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

One of my most recent projects was the rewriting of the Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition monster reviews, many of which were written circa-2015 or so, with me being inexperienced in both the actual D&D tabletop game as well as writing monster reviews. Times have changed since then, and it has been my project through 2025 and 2026 to rewrite and collate/expand these older reviews as needed. The brand-new "5.5E" Monster Manual with new content also helped give me an excuse and a lot of new content to talk about. 

But now that that's over, I'm going to talk about a bunch of adventures that I have never reviewed on this blog before! This batch of adventures -- not strictly in exhaustive publication order -- covers Candlekeep Mysteries and Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel. These two books are anthology books, taking the place of a couple half-dozen adventures. 

Finally, we are covering a couple of monsters from Phandelver and Below: The Shattered Obelisk. The Shattered Obelisk is a full campaign that expands on the original starter set of 'Lost Mine of Phandelver', which was highly popular and ended up being expanded into a full adventure for higher levels. There are goblins and mind flayers here! 

Again, I am obliged to give my usual disclaimer that I'm not reviewing every single stat block, and am intentionally skipping any named NPCs (including bosses), 'jobs' and particularly setting-specific jobs, simply because I just find that there's not much for me to say about them. 

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

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Animated Objects

• Medium Swarm of Tiny Constructs; CR 1/4 (Swarm of Animated Books)
• Small Construct; CR 1/4 (Animated Broom)
• Large Construct; CR 1 (Animated Chained Library)
• Debut: Candlekeep Mysteries (2021)

I just want to acknowledge the new batches of animated objects! I always felt like it's a bit of an untapped source of wacky enemies and comedy. I think the Animated Chained Library isn't too memorable. It's a chained bookshelf, it really can't do much but spit books at you... okay, that's funny, never mind.

The Animated Broom is always fun, and you can imagine this thing trying to sweep you away. And the Swarm of Animated Books summoned by the Chained Library is given a cute art where the horde of flying animated books isn't just trying to whack you, it's also pretending to be like the book equivalent of a sheet ghost, placing a book with a demon's face for a cover as its 'face', and holding two larger books open as 'hands'. The Swarm of Animated Books is trying!

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Gingwatzim

• Small Aberration (Shapechanger); CR 2
• Debut: Candlekeep Mysteries (2021)

This one is a weirdo! Appearing in one of the mysteries, the Gingwatzim initially seemed to be a new, random made-up creature for this adventure to serve as the solution to a mystery, but are actually a very obscure monster from AD&D. The Gingwatzim are 'blobs of raw life force', which are artificial life-forms who now live in the ethereal plane. In AD&D, they can morph between three forms -- a 'free form' of a sphere of swirling gas, a 'creature form' as it mimics the appearances of creature it's seen, and 'object form' where they can serve as magical items.

5E's incarnation has the Gingwatzim be artificial life forms, created by wizards, but still with the same three forms but with the 'creature' and 'object' forms being predetermined. While the tiny items and creatures look harmless, the Gingwatzim can transform into its gas-orb form and drain the life of those around it. In the story, copies of a particular book causes all their readers to be attacked by monsters. But instead of the authors, or something about the story, or the publishers, turns out that the books themselves were the problem... they were shapeshifted alien gas-blobs all along!

I am unaware of this creature before doing this review, and I'm happy that they went to a very obscure source for it. It's a weird little shapeshifting creature, and while I can't say about how well the adventure is done, I'm always for stories that explore the implications of strange, artificially-created magical creatures like these. 

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Naiad

• Medium Fey; CR 2
• Debut: Candlekeep Mysteries (2021)

I genuinely thought that Naiads have appeared in Dungeons & Dragons before, but apparently not! Apparently D&D has used 'Nymph' and 'Nereid' more or less all the time when they describe watery fey. In Greek mythology, a Nymph is a nature spirit associated with water, and Naiads and Nereids are types of nymphs bound to freshwater and seawater respectively. In fact, as a monster statblock or as a part of the D&D fantasy world, the earliest mention I can find of Naiad is in 5th Edition's Magic: The Gathering crossover with Theros. Huh!

Naiads are essentially just fey that are bound to a single location, specifically a lake or a spring. The book basically just handwaves the lore as 'being similar to a Dryad', which is a bit lazy... but not exactly wrong. I do like the art, though, with lilypads and other lake plants whirling around her 'dress' and her 'hair', while roiling waves make up her 'cloak' and the 'frills'. 

Still, I wonder what makes 'leafy' or 'forest' fey a lot more appealing for D&D to adapt? They have no problem adapting Treants, Dryads, Shambling Mounds, Wood Woads and a lot of other 'plant fey' themed creatures. But we have a dearth of watery fey! Give me a proper Siren stat block, Wizards!

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Grippli Warrior

• Small Humanoid (Grippli); CR 1/4
• Debut: Candlekeep Mysteries (2021)

Ah, Grippli, Grippli, Grippli. Yet another frog-man race, but this one actually draws its roots all the way back to the 1st Edition! They even show up in the 2E Monstrous Manual, which is one of the classic and best D&D bestiaries out there. But there are just so many frog-people, and over the next couple of editions, the 'regular' frog-people have all been rolled up into just the Bullywugs, who enjoyed a lot of major appearances in the first monster manuals of 3E, 4E and 5E whereas all the Grippli got were random mentions in Dragon magazine. There is a difference between the two frog-people, being that the Bullywugs were swamp-dwelling toads or mud-frogs, whereas the Grippli were very much themed after tree frogs; and the Grippli were more good or neutral-leaning compared to the primitive, cavemen-like Bullywug. Even from their first appearance in 1st Edition's Monster Manual II, the Grippli felt like they were made specifically to be quirky allies and even player-character adjacent... but ended up falling on the wayside similar to the Locathah for the fish-people. 

Unlike the Locathah, though, the Grippli were just more or less forgotten, and when 5th Edition's team decided to make a friendly tree-dwelling frog-people race... they decided to make a brand-new one called the Grung. Sure, the Grung were poison arrow frogs instead of tree frogs, and they were a bit more chaotic with a goblin/kobold vibe to them, but that left the poor Grippli just ignored until 2021, where it made its low-key debut in Candlekeep Mysteries. 

And there is probably a world where the Grippli were just retooled into the Grung, and that would probably make them more exciting because... the Grippli are just... boring? Bullywugs had a 'dum-dum frog horde' vibe before, and since 5.5E have been retooled into pretentious Feywild noble-wannabes. Grungs do the tree-dwelling stuff too, but with a chattering wackiness that gives them such a fun personality. So yeah, poor Grippli don't quite have the 'hook' that either the Bullywug or the Grung have. I almost wished that they had kept the original 2E artwork where the Grippli are just big giant tree frogs instead of being frog-men, because that would've given them something interesting for us to talk about. 

 

5E's lore characterizes the Grippli pretty faithfully, noting that they are communal frog-people who live in trees, can snare foes with their tongues, and live in harmony with nature in very communal village; and have to defend their young and eggs from Lizardfolk and Yuan-ti. Which... it's all nice and good. Again, one of the running gags I've done in my D&D monster reviews is the sheer amount of frog-people, and I'm sorry, my Grippli friends... you guys are theoretically neat, but in the 5E world the role of being a friendly forest-dwelling frog tribe is already done better, twice. 

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Skitterwidget & Kittywidget

• Medium Construct; CR 1 (Skitterwidget), 1/2 (Kittywidget)
• Debut: Candlekeep Mysteries (2021)

I wasn't going to include these, but the artwork is cute enough that I thought 'what the heck'. The two Widgets are technically just another set of constructs which the flavour text note to be 'surprisingly cute'. They are described also by the prose as 'dog-headed cockroaches', which... which makes them a lot cuter than if they were just robot bugs or robot dogs! Some crazy gnome artificer decided that these scuttling constructs with your typical set of spidery insecty robot legs needed to have the heads of stylized dragon-dogs, and they are just moving around with their 'language of squeals', which is comprised of high-pitched vowels. Okay!

The 'Widgets are bound to a magical control ring, and a single control ring can link up to seven Skitterwidgets. That's one more than a typical Pokemon trainer! The most interesting thing, however, is that Skitterwidgets mate and breed. Which... I'm not sure how it works since these are robots. You'd think they just replicate and construct new automatons, but the flavour text says 'mate and breed', which... I'm not trying to think too much about. These Skitterwidgets make the smaller Kittywidgets, 'which are cuter than their parents'. And the Skitterwidgets are so protective of their young that it's the only thing that can make them disobey the magical control ring. 

The idea of a reproducing robot is an... odd one, and I don't think they'll ever be followed up upon in D&D beyond this one-off adventure, but I do find the design of these dog-roaches quite cute. 

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Constructed Commoner

• Medium Construct; CR 0
• Debut: Candlekeep Mysteries (2021)

The Constructed Commoner is literally just the statblock of a Commoner given a 'construct' reflavouring. It's surprising that she got a full statblock segment, when so many other D&D books have been content to handwave potentially interesting monster variations with 'oh, just use the Troll statblock for the Bagman'. 

The Constructed Commoner, of course, are really realistic mannequins that are populating a village and act pretty uncanny as they go through a routine of what real people will do. From what I can gather from the flavour text, these poor golems or whatever actually think they are real humanoids living their lives in a real village. They have little things that give themselves away, like little clicking noises when they move, and their cold flesh, and they automatically try to change the topic when asked about things outside their village. 

When they get killed, they revert to their mannequin form, but because this is a magical village, the mannequin will disappear and a new villager is generated to take over the 'slain' villager's role. Creepy! It's something I've seen before in sci-fi and fantasy, but still a creepy trope. 

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Lichen Lich

• Medium Undead; CR 18
• Debut: Candlekeep Mysteries (2021)

We're skipping over the Canopic Golem and other monsters since I don't have much to say about them, and we're going to this fabulous Lichen Lich. You can't convince me that the designers didn't make this just for the pun, but it makes sense, isn't it? Lichen are kind of fungi, and we've had a lot of connections between fungus and the undeath. So yeah, bring on this badass Lichen Lich!

What a cool design this particular lich has, too. She's got a massive wedding dress made up of bark-like folds of lichen, a little veil/cape of hyphae, and a little glowing green 'collar' made of fungal tissue. I really like that the art direction decided to make the Lichen Lich actually fabulous and aesthetic instead of going for the mushroom body horror, a la the Golgari from Magic: The Gathering's Ravnica set... which would still be welcome, but this one also looks cool. 

In addition to doing the typical Lich stuff that Liches can do, Lichen Liches have a bunch of extra spells that are very 'evil druid' related. They can transport themselves through plants, manipulate rotten roots and vines, summon clouds of poisonous spores, cause anyone that's poisoned around her to fall unconscious, or summon corrupted shambling mounds out of her diseased grove.

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Aurumvorax

• Small Monstrosity; Unaligned; CR 2 (Aurumvorax)
• Medium Monstrosity; Unaligned; CR 4 (Den Leader)
• Debut: Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel (2022)

We're moving to Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel first, and we're going to first cover the Aurumvorax. The Aurumvorax, or 'Golden Gorger', is a creature that debuted in the classic 1E adventure Journey to the Barrier Peaks -- the same weird 'crashed spaceship' adventure that gave us classics like the Vegepygmies and Froghemoths. The Aurumvorax are an eight-legged badget that scuttles around and feeds on metal. Particularly gold. Particularly your gold. 

I really like the idea that this creature is adapted specifically for a diet of gold, being able to sniff out towards where gold is, and then try and attempt to eat them. There is a bit of a Rust Monster 'haha, fuck you' vibe to it, but there is always a charm for these monsters that feel created specifically for this magic-rich setting. I feel like Aurumvoraxes could be used in various different ways due to how everyone uses gold in the setting... perhaps a bounty hunter uses an Aurumvorax as a version of a trained tracking hound (their quarry may have hidden their scent, but maybe not their own gold), or a bank might use them to detect counterfeit or fool's gold. 

Since then, the Aurumvorax would appear in1E's Monster Manual 2 and 2E's Monstrous Manual... but then remain more or less obscure as it was deemed not iconic enough, I suppose, to be counted alongside the classics like the Umber Hulks and the Mind Flayers and the Gith. But I've always liked the idea that these are the kind of creatures that should show up in the appendix, like how the original 5E Manual handled Death Dogs and Wargs! The Aurumvorax could just use the statline of the giant badger with an additional line that says it eats metal!

Well, whatever the case they are back now. We even get the lore that they can get into much larger sizes if they consume enough metal, growing to the Medium size. I've always got a soft sport for the Aurumvorax, and it actually shows up in the remake of the aforementioned Barrier Peaks adventure as well! 

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Wynling

• Tiny Fey; Chaotic Neutral; CR 1/2
• Debut: Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel (2022)

Now all the other monsters introduced in Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel anthology are an interesting experiment of bringing in a more culturally-diverse team of writers to adapt some of their stories into D&D adventures; which is an interesting thing to do! There are definitely times when I kind of go -shrug- when my culture is represented in older editions of D&D. And while they clearly put much more effort into the setting and stories (as they should), we also get a bunch of new monsters! Not all of them are very specific, and most are just themed around the general vibes of cultures and mythologies. And that's all right!

The Wynling, mascot of the book and featured in its cover, is a cross between a bush baby and a bat, being these tiny little fey spirits that are clearly up to some mischief. They're kind of based on wind spirits or guardian spirits in many different real-world myths. I don't exactly think (or am able to find) any direct match to the Wynling from real-world mythologies, but I'm happy to learn if someone can point me to what it's based on!

Wynlings are described to defend mountain heights against trespassers, often harassing them with thefts and pranks, stealing equipment and glaring at them from the shadows to creep them out. However, nearby settlements sometimes lure Wynlings out and they end up having fun when they hear high-spirited music and sweet foods... all free to cause mysterious wacky hijinks! The Wynling honestly feels like a greatcreature to be a sidekick to a player character or an NPC as well, this flying little grubby rodent with the ability to become invisible at will!

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Soul Shaker

• Large Undead; Chaotic Evil; CR 4
• Debut: Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel (2022)

This one is very cool. Not exactly drawn from a specific real-world mythology that I can tell of, but more of a shared theme where malevolent spirits coalesce from lingering negative energy, the Soul Shaker is a literal grasping mass of humanoid limbs, described as an 'obsessive claimer of corpses and collector of body parts'. The flavour text for it gives several possible origins for the Soul Shaker, noting that they can arise from ghoulish collections of severed limbs (because all self-respecting necromancers have one of those) or when 'numerous Crawling Claws form a cooperative relationship'. That's cute! The little Crawling Claws are friends!

The Soul Shaker pulverizes the flesh of its victims with is many arms, and also drain the vitality of their prey... which is probably somewhat expected considering that it's an undead mass of limbs. Interestingly, when a Soul Shaker encounters someone with an impressionable mind (i.e. a child), the Soul Shaker is intelligent enough to try to charm the individual and get them to act as a lure to tempt other victims into its hunting grounds. This is a nice little bit that really feels like it comes from folklore in general, of monsters that also act as 'warnings'. In-game, however, the Soul Shaker doesn't really need to do the hard work to charm its unwitting pawn... it can cast geas, one of the most powerful mind-control spells. 

Also, the description of the Soul Shaker being able to tempt others means that, yes, this mass of limbs whirling around like a twisted sea urchin is a fully sentient undead. As the short adventure that the Soul Shaker is part of establishes, the Soul Shaker's mind is a twisted composite of all the dead bodies that are combined to create it, with the particular Soul Shaker involved in this adventure having one of its component arms harvested from the friend of the plot-relevant NPC... and that friendship ends up being twisted into 'be with us forever, friend!'

Oh, and to make things worse, when a Soul Shaker is destroyed, it disperses into a bunch of skittering, animate limbs. If any of these pieces escape, like a good undead, it somehow reforms into a mass of limbs again. A fun undead critter, and I love the visuals, too!  

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Tlacatecolo

• Medium Fiend - Demon; Neutral Evil; CR 5
• Debut: Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel (2022)

Based on Aztec myths, the Tlacatecolo roughly means 'human-owl'. It doesn't exactly have a perfect one-to-one counterpart in Aztec mythology, but owls are associated with death, bad luck and misfortune in Mesoamerican culture, particularly associated with the deity Mictlantecutli. 

D&D's Tlacatecolo is described as a straight-up demon, being bipedal plague-stricken owl-men. They unleash a plague-ridden wind that causes a chilling poison to seep into those afflicted, leeching heat and life from the living. This is a unique poison that exhausts those infected and prevents healing... but is staved off by sunlight. Which is a pretty fun little detail!

Unfortunately, we don't really get to learn much about the Tlacatecolo beyond its abilities, and I really wish we did. From what I can glean from the story, the demon has 'hosted' itself inside of a local youth, being both an evil influence as well as allowing its host to transform into the human-owl form. Kind of wish we actually got more -- the story is interesting, for sure, but... I wished we learned a bit more about the Tlacatecolo! 

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Tlexolotl

• Huge Elemental; Neutral; CR 10
• Debut: Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel (2022)

Going to Mexican mythology now with another brand-new monster called the Tlexolotl, who draws its name from tle (fire) and axolotl. The real-world amphibian axolotl is actually named after the Aztec god of fire and lightning, Xolotl... traditionally a canine-headed god. But that's why this guy is the Tlexolotl! There's also something here about how the mythological salamander, a different amphibian, is also associated with flame. 

Tlexolotls are gigantic, being classified as 'huge' elementals, and they slumber deep in the magma of dormant volcanoes. Like a Godzilla-style creature, Tlexolotls rise up every couple of centuries to consume animals and plants around it, before retreating back into the volcanoes to slumber. Of course, being giant elemental monsters, the Tlexolotl can be awaken earlier than it normally would, and when it does it will rampage and burn everything and consume everything. Of course, a fire cult tries to wake up a Tlexolotl in this adventure. 

In a nice nod to how helpful volcanoes are, the Tlexolotl and its volcano actually causes the land around it to become abundant with crops, and those that aren't killed by the Tlexolotl's rampage tend to honour the Tlexolotl for bringing a bountiful harvest to their farming efforts. I like this creature for the relatively simple concept -- the embodiment of the destruction caused by an active volcano, but also it's a giant axolotl! Axolotls are cute.

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Riverine

• Large Fey; Any Alignment; CR 12
• Debut: Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel (2022)

Oh, and I just ranted about the Naiad, too up above. The Riverine, which I don't think is drawn from any specific myth, are fey that are embodiments of particular rivers. They manifest as Poseidon-looking men with lower bodies of whirling water -- which they can replace with humanlike legs if they need to. A Riverine's personality reflects the nature of the river it arises from, some being wilder or more lethargic than others. A Riverine can sense whatever is going on around its river, and the Riverine's presence causes flora and fauna to reproduce rapidly around it; while magical tracks appear to guide travelers to shelters (and away from areas that the Riverine doesn't want them to come towards). 

Riverines are a fair bit more powerful than Naiads, with a lot more combative spells -- including a bunch of lair actions and water-themed spells. They can revert into water and teleport elsewhere in their river, create mists or torrents of water. If the Riverine dies, its river dries up immediately. 

This, by the way, is a pretty great stat block to use for any river or lake spirit. I am honestly just quite miffed that this trope, whatever you want to call it -- a Nymph, a Naiad, a Nereid, a Riverine -- just somehow isn't in one of the more 'core' bestiaries! Honestly, the solution is to get a fourth proper dedicated bestiary book! Come on! 

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Bakunawa

• Gargantuan Dragon; Neutral; CR 12
• Debut: Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel (2022)

Adapted from Filipino folklore, the mythological Bakunawa is a moon-eating serpent that was used to explain lunar eclipses. The 5E Bakunawa is noted as a particularly large serpentine dragon, and a nice artwork showing glistening scales and rows upon rows of wings leading to a face that looks like a strange eel. The Bakunawa is described as 'avatars of storm and tide' that soar over archipelagos. There mere presence causes storms and winds, and they swallow those that challenge them. 

The Bakunawa isn't part of any moon-eating myth in this one, and instead is portrayed as just a powerful, spiritual force that is unleashed when the spiritual balance of the region is shaken. That's a common trope across various myths. I did wish that there were a bit more that drew from the original myth, since the Bakunawa ended up coming off as too much of a 'storm dragon' more than anything, but at least the artwork is cool. 

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Pari

• Medium Celestial; Lawful Good; CR 13
• Debut: Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel (2022)

Drawn from Persian myths, the Pari (or 'peri') is adapted from being the Persian equivalent to a fairy-like spirit into an 'angelic harbinger', given a pretty badass artwork of a blue-skinned humanoid with four blood-red wings. Paris are described as celestials that bring prophetic warnings and portents. 

In addition to their prophet-messenger role, 5E's Pari gives is a small smattering of angelic spells, as well as a fun ability called 'disorienting futures' where they telepathically overload someone with visions of multiple possible futures. That sounds like a fun little ability that would have post-battle roleplaying implications!

However, outside of the very cool artwork... there really isn't much to the 5E Pari. A celestial devoted to just prophecies and messages and nothing else isn't anything new, and this doesn't really properly adapt the mythological Pari's stories either. This one feels like a miss to me, I'm afraid. 

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Haint

• Medium Undead; Neutral; CR 7
• Debut: Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel (2022)

Drawing from a Southern-US dialect word for ghost/spirit, the Haints make their debut in a frontier-themed adventure. Haints are described specifically as spirits that rise from the sorrowful dead, and can change their shape in an imitation of what they once were. With the sheer amount of different types of undead, I do like this little niche that the D&D Haint fills, where they can shift from an incorporeal phantom-like form into appearing as a corporeal humanoid -- how it looks like in life. From the description of the flavour text and the abilities, I think the Haint can interact as if it's solid. 

It's a nice little wrinkle even compared to other undead-types that mimic the living. Haints are able to share their sorrow to incapacitate those around them. And so trapped are they in their sorrowful nature that they might mistakenly view passersby as their murderers; or try to entreat mortals to exact revenge on their behalf. 

Base D&D already kind of have ghosts and undead that are related to spirits tied to the mortal coil in the Ghost (haunting a location for an unfinished business) and the Revenant (hunting for specific people for revenge), but the Haint provides an interesting enough alternative in this case with the ability to masquerade as the living -- whether they know it or not. It's always nice for undead NPC enemies to have some kind of tragedy to them!

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Whistler

• Large Aberration; Neutral Evil; CR 9
• Debut: Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel (2022)

Oh, I really like this one. Whislters are aberrations that hail from the 'airy, screeching reaches of the Far Realm', and they aren't tethered to a single point in space. They're constantly 'blurred', and the artwork shows this perfectly by having it seemingly stepping over an invisible wall. Its arms are a bit too long and the edges unfocused, and of course there's that creepy modern-age-camera-trick head with glowing eyes that vibrate in place. I don't think the Whistler is based on any specific myth, but the freedom in just crafting a creepy monster does end up letting the Whistler feel so much cooler.  You really get the feeling that the writers were able to really describe the monster that they're cooking in their head, since there's simply just a lot more description about what the Whistler does. 

Whistlers stalk prey, and those stalked by a Whistler can't shut out its 'soundless, seven-note tune'. It invades and scourges their victim's mind as the Whistler pursues them, and even if they manage to escape the Whistler, that tune will be stuck in your head and drive you crazy. The stat block itself isn't the most impressive, just having psychic damage, limited teleportation and the aforementioned whistling gimmick, but this is one monster that if done well can really give a really haunting and tense atmosphere.

It really is very cool, and feels a bit of a Slenderman-meets-Lovecraft vibes as well, doesn't it? There's a nice little urban horror vibe to the Whistler, except its design and lore is adapted quite well to the fantasy setting of D&D. I like this one.  

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Mutate

• Large Aberration; Chaotic Neutral; CR 10 (Cloaker Mutate)
• Medium Aberration; Any Alignment; CR 4 (Humanoid Mutate)
• Large Aberration; Neutral; CR 6 (Otyugh Mutate)
• Debut: Phandelver & Below: The Shattered Obelisk (2023)

Our next book is Phandelver and Below: The Shattered Obelisk. Which is a full campaign based and expanding upon the original 5th Edition starter set, The Lost Mine of Phandelver. The setting included a lot of classic D&D creatures and tropes and became so popular that they decided to expand it quite a fair bit, using Mind Flayers as the main villain. We never had a proper Mind Flayer campaign in 5th Edition, so it worked out quite well! Basically, there are lots of Far Realm spookiness happening in Phandelver, and things are being changed. 

These guys are here because of the art! Mutates are, well, mutations. Creatures that are exposed to the Far Realm, and the energies of the eldritch dimension warp and twist what was once normal. They all get sunlight sensitivity, and a random mutation from a table (wings, tentacles, slime, psionic powers... typical aberrant stuff), and keep some of their original abilities. 

Interestingly, Mutates are noted to be explicitly reversible once the influence of the Far Realm is removed. That feels a bit odd. Forcing this transformation on creatures also 'inexplicably fail', so they either have to be actively seeking it themselves and embrace it; or to be passively corrupted without realizing? Mind Flayers apparently have been trying to create Mutate armies to conquer the Underdark and continually fail, although Mind Flayers don't exactly have the best track record with their experiments not going feral and killing them. 

The game gives us a humanoid, a Cloaker and an Otyugh. Two of those are aberrations themselves, which are interesting -- being aberrations, they are more likely to become mutates, according to the prose, but it also means that beings like Cloakers and Otyughs are more 'acclimatized' to the Material Plane despite being Aberrations. 

The humanoid in the art has sprouted a whole bunch of bat-wings which would be an eye-rolling 'demon man' super mode if not for how haphazard they are arranged. The Otyugh is just seemingly disintegrating in the spot, with parts of its body looking like hard carapace while its tentacles appear to be fluid? And the Cloaker just looks even more monstrous, with a disturbingly much more human face, that also seems to erupt into more gore. ____________________________________________________

Aberrant Zealot

• Medium Aberration; Chaotic Evil; CR 8
• Debut: Phandelver & Below: The Shattered Obelisk (2023)

Out of the humanoid enemies, by virtue of how creepy the art and statblock of this guy iis, I have left him here. He's a zealot cultist who have reached into the Far Realm, and has been mutated. It's nowhere as extreme (and therefore, a lot 'cooler') as the Farspawn or Core Spawn, which makes the Aberrant Zealot here to look far, far wretched. Still having a lot of his regular human anatomy, only for it to be covered in a layer of slime, algae and having tentacles grow out of his arms and sides... it's not even in the cool places like a Cthulhu beard or a powerful tentacle whip-arm!

Aberrant Zealots just have this constant aura of exuding the chaos of the Far Realm, forcing constant saves against psychic damage on any non-aberration around it. It can move through any space as narrow as an inch, can teleport via void portals, and also has minor psionic powers similar to the psi-goblins. I like that a lot! I like that there are some actual abilities that make the Aberrant Zealot feel unnatural beyond 'it can cause mind blasts and the frightened condition'!

There are a couple of additional new monsters here as well that I'm skipping, including the Ashenwright (just psionic undead that rise in areas blighted by the Far Realm), the Fiendish Auger (a drill possessed by an evil spirit) and the Psionic Goblins (who are just goblins with psionic powers). 

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Mind Flayer Variants

• Medium Aberration; Lawful Evil; CR 11 (Clairvoyant), 8 (Prophet)
• Debut: Phandelver & Below: The Shattered Obelisk (2023)

That's artwork of the Mind Flayer of Thoon from... 3E? 4E? One of those! I remember those, they are Mind Flayers who are even more corrupted by a strange entity called Thoon that out-eldritches the Mind Flayers!

Anyway, with Phandelver setting the Mind Flayers as the big bads, we get two extra variants that are particularly tied with prophecy, with the CR 8 Mind Flayer Prophet and CR 11 Mind Flayer Clairvoyant. The Clairvoyant is rather cool, ripping open a tear in space to summon a giant tentacle. The Prophet is choking and killing another Illithid -- using the reused Thoon art. These guys are noted to not always be tied to an Elder Brain, but instead heed the whispers of whims of the Far Realm itself, a nice adaptation of some of the older Thoon lore.  

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Encephalon

• Large Aberration; Unaligned; CR 10 (Cluster)
• Tiny Aberration; Unaligned; CR 3 (Gemmule)
• Debut: Phandelver & Below: The Shattered Obelisk (2023)

And here we are with a brand-new monster! 'Encephalon' is another medical term for your brain. And these Encephalon Clusters are the result of Mind Flayer eggs being exposed to a Far Realm rift! I do like the idea that the Mind Flayers are actually more 'stable' aberrations, as far as aberrations go. These Clusters look vaguely like brains if seen from afar, but more accurately as large-sized clusters of giant eggs. Spheres instead of sulci and gyri. Of course they're surrounded with green slime.  The Cluster egg-mass/parent organism can also slam down on prey to consume them.

The Encephalons, when threatened, unleash blobs of eggs that hatch into Encephalon Gemmules, which are... strange little pyramidal things with itty-bitty tentacle limbs and green eyeballs. Gemmules swarm over prey and leech life for them while also bombarding them with psychic blasts. Surviving Gemmules will then grow into proper Encephalon Clusters if left unattended. 

Encephalons, interestingly, is noted to not pay any heed to the Elder Brain, or any of the Mind Flayers. This makes Encephalons similar to Neothelids as creatures that arise from mutated Mind Flayer young! The Mind Flayers view Encephalons as 'insidious viruses', as they continue to gorge themselves, multiply and create more and more gemmules. While this does feel like a retread of the Neothelid, I do appreciate them trying to do something new here. 

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Flesh Meld

• Huge Aberration; Chaotic Evil; CR 7
• Debut: Phandelver & Below: The Shattered Obelisk (2023)

This one is cool. Flesh Melds are huge creatures, so the size of dinosaurs, and they are just giant masses of... flesh, straight out of Resident Evil or something. The one pictured just looks like a giant slab from the butcher's shop, with loads of what initially looked like stitches to me, but are actually entire spines and ribs arranged... well, up and down the body like stitches. Three tentacles that open up to vaguely lamprey-like mouths coil atop the flesh-mass. It's a nasty mass of flesh and gore. 5th Edition has been shying away a lot from more violent depictions of monsters, but I do appreciate that some of the supplementaries are allowed to do something a bit less PG-13. 

Flesh Melds are not just giant masses of reanimated flesh. Because this is a Mind Flayer adventure, Flesh Melds are also hiveminds. Their gore-tentacles consume their prey, and both mind and flesh are subsumed into the Flesh Mind's consciousness. Some resilient minds may remain, but inevitably the discordant chorus of 'kill' and 'consume' will overpower you. 

Despite being a huge creature, the Flesh Meld's gore-fest body is still counted as 'amorphous' and it can pour itself through cracks... which has to be disgusting with all those bones. It also has the ability to 'spider climb', and has an aura of necrotic decay that damages all creatures around it. It is basically kind of an undead/gore-themed slime, which I've seen in other games like Elden Ring and World of Warcraft before. Again, 5th Edition D&D tend to shy away with body horror, but it's nice to see some still make it in. 

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Intellect Snare

• Small Aberration; Neutral Evil; CR 8
• Debut: Phandelver & Below: The Shattered Obelisk (2023)

Another aberration, the Intellect Snares are formed from the 'wayward shards of thought that have conglomerated together'. How does wayward shards of thought form? Why, from all the madness and corruption of the Far Realm! As the minds of foolish adventurers and civilians are broken by all the eldritch horror, those broken pieces coalesce into Intellect Snares. The design is pretty simple, all things considered, just a shadowy orb with ribbon-like tendril-tentacles. But the backstory of this being created from 'broken thoughts' are cool. 

Intellect Snares interestingly behave like scavenger, feasting on creatures left behind by Mind Flayer attacks. They feed by shattering the minds of their prey and making more pieces of broken minds to consume. In addition to this whole 'mind-consuming' thing, Intellect Snares also have an aura of cacophony, and anyone who stands too close to this thing has the potential to be incapacitated by the sheer amount of psychic noise radiating from this thing. 

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Oculorb

• Large Aberration; Chaotic Evil; CR 9
• Debut: Phandelver & Below: The Shattered Obelisk (2023)

Oh, these are... Beholder dreams? Beholders, who come from the Far Realm, will dream up Oculorbs when the Far Realm pervades their dreams. Which... okay, another case of 'our aberrations can also be corrupted by the Far Realm'. Sure. I love the art, though. I've seen a lot of eyeball monsters in my day, and eyeball-mass monsters, thanks to the Zelda franchise, but this one just looks... it just looks really sad and in pain. I think it's those two or three biggest eyes, which look like they're begging to be blown up back into the void they were spawned from.

Oculorbs are described to be a tangle of negative emotions -- fury, melancholy, obsession -- and while all its eyes can shoot eye beams, they all unleash just negative emotions like antipathy, despair and rage. Which... sounds a lot cooler than the mechanics, which just stops enemies from moving, get feared or just take damage. 

I feel like other than named Mind Flayer godling 'Ilvash' (the 'boss' of the campaign) I felt like we're just scratching the surface of how weird and creepy a Mind Flayer campaign can get. I'm sure the usual aberration suspects do show up in this adventure too, the Mind Flayers and Elder Brains and Beholders and whatnot, but I also kind of wished that we really got more, you know? It might seem that I'm a bit down on some of these monsters, but I'm not -- I do enjoy that we get new aberrations and new monsters and all, it's just that it feels a bit disappointing that almost all of them are just corrupted and derivatives of existing creatures. i get that it fits the story of Phandelver being a 'classic' D&D-brand adventure, but still.

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