Thanks for watching everyone! This video was a real labour of love, and I'm so stoked to finally share it with you all! Check out the full, uncut, interview with Newton here: th-cam.com/video/Rmlj4Ost5JY/w-d-xo.html&t= Check out Newtons artwork on Artstation and Deviant art by following these two links: www.deviantart.com/newtman001 AND www.artstation.com/newtonewell
@@gigainpactinfinty It's on D-Dad's list of suggestions. I'll add your name to rest of the requesters. Got a decent number of people. It might be a bit as dragon stats take a while, and he likes to space out monster types.
What is said: "A bug raised by you is magically augmented into a weaponized Undead construct for war." What I heard: "Your best friend becomes a Mech suit and now you too can lift 10 times your own weight."
Thanks for this great video!!! I'm really thrilled the Spirit Warrior captured your imagination. I cannot wait to see your expanded treatment of them! Also, thanks for chatting with me. This was an excellent episode!!!
It was really awesome to hear the background and idea of this creature's conception. Thank you from us as the viewers for everything you've done for dungeons & anime fans, and the role-playing community.
It is so fantastic that even the rarest D&D monsters are getting a second look thanks to channels like this, and giving credit to their creators such as yourself. Congrats on the recognition for a truly inspired inclusion to Spelljammer lore!
I can imagine a spirit warrior being granted to a Sorcerer-King’s most elite loyal Templars in a Dark Sun campaign, or maybe even being used by radical Preservers to fight back against the Sorcerer-Kings
I'm just imagining putting a Squishy, 120 hit point Lich Inside of one, so that the party has to destroy the mech first, and the fight lasts more then 2 rounds
@@agentchaos9332 tbh i could imagine that lich also having customized the spirit warrior with enhanced magical abilities as well turning them from from a nonthreat to a full on raidboss
I ran a converted Spelljammer game before the 5e rules came out. They found a ship that was essentially a mech that transformed from ship to submarine to airship to mech warrior, but the pilot character was completely subsumed into it and could only manifest as a hologram on the ship.
Funnily enough, that kind of mech (barring the spelljamming part) already exists in oldschool D&D-not AD&D 2E but BECMI, as part of the Mystara setting. The Book of Wonderous Inventions not only outlines a magical mech that can transform into a shark-shaped submersible and an eagle-shaped plane, but rules for creating one!
This has to be my new favorite Dungeon Dad episode, hands down. Also, you can't just tease us with a passing mention of The Bionoid and _'not'_ make a video about them! Give us the good stuff, man!
There is a 100% chance that I will eventually make a video about bionoids, great dreamers, constellates, and basically anything Newton had a hand in at some point in the future haha.
Especially if you're a fan of classic UC Gundam. Dunbine was one of the projects series creator Yoshiyuki Tomino helmed between the original Mobile Suit Gundam and Zeta Gundam.
Me clicking on thumbnail: "This looks like Dunbine" Me listening to description: "This sounds like Dunbine" Me 17 minutes into the video: "lol it actually is Dunbine"
I'd love to see some spirit warriors based on crustaceans. Of course there's the giant enemy crab option but imagine a mantis shrimp spirit warrior or a lobster
Man I was hooked as soon as I saw the Guyver comment. That's my childhood. And this video just kept getting better from there. A whole campaign of empathic body horrors sounds amazing, whether that's spirit warriors, bionoids, even warforged. I love studying the game of telephone behind my favorite character types -- like finding out Guyver was inspired by sentient armors full of C'thulhu tentacle slime called Void Units in Iczer 1.
Wow, you really went the extra mile or ten with that glorious intro! You could give a spirit warrior to your low level party, they need to take care of it, repair it and go and fight bigger monsters.
I can't believe it, I NEEDED THIS. As I'm a fan of Kaiju, from Godzilla's monster verse to Evangelion and Pacific Rim, I was thinking of introducing the Siege Crab into my campaign, as a sort of controllable mecha for fighting. But this... this is just what I was looking for. Thank you, I love you and I love the Evangelion style opening.
Me: *is subscribed to Dungeon Dad* Dungeon Dad: *Makes an Evangelion opening credits sequence so intricate, involved and hilarious as to make brave men weep* Me: Can I subscribe...twice?
I am absolutely running this monster at some point. What a cool idea. Also kudos for Newton Ewell for meeting with you and giving us some awesome insight into his designs!
So I wonder - would it be a neat idea to have these things in a section of the Shadowfell with a massive rift to the Astral Sea tearing through the region? You could have all manner of horrible space creatures and undead threats, while the Shadar-kai have started creating these spirit warriors to defend themselves?
@@thomanator1000 I do have Warforged - it'd be a different part of the world, but that could still work. I'd be remiss if they wasn't a chance to pilot one of these for the player. Gonna make my own variants with lots of weapon variety and fancy Shadar-Kai powers. Plus some ways for the pilot to enhance the mech.
I actually reworked the shadowfell in my world to me a place that is now in ruin but was once just an opposite reflection of the feywild. And is now in a war with undead creatures as they try to save what is left of their land and civilisations, and these are like the perfect weird creepy undead thing to be those big like “oh fuck, up the defenses”
The quality of your videos is truly impressive, I already wanted to support you, but you've excelled yourself with this. Cruel Angel intro, finding and interviewing the creator of the monster, making an extended version in the future?! Amazing work, signed up on Patreon before I even finished the vid.
Ok, this is one of the absolute coolest monsters you have ever done. I must also say, this is by far your best episode for your talk with the creator. Thankyou for showing us this!
I really want to run a campaign with these. This has been super evocative as an elder millennial whose adoptive Dad was an anime tape trader/underground distributor in the 80s/90s.
These Spirit Warriors seems reminds me of the Wraith-Constructs/Ghost warriors from 40k Warhammer fiction. Where ironically they're also made by Space Elves and inwhich their Wraith-Constructs needed to be piloted by diseased Eldar's Spirit Stone(every Eldar has these stones on their chest. Whenever they die their spirits will inhabit these stones.) But the most important part for these Wraith-Constructs, they needed a Seer to guide them. Wraith-Construct classes: Wraithguard. Wraithblade. Wraithlord. Wraithseer. Wraithknight. (Twins are needed. ONE being Alive. TWO being the one who diseased.) Wraith fighter. Wraith ships. This is interesting the fact there's more Skeletal, Bug like machines that needed Spirits to pilot them.
Hey, I am a huge mecha fan with nearly zero experience with DnD but this episode was really interesting as from the get go when you said "inseclike biomechs" I had to know if it was just a coincidence for the dunbine ovious reference, or if there was more to it. Very good content lad.
Also, something not mentioned is that after dunbine, there was another mecha anime by the same director Yoshiuki Tomino called Brainpowerd, which the mechs are alive, and mentally like a baby, so the pilot MUST form a good bond for the Brainpowered to draw its full power
@@zenderas1434 and they're spawns from scraps of an eldritch creature from beyond the stars that's just kinda stranded under the ocean. Yeah Brain Powerd just kinda works for splicing into this format.
One trait that I think would be cool for the Spirit Warrior: if you fail the save to try and control it by 5 or more, you become incapacitated and locked into the Spirit Warrior for 1 minute, and the Spirit Warrior can act as it pleases for that time. Just sounds really cool to try and control it and having it end up controlling you. Also I think part of why the Spirit Warrior art is so appealing is because it has a lot of avian traits in addition to humanoid and insectoid ones. The beak, the wings, it gives a kind of avian aspect to its silhouette.
I didn't think DND would have Aura Battler in it but that is absolutely amazing that it does! And is the Bionoid inspired by Guyver? I need to play spell jammer if thats the case.
This is probably my favorite episode of yours yet. Reaching out to the designer was an absolute delight, it is great to remember that every monster came from another person, and usually a really cool person.
Such a cool concept! I really love the Spelljammer setting. What about an evil Spirit Warrior that corrupts whoever pilots it? Imagine an ancient ruin with a sealed chamber containing the corrupted Spirit Warrior. It tries to tempt the party to enter it, and possibly creates the new Big Bad out of one of your beloved player characters.
If you needed ideas for mechs you could do a spider mech that suits webs and ensnares it's target Or playing more into the nectar role you could use the bombardier beetle and give the napalm weapon a massive massive boost at the cost of speed or health, really lean on smart positioning and coordination. Finally my favorite one is a moth themed mech that specializes in psychic powers. It would definitely be slower than other mechs but could detect enemies and not need line of sight to attack or enhance or defend against psychic abilities.
The spirit warrior also makes me think of the esthetic from boo's astral managerie. I love these living vehicle/equipment monsters, which i guess mimics can also fit into.
The opening song in the style of Eva almost killed me. I was half asleep at the start of the video, but the moment I heard the music I sprang awake, opened my phone and laughed until it hurt at what I saw. You cemented your position as my favorite D&D TH-camr with this video. Thanks for the upload.
The dramatic lighting during the interview makes it so much better and funnier imo. It's like those scenes with a mysterious senior director intercomming the teen/ya protagonist during an interlude to direct them on the next part of the plot.
Alright, as a Canadian, I gotta bring up my childhood, this show aired in Canada and Japan. And I think it would make an amazing DND campaign. Spider Riders. Calling all Spider Riders, LETS RIDE LETS RIDE. Theme song was fire.
This is a seriously cool monster! I imagine it would be a brilliant addition to the Eberron game where the Spirit Warriors were the Karrnathi answer to Warforged Colossi.
You have truly outdone yourself on this one! I was already wowed by the amount of effort put into (what I can only assume to be) a one-off gimmick opening, then the creature itself is super interesting...and then you pull out that awesome interview! Bravo sir, bravo!
Just started DND two weeks ago. Out of curiosity and my love for mechs I ended up finding the TTRPG lancer but… you’re telling me I can be a Mech pilot in dnd? I couldn’t be happier
Got to say that this video really lived up to the hype. The spirit warrior is honestly one of the coolest things I have ever seen and the fact that wotc didnt brought it when they relesed the new spelljammer book is a crime (that and the withclight marauders, give us the kaiju fights we want you cowerds!).
Thank you so much for following up on the others and my recommendation with the Spirit Warrior! I can only hope that eventually you move to converting the Bionoids (despite the lackluster art) and other things involving the Unhuman Wars. 🔥👀
Idk what's coolest; the creature, the fact you were able to get the guy to do an interview, or the creator's sheer enthusiasm and love for the topic (WOTC could take some notes.) Fantastic vid as always ❤️
Sir, I have a cold right now. That Cruel Angel's Thesis opening NEARLY KILLED ME because I started laughing so hard I started coughing until I couldn't breathe! I love it! Perfect way to open an episode like this!
Hey DD, just wanted to thank and congratulate you for the amount of effort and care you put into your work, this one in special. The research, the editing and even a interview the og mind behind the monster show how above and beyond you go with these videos. And of course thanks Newton for taking the time to come to the interview about his creation.
This probably one of the best finds in all of d&d for me and I appreciate you putting this up. Especially going that extra mile for the history and background.
Its one of my fave dnd creatures, i have adapted this concept for my own campaign, influenced by Vision of Esceflowne. They are the mecha space fighters of the Elven Space Navy, perfect for extended missions far from any vessel, you could even fly with one of these from Forgotten Realms to DragonLance.
Immediately hit the like when I saw the Evangelion opening, 40 minutes later I don't regret it. That's the deepest delve of all in a monster's origin, you should be proud.
It would be fun to have a weird campaign where your character is basically raising an insect that acts as their spirit warrior over the campaign, but split it into not just going straight from a dead bug to a spirit warrior but a bunch of stages. Maybe you have to raise a bug, and after it dies, resurrect it as a familiar. And then over time, you feed your dead beetle undead and psychic energies until your bug becomes big enough and goes from helper to summon to a spirit warrior you have a psychic connection with.
There was so much deep Dad lore in the intro, I had to write a whole campaign about it ❤️ It's beyond cool that you covered this one...I think TES provides a great use for this creature à la Numidium: find the missing pieces to this creature to make it functional again, and make the world in your image by rejecting it. Simple, elegant, classy. It can be the central plot point, and what's great is that every party will use this in wildly different manners. Edit: also, I'm 90% certain the Spirit Warrior art inspired the Hork Bajjir species in Animorphs. Edit 2: Also, some of the Dunbine artwork inspired the Sinnoh region myths in Pokémon (looking at you, Arceus!). Edit 3: Doxy outro on point 👌
I'm running a game right now with Kythons as the main antagonist. Getting visions of end game with the Kython hoard breeding these exoskeletons to add to their swarm
Thanks to this, I now have something bigger planned after my ToA campaign. Involves the Albino Dwarf Spirit Warriors that exists in Chult, Red Wizards, and the section of the map that can lead players to a domain of dread in the south east. The dwarves have the general lore that can work, red wizards being there to discover more about soul monger, simply stumble upon the rituals near the entrance to the domain of dread. Similar to how the different tribes of goblins in Chult have varying characteristics, can make the same for the Albino Dwarves. Most tribes follow the base version (dinosaurs), but one tribe ties strongly to huge insects in the land. This all would happen after the events of destroying the soul monger as the Red Wizards would not want to leave empty handed. They continue searching the lands in order of not returning to Thay empty handed. Could lead to a war in the Sword Coast campaign with Thay having this new arsenal.
after watching the whole video, i was really impressed with how in depth you got into this, including the irl backstory and the related interview. honestly, i am going to use this creature for a bbeg fight. In lieu of a mythic trait, they fight the guy in the mech first and when they defeat the mech, he emerges to fight them as himself
I would honestly watch the heck out of a series where you dig up the design inspirations for monsters over the years. SUPER cool addition to your catalogue of content!
Honestly this is SUCH a cool monster! I can see so many potential in putting just *one* of these bad boys around your world in a campaign! And just the whole design... it's incredible! This is absolutely one of my fav old monsters so far :) they also look like such gentle lads... like all the bugs in the world.
Hell yeah, though i swear you already had made a video about this monster. After all there is a google drive doc of them in your compilation (the one on Reddit i mean). Regardless, its always good to see more of your stuff ^^
I think the spirit warrior, may be a final antagonist instead of his pilot(s). With a question of who controls whom? And the pilot in connection with his mind became the villain due to the influence of the this specific spirit warrior (with his own past and motivation), but unsuspected in a first time because the one directly of his acts responsibly is the pilot.
I thought you were just going to do the first bit of the Eva opening but mad respect for you doing the whole thing. This monster has my mind running with all the possibilities. I am full on thinking of trying to transition it from bug to dragon and make Escaflowne usable. You have inspired me. Great work as always
Bro, I've been enjoying your content for a while now, but this episode was absolutely top notch! Old 80's anime/tokusatsu and D&D is such a venn diagram overlap for me. Thanks for interviewing Newton and keeping these old obscure monsters alive.
Thanks for making this video. I got pointed at it by one of the designers of Hackjammer (the official Hackmaster conversion of Spelljammer). I'm not so into anime myself, but the GM of the live-streamed 2e Spelljammer game I'm in, is a massive anime fan and has been telling me about the anime influence in Spelljammer, for some time. I think he will really enjoy this. (I actually stopped watching, half way through, to send him a link.) I've had some dealings with Newton Ewell, on social media and he is a really cool person. If the TSR's Wldspace TV show had not fallen through, or if WotC's attempt to make a Spelljammer movie had gotten anywhere, maybe they could have hired Newton Ewell to create an aniime-like elven planet with spirit warriors on it. With 5e pretty much rebooting Spelljammer, I can't imagine us seeing all the directions that it might have gone in. But thanks for putting so much time into showing us the cool ideas that Newton brought to the setting.
2 campaign ideas. 1. Players are apart of a military that has the warriors as a unit. Can either be apart of a family who gets handed one or they have to come across some that will let them piolet them. Have a bad guy as the dark knight be the bbeg. Finish campaign. 2. Characters come back, fully leveled. Suits get taken over at the start by a necromancer and piolets killed. New Characters have to get new suits and stop old ones while finding out about necro.
Best opening ever. I intend to use Spirit Warriors to serve as environmental suits for my players to use when going to the Far Realm to save a princess stolen by Kaorti!
Fell in love with them at 1st sight when I bought the cc back there when it came out Thank you for the video Already included in my setting, but your statblocks are an immense gift
So having watched this video I went looking up Aura Battler Dunbine. I just learned that there is a sequel series of sorts called Wings of Rean. I don't think it's dubbed or subbed, but it could be a cool source of more inspiration for a campaign. For other sources of inspiration for magical mechs, there is Magic and Knights, and Rayearth.
This was an amazing episode on so many levels. Thank you so much for exploring this to such a deep degree. And a huge Thank You to Newton Ewell for sharing his experiences and history here, and for his past work on some of my favorite monsters I encountered as 3.5 fan adaptations! That list of design credits was highly enlightening.
Please tell me someone else thought that the most powerful Spirit Worrier should be a dragon fly. You could give it perfectly silent flight and 390 vision along with a ridiculous flight speed as well as from the dragon all the standard dragon attacks including a recharge breath, and maybe even a dragon fear burst. I have also always loved magic items that level with you so you could have this Spirit Worrier start out as a Wyrmling, or larva, just a suit of powered full plate, and as their piolet levels up it would increase in 'age categories' and unlock it's most powerful abilities.
I can absolutely see a version of this designed for underwater combat (Can you guess what my current brew is themed around?). This is such a cool and flavor rich creature! Thank you for bringing it to light!!
7:58 I used this in a campaign once. The players were not happy with me. I thought they could handle it. It was only 1 and it was weakened from it's long dormancy but they, like a lot of PCs, pondered and debated too much and allowed it to consume a village. In the end they won but the cost was high.
I hope that in the future one of these days to see the moon horse stats for 5e. It's an interesting creature and definitely would suit elf characters as a mount. Much better than a simple horse.
Any chance you'll use this in your next Tall Tails campaign, Dungeon Dad? It would super cool to have one of these in your world...or even have all the older totem animals effectively act as undead mecha husks.
My DM created an arachnid spirit warrior for my elven war-master character to discover, after finding out that he was descended from a long line of spirit warrior pilots. It can't use melee weapons but it is absolutely COVERED in hidden wand arrays ranging from magic missiles, fireballs, and scorching rays. I'm a walking weapon platform as well as a troop transport vehicle and my party has been having a blast.
I love this 🤩 I’m already imagining centipede and scorpion versions! Oh, and an aquatic mantis shrimp 😱 As far as suggestions, I’d love to see you cover the Phoelarch and Phoera. (And I’m going to keep bringing up Bebilith each time I comment too 😁)
Thanks for watching everyone! This video was a real labour of love, and I'm so stoked to finally share it with you all!
Check out the full, uncut, interview with Newton here: th-cam.com/video/Rmlj4Ost5JY/w-d-xo.html&t=
Check out Newtons artwork on Artstation and Deviant art by following these two links: www.deviantart.com/newtman001 AND www.artstation.com/newtonewell
I'm a use these but instead of bugs I'm going to use other creatures an basically have power ranger zords 🤣
I've found a lot of the creatures you've converted very useful. Any chance you might convert the LeShay (pgs. 202-203 of the Epic Level Handbook)?
Could we have a obsidian dragon video?
@@gigainpactinfinty It's on D-Dad's list of suggestions. I'll add your name to rest of the requesters. Got a decent number of people. It might be a bit as dragon stats take a while, and he likes to space out monster types.
@@KevinVideo thank you friend.
Of course, now you've got to do an episode on that sentient constellation
Absolutely! Maybe I can convince Newton to come back!
The
*WHAT*
@@nextcaesargaming5469 Bruh, you should try to get your hands on the old spelljammer monster compendiums, shit gets wild! Check out the Focoid!
@@nextcaesargaming5469 someone was scrolling the comments before watching the video
YES
What is said: "A bug raised by you is magically augmented into a weaponized Undead construct for war."
What I heard: "Your best friend becomes a Mech suit and now you too can lift 10 times your own weight."
Maybe this redeems Beastmaster Ranger? :)
I'm not even able to join DnD yet, but now I want to join a campaign and get a giant moth mech
JAAAAAKEE SUUUUUIIIITT!!!
Thanks for this great video!!! I'm really thrilled the Spirit Warrior captured your imagination. I cannot wait to see your expanded treatment of them! Also, thanks for chatting with me. This was an excellent episode!!!
It was really awesome to hear the background and idea of this creature's conception. Thank you from us as the viewers for everything you've done for dungeons & anime fans, and the role-playing community.
I'm about to go watch the full interview because your enthusiasm is contagious :)
That was indeed some dramatic lighting you had going there.
You’re so wholesome ❤
It is so fantastic that even the rarest D&D monsters are getting a second look thanks to channels like this, and giving credit to their creators such as yourself. Congrats on the recognition for a truly inspired inclusion to Spelljammer lore!
Let's add these bad boys to Curse of Strahd. Ending a campaign with a mecha Strahd battle in the gothic horror landscape of Barovia would be cool AF.
"Magic Knights Rayearth" season 1, final two battles.
The finale to the anime adaptation of Count of Monte Cristo also fits the bill, for some reason.
I can imagine a spirit warrior being granted to a Sorcerer-King’s most elite loyal Templars in a Dark Sun campaign, or maybe even being used by radical Preservers to fight back against the Sorcerer-Kings
I'm just imagining putting a Squishy, 120 hit point Lich Inside of one, so that the party has to destroy the mech first, and the fight lasts more then 2 rounds
@@agentchaos9332 tbh i could imagine that lich also having customized the spirit warrior with enhanced magical abilities as well turning them from from a nonthreat to a full on raidboss
I ran a converted Spelljammer game before the 5e rules came out. They found a ship that was essentially a mech that transformed from ship to submarine to airship to mech warrior, but the pilot character was completely subsumed into it and could only manifest as a hologram on the ship.
"part of the ship, part of the crew"
Funnily enough, that kind of mech (barring the spelljamming part) already exists in oldschool D&D-not AD&D 2E but BECMI, as part of the Mystara setting. The Book of Wonderous Inventions not only outlines a magical mech that can transform into a shark-shaped submersible and an eagle-shaped plane, but rules for creating one!
@ShoggothLord sweet! My nerdy heart just flip flopped a bit. 🤓💓
I love the cruel angel's symphony opening. It had me lolling the entire time
Same. I started laughing immediately and saying "WTF?!"😆
Cruel Angel's Thesis?
@@supersanttu7951 yeah, but it kinda is a bit of a symphony.
The text of the OGL is what got me
@@supersanttu7951 theme song/intro from evangelion
A spirit warrior based on a pill bug would be cool. Being able to curl up into a giant ball prioritizing rolling over smaller foes.
Or fired from giant cannon to smash through the enemy.
@@beanman929. Big chain and big arm
for 5 seconds my soul just left my body and I almost reached heaven. I freaking love this.
Basically no attack or speed but good luck actually hurting them lol
Cannon Bolt from Ben 10 but Bigger lol
This has to be my new favorite Dungeon Dad episode, hands down.
Also, you can't just tease us with a passing mention of The Bionoid and _'not'_ make a video about them! Give us the good stuff, man!
There is a 100% chance that I will eventually make a video about bionoids, great dreamers, constellates, and basically anything Newton had a hand in at some point in the future haha.
Newton's an _OG_ Anime entusiast! He watched 'em raw I tell ya. _Raw!_
No subtitles!
Honestly, to anyone that sees this, give Dunebine a watch. The show is great, and a great place to lift ideas from for a campaign.
It's on HiDive.
Might be missing a few episodes.
Especially if you're a fan of classic UC Gundam. Dunbine was one of the projects series creator Yoshiyuki Tomino helmed between the original Mobile Suit Gundam and Zeta Gundam.
Me clicking on thumbnail: "This looks like Dunbine"
Me listening to description: "This sounds like Dunbine"
Me 17 minutes into the video: "lol it actually is Dunbine"
Thanks, I was thinking Guyver but I knew it was "That other bioarmor thing"
I'd love to see some spirit warriors based on crustaceans. Of course there's the giant enemy crab option but imagine a mantis shrimp spirit warrior or a lobster
Pistol Shrimp with a supercannon built into one claw.
Man I was hooked as soon as I saw the Guyver comment. That's my childhood. And this video just kept getting better from there. A whole campaign of empathic body horrors sounds amazing, whether that's spirit warriors, bionoids, even warforged.
I love studying the game of telephone behind my favorite character types -- like finding out Guyver was inspired by sentient armors full of C'thulhu tentacle slime called Void Units in Iczer 1.
Guyver is also my childhood too. Collected that back on VHS when it officially came out. And, wow, I haven't thought of Iczer One in forever.
Wow, you really went the extra mile or ten with that glorious intro!
You could give a spirit warrior to your low level party, they need to take care of it, repair it and go and fight bigger monsters.
I can't believe it, I NEEDED THIS. As I'm a fan of Kaiju, from Godzilla's monster verse to Evangelion and Pacific Rim, I was thinking of introducing the Siege Crab into my campaign, as a sort of controllable mecha for fighting. But this... this is just what I was looking for. Thank you, I love you and I love the Evangelion style opening.
Check out an old anime called Aura Battler Dunbine. These things heavily draw from it.
Just because you found the Spirit Warrior doesn't mean you can't still use the Siege Crab. Make it a Gargantuan mobile enemy fort.
@@fanusobscurus Thanks, for sure!
@@derekstein6193 I have to do it :)
Me: *is subscribed to Dungeon Dad*
Dungeon Dad: *Makes an Evangelion opening credits sequence so intricate, involved and hilarious as to make brave men weep*
Me: Can I subscribe...twice?
You can't subscribe twice, but I'll subscribe for you
I am absolutely running this monster at some point. What a cool idea. Also kudos for Newton Ewell for meeting with you and giving us some awesome insight into his designs!
So I wonder - would it be a neat idea to have these things in a section of the Shadowfell with a massive rift to the Astral Sea tearing through the region? You could have all manner of horrible space creatures and undead threats, while the Shadar-kai have started creating these spirit warriors to defend themselves?
Yooo then if it fits within the world the party have to rebuild and pilot a warforged collosus and have a lore friendly mech battle
@@thomanator1000 I do have Warforged - it'd be a different part of the world, but that could still work. I'd be remiss if they wasn't a chance to pilot one of these for the player.
Gonna make my own variants with lots of weapon variety and fancy Shadar-Kai powers. Plus some ways for the pilot to enhance the mech.
Is this the plot to Evangelion?
Ro-Beasts!
I actually reworked the shadowfell in my world to me a place that is now in ruin but was once just an opposite reflection of the feywild. And is now in a war with undead creatures as they try to save what is left of their land and civilisations, and these are like the perfect weird creepy undead thing to be those big like “oh fuck, up the defenses”
The quality of your videos is truly impressive, I already wanted to support you, but you've excelled yourself with this. Cruel Angel intro, finding and interviewing the creator of the monster, making an extended version in the future?! Amazing work, signed up on Patreon before I even finished the vid.
Wow, thank you! I genuinely appreciate the kind words and the extra support a ton!
Ok, this is one of the absolute coolest monsters you have ever done. I must also say, this is by far your best episode for your talk with the creator. Thankyou for showing us this!
I really want to run a campaign with these. This has been super evocative as an elder millennial whose adoptive Dad was an anime tape trader/underground distributor in the 80s/90s.
As soon as Newton mentioned he was a tape trader I immediately thought "This man knows what's up".
Thanks for watching!
@@DungeonDad he did not just know HE WAS what was up. diffently his golden ticket.
These Spirit Warriors seems reminds me of the Wraith-Constructs/Ghost warriors from 40k Warhammer fiction. Where ironically they're also made by Space Elves and inwhich their Wraith-Constructs needed to be piloted by diseased Eldar's Spirit Stone(every Eldar has these stones on their chest. Whenever they die their spirits will inhabit these stones.) But the most important part for these Wraith-Constructs, they needed a Seer to guide them.
Wraith-Construct classes:
Wraithguard.
Wraithblade.
Wraithlord.
Wraithseer.
Wraithknight. (Twins are needed. ONE being Alive. TWO being the one who diseased.)
Wraith fighter.
Wraith ships.
This is interesting the fact there's more Skeletal, Bug like machines that needed Spirits to pilot them.
Hey, I am a huge mecha fan with nearly zero experience with DnD but this episode was really interesting as from the get go when you said "inseclike biomechs" I had to know if it was just a coincidence for the dunbine ovious reference, or if there was more to it. Very good content lad.
Also, something not mentioned is that after dunbine, there was another mecha anime by the same director Yoshiuki Tomino called Brainpowerd, which the mechs are alive, and mentally like a baby, so the pilot MUST form a good bond for the Brainpowered to draw its full power
@@zenderas1434 and they're spawns from scraps of an eldritch creature from beyond the stars that's just kinda stranded under the ocean. Yeah Brain Powerd just kinda works for splicing into this format.
My dad worked for TSR back in the 90's and I can confirm they were all into anime.
Considering things like record of lodoss war, goblin slayer and overlord, it’s safe to say a lot of anime is also into D&D
or Final Fantasy
@@greysnake2903 Trick question! A lot of FF1 takes from D&D! (it's very much it's own thing by now TBH)
@@Delmworks Lodoss war people invented their own P&P to avoid a risk of TSR taking them over. Swordworld it's the biggest in Japan to this day.
The interview was incredible and really makes this episode special. Excellent work on this one.
I am HERE for a longer form Dungeon Dad video. What cool thing to watch; the extended form due to the depth of background was great!
One trait that I think would be cool for the Spirit Warrior: if you fail the save to try and control it by 5 or more, you become incapacitated and locked into the Spirit Warrior for 1 minute, and the Spirit Warrior can act as it pleases for that time. Just sounds really cool to try and control it and having it end up controlling you.
Also I think part of why the Spirit Warrior art is so appealing is because it has a lot of avian traits in addition to humanoid and insectoid ones. The beak, the wings, it gives a kind of avian aspect to its silhouette.
Dude, the intro is stellar!! It's so cool. Also, the video is chef's kiss as always, and even more!
I didn't think DND would have Aura Battler in it but that is absolutely amazing that it does! And is the Bionoid inspired by Guyver? I need to play spell jammer if thats the case.
This is probably my favorite episode of yours yet. Reaching out to the designer was an absolute delight, it is great to remember that every monster came from another person, and usually a really cool person.
Such a cool concept! I really love the Spelljammer setting. What about an evil Spirit Warrior that corrupts whoever pilots it? Imagine an ancient ruin with a sealed chamber containing the corrupted Spirit Warrior. It tries to tempt the party to enter it, and possibly creates the new Big Bad out of one of your beloved player characters.
Man, you really went above and beyond looking into the Spirit Warrior by tracking down the original inspiration and even getting Newton on.
If you needed ideas for mechs you could do a spider mech that suits webs and ensnares it's target
Or playing more into the nectar role you could use the bombardier beetle and give the napalm weapon a massive massive boost at the cost of speed or health, really lean on smart positioning and coordination.
Finally my favorite one is a moth themed mech that specializes in psychic powers. It would definitely be slower than other mechs but could detect enemies and not need line of sight to attack or enhance or defend against psychic abilities.
The spirit warrior also makes me think of the esthetic from boo's astral managerie. I love these living vehicle/equipment monsters, which i guess mimics can also fit into.
The opening song in the style of Eva almost killed me. I was half asleep at the start of the video, but the moment I heard the music I sprang awake, opened my phone and laughed until it hurt at what I saw. You cemented your position as my favorite D&D TH-camr with this video. Thanks for the upload.
The dramatic lighting during the interview makes it so much better and funnier imo. It's like those scenes with a mysterious senior director intercomming the teen/ya protagonist during an interlude to direct them on the next part of the plot.
Alright, as a Canadian, I gotta bring up my childhood, this show aired in Canada and Japan.
And I think it would make an amazing DND campaign.
Spider Riders.
Calling all Spider Riders, LETS RIDE LETS RIDE. Theme song was fire.
This is a seriously cool monster! I imagine it would be a brilliant addition to the Eberron game where the Spirit Warriors were the Karrnathi answer to Warforged Colossi.
2:10 Absolutely loved the timing, lol. Cruel Angel Thesis is a great song.
5:19 And now I know why you used a song from Evangelion.
Oh my god, a 43 minute long video? I need popcorn for this!
Btw, thank you for your efforts Dungeon Dad! Now imma get that popcorn.
Get some for me too! Thanks for watching!
wait, it's 43 minutes long? And I just watch the whole of it without noticing?
You have truly outdone yourself on this one! I was already wowed by the amount of effort put into (what I can only assume to be) a one-off gimmick opening, then the creature itself is super interesting...and then you pull out that awesome interview! Bravo sir, bravo!
Just started DND two weeks ago. Out of curiosity and my love for mechs I ended up finding the TTRPG lancer but… you’re telling me I can be a Mech pilot in dnd? I couldn’t be happier
Got to say that this video really lived up to the hype. The spirit warrior is honestly one of the coolest things I have ever seen and the fact that wotc didnt brought it when they relesed the new spelljammer book is a crime (that and the withclight marauders, give us the kaiju fights we want you cowerds!).
Thank you so much for following up on the others and my recommendation with the Spirit Warrior! I can only hope that eventually you move to converting the Bionoids (despite the lackluster art) and other things involving the Unhuman Wars. 🔥👀
Idk what's coolest; the creature, the fact you were able to get the guy to do an interview, or the creator's sheer enthusiasm and love for the topic (WOTC could take some notes.)
Fantastic vid as always ❤️
Sir, I have a cold right now. That Cruel Angel's Thesis opening NEARLY KILLED ME because I started laughing so hard I started coughing until I couldn't breathe!
I love it! Perfect way to open an episode like this!
Hey DD, just wanted to thank and congratulate you for the amount of effort and care you put into your work, this one in special. The research, the editing and even a interview the og mind behind the monster show how above and beyond you go with these videos. And of course thanks Newton for taking the time to come to the interview about his creation.
Now I can use one of my Dunbine models in game! Thank you for making this video!!
This probably one of the best finds in all of d&d for me and I appreciate you putting this up. Especially going that extra mile for the history and background.
Its one of my fave dnd creatures, i have adapted this concept for my own campaign, influenced by Vision of Esceflowne.
They are the mecha space fighters of the Elven Space Navy, perfect for extended missions far from any vessel, you could even fly with one of these from Forgotten Realms to DragonLance.
The intro alone made me need to use this monster for a specific player lol
Immediately hit the like when I saw the Evangelion opening, 40 minutes later I don't regret it. That's the deepest delve of all in a monster's origin, you should be proud.
It would be fun to have a weird campaign where your character is basically raising an insect that acts as their spirit warrior over the campaign, but split it into not just going straight from a dead bug to a spirit warrior but a bunch of stages. Maybe you have to raise a bug, and after it dies, resurrect it as a familiar. And then over time, you feed your dead beetle undead and psychic energies until your bug becomes big enough and goes from helper to summon to a spirit warrior you have a psychic connection with.
There was so much deep Dad lore in the intro, I had to write a whole campaign about it ❤️
It's beyond cool that you covered this one...I think TES provides a great use for this creature à la Numidium: find the missing pieces to this creature to make it functional again, and make the world in your image by rejecting it. Simple, elegant, classy. It can be the central plot point, and what's great is that every party will use this in wildly different manners.
Edit: also, I'm 90% certain the Spirit Warrior art inspired the Hork Bajjir species in Animorphs.
Edit 2: Also, some of the Dunbine artwork inspired the Sinnoh region myths in Pokémon (looking at you, Arceus!).
Edit 3: Doxy outro on point 👌
I'm running a game right now with Kythons as the main antagonist. Getting visions of end game with the Kython hoard breeding these exoskeletons to add to their swarm
They DID(Not) Forget the Fan Service. I'm Subbed
Thanks to this, I now have something bigger planned after my ToA campaign. Involves the Albino Dwarf Spirit Warriors that exists in Chult, Red Wizards, and the section of the map that can lead players to a domain of dread in the south east. The dwarves have the general lore that can work, red wizards being there to discover more about soul monger, simply stumble upon the rituals near the entrance to the domain of dread. Similar to how the different tribes of goblins in Chult have varying characteristics, can make the same for the Albino Dwarves. Most tribes follow the base version (dinosaurs), but one tribe ties strongly to huge insects in the land. This all would happen after the events of destroying the soul monger as the Red Wizards would not want to leave empty handed. They continue searching the lands in order of not returning to Thay empty handed. Could lead to a war in the Sword Coast campaign with Thay having this new arsenal.
after watching the whole video, i was really impressed with how in depth you got into this, including the irl backstory and the related interview. honestly, i am going to use this creature for a bbeg fight. In lieu of a mythic trait, they fight the guy in the mech first and when they defeat the mech, he emerges to fight them as himself
I would honestly watch the heck out of a series where you dig up the design inspirations for monsters over the years. SUPER cool addition to your catalogue of content!
Psychic attacks working on Spirit warriors is such a Gundam newtype like thing to include, that's so fun.
Even having never seen the show or its title sequence, I must respect the absolute dedication to the bit.
I loved everything about this episode, from the (I believe) shot for shot remake of the opening song, to the 'Next Week' segment. Just incredible!
I love the energy you bring to all your videos, they are full of inspiration!
This video is incredible. Finding the creator, the cool intro, the insane inspirations all of it was awesome
Honestly this is SUCH a cool monster! I can see so many potential in putting just *one* of these bad boys around your world in a campaign! And just the whole design... it's incredible! This is absolutely one of my fav old monsters so far :) they also look like such gentle lads... like all the bugs in the world.
Amazing video! Getting Newton Ewell on for his insight was the best part.
Hell yeah, though i swear you already had made a video about this monster. After all there is a google drive doc of them in your compilation (the one on Reddit i mean). Regardless, its always good to see more of your stuff ^^
So I had made the stat block in December 2022, but I delayed the video until after I had a chance to interview Newton!
@@DungeonDad what a fucking legend. i'm a new fan but this shit here is just pure wholesome, thank you for sharing this mate
@@DungeonDad i see i see
I think the spirit warrior, may be a final antagonist instead of his pilot(s). With a question of who controls whom? And the pilot in connection with his mind became the villain due to the influence of the this specific spirit warrior (with his own past and motivation), but unsuspected in a first time because the one directly of his acts responsibly is the pilot.
As someone who Loves Nausicaa Valley of the Wind, this anime series is right up my ally.
Amazing, so many years later and we're STILL getting these Evangelion intro edits... Freaking love it! Dungeon Dad you're the mang :)
I thought you were just going to do the first bit of the Eva opening but mad respect for you doing the whole thing.
This monster has my mind running with all the possibilities. I am full on thinking of trying to transition it from bug to dragon and make Escaflowne usable. You have inspired me. Great work as always
I love deep dives into topics I had never even thought about before.
Ok just recently watched a video on the warforged colossus and now I have a very strange and fun idea to hopefully have this thing fight one
Bro, I've been enjoying your content for a while now, but this episode was absolutely top notch! Old 80's anime/tokusatsu and D&D is such a venn diagram overlap for me. Thanks for interviewing Newton and keeping these old obscure monsters alive.
That intro was everything.
Yes
Thanks for making this video. I got pointed at it by one of the designers of Hackjammer (the official Hackmaster conversion of Spelljammer).
I'm not so into anime myself, but the GM of the live-streamed 2e Spelljammer game I'm in, is a massive anime fan and has been telling me about the anime influence in Spelljammer, for some time. I think he will really enjoy this. (I actually stopped watching, half way through, to send him a link.)
I've had some dealings with Newton Ewell, on social media and he is a really cool person.
If the TSR's Wldspace TV show had not fallen through, or if WotC's attempt to make a Spelljammer movie had gotten anywhere, maybe they could have hired Newton Ewell to create an aniime-like elven planet with spirit warriors on it.
With 5e pretty much rebooting Spelljammer, I can't imagine us seeing all the directions that it might have gone in. But thanks for putting so much time into showing us the cool ideas that Newton brought to the setting.
I do declare, that sounds like Star Fox 64 during the opening
2 campaign ideas.
1. Players are apart of a military that has the warriors as a unit. Can either be apart of a family who gets handed one or they have to come across some that will let them piolet them. Have a bad guy as the dark knight be the bbeg. Finish campaign.
2. Characters come back, fully leveled. Suits get taken over at the start by a necromancer and piolets killed. New Characters have to get new suits and stop old ones while finding out about necro.
Best opening ever. I intend to use Spirit Warriors to serve as environmental suits for my players to use when going to the Far Realm to save a princess stolen by Kaorti!
Fell in love with them at 1st sight when I bought the cc back there when it came out
Thank you for the video
Already included in my setting, but your statblocks are an immense gift
So having watched this video I went looking up Aura Battler Dunbine. I just learned that there is a sequel series of sorts called Wings of Rean. I don't think it's dubbed or subbed, but it could be a cool source of more inspiration for a campaign.
For other sources of inspiration for magical mechs, there is Magic and Knights, and Rayearth.
Also Vision of Escaflowne
That intro gave me chills from all the nostolgia
Woah look at all this effort put into a single video, great work to everyone involved!!!
Cheers from Brazil, love this channel :>
This was an amazing episode on so many levels. Thank you so much for exploring this to such a deep degree.
And a huge Thank You to Newton Ewell for sharing his experiences and history here, and for his past work on some of my favorite monsters I encountered as 3.5 fan adaptations! That list of design credits was highly enlightening.
Please tell me someone else thought that the most powerful Spirit Worrier should be a dragon fly.
You could give it perfectly silent flight and 390 vision along with a ridiculous flight speed as well as from the dragon all the standard dragon attacks including a recharge breath, and maybe even a dragon fear burst.
I have also always loved magic items that level with you so you could have this Spirit Worrier start out as a Wyrmling, or larva, just a suit of powered full plate, and as their piolet levels up it would increase in 'age categories' and unlock it's most powerful abilities.
Ok, I did NOT expect one of my favorite childhood anime to be mentioned, that being Shurato. Newton truly is a very cultured man.
"That's not a Smith & Wesson! That's a Colt Navy revolver!"
1:50 This is the best thing you’ve ever created, I’m crying with laughter
I can absolutely see a version of this designed for underwater combat (Can you guess what my current brew is themed around?). This is such a cool and flavor rich creature! Thank you for bringing it to light!!
Maybe a diving beetle or a water strider providing above water support
7:58 I used this in a campaign once. The players were not happy with me. I thought they could handle it. It was only 1 and it was weakened from it's long dormancy but they, like a lot of PCs, pondered and debated too much and allowed it to consume a village.
In the end they won but the cost was high.
I hope that in the future one of these days to see the moon horse stats for 5e. It's an interesting creature and definitely would suit elf characters as a mount. Much better than a simple horse.
That yuyu Hakusho intro was on point.
I love this channel so much. You make some of my favorite content period.
Any chance you'll use this in your next Tall Tails campaign, Dungeon Dad? It would super cool to have one of these in your world...or even have all the older totem animals effectively act as undead mecha husks.
That is a very cool idea!
I love how Spirit Warrior is an unapologetic synonym for Aura Battler
Maybe you could do modular mummified giants like the sand octopus you recently covered. That would be pretty neat.
My DM created an arachnid spirit warrior for my elven war-master character to discover, after finding out that he was descended from a long line of spirit warrior pilots. It can't use melee weapons but it is absolutely COVERED in hidden wand arrays ranging from magic missiles, fireballs, and scorching rays. I'm a walking weapon platform as well as a troop transport vehicle and my party has been having a blast.
I love this 🤩 I’m already imagining centipede and scorpion versions! Oh, and an aquatic mantis shrimp 😱
As far as suggestions, I’d love to see you cover the Phoelarch and Phoera. (And I’m going to keep bringing up Bebilith each time I comment too 😁)
Went and added the phoelarch and phoera to D-Dad's monster suggestion list.
mantis shrimp spirit warrior would be sick. mach punches creating air bubbles on LAND to explode things from a distance from sheer force
Best intro/opening theme you've done hands down