I’ve talked about a lot of simple monsters. But this guy? He may be the simplest.
‘Rock’ is the best way to summarize the Galeb Duhr. It’s just a giant rock monster. It’s basically just Earth Elemental: Electric Boogaloo. It leaves a lot to be desired in regards to stuff to talk about.
But if there’s one thing I got from the American school system, it was the ability to drag five hundred words into one hundred. Let’s go!
Lore: A Rock’s Best Friend
Inhabitants of the Plane of Earth, Galeb Duhr are often summoned by powerful wizards, though some are born in the Material Plane near where it touches the Plane of Earth. They make for powerful sentinels, since they don’t require rest or food and they don’t age. A druid might charge them with protecting a sacred hill of some kind. Another might guard a tomb. So on and so forth.
Once brought to the Material Plane, they are forever bound to it. Even in death, they cannot return to the Plane of Earth. Not that it minds. So long as it remains near stone, it is happy. Often enough so to share information with those that it deems trustworthy.
There really isn’t much you can do with this. If you’ve got a powerful wizard for your antagonist, you can add an encounter with this guy for flavor text. But if you want to write a questline around this guy, you’ll be left with something to be desired.
Design: Grumpy Rock Boy
It looks like an angry old man character designed by Pixar and I kind of love it.
I honestly have nothing. I’ve been sitting here, staring at this design for well over ten minutes, trying to find something to write. And I’ve got nothing. It’s a big ol’ rock dude. What am I supposed to say?
Am I going to leave a big gap between this segment and the next? Yes. But whatever. We’re moving on.
Stats: Rock Smash
That’s what the Thing does, right? Remember the Thing? From the Fantastic 4? Follow up question: does anyone remember the Fantastic 4? Outside of terrible movies, I mean.
Getting back on topic, the Galeb Duhr isn’t the most durable monster in the book, despite being a literal rock. It’s AC is high, but not monstrous. It has a decent pool of HP, but it doesn’t breach the 100 range. Sure, you can’t poison it. And it can’t be afflicted by exhaustion, paralysis, or petrification. But it still isn’t impressive.
What’s slightly more impressive is that a monster as tall as a person can use False Appearance. Granted, it’s a rock. So it is pretty easy to just… curl up into a ball.
Speaking of which, it has a move called Rolling Charge! It curls up and rolls at you with extreme force! Not only can this knock them prone, it does a decent 7(2d6) damage. Plus, it’s kinda hilarious and/or frightening.
The rest of its move set it pretty standard. It can slam into you for 12(2d6+5) or animate a rock buddy to help him out. Aside from that, he makes for a very standard and simple battle.
Placement
He is rock boy. He’s so simple and frankly kinda boring that I don’t have a whole lot to go with. Like… it’s not bad. But it just doesn’t have much going for it.
With all that in mind, let’s put the Galeb Duhr on the Best of the Bestiary!
- Beholder
- Death Tyrant
- Dragon Turtle
- Green Dragons
- Red Dragons
- Blue Dragons
- Black Dragons
- White Dragons
- Silver Dragons
- Couatl
- Behir
- Aboleth
- Bronze Dragons
- Brass Dragons
- Copper Dragons
- Gold Dragons
- Chuul
- Chimera
- Death Knight
- Fomorian
- Bone Devil
- Dracolich
- Faerie Dragon
- Ankheg
- Empyrean
- Drow (all four of ’em)
- Shadow Demon
- Marilith
- Drider
- Aarackockra
- Azer
- Demilich
- Spectator
- Cambion
- Animated Armor
- Banshee
- Basilisk
- Yochlol
- Bulette
- Cloaker
- Darkmantle
- Doppelganger
- Ettin
- Pit Fiend
- Erinyes
- Chain Devil
- Bearded Devil
- Barbed Devil
- Spined Devil
- Ice Devil
- Nalfeshnee
- Glabrezu
- Chasme
- Barlgura
- Horned Devil
- Balor
- Shadow Dragon
- Vrock
- Dretch
- Goristro
- Hezrou
- Manes
- Duergar
- Quasit
- Dryad
- Flumph
- Planetar
- Imp
- Flameskull
- Displacer Beast
- Carrion Crawler
- Rug of Smothering
- Bugbear Chief
- Bugbear
- Vine Blight
- Twig Blight
- Needle Blight
- Bullywug
- Ettercap
- Gas Spore
- Cockatrice
- Lemure
- Solar
- Deva
- Cyclops
- Centaur
- Fire Elemental
- Water Elemental
- Air Elemental
- Dinosaurs (All six of them)
- Earth Elemental
- Galeb Duhr <——————————–
- Flying Sword
- Crawling Claw
- Violet Fungus
- Shrieker
Jonah's Daily Rants 
2 responses to “Galeb Duhr: The Stone Guard Dog”
I remember the FF! Back in the 70’s they were my favorite comic book. Of course back then, kids read comic books and they were *everywhere*. Gas stations, convenience stores, drug stores, grocery stores… Pretty much every retail establishment had a spinner rack or two of comic books.
The shift of the industry to collectors and speculators across the late 80’s into the 90’s also meant a shift to specialized stores… that and other factors eventually caused those spinners to disappear. And a huge chunk of our shared popular culture went with them.
(Yet another semi-random comment spawned by a tangential thought from your post.)
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