Top 10 Unusual/Innovative Creature Actions from the Tome of Beasts 3

We’re back again with another top 10 list from the Tome of Beasts 3 by Kobold Press! Because we got an early preview of the PDF to make the Deck of Beasts 3 (432 cards with all the creatures in the book, Kickstarting now), we’ve become familiar (get it?!) with these new foes over the past few months.

And, in case you missed it, a couple days ago we did the top 10 creature traits and before that we did the top 10 coolest looking monsters both from the Tome of Beasts 3.

Quick caveats:

• These are just one guy’s opinion. 🙂
• We tried to minimize including things that are conceptually cool, but boil down to a fairly common action that is just dressed differently.

With that out of the way, here are the top 10 unusual/innovative creature actions from the Tome of Beasts 3, with comments in italics.

Beach Weird’s Create Quicksand (3/Day). The beach weird creates a 10-foot radius, 5-foot deep area of quicksand centered on a point it can see within 30 feet of it. A creature that starts its turn in the quicksand or enters the area for the first time on a turn must succeed on a DC 13 Strength saving throw or be grappled by it. A grappled creature must succeed on a DC 13 Strength saving throw at the start of each of its turns or sink 1 foot into the quicksand. A Small creature that sinks 2 feet or more or a Medium creature that sinks 3 feet or more is restrained instead. Sure you’ve got a few creatures that can make the ground around them into difficult terrain.  This is the first I’ve seen turning that idea up to 11.

Clockwork Armadillo’s Tuck In. The armadillo tucks its entire body into its shell, forming an armored ball. While an armored ball, it moves by rolling, has resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage, is immune to the prone condition, and it can’t make Scissor Claws attacks. As part of this action, the armadillo can expand its shell outward to contain one object of its size or smaller that isn’t being worn or carried and is within 5 feet of the armadillo. The armadillo can uncurl its body and release any contained item as a bonus action. Very cool, conceptually on point, and I can see something like this working for other shelled animals.

Dire Wildebeast’s Incite Stampede (1/Day). The dire wildebeest moves up to 30 feet in a straight line and can move through the space of any Medium or smaller creature. Each friendly creature within 120 feet of the dire wildebeest can use its reaction to join the stampede and move up to 30 feet in a straight line and move through the space of any Medium or smaller creature. This movement doesn’t provoke opportunity attacks…. (description truncated) I’ve seen plenty of creatures that do a charge, but this is essentially “you and what army?”–it can charge you, and bring along all its friends.

Field Lord’s Lord of Rakshasas: Burning Monkey Cloud (Recharge 5–6). Abhaddanayla conjures a cloud of quasi-real burning, screaming monkeys in a 30-foot-radius sphere centered on a point he can see within 60 feet of him. Each creature in the area must make a DC 21 Wisdom saving throw. On a failure, a creature takes 38 (11d6) fire damage and 38 (11d6) psychic damage and becomes frightened for 1 minute. On a success, a creature takes half the damage and isn’t frightened. A frightened creature can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success. Flying, flaming monkeys?  Yes, please!  We need to do this with a lord of pig creatures so we can finally say “when pigs fly.”  Yeah, it may seem too niche at first, but I can see some armored or scaled creatures have a defense that is like a fighter jet’s chaff.

Ice Golem’s Preserve Creature. The ice golem preserves a Medium or smaller creature grappled by it. The preserved creature can’t breathe and is restrained as it starts to freeze. The restrained creature must make a DC 16 Constitution saving throw at the end of its next turn. On a failure, it takes 18 (4d8) cold damage, becomes petrified in ice in the golem’s Ice Cavity, and has total cover from attacks and other effects outside the golem. If this damage reduces a creature to 0 hp, the creature automatically becomes stable…. (description truncated) OK, this one might cross the line of being too specific to this concept… it is basically a version of swallow with a turn-victim-to-ice feature added on.  But how cool/scary would it be to see your friend/ally encased in ice?  And you could make other ice creatures that do it, or something the encases the victim in metal.

Hirudine Stalke’s Spit Tooth’s Anesthetic. On a failed save, the target is unaware of any damage it takes from the hirudine stalker’s Spit Tooth attack for 1 hour, but it is still aware of other sources of damage. This is just one of a few options available on this creature’s attack, but it is a pretty interesting concept to cause a character to not quite know what happened.

Lakescourge Lotus’s Enter Reflection. The lakescourge lotus touches a body of water large enough to hold it and becomes a reflection on the surface of the water. While in this form, the lotus has immunity to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage from nonmagical attacks and resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage from magical attacks. While a reflection, its speed is reduced to 5 feet, it can’t make Tainted Claw attacks, and it can revert to its true form as a bonus action. If the lakescourge lotus takes damage that isn’t bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing while it is a reflection, it is forced back into its true form. I could see using this for a mirror creature, other water creatures or an ice creature.  Especially some fey or planar creature of those environments.

Pyrite Pile’s Eat Gold. The pyrite pile absorbs 52 (8d12) gp worth of nonmagical items and coins made of precious metals, ignoring copper, worn or carried by one creature grappled by it, and the elemental regains hp equal to half that amount. Absorbed metal is destroyed. Another “I gave the party too much gold” creature. But you could also put this creature in an encounter with a treasure pile.  The faster the PCs dispatch it, the more loot they get!

Rochade’s Relay. The rochade teleports one object it is holding that weighs no more than 10 pounds into the empty hand of one friendly creature it can see within 30 feet of it. If the target isn’t a rochade, it must succeed on a DC 14 Dexterity saving throw to catch the object, otherwise the object falls to the ground in a space within 5 feet of the target. A fun way to take an item back from the PCs… (I’m not advocating taking a prized possession from a PC arbitraily or ruining a player’s fun. But sometimes something like this can be important to a plot or if you’re taking a random/not-prized possession it is OK to do.)

Shadow Lurker’s Shadow Steal. The shadow lurker chooses a creature it can see within 30 feet of it and convinces that creature’s shadow to leave its owner… becomes a living shade… A cool way to cause the PCs some minor pain and create some new foes too!