The team at The Düngeonmeister has new Dungeons & Dragons supplemental content ready to launch! This new book, called the Random Monster Generator, promises 120,000+ unique monsters compatible with 5th edition D&D. I got my hands on a copy of it to see what monsters could be created, and how easy it would be to incorporate into our D&D games.
The Appearance
The book is beautiful. Illustrated by Sara Richard, the monster designs are highly detailed and a great deal of fun. It has an intro describing how to use the book, and after that you get plenty of monster fun. The book is designed with each “page” divided into three sections. Basically a monster top, torso, and bottom. Flipping to different pages gets you different monster combinations. On the right side is the monster illustrations. Richard does amazing at having each of these line up perfectly despite the vastly different body types. On the left side of the page is the monster name (broken into three parts) and its stats and abilities. So depending on what pages you currently have open, you will get different combinations of monster stats. You will literally create a new monster with just a single page turn! That is helpful for every game master who wants to create something new and surprising, or who is completely out of planning time.
The Combinations
I flipped randomly through the book to see what interesting combinations came up. Here are my first two:
The Equiveertental
- This monster has a total of 69 hit points based on adding up the hit point total for all three sections.
- The “Head” section: This gives us Intelligence and Wisdom stats at 14 and 12 respectively. It also gives us senses/skills that include a Passive Perception of 13, and bonuses to Athletics, Survival, and Persuasion. It also gets a reaction to boost its AC when hit by a melee attack.
- The “Torso” section: This gives us the Constitution, Strength, and Armor Class stats at 16, 14, and 14 AC. We have the stats for its melee weapon attack. It also has a unique grapple attack it can do called Allure of the Grave which can result in a grappled creature being charmed.
- The “Leg” section: This gives us Dexterity, Charisma, and Movement Speed at 17, 18, and 10 feet. It also gets a Fly speed of 30 feet. Its tentacle legs means it has the ability to grapple as a bonus action. That pairs well with the Allure of the Grave grapple the Torso section gives us! This looks like it will be a grapple-based fight.
The Kangrasla
- Hit Points: 72
- Head: Intelligence 6, Wisdom 11. Passive Perception: 10, Darkvision: 60 ft. It has a Nightmare Maw ability to immediately perform a bite attack after hitting a creature with a melee attack.
- Torso: Constitution 15, Strength 17, AC 13. It can make up to four melee weapon attacks with its four swords. Each attack must be on a different target. That, coupled with the Nightmare Maw from the Head, makes this quite dangerous!
- Legs: Dexterity 17, Charisma 13, Movement Speed 40 ft. It can Long Jump 30 feet and High Jump 15 feet. If it jumps at least 15 feet, all creatures where it lands must make a saving throw or be knocked prone and take thunder damage as part of its Thunder Thumper ability.
Customizations
The book encourages you to use the three-part names as a jumping off point if you don’t like the way it sounds. For the record, I do love the name Kangrasla for that monster we just created. I want to use it in a jungle environment dungeon. The book also talks about looking at the monster stats and appearance and using that to create a backstory around it. Does it talk? Is there a whole species of these types of creatures? Where would it live? There is also a Random Creation Table where you can choose to roll dice to build your monster from a provided table with corresponding page numbers. But I found flipping through the book very fun.
About the Book
The book is published by Adams Media through Simon & Schuster LLC. It’s been designed by Chimera Labs, which is a subsidiary of The Düngeonmeister. The Düngeonmeister has designed a great deal of Dungeons & Dragons supplemental content and books for the use of players and game masters. This book is authored by Jef Aldrich and John Taylor.
It will be available to order on July 16, 2024 for $19.99. You can order on Simon & Schuster’s website, Barnes & Noble, Amazon, and other places you buy books.
The Verdict
The Düngeonmeister Random Monster Generator is a fun and interactive supplement to your Dungeons & Dragons games. It’s a useful tool for those who like to homebrew, those who want new monsters to try, and those who are agents of chaos. The art is beautiful and it fits nicely with the rest of your TTRPG display without being bulky or heavy. The flow of how to build a monster is logical, and there are plenty of unique and interesting abilities to give you engaging fights. This is a book all D&D players should have!
The Düngeonmeister Random Monster Generator was provided by Simon and Schuster. It is available on Amazon.
