Genies (Part 2): Dao

Welcome to the Great Dismal Delve, gem of the Inner Planes. You are now slaves to the mighty and merciful Khatun Zafara Al’Yil Jin Zarain, Queen of the Mantled Depths, Pontiff of the Diamond Cathedral, Protector of the Malachite Scepter, and so on and so forth.

Gargoyle Seneschal’s Standard Greeting

Alright, our first proper genie. Let’s hope for a good start.

Lore: Rich Asshole, Fantasy Edition

I don’t want to say that this is magical Donald Trump, but…

Dao are genies of the Earth Plane. Greedy and malicious, they’ll adorn themselves in jewelry and metals to make themselves pretty. Unless they are the envy of the other genies, a Dao is not happy.

They dwell within glittering tunnels, which are carved by them themselves. These continue to expand as they dig, making their palace as large as possible. They care nothing for the poverty of others. In fact, they’ll even grind precious gems into dust and use it to season their food. All just to spite those less fortunate than themselves.

Unless they have something to gain, namely treasure, this genie will never bend so low as to aide mortals. They are on speaking/trading terms with the efreet, but they have nothing but hatred for djinn and marids. As the dao are always seeking new slaves, other creatures of the Earth Plane tend to steer clear.

Not that many need to. Dao only trade in the most high-end slaves on the market. Unfortunately, due to their vast greed, they are the easiest of the genies to lure in and trap on the Material Plane. A fate which they loathe extremely.

The lore on display here is pretty decent. It’s easy setup for a bad guy. Maybe not a campaign wide big bad, but at least a questline baddy. Or maybe a fun little challenge from the big bad himself, who enslaved one. There’s not much here, but you could do plenty with what little you have.

Design: Floaty Rock Lady

Hoo boy. Another rock monster. Hopefully this one is a bit more exciting.

Well… kind of. At least it’s not a giant another giant rock.

I like how the whole stone-monster thing is much more subtle than usual. Rather than legs, its got a billowing sandstorm. At first glance, it just appears that the skin is dark. But then you look closer and you realize that wait, no, it’s dark because it’s made of stone. Neat!

Also, this thing is thick! Look at those arms! It doesn’t need that giant hammer! Its arms would be enough! Combine that with its red eyes and sharp features and you get a monster that looks fairly intimidating!

It’s a fun take on a rock genie. It isn’t as unique as other D&D monsters, but it still looks fairly interesting and cool. A fairly decent design.

Now, time for the million platinum question: how does it fight?

Stats: Meet My Pet Rock

I wonder what kind of magic this monster’s gonna use. Place your bets!

Predictably, this dude is pretty sturdy. With an AC just shy of 20 and HP just shy of 200, along with immunity to petrification (cause I know that’s a frequently used weapon by the players), these dudes are beefy. Get ready for a long battle.

They’re slippery, too. Thanks to Sure-Footed (can you be sure-footed when you don’t have feet?), it has advantage on all saves related to being knocked prone. On top of that, it can slip through the stones like a ghost, making it difficult to track. It’s like fighting Lemillion from My Hero Academia but infinitely worse.

Cause this bitch got magic.

At will: detect evil and good, detect magic, stone shape
3/day each: passwall, move earth, tongues
1/day each: conjure elemental (earth elemental only), gaseous form, invisibility, phantasmal killer, plane shift, wall of stone

Look up what they do yourselves because I do not have time to detail all that. Just know that they make this thing a huge pain in the ass to fight.

The rest is fairly boring. It can punch you or hit you with a maul, two of each per turn. The damage isn’t especially threatening (except for the maul, which is a bad time that might knock you prone).

All in all, this makes for a pretty dope fight! If you blend use of melee abilities and magic together, you can very easily put your players on the defensive. This is definitely the kind of foe that makes for a memorable boss fight.

Even if they don’t get the satisfaction of kicking the corpse afterwords. Fucking Elemental Demise.

Although, knowing most players, they’d just snort the shit.

Placement

All things considered, this is a pretty dope monster! The lore is neat, the design is good, and it makes for a good fight! Definitely one of the best monsters we’ve discussed in the last few weeks.

With all that in mind, let’s put the Dao on the Best of the Bestiary!

1. Beholder
2. Death Tyrant
3. Dragon Turtle
4. Green Dragons
5. Red Dragons
6. Blue Dragons
7. Black Dragons
8. White Dragons
9. Silver Dragons
10. Couatl
11. Behir
12. Aboleth
13. Bronze Dragons
14. Brass Dragons
15. Copper Dragons
16. Gold Dragons
17. Chuul
18. Chimera
19. Death Knight
20. Fomorian
21. Bone Devil
22. Dracolich
23. Faerie Dragon
24. Ankheg
25. Empyrean
26. Dao <——————————
27. Drow (all four of ’em)
28. Shadow Demon
29. Marilith
30. Drider
31. Aarackockra
32. Azer
33. Demilich
34. Spectator
35. Cambion
36. Animated Armor
37. Banshee
38. Basilisk
39. Yochlol
40. Bulette
41. Cloaker
42. Darkmantle
43. Doppelganger
44. Ettin
45. Pit Fiend
46. Erinyes
47. Chain Devil
48. Bearded Devil
49. Barbed Devil
50. Spined Devil
51. Ice Devil
52. Nalfeshnee
53. Glabrezu
54. Chasme
55. Barlgura
56. Horned Devil
57. Balor
58. Shadow Dragon
59. Vrock
60. Dretch
61. Goristro
62. Hezrou
63. Manes
64. Duergar
65. Quasit
66. Dryad
67. Flumph
68. Planetar
69. Imp
70. Flameskull
71. Displacer Beast
72. Carrion Crawler
73. Rug of Smothering
74. Bugbear Chief
75. Bugbear
76. Vine Blight
77. Twig Blight
78. Needle Blight
79. Bullywug
80. Ettercap
81. Gas Spore
82. Cockatrice
83. Lemure
84. Solar
85. Deva
86. Cyclops
87. Centaur
88. Fire Elemental
89. Water Elemental
90. Air Elemental
91. Dinosaurs (All six of them)
92. Earth Elemental
93. Galeb Duhr
94. Flying Sword
95. Crawling Claw
96. Violet Fungus
97. Shrieker
98. Gargoyle