Now this is more like it.
The last few beasts I’ve given the D&D treatment to have been a little wimpy – pet ghouls, tiny glumbumbles and irritating gnomes – which are good for a low-level encounter or to add as a little curiosity. But I really wanted to get back to the beasts that are fantastically dangerous. Along comes the super-angry Graphorn, and I’m a happy gent.
Continue reading “Fantastic Beasts and How to Slay Them: Graphorn”This is the oddest beasts I’ve tackled so far. There’s plenty of Fantastic Beasts and Dungeons & Dragons monsters that have the same name/origins. So far, they’ve been different enough to make the creation of their game stats interesting.
A Gnome is not a beast or monster in D&D though. No, a Gnome is a playable race, with their own history, culture and intelligence.
Suggesting that a D&D Gnome was a small pest that infests gardens, steals vegetables and occasionally bites ankles would be extremely racist.
Continue reading “Fantastic Beasts and How to Slay Them: Gnome”It’s a bug that makes honey taste bad…
Continue reading “Fantastic Beasts and How to Slay Them: Glumbumble”This is another monster that shows up in D&D and the Potterverse. This time, the different is quite striking.
A fight with a pack of Dungeons & Dragons Ghouls can get nasty surprisingly quickly. A single claw swipe can cause paralysis, which makes every subsequent bite and scratch a Critical Hit. Visually, they are look like a powered up zombie, complete with bloated, blue skin and a glassy-eyed stare.
The Fantastic Beast ghoul is… sometimes kept as a pet?
Continue reading “Fantastic Beasts and How to Slay Them: Ghoul”Today, we have another bird that has a magic cry. The Augurey has a irritating call that tells you the weather is about to change. The Fwooper has a lovely call that makes you go loopy. What luck: D&D has rules for when creatures go mad.
Continue reading “Fantastic Beasts and How to Slay Them: Fwooper”In the quest to convert Fantastic Beasts into Dungeons & Dragons monsters, there’s been some highs and lows. This week… it’s a crab that shoots fire from it’s butt…
Continue reading “Fantastic Beasts and How to Slay Them: Fire Crab”My daughter and wife were watching one of the Tinkerbell movies. I caught ten minutes of it, before declaring “well that isn’t Tinkerbell” (you know, in that way that only the most obnoxious people nit-pick movies). My wife looked at me puzzled (my daughter carried on enjoying the movie and ignoring her silly daddy) and I reminded her that in the original story Tinkerbell is not the super-happy, kind and caring friend she’s more recently portrayed as.
No, Tinkerbell is just awful. She’s vain and spiteful, she’s more than ready to shank anyone that crosses her, and if she considers you a rival she will gleefully put you in mortal danger. She’s a terrible creature.
Continue reading “Fantastic Beasts and How to Slay Them: Fairy”I was worried about this one. This is the most powerful creature in the entire Potterverse. I was not sure I could make the conversion to Dungeons & Dragons monster. After hours of research and careful calculation, I think I have a worthy D&D stat block for the most Fantastic Beast.
Happy 1st April. Want some proper Fantastic Beasts for your D&D game? Look here!
Not everything in D&D – or Harry Potter, for that matter – is designed to kill the characters. There’s a creature called an Almiraj, which is basically a rabbit with a unicorn horn. There’s also this thing called a Flumph, a curious little floating aberration with the threat level of mouldy marshmallow. There’s also Awakened Shrubs… which are shrubs that are smart enough to talk… because sometimes you want your players to fight a dragon and sometimes you want them to have an awkward conversation with a bush.
Continue reading “Fantastic Beasts and How to Slay Them: Ashwinder”Before going back into lockdown, I noticed that many young students were reading Harry Potter for the first time. It’s no surprise of course, but it was lovely to see a wave of new readers discovering the series. I seem to find myself revisiting the series too – I’m currently listening to Potterverse, and I often catch parts of the audiobooks my wife is re-listening to.
Continue reading “Fantastic Beasts and How to Slay Them: Acromantula”
Gamer Peak 