Grell: The Creepy Crow From Space

Our intrepid rogue climbed up the shaft to secure a rope. There was a gasp, and the rope fell. We never saw her again.

An adventurer’s account of a greel attack in Khyber, published in ‘The Korranberg Chronicle’

Well. If that doesn’t set a tone, I don’t know what does.

Lore: The Alien Scavenger

Grells are odd, alien creatures that prefer to ambush stragglers to hunting. They have no eyes and can only move by levitating. They do, however, have a keen sense of hearing and incredibly sensitive skin, allowing them to feel vibrations and electrical fields to avoid being ambushed. While they prefer to hunt alone, they can gather in groups called covens.

They are predators who group their prey into three categories: edibles, inedibles, and Great Eaters (their name for the rare predator that might hunt a grell). They’ll attack those they consider edible without hesitation, though only if they can carry their kill back to their den.

Sometimes, a grell will allow adventurers to pass through its den without issue. They do this in the hope that said adventurers will kill the other inhabitants, allowing the grell to feed on them. Once the larger threats are dealt with, the grell will descend to feed on those that emptied out their home of competition.

The lore here is… meh. It’s fine. It can make for a creepy set piece in a dungeon followed by a briefly terrifying encounter. But there’s not much story telling potential beyond that.

Design: Bird Brain

Ha! I’m funny!

Who came up with this? “Hey, fellow designers on the Wizards of the Coast team, I’ve got an idea! Let’s stick a beak onto a brain! Then some tentacles! We’ll call it a grell!”

I want to shake that person’s hand.

This design is so weird and creative and kind of creepy! You wouldn’t think it would work, given that it’s just a beak stuck onto a brain with some tentacles on it! But for an alien scavenger thing, it works fantastically! It’s kind of creepy in a weird way!

This is definitely one of the best designs we’ve seen in a while. It’s weird and cool and I really like it.

It’s such a shame that it’s downhill from here.

Stats: Disappointingly Straight-Forward

I don’t know why, but I was expecting a bit more from this thing. But oh well.

Grells are hardly durable creatures. Their AC is very low and their HP isn’t much higher. Their only defensive advantages are in their immunties to lightning, blinding, and being knocked prone. Aside from that, they’re hardly difficult to kill.

In terms of actions, they’re incredibly straight-forward. It can hit you with its tentacles, which has a chance to grapple you if you fail a DC, or just peck you with its beak. Both do decent damage for a low-level monster, but not anything that’ll scare the party for very long. By the time the numbers add up, it should already be dead.

This dude could have used from some extra abilities. Maybe put some paralyzing poison on its tentacles or give it some kinda lightning ability? Something, anything more than ‘it hits you’!

For such a creepy monster, it is sure a disappointing fight.

Placement

This is a perfectly fine monster. Not spectacular, but not awful. It has perfectly fine lore, a fantastic design, and really disappointing stats. It’s a very mixed bag, but not an entirely bad one.

With all that in mind, let’s put the Grell 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. Gibbering Mouther
19. Chimera
20. Death Knight
21. Fomorian
22. Bone Devil
23. Dracolich
24. Faerie Dragon
25. Ankheg
26. Storm Giant
27. Hill Giant
28. Empyrean
29. Efreeti
30. Dao
31. Cloud Giant
32. Drow (all four of ’em)
33. Shadow Demon
34. Marilith
35. Drider
36. Aarackockra
37. Azer
38. Demilich
39. Spectator
40. Marid
41. Cambion
42. Fire Giant
43. Animated Armor
44. Banshee
45. Basilisk
46. Yochlol
47. Bulette
48. Cloaker
49. Darkmantle
50. Doppelganger
51. Ghoul and Ghast
52. Ettin
53. Pit Fiend
54. Erinyes
55. Chain Devil
56. Bearded Devil
57. Barbed Devil
58. Spined Devil
59. Ice Devil
60. Djinni
61. Nalfeshnee
62. Glabrezu
63. Chasme
64. Grell <—————–
65. Barlgura
66. Horned Devil
67. Balor
68. Shadow Dragon
69. Vrock
70. Dretch
71. Gnolls (all three)
72. Goristro
73. Hezrou
74. Manes
75. Frost Giant
76. Duergar
77. Quasit
78. Dryad
79. Flumph
80. Goblin
81. Githyanki
82. Planetar
83. Imp
84. Clay Golem
85. Flameskull
86. Displacer Beast
87. Carrion Crawler
88. Githzerai
89. Rug of Smothering
90. Bugbear Chief
91. Bugbear
92. Flesh Golem
93. Vine Blight
94. Twig Blight
95. Needle Blight
96. Bullywug
97. Ettercap
98. Gas Spore
99. Cockatrice
100. Lemure
101. Solar
102. Deva
103. Gorgon
104. Cyclops
105. Centaur
106. Ghost
107. Fire Elemental
108. Water Elemental
109. Air Elemental
110. Stone Giant
111. Deep Gnome
112. Dinosaurs (All six of them)
113. Iron Golem
114. Stone Golem
115. Earth Elemental
116. Galeb Duhr
117. Flying Sword
118. Crawling Claw
119. Violet Fungus
120. Shrieker
121. Gargoyle