Wonder Man S01E02 Review: Loyalty

Wonder Man, Season 1, Episode 2: Self-Tape

Another short, simple episode. After the reveal that Trevor Slattery is befriending Simon Williams not because of some fateful coincidence but was planted there by an organization, we learn the nature of Trevor. He was arrested after returning to the United States by the FBI, due to his role of being the false Mandarin in Iron Man 3 (and his subsequent unwilling breakout via Wenwu). The villain here is Agent Cleary of Damage Control fame, last seen in Ms. Marvel. Not anywhere as memorable as Trevor, but at least a known quantity and one that was shown to us in a simple enough manner. 

Agent Cleary, while a bit overzealous, tells Trevor that he could avoid jail by doing some governmental job... which is to get close to Simon Williams, a suspected dangerous metahuman, and spy on him. Hence, the recruitment for the Wonder Man movie. 

The episode then moves to the present day, where things seem to be going up for Simon -- his angry agent Janelle isn't quite happy that Simon impersonated her to get the audition in the first episode, but he did get an opportunity of doing the titular 'self-tape', which is the conflict and plot for this episode. And for the most part, the episode involves Simon trying to get into the zone of playing this character. 

His initial attempts of self-taping in his own apartment is foiled when he accidentally sees an old video of his ex Vivian helping him tape... leading to glowing eyes and the items in his apartment vibrating before causing a shockwave. So Simon does have powers at this point, and he seems to at least be somewhat aware about it. One of the audition crew in episode 1 did mention something about actors signing waivers that they don't have superpowers, so that is an interesting reason as to why Simon might be keeping things secret. 

We cut away nicely to Agent Cleary and Trevor discussing their next plans, with Cleary giving Trevor his own mission -- put a ring-hacker device on Simon's laptop. Trevor continues on with his role, going through the motions with far more grace than Agent Cleary. Love that sequence where Trevor clearly understands the importance of maintaining a cover story and takes time to believably reply to Simon, while Cleary just wants everything to be cut-and-dry, economical, soulless. Even when doing this, Trevor is still acting, in a way.

Simon wants to do the self-taping outside of his apartment, though, waylaying Trevor's spy plans, and we see them go from one point to another. A local self-tape studio had disruptive staff that can't bounce off Simon at all; while Trevor's apartment has an obnoxious noisy neighbour; and Joe Pantoliano* (as himself) ends up being condescending towards Trevor and disrespects the art of acting. While Trevor just swallows the insults -- which, honestly, knowing what we do about Trevor, Joe might even be right -- Simon is having none of it and gets angry at Joe Pantoliano. 

*While I know who Joe Pantoliano is, I only know him via his movies. I tend to not give a shit about Hollywood drama stuff, so if there's any subtleties or in-jokes about these, these would fly over my head. Unlike the as-themselves cameos in She-Hulk, though, Joe could be replaced by a-fictional-actor-played-by-Joe and the episode would have worked fine.

It's actually some nice stuff, particularly the brief speeches by Joe about how acting should be treated as a job, while Trevor is very much still seeing it as a calling. It's done particularly well with Trevor's advices to Simon, and even how he acts while interacting with Agent Cleary. And it is done excellently well by the body language and acting how much Trevor is really uncomfortable around Joe, and how he appreciates Simon standing up for him. 

They eventually do an excellent take in Simon's apartment. Which is done well, of course; a nice scene that also shows the work that goes behind the preparation of the scene.

But as Simon goes off to order pizza, Trevor does his mission. Putting his ring to hack Simon's laptop, a visibly guilty Trevor wanders around... and sees a massive destroyed wall that is a clear sign of Simon Williams's superpowers. Realizing that Agent Cleary might be right and that Simon Williams might be a metahuman, Trevor ends up with a conflicted look on his face, before handwaving it for pizza as Simon returns to the room. 

Again, the stand-alone-ness of this is a great fresh breath of air considering how every Marvel project seems to need so many tie-ins and cameos. And sure, Trevor and Agent Cleary both are characters with some history in the MCU, but the show gives us what is needed and doesn't burden us with any more that is necessary to understand the Simon and Trevor dynamic. There's a lot of nice spirit and showcase of the duality of work and passion; of the work needed even before getting onto the set of a TV/movie, and of course, just a little hint about Simon Williams's true superpowers... and amidst that, Trevor gets nicely conflicted between his loyalty to his mission (or rather, to his freedom) versus his newfound friend. 

Marvel Easter Eggs Corner:

• Trevor's history in the MCU is explored in this episode, going through archival footage from Iron Man 3, and throughout his interview, Trevor brings up how he was broken out of prison by forces out of his control (Wenwu, the real 'real' Mandarin) in the Marvel One-Shots: Hail to the King and later made into a plot point in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.
• Agent Cleary of Damage Control first appeared in Spider-Man: No Way Home, and later served as a secondary antagonist in Ms. Marvel. 

Reviewing 5E D&D Monsters - 5E Adventure Modules, Pt 3

Welcome to the third part of my coverage of Dungeons & Dragons adventure modules. This is part 3 of remastering my old non-bestiary articles, and looking through those older articles... I was definitely on the verge of burnout when writing the ones that I'm now collecting here. I think trying too hard to have something to say about every single entry -- even 'non-monster' ones -- was what really got to me, especially when I also tried to summarize the stories as well. 

Well, I do like my method of reviewing monsters in general now, which is not to be as anally chronological as possible (outside of bestiaries, of course) but just to pick and choose which monsters to talk about. As always with all of my D&D adventure module coverage, I'm not talking about any bosses or named characters, or 'dude with a job' NPC enemies. I will also not mention any monster variants unless I actually have something interesting to say about it.

This is a combination of several of my reviews, covering the Ghosts of Saltmarsh book, themed around marine adventures; as well as two adventure modules: Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus and Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden. Icewind Dale was my last D&D review in 2021 before I took a long hiatus -- and you could really feel my burnout on the original version of that article; so it's a particularly nice moment for me to sit down and have a do-over on those monsters. 

• Click here for the previous part.
• Click here for the next part.
• Click here for the index.

[Ghosts of Saltmarsh, Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus originally reviewed in April 2021; Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden originally reviewed in June 2021; reviewed in June 2026]

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Amphisbaena

• Medium Monstrosity; Unaligned; CR 1/2
• Debut: Ghosts of Saltmarsh (2019)

The Amphisbaena did not receive new 5E artwork, but we do have some art from previous editions. I actually do like the Amphisbaena quite a lot! The mythological Amphisbaena is a Greek mythological monster, a two-headed snake born out of the blood of Medusa. One head is where the snake's tail should be. 

The real-life myth actually has a little detail that D&D gloriously adapts faithfully into its description. How does the Amphisbaena move? If you think it moves like a regular snake, you're wrong. Amphisbaena "uses one head to grip the neck of its other head, forming a hoop that rolls over the ground". Such a whimsical image! I love it. In combat, though, the Amphisbaena is functionally just a venomous snake with two heads, giving it some extra advantages against being surprised or the like. But it's the thought that counts, not all monsters have to be elaborate, and some can just be a weird two-headed snake. 

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Drowned Ones

• Medium Undead; Chaotic Evil; CR 3 (Ascetic), 4 (Assassin), 2 (Blade), 9 (Master)
• Debut: Ghosts of Saltmarsh (2019)

Volo's Guide to Monsters gave us several 'humanoids transformed into the horrors of the ocean' creatures like the Sea Spawn and the Deep Scion, which feature differing degrees of corruption by deep-sea horrors like Aboleths and Krakens. Ghosts of Saltmarsh gives us several variants of 'Drowned Ones', which are undead-flavoured instead. The artwork we have is only for the 'Assassin' variant, which shows off a thin, pale-skinned corpse with his flesh torn apart and flaking off, and a mass of barnacles having grown out of his upper body. 

They are all undead monsters bound to a certain plot device in one of the adventures (and the 'Master' variant has his body warped into a part-octopus creature) but despite being undead, these Drowned Ones actually move very quickly and with the skill of their previous occupations. They also spread a necrotic disease called Bluerot, which causes blue blisters and boils to grow on those it infects but also gives them the ability to breathe underwater. 

I do really like the art for the Drowned One, which is why it's here. Ghosts of Saltmarsh otherwise features a lot of other variations on existing monsters that I don't cover here. A lot of Sahuagin, and the 'Juvenile Kraken' which I covered in the regular Kraken entry when I went through the Monster Manual. 

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Koalinth

• Medium Humanoid (Goblinoid); Lawful Evil; CR 1/2 (regular), 2 (Sergeant)
• Debut: Ghosts of Saltmarsh (2019)

The Koalinth debuts as early as the first edition of Dungeons & Dragons, appearing even in the first-ever Monster Manual. Older materials really are just happy at making underwater variants of a lot of the basic monsters, and the Koalinth is an underwater version of the Hobgoblin. There's not much thought put into the Koalinth beyond that. The Hobgoblins really didn't have much of an identity that separates them from being another Orc-like race until very recently either, making the Koalinth just kind of... there, without a real niche that couldn't be filled by more iconic or recognizable Sahuagin or any number of aquatic humanoids. 

Its 5th Edition adaptation doesn't really give the Koalinth much lore either -- just noting that they are trained martially like land-borne Hobgoblins. We do get a pretty sick redesign. It isn't really derivative of the 5E Hobgoblin artwork, but I do appreciate it a lot more because of it. The two artwork given for the Koalinth and Koalinth Sergeant shows off how they have scales all over their body, and make use of coral and sea-life for armour and weapons. They're not quite fish-people like the Sahuagin or Triton, but have a vibe of something more similar to the Creature of the Black Lagoon. It's not the most notable design and I wished we got a bit more lore about them, but it's nice to give them a visual identity at least instead of reducing them as a footnote. 

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Locathah

• Medium Humanoid (Locathah); Neutral; CR 1/2 (regular), 2 (Hunter)
• Debut: Ghosts of Saltmarsh (2019)

Speaking of fish-people, this is a redesign that I am very happy for. The Locathah also debuted in the very first Monster Manual as a race of 'fish-men', and are just... human with fish heads and webbed fins. This is more or less the same concept given to Kuo-toa, Sahuagin, and a host of other fish-men adjacent races that have debuted in D&D over the years. The same problem also arises a bit with Frog/Toad-men which I've mentioned elsewhere. 

The Locathah end up simply being less-interesting versions of the Sahuagin (which were the archetypal raiders) and the Kuo-toa (which had insanity as a central theme)... but the Merfolk, Sea Elves and Triton all jostle for the role of being the friendly aquatic humanoids that adventurers are likely to interact with. The Locathah are just... there in comparison. They also made it into the first bestiaries for 2E and 3E, but I genuinely keep forgetting that they did. 

Their lore notes how they are nomadic, non-aggressive, and have a hunter-gatherer society. They also don't do well outside of the water. That's more or less the thoroughline across the three bestiary entries from 1E through 3E that I can find. And overall, the Locathah feel like they are a nice little flavour addition, but one that just doesn't fill a niche. And sometimes variety is nice for variety's sake, but there's just something so limiting about underwater settings that making an underwater species that barely has a reason to interact is a bit odd. 

Note that while 3E gave us a very badass redesign for the Locathah with a lionfish/anglerfish head and a more aggressive stance, the lore still notes about their nominally non-aggressive behaviour. And I think when they were looking at the classic monsters in D&D and trying to adapt them to 5th Edition, they realized that there needed to be a bit of a change to make the Locathah's visuals match their flavour. (And perhaps, also realizing that making the Locathah into scary fish-men is just really making them easy to confuse with Sahuagin and Kuo-toa). 

And so, 5th Edition gave us cute Locathah. The Locathah are reinvented in 5th Edition as being cute little waddling fish-folk with a body that is really just an upright portly catfish, with fin-feet and two skinny human hands growing out of its torso. The cuteness of the Locathah's design notwithstanding, it really does make the visual identity instantly distinct from the many other fish-man races in Dungeons & Dragons.

Locathah in 5E keep a lot of their traditional lore from 1E through 3E, noting that they are nomadic hunter-gatherers that live in tribal communities, enduring much conflict and mistreatment at the hands of more powerful aquatic creatures. The Locathah was made playable as well, and they are noted to have 'limited amphibiousness', needing to be submerged once every four hours. It's a playable aquatic race that's a lot more limiting than the Triton or Water Genasi or Sea Elf, to be fair, but a cute one to be used in aquatic settings. I, for one, am happy that the Locathah got a bit more of a spotlight and got a bit more prominence than they had before. 

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Skum

• Medium Aberration; Lawful Evil; CR 5
• Debut: Ghosts of Saltmarsh (2019)

The Skum were first introduced in 2nd Edition as a 'slave race' created by the Aboleth, and have appeared in various forms in minor supplements all throughout the history of the franchise. They didn't have much of a distinctive visual identity that separates them from other fish-men, though, either having a basic 'fish with limbs' body shape or just a slightly mutated human. I do think that the Ghosts of Saltmarsh design team really realized this, so they went full body horror in making the Skum look wretched. 

The silhouette is almost simple, just a 'octopus merman'. And indeed, the 5E Skum still has a torso and human arms, and the legs have degenerated into four tentacles. Simple enough. But the head is where it's the coolest, where you see the head slowly melding into the shoulders, with gills appearing. You also see a mass of orifices on the very smooth skull -- both remnants of the humanoid skull, but also three vertically-arranged eyes that correspond to the eyes of its Aboleth master. 

I do like the visuals of the Skum a fair bit, and the wretchedness makes it feel a lot more pitiable than just a simple 'fish man' like the Kuo-toa or Locathah or even the more impressive-looking Deep Scion. The Skum was once human (or elf, or orc) but clearly is in the stages of being morphed into something that's not. Being connected as such to the Aboleth, the Skum is able to transfer it's master's psychic abilities. Being transformed as such to the Aboleth, however, the Skum is a lot less free, needing to be submerged in the Aboleth's briny pool or it will start convulsing and sprout potentially lethal skin eruptions. 

I am not sure what the Skum is meant to transform into, or if the designers really wanted them to transform into anything, but having the Skum eventually morph to more powerful aberration minions like a completely enslaved Chuul or something is an interesting showcase. 

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Abyssal Chicken

• Tiny Fiend (Demon); Chaotic Evil; CR 1/4
• Debut: Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus (2019)

We go from the nautical madness of Ghosts of Saltmarsh to a hell (or, well, Avernus) themed campaign. Released to tie in to the quintessential D&D video game Baldur's Gate 3 is a setting that takes place beyond the titular Baldur's Gate and all the way into the Nine Hells itself. And while a lot of the campaign's monsters involved cultists and named demons, we've got some fun little additions... like the Abyssal Chickens!

Abyssal Chickens are demons, and are temperamental bottom-feeders that run around and act like, well, chicken. They are meant to be a funny flavour critter in the background, and the book even recommends allowing players to use an Abyssal Chicken as a familiar. The design is... all right, having an eyeless Doom-demon head on a body with two chicken legs, and what looks like a weird horn-spike. It's not until you look at the concept art that you realize that those horn-spikes are meant to split apart and become wings, at which point the design actually feels a lot cooler. Look at the Abyssal Chicken in flight, with its claws retracted up and ready to tear at an enemy's face! I love this demonic biology. It's a really nice attempt by the designers at making a demon with the vibes of a chicken instead of just drawing a regular chicken with horns and black feathers. 

The book also confirms that Abyssal Chickens are regrettably 'poor fliers'... but so are real chickens, and I've seen them do impressive distances considering their body shape. Because they are demons, Abyssal Chickens apparently 'hatch', fully-grown, from meat-trees in hell. Sure! I love it. I love it when they try to make little aspects to make hell so much weirder. 

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Hellwasp

• Large Fiend; Lawful Evil; CR 5
• Debut: Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus (2019)

My original review for the Hellwasp confused it a reinvention of the Advespa, which is a wasp devil. The Hellwasp actually have shown up in 4th Edition first, as something that resembles a Digimon wasp, being a humanoid wasp monster with Giger vibes. 5E's redesign actually goes for something a bit more mundane, and I must say that I actually like the original 4th Edition design a fair bit better as a denizen of the Lower Planes. The 5E design is a very cool monster wasp, for sure, with the bristles and the beautifully menacing colours and those wings, but the 4E one looks more like a denizen of the Nine Hells. Comparing it to the Abyssal Chicken above, this one just looks a bit too mundane. Say that it's an obscure prehistoric wasp from real life, and I would actually believe you! 

The Hellwasp is also large, meaning that it's at least the size of a horse and can get to the size of a small dinosaur. These Hellwasps don't just inject poison with their sting. A Hellwasp's injection has the paralytic venom that you'd expect from a giant monster wasp, but also a chemical 'like alchemist's fire'. Which just sounds painful! Hellwasps will then carry their half-burnt, paralyzed victims away to their nest. Their nests are created from their bile, which are enormous and filled with chambers and passageways. I'm a bit disappointed, then, that we just have the single Hellwasp stat-block and not a bunch more to lead to a little mini-dungeon in Avernus!

They are only found in the fiery parts of the Nine Hells, and are vulnerable to the cold -- which causes their shells to crack and their metabolisms to slow down. A strangely biological weakness to a bunch of devil-wasps! This causes them to avoid the lower layers of the Nine Hells, which are deathly cold. ____________________________________________________

Hollyphant

• Small Celestial; Lawful Good; CR 5
• Debut: Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus (2019)

Oh look it's another cute little mascot friend! Just like the Tressym before it, the Hollyphant is the latest in adorable mascot friends. Previous incarnations of the Hollyphants have been just elephants with angel wings, until 3E made the idea of making them small, chibi and golden. 5E stuck around, and made the wings pair up with feathery ears. They just look so adorable now! Holy baby elephants!

Hollyphants are found from the Upper Planes, and work alongside angels and good-aligned deities as messengers and helpers. This is what I think of when older editions would talk about 'Celestial Animals' as familiars or aids, and not just a glowing dog. There needs to be something slightly different from them beyond just having them glow!

The Hollyphant is noted to be kind but also a bastion of justice, not willing to have evil acts go unpunished. They fight by unleashing powerful trumpet blasts from their trunks that deafen creatures, or engulf evildoers in radiant sparkles of positive energies. In addition to trumpeting (which seems to be a nice subtle nod to the trumpet angels from the Bible), Hollyphants have a rather impressive list of Cleric spells. One of these spells is Shapechange, but specifically only to a feathered mammoth -- which seems to be an actual nod to their original 1E/2E incarnations. I like that! I like that a lot, when the creature's original designs are changed but not retconned completely. 

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Madcap

• Small Fey; Chaotic Evil; CR 3 
• Debut: Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus (2019)

And our final creature is a variant of the Redcap from Volo's Guide to Monsters called the Madcap. Love the art for this one, its cap just covers the upper half of his head. Or maybe it's merged with it? Those eyes don't look like they're poking out of eye-holes. The Madcap looks more feral, has a reversed sickle, and has blades in his iron boots. Madcaps are born of demon blood instead of regular murderer blood, and are therefore more psychotic. 

It's just a perfect name as well, since 'Madcap' actually means something! The Madcap doesn't actually get much lore beyond that, but I like the little expansion to a previous monster type. 

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Thessalhydra & Thessalkraken

• Huge Monstrosity; Unaligned; CR 4 (Thessalhydra)
• Gargantuan Monstrosity (Titan); Chaotic Evil; CR 14 (Thessalkraken)
• Debut: Infernal Machine Rebuild (2019)

The term "Thessalhydra" became super-popular among the D&D community thanks to Stranger Things deciding to name-drop it in its second (?) season. But unlike other D&D terms that Stranger Things have name-dropped like the Demogorgon, the Mind Flayer and Vecna, the Thessalhydra is a lot more obscure. 

The Thessalhydra is actually a reference and a creation of a mage from 1E's Greyhawk setting, called Thessalar, who experimented with monsters including the Hydra. The Thessalhydra, thusly, is a variation of the hydra with a massive maw surrounded by a bunch of snake-heads. Thanks to the popularity of Stranger Things, a Thessalar-themed tie-in campaign was made, although we only get 'in-universe' art drawn by the Stranger Things cast. A stronger monster, the Thessalkraken, was also described although it doesn't get art. 

I do like the little nod, and find it cute that such an obscure monster ended up getting called out in a very mainstream TV show. Even among D&D monsters, this thing isn't exactly well-known! But here we go. The Thessalhydra is a hideous creature with a maw that drips with acid, and has a tail with sharp pincers. They can regenerate sliced-off heads, although not to the speed that regular Hydras can. Pretty neat monster. Not my favourite, since it's ultimately 'just' a gimmick monster without much description about its ecology, but considering that it was made by a mad scientist as a bioweapon, I can forgive that. 

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Neo-Otyugh

• Huge Aberration; Neutral; CR 7
• Debut: Infernal Machine Rebuild (2019) 

Reusing the 4E artwork for the Otyugh, the module 'Infernal Machine Rebuild' describes the more powerful Neo-Otyugh. The Neo-Otyugh was described in the original 1st Edition Monster Manual as a variation of the regular Otyugh, noted to be rarer, more intelligent and less trusting. 

In their original depiction, the Neo-Otyugh was noted to be distinguished by their smaller mouths, but other than the intelligence and aggression, are essentially just stronger Otyugh. Neo-Otyughs in 5E can also cast minor spells (flavoured as psychic abilities, I think) which makes for a more interesting take on it. There is admittedly not much to say about them, but I am happy to see this obscure little variant get acknowledged. 

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Brain in a Jar

• Medium Undead; Any Alignment; CR 6
• Debut: Infernal Machine Rebuild (2019)

Debuting in 5E in 'Infernal Machine Rebuild', a little bonus that tied in to the Baldur's Gate book, the Brain in a Jar monster would be reprinted in several other subsequent D&D sourcebooks like the Icewind Dale book we'll cover in this same article. It's a pretty typical sci-fi trope, having the brain of an evil scientist survive suspended in a jar... essentially a type of undeath. And it also just happens to 'feel' fantasy enough even before acknowledging the fact that there's a whole species of iconic D&D monsters all about separating brains and consuming them. Moreso than the Spelljammer stuff, this feels like the perfect intersection of fantasy and sci-fi. 

A Brain-in-a-Jar is created through 'an eldritch ritual combining alchemy, necromancy and grim surgical precision', and is held suspended in a fluid that is a combination of preserving fluids (formaldehyde, then) and the liquified goop of their flesh. This process somehow makes the brain immortal... but also gives it psionic powers. The jar can theoretically be anything secure, so you could have a Brain-in-a-Jar stuck in like, an aquarium or a beer tankard, but all the artwork D&D has officially published puts them in fancy gothic or Giger-esque vessels. 

A Brain-in-a-Jar needs to have psionic spellcasting abilities, of course, otherwise it's just a piece of meat in a jar of smelly fluid that any cat can tip over. They can cast a range of spells; most of them being those that affect emotions or unleash psychic blasts, but also Chill Touch (which, despite its name, is a ranged spell) for some reason. 

I love the description of how a Brain-in-a-Jar loves to hear its voice and enjoys conversation so much that it just talks and talks with no end, even when it is alone. It's also more prone to mental illnesses, due to being separated from the body. Okay. It's a fun little creature for sure, a nice little trope from fiction translated well into D&D.  

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Chardalyn Dragon

• Huge Construct; Chaotic Evil; CR 11
• Debut: Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden (2020)

A 'Chardalyn' is a rare, glass or obsidian-like substance native to the setting of Icewind Dale which can absorb spells and store them for later use. While normally very rare, some enterprising people in the Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden adventure have harvested enough chardalyn to create a full-on artificial dragon out of it. The artwork is pretty neat, showing us a 'knight dragon' made almost entirely out of armour plates. Love that knight-visor mouth as well. The only parts of the Chardalyn Dragon not made of the substance are its wing flaps (which are a special oily film) and its heart, which is an orb of pulsating radiant energy. This energy is translated into this artificial dragon's breath, which is a radiant blast from its grill-like maw.

The Chardalyn Dragon, despite being a construct, is also fully sentient. They are suffused with demonic magic and are sentient enough to enjoy the terror that it unleashes. This malevolent aura infects those around the dragon, causing those that are close enough to the dragon to be taken with violent impulses that cause the afflicted to attack other people around them. 

The Chardalyn Dragons are intelligent enough to enjoy terror, but is otherwise subservient to the villain that created it (I haven't read the book beyond its bestiary, so I have no idea). The idea of an artificial draconic construct isn't anything too special, but the combination of a setting-relevant plot and the rather cool-looking knight face does make this one look cool. I do like that we don't just get another set of four wyrmling/young/adult/ancient statblock for another variant of a dragon just because. 

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Coldlight Walker

• Medium Undead; Chaotic Evil; CR 5
• Debut: Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden (2020)

A type of undead found in Icewind Dale are the Coldlight Walkers. These are created from humanoids that die from extreme cold, but their spirits remain and 'burn with frigid fury at the meaninglessness of life'. Thematically this makes them somewhat similar to some undead like Ghosts and Banshees, whose deaths inform what they transform into, but the Coldlight Walkers are corporeal. Their frost-bitten bodies are animated and emits an unholy light that mortal eyes can't look at. This results in a rather cool visual of torn-apart rags with creepy light shining through them. 

That alone is cool (heh) enough, but an additional line notes that Coldlight Walkers are specifically created by the gods of winter to serve as embodiments of winter's wrath, denying their souls passage to the afterlife. Don't think that bit of god tie-in is particularly necessary, but sure, why not? 

In addition to its blinding light and some cold attacks, the Coldlight Walker's icy touch causes anyone killed by it to freeze over and can't be thawed out or resurrected... but only for nine days. That seems like a bit of a cruel joke, where they can actually be saved if the party waited for a bit more than a week. The Coldlight Walker itself can't ever be raised from the dead, and when it dies the light goes out, leaving behind a frozen, inanimate corpse. They're creepy. I like them.  

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Goliath

• Medium Humanoid; Any Alignment; CR 3 (Goliath Warrior), 8 (Goliath Werebear)
• Debut (as enemies): Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden (2020)

The Goliaths technically debuted as a playable race much earlier in Volo's Guide to Monsters, and was catapulted into being so popular that the 2024 Player's Handbook would promote them into being a core playable race instead of an 'exotic' one. And I can probably say that a good chunk of this is because of Critical Role's Grog Strongjaw, who embodies the big dumb ragemonster barbarian amazingly well. 

What are Goliaths, though? Some older editions -- and many newer books -- refer to them as 'Half-Giants' or 'Giant-kin', and this seems to be the main hook they are going for. They are large, muscular humans with chalk-white skin and lots of tattoos. Very cool-looking, and their culture is all about strength and competition. They're not necessarily as warmongering as you'd expect, but they don't do anything by halves and this includes combat. There's really not much to say, a chalky-white bald barbarian with muscles, huge weapons and badass tattoos is just so cool. 

While not quite as prominent in their original 5th Edition incarnation (and indeed previous editions), newer takes on the playable Goliath give them the option of channeling the magics of one of the six giants of the Ordning, allowing players and DMs to customize their Goliaths and grant them elemental powers and whatnot. I think I've spoken on how done I am with variations of the Hill-Stone-Frost-Fire-Cloud-Storm Giants after Glory of the Giants, but in this case I find it makes perfect sense and gives the Goliath something to do after you've done the 'big proud warrior race' thing. 

Icewind Dale also gives us a group of Goliath Werebears, who were cursed (actually, blessed) by a Goliath demigod who allows Goliaths to challenge her to a fight, and if they prove their mettle, will be granted the power to shift into a Werebear. That's neat, but very setting-specific.

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Ice Troll

• Large Giant; Chaotic Evil; CR 8
• Debut: Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden (2020)

Ice Trolls have shown up in a lot of myths in the real world, often conflated with 'frost giants'. I really like the idea of Ice Trolls, which is definitely because of how traumatized I am by the versions I saw in Skyrim. The 5th Edition artwork for the Ice Troll is nicely distinctive from the regular green Trolls that show up in a lot of 5E material. I like the long arms and claws, and the very children's storybook-like 'goblin face' that the Ice Troll has. 

An Ice Troll is basically a troll with extra ice powers, as you'd expect from their name. Their bites and claws deal cold damage, and they still have the regular troll's regeneration ability. The Ice Troll's Heart is a particular thing that is of interest, because it's the source of an aura of extreme cold that harms creatures around the Ice Troll. And after the Ice Troll's death, this heart can be removed and used for magical rituals -- consuming it grants temporary troll regeneration, burying it in the ground summons a blizzard, and it can be used to create talismans and potions as well. 

I'd like to know more about the actual Ice Troll instead of its heart, admittedly, but otherwise a pretty neat little monster variant to fit the iciness of Icewind Dale. 

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Knucklehead Trout

• Small Beast; Unaligned; CR 0
• Debut: Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden (2020)

Icewind Dale features around a half-dozen new polar animals that was part of what burnt me out when I first reviewed the book the first time (we've got seal, walrus, foes, snow-hares, mountain goats and sperm whales, for the record). I took them all out... except for the fictional Knucklehead Trout. It's an angry blood-red trout with the face of a pissed-off whale, and a head that is hardened like a pachycephalosaur. They knock fisherman off their boats, at which point they fall into freezing water and they die! What jerks! I like these guys. They're almost like some of the more mundane Pokemon. 

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Magen

• Medium Construct; Unaligned; CR 2 (Demos), 3 (Galvan), 1 (Hypnos)
• Debut: Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden (2020)

We've got a group of beings called Magen, who are humanoids created by wizards through arcane methods. They have greenish-blue screen, their blood is silver-mercury, and they are classified as construct. When they die, they explode in harmless fire. They are basically more advanced and more sentient homonculi with a distinctive look, reminding me of Elden Ring's Albinaurics and Magic: The Gathering's Vedalken. 

Three variants are described in Icewind Dale: the Demos Magen are warriors with armour and weapons, the Galvan Magen can fly and launch lightning bolts, and the Hypnos Magen are telepathic and can use magic to control weak-willed enemies. All Magen are innately resistant to magic, and as constructs don't need to eat or sleep.

These sorts of artificial humanoids are never quite 'my thing', but they're all right. I do wish that there was a bit more to them beyond just being artificial humans, but I appreciate them for what they are.

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Mind Flayers

• Small Aberration; Unaligned; CR 5 (Gnome Ceremorph), 1/2 (Gnome Squidling)
• Debut: Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden (2020)

There are some more 'variant' monsters like the excellent Vampiric Kobold, but all I tend to say about them is 'cool'. If I can't say more than three sentences for a monster variant, I cut them out. But the two gnome Mind Flayers need to be here. They are so adorable. A lot of people do complain about 5th Edition for embracing the sillier aspects of D&D, and I think they are right mostly because 5E also censored a lot of the gorier and monstrous creatures from previous editions. I want monsters to come from both sides of the spectrum! But the cute ones are really cute. 

A Mind Flayer normally does ceremorphosis with medium-sized creatures, so humans, elves, orcs and the like. But 5th Edition gives us some new lore that ceremorphosis goes particularly awry in gnomes, either due to the quasi-magical nature of the gnomes or just how plain weird their brains are. The resulting Mind Flayer is gnome-sized and is known as a Gnome Ceremorph. Look at him with his cute squiddy tentacles and his cute little dark sith robes and his cute little ray needle gun. Look at the baby space invader, look at him. That is a laser pistol, by the way, created by a combination of a Mind Flayer's alien nature and the remnants of gnomish curiousity and ingenuity.

The gnome ceremorphosis sometimes goes wrong, and the result is a Gnome Squidling. The arms and legs are deformed, but all that muscle goes to the face tentacles, that move around to propel the gnome around like legs. The image is cute, a tiny baby body suspended by a massive pair of what's essentially a mustache. The Squidling, unlike the Gnome Ceremorph, is considered an abomination by Mind Flayers and are destroyed on sight. No!!!

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Snow Golem

• Medium Construct; Unaligned; CR 3
• Debut: Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden (2020)

I am slightly disappointed that none of the Snow Golem's depictions have been a straight-up snowman, comical or monstrous or otherwise. I guess they can't all be comedic. The Snow Golem in 5E is a lumpy humanoid with a very disturbing crooked grin on that glob-like head. Why does it have a mouth? Why does it have teeth? Most golems in D&D have been consistently depicted as mindless, soulless automata. A grin implies emotion, implies malice. Why are you grinning, Snow Golem? 

I like the lumpy Snow Golem a lot more than the 'suit of armour carved out of snow' incarnations of previous editions. Not a whole lot to otherwise say, the Snow Golem has all the golem properties, but with a vulnerability to flame. It also throws snowballs, which of course it does.

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Tomb Tapper (Thaluud)

• Huge Construct; Lawful Neutral; CR 10
• Debut: Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden (2020)

I reviewed the Thaluud all the way back in 2020 when Icewind Dale came out, but it never really became memorable until it was featured and described in gory detail by Matthew Mercer in the later episodes of Critical Role's third campaign. Something in the description of the Tomb Tapper made me think 'I've seen this creature before in a bestiary', and lo and behold, the Tomb Tapper has appeared in every single edition of D&D. It's concept is kind of admittedly goofy. A giant faceless rock-man, with a mouth in his belly, holding a hammer? That's silly. But this is where the art evolution to 'grimdark' in 3E onwards works for some monsters. The Thaluud looks the best in the fifth edition artwork solely thanks to the glorious detail given to where the face would be, which looks either melted or like an executioner's hood. 

The Tomb Tappers are created by ancient magicians, fused from magic and elemental earth, and these Tomb Tappers just move around with a desire to hunt down spellcasters and magic -- sparing only humans in the Forgotten Realms setting. They are strange beings that consume rocks with their belly-mouth, or extracting nutrition from the blood of the humanoids they prey on. They also absorb water through their skin, and have an ability to burrow. They communicate with each other by vibrating their skin, which is all sorts of weird.

In the Forgotten Realms setting, the Netherese Empire send the Tomb Tappers to the Underdark to exterminate their enemies, hunting magic-using foes such as the Phaerimm (which wouldn't make their debut in 5E until a fair bit later) and other magic or psionic-wielding races. Tomb Tappers delve into caves and tombs, slaughtering non-human magic users and stealing magical items. Their original purpose apparently long forgotten, they now acquire magical items to protect and venerate.

As Critical Role proved, the Tomb Tappers work well with the Netherese Empire branding removed as these strange, unnatural anti-magic living weapons left behind by ancient kingdoms for a strange reason. There's just something creepy about the combination of this thing's immense size, the facelessness, and the fact that it just goes around dragging a hammer. I've definitely grown to appreciate the Tomb Tappers a lot more! 

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Verbeeg

• Large Giant; Neutral; CR 5 (Longstrider), 4 (Marauder)
• Debut: Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden (2020)

In contrast, I've not really cared for the Verbeeg, other than an eyeroll about that name. Verbeeg, very big... get it, get it? I make no secret that I find the endless variations of giants to be tiresome and barely different, something that the fiends and even dragons at least tend to have a hook for. Verbeeg are... oversized humans with longer limbs and 'elongated faces'. Sure. They throw spears well? They live like brigands and bandits, but some are druids? The Verbeeg sometimes act as the 'brains' of a gang of ogres or hill giants, but none of the artworks of the Verbeeg in any editions really make me feel like they are necessary to be distinguished all that much. 

The idea of a 'giant that's actually smart' is basically all the other giants of the Ordning, so the Verbeeg isn't really treading into any new territory here other than having human-toned flesh instead of the icy-pale skin of the Frost Giants or the Ganondorf cosplay of the Fire Giants. 'Bandit Giants' isn't even something that you can't already do with Hill Giants or Ogres. With how they've reinvented the Firbolg for the 5th Edition, the Verbeeg could have had something interesting, but they're just a bunch of tall assholes.

It's really weird because as Glory of the Giants have shown, you can really do a fair amount of stuff with giantkin, and the 5E design team really love their giants, but it's really odd that they chose to adapt the Verbeeg and not do anything about it to make it interesting.