Join us live: 8/2/20 at 7pm EST (GMT -4).
This week we discuss and share some of our samples for our upcoming Memorable Monsters - A 5th Edition Resource to Monsters and NPCs Kickstarter Project.
It's a tome of unforgettable monsters and villains for your stories and campaigns! For when you need more than just stat blocks, our Memorable Monsters book contains unique and memorable creatures complete with backgrounds, complex motives, quirks, and flaws. You can find links to the samples covered below.
Sample Monsters
Segment: Crit Nation Feedback: Let’s talk about Blank!
Dungeon & Dragons enthusiast Miguel Zavala has utilized his 3D printing and design to make the world a better place. How? By creating a library of every monster from the Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual as 3D-printable miniature patterns. The library includes the entire monster manual, plus all the miscellaneous creatures from Appendix A and the NPCs from Appendix B. That’s almost 300 figures that you can print for your own games.
Modular dungeon tiles are an easy way to create your own beautiful digital maps. The Arcania lets you make dark, shadowy dungeon map, rich with the fumes of arcane secrets.
Winner: Vanmark1
Didn’t win? Np, head to www.critacademy.com/loresmyth a free set of digital terrain and much more.
Segment: Main Topic: Memorable Monsters
Memorable Monsters is the ultimate guide to monsters and NPCs, bringing 50 fully fleshed out monsters and NPCs to your 5th Edition game - from ancient and powerful dragons who seek to subjugate the kingdoms around their lairs, to once powerful wizards who flew too close to the sun and are now cursed. Memorable Monsters contains fleshed out backgrounds, short and long-term motives, and a collection of different ways to include the monster into your campaign. From a traditional villain, or a source of information, to a quest giver, merchant or ally, you’ll find what you need to make all your encounters memorable.
This richly-illustrated and powerful supplement will help you bring your 5th Edition world to life for more than just combat encounters. Each of the 50 monsters includes beautiful art and writing by some of the best in the business! Memorable Monsters will not only contain exciting new monsters to make your combat more dynamic, but fills them out with backstories, motives and personalities.
This powerful resource allows you to always be prepared, even when your players choose to head west, deep into the forest, instead of heading eastward to the pillar of smoke in the distance that you’ve spent hours of time preparing!
Estimated 150 pages of content
Full Color Illustrations
Largely system neutral content to fit any fantasy setting.
Includes 5e stat blocks for each monster that can easily be adapted to other RPG systems
Easy to adapt and fit into any story or campaign.
Back Memorable Monsters August 4th and your players will not soon forget the name of the next important NPC they run into!
A masked menace terrifies the region, raiding villages to fund her devious plan. Unknowingly, the adventurers stumble into her most recent evil scheme: the kidnapping of a famous performer known as Devon Artis. Their mission is to deliver a ransom and collect Devon. Though, as in most cases, not all goes as planned.
Winner: mccormick.luke
Didn’t win? Np, head to www.critacademy.com/jeffstevens to get Villains and Lairs III and Encounters on the Savage Seas III Free
Segment: Unearthed Tips and Tricks! (We give you creative content for your next adventure)
Character Concept: - Patron Monty
The Power Behind the Throne
Seeking the ability to understand the secrets of the arcane, you make a pact with an Archfey. Unfortunately it came with a steep price. Your firstborn child/the memories of your true love/etc. Throughout your travels and time learning your powers, you also have to learn the rules of the fey and the complexity of court politics should you ever function as your patron’s emissary. During your time together you grow close. Your patron develops a curious fondness for you and you are wooed by their eccentric nature. As the romance buds, your pact requirement is fulfilled. SHould th romance experience turbulence though, chaos just might ensue.
Monster Variant:
Frightmorph Ravager
Frightmorphs are rare and savage spawn of doppelgangers. Limited in their mental capacity they act almost purely on impulse. The little mental faculties they do possess, focus on seeking power and influence through their violence and treachery. The frightmorph’s inability to master its shifting abilities limits its forms to a variety of goblinoid creatures.
Origin: Bugbear
Lost Features: Brute
New features
Shapechanger. The frightmorph can use its action to polymorph into a medium or smaller goblin it has seen, or back into its true form. Its statistics, other than its size, are the same in each form. Any equipment it is wearing or carrying isn’t transformed. It reverts to its true form if it dies.
In battle the ravager fights with a primal ferocity. Barbarian Rage
Legendary Actions: 1
Bamboozle: The frightmorph ravager moves up to half its speed and takes the hide action.
Encounter:
A Glowing Recommendation
As a reward for the party’s efforts in her town, the vibrant Ellyjobell Sparklegem (LG, F, Gnome) writes the characters a letter of recommendation (see the "Marks of Prestige" section in chapter 7 of the Dungeon Master's Guide) and suggests they present it to any “Forgotten Folk” alchemists or merchants should they find themselves in a town or hovel with one.
Treasure. If the characters seek out, or stumble across a gnomish merchant or alchemist the characters are given a special and unique gnomish creation, oil of sharpness, a special gift to help them in their battles.
Magic Item: - Patron Johm Gemstone
Naksheira The Tide Curler
Weapon (any sword), very rare
Crystalized bronze with tarnish showing waves crashing along opposite the edge. Barnacles ornate the hilt while seaweed is wrapped on the handle.
You have resistance to fire damage while you hold this weapon
.
The weapon has 8 charges. While holding it, you can use an action to expend 1 or more of its charges to cast one of the following spells from it (save DC 15): shape water ( 1 charge), wall of water (5 charges), watery sphere (8 charges)
You can use a bonus action to speak this magic weapons command word expending 2 charges and a tide of rippling water erupts from the blade. While the blade is coated in the tide, it deals an extra 2d6 cold damage to any target it hits. The tide lasts for 1 minute or until you drop or sheathe the sword.
The sword regains 1d6 + 2 charges daily at down. If you expend the last charge, roll a d20. On a 1, the weapon becomes clear like water, and splashes to the ground and is destroyed.
Dungeon Master Tip: Patron Monty
Marks of Merit
In Patrick Rothfuss’ The King killer CHronicles, the protagonist gives his great performance at a renown tavern that earns him his ‘talent pipes’. A silver pendant indicating their status as a performer. Marks of merit can be highly underutilized in games. A bard earns their talents, a wizard earns an arcane focus, a figheer earns a unique scabbard, etc. These may not provide any inherent mechanical bonuses. They do however create interesting roleplay moments. An inn offers a great discount if the bard plays or institutes of learning allow the wizard access to the more restricted areas to research something.
Player Tip: Don’t be a Dick
Reimagining Your Character
It happens. You’ve played your character a while, and suddenly a new book shows up, offering many new possibilities—options you might have picked if you had known about them earlier.
Don’t despair; you have a few choices. Many classes have rules on changing out some features upon leveling up. If retraining won’t do the trick fast enough or isn’t possible at all, talk to your DM and your fellow players about reworking your character with some of the new options. Chances are you can overhaul your PC to match your desires without doing any harm to the campaign. Your DM might even have a way to make the change a part of the story. If doing that ultimately proves too difficult, a dramatic exit for the older character could make way for a new one.
If you have any feedback, unearthed tips and tricks or topics you would like us to discuss, please send them to us. You can email them to us at critacademy@gmail.com or find us on twitter and facebook @critacademy.
We hope you’ve enjoyed your experience here at Crit Academy. If you did, you can help others find the show by leaving a hopefully 5 star review on itunes. Or just send us a message telling us how much you enjoy the show.
Also be sure to give us a like and a share!
Make sure to subscribe to our show at www.critacademy.com, follow us on Twitch and Youtube so we can help you on your future adventures as well as a chance to win cool prizes each and every week. Make sure to check out our fellowship members as well.
Comments