Fifth Edition Foes: Monster List

In response to Calvin's request, here's the list of monsters in Fifth Edition Foes. Alternatively, you can grab this two-page PDF of Appendix A, which lists all the monsters by type and CR.

1. Aaztar-Ghola
2. Adherer
3. Aerial Servant
4. Algoid
5. Amphoron of Yothri: Worker
6. Amphoron of Yothri: Warrior
7. Amphoron of Yothri: Juggernaut
8. Ant Lion
9. Ape, Flying
10. Aranea
11. Arcanoplasm
12. Artificer of Yothri
13. Ascomoid
14. Assassin Bug
15. Astral Moth
16. Astral Shark
17. Aurumvorax
18. Basilisk, Crimson
19. Basilisk, Greater
20. Bat: Doombat
21. Beetle, Giant Rhinoceros
22. Beetle, Giant Slicer
23. Beetle, Giant Water
24. Biclops
25. Blood Hawk
26. Blood Orchid
27. Blood Orchid Savant
28. Blood Orchid Grand Savant
29. Bloodsuckle
30. Bloody Bones
31. Boalisk
32. Bone Cobbler
33. Boneneedle, Greater
34. Boneneedle, Lesser
35. Bonesucker
36. Borsin
37. Brass Man
38. Brume
39. Burning Dervish
40. Cadaver
41. Cadaver Lord
42. Carbuncle
43. Caryatid Column
44. Cat, Feral Undead
45. Caterprism
46. Catfish, Giant Electric
47. Catoblepas
48. Cave Cricket
49. Cave Eel
50. Cave Fisher
51. Cave Leech
52. Centipede Nest
53. Cerebral Stalker
54. Chain Worm
55. Chaos Knight
56. Chupacabra
57. Church Grim
58. Churr
59. Cimota
60. Cimota Guardian
61. Cimota, High
62. Clam, Giant
63. Clamor
64. Cobra Flower
65. Coffer Corpse
66. Cooshee
67. Corpse Rook
68. Corpsespinner
69. Corpsespun
70. Crabman
71. Crayfish, Monstrous
72. Crimson Death
73. Crypt Thing
74. Dagon
75. Dark Creeper
76. Dark Stalker
77. Darnoc
78. Death Dog
79. Death Worm
80. Decapus
81. Demon Prince: Teratashia
82. Demon Prince: Thalasskpotis
83. Demonic Knight
84. Denizen of Leng
85. Dire Corby
86. Dracolisk
87. Drake, Fire
88. Drake, Ice
89. Dust Digger
90. Eblis
91. Ectoplasm
92. Eel, Giant Moray
93. Eel, Gulper
94. Elusa Hound
95. Encephalon Gorger
96. Exoskeleton: Giant Ant
97. Exoskeleton: Giant Beetle
98. Exoskeleton: Giant Crab
99. Fear Guard
100. Fen Witch
101. Fetch
102. Fire Crab, Greater
103. Fire Crab, Lesser
104. Fire Snake
105. Flail Snail
106. Flowershroud
107. Foo Dog
108. Forester's Bane
109. Froghemoth
110. Fungoid
111. Fungus Bat
112. Fyr
113. Gallows Tree
114. Gallows Tree Zombie
115. Gargoyle: Four-Armed
116. Gargoyle, Fungus
117. Gargoyle, Green Guardian
118. Gargoyle: Margoyle
119. Genie: Hawanar
120. Ghost-Ammonite
121. Giant Slug of P'nakh
122. Giant, Jack-in-Irons
123. Gillmonkey
124. Gloom Crawler
125. Gnarlwood
126. Gohl (Hydra Cloud)
127. Golden Cat
128. Golem, Flagstone
129. Golem, Furnace
130. Golem, Stone Guardian
131. Golem, Wooden
132. Gorbel
133. Gorgimera
134. Gorilla Bear
135. Green Brain
136. Gray Nisp
137. Grimm
138. Gripple
139. Grue, Type 1
140. Grue, Type 2
141. Hanged Man
142. Hangman Tree
143. Hawktoad
144. Helix Moth
145. Hieroglyphicroc
146. Hippocampus
147. Hoar Fox
148. Horsefly, Giant
149. Huggermugger
150. Igniguana
151. Jackal of Darkness
152. Jaculi
153. Jelly, Mustard
154. Jupiter Bloodsucker
155. Kamadan
156. Kampfult
157. Kech
158. Kelp Devil
159. Kelpie
160. Khargra
161. Korred
162. Kurok-spirit
163. Land Lamprey
164. Lava Child
165. Leng Spider
166. Leopard, Snow
167. Leucrotta, Adult
168. Leucrotta, Young
169. Lithonnite
170. Magmoid
171. Mandragora
172. Mandrill
173. Mantari
174. Midnight Peddler
175. Mite
176. Mite, Pestie
177. Mummy of the Deep
178. Murder Crow
179. Naga: Hanu-naga
180. Olive Slime
181. Olive Slime Zombie
182. Ooze, Glacial
183. Ooze, Magma
184. Origami Warrior
185. Pech
186. Phycomid
187. Pleistocene Animals: Brontotherium
188. Pleistocene Animals: Hyaenodon
189. Pleistocene Animals: Mastodon
190. Pleistocene Animals: Woolly Rhinoceros
191. Pudding, Blood
192. Pyrolisk
193. Quadricorn
194. Quickwood
195. Rat, Shadow
196. Red Jester
197. Ronus
198. Russet Mold
199. Ryven
200. Sandling
201. Screaming Devilkin
202. Scythe Tree
203. Sea Serpent, Brine
204. Sea Serpent, Deep Hunter
205. Sea Serpent, Fanged
206. Sea Serpent, Shipbreaker
207. Sea Serpent, Spitting
208. Seahorse, Giant
209. Sepulchral Guardian
210. Shadow Mastiff
211. Shadow, Lesser
212. Shroom
213. Skeleton Warrior
214. Skeleton, Stygian
215. Skelzi
216. Skulk
217. Slithering Tracker
218. Soul Reaper
219. Stegocentipede
220. Strangle Weed
221. Tabaxi
222. Taer
223. Tangtal
224. Tazelwurm
225. Temporal Crawler
226. Tendriculos
227. Tentacled Horror
228. Therianthrope: Foxwere
229. Therianthrope: Lionwere
230. Therianthrope: Owlwere
231. Therianthrope: Wolfwere
232. Treant, Lightning
233. Tri-flower Frond
234. Triton, Dark
235. Troll, Spectral
236. Troll, Two-headed
237. Tunnel Prawn
238. Tunnel Worm
239. Vampire Rose
240. Vegepygmy Commoner, Worker
241. Vegepygmy Guard
242. Vegepygmy Chief
243. Volt
244. Vorin
245. Vulchling
246. Lava Weird
247. Were-mist
248. Weredactyl
249. Widow Creeper
250. Witch Grass
251. Witherstench
252. Yellow Musk Creeper
253. Yellow Musk Zombie
254. Zombie Raven

Steve

Fifth Edition Foes: The Bone Cobbler

Now that PDFs of the Necromancer Games 5E books are rolling out, I finally have time to write some of the previews that should have been done, oh, four months ago while the Kickstarter was still running. Reviews of Fifth Edition Foes have been very positive, and let me tell you, it's great to hear strong reviews after so many months of work.

Offered here is one monster from 5EF that illustrates some of our approach. I won't say the bone cobbler typifies the book, because no single entry can be "typical" of a book containing 252 monsters. It's an example of how we went for monsters with strong story implications and with the potential to become far more dangerous than their raw numbers imply, in the hands of a GM who respects those story angles.

The bone cobbler doesn't belong on anyone's random encounters table. This is a creature that deserves to have an entire short adventure, or at least a detailed lair encounter, devised around it. Animate Bones is a great cinematic ability, and Bonestripping should put fear in the heart of every low-level adeventurer. If this thing gets you alone for four minutes, you aren't just dead; you're gone beyond hope of recovery by much of anything short of divine intervention. A GM who uses a bone cobbler needs to construct its lair like the set of a black-and-white gothic horror film, with plenty of secret doors that victims can be pulled through after all their companions have marched past, or trap doors that open silently under the last person in line and drop them into the bone cobbler's lair, where they're finished off by horrific skeletal abominations. The victim's friends have three minutes to recover the body, which is a tall order considering they probably don't know where it is and might not even know that the person is missing, if the GM did things correctly!

In other words, the bone cobbler is a ready-made Jeepers Creepers horror-movie villain waiting to be sprung on characters.

Just as important, however, is the fact that Fifth Edition Foes doesn't explain all of that for you. You might think that's because of space restrictions in the book, or is just laziness on our part, but in fact, we prefer to leave things like that unstated. Why? Because it's more fun for GMs to figure out for themselves. We believe GMs enjoy thinking about these sorts of things; why else would they be GMs? A book that does all the readers' thinking for them robs them of all those delicious "aha!" moments. Possibly worse, it assumes that our creativity is better than yours, and that's beyond deflating, it's an insult.

So that's a brief introduction to some of the philosophy underpinning Fifth Edition Foes. If you didn't get in on the Kickstarter, you can still buy the book in hardcover + PDF or just PDF through the Frog God Games website. The book has quite a few reviews at ENWorld and also has an extensive discussion thread there, and Sobran ran a multipart look at the book and some of our CR assignments on his Fantastic Frontier blog.

In coming days, I'll look at more of the monsters I found most interesting in 5EF, plus Quests of Doom and Lost Spells, of course!

Steve

Howling Tower Returns to Kobold Press

Hey, I'm back at Kobold Press. Today's post was the first of six aimed at players.

Welcome to the end of the Howling Tower hiatus—thanks for coming! The Tower has been silent for too long. During the past year, I’ve been so occupied with huge writing projects that no time or energy was left over for small ones. Lots of good things came out of the past year — Hoard of the Dragon Queen and The Rise of Tiamat for Kobold Press, and a trio of Fifth Edition books published by Necromancer Games: Fifth Edition Foes, Lost Spells, and Quests of Doom. But now that those massive projects are wrapped up, the light is flickering again atop the creepy tower at the dismal end of the valley, and eerie wailing can be heard wafting through the pre-dawn mist again.

This six-part series of columns will be aimed squarely at RPG players instead of GMs. Gamemasters have reams of material to peruse when they want advice on how to do their jobs better, but the pickings can be slim where players are concerned. The goal is to help readers develop better roleplaying habits and attitudes so they can get the most enjoyment from their time around the game table.

Just because the advice is aimed at the players’ side of the screen doesn’t mean GMs should look away. They’re sure to find some useful tidbits here, too. You can’t be a good GM without understanding where your players are coming from.

Most of what we’ll cover can be summed up succinctly in two words: embrace immersion. The more you suspend disbelief and think like a character instead of like a player, the richer your experience becomes. That little gem of an idea has many facets to explore.

Read the rest at KoboldPress.com.

Fifth Edition Foes is Available (in PDF)

It took longer than we wanted, but the first of the Necromancer Games books for Fifth Edition is ready -- Fifth Edition Foes, with 250 more monsters to challenge adventurers.

If you didn't get in on the Kickstarter action, you can still order the book directly through the Frog God Games website. If you want a printed copy, I highly recommend pre-ordering, because the print run will be very close to the pre-order number. If you don't pre-order, there's a strong chance the printed copies will sell out before you get one.

Steve

The Rise of Tiamat: A DM’s and Player’s Overview

I have a new installment of "Tiamat Tuesday" over at Kobold Press, discussing the differences between Hoard of the Dragon Queen and the upcoming sequel, The Rise of Tiamat. Here's a taste:

Ideally, players and Dungeon Masters (DMs) who sit down to tackle The Rise of Tiamat will already have played Hoard of the Dragon Queen. Rise is a continuation of Hoard’s story about the Cult of the Dragon, but they are very different adventures in style.

Hoard of the Dragon Queen is a big, sprawling adventure that spreads across hundreds of miles of territory and encompasses several distinct styles of play, from the short commando missions of “Greenest in Flames” to the dungeon crawl of “Dragon Hatchery” to the extended road trip of “On the Road” to the open-ended investigation of “Castle Naerytar.” But running through all that variety and tying it together is a unity of theme—the paired ideas that no one outside the Cult of the Dragon yet understands the full extent of the cult’s plot, and that the player characters, being brave but largely unknown, are good candidates to investigate and find out what’s up.

By the time The Rise of Tiamat kicks off, that situation is reversed. Through the player characters’ investigation and the cult’s own actions, the truth about Rezmir’s plans for the Sword Coast is revealed and the adventurers become famous heroes with well-known reputations. Those two changes lead to a noticeably different structure and tone in The Rise of Tiamat.

Read the rest of the article at KoboldPress.com.

Necromancer Games

I've been terribly remiss in not promoting this project here at the Howling Tower, but it's not too late yet. I've been working with the great crew of Necromancer Games (essentially the same team that's behind Frog God Games) on a Kickstarter project for three 5th Edition support books: Fifth Edition Foes, The Book of Lost Spells, and Quests of Doom. Rather than me telling you about it here, I urge you to check out the Kickstarter page itself. The campaign has less than three days to go, so if you want in, now's the time to jump.

These three books are what's been eating all my time since wrapping up work on the Tyranny of Dragons set of adventures for Wizards of the Coast. Converting monsters and spells to the new system has presented a chance to really delve into the design of 5E and see what makes the system tick.

I can't guarantee that every monster and spell in these books will be structured exactly the way the design team at Wizards would do it -- but that's largely the point. The PHB is already filled with spells designed the Wizards way, and the Monster Manual will be filled with great monsters by the same team. I know those guys, they're my friends, and I have nothing but respect for their work. Everything they've done for 5E is top notch.

The Necromancer approach is slightly different, especially where monsters are concerned. The project's slogan -- "Fifth Edition Rules, First Edition Feel" -- does a good job of summing that up. Read the Kickstarter page and check out some of the online previews for more info.

Finally, A New Post

I'm horrified to see that I haven't howled from the tower since January 27. I believe that I have a decent excuse, though. I've been sequestered while writing the premier 5th Edition D&D adventures -- Hoard of the Dragon Queen and The Rise of Tiamat, collectively titled Tyranny of Dragons -- along with Wolfgang Baur and Alexander Winter. Until recently, we weren't allowed to talk about what we were doing. Even if we had been, every word I wrote for the last many months went into those adventures. Writing for other purposes, like blogging, could only endanger the deadlines, so everything else got shelved.

But now the adventures are written and I can move on to other things. I still don't have much time for personal writing -- more on that to come -- but at last I can talk about Tyranny of Dragons.

And I have, over at KoboldPress.com, in some of the Tiamat Tuesday postings. My entries are "Maintaining Focus," "Tiers of Tiamat," "Closing In On the Cult," and "So You're Running Tyranny of Dragons." Wolfgang, Marc Radle, and Guido Kuip also chime in with essays about the Cult of the Dragon and about the illustrations and maps in the adventures. If you're looking for direction on what to expect from Tyranny of Dragons, Tiamat Tuesday is the best place to start.

In other news, I'm headed to GenCon again this year, for the first time in . . . wow, it must be over 10 years. I attended a few of the early Indianapolis GenCons, but I stopped going after the year when I spent nearly the entire show sealed away in a side room playing Terrible Swift Sword with a group of fellow TSR alumni. We had a great time, but we realized that we didn't need to travel to Indianapolis, stay in dreary hotels, and struggle against constant crowds to play TSS for four days. We could have just as easily spent a long weekend at someone's house in Wisconsin or Washington, where we'd have been more comfortable and saved a bunch of money. I never went back after that year.

But here it is 2014, there's a fantastic new edition of D&D, and I have the honor of coauthoring the premier adventure for it. I'll be spending much of my time in the Kobold Press booth, discussing Tyranny of Dragons (and 5E) with anyone who's interested and signing copies for anyone who wants theirs besmudged with my scribble. If you're in the neighborhood, stop by and chat.

I'll also be sitting on a seminar panel: either "When the Kobolds Met Tiamat" at noon on Friday, or "Storytelling in the Realms" at 4 p.m. on Friday. I suspect it will be the first of those, or maybe it will be both, but I won't know for sure until I get to the convention. I'll also be interviewed on the official Gencon podcast at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday. Listen live if you want to hear all the scatology that will be bleeped out in the download version.

Finally, with Tyranny of Dragons put to bed, I'm now devoting my 12-hour days to Necromancer Games's 5E Kickstarter. But that's a topic for after Gencon. I hope to see plenty of you in Indianapolis.