First Look at the Sphinx of Wonder From the D&D 2024 Player's Handbook!
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 30 มิ.ย. 2024
- Check out the 2024 D&D Player's Handbook preorder right here: marketplace.dndbeyond.com/cat...
Today we are taking a look at a new monster from the 2024 Dungeons and Dragons Player's Handbook! This little sphinx of wonder has never been seen outside the WotC office... until now! Join me in this exciting new reveal, and of course, for some lore, plot hooks, and stats! Also, I think this creature is a mere example of a new wave in sphinx lore for Dungeons and Dragons in 2024 (technically 2025 with the new Monster Manual I guess), so allow me to tinfoil at you about it.
#DungeonsAndDragonsLore #dnd5e #MonsterLore
The 5E PDF of the new sphinx - drive.google.com/file/d/1bXuY...
The D&D 5E stat block for this monster and Manky! - docs.google.com/document/d/1h...
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All artwork in this video is provided courtesy of Wizards of the Coast
00:00 - INTRO
02:41 - WHAT IS IT?
04:46 - THE RIDDLE OF THE SPHINX
07:05 - MECHANICS
09:18 - PLOT HOOKS
14:15 - FINAL THOUGHTS
Thanks for watching everyone! What monster would you like to see show up next?
edit on 6/26 - I CALLED IT. LET'S GOOOOO: th-cam.com/video/v6lncsjhYRI/w-d-xo.html
*Note: as of 3 days ago on June 17, this marks the 1 year anniversary since I started asking for the Darklight video, back in the Brown Dragon video* 🎉
Day 31(or 35, further information pending, as it seems I missed a few) of Darklight request, but in the tristanspaulding timeline it's day 107
I guess your lucky WOTC didn't send the frighteners around instead i guess you rolled natural 20's on your persuasion checks! :P
I love the Anzu demon from the dragon magazine article on Pazuzu
Nehaschimic Dragons - crazy monsters that do things like growing until they cover the entire field/"universe from your perspective."
Found these from the Draconic Abomination tv trope page, which says they're from The Immortals Handbook: Epic Bestiary 3rd-Party rulebook.
CONGRATULATIONS @DUNGEONDAD!!!🎉🎊🎆 I'm really happy for you that Wizards Of The Coast did a collaboration with you. Dont be modest YOU ARE AWESOME and you know it. For the next creature could you do either "The Prince Of Frost" or "The Cat Lord" (Now I want his stats block after This video 😅).
Imps can turn into a rat so an infernal mouse is not out of the question.
We now have the campaign’s BBEG
Mighty mouse
Or a cranium rat colony that has grown strong enough to be completely independent of the mindflayers
Particularly if there’s some metal attached… Iron, perhaps
Infernal sphinx but it’s a horny guy’s head on a rat’s body (also it’s tiny).
A sphinx of wonder based on my cat would be able to sleep through anything and be able to increase her weight tenfold, but only when she is stepping on someone's crotch.
this is too real
It's like cats intentionally crush your balls.
They kind of look like they would be at home on the Astral plane, perhaps perched on warm islands with astral color pool portals, watching the veil to the realm of dreams.
Oh to be a peaceful sphinx on the astral plane
The man of ecological lore is here in the comments.
@@qrow8638 Did we all read that in his voice ?
A sphinx of wonder based on my cat would absolutely gain a bonus on surprise attacks against ankles
Kitty Technique! Trip attack on mortals carrying food!
That’s incredible and adorable lmao
Dungeon Dad: This video is Sponsored by Wizards of the Coast.
Me: *Starlord face zoom in* What?
My same reaction.
When WotC actually starts getting in touch with the community, you know they must be desperate. Lmao
They're lucky Dad here was nice enough to loan them some of his nerd cred.
From what i understand, Wotc have basically given a bunch of popular d&d youtubers a preview copy of the phb, but they had to sign a nda and agree to only review the agreed upon bits of the new phb (until a certain date or until Jeremy crawford talks about it in the preview interviews wotc are doing now).
So far (iirc) the youtubers I've seen are: the dungeon dudes had the new rogue subclass, treantmonk had the changes to the fighter class (& possibly more), d4 deep dive had the paladin changes, and Ginny D had the new bard subclass.
I'm certain a whole bunch more youtubers had other bits, but I've just missed them)
Personally (while I'm not a fan of wotc) I think it's a genius move as everyone gets a preview and everyone isn't talking about the same thing at the same time.
So the usual sphinxes serve the same function as dungeons.
@@Wintermute909 So they actually learned something from their last few debacles?
1:49 good thing he got permission, otherwise the Pinkertons might've been sent after him
Glad they put non-evil familiars in there for pact of the chain.
We've been houseruling that for ages, haha.
Remember not everyone that plays a warlock wants to be an Edgelord folks. Some of us want to run with a goodly or neutral patron. And added cat shennanigans will make that all the better.
To be fair Psudodragons and Sprites aren't even and usually lean towards good.
As much as I have a hard time supporting wotc official material anymore, this is pretty dope! Congrats on the sponsorship
Yhea, like in my opinion i really don't like most new stuff in one DnD, like what they did to some races. Removing alignments sure. But usually whe we talk about mondters, creatures, etc they always end up making cool stuff. However i hate the idea of changing the sphinx we know from a guardian to a god like thing that you'd make a pact with,. But adding a new sphinx type that would be even more powerful then the others that you'd make a pact with, that yhea, I'd like. And of course i like the kitty sphinx
A dnd warlock who made a bet with a sphinx, betting he can find his way back even if he looses his memories. For the cost of giving up his memories, ge will be guarded by this mysterious shadowy kitten, lurking in the shadows almost unseen, yet sometimes at night glistening like the stars above. After he looses his memory he is just like a stereotypical klutz of a rogue, but with incredible luck. Later on as he discovers this strange astronomical mystery, can he make his way to the celestial sphinx that gave his power?
8:08 If it's doing that much damage, one of the party members is in for a rude awakening when they let it sit on their lap.
The Sphinx of Wonder becomes the deadliest trap in the game when it shows off its belly.
This is incredible! If anyone deserved to reveal a monster, it's you!
It's weird that I've never thought of a Sphinx before in terms of DnD, especially when it's so iconic. Nice to see that they're revisiting it.
I am genuinely stoked to see what they do with the sphinx. I think there will be some very cool stuff on the horizon 🤞
Vox Machina helped me with that
Congrats bro it's cool af to be the first person showing this off
Thanks! I am stoked they sent me such a cool little creature too!
Big ups to WotC giving the realest DM and D&D content creator that sweet sweet advanced phb copy!
The gang turn into mice by enraging a wizard and the big bad is the wizard's sphinx of wonder chasing the gang around until the spell wear off or they got out of the wizard tower. Sounds kinda funny
I was about to make a flirty comment about how are you the most beautiful thing on screen with all the abundant kitty cat imagery and then you called Manky YOUR cat. YOUR cat?
He signed the papers giving me sole custody yesterday 🤷♂️
@DungeonDad But sir! Do not make me thumbs down you. Good day.
7:28 I mean, a small creature strong enough to wreck buildings and throw things at you sounds like it might make an interesting thing to have chase your players as they have to flee
I mean.... It would, but at low levels you straight up have no chances to run from this, at mid you can fight it off, and at high you can oneshot this. So whats the point? DM have to railroad it really hard, or make so many plot hooks and adjustments to make it a sucessfull and organic chase sequence, that it would be far easier and faster to use different creature(stronger but unable to fight for example), or create entirely new one, than to make it work with that. I mean, this cat literally can fly and straight up murders any class at lvl1(whitch it is supposed to be for)
@@DarkBlackGod14 I was listing a general idea, not talking about the Wonder Sphinx.
Double D is also mentioning it's not a physical powerhouse, so if you're using a Sphinx of Wonder for this purpose you'd already be restatting it to make it that strong
@@DarkBlackGod14 If we run with the idea of it having a cat colony that it's leading, you can look at all the other kinds of cat monsters in the setting. I imagine there's a lot of stuff there that can serve as muscle while it's more the slippery mastermind you've got to track down.
When you mentioned the fallen bit and the shinx of wonder trying to amass arcane energy/magic, that made me think that if the ritual went awry or was fouled up with evil magic, then it my ascend into a Rakshasa. Edited for typo.
Congrats on the sponsor! They are very cute and I would love to present more riddles in dungeons to a warlock with this familiar. Also wanna say the new statblock format looks neat, less wasted space on chunky red dividers and unnecessary words, it's also cool that the saves directly in the ability array and the trigger and effect of a reaction is more specific at a glance.
Ooooooo movin' on up! congrats on the sponsorship. It's great to know wotc is supporting great content creators like yourself
Oh man I thought this was gonna be about the Criosphinx or Hieracosphinx
Congratulations on the sponsership! must be sweet to be the one to reveal it first
The tinfoil hat routine was Monty Python level silly, but it also had me chuckling the entire time. Well played. 😄
I completely expect for flying cat familiars with good damage to be popular for multiple reasons.
WOTC watching the lore speculations like "write that down, we need this done by February"
Let's hope Lore isn't racist
Of course they'll be done by February, ChatGPT is extremely good at stealing other folks' work and combining it really fast.
@@ahorseofcourse7283 accusing them of using AI without evidence hurts the actual artists and writers who worked on these books, you aren't helping anyone
@@llewelynshingler2173I was about to wonder why it would be and then I remembered the AI stuff
@@High-LordHarza I was more referring to the Lore Cutbacks in the leadup to Monsters of the Multiverse being attributed to a hasty attempt at avoiding racism accusations, but AI might balls it up and WOTC, being a company using AI would send the balls upped stuff to print
Hey, as an aside thanks for doing these videos. I really enjoy them and have genuinely built entire campaigns off of videos. I’m doing one now with Pale Night , and your Pale Knight idea was critical to my creative process.
Going to use it as one of the factions in my city. Give it a Headband of Intellect to boost it's intelligence even higher (it was the original treasure it was guarding) and a varient Staff of the Woodlands that that can cast Awaken spell once per day. It uses the staff to amass an army of intelligent cats and is a ridiculously wealthy intelligence network that sells people's secrets for money. Early on they convinced the whole city that having a cat in the home is fashionable, so everyone from the nobility to the poor have at least one cat in the house. I have this idea that in a city fought over by criminal masterminds, dragons, aberrations, and heroes...one of the factions is a CR 1 flying housecat. I'll even have them be a reoccurring NPC for the party, where it just hangs around them when they're in town obstinately for scratches, all while sending human mercenaries to give them quests that push it's own objectives.
The celestial tressym
Based on my 4 cats, each Sphinx of Wonders would be:
Mitch (Female, looks like a Ragamuffin): A Sphinx that pass the "Holier than Thou" vibe, gracious, sometimes likes to be by herself, but wouldn't mind anyone approaching her, and sometimes very demanding, also has a motherly or older sister vibe, since she's the oldest here. She also enjoys being outside, but never leaving the limits of the house. Her stats would have a higher focus on Intelligence and Dexterity and probably would be an sorcerer.
Mona(Male, Tuxedo Cat): Second oldest, a Sphinx that is robust, but quite agile as well, he also was missing for like 3 or 4 months before reappearing again at home, since his name is based on Morgana from P5, he probably would be Rogue content, and to corroborate that, he is the only one that pulls the food bowl from the other cats when we haven't filled his bowl yet, he also hits the other cats sometimes, specially the orange ones. His stats would be focused on Dexterity and Strenght.
Amendoim(Male, Tabby Orange): Twins with Paçoca, he is a CHONKY Sphinx, likes to play with the toys and sister, he also loves to steal erasers and toilet papers to play with them as well, he is quite destructive, especially to the paper rolls, and quite clumsy too, he also is the one that tends to be on the receiving end of Mona's slaps. He strikes me as a Tank, focusing on Defense and Charisma.
Paçoca(Female, Tabby Orange): Twins with Amendoim, unlike her brother, she is quite slim and gracious as well, but so deadly with her tiny claws that are as sharp as blades, she also doesn't talk too much, unlike her brother again, but overall she's chill, sometimes she plays but not too much, she also has quite the death stare, looking like she wants to off you at any given moment. She definitely would be an Assassin focusing on Attack and Dexterity.
Dad: leap in Sphinx based technology.
Me: Sphinx Tech… fuck that’s actually a good tech startup name.
Dude...WotC sponsor? 😱 Congrats!!! 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽 Also, Manky Fighting/Fairy type confirmed. This is a cute little addition, and I will never say no to any Warlock pact expansions.
I could see this fitting into so many places, and your ideas kind of fill up the spectrum I was already piecing together in my brain. My only other thought was that it would be interesting to consider what would happpen to sphinxes whose deities have died or been removed from the pantheon. I feel like I'd want them to turn into prankster/poltergeist-y cats with a celestial spark...that maybe an unwitting party member could unlock and bring back to life on accident 😁 Metaphysically, the idea would be that these former sphinxes carry some divine whisper or echo of their former patron, so it could resonate or trigger when the right kinds of things happen.
Thanks, DD! Keep it up 👏🏽
WotC knows who you are? That's neat. Congratulations getting your hands on this cool cat, and, as always, my compliments on your video quality
Now this is a monster truly up my ally as a DM and a D&D player. I LOVE these kinds of things so I am all for this! Thank you Dungeon Dad for something amazing!
My sphynx of wonder would be quiet, patient and really fed up with kids but still look out for them lol
In now need to make a character with this as a familiar and give it Danny devitos voice
Congratulations on the win getting a new monster. Keep them coming. You help so many with your ideas and stat blocks.
Advances in Sphinx technology require the right equipment. I'm glad to see you have the proper protective headgear ❤
I have 2 cats; a tabby british shorthair named Jorik (a corruption of the russian word for glutton) and a scottish "fold"(recessive his ears are normal) Named Mordan (a corruption of the russian word for (animal) face/snout).
The scottish would have a lot of physical strength and hp, especially on his bite attack, the tabby would be extremely fast and extra slash damage on his claw attack.
Try guessing why.
Major props to the artist. Got me to give an audible, "oh f*** yeah!" when I saw it
If you're contemplating a fallen sphynx trying to ascend itself, one good refference for it going very wrong would be Spelljammers Astrosphynx. A huge sphynx with a head who's flesh is invisible so it looks like a skull, and that skull can shoot chain lightning from it's eye sockets. Also it's insane and is constantly screaming unhinged riddles like "What does a cat have in common with The Spelljammer besides Triangles?"
I like the idea of these little cats inheriting some of their (possible) creators quirks, just on a smaller scale - gifters of day-to-day little wisdoms, who can't help themselves, but talk in riddles and test their owners patience. Maybe they even protect some objects of power, too! It's just that those artifacts are cool looking feathers, their favourite mug and a sunny spot in the house. True celestial power were love for life and friends we made along the way, something like that :)
I once raid somewhere that there are wolf bodied and raven winged sphinxes but I never heard of that anywhere else, could be a new cold area variant if there are going to be more new sphinxes.
Especial since dogs and cats are often depicted as enemies and the raven as a bad symbol or omen where as eagles are often a symbol of good.
Oh, I am immediately adding these to my game. While I am not using a sphinx in my campaign, they will be meeting a lamassu, which is a similar type of celestial, good beings made to protect areas, like the sphinx. There WILL be sphinxes of wonder (sphinx of wonders?) That patrol the area near the temple the lamassu guards. But maybe some of them dislike their position and are bored! Wish for adventure!
10:46 Non-magic users in 2014 5e can pick up a familiar using either Ritual Caster or Magic Initiate, hence that line in the Monster Manual. As far as awarding one in lieu of treasure, there's a rule for that in the 2014 DMG (pg 231) that lets you give out feats, including one of the above two, as a reward as well!
This is so cool that they let you reveal a monster since that makes more sense for your channel unlike everybody else on TH-cam getting a subclass
I want to see one of these team up with a Faerie Dragon.
The idea of a sphinx of wonder attempting to become a greater sphinx and becoming corrupted in the process makes me think of it as a potential origin for manticores, or perhaps an explanation for why some sphinxes are monstrosities while others are celestials; both types exist but the monstrosity variants are the ones that originally were something else like a sphinx of wonder that tried turning themselves into a "greater" sphinx.
@DungeonDad, I agree that there may be a new family of Sphinxes. Did you notice that this new sphinx has the alchemical symbol for air on its forehead? With that, we can only assume that there will be a water, fire, and earth too!
That is a really good catch, I noticed the symbol but its significance didn't click for me at all. Here's hoping that this ends up being the direction they go with!
The fact I instantly guessed sphinx from the thumbnail is something I am very mildly proud of 😂
I absolutely LOVE that intro, such a great job!
Woah!! Would love it if you covered other mythical creatures, maybe like Norse ?
He’s done some cool conversions of a few different folk lore mainly often ignored ones from Asia and South Pacific
Ooh I'll go watch those, that sounds cool!
@@blights5468my favorites are the wicker man and the gosibokero or how ever you spell the giant skeleton yokai's name.
hi
A strange but cute little sphinx. Also yeah I agree with you on sphinxes being celestials, its just weird that a creature connected to gods so deeply is just a monstrosity.
And a theory of mine about the new sphinx is that it might have something to do with the plane of air because the symbol on its forehead is the alchemical symbol for well, air. I guess we will have to wait and see.
My cat Djinn unfortunately passed away last year, but I'd like to think that he'd be a Djinn like Sphinx of wonder. Perhaps he'd be a dark as space is (he was a black cat) and once a century cast wish for anyone he deemed worthy of it.
RIP sweet Djinn. I just know he was a little heckraiser and that you loved each other very much. 💕
My cat-inspired Sphinx would be a rogue, who manages to paw his way into all sorts of unusual locales.
My man, congrats on the sponsor! That means a lot about your consistent quality!
the idea of a warlock with a pact with its own familiar on a journey to recover a stolen artifact
17:33 Maybe next week you can talk about the mind goblin :^)
I would love to hear more about those sphinx’ that are from history, the one in the forest might be the one that catches my attention.
Congratulations on the exclusive! You deserve the recognition, because you've got dedication and a genuine love for this game. Keep on with the good work!
Love this creature already! Gave an NPC I came up w last year a “fae cat” familiar that looks almost identical to this except it had no wings. I’m definitely changing that into a sphinx of wonder now though!
We played around with an intelligent cat PC before. The cat took levels in sorcerer. Weird to balance a super low STR, tiny Size...And the fact they had to use mage hand all the time, for everything...But it was fun.
My cat as a sphinx would have a bite attack that it can only use out of combat, particularly when being showed affection, and once in combat it can only run away
One of these babies based on my cat would have some sort of Stealth bonus. Maybe expertise like a rogue, and a particular fondness for rogues probably
Your intro visual was amazing. That alone earned my subscription!!
Welcome to the channel!
Awwww, your cat sounds wonderful! And I don't just mean in the sphinx-of-wonder meaning of the word: what a sweetie he must be. 🥰
A sphinx of wonder based on my cat would be blasting your face with a darkness spell, then zipping away to hide in a corner until you left. And honestly that could be an entertaining (and infuriating) monster to use.
Interesting that the art has the symbol for air on its forehead. Its a nice lil design touch
A Sphinx of Wonder based on my cat would give bonuses to distracting any NPC by rolling over in front of them and being adorable. He would also require a certain amount of attention during the day or risk him screaming in the middle of the night and costing the party their rest.
Okay, now that's another one for the list of Spelljammer monsters I'd love to see Dungeon Dad do a video on.
I've gotta admit it was a genius move on wotc's part to send out different bits to different youtubers to preview!
(Standard disclaimer: I'm not a fan of wotc, especially the fiasco 6 months ago.......but I can still like something when they do it right)
That chase sequence killed me...
But also likely happened just as depicted
Fuck yeah new dungeon dad!
Both of my cats would be able to turn into ooze when they're done being held lmao 😂
CONGRATULATIONS @DUNGEONDAD!!!🎉🎊🎆 I'm really happy for you that Wizards Of The Coast did a collaboration with you. Dont be modest YOU ARE AWESOME and you know it. For the next creature could you do either "The Prince Of Frost" or "The Cat Lord" (Now I want his stats block after This video 😅).
Of course I've immediately added "cat burglars" to my campaign ideas document. The stray cats in are being lead by a sphinx of wonder and are stealing valuables from all over the city, growing progressively bolder over time. Motivation? Shinies are pretty and outwitting humans is fun! Of course, the sphinx isn't attached enough over their slowly growing hoard to risk their own life for it, but they would toy with anyone who found their hidey hole until such a time as they realise they don't stand a chance and will scamper off, leaving the loot behind
Thank you for giving me all the tools i need to make add Garfield to my D&D setting's pantheon. I do however find it a little unfortunate that this little floofball doesn't have AI-nightmare-hands the way the Moon Dog does... Oh, i just realized the perfect foil for them...
Sounds like they're overhauling Warlock familiars, giving Celestial Warlocks a little buddy of their own.
Me before watching the video: Oh, nice, you made a new monster?
"This episode brought to you by the wizards of the coast."
OOOOHHH... well, that changes things.
Weird flavoring but you can also seeing as it is considered a celestial free flavor it as some kind of cat or even a transom that was a good kitty and maybe passed away after living a very good life or dying heroically and thus got turned into a celestial familiar I mean we already have flying cats but it could be a good flavor choice
Watching all these new Players Handbook videos coming out has given me an idea for my first character. A himbo Abyssal Tiefling that’s a celestial warlock. I’ll take the Eldritch invocation that lets you pick two pacts and take pact of the blade and pact of the chain. Get the Sphinx of Wonder as a familiar that is there because my character is really stupid and needs an intelligent being to keep him from getting himself killed. Definitely leaning into the himbo aspect and making him really hot and kind but constantly running straight into battle without much thought.
subscribed! shout out to WOTC for letting me discover new content creators this way. love this little guy (the sphynx, that is, not the creator, though he's pretty good, too).
Forgive this wild hare of a request, but could you do a video on the jackalope, skvader and wolpertinger?
WTF man I literally just finished a custom sphinx boss fight for my D&D game and then I log onto TH-cam and find this! What timing! I can't wait to watch this.
I'm imagining a lot of "Buster, can you scout ahead?" paired with a Bartleby-esque "I would prefer not to"
AYO, IS THIS A CANON LA GRAN GATA FROM THE UNSLEEPING CITY???
The Cat Delivery System definitely works for Sphinxes of Wonder. My next city is ruled by a Sphinx and has lots of stray cats, so these guys will fit right in.
This baby would look SWEET painted on the side of a van....
That is almost word for word what I said lol
"Much to the sha-jrin of your party members"
Never has such a typo been spoken aloud.
I'm right in the middle of writing a one shot for lvl 2 characters where the party is exploring a recently uncovered pyramid and this might just be the thing.
Maybe 2 Sphinx of Wonder at the end with a bunch of cats, that give them a riddle after all the fighting.
Thanks a bunch for all your hard work :)
Also congrats on being able to reveal this! This is so cool.
as someone who's doing a session zero of a new campaign tomorrow (at the time of posting this comment), I look forward to scraping all these videos for new old monsters to use to fuck with my players
I still hope you can do Atropus justice, because if anyone can transform one of the most horrifying creatures, and arguably the most terrifying Elder Evil, into a nightmarish envounter, it is you. :)
Always great content from Dungeon Dad!!
A sphinx based on my cat would make a DC 15 Wisdom save every time it rolled initiative. On a fail it enters a Barbarian’s rage, but must attack the nearest target, friend or foe.
The sphinx has always been my favorite go to.
This must be one of your best episodes ever. Congrats.
Its doesn't really need any goal to be mischievious or harmful.
Just got the zoomies
I have four cats but I will give you one, Sushi, who will look like the night sky with very distant stars twinkling faintly. She will hide incredibly easily and teleport (she's never where I expect her to be and seems to pop out of nowhere)
Imagine this sphinx but with levels in monk. Every attack is 1d10+5+2d6. Assuming the radiant damage happens on all attacks... thats 2d6 more on each flurry of blows. Or say a wizard spinx of wonder, flying around casting spells. Giving monsters player levels is always fun. Oh god imagine this with high levels in rogue... add 10d6 sneak attack to that claw.
Its a very good statblock if you wanted to make Tevildo, which is a proto version of a character from Lord of the Rings. Specifically, Sauron. Tevildo was a cat that had a golden collar that gave him a lot of power.