Yeah, one time my group's Warlock was being grappled by a giant frog, so he casted Evard's black tentacles inside the medium sized frog, the DM ruled that the Frog was now large and allowed the Warlock to roll double the damage dice for Evard's black tentacles. The giant frog proceeded to explode showering gore all over everyone. I forgot to mention that the Warlock was me.
they know all but yet know nothing . They are nothing but a butch of murdering hobos with a whispering of a god in their ear .Toying with them . th-cam.com/video/iCilTm8UBr8/w-d-xo.html
Barbarian: I attack the drow! DM: You cleave the top of the drow's skull open, allowing it to crumple onto the ground. Barbarian: Excellent! I then turn to his compatri- DM: As you revel in your success, the drow's brain rolls out, and begins to stand on tiny legs. Barbarian: THE *WHAT*
@@lovelandfrog5692 I can't claim full credit, I recall a meme image with that dialogue somewhere on the interwebs. Still, Intellect Devourer showed up and it dug it's way out.
This makes me want to roleplay as a very anxious character, who happens to befriend a Flumph that follows him around, boosting his confidence due to the lack of anxious feelings.
They're an excellent friendly creature. Their intense body odor being one of the few downsides to long-term friendly interactions with them. I kinda wish more people appreciated them.
"All hail the mighty Blibdoolpoolp! His yocklespogging knows no bounds! His lecribious scribs will jabbercate your mentals, until the last drop of fleep absorbs into his Borticle Cavity. BLUBBLUBBLUBBLUBBLUB! BLUBBLUBBLUBBLUBBLUBBLUB!" This is my favorite thing. My FAVORITE.THING.
A character I played once tried to convert an entire village of the little bastards to become followers of my warlock's patron-- Nyarlathotep. Which was perfect because, in character, my warlock kinda forgot who his patron actually was. He just thought he read about it once, maybe, in some dusty old tome. At this point he had converted about 500 or so people (one being the leader of a major city) and had started production of robes and such. The campaign ended prematurely, but I was told that I was on the cusp of bringing Nyarlathotep into the world.
Having played a kenku as a pc I can say it certainly revealed something about humans, or at least that my friends should not be trusted with supplying someone with their entire vocabulary (or name) ever
I think the beholder should be over the honorable mentions. it's dreams change reality, and it can will itself into lichdom just by deciding they rather not die
Spiders are overdone. Besides, you want the Illithids to affiliate themselves in any way with the Spider Queen Lolth? Are you as insane as their mind-tortured slaves? Maybe instead of a spider, a scorpion would make more sense, with the brain stem acting as its tail.
A replicated city of an Oblex is such an amazing concept of a terrifying adventure... especially if the Oblex starts to copy several NPCs that were first with you in the group, but end up eaten by it.
I had a player once that played as a kenku, he used a sound board, he had recorded every game session he played when he came up with this idea, and mixed the voices together to get his "voice". it sounded wierd as heck, but it was amazing.
I just have my kenku characters talk normally while his voice switches between dozens or hundreds of different voices each word, sortof like how bumblebee from transformers talks using radio stations.
Weirdest of the weird. Creepiest of the creepy. And the best of them all: The cream of the crop. THE INTERCONTINENTAL WRESTLING CHAMPION MACHO MAN RANDY SAVAGE OHHH YEAAHH
Question : If the oblex sheds one of its personalities to create a spawn , is there a chance that the spawn may become a being who believes they are the personality they absorbed ?
I heard rust monster, and I started thinking of my mom's dwarven life domain cleric character's rust monster named fluffy. Don't ask why a dwarf has a rust monster, or why it's named fluffy; we're still prepping for the campaign.
4:53 Well, actually, there is some depth to gibbering mouthers- they absorb and integrate the nervous systems of the victims they consume. All the voices that come from a gibbering mouther come from the minds of its victims, maddened by being forcibly amalgamated into the creature. Digest that for a minute. I will note that this is coming hot off of a MrRhexx video, so pardon if this is based off of previous edition lore that isn't technically 100% canon anymore.
I'm personally a big fan of the cutout minis. They're afordable in box sets of hundreds of different kinds, they last if you don't fuck around with them, and the art is typically spot on. I get the appeal to figurines, but I just don't have 20-200$ to spend on passing fancies.
The gibbering mouther should be an absolutely terrifying creature. Straight out of the worst nightmares, the flesh of multiple victims melded into an insane mass of eyes and teeth. But no, this is 5e, so it's a PG-rated cartoon.
I'm honestly kind of surprised that the horrifying Aboleth never made an entrance in the list. Still, definitely loved most of the choices show here ^_^
Gibbering Mouthers are one of my favorite. In the homebrew universe my group uses, they're the result of a cruel technique of fleshwarping. Rabid animals, assorted monsters, and parts of corpses are thrown into a vat with the victim, and blended together into a single mass of flesh. The victim is still conscious, but unable to control their body. Legend says that if you listen carefully enough through the crazed yammering and horrific screeching, you can hear a thin, feeble voice begging to be freed so they can cross the Bone River and know the peace of death.
"the characters are fighting their way through a dungeon. maybe a goblin stronghold, or a haunted crypt. they open a door." oh well, cant be vox machina then.. -.-
Funny thing about being a kenku, you actually have a voice if you go to a library, pick up a dictionary, and ask someone who has a voice you like to read it to you for like, 50g. Yeah you speak in a monotone, but it really makes playing one as a PC not as much of a headache for a more newish DM, or a seasoned DM who doesn't like them. And you still have the mimic ability to use when you need to. Bonus points if you talk like Jacket.
There are so many monsters that I would say could replace the monsters in this list for weirdness. Many of them have only been used once, in either one edition or in a dragons magazine. The best example I would say is the "Roving Mauler" from Tome of Magic (2006). "Claws flash as it cartwheels end over end on five furred legs," the fluff text reads. The Roving Mauler is a 5-foot tall starfish with lion legs and a lion head on either side of its ridiculous body. Then you have the "Dohwar". The magial penguins from outer space that was only in the Spelljammer version of second edition. Though the dohwar speak Common and their own tongue, they rely heavily on telepathic powers for communication among themselves. In fact, dohwar have pairings called "mergers", wherein two dohwar stay in mental rapport, even to the point of finishing each other's sentences.
I just want to say thank you Esper i love the passion that you have for table top rpgs you always help spark my imagination. i recently moved and haven't found a new group to play with and i really appreciate being able to watch your videos. can you make us a part 2 video detailing your honorable mention weird monsters? thanks again!
Thanks a million for the great comment Joseph! I hope you can get a new D&D group going soon. As for a part 2, I will certainly consider it. There are so many oddball monsters out there ...
Greetings, Esper! Much love to your work. You're truly talented. I found some of your old videos on ranking monsters, demons and so on. You talk about making separate rankings of demon- and devillords, but I couldn't find any such video. If you still got the passion for making those videos I would love to watch them. Much respect, and thank you for the brilliant and interesting entertainment. Poul - former D&D player back in the eighties, last century. I'm going to die in this present one. Amazing.
Hey bro, some people may see you promoting a sponsor as "selling out" but forget them. I've been watching your channel for a while and I'm super happy that you've getting successful enough to find a sponsor for a quality product. As a DM, I love your videos and even use inspiration from them in my non-DnD games as well. Please keep up the great work and that was awesome voice acting, my fav was the Kenku interaction but the Flumph made me laugh pretty hard too.
I love your videos. The segment on star spawn has me wanting to rewatch dungeons of drakkenheim by the dungeon dudes. Thank you for revealing a tidbit of lore that has my imagination swimming with possibilities. You are the best lore bard and I feel like a cannon Esper's big book of lore is in order.
The mind flayers took over in the future, but were driven to collapse due to a massive slave revolt. The surviving mind flayers went back into the past to rebuild.
3.5, they came back in time because they were living at the end of existence. They came back to rebuild their empire in the past, though they lost a lot of their knowledge in transit (not to mention a few slave revolts and other setbacks). Fun fact: aboleths in 3.5 _feared_ mind flayers, simply because the aboleths had existed in the time before time and didn't even remember mind flayers existing then; mind flayers were the only beings that they had no prior knowledge of, and couldn't predict in any way.
You sure grew a lot, congratulations. (I've known your channel for a long time, although back in the day I had a different account, not disclosing it though, but we did have some pleasant exchanges in the comments.)
As a voice actor myself, I applaud you for this video and your efforts! Lord knows, *I* would probably be stumped (or at least have to fall back on audio editing of various sorts) to figure out appropriate voices for this menagerie of the bizarre! Also, if you like bizarre monsters and mythos in D&D (ESPECIALLY involving Kuo-Toa), I highly recommend Demonac's Tales From My D&D Campaign (TDDC), it is a very well written (and animated) ongoing campaign saga that I see A LOT of your DM, Roleplay, Design, etc. principles reflected in.
I've always imagined them as creations of a High Priest Vampire Lord. Victims not quite powerful enough to be actual vampires.... "I don't like too much competition. The blood is mine."
Me: Yes! I love Kuo-Toa, Theyre so vast! "I will explain! No.. There is too much, I will summerize" That's exactly why I like them. My favorite humanoid race does happen to be Thri-Kreen! If they have a hyphon in the name.. I love em!! Great video!
Just for fun, a list of my favorite weirdos. On the Cuff: Giff, Nalfeshnee, Thought Eater, Atropal, Disenchanter, Nuckelavee Off the Rails: Cipactli, Temerdaemon, Kamaitachi, Anunnaki, Elohim, Psychemental, Penanggalen, Wizard's Shackle, Slurk, Moon Beast, Wolf-In-Sheep's-Clothing Essentially Cheating: Yithian, Color Out of Space,, Azruverda, Astrazoan, Urog, Barathu, Shirren, Neogi, Skittermander, Stellifera, Morlamaw (This one I personally suggest you look up). Tried to include ones that not only look weird but are unique in some way that sets them apart.
The Gibbering Mouther was the very first combat encounter I'd ever had in a D&D campaign, my Fighter ended up getting swallowed by it in one turn and tore his way free with his bare hands the next, so they hold a special place in my heart when it comes to the game. Also my single favourite Wild Magic Surge result is summoning Flumphs on a 37-38 roll, it's just so funny to make a bunch of floating tentacle biscuits pop out of nowhere when you roll a 1 on the Surge table.
Bruh great video love the dedication to detail... I can just imagine you making that “flOOnch” sound effects over and over again before your mic, gf look at u like (>.>)
A few years ago, I went through every official Dungeons and Dragons and Pathfinder Monster Manual to ever exist, and compiled a list of the monsters I thought were interesting. There are a LOT of really awesome things that you just don't see nowadays. The CIFAL, a psychically-linked amalgam of insects in the shape of a human. Not unlike the Worm That Walks. Nonafel, a beast that looks kind of like a Displacer Beast which can separate its body into 9 real clones. Tirapheg, a humanoid with 3 heads and 3 legs, mouth under its third arm in chest. Makes a flash and creates illusionary copies of itself. Lurking Stranglers, two eyeballs connected by a mess of muscle tissue. Beholders like to keep them as pets, since they resemble them. Defacer, a muscular undead with multiple faces swirling on its head. It can replace people's faces, steal the faces of the dead, and rock swim Lots of stuff like that.
In 2nd (I think), my character, a Wizard, had as his goal to turn into a Worm that Walks (Lich was boring, 2nd pick was Defiler Athasian Dragon, which was undoable). All partymembers helped, he turned, and that Party got benched. Epic Times
I like oblex, i actually homebrewed it a bit and gave it the power to shapeshift into one of the personalities, kind of like squeezing itself into a shape. Also it can let go of it's "lures" without any goo line connecting it back. It's a lovely monster, kind of like a succubus with a more slimy flavour.
Mimics. The amount of fear one can have for the tools/weapons/items used usually stems from the creature wielding it. Mimics just reverse the situation & it becomes that very thing! This stirs the pot of fear in my soul as simple interactions within D&D could turn ugly really fast. Yet, the catharsis I get from surviving such an encounter is just as powerful. The point of a Mimic is to cause mental distress for inanimate objects & sow ever-lasting doubt. Dopplegangers are the same, but with a huge selection of possible races. These creatures can make players never trust NPCs.
You forgot the most terrifying factor of the gibberish mouther! When it kills someone it absorbs them and they are forced to join their masses. No ethereal plane required!
My favourite weird monster is the Tirapheg, which is sadly exclusive to the old Fiend Folio. It's not very strong, but has the unique ability to conjur two illusionary duplicates of itself, which can actually deal damage to targets that don't know that they are illusions. Oh, and they also look like they belong in a Silent Hill game! Second to that is the Alkada, another old, sadly forgotten, but weirdly adorable creature of wild magic. It looks kind of like a mix between a flightless bird, a plant and a starfish, and it has the unexpectedly dangerous ability is to cast ANY spell, chosen at random, once per day.
Venomous means it bites you to poison you, poisonous you bite it, or touch, scrape whatever poison dart frog 🐸, their is a difference! Love the videoz!
I like the vargouille all right, but my favorite flying vampiric head is the penanngalan. It's a flying vampiric head with prehensile hair and its intestines hanging from its neck. When it does its vampire thing the intestines and organ sacs fill up with blood to add to the horror of the thing.
Esper was that kenku bit a long way of saying "if you play the bird person youll end up understanding what it takes to be a certain yellow transforming car"?? Lololol
I wanna play a camapign with crazy stuff like this so bad! I love this stuff and the idea of a horrible region (or regioms) that's loosely designated on a map that is basically just "this is the mid-to highly level terrifying nightmare zone full of awful awful things" and everyone kinda just avoids it if they can but you get the players to venture in on several occasions for various reasons and every time it's incredibly tense.
i just found the Silly Monsters kickstarter and this adds up so fine i really hope they make it, they have so fun previews already :) (i just want to let people know, and not actually advertise here... if this violates anything please delete!)
I recall Zee Bashew's video on Kuo Toa. Where he described the beasties just poopin godlings everywhere. "Stamp em out quickly. Lest the fell things rise to some dark grandeur."
Want to know what's the worst about a kenku? The party asking the kenku to do something, or ask their opinion on something, and then the party upset you're vauge, or only repeating lines
Eu vi suas playlists e vi que você sabe falar português Esper. Sou brasileiro e adoro seu conteúdo, você inspira minha visão crítica e melhora meus jogos, continue com o conteúdo incrível que faz!
Can Kenku, like if they have enough int I suppose (or maybe lingual dexterity?), just create a complete library of Common phonemes, and then just speak in a slightly stilted way like Siri or Alexa or whatever? I guess that’s missing the point of the gimmick, but might be cool if there were a lot of kenku in a story and you wanted one to seem unique and mentally or lingually superior.
In my experience, the PCs are the weirdest monsters in any game 😂
The edgyest
the most terrifying for sure
Yeah, one time my group's Warlock was being grappled by a giant frog, so he casted Evard's black tentacles inside the medium sized frog, the DM ruled that the Frog was now large and allowed the Warlock to roll double the damage dice for Evard's black tentacles. The giant frog proceeded to explode showering gore all over everyone. I forgot to mention that the Warlock was me.
The Hobgoblin I'm playing is certainly a monster the poor red wizards were not expecting. The DM is getting a lot of experience acting terrified.
they know all but yet know nothing . They are nothing but a butch of murdering hobos
with a whispering of a god in their ear .Toying with them .
th-cam.com/video/iCilTm8UBr8/w-d-xo.html
Barbarian: I attack the drow!
DM: You cleave the top of the drow's skull open, allowing it to crumple onto the ground.
Barbarian: Excellent! I then turn to his compatri-
DM: As you revel in your success, the drow's brain rolls out, and begins to stand on tiny legs.
Barbarian: THE *WHAT*
Gratuitous Lurking I don’t know why, but this made me burst out laughing.
@@lovelandfrog5692 I can't claim full credit, I recall a meme image with that dialogue somewhere on the interwebs. Still, Intellect Devourer showed up and it dug it's way out.
This one! :D
DM: 'The brain...'
Barb: THE WHAT?
DM: The brain!
Barb: Stop making up words!
Run.. the.. Fuck.. AWAY!!!
Not gonna lie, as someone who deals with anxiety, a creature eating all my spare worries sounds like basically the best thing ever.
ElionMars sounds like a good pet... the emotional support monster
"Can we keep it?"
This makes me want to roleplay as a very anxious character, who happens to befriend a Flumph that follows him around, boosting his confidence due to the lack of anxious feelings.
They're an excellent friendly creature. Their intense body odor being one of the few downsides to long-term friendly interactions with them. I kinda wish more people appreciated them.
@@OnlyRoke ya definitely some role play opportunities there
"Lots and lots of weird monsters"
*shows water weird*
i see what you did there.
Naaaaah that's just chaos from sonic the hedgehog.
The minis are cool kinda like shrinkey dinks
"All hail the mighty Blibdoolpoolp! His yocklespogging knows no bounds! His lecribious scribs will jabbercate your mentals, until the last drop of fleep absorbs into his Borticle Cavity. BLUBBLUBBLUBBLUBBLUB! BLUBBLUBBLUBBLUBBLUBBLUB!"
This is my favorite thing. My FAVORITE.THING.
This sounds like dialog straight out of Rick & Morty.
shame that Blibdoolpoolp is stated in cannon to be a FEMALE deity.
Sounds like Vogon poetry.
A character I played once tried to convert an entire village of the little bastards to become followers of my warlock's patron-- Nyarlathotep. Which was perfect because, in character, my warlock kinda forgot who his patron actually was. He just thought he read about it once, maybe, in some dusty old tome.
At this point he had converted about 500 or so people (one being the leader of a major city) and had started production of robes and such. The campaign ended prematurely, but I was told that I was on the cusp of bringing Nyarlathotep into the world.
@@LessDevoid
Good job. Nikola is a cool dude.
Flumph: "Begone thought!"
Y e s
Need put a random house in the Capital city with a Flumph or two just living happily.
Well done
You forgot the weirdest/most disturbing thing about the Oblex: It was envisioned and co-designed by a make-a-wish kid.
what
That kid had more issues then just dying from a disease
As someone whose helped setup for make a wish..Kids in make a wish have fairly strong gallows humor
Honestly, that's really cool. Creative kid!
@@travislee4588 best way to face death:
Laugh with him.
"I will explain... no, there is too much. I will summarize." For some reason that got me good, lmao
It's from The Princess Bride, watch it, it's amazing.
Having played a kenku as a pc I can say it certainly revealed something about humans, or at least that my friends should not be trusted with supplying someone with their entire vocabulary (or name) ever
I think the beholder should be over the honorable mentions. it's dreams change reality, and it can will itself into lichdom just by deciding they rather not die
"I am going to try and voice act them"
Me: you have my attention
I reflavor Intellect Devourers to have spider legs instead of beastial legs. Makes them go from goofy looking to horrific.
It's a walking brain. It's going to look at least somewhat horrific no matter what it walks on!
Arcane Forge did something like that for his interpretation. It looked much better than with the usual dog legs.
That is a headcrab.
It’s still goofy. There isn’t much to be done about a walking brain to make it not goofy looking.
Spiders are overdone. Besides, you want the Illithids to affiliate themselves in any way with the Spider Queen Lolth? Are you as insane as their mind-tortured slaves? Maybe instead of a spider, a scorpion would make more sense, with the brain stem acting as its tail.
A kenku is a great excuse to play a memelord.
The group is traveling to a desolate wasteland with a volcano in it and all you hear is "one does not SImplY walk into MordOR!"
When you put it that way, a Kenku is basically 4Chan with HP.
Which means we can KILL 4CHAN.
@@ElionMars 4chan became An Hero years ago and is a zombie.
Kenku casts fly on him/herself "th-cam.com/video/aIazx4OeWYc/w-d-xo.html"
They literally talk in YTP sentence mixing.
A replicated city of an Oblex is such an amazing concept of a terrifying adventure... especially if the Oblex starts to copy several NPCs that were first with you in the group, but end up eaten by it.
I suspect it's impossible to do the gibbering mouther's voice justice with less than four separate tracks, mixed together.
Imagine a Kenku that only speaks in famous movie quotes
"I have a bad feeling about this"
"One does not simply walk into modor"
"Do or do not, there is no try"
"You must be a weasly"
Kenku Reeves... Can use any quote from any Keanu movies, preferably Bill & Ted, and you must imitate that character as best as possible.
That's pretty much how I see it going down
Snoochie boochie
It basically bumble bee form transformers
When I first saw the flumph, it instantly became my favorite D&D monster
It reminds me of flying spaghetti monster for some reason
I had a player once that played as a kenku, he used a sound board, he had recorded every game session he played when he came up with this idea, and mixed the voices together to get his "voice". it sounded wierd as heck, but it was amazing.
"There is more between Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than is dreamt of in your philosophy."
that flumph dialogue reminded me of herbert from family guy
I'll just go ahead and move into your basement ... hey, do you like popsicles?
To quote Darths and Droids:
"Hey, you're mute, stop talking!"
"But that's only when I'm talking in character!"
"But you guys never talk in char... oh"
I've never heard of s flail snail, but I instantly love it.
The Rat 101 it’s in volos guide if you want it
And it is based on doodlings in Medieval texts.
It's in volo's guide.
Very good foes. Can scale them up or make them even more antimagic/reflective.
I just have my kenku characters talk normally while his voice switches between dozens or hundreds of different voices each word, sortof like how bumblebee from transformers talks using radio stations.
Weirdest of the weird. Creepiest of the creepy. And the best of them all: The cream of the crop. THE INTERCONTINENTAL WRESTLING CHAMPION MACHO MAN RANDY SAVAGE OHHH YEAAHH
This reminds me of doom and destiny
Question : If the oblex sheds one of its personalities to create a spawn , is there a chance that the spawn may become a being who believes they are the personality they absorbed ?
I adore this idea!!!!
Good question. I'm afraid I don't know.
I remember my first ever session as a DM. Voicing those Kenku was... A unique experience.
I heard rust monster, and I started thinking of my mom's dwarven life domain cleric character's rust monster named fluffy. Don't ask why a dwarf has a rust monster, or why it's named fluffy; we're still prepping for the campaign.
Maybe it's covered in a bunch of rust flakes in the shape of fluff clouds which look soft to pet, but which will actually just give you tetanus?
@@NecromancyForKids yeah. We agreed she could also use fluffy as a mount if she wanted.
New goal: roll up a Kenku bard, and have him only speak in soundbytes from 90's/00's sitcoms.
The Flumphs have regular cameo's in Order of the Stick, and they're hilarious.
Roy really likes them, or he would be if he was aware of them.
4:53
Well, actually, there is some depth to gibbering mouthers- they absorb and integrate the nervous systems of the victims they consume. All the voices that come from a gibbering mouther come from the minds of its victims, maddened by being forcibly amalgamated into the creature. Digest that for a minute.
I will note that this is coming hot off of a MrRhexx video, so pardon if this is based off of previous edition lore that isn't technically 100% canon anymore.
Further honorable mentions: Anything from the Spelljammer Monstrous Compendiums.
Giant Space Hamster?
I'm personally a big fan of the cutout minis. They're afordable in box sets of hundreds of different kinds, they last if you don't fuck around with them, and the art is typically spot on.
I get the appeal to figurines, but I just don't have 20-200$ to spend on passing fancies.
The gibbering mouther should be an absolutely terrifying creature. Straight out of the worst nightmares, the flesh of multiple victims melded into an insane mass of eyes and teeth. But no, this is 5e, so it's a PG-rated cartoon.
I'm honestly kind of surprised that the horrifying Aboleth never made an entrance in the list. Still, definitely loved most of the choices show here ^_^
Also, the most important part about the Oblex is that it was created by Nolan Whale as part of the Make-A-Wish program!
Yeah, what a great success all around. I probably should have mentioned that in the video. Who knows, someday . . . ooze ranking?
Ochre jelly *S TEIR*
Gibbering Mouthers are one of my favorite. In the homebrew universe my group uses, they're the result of a cruel technique of fleshwarping. Rabid animals, assorted monsters, and parts of corpses are thrown into a vat with the victim, and blended together into a single mass of flesh. The victim is still conscious, but unable to control their body. Legend says that if you listen carefully enough through the crazed yammering and horrific screeching, you can hear a thin, feeble voice begging to be freed so they can cross the Bone River and know the peace of death.
"the characters are fighting their way through a dungeon. maybe a goblin stronghold, or a haunted crypt. they open a door."
oh well, cant be vox machina then.. -.-
Funny thing about being a kenku, you actually have a voice if you go to a library, pick up a dictionary, and ask someone who has a voice you like to read it to you for like, 50g. Yeah you speak in a monotone, but it really makes playing one as a PC not as much of a headache for a more newish DM, or a seasoned DM who doesn't like them. And you still have the mimic ability to use when you need to.
Bonus points if you talk like Jacket.
There are so many monsters that I would say could replace the monsters in this list for weirdness. Many of them have only been used once, in either one edition or in a dragons magazine. The best example I would say is the "Roving Mauler" from Tome of Magic (2006). "Claws flash as it cartwheels end over end on five furred legs," the fluff text reads. The Roving Mauler is a 5-foot tall starfish with lion legs and a lion head on either side of its ridiculous body.
Then you have the "Dohwar". The magial penguins from outer space that was only in the Spelljammer version of second edition. Though the dohwar speak Common and their own tongue, they rely heavily on telepathic powers for communication among themselves. In fact, dohwar have pairings called "mergers", wherein two dohwar stay in mental rapport, even to the point of finishing each other's sentences.
There's an image of the roving mauler late in the video ;)
18:34
I just want to say thank you Esper i love the passion that you have for table top rpgs you always help spark my imagination. i recently moved and haven't found a new group to play with and i really appreciate being able to watch your videos. can you make us a part 2 video detailing your honorable mention weird monsters? thanks again!
Thanks a million for the great comment Joseph! I hope you can get a new D&D group going soon. As for a part 2, I will certainly consider it. There are so many oddball monsters out there ...
Greetings, Esper! Much love to your work. You're truly talented.
I found some of your old videos on ranking monsters, demons and so on. You talk about making separate rankings of demon- and devillords, but I couldn't find any such video. If you still got the passion for making those videos I would love to watch them.
Much respect, and thank you for the brilliant and interesting entertainment. Poul - former D&D player back in the eighties, last century. I'm going to die in this present one. Amazing.
Brain Collectors have always been my favorite ever since the 'Castle Amber' Basic D&D module came out.
This was an amazing video, top 5 D&D youtubers without a doubt
Hey bro, some people may see you promoting a sponsor as "selling out" but forget them. I've been watching your channel for a while and I'm super happy that you've getting successful enough to find a sponsor for a quality product.
As a DM, I love your videos and even use inspiration from them in my non-DnD games as well. Please keep up the great work and that was awesome voice acting, my fav was the Kenku interaction but the Flumph made me laugh pretty hard too.
The Flumph sounds like it's just practicing its stabbing.
1: Never trust an Illithid
2: Always trust a Flumph
-Introduction to Interacting with Aberations, Volume 1
6:38 sounded so much like Herbert the Pervert from Family Guy...and added a whole new dimension of funny to the Flumph lol
I love your videos. The segment on star spawn has me wanting to rewatch dungeons of drakkenheim by the dungeon dudes. Thank you for revealing a tidbit of lore that has my imagination swimming with possibilities. You are the best lore bard and I feel like a cannon Esper's big book of lore is in order.
You don’t get enough attention for the awesome work you do.
Don’t think you got that Princess Bride reference past me.
;)
They voice acting was great I was cracking up
Lots of weird stuff out there. I enjoyed the funny voices. Nicely done.
Wasn't there an iteration of the lore where the mindflayers already won, but they went back in time to win even better then they did the first time?
In cannon or books im not sure, In your own games if you want, absolutely
The mind flayers took over in the future, but were driven to collapse due to a massive slave revolt. The surviving mind flayers went back into the past to rebuild.
3.5, they came back in time because they were living at the end of existence. They came back to rebuild their empire in the past, though they lost a lot of their knowledge in transit (not to mention a few slave revolts and other setbacks).
Fun fact: aboleths in 3.5 _feared_ mind flayers, simply because the aboleths had existed in the time before time and didn't even remember mind flayers existing then; mind flayers were the only beings that they had no prior knowledge of, and couldn't predict in any way.
You sure grew a lot, congratulations. (I've known your channel for a long time, although back in the day I had a different account, not disclosing it though, but we did have some pleasant exchanges in the comments.)
As a voice actor myself, I applaud you for this video and your efforts! Lord knows, *I* would probably be stumped (or at least have to fall back on audio editing of various sorts) to figure out appropriate voices for this menagerie of the bizarre!
Also, if you like bizarre monsters and mythos in D&D (ESPECIALLY involving Kuo-Toa), I highly recommend Demonac's Tales From My D&D Campaign (TDDC), it is a very well written (and animated) ongoing campaign saga that I see A LOT of your DM, Roleplay, Design, etc. principles reflected in.
Thanks for the great comment here. I'll definitely check that out.
4:35 “The most insidious thing in the world is nonsense that sounds just plausible enough to listen to.” -Lazav, head of House Dimir.
I'm 4 sessions into my first ever campaign and I absolutely love your channel. I fell in love with D&D very quickly.
the kuo-toa priests sounds a little like vogon poetry: 'O freddled gruntbuggly', and all that.
Freddy Powell don’t you dare recite vogon poetry. No being, mortal or old one, can withstand it.
@@GrimReaver Feed him/her to the ravenous bugblatter beast of Traal!
The Larval Mage is pretty much my biggest fears turned into a monster
Vargouille is a deserving top rank. It’s one of the creepiest creatures I’ve ever seen
I've always imagined them as creations of a High Priest Vampire Lord. Victims not quite powerful enough to be actual vampires.... "I don't like too much competition. The blood is mine."
what intriguing ideas you bring up with the kenku, very insightful and provocative...
Love the flumph. Everyone must love the flumph
Me: Yes! I love Kuo-Toa, Theyre so vast!
"I will explain! No.. There is too much, I will summerize"
That's exactly why I like them. My favorite humanoid race does happen to be Thri-Kreen! If they have a hyphon in the name.. I love em!! Great video!
Just for fun, a list of my favorite weirdos.
On the Cuff: Giff, Nalfeshnee, Thought Eater, Atropal, Disenchanter, Nuckelavee
Off the Rails: Cipactli, Temerdaemon, Kamaitachi, Anunnaki, Elohim, Psychemental, Penanggalen, Wizard's Shackle, Slurk, Moon Beast, Wolf-In-Sheep's-Clothing
Essentially Cheating: Yithian, Color Out of Space,, Azruverda, Astrazoan, Urog, Barathu, Shirren, Neogi, Skittermander, Stellifera, Morlamaw (This one I personally suggest you look up).
Tried to include ones that not only look weird but are unique in some way that sets them apart.
The Gibbering Mouther was the very first combat encounter I'd ever had in a D&D campaign, my Fighter ended up getting swallowed by it in one turn and tore his way free with his bare hands the next, so they hold a special place in my heart when it comes to the game.
Also my single favourite Wild Magic Surge result is summoning Flumphs on a 37-38 roll, it's just so funny to make a bunch of floating tentacle biscuits pop out of nowhere when you roll a 1 on the Surge table.
Bruh great video love the dedication to detail...
I can just imagine you making that “flOOnch” sound effects over and over again before your mic, gf look at u like (>.>)
The flumph not being a victimizer seems like a waste of so many good tentacles, lol.
You are a very naughty Hobbit Jerkins.
ooblex is basically the dnd mashup of john carpenter's the thing and the blob
digunder14 I came to the comment section to see if anyone else thought this as well. Glad I’m not alone lol
He has opened his heart and mind to the glory of the Flumph! Praise be!
Out of all the DND monsters, I love the weird ones best. Great video!
I your videos are so thorough. You can tell you really have a passion for D&D.
i like your voices esper. its awesome to have a channel that can emote so well, with all the mushmouthery on youtube .
A few years ago, I went through every official Dungeons and Dragons and Pathfinder Monster Manual to ever exist, and compiled a list of the monsters I thought were interesting. There are a LOT of really awesome things that you just don't see nowadays.
The CIFAL, a psychically-linked amalgam of insects in the shape of a human. Not unlike the Worm That Walks.
Nonafel, a beast that looks kind of like a Displacer Beast which can separate its body into 9 real clones.
Tirapheg, a humanoid with 3 heads and 3 legs, mouth under its third arm in chest. Makes a flash and creates illusionary copies of itself.
Lurking Stranglers, two eyeballs connected by a mess of muscle tissue. Beholders like to keep them as pets, since they resemble them.
Defacer, a muscular undead with multiple faces swirling on its head. It can replace people's faces, steal the faces of the dead, and rock swim
Lots of stuff like that.
I love the lurking strangler!
In 2nd (I think), my character, a Wizard, had as his goal to turn into a Worm that Walks (Lich was boring, 2nd pick was Defiler Athasian Dragon, which was undoable). All partymembers helped, he turned, and that Party got benched. Epic Times
I always imagined flumphs would sound more disarming, kind of like the host of a Nick Jr. show.
... Or maybe just Cheech Marin.
I like oblex, i actually homebrewed it a bit and gave it the power to shapeshift into one of the personalities, kind of like squeezing itself into a shape. Also it can let go of it's "lures" without any goo line connecting it back. It's a lovely monster, kind of like a succubus with a more slimy flavour.
Mimics. The amount of fear one can have for the tools/weapons/items used usually stems from the creature wielding it. Mimics just reverse the situation & it becomes that very thing! This stirs the pot of fear in my soul as simple interactions within D&D could turn ugly really fast. Yet, the catharsis I get from surviving such an encounter is just as powerful.
The point of a Mimic is to cause mental distress for inanimate objects & sow ever-lasting doubt.
Dopplegangers are the same, but with a huge selection of possible races. These creatures can make players never trust NPCs.
You forgot the most terrifying factor of the gibberish mouther! When it kills someone it absorbs them and they are forced to join their masses. No ethereal plane required!
I'm so glad they retconned the Kenku's speech recently. It's a fun flavor aspect but if you're not up for the challenge as a player, you can avoid it.
"I'm going to try and voice act them."
*clicks subscribe*
Let's hear it for Jelly Cube. WOOOOOOOOOOOO!
It is good to see the Oblex (my favorite ooze monster) in this list.
Esper I want to thank you. Yet again another great video. Be blessed brother.
Thank you for watching, may blessings be upon you as well
My favourite weird monster is the Tirapheg, which is sadly exclusive to the old Fiend Folio. It's not very strong, but has the unique ability to conjur two illusionary duplicates of itself, which can actually deal damage to targets that don't know that they are illusions. Oh, and they also look like they belong in a Silent Hill game!
Second to that is the Alkada, another old, sadly forgotten, but weirdly adorable creature of wild magic. It looks kind of like a mix between a flightless bird, a plant and a starfish, and it has the unexpectedly dangerous ability is to cast ANY spell, chosen at random, once per day.
Venomous means it bites you to poison you, poisonous you bite it, or touch, scrape whatever poison dart frog 🐸, their is a difference! Love the videoz!
I like the vargouille all right, but my favorite flying vampiric head is the penanngalan. It's a flying vampiric head with prehensile hair and its intestines hanging from its neck. When it does its vampire thing the intestines and organ sacs fill up with blood to add to the horror of the thing.
Esper was that kenku bit a long way of saying "if you play the bird person youll end up understanding what it takes to be a certain yellow transforming car"?? Lololol
Grell, in my opinion, would be good on the list
I wanna play a camapign with crazy stuff like this so bad!
I love this stuff and the idea of a horrible region (or regioms) that's loosely designated on a map that is basically just "this is the mid-to highly level terrifying nightmare zone full of awful awful things" and everyone kinda just avoids it if they can but you get the players to venture in on several occasions for various reasons and every time it's incredibly tense.
You could make a nice horror campaign with such weirdness.... I love it
i just found the Silly Monsters kickstarter and this adds up so fine
i really hope they make it, they have so fun previews already :)
(i just want to let people know, and not actually advertise here... if this violates anything please delete!)
Star Spawn Larva Mage is one of my favorite monsters and I want to run them sometime.
I recall Zee Bashew's video on Kuo Toa. Where he described the beasties just poopin godlings everywhere.
"Stamp em out quickly. Lest the fell things rise to some dark grandeur."
Want to know what's the worst about a kenku? The party asking the kenku to do something, or ask their opinion on something, and then the party upset you're vauge, or only repeating lines
You did great with the voice acting sir, hat off to you
I like the idea of a vargouille afflicting a gibbering mother.
Eu vi suas playlists e vi que você sabe falar português Esper. Sou brasileiro e adoro seu conteúdo, você inspira minha visão crítica e melhora meus jogos, continue com o conteúdo incrível que faz!
Valeu mesmo Enzo!
Awesome Descriptions Buddy!! Keep up the Good work!! 👍
You get ten points for your verbal sound effects, I laughed so hard. Thank you.
Can Kenku, like if they have enough int I suppose (or maybe lingual dexterity?), just create a complete library of Common phonemes, and then just speak in a slightly stilted way like Siri or Alexa or whatever?
I guess that’s missing the point of the gimmick, but might be cool if there were a lot of kenku in a story and you wanted one to seem unique and mentally or lingually superior.