Adherer - Forgotten Realms - Fiend Folio

Hello and welcome,  the adherer first appeared as the gluey in White Dwarf magazine issue #7 printed in 1978, it was selected for inclusion in the first edition Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Fiend Folio in 1981 and finally the second edition AD&D Monstrous Compendium Fiend Folio Appendix in 1992. So for over 30 years, this monster has been a lost gem, waiting to leap out of the shadows and obscurity and right into your games.

Coincidently, that is exactly what the Adherer tends to do anyway, it is a masterful ambush predator that uses a very simple tactic really, it is sticky... very sticky. One might ask why the monster is not the mascot for my youtube channel, the Mighty Gluestick... fair, but its undeniably a kind of hilarious critter at first glance... at least, it is up until you are fighting one to four of the things, and then you are screwing up yet another character sheet and thinking to yourself, well shit, that was a hell of a lot more dangerous than I thought it would be.

Grab yourself a tasty beverage and settle back, but don't get too comfortable because we are going to get deeply nerdy and deeply disturbing as we learn all there is to know about the Adherer.

Picture if you will, a party of a few adventurers, they are freshly woken from their campsite on the edge of a small but ancient stand of trees, woken this morning to the grim discovery of a missing pack mule, and a large sack of copper coins they had used to weigh down the rope the mule was tethered to. Loss of the horse was bad enough, but those coins were hard fought and quite a vicious band of goblins scrapped like little demons to keep hold of their raided booty, the entire payroll for a local mining settlement the adventurers are working for. So, following the fresh hoof prints in the morning dew, the adventurers enter the edge of the tree line, and the sharp eyes of the cleric of Lathander spot something white and translucent, like a really long worm on the ground.

Its spiderweb. Really thick spiderweb.

"Ah shit" he says, looking to the canopy of thick branches and dense leaves overhead with a wary intensity. Turning to his dwarven companion, his eyes gleaming in the dim light, he gives his warning, "Giant spider." The dwarf grunts, he has no fear of spiders, where he comes from they are almost as common as pack mules anyway, but those that live in the surface of the world do tend to be pretty damn nasty, more of the fast and aggressive hunters, less of the big, bloated lurkers who spin giant webs across dark chasms in his homeland far to the southwest.

"Aye, its either very big or it got an ass like Rupert's mum," he says, smirking at their third companion, a highly unlikely, round, and very rocky Galeb Dur, who holds up one thick arm and raises a single stubby finger at the dwarf.

"You know my mother was an elf, you fluffy-faced bastard; now stay behind me," he grumbled in a voice even deeper than the dwarven fighter's. his hands suddenly holding a pair of wicked-looking elven blades. Wild Magic was often deadly, sometimes transformative and crazy, particularly that summoned by insane goblin warlocks, but, aside from how strange it felt, the galeb dur body was one hell of a tactical asset for the elven burglar, even if his days of climbing anything were probably at an end if he couldn't get turned back to normal.

Sure enough, not far into the woods, the galeb dur stopped in his stomping tracks and locked his beady eyes on an excellent example of a giant spiderweb strung between three tall Duskwood trees with a dark clump closer to the ground and no sign of any giant arachnid. It was quiet, too quiet, not a bird or bug made a peep or squeak, he would have sniffed the air, but in his current form, he had no sense of smell at all.

The dwarf sure did, he had one hand clamped on his face, tucked in behind his heavy metal shield, and he quietly complained, "That smells like a pool of week-old rothe piss, ammonia or something; what kind of spider is this, a dead one?"

They gathered together behind a large fern and watched the scene for a while, but nothing was moving.

"I don't like this at all, and I don't see any sign of the mule or the coins," said the cleric.

"The coins are over there under that pile of ... oh wait, is that a cave entrance?" asked Rupert, pointing a his rocky finger.

The dwarf grunted again and crept toward the location as best he could in heavy armor, which was not very good at all, and no sooner had he stepped within five paces of the base of the web than the dark shape snared within it suddenly sprang to life, with an almost metallic echo of twangs, the ropes of spiderweb snapped like steel cables and the humanoid figure leaped suddenly right on top of the dwarf, who got a balled fist slammed into the side of his helmet and uncharacteristically went down in a rolling heap among the vegetation, throwing up clumps of dirt and one of his leather boots.

Whatever it was that attacked him was tremendously strong but didn't make any sort of sound, the cleric gagged a little as a wave of stench billowed across him, coming from the monster's ragged-looking body and his eyes grew very wide as he recognized what it was, what it surely couldn't be... a powerful form of undead, cursed to rise from the grave and slay trespassers and despoilers of ancient tombs and temples, this was a Mummy!

In a forest? In broad daylight? No matter, he quickly grabbed for mace and asked his radiant god to bless it with the gift of fire, feeling the warmth of the morning lord flow through him and ignite the metal weapon with flickering flames.

"Unhand him in the name of Lathander!" he bellowed and took a mighty swing at the back of the thing's head.

It did not go as expected, and right behind him, a large shadow silently descended from the treetops, its long, hairy legs reaching out to grab him.

The Adherer is another monstrosity with a mysterious origin that has long been a source of fascination and frustration among alchemists and druids alike. 

Nobody seems to know where they first came from, but it is known that they do not reproduce like mammals or reptiles; they don't bear young or lay eggs and only seem to grow in number when in environments with a rich source of prey for them to hunt. They seem to simply grow from a mass of ragged flesh that comes away from the body of the parent, so they may not require any other adherer to reproduce and have no gender in their species at all. They can be encountered solo or in groups of up to four individuals; none are the leader; they just seem to tolerate each other's company and gain the benefits of mutual protection and being able to take down more prey with the help of their allies, and quite often they will also cohabitate and form hunting strategies with giant spiders, who they will never attack or see as a source of food, though they will eat pretty much any other living creature they can ambush. 

Adherers tend to live only about 35 years and have a humanoid form, standing five or six feet tall. On close inspection, they resemble a decrepit human corpse wrapped in pale, filthy bandages. The folds and flaps are actually the Adherer's tough and flexible skin, covered in a very powerful organic adhesive. Only a few things are effective against the adhesive resin the creature constantly excretes, leaving it stinking of musty, dank, and rotted vegetation. Fire or boiling hot water are both capable of reducing the skin's adhesive capabilities, but only death will eventually render all its resin inert within 12 hours. The adherer also exudes a perfect amount of solvent from countless pores across its body and under it's complete control, which allows them to stick to only certain objects or prey.

In many ways it would be less disturbing if these monsters were undead, because the fact is, they will start to eat their prey as soon as they grab it, while its alive, and being killed by an adherer can take far too long.

There has been something of an update, and on the rare occasion I do mention Pathfinder, but I have to say, um NO, I'm not including that version of the monsters because eating people alive is bad enough, you don't need to include raping them on top of that, and Paizo should be ashamed of itself. But I'll use the artwork at least.

Oh alright, basically that book states the origin of those adherers is they are the horrifically tortured and transformed former victims of a cult of Phase Spiders which held them trapped in their interdimensional nightmare web lair for centuries feeding on their blood, the phase spiders eventually dispersed and so did their former victims, scattered across the dimensions as the dreaded adherers. It would explain their sort of telepathic communication with spiders, but, why would they live with any sort of spider after centuries of being horrifically enslaved by the things?

OK so lets update the monster to the modern game and give it some stats!

It's fairly straightforward, we have to keep in mind that it can appear either solo or in a group of four, so a challenge to low-level and medium-level parties of adventurers and absolutely deadly when combined with giant spiders and ettercaps or a squad of them being directed and controlled by a spell-slinging and very intelligent Aranea spider mage in their Underdark territory on the outskirts of Calimshan, for example.

I'm going to convert the Adherer into a challenge rating 3 monster for 5th edition D&D and I am going to provide some notes so you can create an encounter location which is a hard, and I mean hard, challenge for a party of level 3 to 4 player characters, they will face off against four adherers, one giant spider and one ettercap in a forest.

The full stats and notes for this are available for patrons in my patreon page and also for channel members and patrons on my Discord server as my thanks for all your vital support.

 Adherers are rare medium-sized humanoid aberrations usually found in caves or shaded forested areas where they can ambush creatures undisturbed. Their adhesive resin loses potency soon after death, and attempts to harvest it for alchemical purposes have so far been unsuccessful. They are known to associate and work together with Arachnids and Ettercaps and can communicate with them silently somehow (could be telepathy, could be tremorsense, they do not speak and have no language of their own); they have a natural armor class of 15 and an average of 58 hit points, a speed of 30 feet (and given their control over their adhesion, I would just assume they have a spider climb type ability).

Adherers are very strong, with a strength of 18; they have a dexterity of 14, a constitution of 14, a maximum intelligence of 8, wisdom of 10, and charisma of 6; they are Lawful evil and consider other humanoids as nothing but food. They are immune to becoming charmed, exhausted, frightened, or being knocked prone and have damage resistance to acid, bludgeoning, slashing, and piercing from non-magical, non-fire-based weapons and have special immunity to non-fire-based cantrips and first-level spells, except for Magic Missile. However, normal missile weapons also only do half damage. They are vulnerable to all kinds of fire, taking double damage from it, and they also take double damage from magic missiles.

Adherers have 60-foot darkvision and passive perception of 10; they have +4 to stealth, +2 to active perception checks, and +6 to all strength-based and +4 to all dexterity-based saving throws and checks; when concealed and motionless, they have advantage on stealth checks, or those checking the area visually have disadvantage unless the search is close or involves an enhanced sense of smell, where the sour stink of the Adherer will work against them.

Any creature that touches the adherer or hits it with a melee attack using a nonmagical weapon must succeed on a DC 17 Strength (Athletics) check to free themselves or their weapon from the adherer’s adhesive secretion. Until it succeeds, the creature or weapon remains adhered to the adherer.

The adhesive can only be removed by a creature’s action to break free or by fire, boiling liquids, or the adherer’s own secretions. Weapons adhered to the adherer deal only half damage. A weapon removed from the adherer’s adhesive can’t be used until the beginning of the user’s next turn.

The adherer takes double damage from all fire attacks. In addition, a creature adhered to the adherer can use an action to apply fire to the adhesive (such as a torch) to break free of the adhesion automatically.

Each round the Adherer makes two adhesive fist attacks, +6 to hit one target within their 5 ft reach inflicting 1d4+4 bludgeoning damage. On a hit, the target must succeed on a DC 17 Strength (Athletics) check or become grappled by the adherer. A creature grappled by the adherer is restrained. 

While grappling a creature, the adherer can use that creature as a shield against ranged attacks or spells. The restrained creature provides the adherer with half cover (+2 to AC and Dexterity saving throws). If the restrained creature is Medium or larger, the cover is instead three-quarters cover (+5 to AC and Dexterity saving throws).

finally, When damaged by fire, the adherer must succeed on a DC 12 Wisdom saving throw or take the Dash action and move as far away from the source of fire as possible on its next turn and they really hate being fired before they get a chance to leap out and ambush a victim, which may cause them to simply run away from the fight before it even begins, which is not cowardice exactly, its just that they know they are much better off if they get the drop on their prey and they are hunting for food after all, not fighting to the death for no reason.

Now for the example combat encounter, this counts as a challenge rating 6 encounter for 3rd to 4th level adventurers.

Deep within a dense forest, the adventurers stumble upon a shadowed grove tangled with webs. The canopy is thick with webs stretching between towering trees, obscuring sunlight and creating a dim, almost claustrophobic atmosphere. Thick, sticky webs cover much of the ground and trail up to the tree branches, forming walls of sticky obstacles and scattered piles of bones or other leftovers from past prey.

Much of the ground is covered with webbing that acts as difficult terrain for the adventurers. Any non-spider, non-adherer creature must succeed on a DC 12 Dexterity saving throw or become restrained upon entering the web terrain. Restrained creatures can use their action to make a DC 14 Strength check to break free.

Several 10-foot-high web walls block visibility and movement. Web walls are flammable and have an AC of 10 with 15 HP. Fire damage spreads quickly through the web, burning away terrain within 5 feet of the impact each round.

There are suspended, sticky webs connecting branches high in the canopy where the giant spider and ettercap are hiding, waiting to ambush from above.

The smooth black-barked and straight-trunked Duskwood trees are 60-80 feet tall, with most branches starting about 20 feet up. This height offers strategic points for the spider and ettercap, and any attempts to spot them from the ground require a DC 15 Perception check due to the dense foliage on the small lacy branches and webbing. Duskwood trees are very resistant to fire, by the way. The canopy and thick web walls give creatures hiding within them half cover if they remain motionless. This allows the giant spider and ettercap to stay hidden while they wait for the right moment to strike.

The ettercap and giant spider wait above, ready to drop down into the fight. The ettercap commands the spider telepathically, coordinating their moves with precision. If any adventurer tries to move out of the central webbed clearing, the ettercap will send the spider down to block their path while it webs up any attackers. The ettercap uses Web Garrote tactics, trying to ensnare weaker or more isolated adventurers. 

The ettercap uses Web actions to shoot at characters who stay at range, forcing them to either burn through webbing or waste actions breaking free. The giant spider, hidden in the trees, will use Web attacks to immobilize targets from a distance, then descend to deliver a bite attack.

The adherers are positioned around the clearing, partially buried under debris and dirt, lying in wait. They’ll attempt to ambush characters who move into the sticky ground terrain or try to bypass the web walls. Once the party enters, each adherer will pounce on the closest character, attempting to grapple and restrain them using their Adhesion Fist attacks. If they successfully restrain someone, they’ll use the restrained character as a shield against ranged attacks or spells, aiming to keep the party’s focus away from the hidden enemies above.

During the fight the giant spider could drop down on an unsuspecting target, forcing a DC 13 Dexterity saving throw. On a failure, the target is restrained as the spider’s weight pins them briefly. This can add tension and a sense of surprise, especially if the adventurers think they've cleared one part of the encounter only for the spider to leap down. Smaller spiders (swarm of spiders, CR 1/2) can be added to the encounter if the players are moving too freely or need an added challenge. They can drop from the trees and scurry over the webbed terrain to swarm players, forcing additional Dexterity saving throws.

As the webs are burned, some sections of the terrain open up, but smoldering flames can leave hazardous areas where players must avoid burning debris. Any web structure struck by fire will cause it to spread in a 5-foot radius each round, forcing players to be careful where they aim.

If you want to get really nasty, throw in a special hammering Logs or falling log pile trap set up by the ettercap and the tremendously strong Adherers, exactly like the traps created by the Ewoks in Return of the Jedi, except the ropes are all made of spiderweb.

And there you have it.

My name is AJ Pickett, thanks for joining me and as always, I will be back with more for you, very soon.

Assassin Bug - Dungeons and Dragons - Forgotten Realms - Fiend Folio

The Assassin Bug comes to us from the 1981 Fiend Folio, a large collection of fan-submitted monsters from the very early popularity of Dungeons and Dragons, as it was taking a foothold in the United Kingdom and the greater Commonwealth of countries. This particular creature is one of a very small number that have seen an official update to the 5th edition of the game in Mordenkainen's Fiendish Folio Volume 1: Monsters Malevolent and Benign. This is an interesting product from Wizards of the Coast—first off, “volume one” kind of implies more volumes, which we have not seen, and it was made as part of a charity drive for the Extra Life foundation. But the Mordenkainen titles for 5th edition are... weird. Mind you, so is the original Fiend Folio and the fact it was done and ready two years before it eventually saw print, and it was, I am pretty sure, the first ever third-party product made for the game, since the UK branch of TSR became Games Workshop, and none of these creatures were from Dragon or Dungeon magazine, they were from White Dwarf magazine in Britain.

Another interesting thing about the updated listing for the Assassin Bug is that they did the same thing they did later with the Hadozee species from Spelljammer, but in this case, it didn't blow up in their faces because they didn't involve anything more problematic than the original listing included. It’s pretty much a bit of page filler you can completely ignore, and they removed a bit of important and much more useful lore from the first edition version, which I think adds a lot to the monster, as you will soon see. So, grab yourself a tasty beverage, we are about to get deeply nerdy.

The loathsome, egg-bloated, buzzing, annoying, food-ruining, and disease-ridden blowfly in a vaguely humanoid form—and far more aggressive. Not just nature's disgusting little garbage eaters, but active predators of other humanoid species. This is the D&D Assassin Bug, not to be confused with the actual assassin bug, a real insect and quite interesting in its own right, but of course, a D&D version would have to be giant or demonic or something.

Assassin Bugs are known to infest some areas of Faerûn such as the Rimwood Forest of Cormanthyr. Occasionally they will reach the plains of Cormyr and the woods of the Dalelands, and there is an account of an outbreak in Sembia that saw a significant amount of forest burnt to the ground by elves, so you know it must have been hellaciously bad—basically like humans setting fire to their entire town, which is also known to happen with these revolting monsters. Despite what the freefolk of these lands will tell you over a pint in a warm tavern, they are not fly demons; there is nothing infernal about them. However, I can tell you they do inhabit the 500th layer of the Abyss, the dense nightmare jungles belonging to the goddess Kali. Trust me, you don’t want to go there.

Nobody really knows where they came from. There is speculation that some crazy sect of nature cultists—and I refuse to call them Druids—most likely a cult of the Beastlord, Malar, the god of hunting, stalking, bloodlust, and bestial savagery. But perhaps it was a cult of Kozah, an ancient sect dedicated to the Storm Lord Talos, focused on his portfolio of destruction. However, I am skeptical because they have always engineered natural disasters, for example, working behind the scenes to incite the elves to use their incredibly potent song magic to wreak enormous destruction, such as the Sundering or the flooding of the Vilhon Reach and the end of the psionic cities of the sword. It’s all speculation though, as I said, nobody really knows. Even Kozah serves a purpose in the grand scheme of things; there is no sense in punishing gods for just being what they are.

No, I am more inclined to think this is tied to the god Malar, who seeks the success and dominance of the most adaptable and strong life forms. After some extensive study of the Assassin Bugs, I can tell you exactly why I think this, and provide one hell of a fun improvement to the design of the monster in the process.

First, some fun facts. The Assassin Bugs don’t have ears—they detect sound through sensitive bristles, so burning the head of an Assassin Bug will scorch off the delicate hairs that it uses to detect sound and will deafen them. Unlike flies, they don’t have an extending proboscis. They have a mouth with fangs and a rasping tongue. Also, they don’t have the soft pulvillus pad on the base of each foot or on their hands, which makes it unlikely they will climb walls or tree trunks with the ease of a tiny insect, though they can certainly climb and fly over any hazardous terrain. This compensates a little for their horribly slow walking speed of 10 feet per round, but they are not well adapted to walking around on two legs. Don’t worry, I have an explanation for that as well—let’s SCIENCE this thing!

Thanks to a formula called Kleiber's Law, we can use the rough measurements of the mass of the insectoid monster and a common bluebottle fly to predict how long the Assassin Bugs would take to grow from egg into a full adult. We know the Assassin Bugs reproduce once every two months. However, it takes a total of 2.8 years to grow to full reproductive adulthood. This contradicts the lore and observations of the speed at which the early stages occur, so we know, for a fact, that these are not completely natural creatures—they are supernatural monstrosities. Otherwise, it would take 68 days for eggs to hatch after being implanted in a victim. Larval growth would take a total of 1.4 years, and they would remain in a pupae form for 1.16 years before emerging fully developed and ready to hunt and breed. There are a few fantasy world solutions to this problem. I won’t go into great detail; I will simply pick the one that is the most favorable to interesting plots and monstrous variants.

So, the idea here is that once the Assassin Bug maggots consume the host’s heart and the soul departs, they enter a kind of transitional state. At that point, they’re not fully bound to the Material Plane anymore—they exist partially in the Border Ethereal. This gives them access to energies that let them grow rapidly, far beyond what normal biology would allow. They can feed on the essence of the host, absorbing not just physical matter but something deeper, like the host’s life force or soul residue. That’s what fuels their quick transformation into their juvenile form.

While they’re in this dual-plane existence, they’re vulnerable because Ethereal predators could pick them off, so there’s a real danger during this phase. This forces them to grow quickly, using the essence they’ve absorbed to rapidly develop into their next stage.

What’s especially creepy is that the maggots don’t just consume the host—they also absorb traits from them. This is why the juvenile Assassin Bugs resemble humanoids rather than insects. They’re mimicking the species they’ve infested, adapting their forms to match the physical traits of the host. If they kill a dwarf, the juveniles might emerge stocky and strong. If they feed on an elf, they might be more agile. And in this juvenile stage, their bodies are somewhat malleable—they have a limited form of shapeshifting. It’s not full-on doppelganger-level, but their forms are still flexible enough that they can adapt to their host’s traits as they develop. As they grow, these traits harden, and they settle into their more insectoid adult form.

The heart plays a crucial role because it’s not just a vital organ—it’s a gateway to the host’s essence. By devouring the heart, the maggots tap into a kind of soul energy that triggers this magical, rapid growth. It’s not just physical nourishment—it’s metaphysical. That’s what allows them to break the normal rules of biology and grow so quickly after the host’s death.

And when these juvenile bugs emerge, they could even retain fragments of the host’s memories or instincts. This would make them disturbingly familiar to anyone who knew the host. You could encounter a juvenile Assassin Bug that has some of the same mannerisms or tactical instincts as its victim, which would make it both terrifying and eerie. They’re not just mindless monsters—they’re tied to their host, which makes them unpredictable and even more dangerous.

So, the limited shapeshifting in their juvenile phase helps explain why they look more humanoid early on, but as they mature, they lose that flexibility and become the more insect-like creatures they truly are.

The Assassin Bug will inject one to three eggs into a still-living host. These hatch immediately, meaning they have been inside the adult Assassin Bug already for at least a couple of months. This means you can loot a dead Assassin Bug female for her stored eggs. I'd say she probably has no less than ten, and they are not going to hatch unless they are put inside another living creature. But it may be possible to extract a compound from the egg-storing organ of the dead females that can be made into a non-magical potion to prevent implanted eggs from hatching inside a host treated with the potion. The eggs are four to five inches long and oval-shaped, with a deep blue color. They stink and make fantastic fish bait. They are also highly prized by Troglodytes, who love the smell, Bugbears, which get some sort of a buzz off them, and Trolls... Oh, Trolls just LOVE to eat the eggs and maggots of Assassin Bugs. They are known to infest themselves with the things, as they regenerate so fast the maggots can't kill them. The infested Troll will dig the maggots out of its flesh and eat them like a horrific snack. Yeah, no thanks, I'll stick with some fruit leather and Lembas bread for my trail snacks.

There are more peculiarities to these revolting creatures. The Assassin Bug maggots share traits with their distant cousins, the Rot Grubs. It's plausible that the two species are in some way related. While Assassin Bug maggots grow larger and far more deadly, there’s something to be said about how both infest the body and burrow into flesh. It’s worth noting that Assassin Bugs have been observed in proximity to colonies of Rot Grubs—whether this is some kind of natural symbiosis or coincidence remains unclear, but it makes sense that these parasitic species might share territory or even cooperate in their gruesome life cycles.

If you’re looking to run a darker or more terrifying campaign, Assassin Bugs could be part of a larger ecosystem of parasitic, body-invading monsters, including Grick hatchlings or even more esoteric creatures like intellect devourers. Think about it: Assassin Bugs could play a key role in spreading these other species, serving as the “carrier” or initial invader, weakening victims before more insidious creatures finish them off.

Also, there is the interesting observation that Assassin Bugs have a deep connection to Trolls. As mentioned, Trolls not only enjoy eating Assassin Bug eggs and maggots, but they’re also biologically resistant to infestation, healing far faster than the maggots can harm them. This has led some scholars to hypothesize that there might be an ancient link between the Assassin Bug's creation and the regenerative abilities of Trolls. It’s possible that a forgotten, primal magic ties the two creatures together, potentially dating back to the time when the gods shaped these monstrous forms. Perhaps Malar or another savage deity granted the Assassin Bugs their reproductive prowess specifically to challenge creatures like Trolls, testing the limits of their regenerative powers in the natural cycle of predator and prey. This might also explain why Trolls seem to relish consuming them.

Incorporating this into your campaign could give you some fascinating plot hooks. Maybe a tribe of Trolls has learned to cultivate Assassin Bugs, letting themselves become infested as part of a gruesome trial of strength and regeneration. Imagine a Troll Shaman who believes that consuming Assassin Bug eggs strengthens their connection to their god. Or, perhaps there’s a rival tribe that hunts these Trolls specifically to harvest the Assassin Bugs they carry, creating some horrifying alchemical concoctions in the process.

The Assassin Bug's life cycle also presents some intriguing options for campaigns centered around body horror. Given that the juvenile form can mimic the traits of its host, there’s a grim possibility that these creatures could "inherit" more than just physical characteristics. The idea that they absorb traits or memories from their victims introduces the terrifying possibility of doppelgänger-like creatures that remember people, places, or even skills from their prior hosts. If a player’s character were to fall victim to an Assassin Bug infestation, only for a juvenile bug to emerge with some of their memories or abilities, it would create a nightmarish situation—an enemy that literally knows you as well as you know yourself.

Alternatively, these juvenile Assassin Bugs could be manipulated by necromancers or other evil entities to serve as spies or assassins, leveraging their mimicry and memory absorption abilities for dark purposes. Perhaps a villain has devised a way to "program" these creatures, controlling them once they emerge from their hosts, using them as disposable but deadly tools. This would give the players a chance to confront enemies that are familiar yet alien at the same time, ramping up the stakes and emotional intensity of any encounter.

Finally, on the Abyssal front, the fact that Assassin Bugs inhabit the 500th layer of the Abyss, within the domain of Kali, suggests a particularly dark origin. Kali is not typically depicted in Faerûnian lore, but her influence on savage, predatory creatures fits perfectly with the Assassin Bugs’ brutal life cycle. It’s possible that some demonic influence has seeped into the Material Plane, allowing these monsters to spread their vile breed across Faerûn. This could provide an excellent adventure hook for players to investigate an outbreak of Assassin Bugs that seem to have a more sinister, demonic edge to them—perhaps enhanced versions of the standard bugs, with fiendish traits or magical abilities tied to the Abyss itself.

To sum up, the Assassin Bug is far more than just a disgusting insect-monster. With their rapid reproduction, deadly life cycle, and connections to both material and extraplanar forces, they offer a wealth of storytelling potential. From terrifying body horror to deep-rooted connections to the gods of savagery and predation, these creatures can become a centerpiece for any campaign involving nature’s darker side or the lurking threat of parasitic invasion. And with the addition of lore and potential interactions with other monstrous species, they could play a key role in creating an ecosystem of terror within your campaign world.

The listing in 5th edition is very close to the original version of the monster, they are medium sized monstrosities of a neutral alignment, they just seem very evil from a humanoid's point of view, they don't really bother other creatures, but are known to attack other creatures when no humanoids are available, we know this because of the horrific wounds found on many Catoblepas in the swamps beyond the mountain border of Cormyr, the tough death cows can withstand even such a savage parasite, don't ask me how, its amazing, also if you ever have random creatures run headlong into your camp fire, be very wary as they are probably infested with Assassin bug eggs. 

The assassin bug has an armor class of 14, 55 hit points on average, they move at 10 feet per round walking or 50 feet flying, not very agile but fast on the wing, they tend to fly right at victims and slam into them, the males have darker coloring and will always attack first using a couple of bite attacks each round, +4 to hit one adjacent target, inflicting 1d10+2 piercing damage, and the target must succeed on a DC 11 Constitution saving throw or be poisoned for 1 minute. While poisoned this way, the target is paralyzed. The target can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success. The females will then appear from hiding, all assassin bugs have +4 to stealth and +3 to perception with a passive perception of 13 but advantage on perception tests thanks to their excellent sense of smell, they also have 60 ft Darkvision and are immune to being either poisoned or paralysed. Females will attack with another bite and then plunge in with a thick and sharp tipped ovipositor extending out of the end of their abdomen, also +4 to hit, the target is then infested with bug eggs which immediatly burst open with the highly motivated larva chewwing into flesh like crazy. 

At the start of each of the target’s turns, the target takes 1d6 piercing damage per maggot infesting it. Applying fire to the bite wound before the end of the target’s next turn deals 1 fire damage to the target and kills these assassin bug maggots. After this time, the maggots are too far under the skin to be burned.

If a target infested by assassin bug maggots ends its turn with 0 hit points, it dies as the maggots burrow into its heart and kill it. Any effect that cures disease kills all assassin bug maggots infesting the target.

Given their need to lay eggs in a living host, assassin bugs generally flee from constructs and undead, they can often be fooled with a good illusion, but remember, one smell of a living target and they will attack.

If you liked this video, I have a lot more of them, also, this video is part of the Fiend Folio playlist, covering all the monsters in the book from A to Z. For lore from all editions of the game, welcoming all players to the hobby, I would love to have your subscription and be delighted to answer any questions you have in the comments below, meanwhile..

Thanks for listening, and as always, I will be back with more for you very soon.

CIFAL - Dungeons and Dragons Lore - Fiend Folio for 5th edition

Here is one of the weirder creatures from the 1981 Fiend Folio for Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 2nd edition, while it didn't get included in later editions of the game, the core idea behind it is quite cool and there have been attempts to update and make versions for 5th edition D&D, I browsed through them all, decided we could do better, and come up with something that includes my favorite thing.

Random roll tables!

This monster is one of the classic Fiend Folio weirdo critters that gets mocked a lot, but I think is a hidden gem, a diamond in the rough, just needing some spit and polish to bring out its true value.

So, let's look at the Colonial Insect-Formed Artificial Life, otherwise known as the CIFAL. Grab yourself a tasty beverage; it's time to get deeply nerdy.

In the original fiend folio, hundreds of fan-submitted monster creations were considered for inclusion; Oliver Charles Macdonald created and submitted the Cifal and the Giant Two-Headed Troll to the editor of White Dwarf magazine, neither of which got published in the monthly magazine, but both of which appear in the Fiend Folio printed in 1981. 

The Cifal didn't really have any lore attached to it; it just informed us that, for whatever reason, some swarms of stinging and biting insects decided to cluster tightly together, forming into a roughly humanoid shape and attacking a bunch of adventurers. Half the fun is coming up with the why and How of this encounter.

We know that the cifal is not a natural creature, but the insects that come together to form a cifal are completely normal. There could be many reasons, upset fey spirits, possessing entities, gods, elementals, primordials, an ancient curses of the creator races now long lost, but some malignant force compels these insects to swarm together into a solid, humanoid shape and attack other creatures.

I quite like th open ended mystery of them, true horror stems from the unknown after all.

Encounters with the Cifal should be preceded by strange behavior in the wildlife, particularly but not limited to the insects. They will have a tendency to swarm, and even species that don't normally form into hives will start to display strange, coordinated, and cooperative behavior, such as hundreds of spiders working together to cover trees with spooky veils of cobweb or the song of the crickets and cicadas changing pitch, becoming a shrieking sound, like the scream of a child, rising in volume and dying away, over and over, day and night. Flies all gather in the same place into a dark pattern that you can almost recognize. A pile of earthworms, all crawling up and over each other like they are trying to escape the ground. Any of which is enough to wave a big red flag in the face of any druid, fey creature, elf, or gnome, who will feel the presence of something else lurking under the cover of nature, an alien, cruel, and unfeeling force.

When the Cifal appears, the player characters should be on edge, they have been dealing with descriptions of insect behavior that fill their minds with all sorts of terrible ideas, the Cifal is both a dire threat, and also, its supposed to be the answer to the question of what the hell has been going on with all the bugs, only, the Cifal doesn't speak, it gives no answers, it is just as damned mysterious as the rest of the weirdness that has been going on, only, this new nightmare really is trying to kill them.

It's still a mystery, but the players can put this issue aside for a moment, as they fight to just stay alive.

The Cifal was originally just assumed to be a mass of biting and stinging, flying bugs, but I think we can diversify and give the Cifal a range of different insect species to take advantage of their unique traits, so I've included a random table with specific bug abilities you can easily add onto a base template of attributes and abilities all the types of Cifal share.

And here it is. I do hope Oliver Charles Macdonald would be happy with what I have done with the creature.

The Colonial Insect Formed Artificial Life is a medium swarm of tiny beasts, it has a neutral alignment, but could certainly be evil if its some sort of curse or the creation of a hag's foul magic. I suppose you could create a good Cifal, your campaign might need just that sort of thing, a nature entity summoned by the wood elves to protect their forest realm.

As a swarm the Cifal is Amorphous, able to fit through openings as small as an inch without any bother, making for an excellent infiltrator and assassin, the Swarm tactics allow multiple Cifal and small allied swarms of insects to provide advantage to each other's attack rolls if they within 5ft of each other and as swarms, they can occupy another creature's space, but they can't regain hit points or gain temporary hit points. One key feature I preserved as best I could from the original Fiend Folio version is that when the Cifal is reduced to zero hit points, it makes a Constitution saving throw, if it gets a 12 or higher, it splits into three small swarms and carries on it's attack, and I provide stats for those small swarms as well. If it rolls an 11 or lower, it fails to form into those small swarms and all the individual insects remaining will fly and crawl off on their own.

The small swarms have an armor class of 13 and an average of 18 hit points, a speed of 20 feet, that can be crawling or flying, depends on the sub-type of Cifal you are dealing with, each small swarm can make two swarming insect bite attacks per round and are +5 to hit one target within 5 feet but also, maybe on the same space they are in, and do on average 13 points of damage each attack, the damage type may be poison, piercing, acid, necrotic, depends on what sort of insects they are.

The medium sized mass of the Cifal is a challenge rating two monster, which means you can face a couple of these things if you have a party of, say, 5th level characters, which means they could break up into six small swarms, and thats 12 attacks per round so, not so funny all of a sudden.

The Cifal base attack thankfully is no more powerful than the attack of the small swarms, because those swarms are its two attacks, the third swarm represents the body of the Cifal, holding it all together, but also, the Medium sized Cifal has a secondary attack or defense, as any creature that touches the CIFAL or hits it with a melee attack takes 7 (2d6) piercing damage as thousands of tiny insects bite and sting. This damage is sustained while they are in contact with the Cifal.

All Cifals have blindsight to a range of 30 feet and a passive perception of 10, they don't understand or speak any languages and have resistance to all bludgeoning, piercing or slashing damage, in the original version that included only taking a maximum of 1 point of damage from even magical slashing damage, but that is a little overpowered I think, the variants also add specific resistances and immunities.

The base movement speed is 30 feet. The variant traits may add things like flying attacks, but usually, the Cifal doesn't fly unless it is reduced to small swarms.  The base attributes are Strength 16, dexterity 11, constitution 14, intelligence 4 (which is generous), wisdom 10, and Charisma 6.

The base template has an armor class of 15 and an average of 45 hit points, it's 7d8 plus 14, so between 21 and 70 hit points.

The variants I have included are the Fire Ant, the Mosquito, the Beetle, the Dragonfly, the Termite, and the Hornet; you can come up with your own, for example, scorpions or stink bugs, perhaps marine Arthropods, and even leeches; there are so many options.

Fire ant types cause 3d6 acid damage and are immune to fire; they have a special burning defense when hit by a melee attack. These things are literally fire ants and can set a village ablaze if not stopped in time. A bit far-fetched, but hey, it's D&D.

Mosquito variants do piercing damage of course and have two special actions, first is caled Disease Carrier, On a hit, the target must succeed on a DC 12 Constitution save or be infected (disadvantage on checks and attack rolls until cured). The second is called Blood Drain, which reduces the target’s hit point maximum by the damage dealt until they finish a long rest.

The Beetle variant is tough, with an armor class of 17, piercing damage attacks, resistance to cold and lightning, and it can curl up into an armored ball, gaining resistance to all damage except psychic.

The Dragonfly variant is fast; it moves at 50 feet on the ground of 40 feet in the air each round and it has a special Dive Bomb swarm action where it needs to fly at least 20 feet toward the target to make a, oh, I wrote bite here, but its really thousands of tiny bites or stings, you know what I mean, anyway, the standard swarm sting attack of the base template but with an added saving throw from the target, they need to roll 12 or higher on a strength test or be knocked prone, which can be very nasty if they are also getting savaged by a bunch of small swarms.

The Termite variant is fantastic for warfare or just general mayhem, very nasty if you are playing spelljammer, the damage type is piercing, and the variant gains resistance to acid damage; its special action is called Devour Structure and simply destroys a five-foot cube of wood in one action.

Finally, the Hornet variant, scary as hell, damage type is Poison, resistant to poison damage and immune to the poisoned condition, its Swarming Stings action against one target in melee range or within the same space, which is +5 to hit, inflicts 3d6+4 or an average of 14 poison damage and the target get a 12 or higher on a constitution test or be poisoned for one minute, I leave it to you if they get further saving rolls in that time or not, I wouldn't give that option unless there was some special toughness to the target, because we are talking about potentially hundreds of hornet stings inflicted at once, which is quite serious.

And that is about all I have for you today on the CIFAL, I do hope you have enjoyed it, and this look at how to convert and update a simple enough creature from 45 years ago. You know what they say, Time Flys but most Colonial Insect-Formed Artificial Life variants do not.

OK, maybe they don't say that, its a terrible name, please suggest something better in the comments below!

Halfling Segmented Pole - NEW FEAT - Dungeons and Dragons Lore - Forgot...

Hello and welcome; in today's video, I am going to be covering a weapon developed by the Hin people of the Forgotten Realms, arising from their homeland in the Southern Coast of Faerun, the nation of Luiren. I will answer what it is, exactly how it evolved into its current form, the real-world proof that this fantastic bit of gear is entirely possible, and by the end of the video, I will give you the exact tools to fit the weapon, its use and its game mechanics easily and seamlessly into your dungeons and dragons experience. Also, you will learn a fascinating and wonderful new sporting activity which I think deserves a lot more attention, and perhaps a place, eventually, in the Olympic games.

Today, it's time to discover the Halfling Segmented Pole.

As you may already have noted, it's not exactly a pole; it is normally carried and configured as a form of spear or light lance, and it's important to keep in mind the proportions and physical capabilities of the hobbits, so let me start off with a little bit of science here.

Hobbits are the size of human children, but they are hardy and robust folk who are well known to be expert farmers with prodigious appetites and a certain fearless strength to them that in many ways rivals the amazing constitution of the Dwarven people, a halfling community is patrolled and protected by a relatively loose organization of Wardens, who act very much like a constabulary, emergency militia and as Rangers who operate in all types of weather, in all types of terrain. When you look at the strength of Halflings and Gnomes, they are capable of lifting well over their own body weight with far less effort than it would take a human to do the same thing with their own weight, and in reality, if one were to get into a wrestling match with a Halfling or Gnome, a human would fare not much better than if they were trying to go hand to hand with an angry chimpanzee, which is to say, not very well at all. The same could be said when comparing the actual strength of an orc to a human, even a teenage orc girl would make short work of Mike Tyson in a boxing ring, as they should, according to biological science, have twice the strength of any human being, but, it is what it is, I am not here to reinvent the game, its sufficient to say, that what I am about to describe to you is not just humanly possible, it is something that would be easy for any halfling or gnome to achieve.

So, let's travel to planet Earth for a moment, and I encourage you to investigate for yourself the Canary Islands and The Shepherd's Leap; there are a few YouTube shorts where you can swiftly see, in moments, exactly what I am about to talk about. Using a two to four-meter-long pole with a metal tip and some goat fat, a person can drop from an eight-meter or 26-foot cliff, jamming the pole, known as a Garrote, into the ground below and sliding down the pole, arresting their fall safely. This traditional technique evolved from shepherds needing to navigate rugged terrain with a lot of rocky areas and cliffs; the shepherd's leap, along with pole vaulting and wall scaling or chasm crossing methods, are all part of their training. The Garrote is actually a lance, much too heavy to be used like a thrown spear, but as you will see, it really is a unique form of exotic weapon and a very handy tool, and I am sure it would be far more popular with adventurers in the forgotten realms if it was more widely known.

So, let's travel back to planet Toril and learn about their use and how they came to be.

When traveling through the lands of Luiren in the southern coast of Faerun, one may see the local Hin people, the hobbits that call the Forgotten Realms their home, carrying very long and sturdy spears with a metal spike on one end, for a human the proportions are similar to what was a light lance, its not made for jousting and not tapered to like that, its more like a staff with a metal tip on it. When a halfling is riding on a dog or goat, or walking along the path, they will lance just behind the metal tip with the long shaft of the spear resting on their shoulder. If you take a closer look at the spear and their hands, you will see that the shaft of the spear is coated in a slick varnish and shining coating of goat fat, making it very slippery and smooth, and the hands of these halflings are strong, calloused from day after day carrying the long lance around.

While the long spear can be used in battle formations to defend groups of hobbit militia in times of war, used exactly like a pike, that is not why they are carried. They are actually used to perform a remarkable feat called the Shepherd's leap.

When a ranger or shepherd comes to the edge of a steep rock ledge or cliff, they point the metal tip over the edge toward the bottom of the drop, grip the other end of the spear and leap off the edge, when the point of the spear digs into the loose soil, stones and rock below, they slide down the spear, their hands protected by the slippery goat fat, which brakes their fall gently and they can land safely at the base of the cliff almost like they had cast the featherfall spell on themselves. The Hin also practice this as a sport, learning it and practicing from a young age and it allows them to navigate the rough terrain that you would swear was damn near impassable without a pair of wings on your back.

If this sounds a bit far-fetched, I encourage you to type in the Canary Islands Shepherd's Leap, and you will see that this ancient and very clever practice is quite real and performed to this day, keeping the ancient tradition alive by turning it into a sport. Its basically a reverse pole vault, but, skilled rangers and shepherds use the poles in both ways, and are also very skilled at laying the pole across gaps, chasms and such, then running across the pole, using it like a bridge.

To add this seamlessly into your Dungeons and Dragons game, I have crafted a feat you can select for an Origin or a Druid or Ranger class feat called Shepherd's Leap, but we will get to the specifics of that in just a moment.

Naturally, longer poles are desirable for this activity, but carrying around a very long pole, for folk who are half the height of a human, can be a bit of a bother, so, they came up with the solution of segmenting the pole into sections that neatly screw together and are hollow to reduce the weight. The shepherds also figured out that a standard size for the pole's girth was very important because sometimes they would need to combine their sections and make a very long pole to cross much wider gaps or check dangerously high drops from clifftops, drops that you wouldn't believe anyone could survive if they just jumped off the edge like they do.

Now, the hobbits also realized that the hollow sections of the spears were very handy for keeping things like fishing lines and hooks, a little tube full of brandy, a cloth and tubes of goat fat for greasing the pole, and all sorts of other handy items. This is the origin of the Halfling Segmented Pole. There is almost no end to the things that can stored in the slim tube of the pole segments, even doses of healing potion, vials of acid or holy water, I will leave the filling of those spaces to the imagination of your players, though I will say its a great way to safely store and explosive or quite unstable magic crossbow bolt.

OK, crafting a feat for this involves looking at what other options are available for player characters at the first few levels of experience and we see there are quite a few magic options for the character classes, so, we want the feat to be seen as worthwhile, as its quite an important factor, the feats are a lot more comprehensive in the latest edition of the game and so, the capabilities of a character who takes the Shepherd's Leap feat represent someone who has spent a lot of time training and using this ability until they can perform movement actions that are at what I imagine an Olympic level would be if it was actually widespread and popular enough to be as well known as pole vaulting is. 

I will include the full feat in the desciption text below the video and also pop it on the screen here for you, as you can see the shepherd's leap is formatted in the same style as the other 2024 D&D feats, it can be an Origin feat, meaning its part of the character's cultural upbringing, or part of ranger or druid character class training, its not exclusive to Halflings, gnomes or elves, but they tend to have this skill more often than humans or others do. Since its quite a physical feat it includes the standard attribute bonus option of either +1 to Strength or to Dexterity, its your choice, but remember your attribute can't go higher than 20 points.

You gain familiarity in the use, both utility and combat use, in pikes, spears, ten foot poles and quarter staffs, including those that are a lot longer than usual, so the overall length of it should be around twice the height of the character using it, for halflings, that's no change at all from any human made and proportioned spears and quarterstaves, for an elf or human the length will be around 12 feet or three and a half meters, another good reason to segment and divide the pole into more manageable lengths.

When assembled, the long pole can be used to make high jumps or pole vaults up to four times the character's normal jumping height or four times their long jump distance, we will call this aspect Shepherd's mobility, and for the special cliff leaping aspect, lets call that Shepherd's descent and give the character the ability to plummet 120 feet or thirty six and a half meters, safely arresting their fall by digging the tip into the ground and sliding down the pole to land without any injury. 

I think for a non-magical option, that is quite an advantage and perfectly suited for a halfling, gnome or elven ranger or druid, but an argument could be made for a rogue character who grew up in a big city like Waterdeep or Baldur's gate, using this technique to climp, vault and leap around from rooftops, over walls and across canals, making them damned hard to chase, and very good at getting into properties that they should not be getting into or easily out of.

Remember, you can fit all sorts of things into the segmented pole, adding a saw blade or a hook to the end of one can be very useful, or even a grabber claw that is closed and opened by way of a cord going right down the inside of the pole. You thought a ten foot pole was handy for dungeon delving, well, they are a poor substitute for a well crafted segmented pole from the lands of Luiren!

I do hope this is useful to you and you do include it in your games, but as always, your table, your rules, I am just here to provide some inspiration and the occasional clever idea.

Being a sneaky dire hobbit, its what I do!

My name is AJ Pickett, if you want to learn a whole lot more about the Halflings, check out the link on the screen to the first of a couple of comprehensive videos on the hobbits of the Forgotten Realms, thanks for listening and as always, I will be back with more for you, very soon.