Slaadi: Evil Frogs From Limbo

Five whole pages in one article? Oh boy. This is gonna be exhausting.

Lore: Toads of Chaos

Within the Ever-Changing Chaos of Limbo, a realm every bit as bizarre and untamed as the name might suggest, the slaadi exist without law or discipline. They follow only one rule: might makes right. Should a slaadi prove too weak, they’ll either find themselves enslaved to a mightier foe or simply killed.

Primus, overlord of the modrons, created a massive and complex stone imbued with the power of law, which he cast into Limbo with the aim of bringing order to the madness. Indeed, as its power grew, it did just that, allowing more intelligent Limbo dwellers to create safe havens. However, the item wasn’t without negative effects; the chaos energy it absorbed gave birth to the slaadi, who went on to wipe out every enclave within Limbo. Alas, Primus deemed them beneath his notice and allows them to run free.

The reproductive cycle of the slaadi is nothing short of horrific. Either they implant a humanoid host with an egg, ala Alien, or they transform them with the chaos phage disease. Each color of slaadi transforms in different ways, retaining its memories with each new form.

Red slaadi implant eggs in their victims via glands beneath their claws, birthing a tadpole that eats through its host until it reaches full size. Blue slaadi inflict terrible transforming diseases via hooks protruding through their hands. The highly intelligent green slaadi uses magic. Gray slaadi are the errand runners of the death slaadi, doing work in the Material Plane; they transform once they eat the full corpse of a death slaad. Finally, the death slaadi themselves are evil and chaos incarnate, forcing their lessers into wars against the other Planes.

Slaadi that emerge from the Spawning Stone have a fragment of the stone imbedded in their brain. Powerful magic can draw the stone and use it to enslave the slaad. Should the stone be destroyed, the slaad is set free. Those born in other methods don’t have the stone, but gain one should they come into contact with the Spawning Stone. Which is quite likely, as they are naturally drawn to it.

There is a lot you could do with this lore. I should know; I had a DM who used these guys for a campaign, and every encounter with them was a nightmare! Perhaps the players need to fight their way up a slaadi hierarchy as they invade, with a death slaad as the BBEG. Or perhaps they run into a slaad being controled by a powerful wizard and need to stop them before they open the door to more slaadi. You could do something with Limbo and Primus. There are tons of possibilities, all of them really cool!

Design: A Rainbow of Murder

Five monsters. Five designs. And somehow, all five of them are fantastic!

Each of these designs fits the corresponding slaadi perfectly. The red is thinner, with massive claws, while the blue is much bulkier and stronger. Meanwhile, the green is a hunch-backed wizard, the gray is like a deadly assassin, and the black is a massive, intimidating amalgamation of all the others.

Plus, they’re just plain intimidating! I wouldn’t want to be on the same side of the same planet as any of these guys!

These designs are rock solid. Each one is unique, interesting, and intimidating, perfectly fitting the monsters they’re attached to. Who’d have thought that giant murder toads could be so cool?

Stats: Colors and Death

Embedded in a Slaad’s brain is a magic gem. Acquire it, and the slaad is yours to command.

Six stat pools to get through. Each of them, save for one, taking up nearly half of a page to themselves. Hoo boy. This is gonna be a big one.

First, let’s look at what they have in common. Each slaad has resistance to acid, cold, fire, lightning, and thunder damage. On top of that, they each have the Magic Resistance and Regeneration abilities (except the tadpole; they can’t regenerate). All of this makes these guys a caster’s worst nightmare.

Slaad tadpoles are the weakest of the lot by far. Their AC is low and their HP is low enough that even a level one wizard could kill it in one hit. It’s only attack is its Bite, which doesn’t do much damage at all. Plus, it’s literally tiny, so you could stomp it to death if you wanted.

Red and Blue slaadi are almost exactly the same. Blue slaadi have higher AC and HP, as well as higher damage. But they share the same Bite and Claw attacks as the reds. Difference is in the claws. Red slaadi claws can implant an egg in the victim, which can grow within the host, weaken them, and eventually kill them. Meanwhile, the blue’s claws leave the chaos phage disease, which renders the victim unable to be healed and reduces their maximum HP by a hefty chunk every 24 hours.

I hope I don’t need to explain why either or is a nightmare to deal with.

Green slaadi are powerful spellcasters. On top of having the Shapechanger ability, they also have a staff and can hurl flames as an action. Now, let’s look at their spell list.

• At will: detect magic, detect thoughts, mage hand
• 2/day each: fear, invisibility (self only)
• 1/day: fireball

Gray slaadi are much the same, except they’ve replaced the staff with a greatsword (that is weaker, somehow?) and a different list of spells.

• At will: detect magic, detect thoughts, invisibility (self only), mage hand, major image
• 2/day each: fear, fly, fireball, tongues
• 1/day: plane shift (self only)

Finally, we have the strongest one of them all: the death slaad. Which is just the gray slaad, but it has the Magic Weapons ability and some new spells. These are:

• At will: detect magic, detect thoughts, invisibility (self only), mage hand, major image
• 2/day each: fear, fireball, fly, tongues
• 1/day each: cloudkill, plane shift

All of this can make for some interesting and tense encounters. One hit is more than enough to put any player in mortal peril. If you want to make the players shit themselves, these are the monsters for you!

Placement

This is a surprisingly strong entry! The lore, the design, the stats, it all works! We’ve got a top twenty contender on our hands here!

With all that in mind, the Slaadi are going to #17 on the Best of the Bestiary!

1. Beholder
2. Death Tyrant
3. Mind Flayer
4. Dragon Turtle
5. Mummy/Mummy Lord
6. Nagas (all three of ’em)
7. Green Dragons
8. Red Dragons
9. Blue Dragons
10. Black Dragons
11. White Dragons
12. Silver Dragons
13. Couatl
14. Behir
15. Aboleth
16. Sea Hag
17. Slaadi (all six of ’em) <————–
18. Lamia
19. Bronze Dragons
20. Brass Dragons
21. Copper Dragons
22. Gold Dragons
23. Chuul
24. Kuo-Toa
25. Gibbering Mouther
26. Kraken
27. Intellect Devourer
28. Shadow
29. Chimera
30. Death Knight
31. Fomorian
32. Bone Devil
33. Dracolich
34. Faerie Dragon
35. Gelatinous Cube
36. Lich
37. Peryton
38. Remorhaz
39. Orcs (all four of ’em)
40. Magmin
41. Shield Guardian
42. Kobold
43. Kenku
44. Hobgoblins
45. Night Hag
46. Green Hag
47. Black Pudding
48. Ankheg
49. Hook Horror
50. Oni
51. Purple Worm
52. Storm Giant
53. Hill Giant
54. Empyrean
55. Efreeti
56. Grimlock
57. Minotaur
58. Dao
59. Cloud Giant
60. Manticore
61. Scarecrow
62. Drow (all four of ’em)
63. Shadow Demon
64. Modrons (all five of ’em)
65. Marilith
66. Drider
67. Aarackockra
68. Azer
69. Demilich
70. Spectator
71. Gray Ooze
72. Ochre Jelly
73. Hydra
74. Rakshasa
75. Marid
76. Salamander
77. Harpy
78. Werejackal
79. Otyugh
80. Satyr
81. Half-Dragon
82. Cambion
83. Fire Giant
84. Nothic
85. Pixie
86. Animated Armor
87. Roper
88. Banshee
89. Basilisk
90. Yochlol
91. Bulette
92. Cloaker
93. Darkmantle
94. Doppelganger
95. Revenant
96. Ghoul and Ghast
97. Sahuagin (all three)
98. Ettin
99. Medusa
100. Pit Fiend
101. Erinyes
102. Chain Devil
103. Bearded Devil
104. Barbed Devil
105. Spined Devil
106. Ice Devil
107. Mimic
108. Djinni
109. Merrow
110. Nalfeshnee
111. Glabrezu
112. Chasme
113. Grell
114. Barlgura
115. Horned Devil
116. Balor
117. Skeletons
118. Shadow Dragon
119. Myconids (all four of ’em)
120. Piercer
121. Werebear
122. Lizardfolk
123. Vrock
124. Dretch
125. Pseudodragon
126. Gnolls (all three)
127. Goristro
128. Hezrou
129. Manes
130. Quaggoth
131. Frost Giant
132. Weretiger
133. Werewolf
134. Duergar
135. Quasit
136. Dryad
137. Shambling Mound
138. Flumph
139. Goblin
140. Nightmare
141. Rust Monster
142. Wereboar
143. Wererat
144. Githyanki
145. Owlbear
146. Planetar
147. Imp
148. Ogres/Half-ogres
149. Roc
150. Clay Golem
151. Flameskull
152. Displacer Beast
153. Carrion Crawler
154. Githzerai
155. Grick
156. Invisible Stalker
157. Rug of Smothering
158. Bugbear Chief
159. Bugbear
160. Flesh Golem
161. Vine Blight
162. Twig Blight
163. Needle Blight
164. Mephits (all six of ’em)
165. Bullywug
166. Hellhound
167. Ettercap
168. Gas Spore
169. Cockatrice
170. Lemure
171. Homonculus
172. Merfolk
173. Solar
174. Deva
175. Gorgon
176. Hippogriff
177. Griffon
178. Cyclops
179. Centaur
180. Ghost
181. Pegasus
182. Fire Elemental
183. Water Elemental
184. Air Elemental
185. Stone Giant
186. Deep Gnome
187. Dinosaurs (All six of them)
188. Iron Golem
189. Stone Golem
190. Earth Elemental
191. Galeb Duhr
192. Helmed Horror
193. Flying Sword
194. Crawling Claw
195. Violet Fungus
196. Shrieker
197. Gargoyle