#( added to the bestiary | animals )
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tag dump one ft. general tags !!
#( ask the sorting hat | tag dump )#( out of spells | ooc )#( meme )#( spicy spicy | usfw meme )#( munday munday | ooc meme )#quick game | dash meme )#( according to the stars | zodiac meme )#( to chase the sads away | positivity )#( for keepsies | save )#( radio | music )#( recordings | video )#( mumbling mun | mun things )#( apparate | link )#( by ministry decree | PSA )#( words to live by | isms )#( usfw content: spicy ahoy )#( usfw text )#( feast in the great hall | food & drink )#( added to the bestiary | animals )#( so many places to be | scenery )
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I’ve grown to appreciate the aus where Shen Yuan enters the story as “Shen Yuan” - same name, probably similar face, generally able to interact with PIDW as himself and change the story through his added presence. I like the sense of “if only you’d been here, things might have been better the first time around” of it all.
And I was thinking, it’s a funny coincidence in that scenario that someone named Shen Yuan gets put into… another Shen Yuan. What are the chances? What a weird twist of fate that Airplane would pick out the name that his most dedicated critic could slip into seamlessly.
What about a version where it’s not coincidence at all?
Airplane goes to school with a kid named Shen Yuan. He’s prickly and hard to approach and a little intense, but Airplane is persistent. In fairness, Airplane is relentless - and maybe it’s a good thing that they end up being friends, because they’re a little too much for anyone else to handle. They balance each other out. They’re the “weird kids” in class and they’re okay with that, because even when they don’t have any words for it, they know they’re not like their classmates, not really. That’s okay; they don’t want to be.
Recesses and breaks are consumed with the elaborate stories that Airplane wants to tell, and all the holes Shen Yuan pokes into them. It’s not mean-spirited, though, even though Shen Yuan isn’t the kind to temper his words. It’s passionate. He cares about those stories the way Airplane cares about them, and it can’t be mistaken for anything else when they lean together conspiratorially across the lunchroom table. They’ve both got notebooks filled with details and characters and monsters. Shen Yuan’s practically got a whole bestiary sketched out in wobbly childhood attempts at art, entries fervently scrawled beside them. Airplane prattles out plots nonstop, always with the promise of shining eyes and being asked “what happens next?”
They come up with a whole world together. Airplane’s going to write about it someday. Shen Yuan is going to read every word.
Shen Yuan misses school. Shen Yuan starts missing school a lot.
Airplane goes to the hospital room instead. He doesn’t think to worry, because Shen Yuan is okay - that’s what he says. He looks okay, and he’s a kid, and it doesn’t feel real that anything bad should happen to a kid. He doesn’t think to worry. He doesn’t think to say goodbye.
It’s one of the older Shen brothers who catches him on the way up to the room one day, in the hallway just outside - snaps at him to go the fuck home, and when Airplane hesitates, pushes him into the elevator and tells him not to come back. “Tells” is a generous way to describe the way the words come out - a growl, a hiss, the sound an animal would make when a hand got too close to a wound.
(It’s not fair to name a villain after him, even if the name never really comes up in the story. He wasn’t trying to be mean. He’d lost a brother minutes before, and he was getting his brother’s friend out of the way so he didn’t have to… see. It isn’t fair, but then, none of it is fair.)
Death feels very real after that.
The notebooks get shoved into a closet, and it’s not until Airplane’s moving out and one falls on him from a high shelf that he thinks about it again. He’s written things, lots of things, but nothing as ambitious as this - nothing as important. It could be good, he considers. He’d promised. Shen Yuan wanted to read it.
The problem was that no one else does, not for a long time, not until Airplane has whittled himself and his art into a corner and into such an unfamiliar shape that he has to wonder how it’s still his own face he sees in the mirror. He has to eat. He has to pay rent. Shen Yuan would yell at him, but Shen Yuan isn’t there to yell at him, and who cares. Who cares if it could have been better? The people who actually are here love it, and it’s paying his bills, and sometimes stories don’t go the way they’re supposed to and the world is fucking unfair. It doesn’t matter.
(It does. But he shoves that thought away along with styrofoam cups and soda bottles to the bottom of a garbage bag.)
Authors are not gods and their power is limited, but Airplane exercises just a sliver of what he’s been granted and gifts an inconsequential sort of immortality. He thinks about making him a rogue cultivator, maybe the kind that goes around documenting beasts and compiling his findings. He thinks about making him someone too powerful for death to touch, or too important to threaten, but when Airplane looks at the world he crafted and everything that’s become of it, it feels like the kindest thing he can do for Shen Yuan is a childhood where he’s loved, and a death that’s peaceful. What does it say about that world, that he’d kill off his best friend too early again instead of making him live there?
(The best writing he ever does is the only, shining moment of humanity that his scum villain ever displays: a lament about death that comes too early, about a brother gone too soon. The commenters praise him. The commenters flatter over how real the emotions feel. The commenters don’t get any response from Airplane on that chapter.)
Death is incredibly real when it comes for him too early, too, still hovering over his keyboard with the story technically finished and incredibly incomplete. Airplane could tell himself that’s because the written version can never be the version in the writer’s head, always shifting and with every possibility still on the table, but he knows better than that. The System knows better than that, with its condescending message about “improving” his writing and “closing plot holes” and “achieving his original vision”...
…and he’s a child again. He’s a child in his own story, he’s Shang Qinghua now without the benefit yet of a peak or cultivation or anything, and maybe he’s a little bitter, and a little scared, and…
And Shen Yuan - with longer hair, with robes, with a couple of older kids watching him from across the street, but undeniably the prickly little boy who used to sit down imperiously across from him and tell him everything that was wrong with the chuck of writing that had been handed to him last period, but with that smile that said he was only invested because he knew it could be better and they were going to make it better - marches up to him with a fire in his eyes and a frown that warns of a coming tirade.
“You told it wrong,” is the first thing he says.
Shang Qinghua wants to ask how him how he’s here, how this is possible, or maybe laugh because, yeah - yeah, Shen Yuan has no goddamn idea how wrong he got absolutely everything.
(Shang Qinghua wants to say “I missed you” and “why did you leave so soon” but he’s here now. He’s right here.)
“I know,” he says instead. “I’m sorry. It all kind of… spiraled out of control.”
Shen Yuan frowns, but then it dissipates the way it always does, and his eyes shine with ideas the way they always used to. “That’s okay,” he relents, grabbing for his hand. “We’ll fix it. We’ll make it what it was supposed to be.”
#scum villain self saving system#svsss#shang qinghua#shen yuan#airplane shooting towards the sky#this got more into the feelings than i thought it would#surprising no one#anyway just! childhood friends au! as a reason for a shen yuan insert!#obviously he is not going to die as a child in this version#shang qinghua would not have that nope not again#also pls consider poor shen jiu who looks at this child that shen yuan has picked out for a best friend like '...really? that one??'#(it's up to you if he's shen yuan's actual brother from his first life)#(put there's a part of me that likes the idea that shen jiu also gets a second chance to spend more time with his brother)#a second chance for them to grow up together!#THAT SAID#RIP TO SHANG QINGHUA#WHEN SHEN YUAN IS OLD ENOUGH TO LEARN ABOUT ALL THE PAPAPA#the LOOKS shang qinghua is going to get#anyway here have a thing because I CANNOT add another au to my drafts thank you and goodbyyyyye
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I think this week's Bestiary Posting is pretty fascinating. I especially like the animal being described as having 'mercy', as I feel like many people would consider that a distinctly human trait. I kind of assumed this idea of animals being like machines incapable of emotions was an old idea, but this and other bestiary entries really seem to humanize the animals listed in them more then I expected.
Anyway, I think what the Zomargon actually is, is pretty obvious, but the bit that stood out to me the most was: "it strikes fear into bulls, yet fears the mouse", and my mind immediately went to my dog. He likes to put on a lot of bluster when confronted with larger dogs or animals, but show him a bug and he runs behind the couch and cries until someone comes to save him.
So, it had to be a poodle. There's no other animal it could possibly be. Lively intelligence, scared of mice, works with people, if one of them falls over they have to gather around and make a big drama about it - that's a poodle for sure.
So this description lists a lot of different traits, so I'm just gonna go down them all and explain my thoughts.
"His nose is called a trunk because he uses it to put food in his mouth."
At first I went with an elephant shrew-type nose, but that's not so great for grabbing, but you know what would be? A hand. And what has a hand on the end of it's nose? That's right, a star-nosed mole. So combination trunk/star nose situation.
"The Persians and Indians, carried in wooden towers on their backs..."
So we know it's a big critter, to able to carry people on it's back.
"...lively intelligence and a long memory..."
Gave them a bit of a big skull to accommodate those big brains. I can also confirm that poodles never forget and hold onto to grudges for years.
"...she goes out into a pool, until the water comes up to her udders."
For sure a mammal this time, so good to know.
"If the Zomargon finds a snake, it kills it..."
This explains why my dog's favorite toys are the ones made to look like snakes and why they are the first to get torn to shreds.
"if it falls down, it cannot rise."
For this I was thinking about how this happens to sheep quite often, when they're pregnant or their wool is too heavy, so I gave my Zomargon a broad back and thick woolly fur that can grow out into a big poof-ball (as I doodled in the bottom).
"...it has no joints in its knees."
This one was tricky to figure out. The knee is a joint, so how can a joint not be a joint? I had to sketch up a couple of legs off to the side just to try out some ideas. Ended up going with the middle one, and just adding a big fleshy pad on the back of the foot to support it, since there's no mention of hooves. It looks weird, but I guess they make it work?
"They possess the quality of mercy."
If a creature possesses mercy, it of course must have soft, gentle eyes, so I tried to give them a sweet dog-like expression. This is a beastie made for cuddling.
"...they make their way carefully and peaceably lest their tusks kill any animal in their way."
Just throwing in tusks in at the last second, huh? I honestly almost forgot to include them, they seem like such an afterthought in the description. And if Zomargons don't fight each other, the tusks must be used for something else. I decided to give them something like a Thylacosmilus fang situation, where these big saber teeth are supported by this crazy lower jaw. Seems to be some debate about whether these teeth were used for scavenging carcasses or killing prey. The Zomargon also eats fruits according to the description, so maybe these tusks are in fact just for opening coconuts.
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SUPER LESBIAN ANIMAL RPG v1.1 IS HERE! This is the most substantial patch since launch. On top of the usual bug fixes, we have new area maps, the new Additional Guidance mode, and most importantly... Melody now has a pet cat!! Look at him
As always, Steam users should get the patch automatically, while itch users can redownload the game from the store page. Common technical questions are also addressed in our FAQ page.
To try and manage expectations here, while this update contains more than the usual bug fixes, I don't currently have any plans to add a huge amount of content to the game. Right now I think it's already long enough, and the game's structure (with a definitive ending and no postgame) isn't conducive to adding DLC. And also, you know, what's there already took almost eight years of my life to make, and that kinda takes a lot out of you. But these additions felt like they would meaningfully improve the experience of what's already there.
Full changelog below!
v1.1 Changelog
"New content":
Additional Guidance mode can now be toggled on or off from the start of the game or via the in-game Options menu! When enabled, this will occasionally offer more direct hints on what to do next in a few specific parts of the game for more story-focused players - particularly a few puzzle segments, as well as helping you find the side content late in the game.
Ultimately, the total number of hints added across the game is low. Exploration, dungeon puzzles, and returning to previously-visited areas with new tools are core pillars of SLARPG's design, and I don't want to hold the player's hand every step of the way. But these specific bits have been parts where some players just gave up and messaged me (usually at like 3am), or posted a cry for help in the #SLARPG tag on Twitter. Which isn't optimal! So now an extra nudge in the right direction exists in-game, should you ever need it.
New area maps have been added for the Amber Woods, Sapphire Coast, and Uncanny Valley! They can be acquired from Park Ranger Taylor, the beach souvenir shop (first accessible in Act III), and Rafael, respectively.
And finally, as was originally intended, Melody now has... a pet cat in her house!! He is truly the most important part of this patch, and the most important thing that will ever be patched into the game.
Other tweaks:
Unrevealed enemies should no longer have their health bars displayed when using multi-target attacks.
The menu (and, by extension, the options menu) can now be accessed during the Prologue.
Fixed the Bestiary entries for the Loot Scooter and Helper Jelly not properly unlocking in the Sapphire Coast.
The animation for Megalith from the Geomancer Spellbook now plays for each individual enemy that's caught in its area of effect. (A compatibility issue was found with the script that made AoE attacks only play one animation, and this was the only skill in the game that needed said script.)
Originally the columns in the last "puzzle" room of the Flurry Mountains had no collision because that room is just a joke and I didn't want people to get stuck in a maze that exists purely for a gag but they now have collision so that I stop receiving bug reports about it
Added new line when entering the Fortune Teller's shop late in Act IV (or Act V) saying that he can help locate uncompleted major side quests at that point in the story. (He will now also point you in the direction of Fawna's side quest if you haven't completed it.)
A backup method of acquiring the missable Spellbook in Act III has been added late in Act IV. (You can still only get it once.)
The Crypt boss can no longer be defeated in a way that makes a certain unique status ailment remain after the battle.
There's now an additional warning at save points past the point of no return.
Other minor fixes.
Enjoy the update, everyone!
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A TTRPG collection retrospective
And so my TTRPG in book format collection has reached 70...not books......licences.... and a lot of them are complete. I miss when I had space to tidy stuff.
So here are all my books :
The PBTA and adjacent games
The first style of games that really hooked me
Monster of the week , the first game I ever gm'd
World Wide Wrestling
Masks, my most played game this year
Urban Shadows
Dungeon World, bought because I did not have any "generic" fantasy system.
Apocalypse Keys
Blades in the dark , the game that bought me where I am, introduce me to french ttrpg content creators when I responded to an ad for a player.
Band of Blades
Brinkwood
Sig, City of Blades
City of Mist
English Import
Agon 2nd edition, still a favorite
Kids on broom
Slayers ( and a one)
Nova ( and a two)
Rune ( and a three for GilaRPGs)
DIE RPG ( really need to choose a good group to play this)
Heart the city beneath (yeah i like Rowan, Rook & Deckart)
Dragonbane ( A friend is a die hard Free League fan)
Wildsea
DotDungeon
Liminal
Tattered Magick
International Games translated in French
Mausritter
Thousand year Old Vampire
The Magus
Colostle
Warpland
Troika, my cursed game, the sessions are always canceled
Paleomythic
Vaesen
Spire, the city must fall
Genesys
Dragons conquer America
Sins of the father
Fate core
Nobilis 2nd edition, the big beautiful white book
Mage 20th
Castle Falkenstein
Cryptomancer, the 70th game
French indies ( with quick pitch)
Etoiles - a Stargate game
Aventures a Plumes/ Feathered Adventures - Play diceless Ducktales
Cités abimés / Broken Cities - 30's surrealism the game
Anime was a mistake - play every anime
Prosopopée - Mushishi the game
De mauvais reves - a cursed family in the Great North
Glorieuses - housewives in the 80's trying to escape boredom with wrestling
Temple des vents / Colosse de Grisantre - solo game of a fantasy wanderer
Les veilleurs - solo game / You are the Hero book, with Titan cults
Bois Dormant - post apocalyptic hopepunk gmless game inspired by Sleeping Beauty
Explorateur des Bruines/Libretés - Kids trying to survive an alternate dimension of murderous mermaids hiding in the rain
Les Héritiers de l'Hypogryphe Saoul - Urban fantasy where magic was just revealed to the world, along with things so old even the magicals forgot about them
Argyropée - Renaissance fantasy in a city where murder is impossible and leaving too long makes you die of depression
Speedrun - a system to speedrun TTRPG sessions and campaign
Bigger/Mainstream? French Games
Insectopia - Medfan but you are all insects
Cats la mascarade - Cats are secretly psychic
Donjons et Chatons - medfan but you're kittens and a cartoon planned for 2025
Donjon & Cie / Dungeon, Inc. - Monsters in the dungeon are just corporate employees
Terre 2 - scifi I don't really care about, i just told my parents to buy it when they saw it a -70% in a thrift shop
Nautilus - Play Jules Verne Hundred Leagues under the sea
Meute - French werewolfes with 2 souls : mortal human and immortal wolf
Rotting Christ - The Band. A ttrpg for metalheads
Knight - Epic Horror, The Arthurian Myth with mechas. It's great
Nephilim - the urban fantasy occult french game (basically The Secret World as a ttrpg)
Chroniques Oubliés Contemporain - generic system for modern adventures
Les Héritiers - All sorts of fae in 1901 dreaming of the end of the world in 1914
Ecryme - translation funded on KS, coming soon : Steampunk where the water rose, leaving only small islands, plus the water is highly acidic, melting everything except stone and steel
Les Oubliés - Korrigans & little people the size of a finger in a french city during the Religion Wars
Subabysse - sorta pulpy scifi where water rose so humanity went to live under the sea
Waiting for (dear god all the crowdfunding)
Fabula Ultima translation
Nephilim supplements
Arc Doom translation
Eat the Reich
Meute campaign
Babel, french game of book magic
Break!
Monsterhearts translation
Dragonbane bestiary
Triangle Agency
Wilderfeast
The Hidden Isle
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Is a Bat a Dragon? We Asked James Rollins
By now, Tor is at the forefront of research into what exactly constitutes "dragon." We've entertained many queries throughout the years, determining if the umbrella of dragon extends to hippos, snakes, and Godzilla. Now, we turn to the expertise of James Rollins to advise on the dragonic status of bats. If you've read The Starless Crown and its sequel The Cradle of Ice, you probably know the answer.
Check it out!
by James Rollins
My love for the natural world and all its myriad creatures was one of my main drives for pursuing a career in veterinary medicine. Even today as a full-time writer, I’ve not fully stepped away from that profession. As I’ve stated many times during book talks—yes, I can still neuter a cat in under thirty seconds.
Still, my greatest fascination about Nature is how it adheres to a dictate stated so succinctly in Jurassic Park: Life will find a way. I’ve always been captivated by the manner in which animals and plants discover innovative survival strategies to fill different environmental niches and how that fight has resulted in all the marvels (and horrors) found in the natural world.
While growing up, I found a new way of exploring this subject matter: in science fiction and fantasy novels set on different worlds. I found myself especially drawn to material that explored life’s resilience across fantastic worlds. Whether it was the sandworms of Herbert’s Dune, the engineered landscape of Niven’s Ringworld, the many species of Card’s Ender’s Game, or a universe of other writers tackling how life finds a way.
Even when it came to those novels that featured dragons, I found myself most interested in the biology and the circumstance of their origins. How did the telepathy and bonding in Anne McCaffrey’s Pern books come about? What steps were taken to harness the physicality of dragons to become warriors in Novik’s Temeraire series? In Martin’s books, could dragon eggs truly be encysted for ages and require fire to bring them back to life? If so, how and why?
When it came to crafting my own fantastic world in the Moonfall Saga, I took a similar scientific eye to its construction. The series takes place on a tidally locked planet, a world that circles its sun with one side forever facing the sun, the other locked in eternal darkness. The only truly livable clime is the band between those extremes of ice and fire. Across such a harsh and unforgiving landscape, I wanted to build a biosphere of flora and fauna that made evolutionary sense. How would species survive the extreme cold and lack of sunlight? Could life find a way in the sunblasted hemisphere?
And what about dragons?
In the novel, one of the apex predators is a species of massive bat, with a wingspan of ten meters or more. We first see them in Book One (The Starless Crown). They inhabit the vast swamplands of Mýr—found in that more temperate climate of the world. They are nocturnal, haunting a drowned forest and roosting in a volcanic mountain. I wanted those bats to make biological sense, to have them fit that environmental niche in a natural way. Being arboreal, they would likely have evolved prehensile tails. As nocturnal creatures, they would need bell-shaped ears and still use ultrasonics to navigate. And without giving away any of the surprises in the books, there is a significant aspect to their biology that will allow them to bond to certain people.
In the books, I also wanted to add a level of verisimilitude to the bestiary by adding naturalistic sketches, drawings that you might find in a turn-of-the-century research journal.
Here is the Mýr bat:
Keep in mind, life will find a way, so this species is not limited to those swamplands. A subspecies evolved in the dark, frozen half of the world. It adapted to fit that harsh niche, becoming smaller and stockier, with shaggy fur, and nasal flaps that could seal to conserve body heat. Likewise, in this treeless landscape, that prehensile tail would no longer be needed. They make an appearance in the second book in the series, The Cradle of Ice.
Here is their sketch:
But what about the title of this blog post: Is a bat a dragon?
In the third volume in the series (A Dragon of Black Glass), which will be coming out in 2024, this species has also adapted to the sunblasted half of the world. To survive, they would need to burrow to survive, growing larger claws for digging, and bodies that would be hairless and elongated, with fanned tails for aerial maneuvering when out of their burrows. They would become known as “sanddragons.”
Here is a sneak peek at their preliminary incarnation (with the final version still to come):
I must note that all of these drawings were beautifully executed by graphic artist, Danea Fidler—as were all the other creature sketches featured in the books. I look forward to sharing the final versions of these “dragons” in 2024 when A Dragon of Black Glass hits bookshelves.
#tor books#dragon week#james rollins#is a bat a dragon#fantasy#booklr#the starless crown#moonfall#the cradle of ice#a dragon of black glass#danea fidler
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The nocuous Shonweak
My response to this week’s BestiaryPosting challenge from @maniculum
Jinhao shark fountain pen with fine, hooded nib, with Monteverde Raven Noir ink, over initial pencil sketch. I'd considered adding some colour, but didn't have time this week; imagine it's got telltale orange/yellow and black warning colouration :)
It's been interesting trying to relearn pen shading techniques from scientific illustration again (as ever, suspect going a bit bigger would make this easier, I'm also going to have another rummage through my pens to see if I can find an even finer nib, since the one's I've been using don't come close to using a dip pen).
Reasoning under the cut;
The Shonweak is so called because it is proof against fire.
Okay, first things first, we get no indication about what type of creature this is. My default assumption when the bestiary authors don't give us any more detail is that is must be a Beast, but I've been wanting to mix it up a bit. But what to go for...?
Of all poisonous creatures, it has the strongest poison. Other poisonous creatures kill one at a time; it can kill several things at the same time. For if it has crawled into a tree, it poisons all the apples and kills those who eat them. In addition, if it falls into a well, the strength of its poison kills those who drink the water.
Okay, a poisonous critter, and not just poisonous, the most poisonous...! Okay, this narrows it down a bit. We get some creatures that are occasionally poisonous due to their diet (including certain birds, and snakes!), but mostly we're looking at amphibians, insects, echinoderms, fish, flatworms, and some others too.
This also made me think about the line between poisonous and venomous. We've all been on tumblr a while, so we've probably seen the memes, but technically the main difference is that poisonous animals deliver their toxin passively (in this context, being eaten is passive...)
We also know that this thing can crawl into a tree, so must be able to climb (that eliminates most fish, for starters).
I've gone for a beetle, since drawing an arthropod is pretty different from anything I've done thus far. Main influences are;
The diabolical ironclad beetle, a tiny awesome critter that is nigh on indestructable. It has a flattened body, fused elytra, and a cool, knobbly surface to its armour; I gave the elytra a bit of an overlap, so it could consider clamping its body down if it gets into a sticky situation (like a fire).
Bombadier beetles; in case you're not aware of them, their defence mechanism is spraying near-boiling noxious chemicals at attackers (you'll also be familiar with them if you've ever read the Spider World books by Colin Wilson!). The most famous ones are yellow and black, and you can see the nozzle on the end of its abdomen.
While the bombadier beetle does actively spray toxins, keeping them in its body also makes it poisonous - best of both worlds!
Also can't deny the influence of the blue death feigning beetle, a very aestheic insect indeed, and if I'm honest, the tanker bug from Starship Troopers...!
I did look at large beetles like the goliath beetle for some inspiration, especially around the legs (I imagine the Shonweak to be pretty big as beetles go), but decided against it since they're a lot fancier, and I figured a tough, fire-braving critter like this to be a little plainer and unadorned.
It resists fire and alone among creatures can put fires out. For it can exist in the midst of flames without pain and without being consumed by them, not only because it does not burn but because it puts the fire out.
Okay, if this is the creature I strongly suspect it is, this is an interesting wrinkle to the mythology around it; it's proof against fire because it puts the fire out (not something I've heard before). I'll have more to say if it does turn out to be what I suspect...
Okay, hear me out... The bombadier beetle combines exothermic chemicals in its body to produce its boiling, caustic spray... What if a creature could do something similar for a seriously endothermic reaction; it would be almost like a tiny, living fire extinguisher... I imagine the Shonweak as a bomadier beetle relative, spraying freezing toxins at enemies (or just generally if stuck in a fire, or if it falls down a well, or if those apples are looking particularly hostile...)
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Dramofir
Image © Paizo Publishing, accessed at Archives of Nethys here
[This conversion is more in the spirit of the mechanics than a straight 1:1 conversion. A lot of the spell-like abilities the dramofir has don’t exist in PF1e, and it uses more of the mechanics for critical successes and failures than a number of other 2e monsters. I also fleshed it out from a flavor standpoint, adding some of my thoughts as explanations for what in the Bestiary 3 is intentionally left mysterious.]
Dramofir
CR 14 N Aberration
This creature resembles a lean humanoid giant, except that its head is that of an animal. It wears a voluminous robe, swirling with colors and patterns, and carries oversized knitting needles.
Dramofirs are shepherds of dreams, coaxing them along particular paths and then harvesting them when conditions are right. They are native to the Dreamlands, the most permanent and “mundane” regions of the Dimension of Dreams, and also help to maintain the boundaries and landmarks of that plane. They are something like the immune system of that plane, and serve its interests above others. Although most dramofirs remain in the Dreamlands to support that reality, some do enter the waking world to interact with dreamers and to harvest dreams.
A dramofir can read the dreams of a creature just by looking at them, and take those dreams with them that attract their attention. They also serve as wandering mystics, interpreting dreams, purging people of magical or mundane nightmares, and killing animate dreams in order to weave them into their cloaks. Animate dreams hate dramofirs, which in turn regard animate dreams with an odd sort of pity. Most of the time, a dramofir will move on peacefully once it has collected a dream, but they occasionally exterminate either individuals or entire communities if it suits them. To outsiders, it often seems inscrutable which dreamers a dramofir will protect and which dreamers they kill.
A dramofir’s cloak, woven with half-remembered scenes from a thousand dreams, is both a defensive and offensive device. As defense, it provides deflection from blows. As offense, it can mesmerize the minds of creatures that see it with longing for their own dreams. Once enemies are so distracted, the dramofir then shuts them down completely with mind influencing magic, or jabs them with its knitting needles, which are as sharp as spears and can strike with lethal force. In the waking world, a dramofir will usually flee if it thinks it cannot win a conflict, but in the Dreamlands, a dramofir will gladly fight to the death to protect the integrity of a site or powerful dreamer.
Dramofir CR 14
XP 38,400
N Large aberration (extraplanar)
Init +10; Senses darkvision 120 ft., Perception +25, see in darkness
Defense
AC 29, touch 23, flat-footed 22 (-1 size, +6 Dex, +1 dodge, +7 deflection, +6 natural)
hp 199 (21d8+105)
Fort +13, Ref +13, Will +20
DR 10/magic and slashing; Immune sleep
Defensive Abilities dream coat, fortification (50%)
Offense
Speed 40 ft., fly 40 ft. (perfect)
Melee +1 returning shortspear +19/+14/+89 (1d8+3)
Ranged 2 +1 returning shortspear +22 (1d8+3)
Space 10 ft.; Reach 10 ft.
Psychic Magic CL 14th, concentration +21 (+25 casting defensively)
30 PE—cloak of dreams (6 PE, DC 23), dream council (5 PE), dream scan (3 PE, DC 20), fear (4 PE, DC 21), modify memory (4 PE, DC 21), phantasmal killer (4 PE, DC 21), psychic surgery (6 PE), tower of iron will II (7 PE)
Special Attacks bittersweet dreams, deadly needles, pluck dreams
Spell-like Abilities CL 14th, concentration +21 (+25 casting defensively)
Constant—tongues
At will—dimension door
3/day—quickened deeper darkness
Statistics
Str 17, Dex 22, Con 19, Int 13, Wis 26, Cha 24
Base Atk +15; CMB +19; CMD 52
Feats Alertness, Combat Casting, Combat Reflexes, Dodge, Flyby Attack, Great Fortitude, Improved Initiative, Psychic Virtuoso, Quicken SLA (deeper darkness), Toughness, Weapon Focus (shortspear)
Skills Acrobatics +19 (+23 jumping), Appraise +11, Bluff +17, Diplomacy +17, Fly +25, Knowledge (arcana) +14, Knowledge (planes) +11, Perception +25, Sense Motive +22, Stealth +20
Languages telepathy 100 ft., tongues
Ecology
Environment any land and underground (Dimension of Dreams)
Organization solitary or council (2-5)
Treasure standard
Special Abilities
Bittersweet Dreams (Su) As a standard action, a dramofir can animate the images on its cloak, mesmerizing onlookers with memories of their dreams. All creatures that can see the dramofir within 30 feet must succeed a DC 27 Will save or be staggered and suffer a -2 penalty to attack rolls, weapon damage rolls, saving throws, skill and ability checks, as per a crushing despair spell, for 1 minute. A creature that succeeds this save is instead staggered for 1 round and is immune to the bittersweet dreams of that dramofir for the next 24 hours. A creature may avoid having to make a save as if this were a gaze attack. This is a mind-influencing, visual, emotion effect, and the save DC is Charisma based.
Deadly Needles (Su) A dramofir treats any knitting needles it carries as +1 returning shortspears. Once per round as an immediate action, a dramofir can deal 14d6 points of force damage to any creature it strikes with its shortspear attack.
Dream Coat (Su) As long as it is wearing a cloak, a dramofir gains its Charisma modifier as a deflection modifier to its AC and CMD.
Pluck Dreams (Su) As a full round action, a dramofir can touch a creature and take its dreams. A creature suffering from a nightmare spell, or similar spell or effect, has this effect dispelled if the dramofir succeeds on an opposed caster level check (use the monster’s HD if it is a supernatural ability). If the creature is not suffering from nightmares, the dramofir takes its dreams anyway. If the creature fails a DC 27 Will save, its rest is disturbed, and the creature suffers from delirium until it gets 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep. This is a mind-influencing effect, and the save DC is Charisma based.
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New Game Dev Practice: Add Bears
So while working on my tabletop rpg, I've decided to stop dragging my feet and work a bit on the bestiary. Nothing too crazy, just some of the animals that players may encounter out in the wild, such as wolves, deer, and of course bears. Adding bears doesn't seem out of the ordinary, but I wanted to make them pretty gnarly, just like how they are in real life.
Bears essentially min-maxed strength, so I emphasized that. A lot. They broke the game.
They were pretty much brick walls that hit hard and could cheat death effortlessly. Because of this, they actually brought to light some issues in some of the game's systems, specifically the Borderlands-style death system which I also gave to the bears (since they're real tenacious in real life).
So ultimately, if you're making a game system, you should add bears to it and make them down right horrifying. It could help stress test certain aspects and expose some issues that need ironing out.
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I fixed Dean's entry for Castiel in the MoL Bestiary
First purple: Like a child
I don't like an autism coded trait like seeing things literally being see as a child like trait. Because when Cas is seen like a child that means he gets less respect and faith in his ability
Second purple: Betrayed us
Bitch? Tf? When? He did nothing you didn't or wouldn't do yourself
Third purple: Left us
How dare Cas have the audacity to have a life outside of you and Sam I guess 🙄
Fourth purple: We will always have his back
Are you sure about that? Because it sure af didn't look that way in season 6. Sure it didn't work out, but you didn't side with Cas NOT because you can see the future and had a vision that it wouldn't work out. It's because you didn't like Cas working with Crowley
Hands up if Cas should get to write his own entry about Dean in the bestiary? But it has as much criticism in it as Dean's does if not more so?
I mean Bestiary is about animals both Supernatural and not Supernatural. Humans are animals
Are angels animals?
a living organism that feeds on organic matter, typically having specialized sense organs and nervous system and able to respond rapidly to stimuli.
Cas doesn't need to eat under ordinary circumstances so he's not an animal. But since his entry was written anyway then Dean and Sam really should be added as entries as well
Should be called "Supernatural beings" rather than bestiary
No no no make new vessel Crowley write Sam and Dean's entries. That would be amazing! Would have "morons" and "self-righteous" everywhere
Feathers wrote the previous entry about Squirrel and Moose. I've crossed out every Sam, Dean, my family and my brother/s and written "Moose" "Squirrel" and "moron" above that instead
I have to work quick though, before Feathers catches me editing his entry
Okay this is my entry
SQUIRREL AND MOOSE
Squirrel is a moody alcoholic and Moose has temper issues. They both come up with good ideas and have even outsmarted me but then when they open their mouth it's so moronic I wonder if God helped them? They've both caused so much collateral damage, and pain. But they think it's fine because they save one person every now and then. Anyway despite all that they are great big bloody heroes and unfortunately are a bad influence on me ...
I wish they wouldn't look down on Feathers when he loses his powers
Feelings >_<
This is my entry for Cas
FEATHERS
Cas is very powerful, very capable and very intelligent. Too many people, especially Squirrel underestimate him or look down on him. Even without powers he would be able to kick the candy out of most of his enemies
Feathers has been my partner in mischief! My enemy in arms! My hunter buddy! My crush! My kitten metaphorically speakinv
He is so magnificent I chose him over my revenge on Lucifer and I don't regret that decision
Feathers never gets boring unlike Squirrel. After six months with Demon Squirrel in a bar I wanted to tear off my own face
Right sorry this entry is about Feathers not my feelings! I got a bit carried away there. It was Feather's idea to fake my death and Feathers did a really good job lying to Moose and Squirrel. I was very proud that he had them fooled for two years!
He came up with so many good strategic ideas for getting monsters and he is amazing at torture! Better than me even. Which I may be a smidgen jealous about. I did teach him but he surpassed me
I also like ruffling his feathers because it's sexy when he slams me up against a wall
He did betray me but can you imagine if there were Leviathans running around in Hell? *Shudders* so it all worked out for the best. Beside he did apologize and he's too fun not to work with
I decided to forgive him and team up with him again because a life without Feathers is a boring one. Even Feathers as an enemy is better than no Feathers at all
Feathers has or used to have these powers
Entering human dreams. Okay so one day I was bored and I decided to give this human nightmares and Cas gave me the stare and turned my nightmare into a happy dream
So we were both trying to win the dream battle and well Cas won. Look he's an angel okay! He's meant to be stronger
Smiting demons
Telekinesis. Did you know he uses telekinesis just before a smite to stop a demon from teleporting away before the smite happens? Most demons can't teleport but on the off chance they can
He only bothers doing that if he means to kill the demon in a "hit list" sense rather than a "you're in my way" sense. I felt him holding onto me when I teamed up with Raphael but I wasn't worried because I had Raphael's protection
Teleportation. Okay so we would play this game where we had to teleport behind each other and tag each other. What you think spending two years together and it was nothing but business?
Time travel. I've been tempted to ask to be sent back in time myself but I've noticed how weak it makes him and I didn't want Cas to die but at the time I lied to myself and said it's because I didn't want my partner being too weak otherwise he's useless to me
His powers go above and beyond that so this will have to be continued at another date maybe
I've also enchanted my entry so none of those lot will be able to edit it or rip the page from the book
*A few hours later*
Crowley hears Dean yell "Crowley! What the hell is this? You son of a bitch!" as he points at his entry
Crowley smoothly responds "well that's an entry for you and Moose"
#castiel#dean critical#you know I was hoping this entry would be idk???#good? respectful?#but too much to ask for#supernatural#bitter cas girl feelings#Crowley spn#Crowstiel#sam critical#winchesters critical#I believe Crowley would write good stuff about Sam and Dean as well if we're being honest#But since this was me having fun I didnt want to dedicate my time to praising what#the boys are good at
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"Living boulders roll and glide through the Plane of Earth, gathering gemstones and metal shards until their surfaces resemble a ship's hull covered in barnacles. Barely more intelligent than many animals, living boulders fill much the same role on the Plane of Earth as the great herd animals found on Material Plane worlds." - Pathfinder Bestiary, pg. 146
So, the living boulder from Pathfinder has no art, but today we're fixing that.
On the surface it seems like it might just be a bumpy rock, but once you start looking at it's stat block...
Perception +6; darkvision, tremorsense 30 feet
Ok, at least one eye if it has darkvision instead of blindsight-
Melee [one-action] jaws, Damage 1d8+6 piercing
-And a mouth. Notably a jaw is involved, but we're stretching that idea a bit for a clean and interesting design.
Under the cut, lengthy design choice ramblings:
For this design we're keeping the following points in consideration
Should not have a clear 'correct' way up if it's a rolling boulder
Eyes need to be reasonable for rolling around
No visible flesh
Mouth for bite attack
Gems and metal shards like barnacles
Method to get un-stuck when rolling
So, in order to give the little guy (I may say little, but this guy is maybe 5ft tall!) a workable body shape, we're going to take some inspiration from Mexican Jumping Beans. Sure, it has earth glide to move about, but taking inspiration from the natural world is a great way to lend interest to a design. We're giving them a few flat-ish sides so that its not impeded while rolling (like bean!), but still has options to wiggle up slopes if needed (like bean!!!). I've also designed it with slight fissures to imply that the outside of the creature is made of plates- just to give it wiggle room if it needs more leverage.
Now, this guy is spending all day rolling around, but it also has an eye that it notably sees with (remember, no blindsight, only darkvision). A lidded eye wouldn't be much help while rolling, so we're forced to consider an eye that would survive the punishment of rolling around the elemental plane of earth. The only reasonable answer I can think of is a tough, crystalline eye so it can stay open while moving. As for how it sees while rolling about is anyone's guess - perhaps it stabilises in its socket? I've also opted for a triangular pupil to help confuse which way is supposed to be up on this creature, in spirit of it being a little rolly boy. The pupil is slitted due to the darkvision note. Think cat eyes.
We also have a mouth to think about. I've made this a trap-door-sort-of mouth, as a hinge risks popping open while rolling. Now, as an elemental I don't really need to think about the biology of this part too hard, but in my head (and perhaps against the spirit of being an elemental) there is a fleshy rope in the centre coming down from the eye which pops the whole thing open in order to scoop rocks into its stomach. And then maybe it rock tumbles it down into something digestible or something.
Like, why else would it have a mouth if not to eat?
Finally, we need to consider the coating on the... carapace? I guess? I've stuck on some rocks, some small gems (the same colour as the eye, just to keep the palette cohesive) and also some shellfish-looking shards of rusty metal. I thought about just adding patches of rust, but leaning into the mention of barnacles and stylising it a bit really makes the metal pop at something interesting, I think. And then I slapped on some algae-ish bits to really sell it. Don't ask me what it actually is though.
And that's about it! All in all this wound up being more interesting than I expected when I just needed to make a token for my Pathfinder game.
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Some look like pieces of rotting wood, bird droppings, or thorns. A moth that appears to be a splotch of turquoise mold reveals startling coral-colored hindwings when it flies. Another trails streamers that baffle birds chasing it through the air. [...]
A few engage in tactical mimicry: of wasps, of repellent beetles, of less-edible moths that are their cousins. Some are furnished with hairs capable of triggering allergies and anaphylactic shock. [...]
Though the preponderance are herbivorous as larvae, there are also carnivores and frugivores. One moth tricks meat ants into carrying its caterpillars into their nests, where the larvae dine delicately on infant ants. [...]
Among this spellbinding Australian bestiary are some of the world’s largest and heaviest moths. Coscinocera hercules, the Hercules moth, is found in northern Queensland and can grow to have a wingspan of thirty-six centimeters -- the diameter of a car’s steering wheel. Caterpillars of the Hercules moth feed in bleeding heart trees, and then they pupate for two years. The adult moth, which moves somewhat floppily, like a dropped sunhat, lives only two days. Earlier this year construction workers sinking the foundations for a school in Mount Cotton disturbed a giant wood moth, Endoxyla cinereus, the heftiest species yet identified by science and not uncommon, though it is rarely seen. A builder balanced it on the tip of a saw for a photograph -- a moth the size of a catcher’s mitt, its dusky legs dangling.
The architecture of a flower, tailored for pollination by a specific insect, can provide clues about moths unmet in the wild. Take the star-shaped orchid, from which Charles Darwin inferred the existence of a then-unknown moth with an exceptionally long tongue needed to tap the bloom’s nectary. Decades after Darwin’s death in 1882, such a moth -- a subspecies of the Congo moth, X. morganii praedicta -- was discovered with a ribboning proboscis almost three times the length of its body. The alliances between moths and other animals, as opposed to plants, are less well described, but as Lepidoptera elsewhere have evolved to drink the tears of river turtles, so too have unique dependencies emerged between moths and native species in Australia. There is a moth that lives in koala scat, and one that feeds only in the nests of finches. Most memorable is the moth found in holes hollowed out by golden shouldered parrots in the clay of abandoned termite mounds. There, this moth species lives off the excreta of nestlings. Though they function to keep the nest hygienic, the larvae have been known to spin cocoon masses that have blocked the entrance to the tunnel, leaving baby parrots trapped -- a gothic demise for the birds.
---
Text by: Rebecca Giggs. “Noiseless Messengers.” Emergence Magazine. 27 June 2022. [Bolded emphasis added by me.]
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I have been patiently waiting for any excuse to do an ungulate-animal for Bestiary Posting and when the description for the Haesorog this week mentioned horns I got excited. Ungulates are by far my favorite critters to draw, and they're well known for their ornamental head gear.
Here I'm depicting a defensive mother haesorog lifting her dorsal crest and lowering her head in response to a perceived threat, which her young seems more curious than fearful of.
Originally I was leaning towards an antelope-like animal - particularly a pronghorn, but the 'ibis footprints' made me pause. Ibises have four toes I believe, but I could see their footprints only showing three toes, which means we've got an odd-toed ungulate on our hand. Rhinoceros have three toes, and as a bonus they come with horns! As the haesorog is thick furred, I went with a Sumatran rhino for my jumping off point.
That said, I still wanted an antelope feel, so I made my haesorog more gracile; slimming and shrinking the face and head to be more 'stag-like'; giving it longer, more slender legs; a longer neck; etc. Overall I just wanted a more antelope-like build for my rhino-creature, specifically thinking of large antelope like the Giant Eland (who's dewlap I included but it got a bit lost in the pose).
For it's horns I did consider something closer to a pronghorn, but decided that a nasal horn was just more fun. In order to fit the 'branching horns' description, I went with something like the prehistoric brontotherium horn. I also added some horny eyebrow ridges - just for fun.
For coloration, it's described as being colored like a bear with a thick coat, so I chose a nice ruddy brown fading to grey, with darker legs as you often see in brown bears. It's grey-brown fur is perfect for blending into the rock and scrub of it's home. As it's also said to change appearance when afraid, I decided to give it a dorsal crest that you see in some antelope. The pose is also inspired by nyala, the males of whom put their heads down while they raise their crest to display to other males.
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i think illuminated manuscripts look so cool but I know basically nothing about them. they're generally religious and instructed to be done as a serious job? how do the funky lil fellas and creachures fit into the neat serious calligraphy and opulent initial letter stuff? (did they not get in trouble for adding those?) please enlighten me, if you are willing 💖✨
Sorry this is gonna be long! but here's the gist of it:
- many of the illuminated books we see, especially the more fun and fancy ones, are books of hours or other books for personal use like the ones below which, while religious, were commissioned by individual (wealthy) people and thus were a bit more ornamented and full of fun marginalia because they're for specific people's usage (and illumination is expensive!)
-you've also got bestiaries like the ones below (and botanical texts, etc), which also have to have fun little images to show you what the animals/plants/etc look like (or... not, as is the case with the little newt here)
-and then you have de luxe manuscripts, which were also usually tied to wealth (bejeweled bindings made of gold! gilded lettering with intricate decoration! very pricy)
I will say that a lot of the reason why you see so many of these more decorated or illustration-heavy manuscripts is 1) because they're a lot more visually interesting than just script on the page, although I'd say that that is VASTLY more common (especially for just regular use religious texts where you'd see rubrication [red ink] and maybe some cool decorated initials in red and blue, but usually just plain script) and 2) because the extant manuscripts skew heavily toward the later middle ages (the decoration like in the heart-shaped MS above is pretty typical to 14th and 15th century MSS, and the later middle ages also saw a general increase in illuminated MSS), where book production was also becoming more and more secular as well as religious (shoutout to the 12th century for the universities and the later middle ages for specific workshops dedicated to producing manuscripts both secular and like books of hours, etc)
there are certainly religious texts and secular texts that are serious and don't have much in terms of marginalia, especially when you're looking at earlier MSS or things that had regular use like texts used in the church or in monasteries by bishops or cantors etc. A lot of the more highly decorated religious books were display gospels like the Book of Kells or the Lindisfarne Gospels, or illuminated bibles
also it's unlikely that in the production of MSS that people were getting in trouble for illumination because it was usually heavily planned out (one guy works on the text, a rubricator goes in and adds the red text, and then the illuminator adds the illustrations, which the previous guys have left space specifically dedicated to). you might have some later person doodling in the margins of an earlier text, but if it's original to the manuscript it was probably planned to be there!
#sorry this was very long but there are usually specific circumstances that go into illumination and illustration!#and the vast vast majority of the manuscripts we have are not highly decorated#I think we just post more about the decorated and illustrated ones because they look cool tbh#like script only manuscripts are cool to me but probably not as cool to people who aren't medievalists lol
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Lillends are a form of azata that are centered on telling stories and performances. Patrons and muses for bards and all manner of performers, they travel to learn and share stories and songs from all worlds, revelling in the freedom of performance. Lillends often have their favorites, though over decades, centuries, or millennia their preference will shift and when they tire of a specific style or artist they'll move on to another without regret. With their ageless existence they will remain in an area for as long as they are entertained and finding new ideas, sometimes following a single composer or playwright for their entire career and other times just enjoying a single work before moving on again.
Lillends take the form of a winged elf with the lower body of a snake. Their lower body can reach as long as 20 feet. While generally peaceful, they will take up arms in defense of rare art and talented artists, or against fiends and monsters that they believe are a threat to freedom of music and creation. They prefer to support others, using their magic as inspiration, but when called upon directly they are fearsome foes.
Originally from the 3.5 Monster Manual, with inspiration from the Pathfinder Bestiary. This post came out a week ago on my Patreon. If you want to get access to all my monster conversions early, as well as access to my premade adventures and other material I’m working on, consider backing me there!
5th Edition
Lillend
Large celestial (azata), chaotic good
Armor Class 13
Hit Points 115 (11d10 + 55)
Speed 30 ft., fly 70 ft.
Str 20 (+5) Dex 17 (+3) Con 21 (+5) Int 14 (+2) Wis 16 (+3) Cha 19 (+4)
Saving Throws Dex +6, Int +5, Wis +6, Cha +7
Skills Deception +7, Insight +6, Perception +6, Performance +10, Persuasion +7
Damage Immunities lightning, poison
Damage Resistances cold, fire, bludgeoning, piercing and slashing damage from nonmagical attacks not made with cold iron weapons
Condition Immunities paralyzed, petrified, poisoned
Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 16
Languages Celestial, Common, Draconic, Infernal
Challenge 7 (2900 XP)
Inspiration (4/Short Rest). As a bonus action, the lillend can grant Inspiration to a willing creature of its choice within 60 feet of the lillend that can hear it. The inspiration lasts for 1 minute. While inspired, when the target makes an ability check, attack roll, or saving throw and doesn't like the result, it can choose to expend the inspiration and roll a d10, adding the number rolled to the triggering roll. A target can only have one source of Inspiration.
Magic Resistance. The lillend has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.
Magic Weapon. Any melee weapon the lillend wields becomes a +1 weapon.
Actions
Multiattack. The lillend makes three attacks: two with its Longsword and one with Constrict.
+1 Longsword. Melee Weapon Attack: +9 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 15 (2d8+6) slashing damage or 17 (2d10+6) slashing damage if used with two hands.
Constrict. Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 12 (2d6+5) bludgeoning damage and the target is grappled (escape DC 16). Until this grapple ends, the target is restrained and the lillend can't constrict another target.
Spellcasting. The lillend casts one of the following spells, requiring no material components and using Charisma as the spellcasting ability score (spell save DC 15):
At will: light, speak with animals, speak with plants
3/day each: charm person, cure wounds (as a 2nd level spell), darkness, hideous laughter, invisibility, suggestion
1/day each: confusion, hold person
13th Age
Lillend
7th level leader [celestial]
Initiative: +11
Magic Blade +11 vs. AC - 20 damage.
Natural Even Hit: The lillend can make a tail slap attack as a free action.
[Special Trigger] Tail Slap +11 vs. AC - 5 damage and the lillend grabs the target as long as it isn’t already grabbing a creature.
R: Suggestion +11 vs. MD (one nearby enemy) - 15 psychic damage.
Natural Even Hit: The target is confused until the end of its next turn.
Natural Odd Hit: The target pops free from all enemies and moves to a nearby spot of the lillend’s choice.
Flight.
Inspiration: 3/battle, as a quick action (1/turn), the lillend can give one nearby ally inspiration. That ally can spend its inspiration to gain a +2 bonus on one attack roll or saving throw it makes before the end of the battle. It can add this bonus after it makes the roll. An ally can only be inspired once.
Resist Spell Damage 14+.
AC 22 PD 17 MD 21 HP 116
#D&D#dnd#dungeons and dragons#5th edition#13th age#homebrew#my homebrew#monster#celestial#dnd cr 7#13th age level 7#long post
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The Klink Family
Klink is another one of the unfortunate casualties of overly-negative Gen 5 discussion, and in this case I can at least admit there’s some more basis for criticism here. Don’t get me wrong, I like things about Klink, but it sure as hell doesn’t match up to Gen 1’s Magnemite like Trubbish did to Grimer, or Vanillite to, uh… well, there wasn’t really an Ice-type parallel in Gen 1, actually.
Anyways, Klink isn’t a bad start to an idea, clockwork monsters are a cool addition to any bestiaries, and starting with just a gear system as a sort of infantile stage to a more complex mechanism is a clever foundation to work off of. I like Klink’s odd faces too, with their odd x-eyes and round central axle noses. The shortcomings come in when noticing that Klink is only two gears. Magnemite was a little metal ball with two magnets and a few screws, so while small, it still felt like a complete little mecha monster. Klink feels like it’s a couple pieces short, sadly.
Klang, Klink’s first evolution, is how I would have liked the family to start, actually. All it changes from Klink’s design is adding a bigger gear in the back and removing one of the gear’s faces, but it gives the overall design a sort of central anchor to build from. Does that make sense? It just feels like a more complete design now that there’s a ‘body’ to work with, where Klink was just two floating ‘faces’ stuck together. I don’t know if this is coherent to other people exactly, but what I’m saying is that Klang feels like a proper mecha monster where Klink didn’t.
The final evolution, Klinklang, once again, is only the previous form with some more added components, including a big orbiting spike band. As far as a design based around gears and clockwork goes, it’s pretty much the progression you’d likely expect, but what about including more mechanical parts than just gears? What about some swinging pendulums or pumping pistons, huh? That’s another reason why I wish Klang was the design used by the first form rather than the second. There’s still places to go after Klinklang, but its role as third evolution means nothing more will come of the family outside of some weird niche alternate form scenario.
I think that’s what bugs me the most about this line, not that they’re living gears in the Pokemon world, but that they’ve got a lot of potential for a complex, intricate, and interesting mechanical assembly design only to come up short. I guess keeping the final design to just five major components is to keep Klinklang relatively simplistic for animators and artists (likely already taxed by the multitude of gear teeth), but it unfortunately keeps the design rather restricted. While learning plenty of Electric moves, Klinklang is also a pure Steel type, so it doesn’t have any extra elemental theming to work with either.
Another small criticism is that it’s said that Klink and its evolutions predate the invention of gears and similar machinery, and that inventors were likely inspired by Klink when creating them. I’ve been pretty neutral about this idea with other Pokemon in the past, but I feel like at this point it’s kind of silly to imply that’s the case. Klink isn’t an animal which resembles gears, or at least it isn’t designed that way. Klink just looks like living gears. It’d make a lot more sense in my mind to say that Klink sporadically appeared after the creation of gears, or was the result of overcharging a mechanical system or something, like how Trubbish was the result of a chemical reaction in excess garbage waste. It’s even stated that Klink just showed up without apparent cause in their natural habitat, so it’s not like they have good reason for predating gears.
Score: 3.5/5
I do really mean it when I say they’ve got good potential, but it’s just severely limited in their current execution. I like the idea of Klinklang, but it’s only a half constructed engine.
[Gen 5 Archive]
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