by Dungeons
Emerging at night, owlbears hunt alone or in mated pairs, scouring around their lair for fresh food. They are intelligent enough to know their hunting grounds, using their awful screeches and hoots to drive prey into areas from which there is no escape.
Owlbears are difficult to control, although with enough food, time, and luck, they can be trained to perform basic tasks. Goblins sometimes employ them as war mounts, while hill and frost giants favor them as pets. Even tamed, these creatures are unpredictable and dangerous, quick to turn on their masters if food runs low.
LAIR Owlbears make their dens in caves or ruins littered with the bones of their prey. These foul lairs give off the stench of blood and death, attracting other predators to the area. Their nocturnal hunting patterns mean their dens may be left empty during the darkest hours of the night.
SIZE Owlbears are slightly larger than a grizzly bear, weighing more than 500 pounds, and standing about three and a half feet tall when on all fours. They are almost seven feet long and tower over humans and even elves when standing on their hind legs.
SPECIAL POWERS
KEEN SIGHT AND SMELL
Owlbears have exceptionally good vision, even in the dark, and are skilled at sniffing out prey. You’ll need to be extra-stealthy to avoid detection.
MULTIATTACK
These dangerous creatures can attack twice in the time it takes most monsters to strike once, biting with their sharp beaks and slashing with their deadly claws all at the same time.
DEADLY FEROCITY
Stubborn and ferocious, nothing frightens away an owlbear. They will keep fighting long after a more sensible creature would have run away.
DO THIS
Use bait to distract their attacks. Creatures this big need a lot of food to feel full. If your party wants to avoid a fight, try distracting the owlbear with fresh meat placed nearby.
Watch out for other enemies. While many owlbears are solitary beasts, others may have a mate—or even some cubs—nearby. The loud screeching of an owlbear in battle is sure to draw the interest of other predators in the area.
DON’T DO THIS
Don’t think you can scare them away. Owlbears are intelligent, but not smart enough to know when they’re in a losing battle. Spellcaster illusions, no matter how impressive, won’t be enough to stop this fight once it begins.
Don’t poke around an empty lair for too long. These nocturnal predators know their hunting grounds well. Their keen sight and smell will inform them of an intrusion to their den even from miles away.
SPRITE
When imagining the tiny, winged woodland creatures known as sprites, you might picture adorable flower fairies from children’s picture books—but don’t be fooled. Sprites are warriors, through and through.
Despite their small size, sprites are a tough and serious-minded race of fighters who protect the woods and forests from trespassers. They’re excellent judges of character, and if you enter their land with bad intentions they will not hesitate to take you down. On the other hand, if you come seeking their aid for a righteous cause, you may just get it.
Sprites are not a lot of fun to be around, unless you’re really into fighting. They don’t value art or creativity at all, unless it’s the art of war and creating new types of poison to put on the tips of their arrows. (They really love poison arrows.)
Sprites are experts at camouflage, and can sneak through the underbrush without being heard. If they really want to stay hidden, sprites can also turn invisible, but that only lasts until they attack.
LAIR Sprite villages look like human villages, except smaller. They may be built into tree branches or roots, or under a canopy of vines, with mushroom roofs and bamboo walls. Sprite villages are defended vigilantly by patrols.
SIZE Sprites grow to just over a foot tall, which makes them slightly taller than an average full-grown house cat. (And they’re often just as needy!)
POISONS AND POTIONS Sprites are experts at turning plants and flowers into poisons or potions that can hurt, burn, or sometimes heal. Their favorite elixir is a sleeping drink that they dab onto their arrows. The arrows are tiny, but the potion is strong enough to take down a full-size adventurer.
DO THIS
Tread carefully through the forest. If you accidentally squash a sprite, their vengeance is merciless.
Have magical healing at the ready. If your party doesn’t have a cleric, paladin, or druid to provide healing spells, then stock up on anti-poison potions before you enter sprite territory.
DON’T DO THIS
Don’t go looking for their villages. They’ll see you before you see them.
Don’t think small means weak. Sprites may be tiny, but every inch is packed with fighting spirit.
TREANT
If a tree ever falls in the forest, there are always other trees to hear it. And some may even mourn it.
Very old trees growing in sacred or magical spaces can sometimes gain a spark of consciousness. They contemplate their place in the world for a very long time, and when the time is right, they awaken…and move.
These awakened trees are called treants, and they are large and mighty beings. As they slowly come to life, treants develop humanoid features, including legs and arms created from their roots and branches, and wizened faces of bark and knots in their trunks. In their early years, they are often protected by older treants or by other guardians of the forest.
Upon maturity, they become protectors of the forest, sensitive to everything that happens around them. They use their great strength to defend the magic and wonder of nature—and to punish any who transgress. Few things can hit as hard as a fist of hardened oak!
Though treants can stand and move, they rarely travel far. They prefer a peaceful life of contemplation, enjoying the tranquility of nature while reflecting on the mysteries of existence.
LAIR Treants live deep in wild forests, where they blend perfectly into their surroundings. Like ordinary trees, they live on sun, soil, and water, and they do not have any special or magical needs. Because treants are born from magic, their surroundings are often enchanted, and other magical beings may make their homes nearby.
SIZE Treants can grow as large as any tree. That means there could be a treant up to three hundred feet tall! Because they take so long to awaken, you’re unlikely to find a small treant. Even a modestly sized one will be at least twice the height of a logging truck, so you know who’d win in that face-off!
SPECIAL POWERS A treant is never alone in a forest. If you ever go up against one treant, you’ll discover that they can temporarily bring two other trees to life to work or fight alongside them. You might find yourself surrounded, without even knowing which trees you’re fighting!
DO THIS
Let druids and rangers take the lead. These nature-loving classes are the best equipped to approach a treant without giving it offense.
Regard every tree as if it could be a treant. When a treant is at rest, it looks exactly like other trees.
Keep your fire-starter handy! If you ever have to keep an angry treant at bay, the threat of fire is very effective.
DON’T DO THIS
Don’t disrespect the forest. Hurting healthy trees is the fastest way to anger a treant.
Don’t get lost in enemy territory. Trying to hide from treants in trees is never a good idea.
Don’t start forest fires. Threats may hold them back, but a treant will move to attack if they see real flames within their woods.
UNICORN
Unicorns look like horses with individual spiraling ivory horns, but they are actually something much stranger—celestial avatars of goodness that have come to the physical world from ethereal planes to protect sacred woodland spaces. Unicorns live in magic-rich forests, where they defend the innocent and vulnerable and try to keep the forces of evil at bay.
Attuned to nature, unicorns sense every sound and movement in the trees and bushes around them. They are also highly sensitive to virtue and can sense how good or bad a person is. They will gladly punish the unworthy (perhaps by skewering them with their horn), but they may also come to the aid of the worthy (usually by healing them of sickness or injury).
The most virtuous may even be allowed to ride a unicorn into battle against forces of great darkness, but this is very rare.
LAIR There are few places more beautiful than a unicorn’s lair. Unicorns are so magical that their homes change to reflect their nature, resulting in peaceful glades and picture-perfect woodland scenes. In a unicorn’s domain, birds sing more clearly and flowers seem to glow.
Other magical creatures are drawn to this sanctuary, where they are welcome under the unicorn’s protection so long as they conduct themselves with virtue.
SIZE Unicorns come in the same range of heights and sizes as ordinary horses. The unicorn’s horn is the same length as an adult human forearm. These horns are known for their ability to channel magic. They can be ground up in potions or wielded like a wand. Forces of good will seek to punish anyone who uses a unicorn’s horn in this way.
SPECIAL POWERS Unicorns have several magical abilities, including the power to generate a protective field of shimmering energy, the ability to teleport up to a mile, and the power to heal the sick with the touch of its horn. Unicorns can also attack with their horns or their hooves, delivering magical damage.
DO THIS
Approach with caution. If unicorns judge you unworthy to be in their presence, they’ll let you know in a hurry.
Respect the unicorn’s domain. Even a lifetime of good deeds won’t help you if you try to steal magic from a unicorn.
DON’T DO THIS
Don’t bring your hatred, jealousy, or evil into their domain. Unicorns will not tolerate any but the pure of heart within their sanctuary.
Don’t seek power by using a unicorn’s horn. They may be magical items, but they’re not strong enough to protect you from the celestial forces that will seek revenge for your desecration.
UNICORN
As Kalista ventured deep into the forest, she could hear the fairy folk whispering and giggling. What could a creature like her ever want in a place like this? She flinched at every movement in the trees, yet she kept herself centered and calm. She had come to find an answer to a question, and she would not be turned away.
At last, she came to the clearing, a shallow pool of crystal-clear water nestled beneath silvery trees bursting with colorful blossoms, where she saw what she had come for. A unicorn drank from the pool, its magical horn seeming to shimmer in the midday light.
Kalista lived her whole life believing she was a monster. Born with obvious marks of her infernal tiefling heritage in a village that had never seen anything like her, she was told she carried darkness inside her and that her gifts of magic came from somewhere evil. The people she loved said that she was wicked and chased her from her home.
Yet she did not feel wicked in her heart.
Kalista was told unicorns could sense darkness in a person and would chase evil away from their sacred groves. She came to the forest to discover what the unicorn saw in her.
As she knelt near the noble creature, it looked up at her only briefly, and then returned its attention to the waters. The unicorn was not disturbed by her. It was not afraid. It was not threatened.
A tear ran down Kalista’s cheek, for now she knew her heart had not lied.
Many would not have the courage to test themselves in such a way. If you ventured into an enchanted forest, how would the unicorn greet you?
GIANTS
Long before the empires of man, there were other kingdoms across these lands—the empires of the giants! These proud, titanic people were almost unopposed in their dominance of the world—except by the dragons, who would become their enduring foes.
Tales are still told of the epic wars between giants and dragons, which helped push both empires into decline. Today, giants live in remote and scattered clans, divided into six major races: hill giants, stone giants, frost giants, fire giants, cloud giants, and storm giants. All the races of giants have their own ideas about social standing that they call the ordning, which means “order.” Storm giants look down on cloud giants, who look down on fire giants, who look down on frost giants, who look down on stone giants, who look down on hill giants. Hill giants aren’t smart enough to know they’re at the bottom, or smart enough to care. Each race also has their own way of figuring out rank within their own society, such as by wealth, strength, or even artistic talent. In hill giant society, your height and the size of your belly determine your social rank. They think bigger is always better!
Giants still cling to dreams of glory, and retain the physical strength and power to crush unwary travelers who cross their paths. If you ever happen across a giant, just hope that you’re small enough to pass by unnoticed. That is, unless you think you’re tough enough to take down a giant.…
HILL GIANT
Of all the races of giants, hill giants are the ones you’re most likely to run into on a very bad day. Heavy, dirty, stinky, and mean, they wander hills and valleys, plundering farms and homesteads for something to eat. Feeding their incredible appetites is really the only thing they care about, and you don’t want to find yourself on the menu.
Hill giants look a lot like humans, but bigger and uglier, with a smell your nose might pick up from half a mile away. You’ll likely find them dressed in ragged skins speckled with mud and brandishing a jagged old tree stump as a club. If you do see one, run away, because their attitude is just as nasty as their stench.
Nursery rhymes tell us that giants want to grind your bones to make their bread, but baking is probably a bit beyond a hill giant’s skills, and it’s definitely beyond their needs. They’re more likely to eat you raw, in a few quick bites. They’ll eat just about anything they can swallow, and they can swallow…just about anything.
LAIR Hill giants live in mud huts or simple wooden shacks on hillsides and in valleys. Sometimes they try to take over the settlements of other races that they’ve chased away or devoured, but they’re so big that they tend to accidentally destroy the buildings instead.
SIZE Even an average-size hill giant is taller than the largest African elephant—and probably a lot heavier too.
DO THIS
Sniff the air. If there’s a hill giant nearby, you might smell them before you see them.
Try to trick or hide from them. Because they’re not very smart, hill giants are easy to deceive.
DON’T DO THIS
Don’t try to reason with a hill giant. They’re very bad at conversation.
Don’t mistake any other type of giant for a hill giant. They will take great offence at the comparison.
Don’t be too delicious!
STONE GIANT
Though stone giants rank just above hill giants (see this page) in the social order, they are more civilized than their unruly cousins. They’re not driven entirely by physical hunger, leaving them time to appreciate more complex concerns such as craft, contemplation, and solitude. Stone giants enjoy peace and quiet so much that the darker and quieter a place is, the more sacred they believe it to be. They’re perfectly happy staying underground.
Because they live their lives almost entirely in caverns deep beneath the ground, stone giants have skin untouched by the sun and are almost as gray as the rocks that surround them. Get them above ground, however, and stone giants can be very dangerous. They regard the surface as a sort of dream world where nothing is real, and where their actions don’t have consequences. The farther they are from home, the more trouble they can cause.
Stone giant society is ranked according to refinement and skill, whether it’s the excellence of their artistry or their grace as ath
letes. Those who lack such talents are often relegated to the fringes of their community, serving as guards and hunters for their more sophisticated cousins.
LAIR Stone giants love the dark and cold of the world far below our feet. Their elaborate networks of caves extend for miles. You can often identify these caves by the beautiful carved markings on the walls. Stone giants may live in communities, but they value peace and quiet so much that many also prefer to live alone.
SIZE At an average height of eighteen feet, stone giants are about as tall as one of those dancing tube figures that you might see outside a car dealership (though a stone giant probably wouldn’t be very impressed if they met one).
READING THE RUNES Stone giants have developed a complex set of symbols they use to communicate stories and enchant magical items. They have great skill at carving rock and believe that studying carvings and runes can reveal the mysteries of the world. Prophecies are very popular among stone giants, and they might be persuaded to share some of their visions of the future with a thoughtful enough guest.
DO THIS
Watch the walls. Stone giants can camouflage themselves against rock and stone.
Admire their work. Stone giants work hard on their craft, and they may respond well to flattery.
Meet them underground. The closer a stone giant is to the surface, the more violent they’re likely to be.
DON’T DO THIS
Don’t run. A stone giant can throw rocks far and with tremendous accuracy. If you’re not careful, you could get squished before you reach safety.