dm dev's homebrews

Here’s a link to the list of monsters that I’ve uploaded so far.

Creature: Horizon Mongrel

When stars collapse into black holes, not even light can escape the surface. But occasionally, very rarely when there is not a single pair of eyes in the universe even flitting towards the newly birthed black hole, something else can escape. Something that inherits the churning, black darkness and the intense gravity of its birthplace, and speeds away faster from that sinkhole of death than anyone can follow it.

Black holes incarnate. Many people ask questions about the origins of the horizon mongrels, the creatures called after the black boundary of certain death and crushing gravity near an imploded star. Very few people have answers that aren’t an overactive imagination. Where the mongrels really come from, no one is quite certain, but it’s clear that the patch of space that spits them out is darker and emptier than any other.

Flashing nightmares. Mongrels are solitary creatures that seem to be either completely uninterested in their own kind of entirely unaware of them. Rather, a mongrel seeks out places where the flow of spacetime is warped in some way, or even broken. Powerful graviturges often find themselves hunted by a mongrel, which is capable of great destruction should it ever arrive at its unfortunate victim’s doorstep. And as fast as it appears, it is gone - since they are often not much more than a flash of jaws and choking, crushing gravity, leaving nothing behind.

Template: Mycolyte

Some who live in the woods don’t simply enjoy nature as part of their surroundings, but might want to take part in it in a much more literal way. Any who embrace and accept the limitless decay of moulds and fungi that grow on trees may find it can grow on them, too. Their acceptance of the natural cycle of death and life spreads the spores of their philosphy and physical affliction wider - and some believe they are all the more peaceful for it.

This template can be used on any creature of your choice if you want to introduce a fearsome, natural terror or a wise creature of immortal age, always rotting but never dying. It will introduce some deadly powers in your creatures, though, so be wary of any fungal powers that may overwhelm your group!

Do you like this template? I have a few more ideas for other ones, so let me know in the replies of this post or send me an ask and I’ll work on a few more!

For better, full-page high quality imagery, go take a look at the Mycolyte template at the Homebrewery here!

(Translation using DeepL: "Why don't you have a version of the creature with translation?")

Portuguese below (translated with DeepL, sorry!) // Português abaixo (traduzido com DeepL, desculpe!)

Hi there! I realize English may not be everyone's first language and not everyone may understand and/or speak English well enough to be able to understand the things I post on my blog, but I haven't had any need for translations of my creatures so far, nor have I had any requests for a translation. I'm not sure if I should be offering that, but if necessary, I can offer text-only versions of my creatures (instead of pictures) so you can put them through a translation machine such as DeepL (deepl.com) yourself.

I don't speak Portuguese, nor do I speak any languages besides English and Dutch, so it would be very difficult for me to provide versions of each creature or post in a variety of languages without using machine translations, and they are often not very good. I don't think it'd benefit the blog if I offered that because of the issue with quality. But I'm willing to start adding text-only versions of each post I make, so if your English isn't good enough or you prefer reading it in another language, you can use DeepL or Google Translate yourself to provide that for yourself. Hopefully that answers your question! :)

--

Olá! Sei que o inglês pode não ser a primeira língua de todos e que nem todos podem compreender e/ou falar inglês suficientemente bem para poderem compreender as coisas que publico no meu blog, mas até agora não tive qualquer necessidade de traduções das minhas criaturas, nem tive quaisquer pedidos de tradução. Não tenho a certeza se devo oferecer isso, mas se necessário, posso oferecer versões apenas de texto das minhas criaturas (em vez de fotografias) para que você mesmo as possa colocar através de uma máquina de tradução, como DeepL (deepl.com).

Hiya! Thanks for the compliment. I was actually going to do this anyway, since I’m a big fan of astronomy and space in general, but I was waiting for the books to come out so I could at least know what sort of guidelines they were going to put down for extraterrestrial monsters :) I’ll definitely create some in the future, though, so keep your eyes open!

Hiya! This is a difficult question - I’m not sure what kind of book you’re writing, where you’ll publish it and what kind of role my creatures will play in it.

If you’re writing a bestiary, or other 5e/RPG guidebook with stat blocks and such, then my answer is no, don’t use my creatures in your book. Even if you edit them, as the creator I don’t feel comfortable publishing my creatures officially. Commercially, I don’t own the images I use, and I’m very careful with creating any kind of profit off my creatures.

If you’re writing a novel or fanfiction, it becomes a little bit more difficult to determine what’s going to happen. All in all, I would say no if you intend to publish it and/or sell your book. If it’s just for friends and family, I really have no way of knowing if that’s what it’ll be limited to. Give credit where credit is due, of course.

All in all, my creatures and other brews are meant for people to use noncommercially at their D&D table, for their parties to encounter. I don’t create them with the intention of publishing them in any way, as I definitely infringe on Wizards of the Coast copyright and intellectual property.

So, long story short: if you’re going to be publishing anything or making profit off the book, the answer is no. This may sound harsh, but I’d like to be very careful. If you’re writing for yourself and don’t intend on publishing/selling, feel free to take inspiration for my creatures. If you post it online, please credit me.

Resource: Curses, Revised: Part Two

Ever felt the official content on curses is too limited by the two spells and handful of rolling tables, and wished for more? Then this is the series for you. I’m working on a multi-chapter revision of curses in D&D 5th edition, which helps you to create and use curses that fit in your setting and that make sense. This is part two of at least three, which are still a work in progress. Keep your eyes peeled for part three :) I will also link it here once it’s posted.

Hiya! No, not at all! That's the purpose of this blog :) Feel free to use any of this content in your home games.

Hiya there! That fully depends on your definition of construct or elemental. In my lore, shardminds are constructs, since they are created from natural rock formations by strong magic. The magic that infuses them is what gives them their consciousness. Whereas, in my opinion, rock elementals gain their consciousness from the natural materials that they're made of becoming conscious. There's maybe a mild magical influence, especially on the elemental planes, but there is no other entity or consciousness "creating" them as with constructs. But your interpretation is just as valid! If they're elementals in your games, they can be elementals :)

The idea is for an an ability for an NPC monster. It’s based on the arcane trickster, but is specifically trained to fight magic users. I’m calling it an arcane hunter, and thinking of making it CR 6-7. However, it could also be a magic item, or a class ability.

For the most part, it’ll have rogue abilities, arcane trickster spellcasting, expertise in arcana and stealth, and two attacks with a rapier.

The ability is called “overcharge spell”: Whenever a spell is cast within 60 feet of the arcane hunter, it can use its reaction to push a bit of extra magic energy into it. This leads to one of four results, based on a d4 roll:

1 - the energy of the spell explodes, the caster and everyone within 5 feet rolls a constitution save. On a failure, take 1d10 force damage per the spell slot of the cast spell. On a success, half damage.

2 - the arcane hunter takes control of the spell energy, directing the spell at whoever they choose, within 20 feet of the caster. (I particularly like this one, because it can be either meaningless or really bad depending on the DM’s timing with the ability).

3 - the spell energy collapses in on itself and has no effect, as if targeted by a counterspell.

4 - the spell functions as normal, but more powerful, as if cast at one spell slot higher.

Recharge on 5-6.

I also asked the blog homebrew-a-la-traumaverse for feedback, and they made the excellent suggestion to have the ability function similar to counterspell. That is, for spells up to 3rd level, the ability functions normally, but for 4th level or higher, the caster of the spell rolls an spellcasting ability check against the arcane hunter’s spell save dc to have their spell function normally. She also suggested I have a successful check makes the spell upcast, but I think I’ll have it only happen if the caster rolls 5 above the spell save dc (which will be 14, I believe).

Hiya! First of all, I'd like to mention that this is a very cool idea and I'm all for it! I definitely think we don't have enough counters to casters in D&D as is (except for counterspell, and maybe confusion effects, which suck for everyone), so I definitely find this a very unique and useful idea.

I like homebrew-a-la-traumaverse's idea of making it similar to counterspell, that fits very well with this idea. However, maybe that makes it a little too similar to counterspell/dispel magic? I definitely think an ability check/saving throw needs to be implemented to make this fair to everyone, though. Instead of making the caster save against the hunter, you could also implement a contested spell ability check, and if the hunter rolls higher than the caster, the hunter's effect takes place.

I'd suggest creating an additional effect on a natural 20 for the hunter (or in case of a contested spell ability check, a natural 1 on the caster's part), like getting to choose one target that the full spell's power is aimed at. It's similar to a roll of 2 on the dice, but I would suggest changing that effect to anyone within 20 feet of the original target, and the natural 20 effect to be anyone within the spell's range, regardless of the original target, if that makes sense. It creates some extra freedom for the hunter to really aim for the PCs who like staying at the back of a fight/out of the way of the other PCs.

Alternatively, you could choose for the hunter to be allowed to pick one of the four effects instead of rolling for it if they roll a natural 20! That has the same effect as above :)

As a fifth and sixth effect, you could implement the following:

5. If the hunter is the target of the spell, it has effect as normal, and the hunter absorbs some of that spell's power. Until the end of the caster's next turn, the hunter has advantage on saving throws to resist the caster's spells (or advantage on all saving throws against spell effects, if you want to beef the hunter up a little).

6. The caster must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw (the DC equals 10 + the spell's level). On a failed save, the caster can't cast that spell again until the end of its next turn.

Hiya there! I do have a D&D Beyond account, but I currently only use it for playing. I haven't posted any of my homebrews on D&D Beyond, so if you see any of my content there, I didn't post it!

However, if there's a lot of interest in this, I'll consider making it available there too!

Yes, absolutely! If you'd like to discuss it privately, you can DM me. My inbox is open :) Otherwise, feel free to leave another ask, and other people can pitch in as well!

Resource: Curses, Revised: Part One

Ever felt the official content on curses is too limited by the two spells and handful of rolling tables, and wished for more? Then this is the series for you. I’m working on a multi-chapter revision of curses in D&D 5th edition, which helps you to create and use curses that fit in your setting and that make sense. This is part one of at least three, which are still a work in progress. I’m hoping to get these all done soon, so I can post them all in a row, or at least relatively close together. Keep your eyes peeled for part two :) I will also link it here once it’s posted.

Collection: Purple Dragons

“Born from amaranthine, great form uncoiled, ivory claws extended to the smoke-storming sky, pale eyes blinded by immense hands, yet no less daunting than if they would pierce each mind.” - Excerpt from “Song of the Dragon”, a mythological account of an encounter with the Great Blind Serpent, Rilzriaduss (author unknown)

Scourge of the Underdark. Where some are lucky enough to see - and survive - an encounter with a red, blue or green dragon, those who have encountered their purple cousins are fewer and far between. Purple dragons are difficult to learn about, both because they are extremely solitary creatures, preferring the company of none in their caves and underground burrows, and because any unfortunate soul that meets one rarely escapes with their life. Purple dragons burrow out their lairs, digging it out of stone and earth, and are most often found in the Underdark, where they prey on unsuspecting passersby, which are most often drow or svirfneblin. On rare occasions, purple dragons have dealt with humanoid races through mutual agreements - purple dragons are, in fact, smart enough to manipulate, and wise enough to understand when they have been outnumbered or when escape is unlikely. They are powerful though disloyal allies, although their pure strength is often enough to make up for their rapidly-shifting alliances.

Mental masters. Purple dragons are, just moments after hatching, notoriously difficult to control, whether through mind magic or through deception. Their nature allows them a strong defense against magical effects, and influencing their minds is nearly impossible. They are well-spoken beings, capable of such mental gymnastics that they can change other creatures’ minds without revealing their intentions. However, as cousins to the chromatic dragons, purple dragons are also greatly manipulative, evil, and cruel.

For better, full-page high quality imagery, take a look at the Purple Dragons Collection at the Homebrewery here!

Under the Read More, you’ll find the purple dragon’s lair actions and regional effects.

Creature: Beast of Gévaudan

“ Beast of Gévaudan, feared no sword and feared no gun, sent from Heaven, the seventh of creatures. Beast of Gévaudan, for the wrath of God to come, came to sanction the mass and the preachers.

To the father and the son came the Beast of Gévaudan, terminator, a traitor, half wolf, and half machine. To the prior and the nun came the Beast of Gévaudan, a redeemer, believer, all fatal, mad, and mean. “

Divine adjudicator. Some locals from the surrounding areas of Gévaudan believe the Beast to be a creature sent by the gods to root out the persistent corruption in the heart of Gévaudan. Others believe it simply to be a pest upon the lands, preying on farmers and court officials alike. Naturally, it is true that the Beast prowls the land with the most corrupt government - but to conflate the two facts to be one divine fact is madness... right?

Bloodthirst. Those who live their lives in the vicinity of the Beast’s territory are intimately aware of its presence. It often shows itself, if only to cause fear and panic amongst the peasantry, and vanishes as quickly as it appeared. It’s true that it does occasionally attack locals with lower status, but magistrates, dukes and duchesses and attendees of the court have silently but unanimously decided to reduce social appearances everywhere. With no more corrupt counts and scheming queens on the road, the Beast is becoming impatient, and ready to unleash its frenzied eradication methods upon the higher class once again.

Hybrid nature. The Beast has two creature types: celestial and monstrosity. It can be targeted by any effect if it applies to one of its creature types.

Celestial nature. The Beast requires no sleep, food, or drink.