The Bestiary: Recent Episodes
Alignment May Vary
Every episode is a different monster from the 5th Edition Monster Manual. We go in-depth, discussing the monster’s history, abilities, and ecology, and then end with a roleplayed battle with the featured beast!
If you see a Null Dragon, your world may be on the brink of a cosmic destruction. Today’s Bestiary is a very unusual one. We go beyond the planes, beyond the very pages of the Monster Manual itself, to study a creature even Wizards of the Coast cannot explain. This is a new aberration, something that comes from the limbo between planes. And it hungers….
The Antling (or anti-material creature) is not just one monster but an entirely new subset, an expression of an entire hitherto unknown plane of existence. The brainchild of Tome of Summoning, the Antiling is being introduced to the world here on the Bestiary. Join us and its creator, Lee, as we learn what these things are and how to use them in a campaign.
Want to get a copy of your very Antiling, along with dozens of other monsters? Check out the Tome of Summoning!
Sqwuak? Sqwuarooo? Skreeee? Rooooar? Does a Griffon sound more like an eagle or a lion (or, in the case of the Glam Griffon, David Bowie)? This question and others are raised on today’s deep dive into the Griffon. Learn why Griffons historically love horse meat, how much their eggs go for on the black market, and what creature in real life is most like them (hint: not eagles or lions). Along the way, hear from author Cat Rambo and podcaster Alan Bailey, who bring their incredible creativity and passion for D&D to an episode packed tighter than a Griffon’s cloaca with facts, laughs, and observations you won’t find anywhere else.
Cat and Alan are co-hosts of the Hope Punk podcast, If This Goes On (Don’t Panic!)
Cat Rambo has her own online university for teaching writing and her latest book, You Sexy Thing, is an absolutely wild space opera adventure.
The Gryphon Pages comprise the absolute best Griffon website on the web in our opinion (we reference it a lot in the episode).
This month’s episode of The Bestiary is an unusual one, as we finally leave behind the borders of Faerun and explore Keith Baker’s world of Eberron! Leading us on this journey is Alex Schmidt, designer of the card game Red Rising. He opens our eyes to the possibility that the Radiant Idol, angels fallen and chained to earth by their own desires, are not mere monsters but so much more, maybe even pitiable creatures trapped by their own nature. Join us for one of our most in depth explorations of a creature’s nature!
To learn more about Alex and Stonemaier Games, check out Red Rising at their website!
The Tarrasque is consistently presented as one of D&D’s biggest, baddest monsters. But is this beast more than just a bunch of hit points? The Bestiary team thinks so! Join us as we discuss the real-world origins of the Tarrasque as well as how this beast adds up to more than hit points. Joining us for this discussion is Luke Elliott, host of the awesome Ink to Film podcast. He brings his film and genre expertise, as well as a love of all things Tarrasque, to the show and helps us look at the Tarrasque in a new way.
Snakes and people… how does that ever happen in nature? Turns out, even Wizards of the Coast can’t agree on how the Yuan Ti were created. In this episode of the Bestiary we look at three different versions of Yuan Ti history, as well as the race’s controversial background. And joining us for that is the wonderful Freya, back on the Bestiary for the second time! Freya brings great questions about the Yuan Ti and their functioning to the table and even gets to make a Yuan Ti herself. Now doesn’t that sound fun?
You can see Freya live at her Twitch page, which is full of wonderful goodness (but not enough snakes).
No creature inspires as much existential dread as the conqueror of death, the wizard mad with power: The Lich. These penultimate undead have been the primary villains of D&D campaigns across history, with two of their number (Vecna and Acererak) gaining fame in the multiverse and (in the case of Acererak and his legendary Tomb of Horrors) even gaining mainstream popularity outside of the D&D community. Now we tackle these insanely powerful wizards in the final episode of our first season of the Bestiary, covering topics as wide and varied as phylacteries (are they Jewish or Greek?), the fall of ancient kingdoms (what was Vecna’s most decisive victory?), and even take a stab at building our own phylacteries (spoilers: it doesn’t go great for some of us).
Goblins are full of hijinx and helplessness, at least according to the popular view of them. Today’s episode of the Bestiary delves deeper, tracing back goblins to the days when they used to attack in the hundreds and examining how they are one of the most ubiquitous beasts in mythology and modern gaming. And maybe, just maybe, they aren’t nearly as helpless as we’ve been led to believe.
Guest star Jake (friend, dungeon master, and author) helps us put on one of our goofiest episodes yet. You’ll learn, with some authority, what goblin meat tastes like, how a colander can defeat a goblin, and what happens when goblins form a drama club.
Incidental music for this episode was provided by the Bossa Nova Cafe Club, and “Summertime Fun” and “Of Summers Gone By” are by Eric Matyas, who offers free music and sound effects at his website (www.soundimage.org).
Mysterious and beautiful, these female personifications of nature are inspired by the Greek mythologies. Today on the Bestiary, we explore the Dryad, their uses in the D&D game, some of their problematic history as objects of the male gaze, and how to to play up their mystique and use their charm to great effect. Here to help with that is Nayan and Lee of Tome of Summoning, who are working on an exciting way to show players the monsters they face without giving away what the monster is.
To learn more about Tome of Summoning, go to their website and also check out their Kickstarter to get in on the fun!
“Hey, Zach, what monster do you want to do?”
“Hey, Jon, how about that one that looks like a floating brain with a bunch of tentacles?”
“Those aren’t all tentacles. Some of them are spiky penises.”
“Even better.”
Okay, so the conversation didn’t go exactly like that, but it’s not far off. Zach Barcus is one of the hilarious minds behind Slap Dash Studios and he lends his talents to the Bestiary for one of our more ridiculous creatures: The Grell.
Things you can expect from this episode include some of the strangest anatomy we’ve yet covered, musings on the problems with ecology in Dungeons & Dragons, and discovering what a Grell band would sound like. Also, as a bonus, we build a monster of our own!
If you enjoy the hijinx of this episode, then you will also enjoy the work put out by Slap Dash Studios and their main series, the League of Ultimate Questing.
In the early days of Dungeons & Dragons lore, there was rumor of a vast subterranean empire filled with creatures too horrible and strange to imagine. Drifting through these tales were many inconsistencies and legends, but one detail always stood true: just as elves lurked on the surface, there were elves of a darker nature drifting through the depths of the land. What plots they devised and what machinations they pursued was left to the pondering of either the very wise or the very insane.
And then suddenly, with the release of a trilogy of modules, these Dark Elves exploded onto the scene and the fantasy world was changed forever as they were given name, shape, and purpose. Their purpose: the annihilation or subjugation of the hated sunlight dwellers. Their shape? Beautiful dark skinned elves. Their name: the Drow.
Today on the show to talk with us about the Drow and their historical value to the RPG genre is Shannon Applecline, the author of the incredible and definitive history of tabletop role play gaming, collected in several volumes under the awesome name “Designers and Dragons.”
Other Resources:
The Designers and Dragons Facebook Page where you can get all of the Designers & Dragons news, plus anything Shannon comes across that’s about the history of the industry and worth sharing.
The Designers and Dragons Patreon Shannon’s Patreon for producing new company histories, for future books of “Lost History” and his upcoming series on the last 10 years of gaming development.
Advanced Designers and Dragons, Shannon’s ongoing column of history articles.
Also, click here for a special short history of the Drow’s publication that Shannon put together special for this episode!
From their home on the insane, constantly changing, nightmare landscape of the Abyss, armies of Demons plot a frenzy of bloodshed across the planes of the multi-verse. Held back by the most unlikely of guardians, the Lawful Evil Devils, Demons have nonetheless plagued the peripheries of the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy realm since its inception...
The Slaad, or Slaadi, are one of Dungeons & Dragons proprietary monsters, yet they don’t get used nearly as often as they should be and they don’t get a lot of coverage on lore channels or features in art work… maybe that’s just as well, when you discover their mating and reproduction habits. What do...
We once had a pet Kobold. We named him Many Treasures, after the first words he spoke to us. He died on the battlefield and… well… what happened next is something you’ll have to listen to find out! Today’s monster is a crowd favorite (little pun there): the Kobold! There’s more to these little guys...
For this episode we move away from big name monsters and into something unusual, but no less important to the history of D&D. The Water Weird is a, well, “weird” creature that has strong links to the Temple of Elemental Evil, as well as water cults throughout history. This episode, we’ll explore that occultish history...
Orcs are one of fantasy’s first non-legendary monsters. Unlike Dragons, Giants, and Trolls, the Orcs stand alone as a race not from myth but from the mind of one man: JRR Tolkein. Made famous by Lord of the Rings, Orcs have gone on to be a “must have” inclusion in almost every Fantasy RPG that’s...
Something lurks in the dark places of Dungeons & Dragons, something wet, slimy, and hungry. The Shambling Mound has been a monster in D&D for 45 years, yet is rarely seen by adventurers and scant few pages of lore have been dedicated to it. On this episode of the Bestiary, guided by the inquisitive Freya,...
The monster this time is one that players face more often than any other. DMs across the world have had to lay numerous of these foul beasts to rest in the wake of adventurers… that monster is… the COMMONER! Join us and special guest Ketih Ammann, author of The Monsters Know What They Are Doing,...
The Bestiary begins the new year with a wintry episode featuring the legendary Yeti! Discover their historical origins and how a myth from our world was translated into the Dungeons and Dragons universe. Possible Wampa and/or Rudolph quips will also be used.
Come with us on a journey of discovery as we explore the history, culture, and gross mouth stuff of the Beholder, Dungeons & Dragons iconic monster and mascot for the game. Find out how Beholders eat, what they eat, what happens after, and how they have babies (it’s all connected and its all gross). We...
From the frying pan and into the fire! Or rather, from the Underdark into the deep dark of the waters beneath. This week we continue our Fall feature on freaky creatures with a look at the Aboleths! These horrendous monstrosities have controlled the fate of the world since before recorded history. They always have been…...
One of the most iconic and terrifying monsters of Dungeons and Dragons gets its treatment on the Bestiary. This episode guest stars writer Ari Marmell, who is intimately familiar with the Mind Flayers and who questions how they have been used in the setting in the past. Guest Star: Ari MarmellAri’s Website : Mouseferatu.com Sources:...
Back in the early days of Dungeons and Dragons, everything was square, even some of the monsters! This “janitor” of the deep helps keep the dungeons clean… by devouring anything that would dare enter it. Join us and guest star and author Ben Fisher as we plumb the depths of our first Ooze monster on...
In this episode of the Bestiary, we flumph our way to a flumphy understanding of one of Dungeon and Dragon’s most bizarre creatures. Along the way, we flumphily discover that the history of this odd being is tied into the history of the growth of Dungeons and Dragons. Sources: Flumph Wiki Dragon #246: The Ecology...
Imagine for a moment that everything around you is suspect. Are you listening to this in a car? That car could come alive and eat you. On headphones? Those headphones could burrow into your brain and eat you. How anyone in Faerun uses the bathroom without panicking is a mystery to us. You too will...
Jonathan faces his fears and asks the group to delve deep into the terror that is giant spiders. These creatures are all over Faerun, but where do they come from? How do they manage to stay alive? Did you know they are worshiped by some and have their own goddess? You’ll find the answers to...
Frightening creatures stalk this episode of The Bestiary. Blink and you’ll miss them, but you’ll feel their jaws on your neck shortly after. In this episode we talk about how to survive an encounter with the deadly and unusual Displacer Beasts. Sources: Displacer Beast WikiDragon #109: The Ecology of the Displacer Beast
In this fantabulous episode of The Bestiary, we take the horse by the horn and cover the history of this popular mythological creature, examining how the creature was changed or kept the same for its Dungeons and Dragons incarnation. Guest starring horse lover and expert, Aubrey! Sources: Unicorn WikiDragon #77: The Ecology of the Unicorn
Learn about the vicious and treacherous Behir, including how it hunts, where it comes from in real history, and the secret behind its lightning breath attack! Sources: Behir WikiDragon #156: The Ecology of the Behir
Debut Episode of The Bestiary! Our Guest Requested Monster today is the legendary Owlbear. Tons of trivia and other fun stuff, hope you enjoy! Featuring: Jonathan Stark, Kavan Bahrami, Morgan, and our special guest Ben Fisher. Sources: Owlbear WikiDragon #214: Ecology of the Owlbear