5E D&D World of Monsters — Beasts

Over at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel Nerdarchists Dave and Ted picked up a video series called Nerdarchy’s Guide to D&D Monsters. We launched this series a few years ago with aberrations but one thing led to another and yadda yadda yadda we’re revisiting the topic now. These video guides cover tips for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons players on what to expect and how to manage things when a particular creature type shows up in your campaign setting and adventures. I dig this series personally because a theme like this makes a great jumping off point. Here on the website I take the topic in a different direction and ask what if beasts are the only type of monsters in your 5E D&D world?

Beasts are the only monsters in your world

First things first, for this thought experiment we’ll assume a basic campaign setting populated by the playable races found in the 5E D&D books. Your campaign setting might not have dragonborn in any significant numbers, or at all. Firbolg civilization could be the prominent society, or maybe there’s no humans since they discovered the secret of creation forges and built their own replacements, the warforged. Whatever the cultural makeup of your world, beyond these playable races the only creatures in the world all fall under the same monster type.

We will make one exception though — humanoids. In the case of NPC humanoids like cultists, archers and gladiators these are fair game for your world of monsters. When we get the the humanoids type of monsters we’ll focus on things like gnolls, orcs and goblinoids. (I know, some of them are playable races too. We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.)

Beasts effect on the world

Environment

Beasts are part of the natural ecology of the fantasy world. For the most part 5E D&D beasts possess no language skills or societal organization although some interesting outliers exist. For example Giant Eagles have their own language plus understand Common and Auran, Giant Elks have their own language plus understand Common, Elvish and Sylvan and Cranium Rats have telepathy. The most salient point in the video relates to beasts’ motivations, which represent relatively simple drives compared to monsters like dragons, fiends, intelligent undead and even more than a few monstrosities. Beasts seek the most basic survival needs like food, shelter and safety. Coupled with the handful of beasts with their own methods of communication these scenarios can become just as compelling as any other creatures’ plots and schemes.

A setting boasting only beasts these natural creatures may not offer the same opportunities for weird effects on the world around them but even mundane impact can be complex and engaging. At the very least there’s enough Giant versions of beasts to make a world teeming with wildlife much more fantastical than our own Earth. Territorial disputes between beasts of the land may lie beneath the notice of heroic adventurers but imagine those circumstances when the creatures in question are Huge. One of the most memorable moments from my 5E D&D experiences took place during a grung party one shot when they stumbled upon a fight between a Giant Ape and a Giant Crocodile. Harrowing stuff.

The bigger the beast the bigger the territory they dominate. Nerdarchist Dave’s Court of Wyrms setting presents a sort of lost world concept where reptiles are the dominant species with apex predators like the good old Tyrannosaurus Rex roaming the wilds. The terrific Plane Shift: Ixalan 5E D&D module put out by Wizards of the Coast a few years ago explores this concept in a cool way too.

Culture

Beasts take on more nuance and meaning when they’re the only monsters in a setting. Symbolism, spiritual philosophies and many other conventions typically ascribed to more fantastical creatures have no where else to go but plain old beasts when they’re the only game in town. A typical D&D setting’s ratio of civilization to unsettled or unknown lands is pretty skewed towards the latter, which means in the absence of any other monsters there’s going to be a tremendous population of beasts of all sorts out there.

Sentient folk of a world like this can run the entire gamut of thoughts and beliefs tied to the beasts of their world. In fact there’s a greater wealth of inspiration to draw from in this regards than any other fantasy creature — our own real world. Humankind have always attributed symbolism, myth and legend to animals and a fantasy world exploring these ideas has an added benefit of relatability for the players. This also creates a wonderful chance for players to learn more about their own ancestry. Every culture on Earth contains some connection to animals through story or historical precedent. My own setting draws heavily on Solvenian culture including an awesome myth of a legendary ibex named Goldhorn. Learning about this and other animal related aspects from my own ancestry was really impactful on me.

When it comes to mechanical components of 5E D&D a great deal of features may be rendered moot but for every dispel evil and good made useless a beast bond finds it’s way to a more prominent place on a spellcaster’s spell list. Imagine the significance a druid plays in a world of beasts — they can transform into the most powerful creatures in the world! On a broader scale related to this the characters in such a campaign, already larger than life in 5E D&D terms, become even more extraordinary. Maintaining an atmosphere of respect for beasts would be somewhat ubiquitous in a setting like this. Without extraplanar entities and supernatural creatures keeping ambitious humanoids in check it’s up to the teeming masses of beasts — and they would be teeming — to keep the natural world in balance.

Beasts effect on adventures, campaigns and stories

All things being equal (and they’re not in 5E D&D — balance is a myth!) beasts simply don’t compare with other creature types when it comes to exciting features on their stat blocks. A challenge rating 5 Giant Crocodile might be scary as hell but it’s no gorgon, troll or wraith. Engaging and challenging adventurers with beasts alone can take some doing.

Selling the sizzle on a concept like this means conveying the notion of danger in the wilds. Humanoid creatures may have frontier settlements and even a few larger points of light centers but outside these areas the world must belong to the beasts. This is a great chance to highlight the exploration pillar in adventures. Say what you will about goodberry, Natural Explorer, an Outlander’s Wanderer feature and the like it’s going to take all those and more to safely traverse the wilderness. An adventuring party may stay on course with full bellies but they’ve still got to navigate difficult terrain, test their endurance, avoid natural hazards and, oh yeah, not get killed by all the natural predators out there.

Thankfully the same narrative tools work for beasts same as Orcus cults or whatever antagonists lie at the heart of a 5E D&D adventure. The natural state of things changes and this anomaly draws the attention of adventurers. Wolves in the forest grow more aggressive and threaten a small community. Giant Badgers burrow up from the ground to prey on livestock. A herd of mammoth approaches a small city in the path of their migration. And of course humanoids up to no good put beasts to work as they further their schemes.

The idea is making it clear the world belongs to the beasts and humanoids are the intruders. Think of movies like the Jurassic Park series or various iterations of King Kong and Skull Island. Sure, the humans have guns and vehicles and technology and in 5E D&D they’ve got magic. But even fireball eventually runs out. Getting caught in the middle of giant beast battles and swarmed by giant insects imperils even mighty adventurers — and this sort of thing is everywhere!

Getting creative with beasts in 5E D&D seems like a great way to bring the game’s mechanics to the forefront more too. There’s quite a bit of nuance to mechanics like vision and light, travel, movement and many more mundane activities and components that could help make even an encounter with a brown bear a terrifying scenario. This may be more true for lower level adventurers but the majority of players out there don’t adventure much beyond 11th-12th level anyway. Even then, in a world of beasts there’s still humanoids to content with and whatever those forces are throw some beasts in there and now you’ve really got something.

It’s worth mentioning our friends from Penny Dragon Games know a thing or two about beasts as well. As I pondered the implications of the 5E D&D world of beasts I remembered their Bergin’s Book of Beasts project, which I wrote more about in an earlier post here. All the amazing material they created for the project celebrates everything beastly and this would make the perfect package for starting a campaign along these lines. (But don’t forget to explore your own cultural ancestry too — I guarantee you’ll discover some awesome myths and legends about beasts!)

If you run a 5E D&D game featuring only beasts, let me know about it! Let’s hear your best stories of beasts from your games.

*Featured image — In Kong: Skull Island a team of scientists and Vietnam War soldiers travel to the uncharted Skull Island and meet Kong, a gigantic ape who is the last of his species, closely followed by other terrifying creatures.

Chimes of Discordia: Fantastical Mounts is one of our most beloved titles It’s a resource for Fifth Edition Game Masters and players alike with five new and unique beasts ready for your game from our Chimes of Discordia campaign setting. Inside you’ll find information and rules for these creatures with regards to trade goods, training and adding flavor to your campaign world. There’s even multiple versions of the different mounts we introduce. Perhaps you’ll even find your druids assuming the guise of a dranther or kangoram in your game.