New Dangers Emerge from the Beard Dimension to Swarm Your 5E D&D Games

I recently ran a session of fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons over on our Nerdarchy Live channel. Untraditionally Arcane is a fun campaign featuring an all wizard party, one of whom is a School of Beardomancy wizard. You can grab all the content we’ve created like subclasses for every class, a whole bunch of spells, magic items and monsters from the Beard Dimension inside the trio of the original Beardomancy and follow ups Bad Hair Day and Hairable Ideas (we put together the Beardomancy Bundle as well).

Monsters or mustaches? How about both for 5E D&D!

Spoiler alert for session 9 of Untraditionally Arcane — The characters are whisked away quite accidentally to the Beard Dimension. We explored the realm and some of the cool creatures residing there. You will find a series of posts exploring the characters and creatures that emerged during this session. We already published one of these posts detailing the Lamp Louse for 5E D&D.

This time around I am sharing a creature shown only in the background of the game session. The characters did not confront it or engage in combat per se. I spoke with Nerdarchist Dave and Nerditor Doug the day of the game and asked what they would like to see in the Beard Dimension. The conversation brought light to the flying swarm of mustaches.

Mustachio Swarms exist within the Beard Dimension. Occasionally Beardomancers befriend mustachios to be their familiars. These creatures resemble flying mustaches and occasionally group in large numbers to assault those going through areas they inhabit. Mustachios in general whip and bite while flying by their targets. They typically attack what they perceive as the head and face of their prey. Attaching to the face or getting stuck in the opponent’s hair is quite common.

Mustachio Swarm

Medium swarm of Tiny beasts, unaligned

Armor Class 12

Hit Points 22 (5d8)

Speed 0 ft., fly 30 ft.

• Strength 5 (-3)
• Dexterity 15 (+2)
• Constitution 10 (+0)
• Intelligence 2 (-4)
• Wisdom 12 (+1)
• Charisma 4 (-3)

Damage Resistances Bludgeoning, Cold, Piercing, Slashing,

Damage Vulnerabilities Fire

Condition Immunities Charmed, Frightened, Grappled, Paralyzed, Petrified, Prone, Restrained, Stunned

Senses blindsight 60 ft., passive Perception 11

Languages — Understands Deep Beardic (but cannot speak)

Challenge 1/2 (100 XP)

Proficiency Bonus +2

Echolocation. The swarm can’t use its blindsight while deafened.

Keen Hearing. The swarm has advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on hearing.

Swarm. The swarm can occupy another creature’s space and vice versa, and the swarm can move through any opening large enough for a Tiny bat. The swarm can’t regain hit points or gain temporary hit points.

Hair Form. The swarm of hair bats can enter a hostile creatures space and stop there. It can move through a space as narrow as 1 inch without squeezing.

Actions

Wing Whip. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 0 ft., one creature in the swarm’s space. Hit: 5 (2d4) piercing damage, or 2 (1d4) piercing damage if the swarm has half of its hit points or fewer.

Let me know what you think. Thanks for reading. Until next time, stay nerdy!

*Featured image — Tang Yau Hoong is an artist, illustrator, graphic designer based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. With a passion for creative thinking, he creates art that is conceptual, surreal and fun in a simplistic and unique way. He is known for his surreal negative space illustrations like this one. The Beard Dimension is a vast and tangled place, certainly enough so to imagine a region of salt-and-pepper coloration where mustaschio swarms flap through the sky. [Image by Tang Yau Hoong]

Subscribe to Nerdarchy Live and get notifications for live RPG game plays, chats with creators and industry professionals and new video series and content on our second YouTube channel here