Wow. Someone in the naming department was sure feeling creative when they made this thing. “Hey boss, we’ve got a purple worm monster, what should we call it?” Then the dude stroked his beard (let’s just imagine it was a dude with a beard) and said: “I’ve got it!” like he just invented the cure to cancer.
Honestly? Hats off to that dude.
Lore: Predatory Diggers
Chewing its way through solid rock, the purple worm is one of the greatest terrors of the Underdark. Large, powerful, and stupid, anything that crosses this beast’s path is its meal.
Drawn to noise, purple worms often appear to interrupt battles and tear into underground cities. Most civilizations of the Underdark, such as the mind flayers or the duergar, set up protective wards to keep these beasts away. Sometimes, they even appear on the surface, rising in the mountains to find its next meal.
As purple worms constantly devour earth and stone, their innards are loaded with valuable gems and precious metals. Thus, they are the ideal prey for the adventurous treasure hunter. On top of that, their tunnels are often made use of by the residents of the Underdark, as purple worms rarely ever return to a tunnel they’ve already made.
But this in itself is a warning. For where there are many tunnels, there are many purple worms.
There’s not a whole lot you can do with this lore. Granted, you’ve got some options. Maybe the party wants to go treasure hunting and they end up hunting a purple worm. Or maybe they’re fighting something else in the Underdark and one of these guys shows up to steal the show, attacking both sides of the conflict. You could even do some underground horror stuff with the tunnels, culminating in the arrival of the worm.
Can it make for an interesting campaign-long villain? No. It’s a giant worm. But if you want a big scary boss fight, this is your beastie!
Design: Dune, but Flamboyant
Yup. That worm sure is purple.
Yeah, this pretty much tells you all you need to know. It’s a worm. It’s purple. And it’s a giant monster that’ll eat you alive in a single gulp. It’s basically just a more colorful version of Dune’s iconic sand worms.
Which is fine. Giant sand worms are cool! And this one does look pretty damn intimidating, what with all the spikes adorning its entire body.
Does that mean it’s trying to ward off a predator? A giant bird, maybe?
There really isn’t much to talk about with this design. It’s exactly what you expect while just being creative enough to still be cool.
Stats: Devourer of Wizards
You do not want to mess with these dudes! Their AC is just shy of an even 20 and their HP is well into the triple-digits! Killing it ain’t gonna be easy, no matter how experienced the adventurers.
Oh, and don’t let it eat you. It’s gonna try to do that. A lot.
Its bite attack doesn’t do all that much damage on its own. But should the victim fail the Dex save (with a DC of 19), you’ll get swallowed. Every turn you spend swallowed, you take a dangerous 21(6d6) acid damage at the start of each of its turns. If you want to get out, your party will have to deal 30 damage in a single round.
Should it die with you in there, you’ll need to crawl out. Which isn’t hard, but it is gross.
Finally, we have its Tail Stinger. Damage wise, this can be really bad. The initial piercing damage isn’t all that frightening, but fail the Con save (again, DC of 19, so good luck with that) and you’ll take a monstrous 42(12d6) poison damage.
But hey! Succeed the save and you only take half of that!
Both of those attacks can make being hit by this monster absolutely terrifying. The sheer tension that can arise as someone rolls for the saving throw, knowing that their character might die if they screw it up, is palpable. And the panic of the rest of the party to get a swallowed teammate out before it’s too late is perfect. This is a terrifying monster.
Unfortunately, in terms of actual creativity and strategy, there’s not much to this fight. It’s just ‘hit it until it dies and hope we survive that long.’ Sure, it has tension. But a slugfest is still a slugfest.
Placement
This monster ranks slightly above average in all categories. None of them are exceptional, but none of them are truly bad. As a giant boss monster, it’s not my first pick, but it’s still a good pick.
With all that in mind, the Purple Worm is going to #47 on the Best of the Bestiary!
- Beholder
- Death Tyrant
- Mind Flayer
- Dragon Turtle
- Mummy/Mummy Lord
- Nagas (all three of ’em)
- Green Dragons
- Red Dragons
- Blue Dragons
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- Couatl
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- Lamia
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- Dracolich
- Faerie Dragon
- Gelatinous Cube
- Lich
- Peryton
- Orcs (all four of ’em)
- Magmin
- Kobold
- Kenku
- Hobgoblins
- Night Hag
- Green Hag
- Black Pudding
- Ankheg
- Hook Horror
- Oni
- Purple Worm <————–
- Storm Giant
- Hill Giant
- Empyrean
- Efreeti
- Grimlock
- Minotaur
- Dao
- Cloud Giant
- Manticore
- Drow (all four of ’em)
- Shadow Demon
- Modrons (all five of ’em)
- Marilith
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- Aarackockra
- Azer
- Demilich
- Spectator
- Gray Ooze
- Ochre Jelly
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- Mimic
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- Grell
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- Horned Devil
- Balor
- Shadow Dragon
- Myconids (all four of ’em)
- Piercer
- Werebear
- Lizardfolk
- Vrock
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- Gnolls (all three)
- Goristro
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- Flumph
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- Githyanki
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- Planetar
- Imp
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- Clay Golem
- Flameskull
- Displacer Beast
- Carrion Crawler
- Githzerai
- Grick
- Invisible Stalker
- Rug of Smothering
- Bugbear Chief
- Bugbear
- Flesh Golem
- Vine Blight
- Twig Blight
- Needle Blight
- Mephits (all six of ’em)
- Bullywug
- Hellhound
- Ettercap
- Gas Spore
- Cockatrice
- Lemure
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- Fire Elemental
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- Stone Giant
- Deep Gnome
- Dinosaurs (All six of them)
- Iron Golem
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- Galeb Duhr
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- Shrieker
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