Okay, I'm going to read through the Monster Manual 3 for D&D 4e, and write down my ideas on how to use the various monsters for games and worldbuilding. I'm not going to stay 100% beholden to the lore as written in the book, though. I'll pick out what seems interesting, add or change stuff as necessary, and see if I can get things to fit together.
Why the third monster manual? Well, in the first monster manual, you have to put all the staple monsters that just need to be in D&D. In the second monster manual, you put all of the classic monsters that coudn't fit in the first book. But when you get to the third monster manual, you can start getting weird.
Plus, it makes for a fun exercise if you imagine that the setting only has the monsters that appear in this book, not the basic ones from the previous manuals.
Ape
Great ape, silverback ape, ape temple guardian
The first monster of the book is the ape! Who doesn’t love apes? The lore says apes “have lived in jungles since the dawn of creation”. If that’s a Biblical-type, everything-gets-created-at-once kind of creation, it’s nothing special. But if the creation myth is more of a process, then it gets more interesting. The apes were here first!
Apes being temple guardians ties in nicely with that fact. If apes lived in the world since the beginning, perhaps they made a covenant with the first gods, taking the responsibility of guarding their holy sites for all time.
Apocalypse spell
Prison of Mual-Tar, herald of colorless fire, shard of Uralinda, godslayer inferno, light of Amoth
These are various creatures formed from the leftover essence of super-powerful spells. Maybe high-level wizards can summon or control these, if they study the ancient spellcraft.
Prison of Mual-Tar: Fragments of chains used by the gods to bind a primordial. Nah, make them the actual prisons. Mual-Tar is cut into many pieces, each held in its own prison-being. If you kill the prison, the primordial piece escapes. Kill all of the prisons and Mual-Tar is back, baby...
Herald of colorless fire: An empire was turned into a sea of dust by a rain of colorless fire. (Yep, it’s straight out of Greyhawk lore.) And then colorless fire-monsters arose from the dust, and they want to destroy everything. That’s kind of boring. What if the knowledge and secrets of the lost empire remains in the heralds? And now they are colorless fire-monster sages, sought after as masters and scholars?
Shard of Uralinda: An archfey got rejected, so he blasted an eladrin city with ice and killed everyone. The souls of the dead eladrin were trapped in the shards of ice. I’m getting Snow Queen vibes from this. The shards should be able to stick in people’s hearts and freeze them, removing their capacity for love.
Godslayer inferno: The remains of a fire used to kill gods. Hey, it’s an answer to the question “How do we kill a god?” You get a godslayer inferno to do it. Or you infuse your weapon with its essence or something.
Light of Amoth: A god blew himself up to destroy a demon prince. Their essences fused into creatures made of living light that hate both gods and demons. The ultimate enlightened beings? Supreme atheists? Yeah, “Light of Amoth” should be the name of an antitheist cult that goes around annoying clerics, and the top leadership are these weird light-people who consider themselves superior to gods and demons alike.
Arcanian
Green arcanian, blue arcanian, red arcanian
When a wizard tries to cast a spell that is too high level for them, it can backfire, kill the wizard, and turn them into an undead creature animated by the energy of the spell.
A zombie with powers and motivation derived from a particular spell is interesting, there are so many possible variations. A fireball arcanian, for example, would be straightforward: it has fire powers and it wants to burn everything. But other spells might make for stranger arcanians. A hallucinatory terrain arcanian that creates illusions. A scrying arcanian that sees all... can the party figure out how to extract knowledge from a zombie?
Banderhobb
Banderhobb warder, banderhobb filch, banderhobb abductor
A huge monster comes out of the shadows under your bed. It snares you with its long tongue, and its gaping maw swallows you whole. Then it returns to the shadows, and you are never seen again. Perfect, 10/10, no notes.
What happens to the people swallowed by the banderhobbs, though? The speculation given in the book is that they are regurgitated in the Shadowfell, and toil as slaves for the banderhobbs’ ancient master until they transform into more banderhobbs. Not bad. But maybe... Instead of putting the prisoners to work, they are simply starved. Their hunger turns them into banderhobbs, and they are sent to feed in the mortal world. But anything they swallow there, they must throw up and give to their master, and their hunger is never sated.
Behemoth
Bone crown behemoth, skinwing behemoth, spirehorn behemoth
“Behemoth” is 4e’s name for dinosaurs and dinosaur adjacent reptiles. In this book we get pachycephalosaurus, pteranodon, and triceratops. They are all used as mounts and war beasts, which is great. An army with pachycephalosaurus cavalry, scouts riding pteranodons, and a triceratops carrying a small fortress on its back, is a great image.
That word though, behemoth... In the book of Job, God rhetorically asks if anyone will domesticate the great Behemoth. Well, apparently some people do! That’s some big hubris then. Only godless warriors would dare make themselves masters of the behemoths. Followers of the Light of Amoth, perhaps? (See “Apocalypse spell”, above.)
Beholder
Beholder spawn, eye of shadow, ghost beholder
Beholder spawn?! This is the orc baby dilemma on steroids. “You’ve defeated the beholder, in the next room you find twenty beholder babies. What do you do?” Kill them all before they start shooting tiny eye rays at you, is 4th edition’s answer.
The eye of shadow is a beholder that has been warped after spending time in the Shadowfell. Beholders being transformed by the environments they look upon makes a lot of sense, actually. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder - the beauty that is beheld takes up residence in the eye.
Ghost beholders seem like a contradiction in moods to me. Ghosts are subtle, mysterious, quiet, haunting. Beholders are frantic and entire unsubtle. They draw your attention immediately, ranting and shooting eye rays wildly. I think a ghost beholder would work best as a poltergeist, unseen but possessing the location it spent its life beholding, always watching. And maybe shooting eye rays out of mirrors and stuff.
Cambion
Cambion wrathborn, chained cambion, cambion infernal scions
Children of devils and mortals. Classic stuff.
Chained cambions are wrapped up in chains, forever, and walk around using animated chains as legs. But why are they in chains? The mechanics say they get stronger if they are immobilized or restrained. I guess they enjoy being chained up. The opposite of the Satanist freedom imperative... These guys must be on the side of God, binding themselves to reject their infernal parent’s rebellion.
Infernal scions on the other hand, “covet Asmodeus’s position... and plot to supplant him”. The results of Asmodeus’s dalliances with mortals come back to daddy, and start scheming against him and against each other. A Princes of Amber scenario when Asmodeus dies/disappears/starts getting out of touch.
Catoblepas
Catoblepas harbinger, catoblepas tragedian
Love catoblepas. Long-necked, sad buffalo who breathe poison and destroy all life wherever they go.
The lore says knights and fey alike go on ritualistic hunts for catoblepas. Getting Questing Beast vibes... Perhaps the blight of the catoblepas spreads far and wide, tainting an entire kingdom. Heroes quest for the elusive beast, as the land dies. A cyclical tradition? The catoblepas must be slain every winter, or spring will not come.
Cave fisher
Cave fisher spawn, cave fisher angler, cave fisher spiker, cave fisher line spiker
These guys are fun. Big bugs that go fishing underground by throwing strangler lines down a precipice and hoping something gets caught on it.
They might be a little tricky to use in a game without just turning into gotcha traps, though. But if the characters are aware of the lines hanging down from above, they can make for a neat field hazard in a fight, as combatants try to push each other into the lines.
The cave fishers should obviously have a stereotypical angler culture, laid back, boastful, somewhat sleazy. Gynes want me, dwarves fear me.
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