Monsters and Creatures - Jim Zub & Stacy King & Andrew Wheeler Read online

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Copyright © 2019 by Wizards of the Coast LLC. Dungeons & Dragons, its logo, D&D, and the dragon ampersand are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast LLC in the USA and other countries.

All Rights Reserved.

Published in the United States by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of Random House, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York.

www.crownpublishing.com

www.tenspeed.com

Ten Speed Press and the Ten Speed Press colophon are registered trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Zub, Jim, author. | Conceptopolis, illustrator.

Title: Monsters & creatures : a young adventurer’s guide / written by Jim Zub, with Stacy King and Andrew Wheeler ; illustrations by Conceptopolis.

Other titles: Monsters and creatures

Description: First edition. | New York : Ten Speed Press, [2019] | Series: Dungeons & dragons young adventurer’s guides | Includes index. | Audience: Age 8-12. | Audience: Grade 4 to 6.

Identifiers: LCCN 2018050270 | ISBN 9781984856401 (hardback) | ISBN 9781984856418 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Dungeons and dragons (Game)—Handbooks, manuals, etc.—Juvenile literature. | Dungeons and dragons (Game)—Pictorial works—Juvenile literature. | BISAC: JUVENILE NONFICTION / Games & Activities / General. | GAMES / Role Playing & Fantasy. | JUVENILE NONFICTION / Media Tie-In.

Classification: LCC GV1469.62.D84 Z836 2019 | DDC 793.93—dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018050270

Hardcover ISBN 9781984856401

Ebook ISBN 9781984856418

Publisher: Aaron Wehner

Art Director: Betsy Stromberg

Editors: Patrick Barb and Julie Bennett

Managing Editor: Doug Ogan

Production Designer: Lisa Bieser

Wizards of the Coast Team: David Gershman, Kate Irwin, Adam Lee, Hilary Ross, Liz Schuh

Illustrations: Conceptopolis, LLC

v5.4

prh

CONTENTS

Introduction

CAVERNS & DARK PLACES

Beholder

Bugbear

Carrion Crawler

Flumph

Goblin

Mind Flayer

Myconid

ENCOUNTER Myconid Colony

LEGENDARY MONSTER

Demogorgon

FORESTS, MOUNTAINS & OTHER TERRAIN

Centaur

Displacer Beast

Owlbear

Sprite

Treant

Unicorn

ENCOUNTER Unicorn

GIANTS

Hill Giant

Stone Giant

Frost Giant

ENCOUNTER Frost Giant

Fire Giant

LEGENDARY GIANT

Duke Zalto

Cloud Giant

Storm Giant

MOORS, BOGS & BONEYARDS

Banshee

Skeleton

ENCOUNTER Skeleton

VAMPIRES

Vampire Lord

Vampire Spawn

LEGENDARY VAMPIRE

Count Strahd Von Zarovich

OCEANS, LAKES & WATERWAYS

Aboleth

Dragon Turtle

Merrow

MOUNTAIN PEAKS & OPEN SKY

Griffon

Pegasus

DRAGONS

White Dragon

Green Dragon

ENCOUNTER Green Dragon

Black Dragon

Blue Dragon

Red Dragon

LEGENDARY DRAGON

Tiamat, the Queen of Evil Dragons

Using Monsters to Tell Your Own Stories

INTRODUCTION

Monsters are freaky. Creatures can be fun. Both make our stories exciting and dangerous.

This book is a tour through some of the most famous and frightening beasts from the world of Dungeons & Dragons. It’s a guide to their traits, lairs, and powers. It will tell you how to fight these weird creatures or advise you when to flee if you’re in over your head.

Read this book from start to finish, or open it to any spot, get entranced by the cool artwork, and start your journey there. The more you read, the more you’ll discover. The more you discover, the easier it will be to imagine your own heroic tales as you explore strange caves, trek across craggy mountains, or soar through the skies.

Will your battles against these monsters lead to fame and fortune or will your skeleton lie as an omen for future heroes to discover? In the end, that’s up to you. Dungeons & Dragons is all about unique adventures, and yours is about to begin.

Enjoy!

DANGER LEVELS

Each monster profile includes a number indicating the danger level of that creature, with a 0 being harmless, a 1 as a reasonable threat for a beginning adventurer, and building up from there. A 5 is incredibly dangerous and requires an experienced group of adventurers to possibly defeat it. There are some epic creatures more powerful than a mere number can define. Such terrors can only be fought by legendary heroes armed with the most powerful magic weapons and spells imaginable.

CAVERNS & DARK PLACES

In the earth beneath your feet, things are moving.

Creatures of all shapes and sizes burrow through dirt and stone, muck and clay. Vast tunnels connect to winding caves, and inside those flow rivers that have never seen the sun. In places such as the Underdark, entire kingdoms of intelligent creatures can be found.

Some of these subterranean spaces are cool and wet, with condensation dripping from above. Others are hot and steamy, with a thin wall of rock serving as your only protection from streams of burning magma that bubble up from a molten core.

The underground is a place of darkness and danger, where hidden treasures can be found in a hole and a sputtering torch is your only source of light. Are you ready to go exploring?

BEHOLDER

Beholders are freaky floating creatures with shimmering eyes that cast evil spells. Is that big blob the beholder’s head or its body? Are those eyestalks coming out of the top its hair or its limbs? There are no easy answers. All you need to know is that a beholder is a scary floating eyeball monster. And if any of those eyes set their gaze on you, you’re in big trouble.

Beholders are jealous, angry creatures. They have such a bad attitude that they don’t even get along with each other (which is actually a good thing because if you found more than one at the same time you’d probably be a goner).

LAIR Most beholders live in remote places such as caves or abandoned ruins. Some of them even build their own lairs by disintegrating rock with their eye blasts in order to create tall tunnels where they can float above their prey and cause trouble. The floor of a beholder’s cave is usually covered with treasure and equipment from unfortunate adventurers who didn’t think to look up when they walked in the entrance.

SIZE Some beholders are small like a basketball, but older ones can be massive, more than ten feet in diameter, like a humongous beachball.

SPECIAL POWERS Beholders have one big eyeball in the center of their round bodies and ten weird eyestalks. Each eyestalk has a magic beam that shoots at adventurers when angry.

1 CHARM

If you fall under this eye�
��s spell, you’ll think the beholder is your friend and do what it says.

2 PARALYZATION

If you get hit with this one, you won’t be able to move at all for a full minute. Count to sixty and hope you still have time to run afterward.

3 FEAR

If this eye’s spell works its magic, you’ll find yourself running away because of uncontrollable fear.

4 SLOWNESS

If this eye’s beam hits you, then you’ll move really slowly, like you’re trying to run underwater.

5 ENERVATION

This eye’s spell hurts like a bad burn.

6 TELEKINESIS

This eye’s beam can hold you in place or move you around.

7 SLEEP

This eye’s beam can make you so tired that you fall asleep on the spot. No pillow. No blanket. Just naptime.

8 DISINTEGRATION

This eye’s beam turns whatever it hits to dust.

9 PETRIFICATION

One hit from this eye’s beam will turn a living creature into stone.

10 DEATH

Yikes!

ANTIMAGIC CONE

Wherever this eye looks, magic won’t work. Clerics, wizards, and warlocks, try to stay out of its sight.

DO THIS

Fight magic with magic. If your party includes spellcasters, get them to put up magical shields to protect your fighters from the beholder’s eye beams.

Distract the beholder as much as you can. Give it a lot of different things to look at so that it won’t see you.

Get in close! Beholders are most dangerous when they’re far away because they can shoot their eye beams at you and your party.

DON’T DO THIS

Don’t ignore the feeling that you’re being watched. Even when you’re alone, feeling someone’s eyes on you is a sign that a beholder may be close by.

Don’t stay put for too long! Holding your ground may be a great fighting tactic against some monsters, but not against beholders. If those eyes focus on you, it’s bad news.

BUGBEAR

Bugbears are fierce warriors born for battle and mayhem! Much larger than their goblin cousins (see this page), bugbears like to bully and boss other creatures around. They will fight for others if their employer promises enough gold and carnage to satisfy their barbaric tastes. However, even a well-paid bugbear is an unreliable ally. Covered in thick fur that they enhance with hide armor, they favor brutal weapons such as the morning star, a spiked mace.

Bugbears are fond of ambushes and are surprisingly stealthy for their size. They are often found in the company of goblins whom they have enslaved or rule over with brutal force (though they do sometimes unite to form war bands led by a particularly strong warrior). Beneath their fierce exteriors, bugbears are cowards who will abandon wounded members of their parties and flee when the fight turns against them. A wounded bugbear has no qualms about betraying his former allies if it will help save his own hide!

LAIR Like goblins, bugbears favor dismal settings such as caves, abandoned mines, and rotting dungeons. Some simply move into goblin lairs and take over! You may sometimes find war bands rampaging through rocky terrain or anywhere that treasure and conquests can be found.

SIZE Bugbears are a little taller than a normal doorway, with broad shoulders and thick, muscular limbs. Their abnormally long arms give them extra reach for melee attacks.

SPECIAL POWERS

BRUTE STRENGTH

Close combat weapons do extra damage when wielded by these ferocious fighters.

HEART OF HRUGGEK

Named after a bugbear god, bugbear chiefs can call upon this formidable power to shrug off attacks intended to charm, frighten, paralyze, poison, or stun them.

SURPRISE ATTACK

An explosive burst of power allows a bugbear to inflict even more damage during its first strike, raising its danger level, if it manages to catch you off guard.

DO THIS

Stay out of reach. Bugbears’ long arms give them an advantage in close combat, so use ranged attacks when possible.

Take captives. Bugbears will sell out their tribe and allies for a chance at survival.

DON’T DO THIS

Don’t ignore their goblin companions. The smaller creatures may be less dangerous one-on-one, but a goblin horde presents a risk for even the most accomplished adventurer.

Don’t let down your guard. Known for their stealth, bugbears love to attack when they’re least expected. Stay alert!

CARRION CRAWLER

Carrion crawlers are huge caterpillar-like creatures, each with dozens of tentacles and a gnashing mouth full of razor-sharp teeth. These disgusting monsters live on rotting flesh and slimy bones, and they’re always on the hunt for their next meal.

Carrion crawlers are drawn to dead things. They follow the stench of death and decay like relentless bloodhounds. These patient predators rely on trickery to fill their ever-hungry bellies. Unwary adventurers face the risk of being grabbed and poisoned by one of their many tentacles or bitten by their snapping teeth.

LAIR Carrion crawlers are found in caves, sewers, dungeons, and marshlands—anywhere that’s dark and moldy. Their keen sense of smell can sometimes lead them to cemeteries or battlefields. The dark corners of their lairs may contain the paralyzed or rotting corpses of their victims, stashed away for a late-night snack.

SIZE A fully grown carrion crawler is three times as long as a human is tall and almost six feet high when they crawl around. However, they can rear up on their hind-tentacles in combat to make themselves even taller, so watch out!

SPECIAL POWERS

SENSE OF SMELL

Carrion crawlers have an amazing sense of smell that lets them sniff out prey from far away. That also makes it tough to sneak up on them.

CLIMBING

Their many legs allow them to climb like a spider, skittering over difficult surfaces and even moving while upside down.

POISON

Their tentacles carry a poison that can paralyze you. Once you can’t move, the carrion crawler will tuck you away to let you die and rot until you’re gooey enough to be its next meal.

DO THIS

Be ready to cure poisonous wounds. Party members with healing powers, like clerics and druids, should be ready to help if anyone is struck by a poisonous tentacle.

Clean your weapons after a fight. Carrion crawlers can smell even a tiny hint of blood from miles away.

DON’T DO THIS

Don’t make lots of noise while you move through the underground. These relentless hunters will stalk you for hours in hopes of a meal.

Don’t ignore what’s above. Carrion crawlers can move across ceilings just as easily as they can the ground, and they love to surprise their victims from above.

FLUMPH

Not everything that lurks in the dark is dangerous! Flumphs are one of the great oddities of the underground, peaceful little creatures who float through the darkness on puffs of air. They communicate telepathically and express their moods through the soft, glowing colors of their tentacles: soft pink for amusement, deep blue for sadness, green for curiosity, and red for anger.

Flumphs feed off the psychic energy of others. They are passive parasites who take only as much as needed for survival. Their telepathy exposes them to the evil thoughts and emotions of other underground dwellers, sickening their pure nature. When good-hearted adventurers approach, flumphs are eager to soak up the positive energy and share any dark secrets they have learned. A steadfast rule of underground exploration is to always trust a flumph!

LAIR Flumphs live in the Underdark and can typically be found near the lairs of mind flayers and other psionic creatures. Their own communities, called cloisters, are peaceful places where their telepathy allows them to live in perfect harmony.

SI
ZE An adult flumph has a circumference wider than a person, but is only about as thick as your arm, giving it an odd and flat saucer-shaped appearance.

SPECIAL POWERS

ADVANCED TELEPATHY

These powerful psychics can overhear the content of any telepathic communication within sixty feet.

STENCH SPRAY

Flumphs can shoot a fifteen-foot-long cone of foul-smelling liquid that sticks to targets, leaving them stinking for hours.

ACID BURN

Flumphs can attack with their tendrils, which give off an acid that can burn skin.

TELEPATHIC SHROUD

Flumphs are immune to all attempts to read their thoughts or emotions against their will.

DO THIS

Let them into your head. Flumphs can’t speak, but they can share secrets and warnings via telepathy.

Keep an eye on their colors. Flumphs are angered by the presence of evil, so when they start to glow red, something bad is nearby.

DON’T DO THIS

Don’t frighten them. Dungeons are stinky enough without being coated with a flumph’s stench spray.

GOBLIN

Goblins are small, black-hearted, and selfish creatures with an individually low danger rating—which is why they’re almost always found in packs, often in numbers so great that they can simply overwhelm their enemies! These malicious creatures long for power and cannot help but celebrate whenever they have the upper hand. Lazy and undisciplined, they make poor servants and rely on alarms rather than guards to protect their lairs.

Goblins have an affinity for rats, which serve as pets, and wolves, whom they train as mounts. They prefer ambushes and hit-and-run attacks over straightforward battle. When alone, they are more likely to run away than challenge a stronger foe—but they can be dangerous when they band together! Goblins fight with scimitars and shortbows, and wear leather armor stolen from fallen enemies. Even with a leader, their infighting never stops. Goblins live to abuse, and they will turn on one another if no external target is available (a trait that adventurers can use to their advantage).

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