@@wraithreaper22 the original part is referring to the color scheme which isn't on the DND apps and Wiki of course the stat block is a stat block, I don't really know what you were expecting but if you change that then it wouldn't be easy to use that's like expecting an original design for shoes to not go on your feet... but this is just going to go over your head and you're just going to argue so whatever
I don't think it's stated in the official lore, but based off the fact it speak and understands Common, Elven, and Sylvan, it's a safe bet that this thing originated in the Feywild, most likely in the darker portions. It's a high possibility that come adventurers found it, destroyed it, and then traveled back to the material plane before dying, therefore spreading it throughout the physical world.
And since most Primes have notoriously poor planar emigration control, they were never subject to adequate health screening and quarantine. Good luck figuring out a night twist-proof fence to contain the things either. It's like cane toads all over again, but the hilariously poisonous amphibians are actively murderous and have a giant woody...
I'm gonna be real with you chief I know literally nothing about dnd nor do I ever plan on playing it. I just really like weird creatures/monsters and man your videos deliver on that. Quality 👍
Never say never haha If you have an interest in weird creatures, I could see you having a blast as the DM of a group with a heavy combat focus. Throwing stuff at your players that they've never seen before and watching how they handle it is extremely satisfying
In Hero Games, a kinda Night Twist is Tyrannon the Conqueror. It has heads which are fruit, can eat people and then reincarnated them under his control, and can cast ANY AND ALL SPELLS WITH NO LIMITS.
I thought of this too. Even came up with a storyline for how it would work rp wise.. the cost and everything. "I could see a massive one of these in an extradimentinal plane luring in a perspective servent and offering it archetype or a homebrewed plant archetype warlock powers for the cost of.. sending like a living sentient being to it's realm using a magic item once a month or something.. and the player has to chose whom to send each time the time draws near.. .. The Night Twist doesn't care who and says as much so good player might be like trying to find and capture vile people they feel comfortable sending to be eaten by their tree patron.. while evil people might be just trying to get anyone alone so they can safely use the item no matter who." *copied from my post
An ancient night twist could actually make for an interesting warlock patron. They're ancient, intelligent, capable of casting spells, and utterly alien. Give one of these trees enough time, I'm sure it would be able to develop plans and agendas of its own. If a child with magical potential were to get lost in an ancient forest and be guided by the tree's song to lie down at its roots, it might decide that they can be of more use to it as a servant than as a meal. The warlock could have a living bracelet made from its root wrapped around their wrist. It looks normal most of the time, but if you try to remove it the bracelet tightens possessively. All of the warlock's somatic gestures are made with that hand. Perhaps the bracelet is even draining the warlock's blood parasitically, so they have a low Constitution due to having to support this greedy little offshoot of the main plant. I'll be suggesting this next time that a player of mine is unsure what kind of warlock they want to play. This sounds like a really fun patron to run.
The manchineel is my favorite tree. Because literally everything about it wants you to suffer. It's bark, sap, and leaves will make your skin blister. The "Death apples" that grow on it will, ya know, bring death. Even taking shelter under one in the rain will cause the water to pick up poison and blister you again. You can't even burn the thing off the face of the planet because the smoke is POISONOUS and will blind you
I personally think the ancient night twist should get Detect Thoughts- so that way as a way to entice the adventurers to not kill it, it can read into their deepest thoughts and desires, promising them with exactly the type of knowledge they'd want. Cuz, odds are, they will know that knowledge!
My first thought was the Ctheah from the Kingkiller Chronicles, a malicious tree with the ability to see the future; it tells people about future events selectively, and in a way that will make them act to cause the most suffering.
@@equidistanthoneyjoy7600 so it tells of a future that IT knows can happen from telling it or some future that with enough beggins drives a person mad and at some point when they become over strained the tree just *BONK* does em in and than burries them as they have lost it and after enough times it just goes for a kill as it tells the last fate, THEIR fate but in a far more twisted way.
@@lechking941as a bit of lore I remember, in a fey play if you can see the Ctheah in the background early on, you know it's going to be the worst kind of tragedy. It can see the branching paths of the future, and will tell you what you want to know, but in a way that will lead you down the worst timeline to get it. I don't remember any specific examples as its been a few years but like, imagine telling someone their son will die to a foreign soldier, having them ready to protect their son, them killing a foreign soldier, and due to some quirks of fate that cursed tree planned for, it leads to about as bloody a war as can be expected, with its own ongoing consequences. Iirc there was an entire group dedicated to killing anyone who interacted with that tree and making sure they didn't have a chance to utter a word. Edit oh yeah, worst part is the tree creates a magical cure so theres always an incentive to visit it
My first thought when I heard about this monster is that what if some more powerful monster’s soul was sealed inside, animating it. And when it’s killed, the monster’s soul transfers to whoever felled it causing the curse.
I'm really glad you mentioned Night Hags in this video because my first thought when seeing this thing is 'haunted forest'. Also, a Night Hag would likely want to cultivate a Night Twist for its wood. If the tree is that good at cursing folks when it's alive, I can only imagine how powerful a reagent its wood and bark is for making cursed objects and nefarious alchemicals.
Okay so we have an undead version of just about every creature type, however something we don't have(to my knowledge) is undead plant creatures, not Musk Zombies those are undead made by plants and not what I'm talking about
@@DungeonDad Possibly playing with this in the "undead spreading their curse" sort of way, I wonder what happens to a body that doesn't get buried. Maybe they're the last one alive or the party doesn't care that much, or burials aren't in their beliefs, but instead they get left out to be eaten by wild animals or something. So, let's say the curse forms an evil magic seed. If that tree curse still wants to grow, it's in an animal now and slowly gains power to start a form of the tree's charm effect, essentially doing the "mind control parasitic" thing and causing the creature to dig its own grave for the tree to properly take root.
I love the idea of this tree with waving branches and roots coming up from the ground, in the middle of a graveyard raising and playing with bodies, while singing a 90's cartoon style song.
In the spirit of Monster of the Week, I would name the manchineel tree. Manchineels make for a great environmental hazard, or the consequence of a survival check critical failure. Most people don't know about manchineels, even in the areas where they grow.
I like the idea that the languages a specific Night Twist lineage knows are influenced by who the curse passes among. For example, a night twist starts off knowing the base Common, Elvish and Sylvian but as it consumes flesh and propagates it learns new ones. A night twist dies and it's parting curse fells a Tiefling, now that night twist is fluent in Infernal. It fells a Dragonborn and now it's fluent in Draconic. So as the lineage grows older and older, the rare instances of speech can encompass a wider range of languages. Now I can't decide wether it's better for it to only learn a language if it's curse spreads to someone who knows it or if it should consume the knowledge of a language along with it speaker's flesh when it feeds.
Oh man, this nasy fellow is a perfect fit for my current campaign. It's a setting with very few monsters - those that are there have only started appearing within the past 20 years, spawning from a cursed forest after a ton of Not Good Things happened. Singing death trees that curse you just wonderfully fit that theme. Stumbled upon your channel only recenytly and I am very much in love with your content. Bringing forward older monsters into 5E is worthy enough, but the plot hooks and encounter ideas are just the icing on top. Thank you for your work!
TVTropes has some great entries in the Real Life tab of "When Trees Attack." I'll go with the first entry, the manchineel. Nasty, nasty, nasty. Also, the eucalyptus, since they can spontaneously catch fire in hot weather.
If party is less moral about how they earn rewards/favors, I see your 'Growing a Night Twist as a gift for a Mother Hag', but add the twist that there's one week left for it to grow, and the hag growing it hires them to defend the immobile sprout the next 7 nights, from the targeted attacks and minions of a rival hag out to ruin the sapling, and secure her place as giving the best gift to the matron.
I appreciate that this is fantasy and what I'm about to say is going against the time on her tradition of plants being weak to fire but there are numerous trees that can survive a forest fire but I cannot think of a single animal that can survive being set on fire
I can imagine a hard headed barbarian who learns that to remove the curse the thing has to die or the person has to get hit by it- just following the person to the Night Twist...picking up the person who is charmed- running at the tree- hitting the charmed person against the tree- and then trying to run away
This evil tree would probably hate the silence spell. Can't entice people if they can't hear its song. Though a secret behind the scenes war between the ancient night twist and a very large and powerful false hydra sounds like an excellent plot hook.
Instead of the Night Twist turning the town into zombies, wouldn't it make more sense to turn them into Blights? Or, better yet, Were-Blights. The people are still there, but they act strangely, robotic, emotionless. Then at night, they transform into Blights and attempt to kill the party.
I just started DMing and your videos have given me so many encounter ideas and I really appreciate your content and my PC’s do as well so thank you my guy! Doing the Gods work
Another great video. Thanks. I keep using these revised creatures in my campaign to surprise my 5e players who know the current monster manual backwards. They were all completely shocked when facing the Mage Rippers and the living wall. And now they have this tree to deal with. Thanks again. Keep up the good work.
The DnD channel I've been waiting for. Isn't full of clickbait of "what not to do as player" or " 10 DM mistakes you're probably making". Creative, lore inspired, in depth analysis with a strong understanding of what makes DnD so goddamn fun and immersive. Amazing work.
A Night Twist becoming the guardian of a small hamlet. Stays dormant most of the time, except when the town comes under threat. The twist then starts to sing. Good way to deal with murder hobo party.
I don't know how to explain this well, but stuff that I consider to be "Folk Horror" where there's some sort of insidious presence that isn't very dramatic, but just malignantly feeds off of a population or single person is so cool. This is perfect for that kind of thing.
I made a tree beast for a homebrew campaign based in a massive swamp and one little island was a tree-like beast colloquially called The Meat Tree (technically called an Allus'Dath) as it was not actually a tree but a strange greater alien being. It would radiate sonic vibes that couldn't be heard as much as felt and it would compel intelligent beings to it where they would worship it until they starved to death (unless they could break the hold on it). Also it was the little champ of the main villain, a hag
What if, instead of a remove curse spell removing the death curse, the curse is transported to the caster. That makes it truly a death curse, SOMEONE will die. The only way to kill the twist is to incinerate the dead body.
Welp thanks Dungeon Dad I made a Dnd Map for my Campaign wich is a giant archipelago in World box . And I made an Island with scary trees , purple grass , a Necromancer . So a HAG with the multiple night twists spread around the Island fit perfectly. Thanks Again.
1) I want more backstory about that kobold in sunglasses. 2) I wanted Doxy to answer to "Josius, are you under a spell?" Or go "Yup, that last ogre did hit you too hard"
Thank you for all the content you make, honestly you are a constant motivation, first you got me back into DnD to dm a oneshot for a party (in which this was the main baddie) and now i am directing a campain. Any time i feel my motivation getting lower i watch one of your videos and they help me with new ideas, so thank you! Oh btw the nightwist cursed and killed one of the poor players at the end, so it is going to be a returning threat for another time xD
I love the idea that the oldest form of that tree would be Malgarius, the tree demon lord. Lore wise, it could explain why it's not known where that tree is, as it would have gone back into a see. Maybe Malgarius wants a witch to create a massive night twist to infuse it's essence into it to reincarnate or something something. Love the content!
I did my own conversion of this creature before for a fun twist to pull on my players. We were playing a Spelljammer campaign where the villain was a necromancer making an undead space army. Since some spelljammer ships have a tree on them to provide breathable air on it, I decided some of the undead crew should have Nigh Twist that the necromancer made a deal with on their ship to not only have a bit of a hidden weapon and harder encounters, but also allow my players to think twice and make a difficult decision on if they destroy the ship and everything on it or if they let the ship continue to float out there with a Night Twist on it possibly cursing anyone who finds and explores the ship, or risk the curse themselves.
One of my players likes to power build and he made a healer with ridiculous healing and damage exploits so I have decided to give the night twist the suggest spell because 1. It makes sense for it to have if the song doesn't work so it "suggests" the creature moves closer to it and 2. The night twist can "suggest" the power building healer to heal a huge amount of hp to it
Hands down one of my favorites. I used one that when it ate something it would grow pods on the branches and over time would grow a blight and it would use the blights to drag other unwilling beings to it and it would grow more blights and so on l. It was a good first campaign that the adventurers were hired on for for goblin hunting
Ushi no Toki Mairi is a legendary curse from Japanese folklore that requires for you to nail a doll in the image of a person who you have a grudge against, to a tree that must be located on a graveyard and place a new nail for each passing day until a week has passed. This person will die due to this curse. This could be the origin of such a creature, either the tree used on the ritual or the person recipient of the curse when they die... Or better yet, both! (I don't remember the exact details of how to cast the curse, but it was along the lines previously written. Correct me in the comments if you must.)
As night falls the once quite town comes alive with people and a mournful song sets the mood. The folk move about with a shambling step, their skin like that of petrified wood. The player that became this night twist was training to be a necromancer but passed before they could finish. So tree litch with a pension for the old days and mild obsession with the new party thinking that their old friends have come back.
The best part of the Ancient Night Twists' "Spare my life", is its a Xanatos Gambit. Even if you kill it, the curse goes off so it stands to win in the long run. Night Twists themselves create a very nice lose/lose scenario. Its a great roleplay opportunity! MM3 had some great stuff.
My favourite tree, you ask? Why of course it is literally any tree with pink leaves. Even if just temporarily, the colour pink in such large quantities just makes me smile
Dying nightwist: Ha, now you shall never know peaceful rest again! Warlock with aspect of the moon: Is this some peasant joke that I'm too rich to understand?
Okay, you sir, have been giving me amazing ideas for warlock patrons. I could see a massive one of these in an extradimentinal plane luring in a perspective servent and offering it archetype or a homebrewed plant archetype warlock powers for the cost of.. sending like a living sentient being to it's realm using a magic item once a month or something.. and the player has to chose whom to send each time the time draws near.. .. The Night Twist doesn't care who and says as much so good player might be like trying to find and capture vile people they feel comfortable sending to be eaten by their tree patron.. while evil people might be just trying to get anyone alone so they can safely use the item no matter who.
It is obviously inspired by some other stuff I've read, but now I'm having a vision of the night twist staying still, pretending to be an ordinary tree, while the despair-stricken victims hang themselves off it.
A deaf vampire who lost his hearing long ago stumbled upon a night twist. Realizing he had a hack for luring victims the vampire built a large amphitheater around the nighttwist composed of blowl like stone that amplified the song of the night twist for miles. Using this the vampire and the night twist had a steady stream of food, but adventurers were tasked with putting an end to the nefarious paring
My favorite idea is a hidden glen that houses an enormous Nighttwist, that is slowly killing an entire nearby town. Every few nights, another of the towns folk wanders into the woods, never to return. When the party finds the tree, there are hundreds of blights hanging from nooses from the branches. The towns people hear the song, hang themselves, and turn into blights to serve the tree. Giving the tree a functionally endless army to protect it, while the party finds a way to destroy a tree the size of a house.
What a great video! I stumbled onto your channel a few days ago and have only been able to listen to a couple of them on my way home from work. This is the first I was able to watch. Holy shit, man! The amount of video editing for all image drops must be incredibly exhausting! I sincerely hope you have a team helping you to produce these extensive episodes. Irregardless, I really love this content. It will make DMing future games even more fun! Thank you!
I agree we definitely need more variety of plant monsters, side note on that how good is the wood of this monster? Perhaps the Hag is growing it to eventually chop down and use its wood to make a new moving house or something
after watching the Odopi video i was already planning on adding Carceri into my campaign, and a place like that seems like the perfect place for a night twist, heck maybe the main prison the party would need to visit IS the Ancient Night Twist
One thought I had for a plothook is the party meets up with another adventuring group who had a run in with a night twist that they managed to defeat, but sadly one of their members succumbed to some mysterious illness about a week later and they had recently buried him. A little later at night, the players hear the singing described to them by the other party, and thus they must investigate
Baobabs, gingkos, sycamores, honey locusts, red alders, bulokes, pears, quaking aspens, saguaros and elephant cactus (tree-like cactuses). It's hard to pick just one favorite tree.
That was a great Surfshark ad. But yeah, this is a great creepy one. I can imagine a hag planting one near a town just because she enjoys the suffering it causes, and maybe they angered her somehow. I'm getting evil undead dryad vibes from this thing.
So a note about “”the song”” us humans tend to forget that sound isn’t just about what we humans can hear (heck some of us are cursed with better hearing than others and we can damn well hear the sound of power going though a plug socket, it sounds like a cross between a hum a hiss and the sound of making your skin itch but your unable to scratch it) but their are lots of sounds above and below our human hearing, so your may want to consider this when describing a monsters song and make it so even though it can’t be heard by a human something like an elf or maybe someone that’s infected with lycanthropy can actually hear it and have a chance at blocking it with a spell or device (just blocking the ears may not help as it’s still a sound wave so you may still be able to hear it as it is hitting your body and resonating inside your chest so your inner ear is still picking it up). Personally ied say this tree if you going with it been outside of human hearing range would be a lower sound so you may be able to sense it as a rumble in the earth, it also could be interest if some players can hear what it’s actually saying if your so inclined as to give it words.
This is RIGHT on time, as I am taking my party into a forest this week! I already have a Wicker Man brewed up and ready for them in the daytime, but now I get to spring something on them in the nighttime as well!
The best trees are definitely sequoias. The General Sherman is the largest tree on Earth (in volume) and having seen it in person, it is incredible. Their bark is naturaly resistant to wild fires and many older sequoias have no low hanging branches and large black burn scars.
Not gonna lie, I think this video just saved me and gave me a kick ass idea for my campaign. Mostly due to the fact a lot of themes are music based and hell, the true final boss actually has powers bestowed upon him by the goddess of despair and misery. So it's perfect!!!
This reminds me of a tree I made for my own original fantasy setting: the crimson goretree. The crimson goretree is, as its name suggests, a crimson coloured tree that looks as though it is made of blood, gore and organs. It constantly seeps out a sweet pheromone during the summer until late autumn, which lures living creatures towards it. The pheromone makes them ignore the danger signs of its appearance, instead seeing a lush, beautiful tree of plentiful boons. The tree’s fruits are red and absolutely delicious, but contain a powerful toxin that makes you fall asleep and causes organ failure. Birds are unharmed by this, and are therefore its greatest ally in planting new seeds. The tree itself cannot perform any actions by itself and is completely immobile, though it does, as all plants in that setting, possess a sentient soul.
@@benthomason3307 Pretty much the same as in our world. Crimson Goretrees only live in specific ecosystems, so you wouldn't need to worry about randomly finding one in your garden or favourite part of the woods.
I can EASILY imagine Night Twists having been Extraplanar in origin, so are they from one of the Lower Planes (thus allowing whole groves of them down there,) or a regular tree corrupted by Far Realm energies, allowing the GM to pair them with other Far Realm nasties like the Kaorti or Beholders.
My favorite tree is the Sleeping Tree. The Sleeping Tree is a carnivorous weeping willow like tree with long branches that spread out and down around it covered in neon orange pods that release a strong sap and roots that break the peculiar white soil with a strong smelling red liquid. Figuring out it's not a normal tree is easy however it often grows around similar weeping style trees. Any creature that comes into contact with the sap must make a DC 18 saving throw versus poison or fall asleep for 1D4+2 hours any creature that fails the poison check must make a simple DC 8 saving throw versus death ( poison immunity protects against both.) The strange liquid found on the roots is a strong sticky red acid that deals 2d8 acid damage each turn unless removed with water. The tree has 40hp and armor class 18, melee attacks cause sap to fall on the attacker and entering adjacent or diagonal squares requires touching roots which will cover the attacker in the above acid (and cause the tree to drop its sap). Its sap is harvestable from unopened pods (1d4+2 per tree) and flammable, fire or fire spells applied to a Sleeping Tree will cause it to burst into flames and perish (destroying any pods on it). It does not directly attack, However any dead creatures or sleeping ones will have roots move under them to absorb their nutrients. This vicious plant comes from the Faewild where the natives know to spot the tree by its orange pods and peculiar white soil found around its base. On closer Inspection the white soil is actually the powdered bones of its prey, with some skulls and possible treasure found in between. The real danger of this tree comes from when it grows in large quantities, and many a silly adventurer has accidentally died trying to collect pods, which can sell for a ridiculous price of 100g a piece due to a unique quality: having developed in the Faewild its poison was developed to effect elves and ignores elvish (and half-elvish) sleeping immunity and some elves will use it as a drug, addicted to the sensation they cannot normally experience, while other non elvish peoples will dilute it and use it as a sleep aid to have deep enjoyable dreamless sleep. (such as maybe a mad king who wishes not to be plagued by nightmares) It should be noted that this poison is probably considered valueless to most so finding a buyer is sometimes impossible The smell released from the acid on the roots attracts small animals from which it gets most of its nutrients and can be collected in a glass vial As it is a tree it does not collect treasure however the treasure of the many creatures it killed can be found just under its branches Feel free to add it to your game
Thanks for watching everyone! If you want to check out Taron's channel you can find it right here: th-cam.com/users/Indestructoboy
Smoochies
For now tho, still lacking a job hahahaha
Sorry dude, but the "original" style statblock isn't original at all. It's already on other d&d apps and the wiki
@@wraithreaper22 are you referring to the statblock mechanic itself or the look?
@@wraithreaper22 the original part is referring to the color scheme which isn't on the DND apps and Wiki of course the stat block is a stat block, I don't really know what you were expecting but if you change that then it wouldn't be easy to use
that's like expecting an original design for shoes to not go on your feet... but this is just going to go over your head and you're just going to argue so whatever
I don't think it's stated in the official lore, but based off the fact it speak and understands Common, Elven, and Sylvan, it's a safe bet that this thing originated in the Feywild, most likely in the darker portions. It's a high possibility that come adventurers found it, destroyed it, and then traveled back to the material plane before dying, therefore spreading it throughout the physical world.
I like that, so it’s basically an invasive species.
@@stingerjohnny9951 I mean, based off my deductions, yeah. And I'd definitely use it like one.
It could also originate in the Grey Wastes, or both.
And since most Primes have notoriously poor planar emigration control, they were never subject to adequate health screening and quarantine. Good luck figuring out a night twist-proof fence to contain the things either. It's like cane toads all over again, but the hilariously poisonous amphibians are actively murderous and have a giant woody...
It's a curse, it literally turns people into the evil they were fighting.
Night Twist is a cool ass monster. The Knight Twist is what happens when Lancelot gets his junk caught in a fan.
You're hired
Knight Twist is my favorite drink at my local renaissance fair 😂😂
give 'im the ol' dick twist!
I'm gonna be real with you chief I know literally nothing about dnd nor do I ever plan on playing it. I just really like weird creatures/monsters and man your videos deliver on that. Quality 👍
Hell yeah! We’ll I’m glad to have ya here and weird monsters are something I’ve got plenty of! Thanks for watching! 😄
Never say never haha
If you have an interest in weird creatures, I could see you having a blast as the DM of a group with a heavy combat focus. Throwing stuff at your players that they've never seen before and watching how they handle it is extremely satisfying
That's an unusual interest. It's cool that you have unique thing you're in to. Also, if you enjoy video game RPGs, you may enjoy D&D.
Imagine the night twist growing a mile away from a town infested with a false Hydra
That's the same thought I had, lol
and then they have a rap battle
Also known as the emo section of every lunch room
That giant, ancient Night Twist sounds like it could make for a pretty excellent Warlock patron.
In Hero Games, a kinda Night Twist is Tyrannon the Conqueror. It has heads which are fruit, can eat people and then reincarnated them under his control, and can cast ANY AND ALL SPELLS WITH NO LIMITS.
I might use this.
I thought of this too. Even came up with a storyline for how it would work rp wise.. the cost and everything.
"I could see a massive one of these in an extradimentinal plane luring in a perspective servent and offering it archetype or a homebrewed plant archetype warlock powers for the cost of.. sending like a living sentient being to it's realm using a magic item once a month or something.. and the player has to chose whom to send each time the time draws near.. ..
The Night Twist doesn't care who and says as much so good player might be like trying to find and capture vile people they feel comfortable sending to be eaten by their tree patron.. while evil people might be just trying to get anyone alone so they can safely use the item no matter who."
*copied from my post
yeah!!
An ancient night twist could actually make for an interesting warlock patron. They're ancient, intelligent, capable of casting spells, and utterly alien. Give one of these trees enough time, I'm sure it would be able to develop plans and agendas of its own. If a child with magical potential were to get lost in an ancient forest and be guided by the tree's song to lie down at its roots, it might decide that they can be of more use to it as a servant than as a meal.
The warlock could have a living bracelet made from its root wrapped around their wrist. It looks normal most of the time, but if you try to remove it the bracelet tightens possessively. All of the warlock's somatic gestures are made with that hand. Perhaps the bracelet is even draining the warlock's blood parasitically, so they have a low Constitution due to having to support this greedy little offshoot of the main plant.
I'll be suggesting this next time that a player of mine is unsure what kind of warlock they want to play. This sounds like a really fun patron to run.
This is an amazing idea. Personally I love warlocks more than any other magic class, and I'm always looking for ways to spice thi gs up.
That bracelet could be the warlock's talisman, though in this case it would need to be removable.
The manchineel is my favorite tree. Because literally everything about it wants you to suffer.
It's bark, sap, and leaves will make your skin blister. The "Death apples" that grow on it will, ya know, bring death. Even taking shelter under one in the rain will cause the water to pick up poison and blister you again.
You can't even burn the thing off the face of the planet because the smoke is POISONOUS and will blind you
I second. Because manchineels are rare, they also seem really exotic, even though they just grow in the American South.
Wrote a story where gnolls burned fantasy-version machineel to gas a fortress.
Don't forget pulling it up usually just fucking throws the poison and needles everywhere and often just makes the fucking thing reseed
This would be a badass tree to turn into Baba Lysaga's walking hut.
YES!
Old willow man
I personally think the ancient night twist should get Detect Thoughts- so that way as a way to entice the adventurers to not kill it, it can read into their deepest thoughts and desires, promising them with exactly the type of knowledge they'd want.
Cuz, odds are, they will know that knowledge!
That’s a great idea
My first thought was the Ctheah from the Kingkiller Chronicles, a malicious tree with the ability to see the future; it tells people about future events selectively, and in a way that will make them act to cause the most suffering.
@@equidistanthoneyjoy7600 so it tells of a future that IT knows can happen from telling it or some future that with enough beggins drives a person mad and at some point when they become over strained the tree just *BONK* does em in and than burries them as they have lost it and after enough times it just goes for a kill as it tells the last fate, THEIR fate but in a far more twisted way.
@@lechking941as a bit of lore I remember, in a fey play if you can see the Ctheah in the background early on, you know it's going to be the worst kind of tragedy.
It can see the branching paths of the future, and will tell you what you want to know, but in a way that will lead you down the worst timeline to get it. I don't remember any specific examples as its been a few years but like, imagine telling someone their son will die to a foreign soldier, having them ready to protect their son, them killing a foreign soldier, and due to some quirks of fate that cursed tree planned for, it leads to about as bloody a war as can be expected, with its own ongoing consequences. Iirc there was an entire group dedicated to killing anyone who interacted with that tree and making sure they didn't have a chance to utter a word.
Edit oh yeah, worst part is the tree creates a magical cure so theres always an incentive to visit it
My first thought when I heard about this monster is that what if some more powerful monster’s soul was sealed inside, animating it. And when it’s killed, the monster’s soul transfers to whoever felled it causing the curse.
That's a really cool idea.
I'm really glad you mentioned Night Hags in this video because my first thought when seeing this thing is 'haunted forest'. Also, a Night Hag would likely want to cultivate a Night Twist for its wood. If the tree is that good at cursing folks when it's alive, I can only imagine how powerful a reagent its wood and bark is for making cursed objects and nefarious alchemicals.
Okay so we have an undead version of just about every creature type, however something we don't have(to my knowledge) is undead plant creatures, not Musk Zombies those are undead made by plants and not what I'm talking about
This could 100% be presented in that fashion! Maybe the origin of the night twist is that it’s an undead treant!
@@DungeonDad I mean yeah, but I want an official one, guess I'll have to settle for what I can get
@@DungeonDad Possibly playing with this in the "undead spreading their curse" sort of way, I wonder what happens to a body that doesn't get buried.
Maybe they're the last one alive or the party doesn't care that much, or burials aren't in their beliefs, but instead they get left out to be eaten by wild animals or something. So, let's say the curse forms an evil magic seed. If that tree curse still wants to grow, it's in an animal now and slowly gains power to start a form of the tree's charm effect, essentially doing the "mind control parasitic" thing and causing the creature to dig its own grave for the tree to properly take root.
I always saw Blights and Shambling Mounds as the undead of plants.
@@brendan-kfp7.62mmminigun4 I mean they're similar, but not quite
The hag uses the night twist as a power armor, having it wrap around her do become a physical juggernaut spell caster
Give your night twist spike growth and thorn whip! Drag those victims in!
Hell yeah!
"... Who's bite is worse that his bark"
That's why you are the Dungeon Dad.
I love the idea of this tree with waving branches and roots coming up from the ground, in the middle of a graveyard raising and playing with bodies, while singing a 90's cartoon style song.
“What is your favorite tree?”
I’m partial to the Douglas Fir. Any tree with the audacity to have a human name is cool in my book.
A highly respectable choice.
There's also the sequoia.
Personally obsessed with the dichotomy between Platanus acerfolia and Acer platanoides
In the spirit of Monster of the Week, I would name the manchineel tree. Manchineels make for a great environmental hazard, or the consequence of a survival check critical failure. Most people don't know about manchineels, even in the areas where they grow.
A Night Twist surrounded by a grove containing Mandriano's would be devastating...
The perfect curse for a bard who talks too much about their morning wood.
Now its gonna be mourning wood 😅
Sandbox tree.
A tree that has seeds explode from it's trunk at speeds up to 150mph is worth knowing.
Me thinking about making a long rest take a week
"Denies the effects of a long rest"
So, I'm adding this
Fun fact: fungi are actually more closely related to animals than they are to plants.
I like the idea that the languages a specific Night Twist lineage knows are influenced by who the curse passes among.
For example, a night twist starts off knowing the base Common, Elvish and Sylvian but as it consumes flesh and propagates it learns new ones.
A night twist dies and it's parting curse fells a Tiefling, now that night twist is fluent in Infernal. It fells a Dragonborn and now it's fluent in Draconic. So as the lineage grows older and older, the rare instances of speech can encompass a wider range of languages.
Now I can't decide wether it's better for it to only learn a language if it's curse spreads to someone who knows it or if it should consume the knowledge of a language along with it speaker's flesh when it feeds.
Oh man, this nasy fellow is a perfect fit for my current campaign. It's a setting with very few monsters - those that are there have only started appearing within the past 20 years, spawning from a cursed forest after a ton of Not Good Things happened. Singing death trees that curse you just wonderfully fit that theme.
Stumbled upon your channel only recenytly and I am very much in love with your content. Bringing forward older monsters into 5E is worthy enough, but the plot hooks and encounter ideas are just the icing on top. Thank you for your work!
TVTropes has some great entries in the Real Life tab of "When Trees Attack." I'll go with the first entry, the manchineel. Nasty, nasty, nasty. Also, the eucalyptus, since they can spontaneously catch fire in hot weather.
Favorite tree? How could I choose just one!?! The majestic the Shortleaf Pine, or almost any given pine tree, would definitely be on the list!
If party is less moral about how they earn rewards/favors, I see your 'Growing a Night Twist as a gift for a Mother Hag', but add the twist that there's one week left for it to grow, and the hag growing it hires them to defend the immobile sprout the next 7 nights, from the targeted attacks and minions of a rival hag out to ruin the sapling, and secure her place as giving the best gift to the matron.
I too have been mining the MM3 for amazing monsters for years. I used one in a 3.5 module I wrote 3 years ago. I paired them with a coven of hags.
Excellent, I was in need of an evil tree.
I appreciate that this is fantasy and what I'm about to say is going against the time on her tradition of plants being weak to fire but there are numerous trees that can survive a forest fire but I cannot think of a single animal that can survive being set on fire
For a low-level party or a party without remove curse this is a brutal enemy.
I can imagine a hard headed barbarian who learns that to remove the curse the thing has to die or the person has to get hit by it- just following the person to the Night Twist...picking up the person who is charmed- running at the tree- hitting the charmed person against the tree- and then trying to run away
I want to see more creatures that look like Lovecraft and Picasso made a colab, like the Odopi and the Shrieking Terror
The editing of this video is top notch
You, Mr. Rhexx and AJ Picket are the absolute best D&D channels on TH-cam!..
Mr. Rhexx created a tree called a Leeching Willow for the GrimHollow Monster Grimoire that seems to fit in well thematically with this video.
This evil tree would probably hate the silence spell. Can't entice people if they can't hear its song. Though a secret behind the scenes war between the ancient night twist and a very large and powerful false hydra sounds like an excellent plot hook.
I agree with you: redwoods are the best trees ever! Especially dawn redwoods.
Yep its totally going into my next campaign
Instead of the Night Twist turning the town into zombies, wouldn't it make more sense to turn them into Blights? Or, better yet, Were-Blights. The people are still there, but they act strangely, robotic, emotionless. Then at night, they transform into Blights and attempt to kill the party.
I just started DMing and your videos have given me so many encounter ideas and I really appreciate your content and my PC’s do as well so thank you my guy! Doing the Gods work
Redwoods are far from the largest trees, they're just the tallest. The largest tree is a quaking aspen named Pando.
Another great video. Thanks. I keep using these revised creatures in my campaign to surprise my 5e players who know the current monster manual backwards. They were all completely shocked when facing the Mage Rippers and the living wall. And now they have this tree to deal with. Thanks again. Keep up the good work.
The DnD channel I've been waiting for. Isn't full of clickbait of "what not to do as player" or " 10 DM mistakes you're probably making". Creative, lore inspired, in depth analysis with a strong understanding of what makes DnD so goddamn fun and immersive. Amazing work.
A Night Twist becoming the guardian of a small hamlet. Stays dormant most of the time, except when the town comes under threat. The twist then starts to sing. Good way to deal with murder hobo party.
I don't know how to explain this well, but stuff that I consider to be "Folk Horror" where there's some sort of insidious presence that isn't very dramatic, but just malignantly feeds off of a population or single person is so cool. This is perfect for that kind of thing.
All I can think of for this thing is an encounter where it has an all plant jazz band in the middle of the woods
I made a tree beast for a homebrew campaign based in a massive swamp and one little island was a tree-like beast colloquially called The Meat Tree (technically called an Allus'Dath) as it was not actually a tree but a strange greater alien being. It would radiate sonic vibes that couldn't be heard as much as felt and it would compel intelligent beings to it where they would worship it until they starved to death (unless they could break the hold on it). Also it was the little champ of the main villain, a hag
What if, instead of a remove curse spell removing the death curse, the curse is transported to the caster.
That makes it truly a death curse, SOMEONE will die. The only way to kill the twist is to incinerate the dead body.
Welp thanks Dungeon Dad I made a Dnd Map for my Campaign wich is a giant archipelago in World box . And I made an Island with scary trees , purple grass , a Necromancer . So a HAG with the multiple night twists spread around the Island fit perfectly. Thanks Again.
The inclusion of artist credit made me smile c: thank you very much dungeon dad
imagine casting remove curse on the tree and accidentaly ruining your dm's plans for the next 3 sessions
1) I want more backstory about that kobold in sunglasses.
2) I wanted Doxy to answer to "Josius, are you under a spell?" Or go "Yup, that last ogre did hit you too hard"
Thank you for all the content you make, honestly you are a constant motivation, first you got me back into DnD to dm a oneshot for a party (in which this was the main baddie) and now i am directing a campain. Any time i feel my motivation getting lower i watch one of your videos and they help me with new ideas, so thank you!
Oh btw the nightwist cursed and killed one of the poor players at the end, so it is going to be a returning threat for another time xD
Feels like a missed opportunity that the people who succumb to the despair song don't hang themselves in its branches
I love the idea that the oldest form of that tree would be Malgarius, the tree demon lord. Lore wise, it could explain why it's not known where that tree is, as it would have gone back into a see. Maybe Malgarius wants a witch to create a massive night twist to infuse it's essence into it to reincarnate or something something.
Love the content!
I did my own conversion of this creature before for a fun twist to pull on my players. We were playing a Spelljammer campaign where the villain was a necromancer making an undead space army. Since some spelljammer ships have a tree on them to provide breathable air on it, I decided some of the undead crew should have Nigh Twist that the necromancer made a deal with on their ship to not only have a bit of a hidden weapon and harder encounters, but also allow my players to think twice and make a difficult decision on if they destroy the ship and everything on it or if they let the ship continue to float out there with a Night Twist on it possibly cursing anyone who finds and explores the ship, or risk the curse themselves.
One of my players likes to power build and he made a healer with ridiculous healing and damage exploits so I have decided to give the night twist the suggest spell because 1. It makes sense for it to have if the song doesn't work so it "suggests" the creature moves closer to it and 2. The night twist can "suggest" the power building healer to heal a huge amount of hp to it
Hands down one of my favorites. I used one that when it ate something it would grow pods on the branches and over time would grow a blight and it would use the blights to drag other unwilling beings to it and it would grow more blights and so on l. It was a good first campaign that the adventurers were hired on for for goblin hunting
imagine the party approaches the bbeg's dark citadel, and a grove of these start singing The Nowhere King
Ushi no Toki Mairi is a legendary curse from Japanese folklore that requires for you to nail a doll in the image of a person who you have a grudge against, to a tree that must be located on a graveyard and place a new nail for each passing day until a week has passed. This person will die due to this curse.
This could be the origin of such a creature, either the tree used on the ritual or the person recipient of the curse when they die... Or better yet, both!
(I don't remember the exact details of how to cast the curse, but it was along the lines previously written. Correct me in the comments if you must.)
I like the larch. It's easy to identify from very far away
When you mentioned the Ancient Night Twist tempting the party, my mind went to it being a twisted version of an Archfey warlock patron.
i felt literal dread when you mentioned it having phantasmal killer, i rarely hear about that spell and dear goodness its a dangerous one.
Now I really want to run an encounter with one of these were it sings like the great might poo and it taunts the party in song as it fights.
As night falls the once quite town comes alive with people and a mournful song sets the mood. The folk move about with a shambling step, their skin like that of petrified wood. The player that became this night twist was training to be a necromancer but passed before they could finish. So tree litch with a pension for the old days and mild obsession with the new party thinking that their old friends have come back.
Oooh! I am a sucker for plant like monsters in my games!! This is right up my alley
I believe it's Douglas firs that store enough moisture to either not burn or reduce risk of fires. Best tree 10/10
The best part of the Ancient Night Twists' "Spare my life", is its a Xanatos Gambit. Even if you kill it, the curse goes off so it stands to win in the long run. Night Twists themselves create a very nice lose/lose scenario. Its a great roleplay opportunity! MM3 had some great stuff.
"The Night Twist" also sounds like a great name for a cocktail that could be served at local taverns.
My favourite tree, you ask? Why of course it is literally any tree with pink leaves. Even if just temporarily, the colour pink in such large quantities just makes me smile
Pink best color
Dying nightwist: Ha, now you shall never know peaceful rest again!
Warlock with aspect of the moon: Is this some peasant joke that I'm too rich to understand?
Okay, you sir, have been giving me amazing ideas for warlock patrons.
I could see a massive one of these in an extradimentinal plane luring in a perspective servent and offering it archetype or a homebrewed plant archetype warlock powers for the cost of.. sending like a living sentient being to it's realm using a magic item once a month or something.. and the player has to chose whom to send each time the time draws near.. ..
The Night Twist doesn't care who and says as much so good player might be like trying to find and capture vile people they feel comfortable sending to be eaten by their tree patron.. while evil people might be just trying to get anyone alone so they can safely use the item no matter who.
It is obviously inspired by some other stuff I've read, but now I'm having a vision of the night twist staying still, pretending to be an ordinary tree, while the despair-stricken victims hang themselves off it.
Favorite tree is Weeping willow. There bark has medical properties. And their branches can be woven into baskets.
A deaf vampire who lost his hearing long ago stumbled upon a night twist. Realizing he had a hack for luring victims the vampire built a large amphitheater around the nighttwist composed of blowl like stone that amplified the song of the night twist for miles. Using this the vampire and the night twist had a steady stream of food, but adventurers were tasked with putting an end to the nefarious paring
My favorite idea is a hidden glen that houses an enormous Nighttwist, that is slowly killing an entire nearby town.
Every few nights, another of the towns folk wanders into the woods, never to return.
When the party finds the tree, there are hundreds of blights hanging from nooses from the branches. The towns people hear the song, hang themselves, and turn into blights to serve the tree.
Giving the tree a functionally endless army to protect it, while the party finds a way to destroy a tree the size of a house.
The dread & melancholy edit was *chefs kiss*
What a great video! I stumbled onto your channel a few days ago and have only been able to listen to a couple of them on my way home from work. This is the first I was able to watch. Holy shit, man! The amount of video editing for all image drops must be incredibly exhausting! I sincerely hope you have a team helping you to produce these extensive episodes. Irregardless, I really love this content. It will make DMing future games even more fun! Thank you!
I agree we definitely need more variety of plant monsters, side note on that how good is the wood of this monster? Perhaps the Hag is growing it to eventually chop down and use its wood to make a new moving house or something
after watching the Odopi video i was already planning on adding Carceri into my campaign, and a place like that seems like the perfect place for a night twist, heck maybe the main prison the party would need to visit IS the Ancient Night Twist
I’m totally gonna add this to my random encounters list. Thank you very much for this!
Wait a second !! So this is the origin of all those tam tam sounds coming from the Mont Royale every Sundays , it was a Night Twist all along .
One thought I had for a plothook is the party meets up with another adventuring group who had a run in with a night twist that they managed to defeat, but sadly one of their members succumbed to some mysterious illness about a week later and they had recently buried him. A little later at night, the players hear the singing described to them by the other party, and thus they must investigate
Baobabs, gingkos, sycamores, honey locusts, red alders, bulokes, pears, quaking aspens, saguaros and elephant cactus (tree-like cactuses). It's hard to pick just one favorite tree.
That was a great Surfshark ad. But yeah, this is a great creepy one. I can imagine a hag planting one near a town just because she enjoys the suffering it causes, and maybe they angered her somehow. I'm getting evil undead dryad vibes from this thing.
So a note about “”the song”” us humans tend to forget that sound isn’t just about what we humans can hear (heck some of us are cursed with better hearing than others and we can damn well hear the sound of power going though a plug socket, it sounds like a cross between a hum a hiss and the sound of making your skin itch but your unable to scratch it) but their are lots of sounds above and below our human hearing, so your may want to consider this when describing a monsters song and make it so even though it can’t be heard by a human something like an elf or maybe someone that’s infected with lycanthropy can actually hear it and have a chance at blocking it with a spell or device (just blocking the ears may not help as it’s still a sound wave so you may still be able to hear it as it is hitting your body and resonating inside your chest so your inner ear is still picking it up).
Personally ied say this tree if you going with it been outside of human hearing range would be a lower sound so you may be able to sense it as a rumble in the earth, it also could be interest if some players can hear what it’s actually saying if your so inclined as to give it words.
This is RIGHT on time, as I am taking my party into a forest this week! I already have a Wicker Man brewed up and ready for them in the daytime, but now I get to spring something on them in the nighttime as well!
Can confirm, the Redwood, specifically the costal redwood is the superior tree
The ancient Night-twist sounds like an evil bristlecone.
The best trees are definitely sequoias. The General Sherman is the largest tree on Earth (in volume) and having seen it in person, it is incredible. Their bark is naturaly resistant to wild fires and many older sequoias have no low hanging branches and large black burn scars.
Give his night a twist
The ol night twist!
Not gonna lie, I think this video just saved me and gave me a kick ass idea for my campaign. Mostly due to the fact a lot of themes are music based and hell, the true final boss actually has powers bestowed upon him by the goddess of despair and misery. So it's perfect!!!
This reminds me of a tree I made for my own original fantasy setting: the crimson goretree.
The crimson goretree is, as its name suggests, a crimson coloured tree that looks as though it is made of blood, gore and organs.
It constantly seeps out a sweet pheromone during the summer until late autumn, which lures living creatures towards it. The pheromone makes them ignore the danger signs of its appearance, instead seeing a lush, beautiful tree of plentiful boons.
The tree’s fruits are red and absolutely delicious, but contain a powerful toxin that makes you fall asleep and causes organ failure.
Birds are unharmed by this, and are therefore its greatest ally in planting new seeds.
The tree itself cannot perform any actions by itself and is completely immobile, though it does, as all plants in that setting, possess a sentient soul.
how does veganism work in your world?
@@benthomason3307 Pretty much the same as in our world.
Crimson Goretrees only live in specific ecosystems, so you wouldn't need to worry about randomly finding one in your garden or favourite part of the woods.
@@ArkBlanc But you just said that _every_ plant in your world is sapient.
@@benthomason3307 Sentient, not sapient. There is a difference.
Favorite tree?
Gallows Tree! I'd love to see an episode on these. One of my groups is traumatized for life because of that monster!
It’s a carnivorous singing womping willow and I love it
Dynamite tree. It's fruit fucking explodes
I can EASILY imagine Night Twists having been Extraplanar in origin, so are they from one of the Lower Planes (thus allowing whole groves of them down there,) or a regular tree corrupted by Far Realm energies, allowing the GM to pair them with other Far Realm nasties like the Kaorti or Beholders.
I imagine the Night Twist using gust of wind and making the fire worse. Hilarious.
My favorite tree is the Sleeping Tree.
The Sleeping Tree is a carnivorous weeping willow like tree with long branches that spread out and down around it covered in neon orange pods that release a strong sap and roots that break the peculiar white soil with a strong smelling red liquid.
Figuring out it's not a normal tree is easy however it often grows around similar weeping style trees.
Any creature that comes into contact with the sap must make a DC 18 saving throw versus poison or fall asleep for 1D4+2 hours any creature that fails the poison check must make a simple DC 8 saving throw versus death ( poison immunity protects against both.)
The strange liquid found on the roots is a strong sticky red acid that deals 2d8 acid damage each turn unless removed with water.
The tree has 40hp and armor class 18, melee attacks cause sap to fall on the attacker and entering adjacent or diagonal squares requires touching roots which will cover the attacker in the above acid (and cause the tree to drop its sap). Its sap is harvestable from unopened pods (1d4+2 per tree) and flammable, fire or fire spells applied to a Sleeping Tree will cause it to burst into flames and perish (destroying any pods on it). It does not directly attack, However any dead creatures or sleeping ones will have roots move under them to absorb their nutrients.
This vicious plant comes from the Faewild where the natives know to spot the tree by its orange pods and peculiar white soil found around its base. On closer Inspection the white soil is actually the powdered bones of its prey, with some skulls and possible treasure found in between.
The real danger of this tree comes from when it grows in large quantities, and many a silly adventurer has accidentally died trying to collect pods, which can sell for a ridiculous price of 100g a piece due to a unique quality: having developed in the Faewild its poison was developed to effect elves and ignores elvish (and half-elvish) sleeping immunity and some elves will use it as a drug, addicted to the sensation they cannot normally experience, while other non elvish peoples will dilute it and use it as a sleep aid to have deep enjoyable dreamless sleep. (such as maybe a mad king who wishes not to be plagued by nightmares) It should be noted that this poison is probably considered valueless to most so finding a buyer is sometimes impossible
The smell released from the acid on the roots attracts small animals from which it gets most of its nutrients and can be collected in a glass vial
As it is a tree it does not collect treasure however the treasure of the many creatures it killed can be found just under its branches
Feel free to add it to your game