1d4.
can grant the friends cantrip for 0.5 BP and leave it at
Frost Giant Everlasting One that.
Everlasting ones eat a troll, and gain regeneration. That We tackled petrification effects with Basilisks in the
leaves room for players to ask some very unpleasant original Monstrous Races. They’re a bit complicated
questions about eating trolls, but we’ll just gloss over because we needed to make them fair for a 1 st-level
those. They also have a chance of having additional character to use without potentially ending every
heads. encounter with a single action. While we probably
Regeneration (with vulnerability to acid and fire to don’t need to worry about 1st-level characters here, I
match trolls) normally costs 5 BP, which is too good for think we still need to be cautious. Flesh to Stone, the
a feat. Two Heads is normally 3.5 BP. That’s 8.5 BP go-to petrification option for players, is a 6th-level spell
total, which conveniently fits right into the BP range for for good reason. Petrifying Gaze is normally 4 BP, and
the first level of a leveled template. That’s surprisingly normally losing range would justify a reduction in BP,
little design work, but sometimes things just work out but I think the inability to avert your gaze is a fair trade.
that way. We’ll add 1d10 hit dice for 1 BP, bringing the That brings our total to 4.5 BP, which is high for a
total to 9.5 BP, and we’re done! feat. If it proves to be a problem in your games, limit
Petrifying Touch to once per long rest.
Races 38
Storm Giant Quintessent
Quintessents get a whole bunch of cool abilities. They
have lair abilities, they have legendary actions, and
they can summon lightning weapons out of thing air.
That gives us a lot of ideas, but many of them won’t
work as a feat, or should otherwise be left to be
handled by the player’s choice of class.
After looking through all of the various abilities, Isee
five important options: creating wind, creating clouds
of blinding effects like fog, wind javelins, lightning
swords, thunderbolts, and turning into a storm.
Thunderbolts are too powerful to add as a feat, so we’ll
drop those. Turning into a storm could be most closely
approximated by Gaseous Form, which is a 3rd-level
spell so it’s too powerful for us to add as a feat and still
have an interesting feat.
Creating gusts of wind is easy. We can grant the gust
cantrip for 0.5 BP.
Blinding fog effects are also easy. Fog cloud is a 1st-
level spell, and we can allow quintessents to cast it
once per day for 1 BP.
Finally, we have wind javelins and lightning swords. I
think we can roll it into one ability. I think we can steal
mechanics from the Warlock’s Pact of the Blade, but
we’ll make the weapons deal lightning damage. I want
storm giants to be able to summon and throw a javelin
in the same turn, so we’ll make that a special case and
allow wind javelins to be summoned as a bonus action.
I think we can call this 2 BP.
That brings us to 3.5 BP, which is within our targer Girallon
range of 2-4 BP. Enormous four-armed primates that inhabit the ruins
of human settlements.
Girallon Traits
share the following racial traits.
Creature Type. Monstrosity.
Alignment. Normally unintelligent beasts, most
Girallons are neutral.
Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 ft. You have a
climb speed of 30 ft.
Aggressive. As a bonus action, you can move up to
your speed toward a hostile creature that you can see.
Bite and Claw. Your unarmed strikes deal 1d6
piercing or slashing damage on a hit.
shades of gray.
Races 39
Four Arms. You have four arms, and may hold and From the stat block, we get medium size (down from
use items in each of your hands. large), 30 ft. speed (down from 40 ft.), 30 ft. cimb
If you have Extra Attacks, when you take the Attack speed (down from 40 ft.) for 2 BP, 60 ft. Darkvision for
action you may make each of your attacks using any 2 BP, Aggressive for 1 BP, Keen Smell for 0.5 BP, the
weapon you are holding. ability to speak Common for 0 BP, and 1d6 natural
When you take the Attack action and attack with a weapons for 1.5 BP. Girallons also have 4 arms for 1
weapon which qualifies for use with two-weapon BP.
fighting, you can use a bonus action to attack with a At 10.5 BP, the Girallon slightly exceeds our targer
different qualifying weapon. You don’t add your ability rang eof 8-10 BP. If you want to strengthen the
modifier to the damage of the bonus attack unless the Girallon, increase its ability increases or add a +1
modifier is negative or you have an ability which allows Dexterity increase. If you want to weaken the Girallon,
you to add your ability modifier to the bonus attack reduce its natural weapon damage.
this additional attack, you may not benefit from using a Gnolls
shield until the beginning of your next turn. The options below are additional options for the gnoll
If you use a weapon with the Heavy property or use race presented in the original Monstrous Races.
a Versatile weapon two-handed you may not benefit The Gnoll Witherling template is presented below.
from using a shield until the beginning of your next The Gnoll Flind is represented by the Flind’s Flail,
turn, but you may switch between multiple Heavy or presented in the Magic Items section later in this
Versatile weapons with each attack. document. Gnoll Flesh Gnawers and Gnoll Hunters can
Keen Smell. You have advantage on Wisdom be represented by Gnoll Rogues and Gnoll Fighters,
(Perception) checks that rely on smell. respectively.
Common. Gnoll Witherling [Template: Natural]
When gnolls go too long without sating their violent
Playing a Girallon and predatory urgres, they occasionally turn upon and
Girallons are capable melee threats. Four arms and eat on another. In these cases, the consumed gnolls
good Strength allow them to quickly change tactics in arise and witherlings; animated skeletons with all of
melee to suit their needs, and their climb speed allows the ferocity and strength of a gnoll, but without the
them to quickly navigate obstacles which would prove need to eat whatever scant prey the war band has
problematic for other adventurers. available.
great deal of influence of your character’s personality.
Consider what effect granted your character superior Becoming a Witherling
intelligence, and how that effect shaped your Any formerly living gnoll can become a witherling by
character’s personality. being killed and eaten by its own kind.
The skeleton template must be applied to a
Design Notes character during character creation. Witherlings retain
Girallons are essentially better apes. They have an essentially nothing of their former mind, so a
extra pair of arms, some extra traits, and better witherling created from the body an experienced
numbers. They’re still not complicated to design, but character loses any class levels, proficiencies, or other
it’s interesting to compare the two creatures. Like acquired capabilities that it may have had while it was
other unintelligent creatures, we’ll treat the girallon as alive. The witherling is functionally a new character,
awakened. sharing only the body of the formerly living character.
Girallons are monstroties, costing 0.5 BP but offering Witherling Traits
no specific abilities. All witherlings have the following traits, adding these
Girallons’ best ability is Strength, but it only barely traits to their existing racial traits upon gaining the
exceeds Dexterity and Constitution. We’ll grant +1 skeleton template.
Strenth and +1 Constitution for 2 BP, and save the rest Creature Type. You replace your current creature
of our BP for other traits. type with Undead, and lose the Gnoll subtype.
Races 40
You don’t require air, food, drink, or sleep. Instead, hunters are just advanced versions of the base gnoll,
you enter a restful state, remaining semiconscious, for which can be addresses by class levels for players. The
4 hours a day. While resting, you can dream after a interesting options are flinds and witherlings.
fashion; such dreams are reflexive mental exercises
Gnoll Flind
inherent to your consciousness. After resting in this
Gnoll flinds are essentially normal gnolls with a cool
way, you gain the same benefit that a human does
weapon and advanced stats. The cool weapon is the
from 8 hours of sleep.
important part, which means that we’re taking an
Ability Adjustments. -2 Intelligence, -2 Wisdom, -2
unprecedented dive into designing custom magic
Charisma.
items. 5th edition’s magic items are far more art than
science, which makes them an uncomfortable and
unfamiliar exercise for me. I’m much more familiar
with 3rd edition’s magic items, which could be designed
spell components.
using a set of tables and formulas.
The Flind Flail has three major functions delivered on
attacks. They’re all fairly powerful, so we’ll limit the use
Undead Nature. You have immunity to the
of each of them to once per day, and we’ll add a save
exhausted and poisoned conditions, and to poison
for half damage to the Pain effect. We’ll also rework
damage.
Aura of Blood Thirst a bit to make it less powerful, and
we’ll require that a Gnoll attune itself to the flail to get
the effect. I think we can call that Very Rare.
Gnoll Witherling
Witherlings are basically fancy skeletons. You could
easily use the skeleton template (presented in the
original Monstrous Races), but it wouldn’t quite match
the stats of the Witherling. We’ll use the Skeleton as an
example, but we’ll give the Witherling its own
template. They’re still mindless reanimated bodies,
we’ll make it a natural template like skeletons.
Witherlings change the Gnoll’s creature type from
humanoid to undead for 1 BP.
From the stat block, we get +2 natural armor (down
frm +3) for 1 BP, immunity to the exhausted condition
for 0.5 BP, and Poison Immunity for 2 BP. Flinds can’t
speak for -1.5 BP.
We’ll drop Vengeful Strike to save BP, but that still
brings us to 3 BP, which is a big problem since we have
a target of 0 BP for natural templates. Like skeletons,
we’ll impose -2 penalties to Intelligence, Wisdom, and
Charisma for a total of -3 BP.
That brings our total to 0 BP, which is right where
want natural templates to be.
Grungs
Poisonous, amphibious tree-frog humanoids.
Grung are also presented in a semi-official capacity
in Christopher Lindsay’s One Grung Above. One Grung
Design Notes
Above presents its own version of the Grung racial
Gnolls, like giants, see some variant stat blocks in
traits, which differ slightly from those presented here.
Volo’s Guide to Monsters which present advanced
One Grung Above also notably donates its proceeds to
versions of the existing creature. Glesh hnawers and
the charity Extra Life. Despite being presented as part
Races 41
of an official Wizards of the Coast event, Lindsay’s Playing a Grung
version of Grung is not considered “official” and is not With high Dexterity and good mobility, Grung makes
permissible in Adventurer’s League organized play. excellent monks, rangers, and rogues. Poisonous Skin
Similarities between the version of Grung presented offers a useful defensive option in addition to the
below and the version in One Grung Above are ability to add poison damage to an attack, so grappling
essentially coincidental, but are to be expected enemies may be an effective way to handicap them.
because both versions are based on the same creature. Water dependency creates a minor headache, so avoid
deserts and if you need to travel through dry territory
Grung Traits be sure to bring an adequately large source of water to
Grungs share the following racial traits. soak yourself in.
Creature Type. Humanoid (Grung). Grung society is a strictly-defined caste system.
Ability Score Increase. +2 Dexterity, +1 Constittuion. Consider where your grung character falls in the caste,
Alignment. Evil, xenophobic creatures which live in a and what color you are. Grung like to take slaves from
rigid caste-based society, most grung are lawful evil. other races, which offers a convenient way for a grung
Size. Your size is medium. character to meet what might become an adventuring
Speed. Your base walking speed is 25 ft. You have a party.
Amphibious. You can breathe air and water. Design Notes
Poison Immunity. You are immune to poison Grung are fairly simple humanoids, but their flavor is
damage, and immune to the poisoned condition. really fun. Volo’s Guide to Monsters presents three
Poisonous Skin. Any creature that grapples you or versions of grung with varying traits, which makes it
otherwise comes into direct contact with your skin easy to identify shared racial traits.
must succeed on a Constitution saving throw or Grung are humanoids for 0 BP.
become poisoned for 1 minute. A poisoned creature no All three version of Grung have the same Dexterity
longer in direct contact with you can repeat the saving and Constitution scores, so we’ll grant +2 Dexterity and
throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect +1 Constitution for 2 BP.
on itself on a success. The DC of this saving throw is 8 + From the stat block, we get small size for -1 BP, 25 ft.
your proficiency bonus + your Constitution modifier. walking speed, 25 ft. climb speed for 1.75 BP, Poison
You may also use your poisonous skin to poison your Immunity for 2 BP, Amphibious for 0.5 BP, Standing
weapons. As an action, may rub a weapon or a single Leap for 0.5 BP, and only racial languages for -1 BP.
piece of ammunition on your skin. The next time you That brings us to 5.75 BP before we look at
hit an enemy with that weapon or piece of Poisonous Skin and Water Dependency. Water
ammunition, your attack deals an additional 2d4 dependency is easy to satisfy in almost any campaign
poison damage. This damage increases by 1d4 when by dragging a barrel of water around in a wagon, so
you reach 6th level (3d4), 11th level (4d4), and 17th level we’ll call it -0.5 BP.
(5d4). This poison dries and becomes ineffective after 1 Poisonous skin is a great deterrant to keep many
minute. melee monsters from attacking the Grung. However,
After you use this ability, you can't use it again until it’s also far too powerful to allow as written. A clever
you complete a short or long rest. player might build a grung grappler in order to poison
Standing Leap. Your long jump is up to 25 feet and their foes and thereby heavily handicap them. The
your high jump is up to 15 feet, with or without a Poisoned condition is extremely effective.
running start. We’ll limit the usage of the Grung’s poison to once
Water Dependency. If you fail to immerse yourself in short rest. That makes it an effective deterrant, but it’s
water for at least 1 hour during a day, you suffer one not going to be abusable enough to win every fight.
level of exhaustion at the end of that day. You can only Grung also notably deal poison damage with all of
recover from this exhaustion through magic or by their attacks. That’s fine for a monster, but we can’t let
immersing yourself in water for at least 1 hour. players add 2d4 poison damage to every one of their
Languages. You can speak, read, and write in Grung. attacks. Instead, we’ll allow the Grung to prematurely
expend their poison to poison a weapon and deal 2d4
poison damage. We’ll scale the damage like breath
weapons, and we’ll call the whole ability 4 BP.
Races 42
At 8.75 BP, the Grung is within our target range of 8- Damage Resistance. You are resistant to fire
10 BP. If you want to strengthen the Grung, increase damage.
the die size for the Poisonous Skin’s option to poison
White Guard Drake Traits
weapons. If you want to weaken the Grung, reduce its
Speed. You have a burrow speed of 10 ft.
Dexterity increase.
Damage Resistance. You are resistant to cold
Guard Drake damage.
Reptilian quadrupeds created in a ritual to serve as Playing a Guard Drake

guard animals and servants for those who serve Guard drakes are strong, versatile melee fighters. Their
chromatic dragons and the dragon deity Tiamat. natural armor is excellent, and and your choice of
subrace provices a useful movement type.
Guard Drake Traits Guard drakes are granted as boons to those who
share the following racial traits. serve and worship dragons, so they fit well into parties
Creature Type. Dragon made up of those characters. Clerics of Tiamat,
Ability Score Increase. +1 Strength, +1 Constitution. kobolds, and dragonblood sorcerers all make great
Alignment. Normally created to serve evil masters, companions for a guard drake.
most guard drakes are evil.
Size. Your size is medium. Design Notes
Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 ft. Guard drakes are essentially just beasts. The variant
Bite and Tail. Your unarmed strikes deal 1d8 versions are where things get interesting. I could adapt
bludgeoning or piercing damage on a hit. just the base stat block, but at that point you might as
Natural Armor. While unarmored, your AC is equal well play a mastiff (see the original Monstrous Races).
to 14 + your Dexterity modifier. Like other unintelligent creatures, we’ll treat the Guard
No Hands. You are unable to wield weapons or wear Drake as awakened.
shields, and cannot use items which require Guard drakes are dragons, costing 0.5 BP but
manipulation, including spellcasting foci, wands, tools, offering no specific abilities.
etc. Guard drakes have good Strength and Constitution,
Languages. You can speak, read, and write in so we’ll grant +1 to each for 2 BP.
Draconic. From the stat block, we get medium size, +4 natural
Subrace. Choose one of these subraces. You gain the armor for 2 BP, 30 ft. walking speed, 60 ft. Darkvision
traits listed under your chosen subrace in addition to for 2 BP, and the ability to speak Common plus racial
those listed above. languages for 0 BP. Guard drakes have no hands for -2
Black Guard Drake Traits BP, and we’ll set their natural weapons to 1d8 for 2 BP.
Speed. You have a swim speed of 30 ft. That brings us to 6.5 BP before we consider
Amphibious. You can breathe air and water. individual subraces. There are small variations in the BP
value of individual guard drake types, but I don’t think
Damage Resistance. You are resistant to acid
they’re large enough to worry about. If you’re worried,
damage.
reduce natural armor values, on the high-BP subraces
Blue Guard Drake Traits and add Perception proficiency to the low-BP subraces.
Speed. You have a burrow speed of 10 ft.
Damage Resistance. You are resistant to lightning Black
damage. Black guard drakes add Amphibious for 0.5 BP, 30 ft.
swim speed for 1 BP, and resistance to acid for 2 BP.
Green Guard Drake Traits At 10 BP, the Black Guard Drake is at the top of our
Speed. You have a swim speed of 30 ft. target range of 8-10 BP.
Amphibious. You can breathe air and water.
Poison Resilience. You have advantage on saving Blue
throws against poison, and you have resistance against Blue guard drakes add a 10 ft. burrowing speed (down
from 20 ft.) for 2 BP, and resistance to lightning for 2
poison damage.
BP.
Red Guard Drake Traits At 10.5 BP, the Blue Guard Drake slightly exceeds our
Speed. You have a climb speed of 30 ft. target range of 8-10 BP.
Races 43
Green Subrace. Choose one of these subraces. You gain the
Green guard drakes add amphibious for 0.5 BP, a 30 ft. traits listed under your chosen subrace in addition to
swimming speed for 1 BP, and poison resilience for 1 those listed above.
BP. Volo’s Guide to Monsters doesn’t provide
Annis Hag Traits
advantage on saving throws against poison, but I think
Bite and Claws Your unarmed strikes deal 1d8
that’s an oversight since the colored guard drakes are
piercing or slashing damage on a hit.
technically a variant.
Innate Spellcasting. At 3rd level, you may cast
At 9 BP, the Green Guard Drake is within our target
disguise self once per day. Charisma is your spellcasting
range of 8-10 BP.
these spells.
Red Languages. You can speak, read, and write in
Red guard drakes add a 30 ft. climb speed for 2 BP and Common, Giant, and Sylvan.
fire resistance for 2 BP.
Bheur Hag Traits
At 10.5 BP, the Red Guard Drake slightly exceeds our
Slam. Your unarmed strikes deal 1d4 bludgeoning
target range of 8-10 BP.
damage on a hit.
White Languages. You can speak, read, and write in
White guard drakes add a 10 ft. burrowing speed Common, Auran, and Giant.
(down from 20 ft.) for 2 BP, and resistance to cold for 2
BP. Playing a Hag
At 10.5 BP, the White Guard Drake slightly exceeds
our target range of 8-10 BP.
Annis Hag
Hags
Bheur Hag
Hags are evil creatures with magical powers. They also
famously form covens, typically consisting of three
witches joining together for greater power.
Design Notes
Originally presented in the original Monstrous Races,
Like beholders, Volo’s Guide to Monsters presents new
this section adds additional Hag subreaces. The shared
varieties of hag that deviate significantly from those
hag racial traits presented in Monstrous Races have
presented in the Monster Manual. The new hags are
been altered below to reflect new subraces. If you use
considerably more unique than those presented in the
Hag subraces from the original Monstrous Races, use
Monster Manual, which means that they’re more
the version of the racial traits presented there.
interesting but also require more design work.
Hag Traits Both varieties of hag are fey, costing 0.5 BP but
offering no specific abilities.
Hags share the following racial traits.
The two new varieties both have medium size (down
Creature Type. Fey.
from large for the Annis Hag), +2 natural armor (down
Ability Score Increase.
from +6 for the Annis Hag and +4 for the Bheur Hag)
Alignment. Taking delight in malevolence, misery,
for 1 BP, 30 ft. walking speed (down from 40 ft. for the
and destruction, most hags are chaotic evil
Annis Hag), Darkvision for 2 BP, and resistance to cold
damage for 2 BP. That brings us to 5.5 BP before we
consider individual subraces.
Damage Resistance. You are resistant to cold
damage. Annis Hag
Darkvision. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of Annis hags are a cool monster. They really emphasize
you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it the creepy grandmother flavor of hags, and their Iron
were dim light. You can’t discern color in darkness, only Token ability is really interesting. They’re a weird
shades of gray. combination of melee monster and spellcaster, which
Natural Armor. While unarmored, your AC is equal is unusual compared to other hags.
to 12 + your Dexterity modifier. Annis Hags are incredibly strong, especially for a
creature like a hag. We’ll grant +1 Strength and +1
Charisma for a total of 2 BP.
Races 44
Annis hags speak racial languages plus Common and rare. Casting a 6th-level spell even once per day would
an additional fixed language for 0.25 BP. We’ll set the make it too good to be very rare, so we’ll allow casting
Annis Hag’s natural weapons to 1d8 for 2 BP. each of the found spells once per day each and call it
That brings us to 9.75 BP before we address the legendary.
Annis Hag’s innate spellcasting and Crushing Hug.
Crushing Hug can easily be approximated by players Hobgoblins
making an unarmed strike attack while grappling, so Volo’s Guide to Monsters presents two new hobgoblin
we’ll drop it. We don’t have a ton of room and we have stat blocks. For either monster, use the Hobgoblin
very little room for cuts, but we’ll add disguise self racial traits presented in the original Monstrous Races.
once per day for 1 BP. To approximate a Hobgoblin Devastator, use the
At 10.75 BP, the Annis Hag exceeds our target range Wizard class with the Evoker arcane tradition. To
of 8-10 BP. If you want to weaken the Annis Hag, approximate the Hobgoblin Iron Shadow, use the Monk
remove its natural armor or reduce its natural weapon class with the Way of Shadow monastic tradition.
damage.
Bheur Hag Ki-rin
Bheur hags are closer to the hags in the Monster Resplendant creatures resembling unicorns with scales.
Manual than the Annis Hag, returning to an emphasis
on magic. Ki-rin Traits
The Bheur Hag’s best ability scores are Dexterity and Ki-rin share the following racial traits.
Charisma, so we’ll grant +1 to each for 2 BP. Creature Type. Celestial
Annis hags speak racial languages plus Common and Ability Score Increase. +1 to any one ability score.
an additional fixed language for 0.25 BP. We’ll set the Alignment. The physical embodiment of goodness,
Annis Hag’s natural weapons to 1d4 for 1 BP. Ki-rin are nearly always lawful good.
That brings us to 9.25 BP before we consider innate Size. Your size is medium.
spellcasting, greystaff magic, ice walk, and maddening Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 ft.
feast. Greystaff Magic seems like we can put it in an Darkvision. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of
item, which means less BP on the race itself (discussed you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it
below). Ice Walk is close enough to Earth Walk that I were dim light. You can’t discern color in darkness, only
think we can call it 0.5 BP. shades of gray.
Unfortunately, I think we’ll need to remove Flight. You have a flying speed of 30 feet, and can
Maddening Feast. I don’t want it to totally vanish, so hover. To use this speed, you can’t be wearing medium
we’ll make it a feat. I think if we reduce the duration to or heavy armor.
one round, reduce fear range to 30 ft., and limit to Horn and Hooves. Your unarmed strikes deal 1d8
once per short rest, it works fine as a feat for bheur bludgeoning or piercing damage on a hit.
hags and other cannibalistic monsters like ghouls and Innate Spellcasting. You know one cantrip of your
ghasts. choice from the cleric spell list. Charisma is your
At 9.75 BP, the Bheur Hag is within our targer range spellcasting ability for this spell. You may cast spells as
of 8-10 BP. If you want to strengthen the Behur Hag, though you were using a magic focus, even if you are
increase its natural armor. If you want to weaken the not doing so.
Bheur Hag, remove its natural armor or natural No Hands. You are unable to wield weapons or wear
weapons. shields, and cannot use items which require
The Bheur Hag’s Greystaff is a cool item. It works as manipulation, including spellcasting foci, wands, tools,
a broom of flying, and grants additional spellcasting. etc.
Brooms of flyng are uncommon and not especially Languages. You can speak, read, and write in
complicated, so we’ll allow the staff to behave like a common and celestial.
broom of flying. We’ll also add the ability to use the
staff as a spellcasting focus, because I would feel silly Playing a Ki-rin
having a wizard walk around with two staves. The Ki-Rin are flexible and capable of succeeding a variety
biggest challenge is the extra spells, which are 2nd, 4th, of roles. Their flight and ability to hover allow them to
5th, and 6th-level. 6th-level spell scrolls are very rare, easily navigate many obstacles, and with natural
which means that our staff needs to be at least very weapons and access to cleric cantrips they’re capable
Races 45
of fighting without relying on equipment. However, At 10.25 BP, the Ki-Rin very slightly exceeds our
with no natural armor they’re reliant on manufactured target rang eof 8-10 BP. If you want to strengthen the
armor or magic for protection. Ki-Rin, grant it a second cleric cantrip. If you want to
Ki-Rin are embodiments of good, so they fit into a weaken the Ki-Rin, remove its ability to hover.
party of fiercly good-aligned creatures. Good paladins,
celestials, and clerics of good deities all make excellent Kobolds
companions for a Ki-Rin, but chaarcters with an urge to Volo’s Guide to Monsters presents three new kobold
misbehave may find themselves at odds with a Ki-Rin. stat blocks. For any of these monsters, use the Kobold
racial traits presented in the original Monstrous Races.
Design Notes For the Kobold Dragonshield, see the Racial Feats
Ki-rin are really interesting creatures, and consider section later in this document. Approximating the
their CR is only 12 they have a ton of high-level
Kobold Inventory can be done with some clever use of
abilities. Legendary actions and legendary resistance existing items, and a little bit of improvisation. To
are rare at such low CR, and they have access to 9th- approximate the Kobold Scale Sorcerer, use the
level spells. We’ll need to make drastic cuts to make Ki-
Sorcerer class with the Draconic sorcerous origin.
rin fit as a playable race, and we’ll look at pegasi and
unicorns as examples since they’re anatomically Design Notes
similar. Kobold inventors are basically just a bunch of weird
Ki-rin are celestials, costing 0.5 BP but offering no items attached to a kobold, so there isn’t much to do
specific abilities. there. Kobold Scale Sorcerers are just the base kobold
Ki-rin have fantastic ability scores. Their lowest is 16, with some sorcerer levels, so we’ll skip them. But
and they have four scores around 20. It’s difficult to Kobold Dragonshields present a fun new racial option
decide what to enhance, so we’ll grant a flexible +1 for for which we can turn into a racial feat.
1.5 BP. Damage resistance for one the listed types is 2 BP,
From the stat block, we get medium size (down from which is easy. Rerolling on saves against fear/paralysis
huge), 30 ft. walking speed (down from 60 ft.), 30 ft. fly is a bit like resistance, and condition resistance is 0.25
speed (down from 120 ft.) for 4 BP, the ability to hover BP per condition, so we’ll call that 0.5 BP total. Sharing
for 2 BP, poison resilience (down from immunity) for 1 the effect is the only complicated part. It only works on
BP, and 60 ft. Darkvision (down from 120 ft.) for 2 BP. other kobolds, which is a helpful limitation. We’ll call it
We’ll drop natural armor, blindsight, and telepathy, another 0.5 BP, but that’s a very rough estimate.
and we’ll replace the ability to speak all languages with Advantage after succeeding on one of the extra saves is
racial languages plus Common for 0 BP. Kirin have no fun, but it will only matter occasionally and it only
hands for -2 BP, and we’ll set their natural weapons to applies to one attack, so we’ll call it another 0.5 BP.
1d8 for 2 BP. That brings us to 3.5 BP, which is slightly above our
That brings us to 9 BP before we consider any of the target of 3 BP, but not above our hard cap of 4 BP.
Ki-Rin’s active abilities. We’ll drop all of the legendary
stuff and the magic attacks. The spellcasting looks Korred
awfully similar to cleric spellcasting, so we’ll attribute
that to cleric levels. That leaves us with the Ki-Rin’s Small cloven-hoofed fey attuned with earth and stone.
innate spellcasting, which would be great except that
all of the Ki-Rin’s innate spells are too high level for us
Korred Traits
to use. Korreds share the following racial traits.
We’ll need to take some liberties. If we grant the Creature Type. Fey.
choice of one cleric cantrip for 1 BP we’ll get the right Ability Score Increase. +1 Strength.
feel without a big BP cost. We’ll also add Innate Focus Alignment. Fiercely independent, most korred are
for 0.25 BP because Ki-Rin are clearly intended to be chaotic neutral.
spellcasters despite lacking hands to hold material Size. Your size is medium.
components. The Ki-Rin’s spellcasting ability for its Speed. Your base walking speed is 25 ft.
innate spellcasting is charisma, so we’ll use charisma Control Hair. Korreds are famed for their magical
over wisdom so that the Ki’Rin doesn’t over-emphasize hair, and many korreds cut their own hair with iron
playing a cleric. shears and weave it into sturdy iron rope. After
completing a long rest, you may spend an hour to cut
Races 46
your hair and weave a 50-foot length of rope. You may who might try to stay out of melee. Stone’s Strength
only have one such rope at a time. Creating a new rope can provide a useful damage boost, but because it
causes the old rope to wither away, leaving only a consumes your bonus action it won’t work with two-
small amount of rusty iron shavings. weapon fighting.
As an action, you may magically animate this rope to Korreds are deeply attuned to the earth, and spend a
move 20 feet. If this movement ends with the rope in lot of time around earth elemental creatures like galeb
the space of another creature which you can see, the duhr and earth elementals. They find the sound of
rope may entangle the creature. Otherwise, if the rope mining annoying and revere the earth, so they may
ends this movement in the air it immediately falls. The have trouble adventuring alongside dwarves.
creature must make a Dexterity saving throw or
become grappled by the rope. The DC of this saving Design Notes
throw is 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Wisdom Korred are impressive. They’ve got good senses, good
modifier. Escaping this grapple uses the grapple rules ability scores, 5 languages, and several fun unique
for monsters detailed in the sidebar on page 11 of the abilities. While that makes them a really interesting
monster manual. The DC to escape this grapple is the creature and a fun basis for a race, it also makes them
same DC as the saving throw to avoid being grappled. really difficult to adapt because there is so much stuff
You may release a creature grappled by your hair to cut.
rope as a bonus action. Creatures are automatically Korreds are fey, costing 0.5 BP but offering no
released if you die or are incapacitated. Spending an specific abilities.
action to move the rope again also releases a grappled Despite their small size, korreds have spectactular
creature. Strength and Constitution. We have a lot to cover, so
Your hair rope has AC 20 and 20 hit points. It regains we need to be careful with out BP. We’ll grant +1 to
1 hit point at the beginning of your turn while it still Strength for 1 BP.
has at least 1 hit point, and you are alive. If the rope From the stat block, we get small size for -1 BP, 25 ft.
drops to 0 hit points, it is destroyed, any entangled walking speed (down from 30 ft.) for 0 BP, 10 ft.
creatures are released, and the rope withers away, burrow speed (down from 30 ft.) for 2 BP, 60 ft.
leaving only a small amount of rusty iron shavings. Darkvision (down from 120 ft.) for 2 BP, and Stone
Darkvision. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of Camouflage for 0.5 BP.
you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it We’ll drop the Korred’s natural armor, damage
were dim light. You can’t discern color in darkness, only resistances, tremsorsense, and innate spellcasting.
shades of gray. We’ll reduce their languages to racial languages plus
Rock. You may throw a rock or similar object as a Common (Undercommon in this case) for 0 BP, and
ranged weapon attack. This attack has 30/60 range, we’ll call Terran their racial language.
and deals 1d4 bludgeoning damage on a hit. This is After all of those cuts, we’re at 5 BP. That leaves us
made as though the object had the Thrown weapon with 3 things to address: Command Hair, Stone’s
property. Strength, and Rock. Rock is easy, but natural weapons
Stone Camouflage. You have advantage on Dexterity are big BP sink so we’ll reduce the damage to 1d4 and
(Stealth) checks made to hide in rocky terrain. allow it to be used at range for a total of 1.5 BP.
Stone’s Strength. While on the ground, you may use Command Hair is really fun, but it’s easily abusable if
a bonus action to draw on your connection to stone we give it to players as-written. A smart player would
and earth to empower your blows. After doing so, your make a bunch of ropes, and spend every one of their
first weapon attack that turn deals additional damage bonus actions to hinder their enemies. We’ll need to
equal to half your proficiency bonus on a successful hit. make significant tweaks.
Languages. You can speak, read, and write in Terran First, we’ll limit players to one piece of rope. That
and Undercommon. makes protecting and recovering it important. Second,
we’ll require a long rest to make a new rope. Growing
Playing a Korred enough hair to make rope out of it takes a long time, so
Despite their small size, Korred are potent melee this will require some suspension of disbelief, but if you
threats. Their increased Strength and Constitution really need an excuse just point out that korreds are
make them excellent barbarians and fighters, and fey and maybe their hair grows back abnormally fast.
Control Hair provides a useful way to hinder enemies
Races 47
Finally, we’ll require an action to animate the hair Rampage. When you reduce a creature to 0 hit
instead of a bonus action. I think we can call that 2 BP. points with a melee attack on your turn, you can take a
Stone’s Strength is harder. It’s a consistent and easily bonus action to move up to half your speed and make
accessible damage increase. Obviously, we can’t grant a bite attack.
two bonus dice or we’ll see an army of greataxe- Languages. You can speak, read, and write in.
weilding korreds rolling 3d12 damage on every attack. I
think a modest damage boost will be sufficient. If we Playing a Leucrotta
require spending a bonus action and grant damage Leucrota are strong melee fighters with built-in hit-
equal to half of the Korred’s proficiency bonus to their and-run tactics. Kicking Retreat allows you to easily
first attack for the turn. That will make it an appealing move into combat, attack, and use your high speed to
damage boost for characters that don’t rely heavily on get away.
their bonus action, but shouldn’t be such a major Like other creatures loyal to Yeenoghu, leucrotta fit
damage boost that it will cause problems. I think we alongside gnolls and may demons, and make good
can call this 1 BP. additions to an evil party which does a lot of killing.
At 9.5 BP, the Korred with within our target range of
8-10 BP. If you want to weaken the Korred, remove Design Notes
Rock. If you want to strengthen the Korred, allow it to Leucrotta are fairly simple creatures. At first glance
create a new hair rope during a short rest, or increase their version of Mimicry looks unique, but it’s just a
its Strength increase. reworded version of the Mimciry that we saw in the
Monster Manual.
Leucrotta Leucrottas are monstrosities, costing 0.5 BP but
Horrifying creatures spawned by Yeenoghu that like to
Leucrotta have good physical ability scores, but
mislead, torture, and kill.
Strength is the only one that’s especially high. We’ll
Leucrotta Traits grant +1 Strength for 1 BP.
Leucrotta share the following racial traits. From the stat block, we get medium size (down from
Creature Type. Monstrosity. large), +2 natural armor for 1 BP, 40 ft. walking speed
Ability Score Increase. +1 Strength. (down from 50 ft.) for 1 BP, 60 ft. Darkvision for 2 BP,
Alignment. Horrible, violent creatures that enjoy only racial languages plus one fixed language for -0.75
torturing and murder, leucrota are nearly always BP, Keen Smell for 0.5 BP, Mimicry for 1 BP, Rampage
chaotic evil. for 2 BP. Leucrotta have no hands for -2 BP, and we’ll
set their natural weapons to 1d8 for 2 BP.
Speed. Your base walking speed is 40 ft. That brings us to 8.25 BP before we address Kicking
Bite and Hooves. Your unarmed strikes deal 1d8 Retreat. Kicking Retreat is like a much weaker version
bludgeoning or piercing damage on a hit. of Cunning Action. Goblins get 2/3 of Cunning Action,
which we called 2 BP, so we’ll call it 1 BP, but that
you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it might be a bit high since it still requires an attack
were dim light. You can’t discern color in darkness, only before you can use it.
shades of gray. At 9.25 BP the Leucrotta is within our target range
Keen Smell. You have advantage on Wisdom of 8-10 BP. If you want to strengthen the Leucrotta,
(Perception) checks that rely on smell. increase its Strength increase. If you want to weaken
Kicking Retreat. If you make an unarmed strike on the Leucrotta, remove its natural armor.
your turn using your hooves, you make take the Meenlock
Disengage action as a bonus action.
Mimicry. You can mimic any sounds you have heard, Horrifying insectoid fey, these creatures spontaneously
including voices. A creature that hears the sounds can form in response to feelings of immense fear.
tell they are imitations with a successful Insight check
against a DC equal to 8 + your Charisma (Deception)
bonus.
Races 48
Paralyzing Claws. On a successful melee attack with
your claws, you may attempt to paralyze the target.
The target must make a Constitution save against a DC
equal to 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Constitution
modifier. On a failure, the target is paralyzed for 1
minute. Elves and undead are immune to this effect.
At the end of the creature’s turn, they may attempt
this save again, ending the effect on a successful saving
throw.
You may not use this ability again until you have
completed a long rest.
Shadow Teleport. When you are in dim Iight or
darkness, as a bonus action you can teleport up to 30
feet to an unoccupied space you can see that is also in
dim light or darkness.
Telepathy. You can communicate telepathically with
any creature that knows a language within 30 ft.
Languages. You know no languages. If you learn a
language, you are only able to use it read and write.
You are incapable of communicating vocally in any
fashion.
Playing a Meenlock
Meenlocks are fantastic monks, rangers, and rogues.
Meenlock Traits They’re well-suited to stealth and ambush tactics, and
Meenlocks share the following racial traits. their ability to communicate telepathically makes it
Creature Type. Fey. easy to communicate with allies without giving away
Ability Score Increase. +1 Dexterity. your position.
Alignment. Horrible creatures that prey on the fear Because of their evil nature, meenlocks might fit into
of their victims, most meenlocks are neutral evil. a part of other evil creatures, especially if those
Size. Your size is small. creatures rely on terrifying their foes.
Design Notes
Meenlock have really great flavor. Their fear aura and
which you know. You are unable to perform verbal shadow teleport abilities will need some thought, but
otherwise their stats are simple.
spell components.
Meenlocks are fey, costing 0.5 BP but offering no
Claws. Your unarmed strikes deal 1d8 slashing
damage on a hit. specific abilities.
You can use Dexterity instead of Strength for the Meenlock have decent Dexterity, but their other
ability scores are unremarkable. We’ll grant +1
attack and damage rolIs of your unarmed strikes. Your
Dexterity for 1 BP.
unarmed strikes count as a weapon with the Finesse
property for all effects which require it, such as Sneak From the stat block, we get small size for -1 BP, +3
natural armor for 1.5 BP, 30 ft. walking speed for 0.5
Attack.
BP, condition immunity to frightened for 0.5 BP, 120 ft.
Darkvision. You can see in dim light within 120 feet
Darkvision for 3 BP, 30 ft. Telepathy (down from 120
of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it
were dim light. You can’t discern color in darkness, only ft.) for 2 BP, Light Sensitivity for -2 BP, and no
languages for -3 BP. Based on the art, meenlocks have
shades of gray.
no hands for -2 BP, and we’ll set their natural weapons
Fearless. You are immune to fear.
Light Sensitivity. While in bright light, you have to 1d8 for 2 BP, and we’ll add natural weapon finesse
disadvantage on attack rolls, as well as on Wisdom for 0 BP.
(Perception) checks that rely on sight.
Races 49
That brings us to 5 BP before we address Fear Aura, This ritual also requires the sacrifice of a living,
Shadow Teleport, and the paralysis effect on the intelligent creature with a soul such as a human for
Meenlock’s claws. Fear aura is clearly too powerful to each participating mind flayer.
allow, and I’m not sure how we would adapt it. We Upon the completion of the ritual at the end of the
could make it an active fear effect, but I don’t think third day, the sacrificial victims immediately die, and
that would quite hit the flavor we want. Instead, I think their souls are trapped in the periapt of mind trapping.
we’ll drop it to conserve BP. The participating mind flayers then become alhoons,
We can copy the paralyzing claws from ghouls (see and immediately become free-willed undead.
the original Monstrous Races) for 1 BP. After completing the ritual, the character
Shadow Teleport duplicates the Way of Shadow immediately gains their first level in the alhoon
Monk’s Shadow Step ability. The closest approximation template. They must take both levels of the template
we’ve done on a similar creature is the blink dog, which before they can take levels in another class or
we allowed to teleport once per short rest for a template.
whopping 6 BP. Requiring shadows imposes an extra
Alhoon Traits
limitation, so I think we can call it 4 BP.
All alhoons have the following traits, adding these
At 10 BP, the Meenlock is at the top of our target
traits to their existing racial traits upon gaining the
range of 8-10 BP. If you want to strengthen the
template.
Meenlock, allow it to use Shadow Teleport once every
time it rolls initiative. If you want to weaken the Hit Points
Meenlock, limit Shadow Teleport to once per long rest. • Hit Dice. 1d6 per alhoon level
• Hit Points at Higher Levels. 1d6 (or 4) + your
Mind Flayers Constitution modifier per alhoon level
Volo’s Guide to Monsters presents three new mind Traits
flayer stat blocks. The Alhoon template and the elder Liches gain the following traits at each level, as
brain racial traits are presented below. The Ulitharid is indicated on the table below.
presented in the Racial Feats section, later in this Level Features
document. If you want to play an Alhoon or a Ulitharid, 1 Transformation, Undead Nature, Periant of Mind
use the Mind Flayer racial traits presented in the Trapping, Spellcasting
2 Alhoon Resistances, Chill Touch
original Monstrous Races.
Transformation. You replace your current creature
Alhoon [Template: Acquired] type with Undead, but retain any subtypes.
Powerful outcast mind flayers seek immortality to You don’t require air, food, drink, or sleep. Instead,
replace the eternal life presented by absorption into an you enter a restful state, remaining semiconscious, for
elder brain. Those outcast arcanists which cannot 4 hours a day. While resting, you can dream after a
reach true lichdom find a shortcut by becoming an fashion; such dreams are reflexive mental exercises
Alhoon. inherent to your consciousness. After resting in this
way, you gain the same benefit that a human does
Becoming an Alhoon from 8 hours of sleep.
The ritual to become an Alhoon is a closely-guarded Undead Nature. You have resistance to necrotic
secret, known only to those rare deviant mind flayers damage. You have immunity to the poisoned condition,
that pursue forbidden arcane knowledge. Still, the and to poison damage.
possibility of everlasting life is a temptation that few Periapt of Mind Trapping. Your soul is bound to a
illithid arcanists can resist. periapt of mind trapping. In the event of your
Becoming an Alhoon requires at least three mind descruction, your soul is entrapped in the periapt along
flayers to cooperate in the creation of a periapt of mind with any previous sacrifices and any other alhoons
trapping. All participants must be wizards of 12th level which were previously destroyed. If your periapt is
or higher. The ritual takes three days to perform, destroyed, you and any other surviving alhoons which
during which the participants may not perform other are bound to the same periapt immediately die and
strenuous activity (such as combat) for more than one your souls are destroyed, as are any souls contained in
hour, or the ritual fails and must begina again. the periapt. Nothing short of divine intervention can
Races 50
restore you or the other creatures whose souls are
destroyed in this manner.
In order to maintain your undead state, you must
periodically sacrifice additional souls to the periapt.
Your undeath is extended by the length of the
sacrifice’s life, starting from the moment the sacrifice is
completed. For this reason, elderly victims and long-
lived races are favored victims. A new sacrifice
effectively resets the clock, so an alhoon sacrificing a
500-year old elf will persist for 500 years from that
moment, regardless of their previous sacrifices. At the
end of this period, the alhoon immediately dies, and
their soul is trapped in the periapt as normal, and any
surviving alhoons bound to the same periapt are
unaffected.
Souls trapped inside the periapt are in permanent
communion, blind to the world outside the periapt but
able to communicate with each other freely. The souls
of these victims are imprisoned in the periapt, and
cannot be raised from the dead except by a wish or
miracle spell, or similarly powerful magic.
Carrying the periapt grants you incredible power
over the alhoons bound to it. The carrier gains
advantage on attacks, saves, and check against the
alhoons which created it, and those alhoons suffer
Elder Brain Traits
disadvantage on attacks, and checks against the holder,
Elder brains share the following racial traits.
and on saving throws against effects created by the
Creature Type. Abberation.
holder. In addition, the holder of the periapt can
Ability Score Increase. +1 Intelligence, +1 Wisdom,
telepathically communicate with any sacrificed soul
+1 Charisma.
trapped within, and alhoons within the periapt can
Alignment. Tyrants which lord over a tyrannical
speak telepathically with the holder. A creature
people, most elder brains are lawful evil.
carrying the periapt can't prevent communication from
alhoons but can silence trapped souls of sacrificed
creatures.
swim speed of 10 ft.
Spellcasting. Upon gaining each level in the Alhoon
Blindsight. You have blindsight 30 ft.
template, you are treated as one Wizard level higher
Brain Body. You are unable to wear armor or use
for the purposes of Spellcasting, including spell slots
shields.
and the level of spells which you can prepare with that
class.
Alhoon Resistances. You have resistance to cold
damage and lightning damage, and you have
spell components.
advantage on saving throws against any effect which
Cunning. You have advantage on all Intelligence,
turns undead.
Wisdom, and Charisma saving throws against magic.
Chill Touch. As an action, you may make a melee
Innate Spellcasting (Psionics). Once you reach 3rd
spell attack against a creature within reach. On a hit,
level, you can cast levitate once per day. Once you
the target takes 3d6 cold damage.
reach 5th level, you can cast detect thoughts once per
day. You may cast spells as though you were using a
Elder Brain
magic focus, even if you are not doing so. Your
The center of most elder brain colonies, an Elder Brain
spellcasting ability for these spells is Intelligence.
is an immense brain with a mass of writhing tentacles
Mind Blast. As an action, you can magically emit
and immense psychic power.
psychic energy in a 15-foot cone. Each creature in that
Races 51
line must make an Intelligence saving throw. The DC To start, we’ll compare the alhoon and lich stat
for this saving throw equals 8 + your Intelligence blocks to identify which traits are different between
modifier + your proficiency bonus. A creature takes 2d6 the two. Legendary Resistances is removed. Paralyzing
psychic damage on a failed save and half as much Grasp is reduced to Chilling Grasp. The Alhoon gets no
damage on a successful one. The damage increases by legendary actions. The grasp change and losing
1d6 when you reach 5th level (3d6), 11th level (4d6), Frightening Gaze conveniently lines up with the 3rd
and 17th level (5d6). level of the Lich template presented in the original
After you use this ability, you can't use it again until Monstrous Races. I think we’ll be able to drop the 3rd
you complete a short or long rest. level of the Lich and squeeze the Alhoon into just two
Tentacles. Your unarmed strikes deal 1d4 psychic template levels.
damage on a hit. Like the Lich, we’ll go for 1d6 hit dice for 0 BP per
Telepathic Hub. You can communicate telepathically template level.
with any creature that knows a language within 30 ft, We’ll largely copy the Lich’s first level. The Undead
and you may allow other creatures within range to Creature type costs 1 BP. Resistant to necrotic damage
communicate telepathically with each other. and Poison Immunity cost another 4 BP. Spellcasting
Languages. You can understand, read, and write in costs another 3 BP.
Common, Deep Speech, and Undercommon. We’ll also add the periapt of mind trapping, but we
can’t assign definitive BP cost. While immortality is
Playing an Elder Brain
great in an abstract sense, campaigns rarely last long
Elder brains are powerful, but also very limited. With
enough for immortality to matter, and the periapt
poor movement speed and few options to get around,
comes with some heavy drawbacks. Alhoons have no
elder brains are largely blind beyond their blindsight
way to relocate their own periapt if it is lost.
range. They have fantastic mental ability scores, but
Recovering it from a hostile creature is difficult. And if
without the ability to perform verbal components they
the Alhoon is destroyed, they don’t get to regenerate
are severely limited as spellcasters. While official
like a lich, and they can’t be raised from the dead
psionics rules have not been published as of this
unless someone goes to great lengths to do so. So we’ll
writing, consider using the Mystic presented in the
omit a BP cost, and be happy with 8 BP for out first
Unearthed Arcana article series.
level.
Elder brains make a natural leader in a mind flayer-
8 BP is at the bottom of our target range of 8-10 BP
centric party. Good allies include intellect devourers,
for the first level of leveled templates.
mind flayers, mindwitnesses, and other underdark
At second level we’ll add resistance to cold and
races which might be slaves to one of the other party
lightning for 4 BP. Chill Touch as written in the Alhoon
members.
stat block is rouchly equivalent to a cantrip at this level,
Design Notes so we’ll call it 0.5 BP.
At 4.5 BP our second and final level is within our
The new mind flayer entries present opportunities for a
target range of 4-5 BP for additional levels of leveled
new template, a new race, and a new feat. This means
templates.
that it’s a lot of fun to design, and it adds some really
fun options for mind flayer characters. Elder Brain
We’ll address each new item below. Since they’re Elder brains face several design issues. They’re not
largely unique, we’ll build their BP values intended to be mobile, instead residing in a brine pool
independently, but we’ll keep the base Mind Flayer for the whole of their existence. That’s not a great way
raical traits in mind (see the original Monstrous Races). to play and adventurer, in my opinion, but I gave up on
trying to keep things sensible a long time ago. If you
Alhoon
want to play a borderline-immobile brain, go for it.
The Alhoon is, in many ways, a weaker version of the
Elder Brains are abberations, costing 0.5 BP but
lich intended for mind flayers that can’t quite make it
to becoming a true lich. That makes things easy, as we
Elder brains have spectacular ability scores, which
can look at the existing Lich template (presented in the
makes sense considering their role at the heart of mind
original Monstrous Races) for inspiration, and ideally
flayer society. However, it also makes it very difficult
reduce the size of the template.
for us to pick ability score increases. I think we’ll grant
Races 52
+1 Intelligence, +1 Wisdom, and +1 Charisma for 3 BP. Unfortunately, that brings us to 14.5 BP, which is
That’s really weird, but this is going to be a weird race. well outside of acceptable ranges. We’ve already made
From the stat block, we get medium size (down from significant cuts, but we’ll need to do more. I think we’ll
large), 5 ft. walking speed for -2.5 BP, 10 ft. swim speed disallow armor. Wearing a giant helmet seems a bit
for 0 BP, 30 ft. blindsight (down from 120 ft.) for 6 BP, silly, and I feel like it’s beneath the dignity of a giant
racial languages plus Common and one fixed for 0.25 brain floating in a brine pool. Since elder brains don’t
BP, and no ability to speak for -1.5 BP. Elder brains have hands, they also can’t use shields, which nets a
have no hands -2 BP, and we’ll set their natural total -4 BP.
weapons to 1d4 for 1 BP. At 10.5 BP, the elder brain is above our target range
With the basics out of the way, we’re at 4.75 BP, but of 8-10 BP. If you want to strengthen the elder brain,
we’ve still got a lot to cover. Creature Sense, Magic give it some natural armor. If you want to weaken the
Resistance, Telepathic Hub, Mind Blast, Psychic Link, elder brain, remove Cunning.
Sense Thoughts, and Innate Spellcasting. We’ll drop
Ulitharid
Legendary Resistance and the Elder Brain’s Legendary
Ulitharid are mostly an improved version of the Mind
Actions.
Flayer. They add some new abilities (creature sense,
Creature Sense is difficult. Giving away the location
magic resistance, and Psionic Hub), and improve the
of every creature within any distance beyond blindsight
Mind Flayer’s existing psionics, tentacles, and mind
range is a huge advantage, and largely negates
blast. Magic resistance is one of those “boss monster”
anything that might be surprising. The closest
abilities that players should never get (yes, I’m aware
comparison is the Ranger’s Primeval Awareness, which
of Yuan-Ti Purebloods presented in Volo’s Guide to
only works on a subset of creature types, only works
Monsters and I discuss them in the original Monstrous
for a few minutes, and doesn’t reveal their numbers or
Races), so we’ll drop it.
location. I think we’ll need to drop Creature Sense.
The extra mind blast damage is mechanically minor
Magic Resistance costs too much to keep, but I think
but feels rewarding for players, so we’ll increase the
we can drop it to Cunning for 2 BP. Normally I just drop
die size of mind blast for 0.5 BP. The extra tentacle
Magic Resistance, but I think a giant brain having good
damage is similarly minor, so we’ll increase the damage
mental resistances to magic makes a lot of sense.
to 1d8 for another 1 BP. Psionic hub doesn’t actually
Telepathic communication is massively useful for an
benefit the Ulitharid, so we can grant it mostly as-
adventuring party, which is why Rary’s Telepathic Bond
written.
is a 5th-level spell. We’ll need to significantly alter
Creature sense is difficult to adapt. There aren’t
Telepathic Hub’s effect it safe to give to a player.
spells that replicate the effect, and the closest I can
Telepathy is normally 2 BP for 30-foot range.
find is commune with nature, which is far too high
Allowing players to communicate telepathically over
level. Instead, we’ll add Detect Thoughts to the Mind
unlimitied distances as Telepathic Hub allows offers
Flayer’s existing psionics for 2 BP.
lots of room for abuse, so that’s clearly off the table. If
That brings our total to 3.5 BP, which is above our
we allow the brain to act as a hub for creatures within
target of 3 BP but below our hard cap of 4 BP. It’s a
range, I think we can call it 2.5 BP. That’s not a big
little bit stronger than we want, but considering Detect
increase, but there’s nothing in the rules preventing
Thoughts is available as a spell many Mind Flayers will
telepathic creatures from perfectly repeating
be able to cast it by the time they could take a feat, so
telepathically communicated messages between
this feat needs to be strong enough to be meaningfully
creatures, effectively making them a hub already.
appealing.
We’ll copy Mind Blast from the Mind Flayer (see the
original Monstrous Races) for 2 BP. Mindwitness
We’ll drop Psychic Link because it’s difficult to adapt,
and we’ll drop Sense Thoughts because it doesn’t Beholders captured and altered to serve as telepathic
function without Psychic Link. hubs for mind flayers and their servants.
That just leaves the Elder Brain’s innate spellcasting.
I think detect thoughts and levitate are more important Mindwitness Traits
than the other spells, so we’ll drop the rest. Detect Mindwitnesses share the following racial traits.
thoughts and levitate once per day each is 3 BP. We’ll Creature Type. Aberration.
also add an innate focus for 0.25 BP. Ability Score Increase. +1 Intelligence.
Races 53
Alignment. Subservient to tyrannical masters, most we’ll grant +1 Intelligence for 1 BP to align with mind
mindwitnesses are lawful evil. flayers and other related creatures.
Size. Your size is medium. From the stat block, we get medium size (down from
Speed. Your base walking speed is 0 ft. large), +2 natural armor (down from +3) for 1 BP to
Darkvision. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of match the beholders in the original Monstrous Races, 0
you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it ft. walking speed for -3 BP, 20 ft. fly speed for 3 BP and
were dim light. You can’t discern color in darkness, only the ability to hover for 2 BP, condition immunity to
shades of gray. prone for 0.25 BP, 60 ft. Darkvision (down from 120 ft.)
Eye Rays. You know the mage hand, mind spike (see for 2 BP to match other beholders, and racial languages
the Spells chapter), and spook cantrips. You may cast plus Undercommon for 0 BP. have no hands for -2 BP,
spells as though you were using a magic focus, even if and we’ll set their natural weapons to 1d8 for 2 BP.
you are not doing so. Intelligence is your spellcasting We’ll duplicate Telepathic Hub from the Elder Brain
ability for these spells. for 2.5 BP.
Flight. You have a flying speed of 20 feet, and can That brings us to 9.25 BP before we look at the
hover. To use this speed, you can’t be wearing medium Mindwitness’s eye rays. Like other beholders, we’ll
or heavy armor. You are immune to the prone approximate the eye rays with cantrips. Fear ray can be
condition. approximated by spook (see the Spells section of this
Natural Armor. While unarmored, your AC is equal document), and telekinetic ray can be approximated by
to 12 + your Dexterity modifier. mage hand. I really want a psychic damage option, but
No Hands. You are unable to wield weapons or wear the only published option is Cutting Words, which
shields, and cannot use items which require doesn’t make much sense as an eye ray. So, as we’ve
manipulation, including spellcasting foci, wands, tools, done with the other beholders in this document, we’ll
etc. create a new spell to make into an eye ray. We’ll reskin
Tentacles. Your unarmed strikes deal 1d4 Sacred Flame, make it an enchantment that deals
bludgeoning and 1d4 psychic damage on a hit. psychic damage, and drop the damage to 1d6 because
Telepathic Hub. You can communicate telepathically psychic damage is really rare and almost nothing resists
with any creature that knows a language within 30 ft, it. We’ll call it mind spike. That’s 0.75 BP for three
and you may allow other creatures within range to cantrips.
communicate telepathically with each other. At 10 BP, the Mindwitness is at the top of our target
Languages. You can speak, read, and write in Deep range of 8-10 BP. If you want to strengthen the
Speech and Undercommon. Mindwitness, increase its natural armor. If you want to
weaken the Mindwitness, remove its natural armor or
Playing a Mindwitness remove some of its eye rays.
Intelligent and gifted with flight and free cantrips,
mindwitnesses make excellent spellcasters, especially Morkoth
wizards. Your slow speed may be a problem, so be sure Greedy, extraplanar creatures resembling a gigantic,
to plan your position carefully.
alien octopus that obsessively collect and hoard
Mindwitnesses are a natural fit in a party build
objects from across the multiverse.
around mind flayers, but they’ll happily take
commands from other telepathic creatures. Morkoth Traits
Morkoths share the following racial traits.
Design Notes Creature Type. Aberration.
The Mindwitness is a weird combination of beholder
Ability Score Increase. +1 Intelligence.
abilities and the Elder Brain’s Telepathic Hub ability. Alignment. Selfish, destructive, and greedy, most
They don’t have any new or unique abilities, so we morkoths are chaotic evil.
shouldn’t have any issues, and we can borrow existing Size. Your size is medium.
design choices from beholds and the Elder Brain.
Mindwitnesses are abberations, costing 0.5 BP but swim speed of 25 ft.
offering no specific abilities. Amphibious. You can breathe air and water.
The Mindwitness’s two best ability scores are Darkvision. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of
Intelligence and Wisdom. We’ve got a lot to cover, so you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it
Races 54
were dim light. You can’t discern color in darkness, only Morkoths are naturally solitary, but they also tend to
shades of gray. horde creatures that they find interesting. A morkoth’s
Hypnosis. As an action you may project a 30-foot party might be creatures willingly contributing to the
cone and attempt to magically charm each creature in morkoth’s horde, or they might be part of the
the cone. Creatures must succeed on a Wisdom saving morkoth’s horde that’s on a strange outing to fulfill
throw or become charmed by you for 1 minute. The DC one of the morkoth’s other goals.
of this saving throw is 8 + your proficiency bonus +
your Intelligence modifier. Design Notes
You must maintain concentration during that time, Desite their high CR, their lair actions, and their unique
as if you were casting a spell. If you lose concentration, flavor, morkoths are mechanically simple. Most of their
affected creatures are no longer charmed by this abilities are things we’ve adapted previously, or they’re
ability. close enough to existing ideas that we can adapt them
While charmed in this way, the target tries to get as without much new work.
close to you as possible, using its actions on its turn to Morkoths are abberations, costing 0.5 BP but
Dash until it is within 5 feet of you, and taking no other offering no specific abilities.
actions (including bonus actions) unless those actions The Morkoth’s best ability is Intelligence, and they’re
move the creature closet to you. Once the target is Intelligence-based spellcasters, so we’ll grant +1
within 5 feet of you, or as close to you as it can safely Intelligence for 1 BP.
get, it may take no further actions (including bonus From the stat block, we get medium size, +3 natural
actions) so long as they are charmed in this way. If your armor (down from +5) for 1.5 BP, 25 ft. walking speed
position changes after this point, the target must for -0.5 BP, 50 ft. swim speed for 2 BP, we’ll drop the
continue to move as close to you as it can. Morkoth’s damage resistances and blindsight, 60 ft.
A charmed target can repeat the saving throw at the Darkvision (down from 120 ft.) for 2 BP, Telepathy for 2
end of each of its turns and whenever it takes damage, BP, and no languages for -3 BP. Morkoth have no hands
ending the effect on itself on a success. for -2 BP, and we’ll set their natural weapons to 2 BP.
After you use this ability, you can't use it again until We’ll add Amphibious for 0.5 BP, but we’ll drop Grab
you complete a short or long rest. to save BP. We can approximate Spell Reflection by
Natural Armor. While unarmored, your AC is equal duplicating Reflective Carapace from the Tarrasque
to 13 + your Dexterity modifier. (see the original Monstrous Races) for 1 BP. We’ll
No Hands. You are unable to wield weapons or wear disregard the Morkoth’s innate spellcasting because
shields, and cannot use items which require it’s not innate, and can be approximate by wizard
manipulation, including spellcasting foci, wands, tools, levels.
etc. That brings us to 7 BP before we look at Hypnosis.
Telepathy. You can communicate telepathically with It’s a lot like the spell fear, but creatures run toward
any creature that knows a language within 30 ft. you rather than away from you. It also notably allows
Tentacles. Your unarmed strikes deal 1d8 creatures to make additional saves each round. I think
bludgeoning damage on a hit. if we add a concentration requirement, and limit to
Languages. You know no languages. once per long rest, we can keep the ability largely
unchanged for 2 BP.
Playing a Morkoth At 7 BP, the Morkoth is within our target range of 8-
Morkoths are complicated creatures. They are built for 10 BP. If you want to strengthen the Morkoth, increase
melee combat with natural armor, natural weapons, its natural armor. If you want to weaken the Morkoth,
and a hypnosis ability which draws foes in close. decrease its natural armor.
However, they generally prefer spellcasting. Consider
playing a wizard, but an eldritch knight fighter may be
just as appealing. Also remember that, while morkoths
lack hands, they can still hold material components in
their tentacles (they just can’t use spellcasting foci like
wands), and can perform both somatic and verbal
spellcasting components.
Races 55
Enslave. As an action, you can attempt to magically
charm a humanoid you can see within 30 feet.
It must make a Wisdom saving throw, and does so with
advantage if you or your companions are fighting it. If it
fails the saving throw, it is charmed by you for one
hour per level, or until you or your companions do
anything harmful to it. The DC of this saving throw is 8
+ your proficiency bonus + your Intelligence modifier.
You must maintain concentration during that time,
as if you were casting a spell. If you lose concentration,
affected creatures are no longer charmed by this
ability.
The charmed creature regards you as a friendly
acquaintance. When this effect ends, the creature
knows it was charmed by you.
Common, Deep Speech, and Undercommon.
Neogi
Playing a Neogi
Powerful, creatures resembling a bizarre union of eel
Neogi are nimble and able to get around easily thanks
and spider that travel the planes on magic ships to spider climb, but they lack natural armor and their
capturing and trading slaves, especially umber hulks. natural weapons are weaker than most manufactured
weapons. Consider classes like ranger and rogue, but
Neogi Traits
also consider warlock to take advantage of neogi’s
Neogi share the following racial traits.
close association with the evil stars that are frequently
Creature Type. Abberation.
the source of power for warlocks service a Great Old
Ability Score Increase. +1 Dexterity.
One patron. As you gain levels, consider taking the
Alignment. Inhuman slavers with unfathomable
Neogi Master feat to improve your characters stats,
minds, most neogi are lawful evil, but they lack the
and to claim your rightful rank as a master among your
emotional and philosophical mentality to acknowledge
people.
such concepts as good and evil.
Neogi are slavers by nature, conquering and
enslaving whatever creatures they can. Neogi are
especially fond of umber hulk slaves, and have tamed
and traded umber hulks for an unmknowably long
shades of gray.
time. A party with an umber hulk serving a neogi
Mental Fortitude. You have advantage on saving
master is a good start, and other party members can fill
throws against being charmed or frightened, and magic
in gaps around that pairing.
can't put you to sleep.
Spider Climb. You can climb difficult surfaces, Design Notes
including upside down on ceilings, without needing to
Neogi come in three version: hatchling, adult, and
make an ability check. master. The hatchling is the weakest, but aside from
Languages. You can speak, read, and write in. numerical changes it lackson the Enslave ability. The
Neogi Hatchling master is the largest, aside from numerical changes it
Size. Your size is tiny. only gains the spellcasting abilities of a 7th-level
Speed. Your base walking speed is 20 ft. You have a Warlock. The limited differences in their stat blocks
climb speed of 20 ft. makes it difficult to draw meaningful distinctions
Languages. You know no languages. between the three. So instead of three subraces, we’ll
present just two: the hatchling, and the adult neogi.
Neogi Adult
Then we’ll add Neogi Master as a racial feat. We’ll look
Races 56
at the common items between the neogi hatchling and it’s hard to guess what the BP value would be, but 3 BP
the adult neogi before we discuss their differences. sounds about right. That’s more than we can
Neogi are abberations, costing 0.5 BP but offering no reasonably afford at this point, so we’ll add a
specific abilities. concentration requirement, call it 2 BP, and hope for
From the stat blocks, we get 60 ft. Darkvision for 2 the best.
BP, and Spider Climb for 1. The art portrays neogi with At 10 BP, the neogi adult is at the top of our target
three-fingered hands with an opposable thumb, so range of 8-10 BP. If you want to strengthen the Neogi,
we’ll say that they have hands. Since they have hands, add a Charisma increase. If you want to weaken the
we’ll drop their natural weapons to 1d4 for 1 BP Neogi, remove spider climb or remove its natural
Mental Fortitude is Fey Ancestry with resistance to weapons.
frightened added on. Fey Ancestry is 0.5 BP, and
Neogi Master
resistance to one condition is another 0.25 BP.
Similar to how we adapted the Darkling Elder as a feat,
That brings us to 5.25 BP before we consider
we’ll adapt the Neogi Master as a feat. Players can take
individual subraces.
it to signify their advancement within Neogi society,
Neogi Hatchling but might go their whole careers occupying councils
Much like we did with the Fire Snake (the juvenile form but not being granted the rank of master.
of the Salemander; see the original Monstrous Races), Bumping the neogi up to medium size costs 1 BP.
the neogi hatchling is going to be weaker than the Increasing the neogi’s natural weapons to 1d8 costs
adult neogi. I don’t want players to feel like aging into another 1 BP. Finally, we’ll add a +1 Charisma increase.
adulthood is a handicap, and generally adventuring as That brings our total to 3 BP, which is our target BP
a child shouldn’t be mechanically beneficial. for feats.
Neogi hatchlings have terrible ability scores, but
their Dexterity is still good, so we’ll give them +1 Neothelid
Dexterity for 1 BP. Mind flayer tadpoles that outgrew their tank,
From the stat block, we get tiny size for -1.5 BP, 20 neothelids are enormous worm-like creatures with
ft. walking speed for 0 BP, 20 ft. climb speed for 1.5 BP, vicious tentacles and acidic breath.
and no languages for -3 BP.
At 3.25 BP, the Neogi hatchling is below our target Neothelid Traits
range of 8-10 BP. Neothelids share the following racial traits.
Neogi Adult Creature Type. Abberation.
The adult neogi’s best ability scores are Dexterity and Ability Score Increase. +1 Strength, +1 Constitution.
Charisma, but we don’t have a lot of BP to spend so Alignment. Normally unintelligent but still hideously
we’ll just grant +1 Dexterity for 1 BP. evil, most Neothelids are chaotic evil.
From the stat block, we get small size for -1 BP, we’ll Size. Your size is medium.
drop natural armor to conserve BP, 30 ft. walking Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 ft.
speed for 0.5 BP, 30 ft. climb speed for 2 BP, and racial Acid Breath. As an action, you can breathe lightning
languages plus Common and one additional fixed in a 15-foot cone. Each creature in that area must
language for 0.25 BP. make a Dexterity saving throw. The DC for this saving
Enslave presents a serious problem. As-written, it’s throw equals 8 + your Constitution modifier + your
dominate monster with no Concentration component proficiency bonus. A creature takes 2d6 acid damage
and a 24-hour duration on a short rest recharge. No on a failed save and half as much damage on a
part of that is okay for a player race. We’ll need to successful one. The damage increases by 1d6 when you
make considerable cuts to make it fair. reach 5th level (3d6), 11th level (4d6), and 17th level
Downgrading the effect from domination to charm is (5d6).
a good step, but 5e doesn’t have a charm monster spell After you use this ability, you can't use it again until
to compare to. The closest we can get is charm person, you complete a short or long rest.
so we’ll start there for lack of a better option. Charm Darkvision. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of
person once per day would be 1 BP. That’s a good start, you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it
but it doesn’t really hit the “enslave all creatures” feel were dim light. You can’t discern color in darkness, only
of the Neogi. If we broaden the effect to all creatures, shades of gray.
Races 57
Natural Armor. While unarmored, your AC is equal perfectly, but we can give the Neothletid some basic
to 13 + your Dexterity modifier. innate spellcasting. We’ll grant levitate once per day
No Hands. You are unable to wield weapons or wear for 1 BP and mage hand once per day for 0.25 BP. We
shields, and cannot use items which require won’t grant an innate focus because Neothelids
manipulation, including spellcasting foci, wands, tools, generally aren’t spellcasters.
etc. Finally, we’ll add a breath weapon for 2 BP.
Flail Tentacles. Your unarmed strikes deal 1d4 At 9.25 BP, the Neothelid is within our target BP
bludgeoning and 1d4 psychic damage on a hit. range of 8-10 BP. If you want to strengthen the
Innate Spellcasting (Psionics). You can cast mage Neothelid, add Grab or increase its natural armor. If
hand once per day. Once you reach 3rd level, you can you want to weaken the Neothelid, reduce its natural
cast levitate once per day. Your spellcasting ability for armor.
these spells is Wisdom.
Languages. You can speak, read, and write in Nilbog
undercommon. The Nilbog is represented by the Nilbog Spirit,
presented in the Magic Items section later in this
Playing a Neothelid document.
Strong and durable, Neothelids make natural
barbarians and fighters. Their acid breath gives them a Design Notes
helpful way to handle crowds of foes, and their The Nilbog, despite its low CR and fairly short list of
psionics allow them to overcome challenges which special abilities, is a perplexing design challenge. It’s
they lack of hands and inability to fly. presented with its own stat block, but it’s not really a
Like many other creatures, being awakened has a creature on its own: it’s a divine spirit that attaches to
great deal of influence on your character’s personality. a goblin. How do we present that as an option for
Consider what effect granted your character superior players? It doesn’t make sense as a race because it’s a
intelligence, and how that effect shaped your goblin plus some stuff.
character’s personality. That leaves feats, templates, and items. Using a feat
or a template would be my normal method, but I don’t
Design Notes think either of those quite work here. Feats and
The neothelid doesn’t have any abilities that we templates generally can’t be removed without
haven’t seen before, so we won’t have any issues something significant happening, and the Nilbog is
adapting it. Like other unintelligent creatures, we’ll technically free to depart and go inhabit some other
treat the Neothelid as awakened.
goblin whenever it pleases.
Neothelids are abberations, costing 0.5 BP but So I guess we’re writing an item. This feels super
offering no specific abilities. weird because the nilbog is a spirit, but the spirit itself
The Neothelid has high Strength and Constitution doesn’t have stats and it can’t be interacted with
like most big dumb monsters, so we’ll grant +1 to each
except by affecting the goblin it inhabits.
for 2 BP. We’ll start by looking at the stuff which the Nilbog
From the stat block, we get medium size (down from spirit applies to the goblin host. The “Nilbogism”
gargantuan), +3 natural armor (down from +8) for 1.5 sidebar conveniently spells out the effects for us. The
BP, 30 ft. walking speed, we’ll drop blindsight to spirit forcibly possesses the host, then the host
conserve BP, but we’ll add 60 ft. Darkvision for 2 BP. becomes chaotic evil and gains a bunch of stuff. For the
Since we’re treating the Neothelid as awakened, we’ll most part it’s straightforward, but this is clearly a
grant the ability to speak Undercommon for 0 BP.
creature built to be beaten on by a party of
Neothelids have no hands for -2 BP, and we’ll set their adventurers. We’ll need to make some tweaks and
natural weapons to 1d8 for 2 BP. expand the text a little bit to remove potential
Like we’ve done with other creatures like the Elder confusion and complications at the table.
Brain, we’ll drop Creature Sense. We’ll also drop Magic
The possession mechanic deserves some discussion.
Resistance and the Neothelid’s ability to swallow It’s normally something that happens behind the
creatures whole. scenes, and some nameless goblin gets promoted to
The Neothelid has impressive innate spellcasting for nilbog status largely by accident. But in a group of PCs,
a giant unintelligent worm. We can’t replicate it there might only be one goblin, so they naturally
Races 58
become the target of the nilbog spirit. In an evil party Unbridled Fury. After being hit by a critical hit from a
changing alignment might not be an issue, but if the melee attack, you can make one melee weapon against
party is all lawful good heroes it could be a serious the attacker as a reaction.
problem. In a way, the possession is a curse, so we’ll Languages. You can speak, read, and write in
present it as such. Abyssal, Common, and Orc.
Nilbogism and Reveral of Fortune are powerful
Playing a Tanarukk
abilities. A player with Reveral of Fortune might be able
Tanarukks thrive in melee combat. Their natural armor
to solo high-level spellcasters because the spellcaster
and their natural weapons provide good fallback
might not have spells that deal damage more than
options, but you’re probably better off using
once in a given round. Alternatively, the Nilbog could
manufactured equipment. Try to draw enough attacks
allow an ally to beat them until they returned to full hit
to triggle Unbridled Fury, but be careful not to let
points at no cost. I was hoping to avoid making
yourself take too much damage all at once. Consider
structural changes to the Nilbog because what we’re
feats like Durable to increase your hit point maximum,
doing is already so weird, but I think we’ll change
and be sure to improve your Constitution score when
Reversal of Fortune to allow the Nilbog to spend a hit
you can. Consider durable classes like barbarian,
die. That adds a built-in cap, and also allows the Nilbog
fighter, and paladin.
to benefit from higher Constitution or larger hit dice
Tanarukk obviouslty fit well into a party of orcs and
rather than healing a d6 once per round at high levels.
half-orcs, but they may also find a place in a party of
Orcs demons or demon worshippers. Warlocks, evil clerics,
and other unpleasant characters might find you to be a
Volo’s Guide to Monsters presents six new orcs. Racial powerful and like-minded ally.
traits for the Tanarukk are presented below
Design Notes
Tanarukk After the craziness that was the Nilbog Spirit, it’s nice
The result of demonic corruption within an orc tribe, to get back to something straightforward like orcs. Oh,
the Tanarukk are considered violent abonimations is that an orc plague monster? Well, nevermind then.
even among orcs. On the battlefiend Tanarukk are Volo’s Guide to Monsters presents and impressive 6
powerful warriors, but outside of battle they are a new orc stat blocks, each with unique flavor and most
danger to their allies. with totally new abilities. Under the hood, the first 5
Tanarukk Traits orcs are all still your garden-variety orc, which means
Tanarukks share the following racial traits. we’re going to be writing a bunch of feats. In a normal
Creature Type. Fiend (demon, orc) D&D setting like Forgotten Realms, there’s a practical
Ability Score Increase. +1 Strength, +1 Dexterity. in-world limitation that would make taking more than
Alignment. Created by demonic influence and raised one of these feats impossible, but because I can’t
among violent savages, most tanarukks are chaotic evil. assume what setting you’re using, I won’t bother
Size. Your size is medium. writing such a restriction. If you want your orcs to
Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 ft. collect religious devotion feats like trading cards, go for
Aggressive. As a bonus action, you can move up to it.
your speed toward a hostile creature that you can see. The Tanarukk is unique enough that it will be its own
Bite. Your unarmed strikes deal 1d4 piercing damage race. They’ll end up being similar to orcs, but they’re
on a hit. still different enough to not be a subrace.
Darkvision. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of We’ll look at each new orc individually.
you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it Orc Blade of Ilneval
were dim light. You can’t discern color in darkness, only The Blade of Ilneval adds two abilities: Foe Smiter of
shades of gray. Ilneval, and Ilneval’s Command.
Damage Resistance. You have resistance to fire For Smiter of Ilneval, as written, isn’t going to work
damage. for our purposes because it’s simply too powerful.
Natural Armor. While unarmored, your AC is equal Every orc fighter in the world would take it, grab a
to 11 + your Dexterity modifier. greataxe, and murder their way through the game
largely unimpeded. We could add the effect onto
Races 59
critical hits, but I want half-orcs to be able to take That basically gives us our ability unchanged from
these feats too, and a half-orc dealing 3d12 on a critical the stat block (except the recharge part) for 2 BP. We’ll
hit with a greataxe is a bit too appealing. expand it to allow half-orcs, and we’ll call it good.
I think we’ll borrow some inspiration from the That brings the Blade of Ilneval feat to 3 BP, which is
Paladin’s Divine Smite. We’ll allow the damage to apply our target for feats. If you want to strengthen the feat,
on a successful melee weapon attack. Of course, we allow Ilneval’s Command to be used once per short rest
can’t assume that the orc has spell slots to feed into or change the bonus damage of Foe Smiter of Ilneval to
the ability, so we’ll limit it to once per short rest. We’ll one weapon damage die. If you want to weaken the
also make the damage scale to keep it relevant at feat, reduce the die size of Foe Smiter of Ilneval to 1d6.
higher levels.
Orc Claw of Luthic
We also need to consider how much damage the
The Claw of Luthic is a cleric. Their spells all come from
ability should add. One damage die makes greataxes
the cleric spell list. Their only new ability that isn’t a
much more appealing for orcs, which isn’t necessarily
spell is their claws, and while natural weapons are
bad, but it makes me wonder why the published Blade
great, that’s a pretty disappointing feat on its own.
of Ilneval doesn’t use a greataxe.
We’ll add 1d8 natural weapons for 2 BP, and we’ll
I think we’ll set the bonus damage to a fixed 1d8,
add a +1 Wisdom increase for another 1 BP. That will
and scale it at the same rate that cantrips scale.
make it reasonably appealing for orc clerics, but not so
Cantrips are normally 0.5 BP, but this won’t require an
powerful that orc clerics will regret not taking it.
additional action so we’ll call this 1 BP.
That brings the Claw of Luthic feat to 3 BP, which is
That brings us to Ilneval’s Command. We’ve got
our target for feats. If you want to strengthen the feat,
roughly 2 BP to work with, and the effect is very
add a free cleric cantrip. If you want to weaken the
powerful. There aren’t many examples to compare this
feat, reduce the natural weapon damage.
to, which makes adapting the ability challenging. The
closest I can think of are the Gnoll’s Rampage ability Orc Hand of Yurtrus
and the haste spell, but the only similarities are that The Hand of Yurtrus is another orc cleric. They have a
you can get an extra attack. different spell list from the Claw of Luthic, but they’re
This is weird, but I’m going to dip back into previous still a cleric.
editions for inspiration here. 4th edition had a lot of Instead of claws, they get Touch of the White Hand.
abilities which let you give allies extra attacks (check It’s an interesting trade-off. Claws are a natural
out the Warlord class), but 4th edition is difficult for me weapon, so they benefit from things like Extra Attack
to adapt to 5th edition because I’m less familiar with it and high Strength. Touch of the White hand is a melee
than 3rd edition or 5th edition. weapon attack, but it deals damage a fixed damage
Instead, we’ll look at the 3rd edition spell snake’s amount like a spell. Reworking chill touch into a melee
swiftness. Snake’s swiftness was a 1st-level druid spell attack would be pretty simple, but I’m not settled on
(or 2nd-level sorcerer/wizard, but that’s not important) that idea just yet, if only because it’s only 0.5 BP.
which allowed one ally to make a single attack. Mass Similar to the Claw of Luthic feat, adding an ability
snake’s swiftness was 2nd-level and affected all allies in increase is a good idea. The Hand of Yurtrus has mostly
a small area. Most spells didn’t change spell level when terrible ability scores, and even its Wisdom is poor for
they were converted to 5th edition, so we can squint a a cleric, but its Constitution is excellent, so we’ll add a
little bit and pretend that mass snake’s swiftness got +1 Constitution increase.
the same treatment. That hits our 2 BP target with a Hands of Yurtrus also remove their tongue. Inability
fairly similar spell to compare Ilneval’s Command to, to speak is normally -1.5 BP, but it looks like the Orc
provided that we limit Ilneval’s Command to once per Hand of Yurtrus can still perform verbal components,
day. so we’ll call that -1 BP instead. But now we need
We can replace mass snake’s swiftness’s area of something to offset that BP cost. The Orc Hand of
effect with “3 allied orcs in range” without adjusting Yurtrus has more skills than most orcs, so’ll add a skill
the BP, and the range on mass snake’s swiftness would proficiencty for 0.5 BP. We’ll also add a free cleric
probably be set to somewhere around 120 feet when cantrip for 1 BP.
converting to 5th edition (3rd edition spells had variable At just 2 BP, the Hand of Yurtrus feat is below our
ranges based on your level), so no change there. target of 3 BP for feats, but it’s already complicated
and bulky, so adding more will probably make things
Races 60
worse. If you want to strengthen the feat, add another Sneak Attack mechanics) and otherwise ignore the
cleric cantrip. If you want to rework the feat, make the ability.
touch effect a normal natural weapon and remove the The leaves us with Shargaas’s Sight and Veil of
damage scaling. Shargaas. Shargaas’s Sight is Devil’s Sight, which is 1
BP. Veil of Shargaas is just the Darkness spell once per
Orc Nurtured One of Yurtrus
short rest. That’s 5 BP, which is too much for a feat, so
The Nurtured One of Yutruss is mostly straightforward.
we’ll drop it to once per long rest for 2 BP. The
Resistance to disease and poison is 0.5 BP (they aren’t
combination of the two is a fantastic tactical option,
resistant to poison damage, just the status effect), and
granting the red hand a significant tactical advantage
Corrupted Carrier is close to the Magmin’s Death Burst
against anything that doesn’t also have Devil’s Sight.
ability.
That brings the Red Hand of Shargaas feat to 3 BP,
Death Burst is 1 BP. Changing the damage type from
which is our target for feats. If you want to strengthen
fire to poison and changing the saving throw type
the feat, allow Darkness to be cast after a short rest. If
won’t change the BP value. The big change is adding
you want to weaken the feat, limit Darkness to be cast
the Poisoned condition. There aren’t a lot of abilities
on the player’s current position rather than at 60-foot
available to players which apply the Poisoned
range.
condition, which makes assessing the BP value difficult.
Perhaps the best comparison is Stench, which can also Tanarukk
poison foes for up to a minute, but doesn’t do damage In many ways, the Tanarukk is to orcs what the Tiefling
and doesn’t require to drop to 0 hit points. is to humans: offspring tainted by fiendish influence.
If we grant Corrupted Carrier as-written, I think we But where tieflings look demonic but aren’t necessarily
can call it something like 2 BP. We’ll add Corrupted evil, tanarukks are chaotic evil and generally exist to
Vengeance as a freebie because I don’t see a lot of murder things and cause trouble. Mechanically, they’re
players nearly killing themselves to intentionally trigger no more complicated than a typical humanoid. Their
this unless it’s an exceptionally good idea at the time. only new ability is Unbridled Fury.
We’ll also drop the Death Burst damage die to d6s to Tanarukks are fiends, costing 0.5 BP but offering no
match the original Corrupted Carrier effect. specific abilities.
That brings the Nurtured one of Yurtrus feat to 3 BP, The Tanarukk’s be ability scores are your standard
which is our target for feats. If you want to strengthen Strength and Constitution setup. It’s interesting to note
the feat, increase the damage die. that they have less Wisdom and Charisma than the
generic orc, but we’re trying to avoid ability score
Orc Red Fang if Shargaas
penalties so we can’t do much with that information.
This is the closest orcs get to a rogue. A race with a
We’ll grant +1 Strength and +1 Constituion for 2 BP,
Strength increase and nothing that touches Dexterity
but we’ll need to save BP to cover the Tanarukk’s other
doesn’t get used for Dexterity-centric classes. But the
abilities.
Orc Red Fang of Shargaas indicates that there is a place
From the stat block ,we get medium size, +1 natural
for rogues in orcish society.
armor (down from +3) for 0.5 BP, 30 ft. speed, fire
Red fangs add three abilities to the orc stat block:
resistance for 2 BP, we’ll drop poison resistance to save
Cunning Action, Hand of Shargaas, Shargaas’s Sight,
BP, 60 ft. Darkvision for 2 BP, racial languages plus
Slayer, and Veil or Shargaas. Cunning Action is the
common and one additional fixed language for 0.25 BP,
same as the 1st-level Rogue class feature, and Slayer
Aggressive for 1 BP, and we’ll drop their natural
matches the Assassin subclass’s Assassinatre class
weapons to 1d4 for 1 BP.
feature, so we can conveniently make 3 level of rogue
That brings us to 9.25 BP before we consider Magic
a prerequisite for the feat.
Resistance and Unbridled Fury. We’ll drop Magic
Hand of Shargaas works just like Foe Slayer of Ilneval
Resistance like we usually do, but Unbridled Fury is the
(see the Orc Blade of Ilneval design notes, above), but I
Tanarukk’s signature ability so I want to keep it. As-
think we’re going to approach it differently. Red fangs
written it’s far too powerful for a player, so we’ll need
are thieves and assassins, and the Orc Red Fang of
to rework it.
Shargaas conveniently uses a weapon with d6 damage
The core of the ability is that the Tanarukk gets hit,
dice. We’ll attribute that bonus damage to Sneak
then makes a counterattack as a reaction. We can’t
Attack (ignoring Multiattack and the lack of actual
allow that to happen every round, or players will be
incentivized to run into combat with no AC, and class
Races 61
features like the Barbarian’s Reckless Attack will be too Blurred Movement. You may take the Dash action as
appealing. I also don’t want to limit the ability to a bonus action.
recharging on a rest, or players will rush to trigger it By moving exceptionally fast, you can move so
early in a fight then forget about it. Instead, we’ll let quickly that you become an indistinguishable blur. If,
the ability trigger when the Tanarukk suffers a critical on your turn, you take the Dash action and expend
hit from a melee attack. That sounds nice and angry, your full movement (including the additional
which fits the theme of the ability, and it will still movement provided by the Dash action) without re-
function tanarukks who invest in their AC because entering a space which you just exited, you become
critical hits don’t care about your AC. We’ll drop difficult to attack. All attacks made against you until
automatic Advantage on the attack, and we’ll call it 1 the beginning of your next turn suffer Disadvantage. If
BP. you take damage of any kind, this effect immediately
At 10.5 BP, the Tanarukk is slightly above our target ends.
range of 8-10 BP. If you want to strengthen the Evasion. When you are subjected to an effect that
Tanarukk, increase its natural armor or add resistance allows you to make a Dexterity saving throw to take
to poison damage. If you want to weaken the only half damage, you instead take no damage if you
Tanarukk, remove its natural armor or natural succeed on the saving throw, and only half damage if
weapons. you fail.
Quicklings Common and Sylvan.
Tiny humanoid-like fey creatures famed for their
astounding speed.
Playing a Quickling
Design Notes
Quicklings present an interesting design challenge for
two reasons: first, their speed is wildly outside of the
values we’ve seen previously; second, Blurred
Movement and Evasion are two extremely powerful
defensive options which normally require magic items,
high-level spells, or high-level class features.
Quicklings are fey, costing 0.5 BP but offering no
specific abilities.
Quicklings are all about Dexterity, so we’ll give them
+1 Dexterity for 1 BP. I want to give them more, but
we’ll need to save BP room for their more interesting
traits.
ft. walking speed (down from 120 ft.) for 3 BP, 60 ft.
Darkvision for 2 BP, and racial languages plus Common
for 0 BP.
That brings us to 5 BP before we touch Blurred
Movement or Evasion.
Quickling Traits Blurred Movement largely mimics the effects of the
Quicklings share the following racial traits. Blur spell, but it’s constant. This is roughly the effect of
Creature Type. Fey. the Cloak of Displacement, which is an extremely
Ability Score Increase. +1 Dexterity. powerful rare magic item. This is an extremely
Alignment. While not directly violent, quicklings are powerful effect, so we’ll need to add some limitations.
cruel pranksters who never miss an opportunity to My first thought is to require that players take the
cause mischief. Most quicklings are chaotic evil. Dash action, but rogues with Cunning Action can abuse
Size. Your size is tiny. that easily, and other classes basically wouldn’t use it
Speed. Your base walking speed is 60 ft. unless they’re running away. I still want there to be a
Races 62
movement requirement because the version in the Alignment. Evil and murderous, most redcaps are
monster entry means that a quickling standing chaotic evil.
perfectly still (not that they do that often) is still Size. Your size is small.
blurred. Speed. Your base walking speed is 25 ft.
To limit the ability, we’ll require that the quickling Bloody Red Cap. You are born into the world with a
take the Dash action, but we’ll also add the ability to red cap soaked in blood, and this cap is central to your
Dash as a bonus action for 2 BP (we’ve previously ruled existence. You must soak the cap in fresh blood from
that indivual parts of Cunning action are worth roughly time to time to stay alive. If your cap goes three days
2 BP, including the goblin design notes in the original without being soaked in fresh blood, you die and your
Monstrous Races), and we’ll require that the Quickling body instantly vanishes from existence, leaving behind
move its full movement (including the Dash distance) any items you were carrying except your red cap and
on their turn without re-entering a space which they your iron boots.
just left. Finally, we’ll borrow from the Cloak of You may never willingly remove your red cap except
Displacement and end the effect for the turn if the to soak it in fresh blood. If your cap is removed by
Quickling takes any damage. This is till a fantastic force, you can recall it as a bonus action, causing it to
ability, so we’ll call it 4 BP total. magically reappear on your head.
Evasion is a 7th-level rogue class feature, so giving it Darkvision. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of
out as a racial trait is hard. We haven’t previously you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it
touched on proficiency in saving throws, or anything of were dim light. You can’t discern color in darkness, only
the sort. The closest we’ve gone is Poison Resilience shades of gray.
and resistance to specific conditions. We’ll need to try Iron Boots. You always wear heavy iron boots, which
something creative. you cannot remove. While moving, you have
We’ve previously decided that a feat is worth disadvantage on Dexterity (Stealth) checks.
roughly 3 BP (the choice of any feat is worth 4 because Ironbound Pursuit. If you move at least 15 feet
options to choose from are always more valuable than straight toward a creature then hit it with an unarmed
the individual options). Mathematically, Advantage on strike on the same turn, you may attempt to shove the
a check is worth roughly +5, which is within the range target prone as a bonus action (see “Shoving a
of values for proficiency bonus. So, with a little bit of Creature”, page 195 of the Player’s Handbook).
squinting we can say that Proficiency and Advantage Natural Armor. While unarmored, your AC is equal
can be roughly the same value. Now we can consider to 12 + your Dexterity modifier.
the Resilient feat as a basis for Evasion. If we start from Outsize Strength. While grappling, you are
3 BP and strip away the +1 ability increase, proficiency considered to be Medium size. Also, wielding a heavy
in a saving throw is worth something like 2 BP. So we’ll weapon doesn't impose disadvantage on your attack
call Evasion 2 BP. rolls.
At 11 BP, the Quickling is above our target rang eof Languages. You can speak, read, and write in
8-10 BP. It’s a strange race, and sinking so much BP Common and Sylvan.
into movement is unusual enough that it’s difficult to
accurately assess how balanced the race is. If you want
to strengthen the Quickling, allow Blurred Movement
to trigger any time the Quickling takes the Dash action.
If you want to weaken the Quickling, reduce its speed
or alter Evasion to make it function once per short rest.
Redcap
Short, bloodthirsty fey famous for their bloody red
hats.
Redcap Traits
Redcaps share the following racial traits.
Creature Type. Fey.
Races 63
Playing a Redcap That leaves Ironbound Pursuit. If you squint a little
Redcaps are aggressive and dangerous in melee. Iron bit it’s functionally the same as Pounce for 1.5 BP.
Boots is a great way to start combat, and their ability to Whil it’s not called out in the stat block, the Recap’s
use heavy weapons allows redcaps to use more hat is a central theme in the creature description. If the
dangerous weapons than small creatures can normally hat isn’t periodically soaked in fresh blood, the redcap
use without disadvantage. Be sure to keep track of how ceases to exist. Adventurers tend to spend a lot of time
recently you’ve soaked your cap, though. Dying killing things, so this shouldn’t be a significant
unexpedly because you forgot to keep your cap fresh is handicap, but it’s worth listing it in the racial traits to
a terrible way to go. keep the flavor of the race.
Evil and aggressive, a redcap is welcome in all sorts At 8 BP, the redcap is at the bottom of our target
of evil parties. Demons, other evil fey, or violent range of 8-10 BP. If you want to strengthen the Redcap,
humanoids might all find a means to conjure redcaps, increase its natural armor. If you want to weaken the
or they might enlist one by promising it a reliable Redcap, reduce its natural armor.
supply of victims.
Sea Spawn
Design Notes Humanoids transformed into amphibious, fish-like
Redcaps have a few interesting design challenges. humanoids to serve their aquatic masters.
Outsize Strength cuts away many of small size’s biggest
limitations, and Iron Boots presents a rare built-in Sea Spawn Traits
racial handicap. Other than that, redcaps are fairly Sea Spawn share the following racial traits.
simple. Creature Type. Humanoid.
Redcaps are fey, costing 0.5 BP but offering no Ability Score Increase. +1 Strength, +1 Constitution.
specific abilities. Alignment. Slaves to evil masters that grow to love
The Redcap’s best ability scores are Strength and their subjugation, most sea spawn are neutral evil.
Constitution, so we’ll grant +2 to each for 4 BP. Size. Your size is medium.
From the stat block, we get small size (we’ll discuss Speed. Your base walking speed is 20 ft. You have a
the BP later), +2 natural armor for 1 BP, 25 ft. speed for swim speed of 30 ft.
0 BP, 60 ft. Darkvision for 2 BP, and racial languages Can’t Speak. You are unable to speak, but are still
plus common for 0 BP. able to read, write, and understand any languages
That brings us to 5.5 BP before we look at the which you know. You are unable to perform verbal
Redcap’s weird sizing, Iron Boots, and Ironbound spell components.
Pursuit. Natural Armor. While unarmored, your AC is equal
Small size is typically -1 BP, and comes with some to 12 + your Dexterity modifier.
limitations: you can’t use heavy weapons effectively, Piscine Anatomy. Your anatomy is warped by your
your carrying capacity is reduced, your grappling transformation, taking on vicious aquatic features.
options are limited, and smaller creatures can swallow Select two of the three options below:
you whole. There are also less mechanical limitations
like having trouble climbing things or reaching high • Bite. Your jaw expands and you grow rows of jagged
shelves, but since those aren’t enforced mechanically teeth. Your natural weapons deal 1d8 piercing
they aren’t addressed by the BP value. Outsize damage when attacking with your bite.
Strength allows the Redcap to use heavy weapons and • Posion Quills. You grow poisonous quills, which you
treats it was medium while grappling, which is can use to poison foes. You may make a melee
significant enough that I think we can call it 0.5 BP, weapon attack which deals 1d4 poison damage on a
which will partially offset the -1 BP for small size. hit, and forces the struck creature to make a
Iron Boots imposes disadvatange on Dexterity Constitution saving throw. On a failure, the target is
(Stealth) checks, and we don’t have a precedent for poisoned for 1 minute.
built-in disadvantage on ability checks. I think -0.5 BP is The DC of this saving throw is 8 + your proficiency
a fair estimate because it’s entirely possible for a bonus + your Constitution modifier. The target may
character to survive as an adventurer without repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns,
sneaking. ending the effect on a success.
Races 64
After you use this ability, you can't use it again until its former species to pass among their former kind. So
you complete a short or long rest. instead of a template, we’ll make the Sea Spawn a
• Tentacle. You grow a long, prehensile tentacle. You normal race.
may make melee weapon attacks with the tentacle The Sea Spawn is simple. Its only real complication is
which deal 1d4 bludgeoning damage. On a hit, you Piscine Anatomy, but even that isn’t difficult to handle.
can use a bonus action to initiate a grapple with the Sea Spawn are humanoids, costing 0 BP and offering
target. You may grapple even if you have no free no specific abilities.
hands, so long as your tentacle is not already being The Sea Spawn’s abilities are terrible, but its
used to grapple. Strength and Constitution are good, so we’ll grant +1 to
Slam. Your unarmed strikes deal 1d4 bludgeoning each for 2 BP total.
damage on a hit. From the stat block, we get medium size, +2 natural
Superior Darkvision. You can see in dim light within armor for 1 BP, 20 ft. walking speed for -1 BP, 30 ft.
120 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in swim speed for 1 BP, 120 ft. Darkvision for 3 BP, racial
darkness as if it were dim light. You can’t discern color languages plus Common for 0 BP, no ability to speak
in darkness, only shades of gray. for -1.5 BP, Amphibious for 1 BP (Limited Amphibious
Languages. You can understand, read, and write in doesn’t justify a BP change in most campaigns), and
Aquan and Common. 1d4 natural weapons for 1 BP.
That brings us to 6.5 BP before we touch Piscine
Playing a Sea Spawn Anatomy. It’s a fun ability which adds some variety to
Strong with natural armor and natural weapons, Sea the Sea Spawn as a race. With our current BP, I want
Spawn work best in melee combat. Unfortunately, the abilities to be somewhere around 2 BP, and they
their slow land speed can limit their ability to fight on should be roughly equivalent so that no one option is
land. Do your best to surprise foes while you’re up more appealing than the others.
close, or look for ways to improve your movement Bite, as written, would be worth just 0.5 BP. Even if
speed. Barbarian is an especially tempting option we bump the damage up to 1d8, it’s still only 1 BP.
because of Fast Movement, and because you won’t Poison Quills adds the option of poison damage, and
need heavy armor which will slow you down more. the poisoned condition. Poisoned is very strong, so
Because Sea Spawn were once other humanoids, you we’ll need to add some limitations. Stench is a good
may wish to consider what race you were in a previous basis for comparison, but since Poison Quills only
life. What did you do before you became a sea spawn? affects one creature it should be worth less than 2 BP.
Who do you serve in your new life, and why? If we limit the damage to the Sea Spawn’s default 1d4
Sea spawn work well in any party with powerful, natural weapon damage, and limit usage to once per
aquatic magic creatures. Krakens, sea hags, deep short rest, I think we can call it 1 BP (the cost of the
scions, and even merfolk might bring along some sea natural weapon damage is already covered).
spawn as bodyguards or servants. Tentacle is easy: Grab is 2 BP. That’s more than the
other two abilities, so we won’t increase the Sea
Design Notes Spawn’s natural weapon damage to 1d6 to match the
The Sea Spawn shares a lot of its concept with the stat block, and we’ll limit the natural weapon damage
Deep Scion, but there are some important distinctions. to the Sea Spawn’s default 1d4.
Deep Scions are created when a creature trades their Unfortunately, that means that Bite and Poison
service to save themselves from drowning, while Sea Quills fall behind Tentacle, and only one of our options
Spawn are transformed either because the subject has brings the Sea Spawn into our target BP range. So as an
failed in some bargain, or because they were forced to easy fix, we’ll allow the Sea Spawn to pick any two of
submit to the transformation by some powerful the Piscine Anatomy options. That will brings us to 8.5
master. Deep Scions serve as spies, going where their or 9.5 BP, which is perfect. Grab is technically the best
masters can’t without giving away their true nature. option, but a lot of people don’t like grappling, so Bite
Sea Spawn look like weird fish people, so they can’t go and Poison Quills still look appealing.
among civilized folk without notice. At 8.5 or 9.5 BP, the Sea Spawn is within our target
All that said, the Sea Spawn is still a transformed rang eof 8-10 BP. If you want to strengthen the Sea
humanoid, rather than its own species. But, unlike the Spawn, grant all three Piscine Anatomy options. If you
Deep Scion, the Sea Spawn doesn’t attempt to cling to
Races 65
want to weaken the Sea Spawn, limit players to only Shadow mastiffs don’t naturally associate with other
one Piscine Anatomy option. creatures, but they can be summoned and bound to
service using magic. Creatures which worship deities of
Shadow Mastiff darkness or night might summon a shadow mastiff to
Vicious, predatory pack hunters from the shadowfell. serve as a bodyguard, sentry, or pet.
Shadow Mastiff Traits Design Notes

share the following racial traits. Shadow mastiffs are mechanically complicated despite
Creature Type. Monstrosity. their CR of 2. Their interactions with light make them
Ability Score Increase. +2 Strength, +1 Dexterity. difficult to adapt as a playable race, and they have
Alignment. Intelligent, ravenous hunters, most several wholly unique special abilities. We’ll need to
shadow mastiffs are neutral evil. borrow design work from several other creatures and
Size. Your size is medium. do a lot of new stuff, too. Shadow mastiffs have 5
Speed. Your base walking speed is 40 ft. intelligence (the cap for the awaken spell), so we’ll also
Bite. Your unarmed strikes deal 1d8 piercing damage treat the Shadow Mastiff as awakened like we usually
on a hit. do with unintelligent creatures.
Darkvision. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of Shadow mastiffs are monstrosities, costing 0.5 BP
you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it but offering no specific abilities.
were dim light. You can’t discern color in darkness, only The Shadow mastiff’s best ability scores are Strength
shades of gray. and Dexterity, but since we need to save BP for its long
Ethereal Awareness. You can see ethereal creatures list of special abilities we’ll only grant +2 Strength and
and objects. +1 Dexterity for 3 BP total.
Keen Hearing and Smell. You have advantage on From the stat block, we get medium size, 40 ft.
Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on hearing or walking speed for 1 BP, 60 ft. Darkvision for 2 BP, we’ll
smell. add the ability to speak Common for 0 BP because
No Hands. You are unable to wield weapons or wear we’re treating the Shadow Mastiff as awakened, and
shields, and cannot use items which require Keen Hearing and Smell for 1 BP total, and Sunlight
manipulation, including spellcasting foci, wands, tools, Weakness for -3 BP. Shadow Mastiffs have no hands
etc. for -2 BP, and we’ll set their natural weapons to 1d8 for
Shadow Blend. As a bonus action while in dim light 2 BP.
or darkness, you can magically turn invisible until the That brings us to 5 BP before we look at the
start of your next turn or until you attack, make a complicated stuff. We need to look at the Shadow
damage roll, force someone to make a saving throw, or Mastiff’s damage resistance, Ethereal Awareness, and
are no longer in dim light or darkness. Shadow Blend.
After you use this ability, you can't use it again until Ethereal Awareness is very similar to Otherworldly
you complete a short or long rest. Perception (see the Kuo-Toa design notes in the
Sunlight Weakness. While in sunlight, you have original Monstrous Races), but they’re not quite the
disadvantage on attack rolls, ability checks, and saving same. Otherworldly Perception allows you to detect
throws. invisible creatures, and you can’t actually see
Languages. You can speak, read, and write in creatures; you can only “pinpoint” them. Ethereal
Common. Awareness allows you to actually see ethereal
creatures, but doesn’t affect invisibile creatures at all,
Playing a Shadow Mastiff so the ability trades invisibility detection for improved
Fast an occasionally sneaky, shadow mastiffs make detection of ethereal creatures. I think we can allow
great front-line melee characters in a sneaky party. the ability as-written for 2 BP.
Their Dexterity increase and Shadow Blend offer some Once you consider player-appropriate usage
stealthy options not available to many similar limitations, Shadow Blend has a lot in common with
creatures. Consider classes like barbarian and fighter, Hidden Step. If we add the dim light or darkness
but also consider ranger and rogue to capitalize on requirement to Hidden Step, I think we can call it 1 BP.
your ability to ambush your foes. That just leaves the Shadow Mastiff’s damage
resistances. I don’t want to grant them as-written
Races 66
because that would be too powerful, but I want the effect. You must maintain concentration during that
Shadow Mastiff to get some defensive benefit while in time, as if you were casting a spell.
dim light. Allowing the Shadow Mastiff to dodge as a Keen Tracker. You add double your proficiency
bonus action might work, but that’s still really strong. bonus on Wisdom checks to track prey.
I think the best we can do is an AC boost. Inhuman Life Leech. Your unarmed strikes deal 1d8 necrotic
Reflexes grants +1 AC for 2 BP. If we add the lighting damage on a hit.
requirement, I think we can call it 1 BP. When you take the Attack action and make an
At 9 BP, the Shadow Mastiff is within our target unarmed strike, you can use a bonus action to initiate a
range of 8-10 BP. If you want to strengthen the Shadow grapple with the target of your successful unarmed
Mastiff, grant it natural armor. If you want to weaken strike.
the Shadow Mastiff, reduce its Strength increase. Spider Climb. You can climb difficult surfaces,
including upside down on ceilings, without needing to
Slithering Tracker make an ability check.
Oozes created to seek out revenge upon those who Watery Stealth. You have advantage on Dexterity
harmed them in their previous life. (Stealth) checks made while underwater.
Languages. You can understand, read, and write in
Slithering Tracker Traits Common.
Slithering Trackers share the following racial traits.
Creature Type. Ooze. Playing a Slithering Tracker
Ability Score Increase. +1 Strength, +1 Dexterity. The Slithering Tracker is a complicated race. They have
Alignment. Created from a creature that willingly no natural armor, can’t wear manufactured armor, and
sacrifices its own life to exact bloody revenge, most are vulnerable to two common damage types, which
Slithering Trackers are chaotic evil. means that they’re vulnerable to damage and can’t
Size. Your size is medium. take a lot of hits even if you invest heavily in your
Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 ft. You have a Constitution. Look for other ways to boost your AC like
climb speed of 30 ft. and a swim speed fo 30 ft. Unarmored Defense or spells, and try to avoid drawing
Ambusher. You have advantage on attack rolls too much attention until you can get into melee.
against any creature you have surprised. But the Slither Tracker also has numerous
Amoeboid. Your body is a gelatinous, amoeboid advantages that make it dangerous in combat. Its
form. You can move through a space as narrow as 1 movement speeds, Amoeboid, and Spider Climb allow
inch wide without squeezing. it to easily traverse nearly any terrain, bypassing
You are unable to wear armor. You have no arms or obstacles that normally require magic. False
hands, and are unable to wield weapons or wear Appearance and Watery Stealth offer excellent options
shields, and cannot use items which require for a stealthy approach. Once you’re in melee range,
manipulation, including spellcasting foci, wands, tools, Life Leech allows you to quickly grapple foes, bringing
etc. Damage Transfer into play to deter other foes from
You are immune to the blinded, deafened, attacking you while you continue to attack.
exhaustion, and prone conditions. Slithering trackers are lonesome creatures, driven by
Can’t Speak. You are unable to speak, but are still a quest for vengeance, and once their quest is
able to read, write, and understand any languages complete driven by the urge to lash out at anyone who
which you know. You are unable to perform verbal might be related to their original target. Slithering
spell components. trackers might fit into a party with similary themed
Damage Transfer. While you are grappling a creatures like Revenants, or they might ally themselves
creature, you take only half the damage dealt to you, with creatures who performed the ritual to create the
and the creature which you are grappling takes the slithering tracker like clerics of gods of vengeance.
other half.
Damage Vulnerability. You have vulnerability to cold
Design Notes
and fire. Like most oozes, the Slithering Tracker has a long list of
False Appearance. While motionless, you appear abilities, but it also has a lot of limitations. Fortunately
indistinguishable from a mundane puddle. You must nothing on the Slithering Tracker is new except Life
spend one minute motionless before this ability takes Leech, so we shouldn’t have too much trouble.
Races 67
Slithering trackers are oozes, costing 0.5 BP but take 1 piercing damage. The DC of this saving throw is
offering no specific abilities. 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Constitution
The Slithering Tracker’s best ability scores are modifier. Creatures which are resistant to this piercing
Strength and Dexterity, so we’ll grant +1 to each for 2 damage make this saving throw with advantage, while
BP. creatures immune to this piercing damage are immune
From the stat block, we get medium size, 30 ft. to this effect.
walking speed, 30 ft. climb speed for 2 BP, 30 ft. swim At the end of the target’s turn, it takes 2d6 necrotic
speed for 1 BP, vulnerability to cold and fire for -2 BP damage if the worm is still alive and attached to the
total, 9 condition immunities which we’ll cut down to 4 target. After dealing this damage once, the worm
for 1 BP total, and we’ll drop blindsight to conserve BP. detaches from the target and is destroyed. The worm
We’ll give the tracker Common and one other language remains attached to the target and does damage for
for 0.5 BP, but they can’t speak for -1.5 BP. Slithering one additional round at 5th level (2 rounds), at 11th
Trackers have no hands for -2 BP, and can’t use armor level (3 rounds), and at 17th level (4 rounds).
or shields for -4 BP, but we’ll set their natural weapons The worm is a Tiny undead with AC 6, 1 hit point, a 2
to 1d8 for 2 BP, and we’ll add Grab for 2 BP. (-4) in every ability score, and a speed of 1 foot. While
That brings us to just 1.5 BP before we consider the on the target's skin, the worm can be killed by normal
Slithering Tracker’s special abilities, which is good means, or any creature that can reach the worm can
because there’s a lot to cover. Ambusher is 1 BP. We scrape it off as an action, removing any other worms
can copy Damage Transfer from the Rug of Smothering on the target with the same action. If a worm-infested
(see the original Monstrous Races) for 4 BP. False creature is targeted by an effect that cures disease or
Appearance is 0.5 BP. We can replace Keen Tracker removes a curse, all the worms infesting it are
with single-purpose Expertise for 1 BP. Liquid Form is destroyed. Destroyed worms fall off of the target and
basically the same as Amorphous for 0.5 BP. Spider wither away to dust.
Climb is 1 BP. Watery Stealth is Camouflage for 0.5 BP. Can’t Speak. You are unable to speak, but are still
That’s 10 total, which is perfect. able to read, write, and understand any languages
At 10 BP, the Slithering Tracker is at the top of our which you know. You are unable to perform verbal
targer range of 8-10 BP. If you want to strengthen the spell components.
Slithering Tracker, add Grab. If you want to weaken the Claw. Your unarmed strikes deal 1d4 slashing
Slithering Tracker, reduce its natural armor. damage on a hit.
Regeneration. You are able to recover from wounds
Spawn of Kyuss with horrifying speed. As a bonus action, you may
Undead animated by magical worms originally created spend a Hit Die to recover hit points.
by Kyuss, a high priest of Orcus. You are vulnerable to acid, fire, and radiant. If you
take acid, fire, or radiant damage, you may not use
Spawn of Kyuss Traits your regeneration trait to recover hit points or re-
Spawn of Kyuss share the following racial traits. attach limbs until the end of your next turn.
Creature Type. Undead. You don’t require air, food, When you take a short or long rest, you regain spent
drink, or sleep. Instead, you enter a restful state, Hit Dice, up to a number of dice equal to half of your
remaining semiconscious, for 4 hours a day. While total number of them, rounded up.
resting, you can dream after a fashion; such dreams are Undead Nature. You are immune to poison damage,
reflexive mental exercises inherent to your and immune to the poisoned condition.
consciousness. After resting in this way, you gain the Worms. If you are targeted by an effect that cures
same benefit that a human does from 8 hours of sleep. disease or removes a curse, all the worms infesting you
Ability Score Increase. +1 Strength, +1 Constitution. wither away, and you loses your Burrowing Worm
Alignment. Undead created to spread like a plague, ability until you complete a long rest.
most spawn of kyuss are chaotic evil. Languages. You can understand, read, and write in
Size. Your size is medium. Common and one other language of your choice which
Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 ft. is spoken by humanoids.
Burrowing Worm. As an action you can launch an
undead worm at a humanoid within 10 feet. The target
must make a Constitution saving throw or immediately
Races 68
We implemented zombies as a non-leveled template
so that you could be a 1st-level human zombie fighter
without the messy “level adjustment” mechanics of
third edition. While that was a great idea for the
generic zombie, it might not work as a decision for the
Spawn of Kyuss because it has too many expensive
traits to hit the 0 BP target for a non-leveld template.
The Spawn of Kyuss retains nothing from its former life
except languages known, so making it a leveled
template doesn’t make sense either.
Since neither form of template makes sense, we’ll
write the Spawn of Kyuss as a standalone creature.
Fortunately, the Spawn of Kyuss can only be a
humanoid, and humanoid NPC stat blocks tend to gloss
over most of the racial traits granted to players.
For other forms of fancy zombies (if they ever pop
up in official rules supplements) we may make other
decisions like making a “Fast Zombie” feat, but the
Spawn of Kyuss will be its own standalone race.
Spawn of kyuss are undead, costing 1 BP.
The Spawn of Kyuss has mostly terrible ability scores,
Playing a Spawn of Kyuss especially on the mental side, but its Strength and
The Spawn of Kyuss is hard to kill thanks to Consitution are good, so we’ll grant +1 to each for 2 BP.
regeneration, but three damage vulnerabilities mean From the stat block, we get medium size, 30 ft.
that many foes may be able to halt your regeneration. walking speed, poison immunity for 2 BP, and we’ll
Look for classes with large hit dice and invest in your drop immunity to exhaustion to save BP. We’ll give the
Constitution. Burrowing Worm provides a useful way spawn of Kyuss racial Common plus one flexible
to harm foes who might run away or whose AC proves language for 0.5 BP, but it can’t speak for -1.5 BP. We’ll
difficult to overcome. drop the spawn’s natural weapons to 1d4 for 1 BP and
The Spawn of Kyuss is created by followers of the expect them to rely upon manufactured weapons
god of undeath. They fit well into parties with death primarily.
clerics, necromancer wizards, and all manner of That brings us to 5 BP before we look at
undead. Regeneration, Worms, and Burrowing Worm. That’s a
problem because Regeneration on its own is 5 BP with
Design Notes two damage vulnerabilities. We also have a lot of
In the original Monstrous Races, I wrote zombies as a overlap with trolls, so I want to make sure that the
template. I wanted every living creature to have the Spawn of Kyuss is mechanically unique enough to not
option of becoming a zombie, just as Orcus intended. be an undead version of the Troll racial traits.
The Spawn of Kyuss is, simply put, a fancy zombie. If Further comparison to trolls gives me some ideas.
you enjoy zombie media, you might know of plague The Spawn of Kyuss doesn’t have any damage
zombies, radiation zombies, fast zombies, magic vulnerabilities like trolls do, but adding some might be
zombies, juju zombies, and all sorts of other weird a good idea. Bonuses to Strength and Constitution
zombie varieties. If we collectively refer to these combined with regeneration and no need to eat or
variations on the classic shambling corpse as “fancy sleep make it a bit too ideal as a barbarian or a fighter.
zombies”, I think it’s fair to place the Spawn of Kyuss in We’ll add vulnerability to avid, fire, and radiant for -1
that group. BP total (remember that Regeneration’s 5 BP includes
Of course, this is also the first fancy zombie that two vulnerabilities). That brings us back down to 9 BP
we’ve covered, which means that it’s time to answer and leaves us with little room to look at Worms and
some interesting questions about how to implement Burrowing Worm.
fancy zombies mechanically. Worms is an extremely rare weakness. I don’t think
players will see a lot of enemies attempting to cure
Races 69
them of diseases or curses, so we’ll retain the ability The first time you successfully attack a creature with
as-written for 0 BP. your sting, you inject the target with poison. Your
That just leaves Burrowing Worm. Like we’ve done attack deals 1d4 piercing and 1d4 poison damage
with other undead that create spawn, we’ll drop the instead of your normal unarmed strike damage, and
spawn mechanic. We don’t need players generating a forces the struck creature to make a Constitution
bunch of CR 5 creatures to let loose on the world. But I saving throw. On a failure, the target is poisoned for 1
still want to keep the ability to shoot worms at people minute.
because it’s central to the creature’s theme. The DC of this saving throw is 8 + your proficiency
With so little BP to spend, we’ll need to make bonus + your Constitution modifier. The target may
Burrowing Worm the equivalent of a cantrip. I really repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns,
want it to be more interesting than that, but we just ending the effect on a success.
don’t have room to spend more BP. After you attempt to poison a creature, you can't do
I like the damage-over-time aspect of Burrowing so again until you complete a short or long rest.
Worm, but we also need to be cautious about making it Languages. You can speak, read, and write in
too powerful. Fortunately, poison spray is an easy Tlincalli.
comparison. It has the same 10-foot range, and deals
1d12 damage at first level, roughly equivalent to Playing a Tlincalli
Burrowing Worm’s 2d6. If we stretch the damage out The Tlincalli is a simple creature with few
over several rounds, Burrowing Worm has the complications. Its natural armor is good enough to
potential to deal less damage than Poison Spray at the compete with medium armor, and if you can increase
cost of the target spending an action (or at least an your Dexterity enough you can able to exceed the AC
attack) to detach the worm. Amazingly, that keeps the normally provided by full plate, all while being as fast
ability as-written in the Spawn of Kyuss stat mostly as a horse. In addition, the Tlincalli’s Sting allows you to
unchanged. As usual for cantrips, this will cost 0.5 BP. temporarily handicap problematic foes by poisoning
At 9.5 BP, the Spawn of Kyuss is within our target them.
range of 8-10 BP. If you want to strengthen the Spawn Tlincalli have little in the way of culture, and no
of Kyuss, increase its natural weapon damage. If you known allies. However, they might choose to become
want to weaken the Spawn of Kyuss, add a obedient to a creatue which proves itself to be a
Concentration requirement to Burrowing Worm. superior hunter.
Tlincalli Design Notes

Basically centaurs, but scorpions instead of horses.
Vicious scorpion-like hunters with humanoid upper
Mechanically the Tlincalli is simple, so we won’t need
bodies.
to do anything crazy. Their biggest g
Tlincalli Traits Tlincalli are monstrosities, costing 0.5 BP but offering
no specific abilities.
Tlincalli share the following racial traits.
Creature Type. Monstrosity. The Tlincalli’s bets ability scores are Strength and
Ability Score Increase. +1 Strength, +1 Constitution. Constitution, so we’ll grant +1 to each for 2 BP.
Alignment. Uncivlized predatory hunters that feed From the stat block, we get medium size (down from
live prey to their young, most Tlincalli are neutral evil. large), +4 natural armor for 2 BP, 40 ft. walking speed
Size. Your size is medium. for 1 BP, 60 ft. Darkvision for 2 BP, and only racial
Speed. Your base walking speed is 40 ft. languages for -1 BP.
The Tlincalli’s sting does poison damage and has a
you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it paralysis rider. We can’t grant paralysis because it’s too
were dim light. You can’t discern color in darkness, only strong, unfortunately, but I still want to give the
shades of gray. Tlincalli something because without their spiked chain
they’re really boring. I think we’ll borrow the poison
to 14 + your Dexterity modifier. rider from the Sea Spawn’s Spiked Quills for 1 BP, and
Sting. Your unarmed strikes deal 1d8 piercing we’ll set the Tlincalli’s natural weapons to 1d8 for 2 BP.
damage on a hit. At 8.5 BP, the Tlincali is within our target range of 8-
10 BP. If you want to strenghten the Tlincalli, improve
Races 70
its ability score increases. If you want to weaken the Like many other creatures, being awakened has a
Tlincalli, reduce its natural armor. great deal of influence of your character’s personality.
Trapper intelligence, and how that effect shaped your
Flat creatures that ambush, envelop, and digest their character’s personality.
prey.
Design Notes
Trapper Traits The Trapper is basically a natural Rug of Smothering
Trappers share the following racial traits. (see the original Monstrous Races), which means that
Creature Type. Monstrosity. we can easily copy much of the Rug of Smothering’s
Ability Score Increase. +1 Strength, +1 Constitution. design. They’re unintelligent, so we’ll treat them as
Alignment. Normally unintelligent beasts, most awakened like we’ve done with other creatures.
trappers are neutral. Trappers are monstrosities, costing 0.5 but offering
Size. Your size is medium. no specific abilities.
Speed. Your base walking speed is 10 ft. You have a Trappers have good Strength and Constitution, so
climb speed of 10 ft. we’ll grant +1 to each for 2 BP.
Blindsight. You have blindsight 30 ft. From the stat block, we get medium size (down from
False Appearance. While motionless, you appear large), +3 natural armor for 1.5 BP, 10 ft. speed for -2
indistinguishable from a mundane section of ceiling, BP, 10 ft. climb speed for 1 BP, 30 ft. blindsight for 3
floor, or wall. A creature that can see it and succeeds BP, 60 ft. Darkvision for 2 BP, and since we’re treating
on a DC 20 Intelligence (Investigation) or Intelligence the Trapper as awakened we’ll add the ability to speak
(Nature) check can discern your presence. Common for 0 BP. Trappers have no hands for -2 BP,
You must spend one minute motionless before this and we’ll set their natural weapons to 1d8 for 2 BP.
ability takes effect. You must maintain concentration Since they’re big flat sheets of flesh they can’t wear
during that time, as if you were casting a spell. armor or use shields for -4 BP.
Flat Body. You have no hands. You are unable to False Appearance costs 0.5 BP, Spider Climb costs 1
wield weapons, and cannot use items which require BP, and like the Rug of Smothering we’ll add Grab for 2
manipulation, including spellcasting foci, wands, tools, BP to approximate Smother.
etc. You are unable to wear armor or use shields. At 9.5 BP, the Trapper is within our target range of 8-
Natural Armor. While unarmored, your AC is equal 10 BP. If you want to strengthen the Trapper, increase
to 13 + your Dexterity modifier. its movement speed. If you want to weaken the
Smother. Your unarmed strikes deal 1d8 Trapper, reduce its blindsight to blindsense.
bludgeoning damage on a hit, or 1d8 acid damage if
you are grappling the target. When you take the Attack
Vargouille
action and make an unarmed strike, you can use a The severed heads of cursed humanoids that detach,
bonus action to initiate a grapple with the target of grow wings, and turn into predatory, flying fiends.
your successful unarmed strike. You may grapple even
though you have no hands. Vargouille Traits
Spider Climb. You can climb difficult surfaces, Vargouilles share the following racial traits.
including upside down on ceilings, without needing to Creature Type. Fiend.
make an ability check. Ability Score Increase.
Languages. You can speak, read, and write in Alignment. Predatory fiends that prefer live prey,
Common. most vargouilles are chaotic evil.
Size. Your size is tiny.
Playing a Trapper Speed. Your base walking speed is 5 ft.
Trappers are fantastic ambush predators, but their Bite. Your unarmed strikes deal 1d4 piercing damage
severely limited movement speed presents a serious and 1d4 poison damage on a hit.
handicap. Look for ways to improve your movement You can use Dexterity instead of Strength for the
speed to overcome your racial handicaps, but expect to attack and damage rolIs of your unarmed strikes. Your
spend a lot of time hiding and waiting for enemies to unarmed strikes count as a weapon with the Finesse
wander near you before you can attack them.
Races 71
property for all effects which require it, such as Sneak hand early in an encounter and use Kiss to handicap
Attack. foes who use Charisma-based skills.
Can’t Speak. You are unable to speak, but are still Vargouilles have a nasty habit of reproducing by
able to read, write, and understand any languages kissing adventurers (there’s a joke in there somewhere,
which you know. You are unable to perform verbal but I’m not clever enough to tell it). Conveniently, that
spell components. puts a vargouille in the middle of an adventuring party
Flight. You have a flying speed of 40 feet. To use this right as one of its members needs to be replaced. A
speed, you can’t be wearing medium or heavy armor. clever party might convince the Vargouille to stick
Kiss. As an action you may kiss a creature which you around in exchange for easy access to a supply of food.
can see within 5 feet of you and inflict it with the
vargouille’s curse for 1 day. The target must succeed Design Notes
on a Charisma saving throw or become curses. The Vargouilles are a fun monster. They’ve got weird
cursed target suffers disadvantage on Charisma ability abilities, a fun flavor, and they look really goofy.
checks and saving throws. Mechanically they’re simple, but Kiss will need some
The DC of this saving throw is 8 + your Proficiency thought. Vargouilles are bareley Intelligent, and they’re
Bonus + your Constitution modifier. The target can technically within the Intelligence limits of Awaken, but
repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, they already understand languages, so we won’t
ending the effect on itself on a success. Restoration or bother treating them as awakened.
any effect that removes a curse ends this effect Vargouilles are fiends, costing 0.5 BP but offering no
immediately. specific abilities.
If the creature dies while still cursed, its head grows The Vargouille’s only good ability scores are
wings in place of its ears, detaches from the body, and Dexterity and Constitution, so we’ll grant +1 to each for
becomes a new vargouille which teleports to a random 2 BP.
location in the Abyss one round later. From the stat block, we get tiny size for -1.5 BP, 5 ft.
After you use this ability, you can't use it again until walking speed for -1.5 BP, 40 ft. fly speed for 5 BP, we’ll
you complete a short or long rest. drop the damage resistances to conserve BP, Poison
No Hands. You are unable to wield weapons or wear Immunity for 2 BP, 60 ft. Darkvision for 2 BP, Only
shields, and cannot use items which require racial languages plus one fixed for -0.75 BP, and no
manipulation, including spellcasting foci, wands, tools, ability to speak for -1.5 BP. Vargouille’s have no hands
etc. for -2 BP, and we’ll set their natural weapons to 1d8 for
Poison Immunity. You are immune to poison 2 BP, and we’ll add natural weapon finesse for 0 BP.
damage, and immune to the poisoned condition. I’m not sure if Vargouilles should be allowed to wear
Shriek. As an action you can emit a horrifying armor. They can wear helmets, which would cover the
screech that can be heard clearly within 300 feet. vast majority of their body. Is that enough? I’m going
Creatures within 30 feet of you must make a Wisdom to say yes, but the usual armor restriction on flight still
saving throw or be frightened for until the end of your applies so at best most vargouilles will be wearing the
next turn. The DC of this saving throw is 8 + your equivalent of those old leather football helmets.
proficiency bonus + your Constitution modifier. That brings us to 6.25 BP before we look at Kiss and
After you use this ability, you can't use it again until Stunning Shriek. Stunning Shriek is easier, so we’ll do
you complete long rest. that first. Conveniently, we built a fear-inducing scream
Languages. You can understand, read, and write in effect for the Deep Scion which we can duplicate for 2
Abyssal and Infernal. BP.
That just leaves Kiss. Normally we drop any ability
Playing a Vargouille which creates spawn, which is still an option here. I
Vargouilles make natural rogues. Being tiny and able to really want to include something for Kiss because it’s
fly allows them to easily traverse many obstacles, and such a central ability for the creature, but it’s clearly
their Darkvision allows them to work in the dark. designed as an ability which monsters inflict upon
However, they lack hands and can’t speak, which players who will suffer the effects long after an
present their own hurdles. Try to use Shriek on groups encounter ends. When the vargouille is the player,
of surprised foes so that your allies can gain the upper waiting hours or even days for the curse to take effect
isn’t really an option. We also need to consider that
Races 72
Kiss only works on incapacitated creatures, which the You are vulnerable to cold, fire, or necrotic damage.
vargouille typically handles with its Stunning Shriek. If you cold, fire, or necrotic damage, you may not use
Since we reduced Stunning Shriek to inflict frightened your regeneration trait to recover hit points or re-
rather than stunned, finding valid targets for Kiss is attach limbs until the end of your next turn.
much harder. We’ll need to build a new ability from the When you take a short or long rest, you regain spent
ground up. Hit Dice, up to a number of dice equal to half of your
The core components we need to maintain are that total number of them, rounded up.
the Vargouille kisses a humanoid target, then the Languages. You can speak, read, and write in
target is cursed so that their Charisma is handicapped. I Vegepygmy.
think we’ll make this work on a saving throw rather
Standard
than an attack roll to stay closer to the original ability.
We’ll make the curse effect impose disadvantage on
Charisma saving throws and ability checks, we’ll
Claw. Your unarmed strikes deal 1d6 slashing
suppress the effect in sunlight, and we’ll allow
damage on a hit.
additional saves every hour, and if the target dies while
cursed their head pops off, turns into a vargouille, and
teleports to the Abyss. We’ll allow the ability to be
used oncer per short rest. Limiting the effect to Thorny
humanoids means that it will only be effective in a few Ability Score Increase. +1 to your choice of Strength,
situations against a handful of Charisma-dependent Dexterity, or Constitution.
creatures, so I think we can call this 1 BP. Size. Your size is medium.
At 9.25 BP, the Vargouille is within our target range Bite. Your unarmed strikes deal 1d8 piercing damage
of 8-10 BP. If you want to strengthen the Vargouille, on a hit.
increase its Dexterity increase. If you want to weaken Thorny Body. At the start of your turn, the thorny
the Vargouille, limit Shriek to once per long rest. deal 1d4 piercing damage to any creature grappling
you.
Vegepygmies Natural Armor. While unarmored, your AC is equal
Plant creatures born from russet mold growing on a to 13 + your Dexterity modifier.
dead body. No Hands. You are unable to wield weapons or wear
The standard vegepygmy and the thorny are shields, and cannot use items which require
presented below. For the vegepygmy elder, see the manipulation, including spellcasting foci, wands, tools,
racial feats section later in this document. etc.
Vegepygmy Traits Playing a Vegepygmy

Vegepygmies share the following racial traits. Vegepygmies have little in the way of culture. They’re
Creature Type. Plant. motivated almost solely by their survival instincts, and
Alignment. Primitive creatures with little in the way their drice to reproduce. Unfortunately that offers little
of culture or philosophy, most vegepygmies are fodder for a character’s background, and provides little
neutral. insight into how a vegepygmy might fit into a party.
Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 ft. However, they get along with other fungoid plant
Darkvision. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of creatures like myconids, so they might find their way
you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it into an adventuring party if another such creature is
were dim light. You can’t discern color in darkness, only already a member.
shades of gray. Standard
Plant Camouflage. You have advantage on Dexterity Standard vegepygmies make excellent rogues and
(Stealth) checks made to hide in terrain with ample rangers thanks to their camouflage and dexterity, but
obscuring plant life. their regeneration also makes them durable enough to
Regeneration. You are able to recover from wounds succeed as fighters or other front-line melee classes.
with horrifying speed. As a bonus action, you may
spend a Hit Die to recover hit points.
Races 73
Thorny size, Thorny Body and a much better natural weapon,
Thornies are versatile and durable. Their natural but gives up the utility of hands.
weapons and natural armor allow them to fight The thorny’s ability scores aren’t much better than
without relying on manufactured equipment, and their the standard vegepygmy’s. We’ll grant +1 to any
Regeneration allows them to easily handle the physical ability score for 1.5 BP.
durability lost by fighting without heavier armor. From the stat block, we get medium size, and +3
natural armor for 1.5 BP. Thornies have no hands for -2
Design Notes BP, and we’ll set their natural weapons to 1d8 for 2 BP.
Vegepygmies are presented in three stat blocks Thorny body seems extremely situational, and it
detailing the standard vegepygmy, the chief, and the specifically requires other creatures to grapple the
thorny. The chief is an advanced version of the thorny rather than allowing the thorny to go grapple
standard, so we’ll make it a feat available to the something and force the damage upon them. We’ll call
standard vegepygmy. it 0.5 BP.
We’ll look at the standard vegepygmy and the thorny At 9.5 BP, the thorny is within our target range of 8-
and treat them as subraces despite the anatomical 10 BP. If you want to strengthen the Throny, increase
differences. The two share the vast majority of their its natural weapon damage or grant a second +1 ability
noteworthy traits, so the individual subraces will score increase. If you want to weaken the Thorny,
require little additional work. We’ll treat the thorny as reduce its natural armor.
awakened, which makes them able to speak at least as
Chief
well as the standard vegepygmy.
The vegepygmy chief adds surprisingly little. Its ability
Vegepygmies are plants, costing 0.5 BP but offering
scores are much better than the standard vegepygmy,
no specific abilities.
but the only new ability is Spores.
From the stat blocks, 30 ft. walking speed, we’ll drop
Spores is usable once per day and inflicts poison
the vegepygmies’ damage resistances to save BP, 60 ft.
damage and the poisoned condition. A similar spell
Darkvision for 2 BP, and only racial languages for -1 BP.
would be ideal, but I don’t know of a comparable spell,
We’ll add camouflage for 0.5 BP, Regeneration for 5
so we’re on our own here. We can take a little bit of
BP, and because the vegepygmy’s regeneration is
inspiration from Stench, but there isn’t a lot of overlap
stopped by 3 damage types we’ll add a third
there, either.
vulnerability for -1 BP.
I think we can largely retai the mechanics of the
That brings us to 6 BP. That’s a lot before we look at
official version of Spores, but if we add some scaling
subraces, but the bulk of the Vegepygmies’ racial traits
mechanics we can make it useful at all levels without
are shared, so we don’t have much left to cover.
being problematic at low levels. It also can’t be too
Standard strong because a single ability usable once per day
Standard vegepygmies are basically humanoid, and probably isn’t enough to make a feat interesting.
they don’t have any special abilities which we haven’t We’ll follow cantrip levels for scaling, starting the
already looked at. radius at ft. and increasing the radius by 5 ft. at each
The standard Vegepygmy’s ability scores are terrible. incement. We’ll start the damage at 1d8 and increase it
Only two of their abilities have a modifier above +0. once at the second cantrip increment to 1d8. Finally,
We’ll grant +1 Dexterity for 1 BP. we’ll add a Concentration requirement. I think we can
From the stat block, we get small size for -1 BP, +2 call that 2 BP.
natural armor for 1 BP and 1d6 natural weapons for 1.5 To fill in the feat, we’ll add a +1 ability score increase
BP to match their stat block. to one of the vegepygmy’s physical ability scores for
At 8.5 BP, the Standard Vegepygmy is within our 1.5 BP.
target rang eof 8-10 BP. If you want to strengthen the That brings our total to 3.5 BP, just above our target
Vegepygmy, add a Constitution increase. If you want to of 3 BP for feats but below our hard cap of 4 BP. If you
weaken the Vegepygmy, reduce its natural armor or want to strengthen the feat, allow the ability increase
natural weapon damage. to be used on any ability. If you want to weaken the
feat, make the ability score increase a +1 Strength
Thorny
increase.
The thorny has surprisingly little to show for its CR
compared to the standard vegepygmy. It adds medium
Races 74
or more feet of your movement (in 5 foot increments).
You then emerge from another tree within a distance
equal to twice the movement you spent. You emerge 5
feet from the tree in an unoccupied space of your
choice.
Unwavering Guardian. You are immuned to the
charmed and frightened conditions.
Weapons of the Forest. As a bonus action your may
grow wooden armaments from your body, creating a
single club and/or a shield. If the club or shield leaves
your hands for more than 1 round, or if you form a new
one, the existing one withers away to nothing.
Beginning at third level, you may choose to imbue
the club with magic, treating it as a magic weapon for
one minute. After you use this ability, you can't use it
again until you complete a short or long rest.
Languages. You can speak, read, and write in sylvan.
Playing a Wood Woad

Wood Woads are a good choice for a front-line melee
character. Their natural armor and their ability to
create their own weapons and shields means that they
can fight without relying on manufactured weapons,
though you may find that they are more effective.
Consider learning the shillelagh cantrip to enhance
your club if manufactured weapons don’t sound
appealing.
Wood Woad Because they are immortal, wood woads
Humanoid-like creatures made of wood created to occasionally outlive their original purpose, their
protect natural places of great importance. masters, and the orders which their masters may have
left behind. In these cases, the Wood Woad might seek
Wood Woad Traits new purpose elsewhere. They are drawn to places of
share the following racial traits. natural beauty, and to those who protect those places,
Creature Type. Plant. like druids, treants, or fey.
Alignment. Unfeeling creatures who live to perform Design Notes
their sworn duty, most wood woads are lawful neutral. Wood Woads are basically humanoids made of wood
Size. Your size is medium. with built-in weaponry. They share the Dryad’s Tree
Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 ft. You have a Stride ability and they have Regneration, but otherwise
climb speed of 30 ft. they’re not terribly complicated.
Damage Vulnerability. You are vulnerable to fire Wood woads are plants, costing 0.5 BP but offering
damage. no specific abilities.
Darkvision. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of The Wood Woad’s best ability scores are Strength
you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it and Constitution, so we’ll grant +1 to each for 2 BP.
were dim light. You can’t discern color in darkness, only From the stat block, we get medium size, +2 natural
shades of gray. armor (down from +5) for 1 BP, 30 ft. speed, 30 ft.
Natural Armor. While unarmored, your AC is equal climb speed for 2 BP, vulnerability to fire for -1 BP,
to 12 + your Dexterity modifier. we’ll drop their damage resistances, two condition
Tree Stride. Once per turn as a bonus action, you immunities for 1 BP, 60 ft. Darkvision for 2 BP, and only
may enter a tree at least one size larger than you and racial languages for -1 BP.
emerge from another tree nearby. To do this, spend 10
Races 75
That brings us to 6.5 BP before we look at the Wood Low Cunning. You can take the Disengage action as a
Woad’s special abilities. We’re going to drop bonus action.
regeneration. It’s not especially important to the Overbearing Pack. As a bonus action you may take
theme of the creature, and the Wood Woad only has advantage of the presence of your allies. You gain
one damage vulnerability (we normally require two as Advantage on the next Strength check you make this
part of Regeneration’s 5 BP cost). That will also leave turn to shove a creature if at least one of your allies is
us room to keep the Wood Woad’s other abilities. within 5 feet of the creature and the ally isn’t
Camouflage is 0.5 BP, and Tree Stride (see the Dryad incapacitated.
design notes in the original Monstrous Races) is Raxivort’s Tongue. You can communicate with
another 1 BP, leaving us at 8 BP before we look at ordinary bats and rats, as well as giant bats and giant
Magic Club. rats.
Magic Club gives the Wood Woad a constantly Stealthy. You have proficiency in the Stealth skill.
available magic weapon. The magic weapon spell is 2nd- Languages. You can speak, read, and write in
level, only lasts an hour, and requires concentration. Abyssal.
That suggests that this ability is worth a bare minimum
of 2 BP (even after we remove or reduce the bonus
damage), so we’ll need to make some adjustments.
I think 2 BP is a good target. We’ll allow the Wood
Woad to grow a wooden club and a shield as a bonus
action, and starting at 3rd level we’ll allow the Wood
Woad to make it magical for one minute per short rest.
Clubs are terrible weapons, so I suspect that players
will prefer to rely on manufactured weapons unless
they need to get past damage resistances.
At 10 BP, the Wood Woad is at the top of our target
range of 8-10 BP. If you want to strengthen the Wood
Woad, increase the damage of its magic club to 2d4. If
you want to weaken the Wood Woad, remove its
natural armor.
Xvart
Small, cowardly humanoids created in the image of
their greedy, cowardly demigod.
The racial traits for xvarts are presented below. For
the Xvart Warlock of Raxivort, play the Warlocks class
and take the Eldritch Invocations Armor of Shadows
and Eldritch Sight. It’s not clear which type of patron
Raxivort would be.
Playing a Xvart
Xvart Traits
Xvarts are nimble, stealthy, and cowardly. They make
share the following racial traits.
natural rogues, though Cunning Action will make the
Creature Type. Humanoid (Xvart).
Xvart’s Low Cunning ability redundant. You may also
consider other classes which can capitalize on the
Alignment. Cowardly, greedy, and selfish, most
Xvart’s talents. A fighter who enjoys hit-and-run tactics
xvarts are chaotic evil.
can make excellent use of Low Cunning.
Xvarts don’t have a lot of friends. They mostly
concern themselves with hiding, surviving, and finding
treasure. However, Xvarts will often befriend bats and
rats, and will occasionally serve wererats.
shades of gray.
Races 76
Design Notes Size. Your size is medium.
The Xvart is mostly s imple humanoid, but they have Speed. Your base walking speed is 40 ft.
some abilities which resemble those of gnomes, Baleful Baying. As an action you can emit a
goblins, and kobolds. Volo’s Guide to Monsters horrifying screech that can be heard clearly within 300
presents two stat blocks: one for the standard xvart feet. Creatures within 30 feet of you must make a
and one for warlocks of Raxivort. Wisdom saving throw or be frightened for until the end
Looking at the stat blocks for the two, the Warlock of of your next turn. The DC of this saving throw is 8 +
Raxivort has no abilities that a standard warlock your proficiency bonus + your Constitution modifier.
doesn’t get, so we’ll recommend that players pursue After you use this ability, you can't use it again until
class levels as normal. you complete long rest.
Xvarts are humanoids, costing 0 BP and offering no Bite. Your unarmed strikes deal 1d8 piercing damage
specific abilities. on a hit.
The Xvart’s only good ability score is Dexterity, so Dark Master. When you are first summoned, a
we’ll grant +2 Dexterity for 2 BP. specific non-good creature is designated as your
From the stat block, we get 30 ft. walking speed for master. You suffer disadvantage on opposed checks
0.5 BP, 60 ft. Darkvision for 2 BP, and only racial against your master and on saving throws to resist
languages for -1 BP. spells and effects created by your master. To oppose a
That brings us to 3.5 BP before we look at Low direct command from your master, you must succeed
Cunning, Overbearing Pack, and Raxivort’s Tongue. on an opposed Charisma check, which you make with
Low Cunning is one of three components of Cunning Disadvantage. However, you may willingly refuse any
Action. Goblins have something similar in Nimble command which would cause you to enter sunlight
Escape, which we rated as 2 BP, so we’ll call Low without making an opposed check.
Cunning 1 BP. If your master is slain, you must seek out a new
Overbearing Pack is a much weaker version of Pack master immediately, or risk vanishing into nothingness.
Tactics. Pack Tactics is normally 5 BP, but Overbearing Darkvision. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of
Pack only grants advantage on the shoving a creature. you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it
That’s still a significant advantage, but nowhere near as were dim light. You can’t discern color in darkness, only
good as advantage on attacks. We’ll require a bonus shades of gray.
action to trigger the effect and call it 2 BP. Flight. You have a flying speed of 40 feet, and can
Raxivort’s Tongue looks a lot like the Forest Gnome’s hover. To use this speed, you can’t be wearing medium
Speak With Small Beasts, which we rated as 0.5 BP (see or heavy armor. You are immune to the prone
the Published Races section of the original Monstrous condition.
Races), and I think that’s still a good cost. Keen Hearing and Smell. You have advantage on
That brings us to just 7 BP, which isn’t great. The Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on hearing or
Xvart stat block lists Stealth proficiency, so we’ll add smell.
proficiency in Stealth for 0.5 BP. Sunlight Banishment. If you start your turn in
At 7.5 BP, the Xvart is slightly below our target range natural sunlight, you are immediately transported to
eof 8-10 BP. If you want to strengthen the Xvart, grant the Ethereal Plane. While sunlight shines on the spot
it a Constitution increase. If you want to weaken the from which it vanished, you must remain in the Deep
Xvart, reduce its Dexterity increase. Ethereal. Blocking light to the spot in some fashion
does not end this period; the sun must set beyond the
Yeth Hound horizon.
After sunset, you return to the Border Ethereal at
Hideous dog-like fey creatures sent to serve masters.
the same spot, whereupon you must set out to find
your dark master. You are visible on the Material Plane
Yeth Hound Traits
while in the Border Ethereal, and vice versa, but you
Yeth hounds share the following racial traits.
can't affect or be affected by anything on the other
Creature Type. Fey.
plane.
Ability Score Increase. None.
Once you are in the Border Etheral and adjacent to
Alignment. Creatures created to serve evil masters
your dark master who is on the Material Plane, you can
which enjoy terrifying, harassing, and brutally killing
return to the Material Plane as an action.
their prey, most yeth hounds are neutral evil.
Races 77
Telepathic Bond. While you are on the same plane easy, but I don’t want to do that because it’s one of the
of existence as your dark master, you can magically most iconic parts of the creature. I think our best bet is
share your senses with your master as an action, and to grant the ability as-written, but it’s hard to set a BP
the two olf you can communicate telepathically with value. In some campaigns it might never come up, but
each other. that’s true of both Sunlight Sensitivity and Sunlight
Languages. You can understand, read, and write in Weakness. I think being banished to another plane for
common, elvish, and sylvan. at least he rest of a day is more problematic than the
disadvantage imposed by Sunlight Weakness, so we’ll
Playing a Yeth Hound call Sunlight Banishment -4 BP.
Yeth hounds are versatile and powerful. Their flight
and excellent senses make them good scouts, and Yuan-Ti
Baleful Baying allows them to briefly handicap foes
Volo’s Guide to Monsters presents five new Yuan-Ti
while allies move to attack. Consider classes like stat blocks. The Yuan-Ti Anathema and the Yuan-Ti
barbarian and fighter which allow you to thrive in Broodguard are presented below. The Yuan-Ti Mind
melee combat while isolated from your allies.
whisperer, Yuan-Ti Nightmare Speaker, and Yuan-Ti Pit
Yeth hounds are granted by powerful as boons, master are presented in the racial feats section later in
which makes them easy to introduce to a party. An this document. For racial traits for Yuan-Ti purebloods,
existing party that aids a powerful fey in some fashion malisons, and abominations, see the original
might welcome a new Yeth Hound part member as a
Monstrous Races.
reward.
Yuan-Ti Anathema [Template: Acquired]
Design Notes Yuan-ti Abominations sometimes seek to ascend to
Yeth hounds don’t have a lot of new stuff going on. near-godhood by undergoing a horrifying,
Sunlight Banishment is new, but everything else can be transformative ritual.
handled with design work we’ve done for other races.
Yeth hounds are fey, costing 0.5 BP but offering no Becoming a Yuan-Ti Anathema
specific abilities. Any Yuan-ti Anathema of 5th level or greater can
The Yeth Hound’s physical ability scores are all good, become a Yuan-ti Abomination. Lower-level Yuan-ti are
which makes it difficult to decide what to increase. typically not powerful or influential enough to perform
Yeth hounds have a long list of abilities, so we’ll skip an the ritual.
ability increase to leave room for everything else. Once the character gains enough experience to gain
From the stat block, we get medium size (down from a level, the character may choose to perform the ritual
large), we’ll drop natural armor to save BP, 40 ft. to become an anathema. This ritual requires sacrificing
walking speed for 1 BP, 40 ft. fly speed for 5 BP, the hundreds of snakes. After sacrificing the snakes, the
ability to hover for 2 BP, we’ll drop the Yeth Hound’s character must kill an enemy and bath themselves in
damage and condition immunities, 60 ft. Darkvision for their enemy’s blood. This enemy must be specifically
2 BP, racial languages plus common and one fixed for known to the character; it may not be an unknown
0.25 BP, no ability to speak for -1.5 BP, and two keen member of some group with which the character is
senses for 1 BP total. Yeth hounds have no hands for -2 enemies. The whole ritual requires 8 hours to
BP, and we’ll set their natural weapons to 1d8 for 2 BP. complete, and if interrupted must be restarted from
That brings us to 10.25 BP before we look at Sunlight the beginning.
Banishment, Telepathic Bond, and Baleful Baying. Upon completing the ritual, the character
Telepathic Bond is similar to Telepathy, but only immediately gains the single level of the Yuan-Ti
works with one specific creature. If the Yeth Hound’s Anathema template.
master is in the party, it’s still a big advantage, so we’ll Yuan-Ti Anathema Traits
call it 1 BP. All yuan-ti anathemas have the following traits, adding
Baleful Baying is another “create loud noise, cause these traits to their existing racial traits upon gaining
fear” ability, so we’ll duplicate the work we did on the the template.
Deep Scion’s Psychic Screech for 2 BP.
Sunlight Banishment is totally unique and it’s hard to Hit Points
assess. Replacing it with Sunlight Weakness seems Hit Dice. 1d10 per yuan-ti anathema level
Races 78
Hit Points at Higher Levels. 1d10 (or 6) + your Natural Armor. While unarmored, your AC is equal
Constitution modifier per yuan-ti anathema evel to 12 + your Dexterity modifier.
Poison Immunity. You are immune to poison
Traits
damage, and immune to the poisoned condition.
Yuan-ti anathemas gain the following traits at each
Reckless. At the start of its turn, the broodguard can
level, as indicated on the table below.
gain advantage on all melee weapon attack rolls it
Level Features makes during that turn, but attack rolls against it have
1 Flurry of Bites, Natural Armor, Phidiophobia, Six advantage until the start of its next turn.
Heads Languages. You can speak, read, and write in
Flurry of Bites. After taking the Attack action, you abyssal, common, and draconic.
may use a bonus action to make an unarmed strike
using your natural weapons. You don’t add your ability Playing a Yuan-Ti Broodguard
modifier to the damage of the bonus attack, unless Yuan-ti broodguards are intended to be subservient to
that modifier is negative. other yuan-ti, and are enraged by the mere sight of
Natural Armor. While unarmored, your AC is equal creatures which yuan-ti consider enemies. Consider
to 12 + your Dexterity modifier. classes like barbarian to play to this theme, but a well-
Ophidophobia. As an action you can cause creatures trained broodguard might also be a fighter, a ranger, or
to gain a profound fear of snakes. Creatures other than even a paladin of some sort.
snakes or yuan-ti within 30 feet of you must make a Broodguards follow the orders of other yuan-ti,
Wisdom saving throw or be frightened of snakes and making them an excellent addition to a party with one
yuan-ti for until the end of your next turn. The DC of or more other yuan-ti in it. However, they hate non-
this saving throw is 8 + your proficiency bonus + your reptilian creatures, so any other creature in the party
Constitution modifier. that isn’t reptilian or a slave to the yuan-ti may be a
After you use this ability, you can't use it again until point of conflict.
you complete a long rest. It’s notable that broodguards were humans before
Six Heads. You have advantage on Wisdom being transformed, but the transformation process
(Perception) checks and on saving throws against being obliterates the creature’s former personality. As such,
blinded, charmed, deafened, frightened, stunned, and consider using the Born of Magic background
knocked unconscious. presented later in this document.
Yuan-Ti Broodguard Design Notes

Stripped of your former humanity, reptilian The Yuan-Ti entry in Volo’s Guide to Monsters is dense.
broodguards live to serve their yuan-ti masters. The Anathema is an advancement option for yuan-ti
abominations, the broodguard is a standalone race,
Yuan-Ti Broodguard Traits and the three other varieties present specific options
Yuan-ti broodguards share the following racial traits. for yuan-ti warlocks. They’re all fun and exciting, and
Creature Type. Humanoid (Yuan-ti) the Mind Whisperer/Nightmare Speaker/Pit Master
Ability Score Increase. +1 to Strength, Dexterity, or will be fun to design because they’re similar enough
Constitution. that we can balance them against each other while
Alignment. Driven to serve their evil masters, most trying to find unique mechanics to distinguish them.
yuan-ti broodguards are neutral evil.
Size. Your size is medium. Yuan-Ti Anathema
Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 ft. The Anathema is a really cool creature. You like
Bite and Claw. Your unarmed strikes deal 1d4 snakes? How about snake people? Oh, you like snake
piercing or slashing damage on a hit. people? Well how about snake people that are even
Darkvision. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of more snakes?
you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it Mechanically, the Yuan-ti Anathema is an
were dim light. You can’t discern color in darkness, only improvement to the Yuan-ti Abomination. That means
shades of gray. that we’re building either a template or a feat. The
Mental Resistance. The broodguard has advantage transformation into an Anathema is described as
on saving throws against being charmed, and magic instantaneous in the Anathema’s monster entry, so if
can't paralyze it. we go for a template it will beed to be at most one
Races 79
level. We’ll take a look at the Anathema’s abilities and That brings our total BP to 8.5, which is within our
total their BP value before we decide which way to go. target range of 8-10 BP for the first level of a leveled
Because the Anathema is an improvement to the template. If you want to strengthen the Yuan-to
Yuan-ti Abomination, it’s easy to compare the two stat Anathema, improve the natural armor granted by the
blocks and determine what’s new. The Anathema template. If you want to weaken the Yuan-ti
improves the Abominations natural armor from +2 to Anathema, remove the natural armor granted by the
+5 (we dropped natural armor from the Yuan-ti template.
Abomination racial traits in the original Monstrous
Yuan-Ti Broodguard
Races), and adds climb and swim speeds, a bunch of
Broodguards are the simplest new yuan-ti. They’re a
damage resistances, blindsight, more innate
standalone race, and with the exception of Reckless
spellcasting, some extrta acid damage to Constrict,
they have no traits which will make their design
Ophidiophobia Aura, Six Heads, and Flurry of Bites.
complicated.
We’ll drop the climb and swim speeds, the damage
Yuan-ti broodguard are humanoids, costing 0 BP.
resistances, and blindsight because they’re worth a ton
The Yuan-Ti Broodguard’s physical ability scores are
of BP and I don’t think they’re especially important for
all good, and its intelligence and charisma are awful.
the creature. We’ll drop the innate spellcasting
Because its physical ability scores are so even, it’s hard
because it’s all spells that are higher level than I want
to decide which to increase. We’ll grant a semi-flexible
to squeeze into the template.
+1 to any physical ability score for 1.5 BP and let
Improvements to the Abominations natural combat
players pick for themselves.
abilities through natural armor and natural weapon
improvements are appealing and would cover both the
armor for 1 BP, 30 ft. walking speed, Poison Immunity
natural armor increase and Flurry of Bites. We’ll grant
for 2 BP, 60 ft. Darkvision for 2 BP, racial languages plus
+2 natural armor for 1 BP. Most anathema players will
Common and one fixed language for 0.25 BP. We’ll
likely still resort to manufactured armor or magic.
drop the broodguard’s natural weapons to 1d4 for 1
Natural Weapon Master (see the Feats section of the
BP.
original Monstrous Races) includes the ability to make
That brings us to 7.75 BP before we look at Mental
an additional unarmed strike after taking the Attack
Resistance and Reckless. Mental Resistance is almost
action. I think we’ll steal that. Feats in the original
identical to Fey Ancestry, but Mental Resistance
Monstrous Races didn’t receive BP assessments, which
replaces sleep with paralysis. I think we can still call it
means we’ll need to reverse-engineer some BP values.
0.5 BP.
Two-weapon fighting is something that creatures can
Reckless is hard. The only similar ability I can think of
already do, and Natural Weapon Master’s additional
is the barbarian class feature Reckless Attack. I’m
attack expands that capability to unarmed strikes. I
always hesitant to grant class features as racial abilities
don’t think that’s overwhelmingly powerful, so we’ll
because it makes specific classes less appealing, but
call it 1 BP.
Reckless is the Yuan-ti Brooguard’s only notable ability
Six Heads is easy. Two Heads is 3.5 BP, and allows
so I think we can make an exception. I think we’ll call it
additional heads at no cost but provides no additional
2 BP as-written, but it might be worth more.
benefit.
At 9.75 BP, the Yuan-ti Broodguard is within our
That brings us to 5.5 BP before we look at
target range of 8-10 BP. If you want to strengthen the
Ophidiophobia Aura. We’re already far above out BP
Yuan-ti Broodguard, add a second +1 ability score
cap for feats, so we’re definitely looking at a leveled
increase. If you want to weaken the Yuan-ti
template. Ophidiophobia Aura is a bit of a problem
Broodguard, require the broodguard to use a bonus
because it’s not an active ability; it just happens every
action to activate Reckless.
round. That’s not okay for players, so we’ll reskin the
Deep Scion’s Psychic Screech ability for 2 BP. That gives Yuan-Ti Mind Whisperer
us a nice fear effect that we’ve already put some work The Mind Whisperer is the first of three yuan-ti
into. warlocks. All three are similar CR, and since they’re all
Since we’re doing a level template, we’ll need to pick yuan-ti warlocks most of their abilities are similar. That
a hit die. I think d10 makes sense because I think we’ll makes it easy to identify which abilities are new and
see a lot of Yuan-ti Abominations taking martial classes unique. At a glance, these abilities look simple enough
like fighter. That’s 1 BP per template level.
Races 80
that they will fit into feats, so we’ll make three new Yuan-Ti Pit Master
feats. The Pit Master uses poison damage for its on-hit
All three add two abilities: an on-hit damage boost, damage boost.
and a once per day magic effect. Mersshaulk’s Slumber looks a lot like sleep. To keep
The damage boost abilities are powerful, as-written. things balanced, we’ll duplicate the design of the
3d10 damage is a lot, even if it’s only twice per day. Nightmare Speaker’s magical ability, allowing the
Twice per day is also weird for a player ability. We’ll try player to cast sleep once per day with an automatically
to keep the concept, but we’re largely going to dump advanced spell slot.
the mechanics. The BP value of this feat is unclear. If you want to
We’ll trigger the effect as a reaction, deal damage strengthen the feat, delay the spell level of sleep by 2
matching a cantrip with d8 damage dice, and limit so that players won’t get the 9th-level slot until 20th
usage to once per short rest. That’s fairly unique, but I level. Also consider adjustments suggested in the Yuan-
think it’s somewhere in the range of 1 BP. For the Mind ti Mind Whisperer design notes.
Whisperer we’ll use psychic damage, but the other two
get different damage types.
The unique magic abilities are more difficult, so
they’ll require more individual design work.
The Mind Whisperer’s unique ability is Sseth’s
blessing. It’s identical to the Dark One’s Blessing
invocation. I think we’ll just grant the invocation as
part of the feat and call it 2 BP.
That brings us to 3 BP, which is our target BP for
feats. If you want to strengthen the feat, make Mind
Fangs activate without using an action. If you want to
weaken the feat, reduce the damage die of Mind
Fangs.
Yuan-Ti Nightmare Speaker
The Nightmare Speaker uses necrotic damage for its
on-hit damage boost.
Invoke Nightmare sounds a lot like phantasmal killer,
but I’m reluctant to grant a 4th-level spell on a feat so
we’ll look for something similar that’s lower level.
dissonant whispers seems like a good candidate, so
we’ll start from there.
A 1st-level spell once per day is 1 BP, but at high
levels a feat which grants dissonant whispers is going to
feel lackluster. So to keep it relevant, we’ll make the
spell automatically scale with the player’s warlock
levels. Normally increasing the spell slot level by 1 costs
0.5 BP, which would make this as much as 4 BP on top
of the 1 BP for the spell itself, but I think we’ll fudge
the rules a bit here to make the feat interesting. We’ll
set the spells level to the player’s warlock level divided
by 2 (maximum of 9, of course). Unfortunately, it’s
hard to assess a BP cost here.
The BP value of this feat is unclear. If you want to
strengthen the feat, delay the spell level of dissonant
whispers by 2 so that players won’t get the 9th-level
slot until 20th level. Also consider adjustments
suggested in the Yuan-ti Mind Whisperer design notes.
Races 81
Assorted Beasts
for 2 BP, the ability to speak Common for 0 BP, and
Charge for 2 BP. Aurochs have no hands for -2 BP, and
we’ll set their natural weapons to 1d8 for 2 BP.
Aurochs At 8.5 BP, the Aurochs is within our target range of
8-10 BP. It’s a very straightforward charger. If you want
Immense herbivorous herd animals, aurochs resemble to Strengthen the Aurochs, increase its natural weapon
larger and more bestial cattle. damage or natural armor. If you want to weaken the
Aurochs, reduce one of its ability increases.
Aurochs Traits
share the following racial traits. Cattle
Creature Type. Beast.
Ability Score Increase. +2 Strength, +2 Constitution. Herd animals commonly kept for meat, milk, and
Alignment. Normally unintelligent beasts, most leather, their size and immense horns can make them
aurochs are neutral. dangerous if angered or startled. “Cattle” includes a
Size. Your size is medium. variety of species including oxen and cows.
Charge. Once per turn, if you move at least 25 feet Cattle Traits
toward a creature and hit it with a Strength-based Cattle share the following racial traits.
melee weapon attack, the target takes an extra 1d6 Creature Type. Beast.
damage from the attack. This damage increases to 2d6 Ability Score Increase. +1 Strength, +1 Constitution.
at 5th level, 3d6 at 11th level, and 4d6 at 17th level. Alignment. Normally unintelligent beasts, most
Gore. Your unarmed strikes deal 1d8 piercing cattle are neutral.
damage on a hit. Size. Your size is medium.
Natural Armor. While unarmored, your AC is equal Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 ft.
to 11 + your Dexterity modifier. Charge. Once per turn, if you move at least 25 feet
No Hands. You are unable to wield weapons or wear toward a creature and hit it with a Strength-based
shields, and cannot use items which require melee weapon attack, the target takes an extra 1d6
manipulation, including spellcasting foci, wands, tools, damage from the attack. This damage increases to 2d6
etc. at 5th level, 3d6 at 11th level, and 4d6 at 17th level.
Languages. You can speak, read, and write in Gore. Your unarmed strikes deal 1d6 piercing
Common. damage on a hit.
Playing an Aurochs shields, and cannot use items which require
Strong and fast, but lacking hands, aurochs make manipulation, including spellcasting foci, wands, tools,
natural barbarians. Their Charge ability provides a etc.
significant damage boost, but requires them to rush in Languages. You can speak, read, and write in
and out of combat, potentially endangering them. Common.
Like many other creatures, being awakened has a Subrace. Choose one of these subraces. You gain the
great deal of influence of your character’s personality. traits listed under your chosen subrace in addition to
Consider what effect granted your character superior those listed above.
intelligence, and how that effect shaped your Cow Traits
character’s personality. Ability Score Increase. Additional +1 Strength and +1
Constitution.
Design Notes Natural Armor. While unarmored, your AC is equal
Fairly straightforward beast. Like other beasts, we’ll to 11 + your Dexterity modifier.
treat the Aurochs as awakened.
Aurochs are beasts, costing -0.5 BP but offering no Deep Rothe Traits
specific traits. Darkvision. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of
The Auroch’s best ability is Strength, followed closely you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it
by Constitution, so we’ll grant +2 to each for 4 BP total. were dim light. You can’t discern color in darkness, only
From the stat block, we get medium size (down from shades of gray.
large), +1 natural armor for 0.5 BP, 50 ft. walking speed
Races 82
Innate Spellcasting. You know the dancing lights no hands for -2 BP, and we’ll set their natural weapons
cantrip. Wisdom is your spellcasting ability for this to 1d6 for 1.5 BP.
spell. That brings us to 3 BP before we look at individual
subraces.
Ox Traits
Ability Score Increase. Additional +1 Strength and +1 Cow
Constitution. Cows are the base line. They’re not listed as a subrace
Beast of Burden. You count as one size larger when because the cattle subraces are additional capabilities
determining your carrying capacity and the weight you on top of the cow. Unfortunately, that doesn’t work for
can push, drag, or lift. playable races, so we’ll need to take some liberties.
We’ll add an additional +1 Strength and +1
Rothe Traits
Constitution, and +1 natural armor for a total of 2.5 BP.
Ability Score Increase. Additional +1 Constitution.
At 5.5 BP, the Deep Rothe is well below our target
range of 8-10 BP. If you want to strengthen the Cow,
increase its speed, increase its natural armor, or allow
it to select a feat at 1st level.
shades of gray.
Ox
Stench Kow Traits
Oxen are cows that are better at carrying stuff. We’ll
renamed Powerful Build to Beast of Burden for 0.25
BP, and use it to replace the Cow’s natural armor.
At 5.25 BP, the Ox is well below our target range of
shades of gray.
8-10 BP. If you want to strengthen the Deep Rothe,
Extraplanar Resistance. You are resistant to cold,
increase its speed, grant it natural armor, or allow it to
fire, and poison damage, and you have advantage on
select a feat at 1st level.
saving throws against poison.
Rothe
Playing Cattle Rothe get 30 ft. Darkvision for 1.5 BP. We’ll also grant
Strong and tough, cattle make good barbarians and an additional +1 Constitution to keep them in line with
fighters. However, their lack of hands and limited racial other cattle subspecies.
traits may make it difficult to succeed in other classes. At 5.5 BP, the Rothe is well below our target range of
Like many other creatures, being awakened has a 8-10 BP. If you want to strengthen the Deep Rothe,
great deal of influence of your character’s personality. increase its speed, grant it natural armor, or allow it to
Consider what effect granted your character superior select a feat at 1st level.
Rothe, Deep
Deep Rothe are smaller than regular Rothes, but
Design Notes otherwise betterin every way. Since we’re reducing the
Cattle are mostly just a weaker version of the Aurochs. Rothe to medium size, we don’t have a lot to work
However, they also include a collection of varieties of with. We’ll give the Deep Rothe Darkvision for 2 BP,
cattle which make for excellent subraces. Before we the dancing lights cantrip for 0.5 BP, and nothing else.
delve into individual subraces, we’ll work from the At 5.5 BP, the Deep Rothe is well below our target
base Cattle monster entry to create the core racial range of 8-10 BP. If you want to strengthen the Deep
traits. Like other beasts, we’ll treat cattle as awakened. Rothe, increase its speed, grant it natural armor, or
Cattle are beasts, costing -0.5 BP but offering no allow it to select a feat at 1st level.
specific traits. Stench Kow
Cattle’s best ability is Strength, and its only other Stench Kows are super weird. They’re the only creature
good ability is Constitution, so we’ll grant +1 to each I can think of that has resistance to poison damage but
for 2 BP total. not the poisoned condition, which I think may be an
From the stat block, we get medium size (down from error. We’ll grant resistance to cold and fire for 4 BP,
large), 30 ft. walking speed for 0 BP, the ability to speak poison resilience for 2 BP, and Darkvision for 2 BP.
Common for 0 BP, and Charge for 2 BP. Aurochs have At 11 BP, the Stench Kow exceeds our target range
of 8-10 BP. If you want to strengthen the Stench Kow,
Races 83
grant it a +1 Constituion increase. If you want to also one of very few beasts that are too intelligent to
weaken the Stench Kow, remove one of its damage be affected by the awaken spell. We’ll ignore that
resistances. limitation and treat them as awakened so that they can
speak Common.
Dolphin Dolphins are beasts, costing -0.5 BP but offering no
Aquatic mammals famed for their intelligence and specific traits.
social nature. Dolphins’ best ability is Strength, but I feel like that
doesn’t really match with the nature of the animal.
Dolphin Traits They’re more known for acrobatics and intellect than
Dolphins share the following racial traits. for bludgeoning stuff, which clearly isn’t reflected in
Creature Type. Beast. the monster entry. We’ll grant +1 Dexterity and +1
Ability Score Increase. +1 Dexterity, +1 Intelligence. Intelligence for 2 BP.
Alignment. Normally unintelligent beasts, most From the stat block, we get medium size, +1 natural
dolphins are neutral. armor for 0.5 BP, 0 ft. walking speed for -3 BP, 60 ft.
Size. Your size is medium. swim speed for 2.5 BP, 50 ft. blindsight (down from 60
Speed. Your base walking speed is 0 ft. You have a ft.) for 8 BP with Echolocation for -1.5 BP, the ability to
swim speed of 60 ft. speak Common for 0 BP, Charge for 2 BP, and Hold
Blindsight. You have blindsight 50 ft. Breath for 20 minutes for 0.25 BP (slightly more, but I
Charge. Once per turn, if you move at least 25 feet don’t want to split hairs over 5 minutes of breath
toward a creature and hit it with a Strength-based holding). Dolphins have no hands for -2 BP, and we’ll
melee weapon attack, the target takes an extra 1d6 set their natural weapons to 1d6 damage for 1.5 BP.
damage from the attack. This damage increases to 2d6 We’ll add natural weapon Finesse, too, since we’re
at 5th level, 3d6 at 11th level, and 4d6 at 17th level. giving dolphins a Dexterity increase.
Echolocation. You can’t use your blindsight while At 9.25 BP, the Dolphin is within our target range of
deafened. 8-10 BP. If you want to strengthen the Dolphin,
Slam. Your unarmed strikes deal 1d6 bludgeoning increase its blindsight range to 60 ft. If you want to
damage on a hit. weaken the Dolphin, reduce its blindsight range or its
You can use Dexterity instead of Strength for the swim speed.
attack and damage rolIs of your unarmed strikes. Your
unarmed strikes count as a weapon with the Finesse
Rot Grub
property for all effects which require it, such as Sneak Oversized maggots that instinctively burrow into the
Attack. heats of living creatures to kill and consume them.
shields, and cannot use items which require Rot Grub Traits
manipulation, including spellcasting foci, wands, tools, Rot grubs share the following racial traits.
etc. Creature Type. Beast.
Languages. You can speak, read, and write in Ability Score Increase. +1 Constitution.
Common. Alignment. Normally unintelligent beasts, most rot
grubs are neutral.
Playing a Dolphin Size. Your size is tiny.
Able to function in perfect darkness, dolphins make Speed. Your base walking speed is 10 ft. You have a
excellent Rogues. climb speed of 10 feet.
Like many other creatures, being awakened has a Bite. Your unarmed strikes deal 1d6 piercing damage
great deal of influence of your character’s personality. on a hit.
Consider what effect granted your character superior Grappler. You have advantage on attack rolls against
intelligence, and how that effect shaped your a creature you are grappling.
character’s personality. Infest. When you take the Attack action and make an
unarmed strike, you can use a bonus action to initiate a
Design Notes grapple with the target of your successful unarmed
Dolphins are simple beasts, but they have numerous strike.
special abilities which add a significant BP cost. They’re
Races 84
When you grapple, your bite and burrow you’re your that rot grubs can’t use armor or shields for -4 BP
target’s flesh. Applying fire to the bite wound deals because armor would prevent them from crawling.
1 fire damage to the target and ends the grapple. Any That brings us to just -3.5 BP, and the only part of
effect that cures disease also ends the grapple. the Rot Grub that we haven’t covered is the burrowing
If a target that you are grappling ends its turn with 0 mechanic attached to their bite attacks. It’s essentially
hit points, it dies as you burrow into its heart and kill it. a fancy grapple attack, so we’ll add Grab for 2 BP, and
No Hands. You are unable to wield weapons or wear Grappler for 2 BP. Despite being tiny, rot grubs need to
shields, and cannot use items which require be excellent grapplers to function.
manipulation, including spellcasting foci, wands, tools, We’ll ignore the part about Rot Grubs being largely
etc. untouchable after the first round of burrowing because
Grub Body. You have no arms or hands. You are that would make them basically unstoppable as a
unable to wield weapons or wear shields, and cannot player. We’ll mostly keep the part about fire damage to
use items which require manipulation, including the rot grub’s victims, but instead of outright killing the
spellcasting foci, wands, tools, etc. You are unable to rot grub (which would be horrible for a player) we’ll
wear armor. You have vulnerability to Bludgeoning simply expel the player to the nearest empty space.
damage. We’ll make the same change for effects which remove
Languages. You can speak, read, and write in disease.
Common. At 0.5 BP, the Rot Grub is essentially unplayable. If
you want it to function alongside other races, you’ll
Playing a Rot Grub need to make considerably concessions. Consider
Rot grubs can grapple, and that’s about it. Consider granting a feat or allowing the player to use the Swam
playing a barbarian, a fighter, or a monk. template out of the original Monstrous Races.
great deal of influence of your character’s personality.
Design Notes
Rot grubs are difficult to handle because they’re only
presented as a swarm. Fortunately, we tackled swarms
in the original Monstrous Races, so we can easily
identify the traits which come from the Rot Grub itself.
Like other beasts, we’ll treat the Rot Grub as
awakened.
Rot grubs are beasts, costing -0.5 BP but offering no
specific traits.
Rot grubs have terrible ability scores. The only score
that even meets 10 is Constitution. We’ll grant +1
Constitution for 1 BP. I feel like rot grubs don’t really
deserve it, but they don’t have a lot of abilities, so we
don’t have a lot of things to spend BP on.
ft. walking speed (up from 5 ft.) for -2 BP, 10 ft. (up
from 5 ft.) climbing speed for 1 BP, 10 ft. blindsight for
4 BP, and the ability to speak Common for 0 BP.
Notably, rot grub swarms don’t have resistance to
Bludgeoning damage like other swarms, which means
rot grubs have vulnerability to bludgeoning damage for
-1 BP. Rot grubs have no hands for -2 BP, and we’ll set
their natural weapons to 1d6 for 1.5 BP. We’ll also say
Races 85
Feats
Darkling Elder
Wise and respected by your elders, you undergo a
ritual which elevates you in the eyes of your peers and
This section presents new feats catered to specific physically empowers you.
races presented in this document and in the original Prerequisite: Darkling race, 12 Wisdom, level 5.
Monstrous Races.
Design notes discussing the general design of racial • Your size changes to medium.
feats are included at the end of this chapter. • When creatures fail the saving throw against your
Death Burst, they take 2d6. This damage increases
General Feats by 1d6 when you reach 11th level (3d6), and 17th
level (4d6).
Improved Petrificiation • You remove the Light Sensitivity racial trait.
Your capacity to petrify your victims is legendary.
Prerequisite: Racial trait which petrifies creatures, such Cloud Giant Smiling One
as Petrifying Gaze. Devoted to the deceptive aspects of the giant god
Memnor, Smiling Ones strain the tolerance of their
• Increase the saving throw DC to resist your own kind with their tricky, deceptive mannerisms.
petrification effect by 1. Prerequisite: Cloud giant race, proficient in Deception
• When a creature fails a saving throw to resist your and Sleight of Hands
petrification by 5 or more, it is treated as gaining two
levels of exhaustion instead of one. • Increase your Charisma by 1, to a maximum of 20.
• Choose Deception or Sleight of Hand. Your
Racial Feats proficiency bonus is doubled for any ability check
you make that uses that proficiency.
Blade of Ilneval • You may cast disguise self once per day without
A devotee of Grumsh’s battle captain Ilneval, you lead expending a sepll slot.
your orc brethren in battle.
Prerequisite: Orc or Half-orc race. Fire Giant Dreadnought
A living engine of war, you have learned to fight from
• When you hit a creature with a melee weapon
behind the bulk of two shields.
attack, you may choose to smite it to deal 1d8
Prerequisite: Gire giant race, proficient in martial
additional damage. This damage increases to 2d8 at
weapons and shields
5th level, 3d8 at 11th level, and 4d8 at 17th level.
After you use this ability, you can't use it again until • You gain a +1 bonus to AC while you are wielding a
you complete a short or long rest. shield shield in each hand.
• As an action, you can command your allies to attack. • You may use shields as weapons. Shields deal 1d6
Up to three allied orcs or half-orcs within 120 feet of bludgeoning damage, and have the light weapon
you that can hear you can use their reacions to each property. If the shield is spiked, it deals piercing
make one weapon attack. damage instead.
After you use this ability, you can't use it again until • You may perform a shield charge, striking a foe and
you complete a long rest. shoving them. To do so, you must move 15 feet in a
straight line immediately before making the Attack
Claw of Luthic action, and attacking the target. If you succeed on
A devotee of Grumsh’s wife, you care for your tribe’s the attack roll, you may shove the creature as a
home, defend it against outsiders, and ensure the long- bonus action.
term survival of the tribe.
Prerequisite: Orc or Half-orc race, ability to cast 2nd- Kobold Dragonshield
level cleric spells. A beacon of courage and strength among your
cowardly kind, your presence inspires your brethren to
• Increase your Wisdom by 1, to a maximum of 20.
fit on in the face of terrifying foes.
• You grow out your finger nails, filing and lacquering
Prerequisite: Kobold race.
them into wicked claws to emulate Luthic. Your
unarmed strikes deal 1d8 slashing damage on a hit.
Races 86
• You gain damage resistance your choice of resistance For casting these spells, each hag is a spellcaster of a
to acid, cold, fire, lightning, or poison damage. This level matching your coven level. Intelligence is your
choice is permanent once made. spellcasting ability for these spells. Your spell save DC is
• If you are frightened or paralyzed by an effect that 8 + your proficiency modifier + your Intelligence
allows a saving throw, you can repeat the saving modifier, and the spell attack bonus is your proficiency
throw as a bonus action at the start of your turn to modifier + your Intelligence modifier.
end the effect on yourself and all kobolds within 30 Finally, you and the other members of your coven
feet that can see and hear you. Any kobold that may create a Hag’s Eye, as described in the Hag Covens
benefits from this trait (including you) has advantage sidebar on page 176 of the Monster Manual.
on its next attack roll made before the beginning of
your next turn. Hand of Yurtrus
A devotee of the orcish god of death, you see to the
Fear Aura tribes ill, and performs rites for the dead. As badges of
Your presence is terrifying, and your attacks terrify your office, you wear pale gloves made of humanoid
your foes. skin, and you have removed your own tongue.
Prerequsiite: Dragon or Meenlock race. Prerequisite: Orc or Half-orc race, ability to cast 2nd-
level cleric spells.
On your turn, when you score a criticai hit with a
• Your Constitution uncreases by 1, to a maximum of
melee weapon attack or reduce a creature to O hit
20.
points with one, you can attempt to terrify your foes as
• You craft a pair of pale gloves from humanoid skin,
a bonus action. Enemies within 10 feet must make a
which function as a holy symbol. As an action, you
Wisdom saving throw. On a failed save, the creature is
can touch a creature and channel your deities
frightened of you for a number of rounds equal to your
diseased blessings into the target. Make a melee
Charisma modifier (minimum 1). The DC of this saving
weapon attack. On a hit, the target suffers 1d8
throw is 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Charisma
necrotic damage. You do not add any ability modifier
modifier.
to this damage.
Hag Coven This damage increases to 2d8 at 5th level, 3d8 at 11th
level, and 4d8 at 17th level.
You and two other hags have joined your magics to
form a powerful coven. • You learn one cantrip of your choice from the cleric
Prerequisite: Hag race, spellcasting or pact magic class spel list, and you gain proficiency in your choice of
feature, level 8 Arcana, Medicine, or Religion.
• You cut out your own tongue. You lose the ability to
Upon gaining this feat, you may join a coven of hags. speak, but you may still perform verbal components
This coven must include exactly three hags of any type. for spells.
Other hag player character must also possess this feat
to join the coven. The benefits of this feat take effect
Mind Flayer Ulitharid
You are more powerful than other Illithids. You bear six
after all three hags complete a long rest while within
tentacles rather than the customary four, and you are
30 feet of each other.
the favored child of your colony’s elder brain.
The power of your coven is based on your “coven
Prerequisite: Mind flayer race
level”. Your coven level is half the average spellcasting
level (the number you use to determine the number of • Your tentacles deal 1d8 psychic damage on a hit.
spellslots you have) of the coven’s members. • Increase the die size of your psychic blast to 1d8.
While within 30 feet of the other members of your • You may cast detect thoughts once per day without
coven, you share a pool of spell slots. The number of expending a spell slot using your innate spellcasting
spell slots available is based on your coven level using trait.
the Multiclass Spellcaster table on page 165 of the • If an elder brain establishes a psychic link you, the
Player’s Handbook. The spells you may cast are listed in elder brain can form a psychic link with any other
the Hag Covens sidebar on page 176 of the Monster creature which you can detect when casting detect
Manual. thoughts. Such link ends if the creature falls outside
the telepathy ranges of both you and the elder brain.
Races 87
You can maintain a psychic link with the elder brain Prerequisite: Neogi race
regardless of distance, so long as you and the elder
brain are both on the same plane of existence. If you
• Your Charisma increases by 1, to a maximum of 20.
are more than 5 miles away from the elder brain,
• Your size increases to medium.
you can end the psychic link at any time (no action
required). • Your unarmed strikes deal 1d4 piercing and 1d4
poison damage.
Maddening Feast
You have no problem eating the flesh of your fallen
Nurtured One of Yutruss
foes, and have learned to do so in such a horrifying Infected with horrible diseases and nurtured into a
fashion that it frightens other creatures, rendering horrifying disease-infested monstrosity, you serve your
them wholly speechless. orcish brethren as equal parts shock troop and
Prerequisite: Bheur Hag, Ghast, or Ghoul race biological weapon.
Prerequisite: Orc or Half-orc race, not immune to
As an action, you may feat on the corpse of one disease, 14 Constitution.
enemy within 5 feet of you that died within the past • You are resistant to disease, and to the poisoned
minute. Each creature of your choice within 30 feet of condition.
you and able to see you must succeed on a Wisdom • As an action, you may intentionally reduce yourself
saving throw or be frightened until the end of your to 0 hit points.
next turn. While frightened in this way, a creature is • When you fall to 0 hit points, you explode in a burst
incapacitated, can't understand what others say, of bile and putrid flesh. Each creature within 10 feet
can't read, and speaks only in gibberish. The DC of this of you must make a Constitution saving throw,
saving throw is 8 + your proficiency bonus + your taking 1d6 poison damage on a failed save, or half as
Charisma modifier. much damage on a successful one. The DC of this
If a creature's saving throw is successful or the effect check is 8 + your proficiency bonus + your
ends for it, the creature is immune to the hag's Constitution modifier.
Maddening Feast for the next 24 hours. The damage increases by 1d6 when you reach 5th
After you use this ability, you can't use it again until level (2d6), 11th level (3d6), and 17th level (4d6).
you complete a short or long rest. After you use this ability, you can't use it again until
you complete a short or long rest.
Mouth of Grolantor
Starved to madness and near death, you were Red Fang of Shargaas
“blessed” with insatiable hunger by Grolantor. While A pariah among orcs, you worship Shargaas, the orcish
your allies loath to set you loose for fear of your deity of deep darkness and sneakiness. You serve your
appetites, your drive to kill and eat your foes is people as thief and an assassin, working on your tribe’s
impressive. behalf despite their disdain for you and your ways.
Prerequisite: Hill giant race Prerequisite: Orc or Half-orc race, Sneak Attack +2d6,
• Driven by madness and hunger you may bite and 14 Dexterity.
pummel your foes with unnatural ferocity. Your • Magical darkness doesn’t impede your Darkvision.
unarmed strikes deal 1d8 bludgeoning damage or • You may cast darkness once per day. Wisdom is your
piercing damage on a hit. spellcasting ability for this spell.
• As a bonus action, you can make a special attack
with your bite. If the attack hits, it deals its normal Stone Giant Dreamwalker
damage, and you gain temporary hit points Acclimated to the dreamscape that is the surface
(minimum of 1) equal to your Constitution modifier. world, you have taken on strange magical abilities to
After you use this ability, you can't use it again until affect the creatures that inhabit the strange realm.
you complete a short or long rest. Prerequisite: Stone giant race
Neogi master You learn the friends cantrip. Charisma is your

Old, experienced, and powerful among your kind, you spellcasting ability for this spell.
have become a master of your people.
Races 88
As an action, you can attempt to petrify a creature • As a bonus action, you can coalesce wind into a
with your touch. The target must a creature within javelin-like form. You may then throw this weapon as
your reach. Creatures whose bodies are not made of if it were a normal javelin. This weapon counts as
flesh, such as constructs, are immune to this effect, as magical for lhe purpose of overcoming resistance
are creatures immune to paralysis. The target creature and immunity to nonmagical attacks and damage.
must make a Constitution saving throw. The DC for this The javelin disappears at the end of your turn.
saving throw is 8 + your Constitution modifier + your
proficiency bonus. Vegepygmy Chief
On a failed save, the creature begins to turn to You have lived long enough that spore clusters have
stone. They are treated as having 1 level of exhaustion. formed on your body, identifying you as an elite among
The creature must repeat this saving throw at the end your kind and allowing you to spread the fungus which
of each of its turns. On a failed saving throw, the produce new vegepygmies.
creature is treated as gaining an additional level of Prerequisite: Vegepygmy (standard) race.
exhaustion. If the creature fails 6 saving throws, it is
• Your Strength, Dexterity, or Constitution increases by
petrified until freed by greater restoration or similar
1 to a maximum of 20.
magic. On a successful saving throw, the creature
• As an action, you can release a cloud of spores in a 5-
resists the effect, and is treated as having one less level
foot radius around you. The spores spread around
of exhaustion. The creature is treated as having one
corners. Each creature in the area that isn’t a plant
less level of exhaustion each round until they are
must succeed on a Constitution saving throw or be
treated as having 0 levels of exhaustion. Creatures
poisoned. While poisoned this way, a target takes
immune to exhaustion are not immune to this effect,
1d8 poison damage at the start of each of its turns.
and any actual levels of exhaustion do not stack with
The DC of this saving throw is 8 + your proficiency
this effect.
modifier + your Constitution modifier. A target can
This effect lasts up to one minute. You must
repeat this saving throw at the end of each of its turns,
maintain concentration during that time, as if you were
ending the effect on itself on a success.
casting a spell. If you lose concentration, the creature is
At 5th level, the radius expands to 10 ft. At 11th level,
treated as having no levels of exhaustion from this
the radius expands to 15 ft. and the damage increases
effect and immediately returns to normal. If the
to 2d8. At 17th level, the radius increases to 20 ft.
creature becomes petrified by this effect, the effects
You must maintain concentration during that time,
are permanent and you no longer need to concentrate.
as if you were casting a spell. If you lose concentration,
After you use this ability, you can't use it again until
affected creatures are no longer poisoned by this
ability.
Storm Giant Quintessent After you use this ability, you can't use it again until
Seeking to stave off inevitable death of old age, you you complete a long rest.
have embraced the power of the storm.
Prerequisite: Storm giant race.
Yuan-Ti Mind Whisperer
Your pact with the Yuan-ti god Sseth, the Sibilant
• You learn the gust cantrip. You can cast fog cloud
Death, grants you great power in return for your
once per day without expending a spell slot. Wisdom
devotion.
is your spellcasting ability for these spells.
Prerequisite: Yuan-ti race, level 3 warlock.
• You can use your action to create a lightning weapon
in your emply hand. This weapon can be a sword, • After making a successful melee attack, as a reaction
dagger, or other similar weapon. You are proficient you can cause the target of the melee attack to take
with it while you wield it. This weapon counts as an additional 1d8 psychic damage. This damage
magical for lhe purpose of overcoming resistance increases to 2d8 at 5th level, 3d8 at 11th level, and
and immunity to nonmagical attacks and damage. 4d8 at 17th level.
You may dismiss the weapon as a free action during After you use this ability, you can't use it again until
your turn, and it disappears if it leaves your hand for you complete a short or long rest.
one round or more. It also disappears if you use this • You gain the Dark One’s Blessing warlock invocation.
feature again, fall unconscious, or die.
Races 89
Yuan-Ti Nightmare Speaker Design Notes
Your devotion to your patron, Dendar the Night
Serpent, grants you additional powers beyond those of We need to consider how powerful feats can be. Feats
most warlocks. are much more art than science, but we’ll still do our
Prerequisite: Yuan-ti race, level 3 warlock. best to play scientists here. We’ve valued the choice of
a feat at 4 BP, so any feat should never exceed 4 BP,
• After making a successful melee attack, as a reaction and generally should be worth less because an
you can cause the target of the melee attack to take opportunity to select any feat is always more valuable
an additional 1d8 psychic damage. This damage than a feat itself. Feats are, in theory at least, of equal
increases to 2d8 at 5th level, 3d8 at 11th level, and value to two flexible ability increases, which we’ve
4d8 at 17th level. valued at 3 BP, which is another good barometer.
After you use this ability, you can't use it again until We’ll shoot for a 2-4 BP range, and try very hard to
you complete a short or long rest. stay close to 3 BP.
• You may cast dissonant whispers once per day. We also need to consider prerequisites. Stronger
Unlike normal spells, this spell is cast at a spell level feats should require more things in order to mitigate
equal to your level divided by 2 (minimum 1, how powerful they are. Unfortunately, it’s difficult to
maximum 9). Charisma is your spellcasting ability for find a mathematical way to balance prerequisites
this spell. because by nature they’ll be trivial for some characters
and impossible for others.
Yuan-Ti Pit Lord
You devote yourself wholly to your pact with the Yuna-
ti god Merrshaulk, drawing magical power from his
eternal slumber.
Prerequisite: Yuan-ti race, level 3 warlock.
• After making a successful melee attack, as a reaction
you can cause the target of the melee attack to take
an additional 1d8 psychic damage. This damage
increases to 2d8 at 5th level, 3d8 at 11th level, and
4d8 at 17th level.
After you use this ability, you can't use it again until
• You may cast sleep once per day. Unlike normal
spells, this spell is cast at a spell level equal to your
level divided by 2 (minimum 1, maximum 9).
Charisma is your spellcasting ability for this spell.
Races 90
Backgrounds
related to magic, you instantly know that the material
is useful. However, this ability does not grant you
insight into why something is useful; merely that it has
The following backgrounds are designed for use some use related to magic.
primarily by monstrous characters, but frequently work This effect stretches all the way from minor items
just as well for more conventional characters. like bat guano up to incredibly valuable items like
diamonds. However, it is not limited to spell
Born of Magic components. If, for example, you encounter a trinket
You were brought into being entirely by magic. You which opens a magical lock, you know that the trinket
have no true parents or family, but the circumstances has some magical purpose. Unfortunately, this ability
of your creation set your life on a path which is grants no insight into the purpose of objects which you
anything but mundane. identify as useful.
Skill Proficiencies: Two of your choice of Arcana, Suggested Characteristics

Nature, or Religion. Where most creatures were born and grew to
Tool Proficiencies: One of Artisan’s Tools, Alchemist’s maturity, you were brought into existence fully formed
Tools, Smiths Tools, or Tinker’s Tools. and ready to face the world. While this removes the
Languages: One language from the Exotic Languages messy emotional baggage of a previous life, it also
table (Player’s Handbook, page 123). leaves you lacking in life experience, and your
Equipment: An object of magical significance such as a personality reflects this abnormal personal history.
spellcasting focus, a spell component pouch, a dagger, d4 Personality Trait
or an ornamental piece from a destroyed magic item. A 1 I inherited my creator’s quirks,
set of tattered common clothes, and magic and I find myself doing small, odd
things without explanation.
components (usually powdered silver, diamond dust,
2 I recreate small elements of my
or small onyx gemstones) worth 15 gp. creation wherever I rest.
3 I hoard objects of any magical
Magical Origin significance.
Creatures are conjured or created in an unknowable 4 I befriend spellcasters and other
number of magical rituals. magical creatures whenever I can.
D8 Ritual Nature
1 I was created in a ritual devoted d6 Ideal
to specific powerful entity. 1 Obedience. You are utterfly devoted
2 I was created in a ritual to to your creator. (Lawful)
perform a specific task. 2 Vengeance. You resent your creator
3 I was created as the result of an and others like them, and seek to
arcane experiment. do them harm by any means possible.
4 I was created as a side-effect of (Evil)
alchemy. 3 Rebelion. The purpose for which I
5 I was created as a boon to a was created is abhorrent, and I
favored servant. must never fulfill it. (Chaotic)
6 I was the accidental result of 4 Detachment. I am not supposed to
magic gone awry. exist, and I must make my presence
7 I was the masterwork of a felt as little as possible.
craftsman skilled in constructing (Neutral)
others of my kind. 5 Charity. My existence is a gift,
8 I was an unintelligent creature and I must turn it toward the good
or object granted intelligence to of others. (Good)
better serve my master. 6 Passivity. I will serve the purpose
for which I was created, but I do
not let those actions define me.
Feature: Magical Scrounger (Any)
You have an innate sense of what materials may have
magical applications. Whenever you encounter
materials which might be used as a spell component,
or which might have some other useful function
Races 91
d6 Bond d8 Why were you in the dungeon?
1 I yearn to fulfull the purpose for 1 To guard an item or location.
which I was created. 2 To retrieve a specific item.
2 Lacking a true family, I value 3 To clean up messes.
personal relationships, and desire a 4 To assist other inhabitants.
sense of belonging. 5 To prey on other inhabitants.
3 The process of my creation 6 To find shelter.
fascinates me, and I want to know 7 I was a captive or slave.
everything I can about it. 8 I was the master of the dungeon.
4 I think of my creator as family and
treat them as such regardless of Dungeon Type
their feelings or actions.
5 I want to become powerful enough to
Not every dungeon is worked stone buried
one day replicate the magic which undergound. Many dungeons take other forms.
created me. d6 What type of dungeon?
6 I want to destroy all knowledge of 1 Worked stone, underground.
the magic which created me. 2 Ruined city or structure.
3 Natural cave network.
4 Natural above-ground dungeon, such
d6 Flaw
as a forest or canyon.
1 My first instinct is always to
5 Abnormal: A pocket dimension, the
obey verbal intructions,
inside of a giant creature, etc.
regardless of their origin.
6 Roll again twice.
2 My first instinct is always to
refuse verbal instructions,
regardless of their origin. Feature: Unconventional Diet
3 I avert my gaze or kneel when I Your life in a dungeon has taught you to find
encounter a ritual being sustainance wherever you can. Dead bodies, pests,
performed. patches of lychen, and other scraps provide enough
4 I cannot stand children. I find
their existence deeply unsettling. food for you to live on. You can scavenge for enough
5 My personality and behavior are food to feed yourself anywhere that living creatures
deeply ingrained, and I am slow to dwell, even in the most inhospitable environment.
exhibit personal growth. Unfortunately, your allies may lack your digestive
6 I seek magical solutions to all of fortitude and cannot benefit from your ability to
my problems.
scavenge unconventional food sources unless they
possess similar digestive capabilities.
Dungeon Denizen
Suggested Characteristics
Until your escape, you were confined to a dungeon. Life in a dungeon is often very different from living
anywhere else. The constant presence of traps,
Skill Proficiencies: Two of your choice of Animal predators, and other hazards makes many dungeon
Handling, Insight, Perception, and Stealth. denizens wary, cautious, or even paranoid.
Tool Proficiencies: One type of artisan’s tools.
d6 Personality Trait
Languages: Your choice from the Exotic Languages 1 I always walk along the right edge
table (Player’s Handbook, page 123). of rooms and hallways.
Equipment: One martial weapon or one spellcasting 2 I never look at the faces of
focus, one shield or 20 arrows or bolts, and 10 gold humanoids in artwork.
3 I take unnecessarily high steps
pieces in a small decorative container such as a chest,
when crossing thresholds.
jewelry box, or decorative urn. 4 I whisper a secret word whenever I
open a door.
Dungeon Role 5 I never use furniture that I don’t
Creatures which inhabit dungeons do so for a reason, own unless I have studied it at
and you are no exception. Wether you are there by length.
6 I prefer to eat and rest while
choice, by accident, or by the will of some other sitting on the floor.
creature, you had a purpose in the dungeon.
Races 92
d6 Ideal
1 Enforced Order. My home exists in a Locale Spirit
carefully established balance, and You are a spirit which occupies and personifies a
the world at large will be better
if it is similarly balanced. specific place or inanimate object, such as the spirit of
(Lawful) a tree or a lake.
2 Dominion. What is mine is mine, and
I will hurt anyone who wants to Skill Proficiencies: Two of your choice of Animal
take it from me. (Evil) Handling, Nature, or Religion.
3 Wanderlust. Freedom to leave a
place is purest expression of my Tool Proficiencies: Herbalism Kit.
personal freedom. (Chaotic) Languages: Your choice of dwarven, elven, giant, or
4 Exploration. I want to see and one language from the Exotic Languages table (Player’s
experience the world. (Neutral) Handbook, page 123).
5 Mercy. Not all of my enemies oppose Equipment: A club, greatclub, or quarterstaff made
me by choice, so I spare their
lives when I can. (Good) from materials available in your home locale, an
6 Survival. I’m just trying to herbalism kit, and either an antitoxin or a potion of
survive in a harsh world in any way healing.
I can. (Any)
Native Locale
d4 Bond Many locations are home to nature spirits. Choose the
1 I’m afraid to be alone in a locked location from which you originated, or roll on the table
room. below.
2 I have a secret location where I
inter my valuables for safe keeping. d8 Locale d8 Locale
3 Finding secret doors, traps, or 1 Cave 5 Mountain
other hidden mechanisms makes me 2 Desert/Tundra 6 Ocean
nostalgic for my former home. 3 Forest 7 Plain/Praerie
4 I left someone or something behind 4 Lake 8 River
in the dungeon and I hope to
retrieve it some day. Feature: Kindred Spirits
You can always locate the homes of other locale spirits
d6 Flaw in the local area. Spirits of the same or similar type to
1 I hoard resources like food, even you willingly allow you to pass through and rest in their
when they are abundant. territory, and may offer aid if they are good-natured or
2 I always consider members of a if your goals align with theirs.
specific group (spellcasters,
clergy of one religion, etc.) my
superiors
Suggested Characteristics
3 I refuse to speak unfamiliar words Locale spirits are closely bonded to their homes, and
until I have heard several other often suffer harm or even death if their home is
creatures speak them aloud. damaged or destroyed. They may live for as long as
4 I’m visibly uncomfortable in rooms their home remains undisturbed, and many locale
with reflective surfaces.
5 I examine new objects in one
spirits never depart their homes. This reclusive nature
strangely specific way. might make locale spirits feel aloof or alien to other
6 Talking to strangers is always creatures.
either transactional or a
d4 Personality Trait
potential violent conflict.
1 I collect small trinkets which I
find strange or unfamiliar.
2 I mimic animal calls and bird song
from my home whem I’m bored.
3 My life is exceptionally long, and
I take a very long-term view of
world events.
4 I frequently focus my attention on
the place I’m in rather than the
creatures I encounter there.
Races 93
d6 Ideal
1 Natural Order. Nature eventually
settles into a healthy natural
balance which must not be disturbed
by outside influence. (Lawful)
2 Predation. I am the apex predator;
all others are my prey. (Evil)
3 Self-Determination. All creatures
must choose their own path and live
with the consequences. (Chaotic)
4 Detachment. It is not my place to
meddle in the world’s affairs
unless they directly affect my
home. (Neutral)
5 Hospitality. My home offers succor
to all those who require it. (Good)
6 Mis En Place. Everything has a
natural place in the world, and
once there it should remain
undisturbed. (Any)
d4 Bond
1 Creatures and objects from my home
are things to be treasured.
2 I avoid changing the natural world
outside of my home, for fear of
consequenses.
3 I love my home as it is now, and I
want to keep it as such however I
can.
4 My home is vulnerable to outside
intrusion, so I must keep its
location a closely guarded secret.
d6 Flaw
1 I expect everything to function
the same way it does at home, and
become confused or upset when it
doesn’t.
2 I am scared of creatures which
don’t exist in or near my home.
3 I want to expand the reach of my
home, and often disregard the
consequences for doing so.
4 I dislike my home, and want to
distance myself from it as much as
I can.
5 I am constantly irritable whenever
I am away from my home.
6 Whenever I’m not sure what to do,
I find myself making my way home
without thinking about it.
Races 94
Magic Items
• Madness: The target must make a Wisdom saving
throw. On a failed save, the target must make a
melee attack against a random target within its
Automagical Hand reach on its next turn. If it has no targets within its
reach even after moving, it loses its action on that
Wondrous item, rare (requires attunement) turn.
This object resembles a harness with a humanoid arm • Pain: The target must make a Wisdom saving throw.
and hand extending from its center. The arm may be The target suffers 4d10 psychic damage on a failed
skeletal, mechanical, or even fleshy, and the hand may saving throw, or half as much on a successful one.
have varying numbers of fingers, but the arm is always
• Paralysis: the target must succeed on a Constitution
roughly as functional as human hand and arm,
saving throw or be paralyzed until the end of its next
possession a thumb and at least two fingers. The
turn.
harness is worn by stapping it to the wearer’s torso,
and the folds against the torso while not in use. In addition, while attuned to this flail, your Rampage
Wearing the hand allows the wearer to take the Use ability is enhanced. Whenever Rampage activates, all
an Item action to use items as though they have a free creatures within 10 feet of you with the Rampage trait
hand. Creatures with two full hands can open doors may also activate their Rampage trait.
and retrieve items from a backpack, and creatures with
no hands can finely manipulate objects. The hand
Graystaff
cannot be used for more complicated actions, including Wondrous item, very rare (requites attunement by a
attacking, reloading a weapon, holding a shield, Bheur Hag)
performing somatic components, or other similar This staff is composed of a long piece of gnarled, gray
actions. wood from a tree found on a snowy mountaintop.
This staff functions as a staff spellcasting focus, and
Collar of Mighty Claws as a broom of flying (Dungeon Master’s Guide, page
Wondrous item, uncommon 156).
This collar is made of sturdy leather, and is decorated In addition, while attuned this staff allows a Bheur
with claws, teeth, and small bones from predators, Hag to cast additional spells. You may cast cone of cold,
especially those of magical nature or origin such as hold person, ice storm, and wall of ice each once per
displacer beasts and owlbears. While wearing this day without expending a spell slot. Charisma is your
collar, your unarmed strikes are treated as magic for spellcasting ability for these spells if you do not already
the purposes of overcoming resistance or immunity to have a spellcasting ability.
damage.
Nilbog Spirit
Flind’s Flail Wondrous item, legendary (requires attunement by a
Weapon (Flail), very rare (requires attunement by a goblin).
gnoll) This mysterious object is the remnant of a long-dead
This terrifying weapon resembles the iconic weapon of goblin deity. Sent to reek havoc on the followers of
the demon lord Yeenoghu. The handle is wrought of Maglubiet, this mischievous spirit imbues its host with
bones lashed together with black fur from the tail fur a several perplexing abilities, but also drives its host acts
powerful gnoll. The heads of the flail, connected to the of random violence and spite.
handle by rope made of the same black fur, are The spirit itself is invisible, intelligent, has a flying
humanoid skulls pierced with metal spikes. The eyes of speed of 30 feet, can’t speak, and can’t be attacked.
the skulls glow with malevolent orange light. The spirit may attempt to possess a living goblin as an
The flail can produce three effects, which you may action. The goblin must make a DC 15 Charisma saving
choose to activate as a free action after making a throw or become possessed by the Nilbog Spirit. The
successful melee attack with the flail. Each effect may goblin may choose to fail this saving throw willingly. If
be activated once per day, resetting at dawn. Each the save succeeds, the spirit can't possess that goblin
effect calls for a saving throw. The DC of these saving for 24 hours.
throws is 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Once the goblin is possessed, it becomes attuned to
Constitution modifier. the Nilbog Spirit, just as a creature attunes to other
Races 95
magic items. The goblin may not remove attunement
to the Nilbog spirit without first ending the possession
(see Nilbog Possession, below). A goblin ending the
possession immediately loses the traits granted by the
Nilbog Spirit.
While possessed by the spirit, your Charisma
becomes 15 (unless it was already higher), and you
gain the following traits:
• Innate Spellcasting. You learn the mage hand and
vicious mockery cantrips. If you are 3rd elevel or
higher, you may cast tasha’s hideous laughter once
per day. If you are 7th level or higher, you may cast
confusion once per day. Charisma is your spellcasting
ability for these spells.
• Nilbog Possession. While possessed by the spirit, the
goblin's alignment becomes chaotic evil. If the Nilbog
Spirit’s host is killed or the possession is ended by a
spell such as hallow, magic circle, or protection from
evil and good, the possession ends, and the Nilbog
Spirit may not attempt to possess the same goblin
again for 24 hours. If other goblin hosts are available,
the Nilbog Spirit will typically go looking for another
host in this period. The spirit can leave its host at any
time, but it won't do so willingly unless it knows
there's another potential host nearby.
• Nilbogism. Any creature that attempts to damage
you must first succeed on a Charisma saving throw
or be charmed until the end of the creature's next
turn. A creature charmed in this way must use its
action praising you if it speaks a language, or making
suitable sounds and gestures to indicate your
greatness if it does not. The DC of this saving throw
is 8 + your proficiency modifier + your Charisma
modifier.
Once a creature is affected by this ability, it may not
be affected by your Nilbogism again until you have
completed a long rest.
You can't regain hit points, including through magical
healing, except through Reversal of Fortune.
• Reversal of Fortune. As a Reaction in response to
another creature dealing damage to you, you reduce
the damage to 0 and may spend a hit die to regain
hit points.
Races 96
Spells Spell Descriptions
Spell Lists
Daze
Enchantment Cantrip
Bard Casting Time: 1 Action
Cantrips (0 Level) Range: 60 ft.
• Daze Components: V, S
• Devour Magic Duration: 1 round
• Spook The targeted creature must succeed on a Wisdom
saving throw saving throw or be charmed until the
Cleric start of the gazer's next turn. While the target is
Cantrips (0 Level) charmed in this way, its speed is halved, and it has
• Devour Magic disadvantage on attack rolls.
Druid Devour Magic

Cantrips (0 Level) Abjuration Cantrip
• Devour Magic Casting Time: 1 Action
Range: 120 ft.
Sorcerer Components: V, S
Cantrips (0 Level) Duration: 1 round
• Daze The targeted creature must succeed on a Dexterity
saving throw or have one of its magic items lose all
• Devour Magic
magical properties until the start of your next turn.
• Spook
Determine the affected item randomly, ignoring
Warlock single-use items such as potions and scrolls. If the
object is a charged item, it also loses 1d4 charges.
Cantrips (0 Level)
• Daze Mind Spike
• Mind Spike Enchantment Cantrip
• Spook Casting Time: 1 Action
Range: 60 ft.
Wizard Components: V, S
Cantrips (0 Level) Duration: Instantaneous
• Daze You fire a shimmering purple ray at the target which
• Devour Magic wracks its mind with painful sensations. The target
• Mind Spike creature must succeed on an Intelligence saving throw
• Spook or take 1d6 psychic damage. The target gains no
benefit from cover for this saving throw.
The spell's damage increases by 1d6 when you reach
5th level (2d6), 11th level (3d6), and 17th level (4d6).
Spook
Necromancy Cantrip
Casting Time: 1 Action
Range: 60 ft.
Components: V, S
Duration: 1 round
The target creature must succeed on a Wisdom saving
throw or be frightened until the start of your next turn.
Races 97
Appendix:
Game of Thrones, but with Drow
Drow house politics are very similar to the political
Campaign Ideas
dramas which play out in Game of Thrones (or A Song
of Fire and Ice for those of your who prefer the books),
but with considerably more magic and violence. But
This section includes a set of briefly explained don’t limit yourself to players playing Drow, as there
campaign ideas designed to cater easily to characters are numerous suitable drow-related races.
built using Monstrous Races.
Game of Thrones, but with Orcs
Aspiring Necromancer
Orc politics, which is mostly violence. Orc society,
Players play minions of an aspiring necromancer. This depending on your setting, is typically tribal, primitive,
can be a great opportunity to present necromancy in a and extremely violent. The players are out to make a
light-hearted, comical fashion, but you could also keep name for themselves and to gain prestige among their
things extremely serious. Players might be familiars, people.
undead servants, or just evil creatures whose goals
align with that of the necromancer. Gnoll Warband Simulator
Bargain Everyone is a gnoll or gnoll-adjacenet. Volo’s Guide to
Monsters includes numerous creatures that fight
You are sent to serve a warlock. Tone based on patron. alongside gnoll warbands, giving you a handful of
The warlock might be any level of power the DM, but interesting options. The campaign will be a mix of
your are bound into their service. A campaign built attacking civilized cities, forts, etc. and some resource
around a Fiend patron warlock might include fiends of management to keep your warband healthy and
all sorts, while a campaign around an Archfey patron strong.
warlock will likely include numerous fey.
Just Goblinoid Things
Cult of Personality
Everyone is a goblinoid living in goblin society.
Everyone plays a race which worships a central Everyone could be goblins, but hobgoblins and
monstrous creature. Froghemoths and Grung are a bugbears are also options.
great example.
Pet Heroes
DAE Tentacles?
Everyone is a house pet. Cats, birds, mastiffs, and any
The ancient war between Aboleths and Mind Flayers number of other options can work. There’s some
has been mentioned numerous time throughout the overlap with this option and both Animal Farm Party
history of Dungeons and Dragons but has never been and Familiar Quest.
explored in any significant detail. This provides fertile
ground for exploration in your own games. What is the Tyranny
world like before humanoids took over? How does the
Villains have conquered the world, and the players are
war play out? What is the world like before gods gain
part of villainous society. Where once caves were full
power in the multiverse?
of goblinds, now they’re full of halflings. Hordes of orcs
Familiarquest are now armies of human remnants trying to cling to
their long-dead society. Players are likely orcs, goblins,
Everyone players a familiar or similarly powerful or other races of evil humanoids.
creature. You might simply restrict players to these
options and go no further, but you might also make the (Un)Seelie Court intrigue
players familiars for powerful spellcasters.
Everyone is a Fey, and the campaign takes place in the
Feywild. Take a lot of inspiration from Alice in
Wonderland. The world is weird, crazy, and dramatic,
and the Fey even more so.
Races 98
Appendix:
table which alters the traits of NPCs to easily change
their race.
This character concept requires some allowances
Character Ideas
from the dungeon master. Even if you stay within the
bounds of CR ¼, NPCs are still more versatile and often
more powerful than beasts of comparable CR. The
This section includes a brief list of character concepts simple addition of opposable thumbs is a huge
for monstrous characters. These are intended as improvement in their utility. This character concept
inspiration to help you create your own characters, but assumes that you don’t have hands (unless you’re an
if you see something in this section which you want to ape or something), so a companion with hands is a
bring to the table you should absolutely do so. huge boon.
To balance these issues, consider restricting yourself
Item Spirit to NPCs of CR 1/8 or CR 0, use a race with a BP below
This concept could apply to any animated object: the usual range of 8-10 BP like a bat, a cat, or a rat, and
armor, swords, etc. The basic idea is that the character consider making your NPC companion a complete idiot
is actually the magic force that inhabits the item, rather to that their capabilities are somewhere in line with a
than the union of the item and the magic force. If the beast. Also remember that your NPC companion is an
character encounters a superior body of the correct NPC, rather than another character you directly
type (a flying sword finds a new sword, etc.), the control. You can issue commands, but the NPC’s
character can transfer their being into the new item. actions are ultimately up to the DM.
This conveniently addresses the issue that animated
items have trouble benefiting from magic items of their Un-Familiar
same type. A flying sword character could inhabit a +1 Similar to the reverse beastmaster, the un-familiar flips
sword that they find while adventuring, and an the roles of the familiar and its spellcaster. Start with
animated armor character could move into a suit of an animal that serves as a familiar: anything from the
adamantine full plate. find familiar options (possibly including those added by
This can present some balance complications in your Pact of the Chain) will work, but other CR 0 beast
game, so be sure to discuss it at length with your options may work too. Second, take a spellcasting class
dungeon master. The inability to use certain items is with access to find familiar, or take the Ritual Caster
part of the mechanics that balance animated items as feat and learn find familiar as a ritual. Finally, select a
race options and removing or altering that restrictions humanoid as your familiar. A CR 0 humanoid like a
could make those races more powerful than intended. commoner is recommended. Anything more powerful
Still, this concept could make animated objects more threatens to eclipse your own abilities, especially at
fun to play and can help keep them useful at high low levels.
levels in games where magic items are abundant. The stat blocks for generic humanoid NPCs generally
don’t specify what race the NPC is, so if you want a
Reverse Beastmaster humanoid familiar of a specific race, refer to the NPC
Start with an animal that can serve as a beastmaster Features table on page 282 of the Dungeon Master’s
ranger’s companion (A wolf, a pony, etc.), and take the Guide.
ranger class with the beastmaster subclass. Rather
than select another beast as your companion, talk to
your DM and see if they will allow you to select a
humanoid NPC. You could be a wolf with a bandit
companion, a cat or owl with an apprentice wizard
companion.
Like with animal companions, your humanoid
companion should be medium size or lower and
challenge rating ¼ or lower. The stat blocks presented
in the Monster Manual and in Volo’s Guide to
Monsters generally assume that NPCs are human, but
page 282 of the Dungeon Master’s Guide includes a
Races 99
Appendix: Party
Familiar Quest
The spell find familiar offers a number of creature
Ideas
options, most of which fall into a similar BP range.
While these creatures are extremely weak by the
standards of other races, they’re roughly balanced
This section includes a brief list of ideas for parties of against each other, which is usually enough to make a
monstrous characters which fit together thematically. party’s characters feel fair.
While thematic cohesion is in no way necessary in Bats, cats, crabs, frogs, hawks, lizards, octopi, owls,
many games, sometimes it can be fun to play a group poisonous snakes, quippers, rats, ravens, sea horses,
of characters whose backgrounds intersect frequently. spiders, and weasels are all good options, but don’t
limit yourself to that list. Also consider imps,
Animated Armory pseudodragons, and sprites which are added as
Everyone in the party is an animated object. As of this familiar options for Pact of the Chain warlocks, but
writing, the only animated objects which I’ve adapted remember that their BP value is much higher than
as playable races are animated armor, flying swords, other familiar options.
rugs of smothering, and animated tomes, all of which
are presented in the original Monstrous Races (see the Froghemoth Cult
race builder appendix for animated tomes). Grung tame, care for, and to some degree worship
Conveniently, this makes for an amusing visual: a suit froghemoths. That makes a froghemoth a natural focal
of armor riding atop a flying carpet with a sword in one point for a party composed of grung. Froghemoths
hand and a spellbook in the other, only to take foes by typically don’t have the mental capacity to understand
surprise when each of the four separates to attack on this relationship and see grung as a food source rather
their own. than an ally. An intelligent froghemoth could make an
interesting party leader and could handle dead grung
Dragon Adherent allies by eating them and replacing them with other
Evil dragons frequently gather followers in various grung from the same tribe.
forms and quantities. In some cases, groups of
uncivilized humanoids take up worshipping living Gnoll Warbard
dragons as gods. A dragon (see the original Monstrous Volo’s Guide to Monsters add numerous creatures and
Races) makes a natural focal point for a party centered options for creatures which fit into a gnoll warband.
around dragons their activities. This party is naturally violent and evil, but could be fun
Dragonborn, kobolds, and potentially other scaled in a combat-centric campaign where moral issues are
creatures like lizardfolk make great additions to the outright ignored.
party. Kobolds have the added benefits of being Gnolls are obvious and having several gnolls in the
expendable, edible, and easily replaced. party fits the theme. Gnolls should vie for supremacy,
with the ultimate goal of becoming a flind to claim the
Elder Brain Trust leadership role. The party might also include hyenas,
Volo’s Guide to Monsters introduces a number of new leucrota, maw demons, shoosuva demons, and
creatures which frequently serve mind flayers, as well witherlings.
as mind flayer-related options like the Alhoon and the
Ulitharid. This offers a diverse set of racial options for a Goblinoids
party centered around a mind flayer or an elder brain. Perhaps an obvious option, a party of goblinoids is a
Cranium Rats, Intellect Devourers (see the original classic counter-point to the iconic humanoid party
Monstrous Races), and Mindwitnesses are all good consisting of a dwarf, an elf, a halfling, and a human.
additions to the party. Also consider other races which A bugbear, a goblin, and a hobgoblin are a good start
might frequently become thralls to mind flayers: drow, to a party. Finding an obvious fourth race may be
duergar, svirfneblin, and anything elde with a brain difficult, but consider a barghest, and ogre, or a worg.
that frequents the underdark.
Races 100

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Monstrous Races 2

Character Options for Playing Every Monster in

Character Options for Playing

Tiny Creatures ................................. 6 Korred ............................................ 46 Racial Feats ................................... 86

Unconsciousness and Immunity ...... 6 Leucrotta........................................ 48 Design Notes ................................. 90

Monstrous Races .............. 7 Meenlock ....................................... 48 Backgrounds ................... 91

Banderhobb Playing a Banderhobb

Playing a Bodak Boggle

Playing a Giant Strider

Reptilian quadrupeds created in a ritual to serve as Playing a Guard Drake

Shadow Mastiff Traits Design Notes

Tlincalli Design Notes

Vegepygmy Traits Playing a Vegepygmy

Playing a Wood Woad

Yuan-Ti Broodguard Design Notes

Neogi master You learn the friends cantrip. Charisma is your

Skill Proficiencies: Two of your choice of Arcana, Suggested Characteristics

Druid Devour Magic

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