Bronze Serpent

These are ancient guardians of temples dedicated to snake gods, though the secrets of their construction has since spread. Over 20 feet long, capable of climbing and burrrowing and having no need to worry about breathing, a Bronze Serpent can take on most intruders. Its best strategy is to trap its opponent in its coils and bite it with its electrified fangs. Opponents in metal armor or carrying a large amount of metallic objects don't fare well against its attacks.


I'm a sucker for anything with electrical attacks.

Sorry about being late this week. We were busy with other duties and both of us were having trouble with coming up with a drawing we liked.

Special thanks to Joe for helping me out with the background on this one. I swear it just wouldn't come out right.

Runic Guardian

Golems and other constructed mechanical warriors are commonly employed by those smart and wealthy enough to build them. Constructs follow orders unquestioningly and are difficult to kill, making them excellend guards. A Runic Guardian is an inventive variation on perhaps the most typical type of construct, the Shield Guardian. Its creator covers its torso and limbs with spells in the form of carved runes, which can be activated later by the Guardian to fight off attackers or defend its charge. What spells are inscribed on the Guardian is up to the creator.

I like constructs in general, but the Runic Guardian is one of my favourites. I tried for a more painterly look in photoshop, which I think I'd like to try again. at least it has a background this time!

Aboleth

Aboleths are a strange race of giant aquatic creatures. Bearing similarities to whales, eels and even cephalopods, they are among the oldest creatures in existence, but by no means the most primitive. Despite their appearance, they live in sophisticated societies, building huge, alien undersea cities in the deepest oceans. Despite their sophistication, the Aboleths are generally hostile to other younger races (such as humans), and their propensity to dabble in dark magics is good cause to leave them well alone if possible.

Aboleths, like Beholders, have been a Dungeons & Dragons staple since its very first edition. Most pictures show them as three-eyed catfish creatures, so to make it a little more interesting I tried to develop the head and face a little. I feel, again, like I should have made more effort with the background on this one (especially as it'd be interesting to think about what kind of cities these things build), but anatomically I'm pretty happy with it.

Nixie

Living in lakes, rivers and ponds, the frog-like Nixies are primarily cautious creatures. But as members of the fey family, they aren't entirely harmless. It's quite common for them to use their charming abilities to make bigger, stronger creatures take on certain tasks for them. They can also bestow the ability to breathe underwater on their newfound 'friends' to allow them to continue working underwater, at the fey's home. They aren't evil creatures, but they don't follow the rules of good either, so it's best not to cross them lest you end up forgotten at the bottom of their watery home.


Nixies can work pretty well as both allies and enemies, I'd think. Their neutral alignment means you can sculpt an individual nixie's personality into pretty much anything, they could be friendly and helpful, scared and dangerous, or bitter and vengeful. Granted a good GM would make characters with interesting personalities anyway, but a neutral creature is easier to skew into something good or evil. Sometimes making an evil angel, a good demon or a law-abiding gnoll can get a bit corny.

Necronaut

A Necronaut is a terrifying sight. Summoned as servants by Demons of the outer planes, they are formed from thousands of undead souls bound together in a colossal, clambering ziggurat of death from which long, bony arms protrude and hoist them on their destructive journeys. Necronauts are employed as a demonstration of brute necromantic might, requiring a huge amount of dead to summon and inhuman will to control.

A lot of undead creatures are just dead versions of living things - human skeleton, orc zombie, etcetera etcetera. What I really like are the more inventive necromantic creations that only things like Demons can pull off. This was fun to draw - I feel like I could have made it look a little corpsier but I just got to a point where I liked the way it looked.

Drowned

Rising from the depths of cursed water, the Drowned are the unfortunate creatures that met a certain aquatic demise. They are commonly found near ports or beaches, and anybody that approaches this undead creature will soon find that their lungs are filling up with water. They always have about them a cold cloying aura, their death, which will cause living creatures to drown on land.


Undead are a bit difficult as creatures. Not because they're hard to draw, but because they tend to be a lot of the same. Mostly corpses or skeletons of some kind, so you have to find monsters that have something interesting about them if you want to draw them.

Like for example a monster that's basically Samara from The Ring.

Efreeti

The Efreeti are a specific kind of genie; their natural home is the Elemental Plane of Fire, which is ruled by their king in the City of Brass. Most of their magical abilities involve fire and smoke in some way, both with the intent to ham and misdirect. They tower above the average human and can heat up their bodies to burn anybody that touches them. Like other genies, an Efreeti will grant wishes to an non-genie, but the Efreeti are an evil race, so they won't give these wishes willingly. And if they do they'll probably find a way to skew it in their favour.

I really wanted to make the Efreeti more interesting than the illustration in the Monster Manual. The one there is a corpulent red guy with stubby little horns, which is fine, but I just wanted something a little different.

Sorry about the lateness.

Rast

When traversing the elemental plane of fire, there are numerous dangers that face the adventurer. Rasts are by no means the greatest threat to travellers bold enough to explore this unwelcoming dimension, but to the ill-prepared they can prove deadly enough. Rasts are creatures of little more than animal intelligence, floating about in packs and hunting whatever they can find. It is a well-known fact that Rasts have an almost vampiric fondness for blood.

Rasts are one of the sillier-looking monsters in the first monster manual - kind of like the little head spider thing from John Carpenter's The Thing - I went with more of a blood-crazed jellyfish look in mind.

Spriggan

The Spriggan is an unpleasant cousin of the Gnome. Ordinarily it appears as a short, bony, jaundiced humanoid with dirty reddish hair and a wild beard. Size, particularly concerning facial hair, is of paramount importance in Spriggan Society - presumably to this end, Spriggans have gained the uncanny ability to enlarge their bodies to thrice their usual mass, becoming hulking, ungainly ogres in an instant. Their unusual versatility in this way gives them both the dexterity and brawn to be a sizeable nuisance to all around them, and their presence in any respectable society is cause for worry.

Penned with a fineliner by hand, coloured in Photoshop. Massive beards are unhelpfully satisfying to draw.

Pixie

The Pixie is an interesting monster. Small and mischevious, a pixie can turn itself invisible at will, and stay that way no matter what. It's got a large number of innate magical abilities, most of which are geared around disorienting the opponent, including a spell that makes the opponent dance uncontrollably. Its strength isn't combat; the arrows it shoots can cause sleep and memory loss.

It takes four fourth-level characters to take down one pixie. That can't be good for an adventurer's self esteem.

Rakshasa

Rakshasa are a malicious breed of sorcerous shapeshifters. Their natural form is that of a bipedal tiger, but they can take on the appearance of any humanoid creature. They like to place themselves in positions which lets them rule over others. Their one downfall is their hands, which are reversed no matter what form they're in.

Rakshasas are one of my favourite monsters. I like tigers, I like shapeshifters, and I like mythical creatures that have a tell when they're in different forms (like a vampire's lack of reflection, kitsune's fox shadow or the Devil's horns or hooves). The monster originally comes from Indian mythology, which can open up some interesting story paths. Plus there was always something that seemed strangely honorable about rakshasas, like they might not kill you if you genuinely impress them.

Desmodu

The Desmodu are a race of subterranean bat-men. In contrast to their fearsome, apeish appearance, they are generally good-natured creatures who are more likely to help adventurers than eat them.

Desmodu actually have a sort of reddish hue to their fur (as seen in some bats) but I favoured the bluer end of the spectrum to try and light a creature of darkness more convincingly. I consciously went for a Bruce Timm sort of thing with the style. The colour is obviously all vectors, which can make images look a little flat but is satisfying to be because it's one of the few ways I can "finish" a sketch and not feel like I've lost too much.

Blanca's post will be a little late this week (tomorrow, probably) because she's in Spain.