Monster Database

[Charon]

Races of Stone added.
Database contains 3237 monsters.

[Charon]

Races of the Wild added.
Database contains 3269 monsters.

[Charon]

Sandstorm in Progress.

All NPCs have been given the environment "Warm Deserts" to match the majority of monsters listed in this obviously desert themed book.
Playing Beholdle has raised some interesting questions about environment and I want to consider changing some data on a quality pass somewhere down the line. I wanna see what people's opinions are on this.
I want to be clear, this is a useful lookup database first and a game second, so consider what would be the most useful when looking up groups of monsters to build a one shot or campaign.

Here are the options:
1. Go through and give any creature with Any/Any a fixed environment if it's obvious it should have one. If there are multiple potential options, put the creature up for vote on the forum for the correct option. For Example, a mummy is "Any Underground". Should this be "Any Deserts/Underground?" or even "Warm Deserts/Underground"? Some creatures genuinely will fall under Any/Any and that's fine, they can stay as is.
2. As above but only for creatures not of the Material Plane. This would assume most material plane creatures with Any/Any are intentional and simply account for creatures from other planes which are almost universally assigned Any/Any (some exceptions apply).
3. NPCs rarely have an environment listed. Some could be inferred from flavour text. Any/City, for example, or Any/Forest have obvious implementations. As above, we could put them up for forum vote to determine their most likely environments.

So, how useful is "Any/Any" when looking up monsters compared to something more specific?
How useful is a specific environment for creatures not of this plane? Do you need creatures from the Plane of Water to specify any aquatic? How would this even apply to say, a water elemental?
How useful is it to have NPCs linked to a specific habitat? Is an "Elven Merchant" best linked to Any/City or would you consider him Any/Any due to travelling? An Elven Historian might make more sense in a City Environment.

[Charon]

Dust Twister (Sandstorm P162)
Extraplanar subtype, no home plane given and expected to be encountered on Material Plane given flavour text.
Left with Material as homeplane for now, but would it be better to return this under Elemental Air? Take a look at the book and let me know your thoughts.

• Brine Swimmer assigned Aquatic subtype as it clearly cannot breathe on land.
• Added (Antlion) to the Ant Lion entry for easier retrieval.

Sandstorm fully added.
Database contains 3362 monsters.

[Charon]

Savage Species in Progress

• Celestial/Fiendish spiders/vipers changed from type Outsider to Magical Beast for consistency with 3.5e ruleset.
• Aquatic subtype removed from Saebeohrt Rippling Death, Lizardfolk Scaled Horror as Lizardfolk do not have this subtype in 3.5e.
• Aquatic subtype added to Hippocampus. The later Stormwrack revision makes it clear this was an oversight.
• Ghost Brute, Ghost Hound given Augmented Animal subtype. This is an acquired template so this makes sense and matches the Ghost Brute entry from Libris Mortis.
• Incarnate Construct. Database does not currently have an Augmented Construct subtype. Putting it in is a pain in the ass so I will deal this later. Fixed. Augmented Construct added, all for the sake of one monster. ¬¬
• Spectral Cloaker given Augmented Aberration subtype as this is an acquired template.
• It is not clear if the symbiotic creature should have the Augmented subtype of the Host, the Guest, or Both. Kind of a moot point as the example given is invalid anyway as the Stirge does not meet the prerequisites of being Animal, Humanoid, Plant or Vermin. As both creatures contribute to various parts of its stat block, I feel it should be both so have given it augmented Humanoid, Augmented Magical Beast. I have also given it the goblinoid subtype as there is nothing in the statblock or template block to imply it would lose its goblinoid subtyping.
• Umbral Ettin given Augmented Giant subtype as this is an acquired template.
• Troglodyte Wight given Augmented Humanoid subtype as this is an acquired template.
• Kobold Wraith given Augmented Humanoid and Reptilian subtypes because bla bla bla.

Should monster NPCs reflect environment? For example, should Shauganttha Yuan-ti Abomination Yuan-ti Cultist, have the same Temperate Forest environment as a normal Yuan-ti abomination? This is something to consider on a future quality pass. I think this should be a yes, along with adding environments to any entries with sufficient flavour text to indicate a preferred location.

[Charon]

Savage Species added.
Database contains 3399 monsters.

[Charon]

Stormwrack in progress.

• Doom of the Seas, Fiendish Kraken (P116) has no CR so cannot be added. Realmshelp lists this as CR 16, which seems reasonable. Thoughts?
  https://www.realmshelps.net/monsters/bl ... ,_Fiendish
• Aquatic subtype removed from Lillikakooet, Darfellan Leviathan Hunter. Darfellan are not Aquatic and this prestige class does not bestow any such ability.
• Echinoloth given Yugoloth subtype.

[Gimble]

CR 16 seems reasonable for the big calamari

[Charon]

I'll add him in then.

Also, updated Fiend Folio Yugloths to have the Yugoloth subtype.

Stormwrack added.
Database contains 3471 monsters.

[Charon]

Tome of Magic in progress.

• Roving Mauler is an extraplanar creature but nothing in its description even hints at what plane it hails from. It is mentioned they might be servants of Buer, but Buer's entry also doesn't specify or even hint at what plane she is from. For now, I have no choice but to give it no home plane, assuming it can be found across any plane. If you have any further information about this creature (or Buer) please speak up and provide a source.
• Dark Umber Hulk given Extraplanar subtype. It's obviously native to the Shadow Plane as are all Dark creatures.
• Kalazart Candlesong size changed form medium to Small as he's a gnome, duh.

[Cmdr Maxwell]

I asked ChatGPT, mostly because I like to ask it difficult DnD questions and see how it struggles. This is part of its response:

"Lore implication in the book

Roving Maulers appear in the Pact Magic section of Tome of Magic. Their flavor text implies they are tied to the vestige Buer and resemble her form (lion heads with radiating limbs). Some in-world scholars speculate they were servants or creatures associated with Buer before she became a vestige.

Since vestiges are beings cast out of the normal cosmology, this likely explains why the creature doesn’t have a canonical plane of origin.

Bottom line:

Plane of origin: Unspecified / unknown
Type: Extraplanar magical beast
Likely theme: Connected to the vestige Buer, rather than a standard Great Wheel plane.

DM interpretation (common approaches)

Many DMs place them in:

• A demiplane linked to vestiges

• The Astral Plane (where vestiges are often contacted)

• A lost Outer Plane associated with Buer

"

[Charon]

Seems like a good argument to leave it at "none".

[Charon]

Tome of Magic Added.
Database contains 3551 monsters.

Underdark in Progress.

[Charon]

Stone Flyer (Underdark P99) is an Extraplanar creature with no listed Home Plane.
It's Earth subtyped and speaks Terran.
Elemental Plane of Earth? Anyone know anything else about this creature?

Underdark Added.
Database contains 3579 monsters.