Monsters of Artheria (Part 1)

Now, after 5 separate posts about items and shops, I'm very happy to be working on something different. Today we cover the lore of monsters in Artheria.

Much like the races and classes, monsters have had some changes occur to them over the last 1000 years. We will be going over an enormous amount of monsters, changes to them, and what happens to them once they become corrupted. Overall, there is the standard non-corrupt version of a creature, and then the way more powerful evil corrupted kind.

I'm going to start with the most basic of monster types, before going into a breakdown of every single monstrous humanoid race in Monster Manual's I through III. (Those are the 3 monster manuals I own personally, so the vast bulk of creatures will come from those books.)

We will start alphabetically, with Aberrations.

I'm not making any changes to the monster type as a whole, since this encompasses such a huge variety of creatures. All aberrations are exactly how they are listed in the book, however, once they become corrupted, the creature becomes something far more fearsome. We will use the Mindflayer (Illithid to be exact) as the base example. This incredibly powerful psychic brain eating race, once it becomes corrupted, becomes a winged, even more horrifying creature. Aberrations have no "base this always happens" style corruption, they will be made purely on a case by case basis.

(Corrupted Mindflayer will eat your brains.)

Animals, beasts, and magical beasts appear exactly as they do in the monster manual, and are just as susceptible to corruption as everything else on Artheria. Corrupted creatures of this type tend to get +6 to all physical stats, +4 wisdom and charisma, and at the very least gain a breath weapon, which will most likely deal profane damage.

(Beware corrupted animals when venturing in the wild.)

Moving onto dragons, all the 4 basic 'types' of dragons live on Artheria, metallic, chromatic, gem, and the mighty epic level force and prismatic dragons. I will fully admit to loving dragons, they are probably my favorite monster type, and the Draconomicon is my favorite book. I alter almost every dragon encounter I run, most dragons will be elite arrayed, have character classes, be taken straight from the very elaborate, much more effective versions in the 'sample dragon' category in the Draconomicon. I also make a lot of use of the various metabreath feats that are in the book. (Think metamagic, just alters breath. Changes the effect to increase the cooldown of the breath weapon.)

Corrupted dragons, on the other hand, are something to fear even more so than the powerful, arrogant creatures in which DnD is named after. At MINIMUM they gain +6 to ALL stats, (which increases the DCs on all their innate abilities and spellcasting, increases damage, AC and HP.) and their breath weapon increases by at least one age category. (gaining either 2 damage dice, or 1 in the case of white and brass dragons.) The breath weapon will also do half profane damage and half elemental, so all those "Protection from Elements" spells you're casting ahead of time will be at greatly reduced effectiveness. This is for a much younger dragon, adults to mature adults get around +10 all stats, and ancient, wyrm, and great wyrm dragons gain +14-18 to everything, and much more than 1 age category for breath weapon damage. Non corrupted dragons, while still just as arrogant as listed in the various monster manuals, are more likely to use diplomacy. Red dragons, for example, are now much more careful with what they devour, as there are several different theories about what corrupts dragon kind. (And everything else...)

(This corrupted silver dragon will feast on your entire city... then want dessert.)

Elementals, and all outsiders (other than native outsiders) are immune to whatever force is corrupting Artheria. Should any demon, angel, elemental, genie, or other outsider start to suffer the effects of the corruption, they simply return to their home plane and the corruption leaves. If a corrupted native outsider or humanoid leaves Artheria, they are not magically cured, it stays with anything native to Artheria.

Fey of Artheria are spirits of the land, like in all worlds, and in certain areas (like the elf lands and some floating continents) fey thrive still, laughing and playing and doing whatever fairies and pixies do... however, evil fey gain enormous magical power, (+10 charisma at least and sorcerer caster power.) and they enjoy seducing mortals and warping them into corrupted humanoids and monstrous humanoids. Many corrupted Dryads, Nymphs, and Sirens have armies of corrupted creatures that they've transformed themselves. All corrupted fey use a D8 for hit dice, increased from the D6.

(Corrupt fairy with corrupt wyrmling dragon familiar)

Giants are the next general creature type, and they come in actually more than the traditional 'non-corrupt' or 'corrupt' varieties. Anything that is a true 'Giant' (Hill Giant, Frost Giant, Fire Giant, Sand Giant, etc.) comes in 2 varieties, the normal type listed in the various monster manuals, and then an armor bonded enslaved version. This began with the fire giants, who lived near the massive crystal of fire. The minotaurs, who were the first race to be corrupted, and will be spoken of in much more detail later, conquered the bulk of the fire giants first. A minotaur cleric then made a cursed armor and bonded it to the clerics and tribal leaders of the defeated fire giants, bringing them completely under the minotaurs control, and greatly enhancing their power in the process. From there, every newborn fire giant had the armor bonded to them at birth, and the giants waged war on other nearby tribes of Hill Giants, Frost Giants, Cloud Giants, and Sand Giants. Today, there are an incredibly few remaining non-corrupted fire giants, and normal giant of all the other types are constantly on the run, and offer their great strength and services to any type of civilized race that promises to protect them and their families. The only type of standard giant immune to this is the Death Giant, which is a creature without a soul, which seems to protect them from any kind of bonding ritual. The armor gives each giant +8-16 strength, depending on type, (higher CR base = more bonus) +2-4 dexterity, and +8-16 constitution. Mental stats do not increase as much, gaining only a +4 bonus to any 1 stat. (Clerics obviously pick wisdom, sorcerer charisma.) The armor also grants a giant spell resistance (SR) equal to 10+HD of the giant, and an immunity to all enchantment spells. (They are already dominated... you can't overcome that.) 

(Armor bonded corrupt frost giant... note the glowing eyes.)

All other 'giant' types, (Ogres, trolls, etc.) undergo a similar physical transformation to abberations, animals and the like. They gain some stat increases, (Typically 6-10 strength dex and con, maybe some more natural armor.) and a spell like ability or two. Overall, the armor bonded giants are far more fearsome than the standard corrupted varieties.

(Yes... corrupted ogres are blatantly ripped off of Dragon Age: Origins.)

Moving on from Giants, we jump to Oozes. Oozes are not a primary target of the corrupting force, most creatures of this variety get corrupted by accident, by eating corrupted creatures or drinking corrupted water. The effects are also not that intense, some slight increases to physical stats, (+2 or +4) and some increased natural armor. The most intense increase is the movement speed of the bases ooze triples, making that gelatinous cube incredibly frightening in the dungeon.

(Learn your ABC's with DnD!)

Plants are another type of 'not sought out' monster that becomes corrupted mainly through the environment. They undergo physical transformation, and gain an increased taste for flesh. Stat increases are more so than oozes, (+4 to +8 all physical stats, some natural armor.) and they tend to gain status affecting abilities based around pollen and spores. (The players in the trial game were turned to stone by a corrupted giant plant creature.) Petrification is common, and so is blindness/deafness. They also tend to grow... a lot.

(This particular corrupted plant turns you to stone, then eats your petrified body.)

Moving on from them, we speak of  undead now. Undead creatures are formed only by raising the dead of a corrupted creature, they do not appear on their own naturally, a zombie or vampire won't become corrupted if it did not start out that way. The power of the corruption also seems to be dependent in large part on a soul, and since undead creatures only have a fraction of that, they only gain a fraction of the power that other creatures gain. They will not, in any circumstance, gain more than +4 to 3 stats, and they will only gain at most 1 weaker spell like ability. 

Now we tackle humanoids, monstrous humanoids, and native outsiders... in all cases, they undergo a physical transformation, some far more severe than others, and they always gain +4 through +12 (depending purely on the base HD of the creature that is corrupted. Character levels count in this.) to ALL physical stats, and gain +2-+8 to at least 2 mental stats. Natural armor increases by +2 to +5, depending on the base level once more. Every type will also gain innate spell like abilities and other special powers, like breath weapons and the like. 

... (Internal thought process....)

I am going to end this post here, the next post will cover every single type of monstrous humanoid, humanoid, and native outsider found in monster manuals I, II, and III. This post is already running a little long, and there are a LOT of humanoid type races/cultures to speak of. Stay tuned!

(Corrupted Mintotaurs are some of the most powerful creatures on Artheria.)

I will go into intricate detail on what has happened to every major humanoid type race, where they may be found on Artheria, and what happens to them when they are corrupted, sometime over the next few days. Thanks for reading!

“Never laugh at live dragons.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien