We're taking a bit more time with Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes, huh? Blame the fiends for that, I suppose, but with Volo's Guide to Monsters, a significant part of the book is just fleshing out classic monsters we already know, whereas almost everything in Mordenkainen's is a new critter for 5th Edition.Additionally, I finally finished up actually reading the final parts of the first half of Mordenkainen's, with all its talk about elves and dwarves, which are pretty neat but too detail-oriented (I'd rather have that instead of a lack of detail, so no complaining there); Gith (which I still don't really care about... I don't think this changes a lot of the information I know about them from my 4E days) and Halflings (which I'm surprised they got a fair amount of mileage out of). For the most part, a lot of the lore segments either details the fiends and the hierarchy of the Abyss and the Nine Hells, or just describe the general culture of elves, dwarves, gith and halflings. A wee bit too much focus on detailing the gods and origin of the elves, but, again, I'd rather have more details than not enough.
Most of the contents of Mordenkainen's, other than the detailed specifics of the five big races they talk about, really is mostly just minutiae spelling out the proper details of these races that the Player's Handbook and DM Guide doesn't go into... and the fact that I have already known a significant chunk of this from 4E and 3.5E might be why this wasn't quite as interesting of a read as Volo's. We also do spend a fair amount of time talking about new sub-race variants as playable characters, although most of them are also detailed in the monsters segment, and the ones that we haven't covered, like the Sea Elves, don't really get any real meaningful lore for me to talk about, or are just not too different lore-wise like the Tiefling variants.
What next? I don't think I care all that much about reviewing race variants or class variants, since it'll be monotonous, so I'll be skipping over the next 'core' sourcebook, Xanathar's Guide to Everything, which is more of an expansion pack to the DM and Player's Handbooks. I'll do the shorter Mordenkainen's Fiend Folio next, and then I am sort of deliberating on whether I'll talk about the adventure modules (in order, I guess?) or do one-offs like the 4E Monster Manual or the 1E Fiend Folio or something.
Anyway, here goes the rest of the book after we leave the fiends behind!
- Click here for the previous part of Mordenkainen's, covering Devils and Yugoloths.
- Click here for the next 5E book, Mordenkainen's Fiend Folio.
- Click here for the index.
Oblex
The Oblex is one of the completely original 5th Edition monsters, and the Oblex is a form of super-slime monsters created by the mind flayers. The Oblex is a slime that's capable of assaulting the minds of other creatures instead of just dissolving their flesh, and the Oblex apparently are a bit more cunning than your average slime, stalking prey and searching for memories, feeding on the thoughts of their prey and then taking aspects of the fed thoughts. It's like you took a Mind Flayer, an ooze and a doppelganger and threw them all into a blender. Upon obtaining memories and killing their victims, though, Oblexes can form copies of their prey, which allow them to harvest even more victims for the Mind Flayers. Similarly to Mind Flayers, Oblexes love the taste of a smart mind, and they gun down wizards in a party first and foremost. Of course, when an Oblex wants to feed on physical fare, it is also capable of doing so, but it's the mind that's the main plunder of an Oblex.When they eat a mind, though, the Oblex starts to gain traits of the drained mind's personality, although, obviously, twisted by the Oblex's own hideousness. Apparently the more memories that an Oblex Spawn eats, the larger it becomes and it has to shed the personality it absorbs else it goes insane. And this act of shedding a personality creates a brand new Oblex Spawn. Adult and Elder Oblexes, pictured on the right, are able to create duplicates of the creatures they have devoured, sending them out as what amounts to an anglerfish's lure, getting more victims into the main Oblex body. The fake person is always tethered to the primary Oblex body with a tendrils of slime, but they could very well be pretending to be, like, a victim being trapped by a lowly ooze monster, y'know? The mass of screaming faces within the primary slime body is also a very cool visual. Overall, an appropriately creative and nightmarish creature, I love this thing.
Retriever
Despite the artwork, the Retriever aren't actually just a generic spider-robot, although whether it's the sleek edges of the 5E artwork or the chunky claws and spikes of the 3E artwork (my personal favourite) or the clearly far more 'monster spider' look of 1E, the Retrievers are created by the Drow in order to prowl the Abyss and capture demons for the Drow to use in their rituals, and as Tome of Foes is a sourcebook heavy on both fiends and drow, it's a no-brainer to fit in the Retrievers, creatures that have shown up in every single edition of D&D. Within each Retriever is the spirit of a lesser demon known as a Bebilith (here is how it looks in 4E, as for now the Bebilith hasn't shown up in 5E material yet) but the process of the creation of a Retriever has basically distilled away all of the demon's intellect and independence, leaving behind only the base hunter's instincts. Retrievers are almost always found in the possession of Drow since they are extremely valuable artifacts, and are sometimes dispatch to retrieve things that are of utmost importance to their drow masters. A pretty cool spider-robot with some extra bits of lore, I like it.
Frost Salamander
Frost Salamanders don't really look like their fiery namesakes in D&D, where regular Salamanders, in case you forget, are these snake-men that hail from the elemental plane of fire. Frost Salamanders are also elemental creatures, coming from Frostfell, the Plane of Ice, but they look like these mighty six-legged lizards, actually looking vaguely salamander-esque with the consistency of the skin in 5E, although looking far more kaiju-esque in 3E, and snake-like in 1E. Frost Salamanders obviously like the colder climates, although they are devourers of heat and will hunt down anything with warm blood, moving through a network of ice tunnels and caves beneath the icy mountains that they dwell in. Which happens to be basically all the playable races... and presumably even cold-blooded races like the lizardmen and yuan-ti are all relatively more warm-blooded than the frost salamander. And Tome of Foes gives us a bunch of potential encounters with them, which are neat -- maybe you just wander across them mistaking a campfire for a meal, or maybe you're actively venturing to their lairs to hunt them, slay them and harvest their corpses for material. Not the most interesting creature in this book, for sure, but one I appreciate.
Shadar-Kai
Another one that debuted in 3E but has been relatively prominent in every edition since are the Shadar-Kai, beings that are basically "Shadow Fey" or "Shadow Elves". They were elves that are introduced into the gloomy, death-y plane of Shadowfell generations ago thanks to a elf queen's attempt to ascend to godhood gone wrong (the Raven Queen's story is a pretty long one), and have completely adapted to the Shadowfell both physically and mentally. Look at that 4E Shadar-Kai, they look like a goth metal band! They have basically taken over the role as soul custodians, serving their dark deity the Raven Queen (one of my favourite D&D deities only for the sole reason that her name sounds like a goth band!), which, if you are reading these reviews in order, we last saw when talking about the Nagpa.
The Shadar-Kai scout out choice souls and tragedies that might please their patron, the Raven Queen, and will sometimes coax worldly events along tragic paths to please their goddess. Unfortunately for the Shadar-Kai, the Raven Queen is a very cryptic and enigmatic goddess, so all they get out of it is vague, easily-misinterpreted maybe-compliments. It honestly mostly just gives DM's an excuse to use them as completely antagonistic, completely allied to the party, or just vaguely enigmatic for enigma's reason, which is certainly not a complained. Physically they are described as 'withered elves', with pale hair, wrinkled gray skin and swollen joints, although apparently they will somehow look a bit more youthful (if still deathly pale) if they enter another realm, only reverting to their true wrinkly self when they return to the Shadowfell.
As with its other humanoid races, Tome of Foes immediately gives us three variants for the Shadar-Kai. From left to right on that 5E artwork are the Gloom Weaver, the Shadow Dancer and the Soul Monger, and they are so delightfully emo-sounding names. The Gloom Weaver's whole deal is that while it's a powerful sorcerer, it prefers to sneak in the shadows and uses the dark energies from his very presence to weigh down the enemy's heart (and this is not exaggeration, by the way), in an attempt to please the Raven Queen. Shadow Dancers... move from shadows to shadows, which is something we've seen many times in D&D but is never not cool. Soul Mongers, meanwhile, use their 'aching void within their souls' to radiate outward and make other people extra sad and lose their vigour. They are so freaking emo!
Skulk
More Shadowfell creatures in the Skulk, who are like these invisible men with long sharp fingres. Skulks are basically the soulless bodies of travelers who get lost in the dark plane of the Shadowfell, wandering the plane for so long that they have lost all sense of self, and losing so much of their identity they become invisible. And it has got to suck to enter the Shadowfell, yeah? Either you get eaten or killed by many of the terrible monsters that patrol the land, or you die and get resurrected as a mindless undead, or you lose your mind anyway and turn into a Skulk. Skulks can only be seen with a mirror or a special candle... unless you are a child, which is such a terrifying little detail that fits so well with so many myths about children being the only ones that can see spirits. Skulks can apparently be summoned by aspiring wizards by performing a ritual that "gives the skulk a portion of the summoner's identity", and I'm not sure how that works. Does the summoner forever lose that aspect of his identity, then? It transforms the Skulk into a vague likeness of its master, and will strive to continue doing its orders in the most violent manner possible, and in a creepy way, after killing a person in the material world, the fact that they have so hollow lives means that skulks sometimes takes up a silent imitation of that person's life, basically going through the motions of the person's life because they have so little sense of identity that they crave for it. Pretty tragic and terrifying at the same time, and the description that Tome of Foes gives us of Skulks replacing whole villages and then basically 'automating' the normal sequence of events that happen in it is a pretty chilling one.
Skull Lord
I've never been the most impressed with the Skull Lord as a design concept. Oh, sure, it's yet another undead skeletal sorcerer, but it has three skulls instead of one. Kinda funny, but also kinda droll. But the different art peaces the Skull Lord has gotten over the years have been interesting. 3E's Skull Lord looks like a ragged thing patched together from different corpses. 4E's looks straight-up regal, with those fancy crowns and the Egyptian pharaoh beard thing it has got going on on all three heads. And 5E's Skull Lord has its own distinct flavour with its armour and the fact that its two extra heads seem to be more tacked-on and is nowhere as vibrant with undeath as the central head. The flavour for these guys is that they're apparently undead from the shadow/undead plane of the Shadowfell, created when one of D&D's longest-running villains, Vecna, was betrayed by his minions, and Vecna gathered his treacherous mooks in groups of three and fused every trio into a single Skull Lord, cursing every one of his treacherous minions to be forever bound to treachery. Skull Lords now fight a war to gain territory and dominance, but thanks to having three heads and three minds, apparently these Skull Lords end up plotting against themselves. What fools! They are neat and there's a combination of tragic and comical within the concept if you're not just going to use it as a simple, straight-up boss fight.
Sorrowsworn
The Angry, just looks so painful. Perhaps not quite as wrathful as I would've preferred, though the misshapen torso and the gangly arms ending in sickles are pretty creepy. None quite as creepy as the two heads that are conjoined in a very painful-looking manner, and, of course The Angry's two heads will bicker with each other until they find a distraction upon which they can vent their anger. Interestingly, The Angry grows even more powerful when their foes fight back... and their attacks weaken if a creature opts not to attack, since they get confused... but you're still being attacked by a two-headed malformed creature with sickles for arms, so, uh, yeah.
The Hungry is also a ghoulish, emancipated humanoid that looks extra-malnourished compared to its other buddies, and, of course, it's a hungry creature with a massive, stretched-open mouth that looks like something straight out of a horror game. A fan of those long, webbed claws, too. These are probably the most simple among the Sorrowsworn, they're just hungry and they want to consume and they will eat whatever they cross path with.
The Lonely, meanwhile, has such a sad, creepy face, like a sad creepy doll with tear stains. Their arms are giant harpoons that they can launch, because they are so, so lonely that they just want a friend, and they will use their harpoon arms to stab anyone they cross path with to drag their victims close. I wonder what this creature will do, though, if someone actually decides to hang out with it? Does it just disappear?
The Lost are the representations of anxiety and fear that people experience when they get lost in the Shadowfell (which is very easy to happen) and are desperate, panicked, and "try to embrace any creature they reach" in an attempt to find comfort. They literally just wants a hug, but unfortunately they are hideous five-armed creatures whose arms end in massive swords, so their hugs are fatal, and contact with them wracks the mind of the people they hug with a flood of fear and panic. Poor Lost, they just want a hug.
The Wretched are the obligatory 'little, weak, swarming' variant, and they are just these pudgy lumps of chicken-like flesh whose faces are a massive Sarlacc maw. They still look gross and creepy thanks to their fleshy colouration and those dead-eyes, but compared to its four other Sorrowsworn buddies, they look almost cute? They don't quite embody an emotion like the other four, and they're just basically pack hunters looking for life energy and fear.
Star Spawn
Oh boy oh boy oh boy. I remember these guys from 4th Edition, and they were easily one of my favourite monsters. A take on the cosmic horror genre, 4E's Star Spawn (which I do hope to cover later on if/when I ever do 4E) are basically beamed down to our plane when the stars align just right, sending a small mote of power of the Elder Being that we perceive as 'stars' from their plane into ours, and they are such interestingly described reality warpers, being manifestations of these stars in a way that the material plane can handle. The actual power of these Elder Evils are immeasurable, but they can't or won't enter the Material Plane, so they send their Star Spawn to do so.
5E's version of the Star Spawn are slightly similar, being heralds and minions of Elder Evils that are unable (or are unwilling to) enter the Material Plane. These Star Spawn arrive and appear on the material plane in the wake of a comet, or maybe summoned by cultists and warlocks that guide the Star Spawn to the material plane. There are many variants of the Star Spawn, but they interestingly correspond to the Foulspawn (or Farspawn) of 4E, which are humanoids that are transformed by the eldritch energies of the Far Realm. Which I included a picture of here since the Star Spawn only has an art piece for a single variant. Really? All the Abishai get unique artwork despite being recolours of each other, but you can't afford an extra artwork or two for the Star Spawn?
The first type is the Star Spawn Grue, a lipless, ever-grinning ghoulish creature that runs around with its spindly limbs. They're basically mad, crazy little creepers that swarm around their larger kin, and their constant noise will cause psychic bursts that disrupts the thought patterns in intelligent creatures, who will instead see random flashing colours, hallucinations, vertigo and waves of hopelessness. Visually probably not the most exciting, and neither is the Star Spawn Hulk, which is just a huge, muscled dude with translucent skin. Likewise, the Star Spawn Mangler is just a humanoid with a couple extra arms (between four to eight) and basically behave like spider-men.
And then we have the Star Spawn Larva Mage, a twist on the well-known "Worm that Walks" or "Larva Mage" monster that has traditionally been associated with Kyuss. Apparently Kyuss counts as an Elder Evil in 5E now? Star Spawn Larva Mages are created when a mortal body is combined with the comet-borne emissary, creating this creature who resembles a humanoid, but is actually a mass of worms and maggots in the shape of a person. I do like the little porcelain mask that the 5E artwork has, it makes it a bit more alien. Larva Mages have always been cool but a bit off in any storyline that doesn't quite have a focus on Kyuss, so it's interesting to see them basically 'fold' the Larva Mage as a type of a Star Spawn. Basically, these guys are powerful sorcerers, but beat them up enough and they basically break apart into worms and escape and reform elsewhere.
The Star Spawn Seer is the leader of a cult that worships the Elder Evils, usually the only one who realizes the sheer extent of the cosmic horror that the cult is venerating. The Seer usually arrives as something different, usually a disembodied thing that arrives with the comet, and will take control of the mortal body and spirit of whatever silly cultist or warlock that's trying to contact it, transforming the entity into a Star Spawn Seer. The Seer will develop a lot of tumour-laden skin with strange whorls, and they go around holding their strange staves. Seers will attempt to tap into the energy sources of the material plane and master the rites that will enable it to extend a bridge between the Material Plane and the madness of their Elder Evil masters. Sadly, the visuals of the Foulspawn and the description of these lesser Star Spawn aren't the most interesting, but I do like the flavour behind them, and Tome of Foes, while clearly focusing on more classical D&D stuff like the fiends and the drow, do give a decent amount of page-time talking about the Elder Evil blessings, potential encounters with cults of these Elder creatures, including some that Elder Evils that are canon to D&D lore like Borem of the Lake of the Boiling Mud; Atropus, the World Born Dead; Bolothamogg Who Watches from Beyond the Stars; or Tharizdun, the Chained God. And, of course, you could use the Elder Evils depending on your setting -- beings that are beyond what mortals consider reality; or beings that predate the gods; or simply creatures of the Far relam, et cetera. These sort of Lovecraftian feel tend to not what everyone wants in their D&D, but in little doses, I do love it when the odd monster or two that have a Lovecraftian vibe manages to sneak in, even if these (Larva Mage aside) aren't like, super-duper weird.
Steeder
Because sometimes mere 'giant spiders' aren't enough, we have Steeders, too! The Duergar have domesticated this breed of underground spiders, and basically use them as mounts, and the artwork displays the size and the utilize of these walking wagons well. I do really like that the artist seems to have taken inspiration from the Spiny Orb-Weaver Spider and its unique abdomen to make the Steeder's shape look a bit more unique and believable. Like many real-life spiders, Steeder females are much larger and will devour males after mating... and the Duergar apparently use males as equivalents to a draft horse, while females are the equivalents to a war mount. Interestingly (and, again, much like real spiders) Steeders are solitary animals that will attack other Steeders, so these Duergar stable-men have to separate them in different stables and put blinders on them. And lastly, unlike most spiders, Steeders don't exactly spin huge webs to trap prey, they are mobile and they use a sticky goo on their legs to trap enemies, which is true for some genera of spiders! Anyway, I like these guys. They're more of a 'flavour' style of creature more than an encounter, but whether it's a Duergar merchant selling them to you or if you have the misfortune to encounter a massive spider cavalry of a Duergar army, it's going to be a memorable encounter!
Steel Predator
Okay, and now we have the Steel Predator, with that 3E artwork almost looking like a copyright-infringement-free attempt of making a robotic Xenomorph design. 5E goes for a spikier, more jagged look, with a face that resembles some sort of deep-sea fish or something, but ultimately both versions of the Steel Predator is basically a giant metal panther with no eyes. They are created by the Modrons (!) and is imbued with a single purpose, which is to locate and murder its target regardless of distance and obstacles. The Steel Predators were so efficient that, obviously, they ended up causing a robot rebellion against their robot masters, until the Hexton that developed the Steel Predators was apprehended and exiled. This rogue Hexton ended up opening a shop in Sigil where he accepts commissions to create these mighty and dangerous creatures, and upon the creation of the Steel Predator (which requires part of the target, like a favoured item or a lock of hair) it just goes bounding off, even through planes, to murder the target. If all goes well, it kills its target, returns to Sigil and gets broken down into parts for the next Steel Predator. This is a fantasy setting, though, so any given Steel Predator can go rogue or malfunction from battle damage, and basically become a menace to the locals. A surprisingly intricate backstory for what I thought was just a generic metal panther creature!
Stone-Cursed
These are neat. So there are many monsters that are able to petrify you in D&D-land. Medusas, basilisks, cockatrices... and apparently, crazy alchemists have found a way to use a mixture of basilisk blood and the ashes of a cockatrice's feathers and animate these petrified victims by awakening a dim echo of their spirit. It sort of functions like a stone golem or a living statue or something, but the fact that you're actually facing some poor sap who's been turned into stone against their will and is now being cursed to serve another being adds an extra layer of "oh shit, do I kill this tragic enemy?" and a layer of moral confusion. Stone-Cursed generate a black sludge from their hands that turn those they touch into stone statues. Not super exciting, but I like the backstory. Sword Wraith
Sword Wraiths are created when someone from a Viking-esque culture that's obsessed with glory dies in battle without earning the honour he/she wants (such as dying in an ambush, or soldiers who are slain instantly by magic they have no chance against), and comes back as a unique ghost called a Sword Wraith, who will haunt the battlefield it was slain in. Sword Wraiths are sort of obsessed with their honour, though, and they will go angry if anyone questions their valour, and are easily placated by praise, which is why apparently towns located near ancient battlefields will hold festivals of remembrance to placate these ghosts. A pretty flavourful ghost variant, I feel, although kind of one of the more boring ones in the book. Still, that's a cool-ass artwork and I do like it when these sort of enemies that are clearly meant to be negotiated with by the players exist. 
Vampiric Mist
And we close out Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes with the Vampiric Mist, a creature that first popped up in the 1st Edition's Monster Manual II. I absolutely love the artwork for the 5th edition, showing a massive, formless cloud that has a little network of blood vessels and capillaries running across it, which looks just so unnatural. Vampiric Mists (a.k.a. Crimson Mists) are described as the wretched remains of vampires that are unable to find rest, which... kind of makes sense, considering D&D vampires can already turn into mist? I guess they are trapped in their mist forms after the 'mishap' that causes them to be unable to reform? Having degenerated and lost their intelligence, these Vampiric Mists swoop around as this formless creature that hunt down the living and suck them dry of blood, being attracted to the scent of blood like sharks. Tome of Foes does a great job describing the creepy way that the blood will "ooze through the creature's pores or spill out from its eyes, nose and mouth... like a crimson smoke, which the mist then consumes." Apparently, the feeding causes absolutely no pain to the victim, and the Vampiric Mists will often target sleeping people to do so. So, like, they're like magic mosquitoes, then. Eventually, a sufficiently-fed Vampiric Mist get so bloated that they become a red cloud that rains blood droplets wherever it goes.
A pretty neat monster to end our coverage on, yeah?
The 5E stats for these creatures. The stats for the Tortle enemy are reprinted here.
- Oblex Spawn: Tiny ooze; lawful evil; CR 1/4
- Adult Oblex: Medium ooze; lawful evil; CR 5
- Elder Oblex: Huge ooze; lawful evil; CR 10
- Retriever: Large construct; lawful evil; CR 14
- Frost Salamander: Huge elemental; unaligned; CR 9
- Gloom Weaver: Medium humanoid - elf; neutral; CR 9
- Shadow Dancer: Medium humanoid - elf; neutral; CR 7
- Soul Monger: Medium humanoid - elf; neutral; CR 11
- Skulk: Medium humanoid; chaotic neutral; CR 1/2
- Skull Lord: Medium undead; lawful evil; CR 15
- The Angry: Medium monstrosity; neutral evil; CR 13
- The Hungry: Medium monstrosity; neutral evil; CR 11
- The Lonely: Medium monstrosity; neutral evil; CR 9
- The Lost: Medium monstrosity; neutral evil; CR 7
- The Wretched: Medium monstrosity; neutral evil; CR 1/4
- Star Spawn Grue: Small aberration; neutral evil; CR 1/4
- Star Spawn Hulk: Large aberration; chaotic evil; CR 10
- Star Spawn Larva Mage: Medium aberration; chaotic evil; CR 16
- Star Spawn Mangler: Medium aberration; chaotic evil; CR 5
- Star Spawn Seer: Medium aberration; neutral evil; CR 13
- Female Steeder: Large monstrosity; unaligned; CR 1
- Male Steeder: Medium monstrosity; unaligned; CR 1/4
- Steel Predator: Large construct; lawful evil; CR 16
- Stone Cursed: Medium construct; lawful evil; CR 1
- Sword Wraith Commander: Medium undead; lawful evil; CR 8
- Sword Wraith Warrior: Medium undead; lawful evil; CR 3
- Tortle: Medium humanoid - tortle; lawful good; CR 1/4
- Tortle Druid: Medium humanoid - tortle; lawful neutral; CR 2
- Vampiric Mist: Medium undead; chaotic evil; CR 3
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