Loader image
Loader image
Back to Top

Monsters

Nerdarchy > Dungeons & Dragons  > Monsters
5e D&D Tarrasque

Unleashing the True Terror of the Tarrasque: Reworking D&D’s Mightiest Monster for Epic Campaign Battles!

Hey there, fellow D&D enthusiasts and dungeon masters extraordinaire! 🐉 Today, we're diving into the beastly depths of D&D 5e lore to discuss a creature that has sparked debates and discussions across many a gaming table: the Tarrasque. This legendary Leviathan, with its whopping challenge...

Brains vs. Brawn when Faerie Dragons Square off With Ogres in D&D

Sometimes an idea hits you and you have to do something with it for fear of losing something interesting. Such an idea hit me like this and who better to share it with than all of you out there? I found a pair of D&D monsters that are as opposite as you can get but are on almost the same power level exactly as one can be. An ogre and a faerie dragon (older) are both a challenge ratting 2 monster, though I would have to say it would be a different fight going against one than the other.

Feel the Fallout of All-Out Dragon War in D&D

With Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen on the horizon for D&D, I have dragons on the brain. I only read the first three books in the Dragonlance novel series. Sadly, I felt Raistlin was so over-hyped that the draw to read other books was greater to me than to continue. But as awesome as Dragonlance is this is not the focus of today’s musings. Instead I want to explore more broadly the concept of using a war of dragons as a backdrop for a campaign.

Conflict Constructs is the Battle Bots of D&D

I keep looking for way to add more magic and more non-standard fantasy into my D&D games. I feel the way the game is going is to keep increasing the magic in the world and I am on board for this. We have the normalization of the construct-like race in the warforged (and now true construct with the autognome). Baldur’s Gate: Decent into Avernus gave us magical hell vehicles usable by individuals or the whole party. Nerdarchist Dave even began a campaign with some minor conversions to use them in a post apocalyptic setting. I am sure there are other examples as well if you look at other third party stuff. But why stop there?

Explore the Darkest Shadows of D&D at Your Peril

The other day I was lying in bed before falling asleep and an idea jumped into my brain. It is a weird concept but nothing groundbreaking — a dark elf riding a displacer beast. If you know me you know displacer beasts are my favorite D&D monster, so much so I think it will be my next tattoo. My imagination cascaded from there. I I jumped from a dark elf on a displacer beast to what can I do with shadows? Focusing on the “dark” in dark elf lead me to think about shadow powers, which lead to the shadow monster and the terror they can elicit.

Creatures and Characters in Your 5E D&D Games Need More Limbs!

I love when something really stands out in a fantasy world. When you watch the Avatar movie your eyes can go wild seeing all the glorious plants and animals distinct to the world of Pandora. I feel such details and features makes a setting more real. In a typical Dungeons & Dragons plenty of creatures possessed of loads of limbs or extra limbs might make you question why this came to be. The behir seems to be lizard like but has legs like a centipede for example. This distinction makes a creature a little more unique in a world of strange and interesting creatures.

Defend the Forests of Your 5E D&D World with a Radiant Treant

A while back I wrote about Treants. These glorious creatures exist in the realms of Dungeons & Dragons but why do we not have a variety of options such noble creatures. Other creature types have martial versions and spellcaster options and ones with extraordinary abilities. Sure, it is easy to combine some monsters together but not everyone is ready to do this. For those folks and any Dungeon Masters interested in more treant variety I am making my first treant for fifth edition D&D.

Summon One Bad A$$ Evil SOB to Your 5E D&D Games

The time of Vecna is nigh! One of the most iconic Dungeons & Dragons villains of all time is experiencing a renaissance of late thanks in no small part to the immense popularity of Netflix’s Stranger Things season four, which follows the series’ tradition of borrowing from D&D’s rich monster lore to name each season’s primary antagonist. Hot of the heels of the show’s mid-season break (the second half drops July 1 at midnight) Wizards of the Coast released the Vecna Dossier, a supplement detailing the legacy and statistics of the Undying King. Let’s get into it.