Top Unusual/Interesting Creature Reactions from the Tome of Beasts 3

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Queen of Mammoths
The Queen of Mammoths has one of the best reactions in the book. Creature art (c) 2022 Kobold Press.

We’re continuing our countdown of cool/unusual/interesting things from the Tome of Beasts 3.  Because we are making the Deck of Beasts 3 (all the creatures from the book on 432 cards), Kickstarting now, we’ve had access to the creatures for a couple months already. In case you missed them, here are a few other articles in this series:

And a couple quick caveats:

  • These are all just one person’s opinion.  Your game group’s style might make some of these moot, or may mean others are better for you.
  • We tried to minimize including things that are conceptually cool, but boil down to a fairly common thing that is just dressed differently.

So here are the top reactions from the book with comments in italics:

Animal Lord, Queen of Mammoth’s Catch Weapon. When the Queen of Mammoths is hit by a melee weapon attack, she can reduce the damage by 1d10 + 17. If this reduces the damage to 0, the queen can catch the weapon with her trunk if she is not using it to grapple a creature. If the Queen of Mammoths catches a weapon in this way, she must make a Strength (Athletics) check contested by the attacker’s Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics) check (the target chooses the ability to use). The queen has disadvantage on the check if the wielder is holding the item with two or more hands. If she wins, she disarms the creature and can throw the weapon up to 60 feet in a random direction as part of the same reaction. A simple idea, but needed a long explanation.

Archon, Ursan’s Rallying Roar. When the ursan archon reduces a creature to 0 hp, it can utter a triumphant roar. Each friendly creature within 60 feet of the archon that is frightened, paralyzed, stunned, or unconscious has advantage on its next saving throw. A friendly creature without those conditions has advantage on its next attack roll. In addition, each friendly creature within 60 feet of the archon that can hear the roar gains 14 (4d6) temporary hp.  Some creatures give an inspiration bonus with a similar trigger, but these are a lot of benefits that can totally recharge all the Archon’s allies.

Astralsupial’s Playing Dead. When the astralsupial is reduced to 10 hp or less, it feigns death in hopes of deceiving its attackers. A creature that sees the astralsupial in this state can determine it is a ruse with a uccessful DC 15 Wisdom (Medicine) check. This ruse lasts until the astralsupial ends it (no action required), up to 8 hours. The first attack it makes within 1 round of ending the ruse has advantage.  If I were ever in actual combat, this would be my strategy.

Demon, Vetala’s Corpse Detonation. When an Undead under the vetala’a control is reduced to 0 hp, the vetala can force it to explode. Each creature that isn’t an Undead or the vetala within 5 feet of the exploding Undead must make a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw, taking 10 (3d6) bludgeoning (if zombie) or slashing (if skeleton) damage and 5 (2d4) poison damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. Sure plenty of creatures explode when they die, causing others to explode is something new!

Kobold, Empyrean’s Draconic Ascension. When a kobold it can see is reduced to 0 hp, the empyrean kobold can reincarnate the kobold as a wyrmling dragon of a type befitting that kobold and its virtues. The empyrean kobold can provide ascension to up to two kobolds each hour with this reaction. Pretty powerful, but if this is his thing and part of your plot/setting, pretty fun to pull on your players!

Kobold, Leviathan Hunter’s Grappled Redirect. If the leviathan hunter is the target of an attack it
can see while grappling a creature, it can hold the grappled creature in the way, and the grappled creature becomes the target of the attack instead.

Ley Wanderer’s Absorb Spell. When a creature the ley wanderer can see within 30 feet of it casts a spell, the ley wanderer can absorb the spell’s energy, countering it. This works like the counterspell spell, except the ley wanderer must always make a spellcasting ability check, no matter the spell’s level. Its ability check for this is +7. If it successfully counters the spell, the ley wanderer gains 5 temporary hp for each level of the spell.  I love spellcasters, but I also love special actions that mess with them.

Ogre, Black Sun’s Gauntleted Backhand. When a creature within 5 feet of the Black Sun ogre misses the ogre with a melee attack, the attacker must succeed on a DC 16 Dexterity saving throw or be knocked prone.  It is pretty cool that this guy can do something because you miss and then are likely out of position or don’t have the correct defensive stance–so he gets to make an attack.