Homebrewed Monster Advice

[BritishBill]

Hey guys, I am dming a 5th edition game and I want to add a worm monster similar to Nydus Worm from Starcraft (sorry if my reference sucks). My question is does anybody have any advice on how to design this and if anything like this already exists in DnD? My current setting is in in the Underdark. Any advice is appreciated thanks!

[JNAProductions]

Hey guys, I am dming a 5th edition game and I want to add a worm monster similar to Nydus Worm from Starcraft (sorry if my reference sucks). My question is does anybody have any advice on how to design this and if anything like this already exists in DnD? My current setting is in in the Underdark. Any advice is appreciated thanks!

I can make it, if I knew what a Nydus Worm was.

[BritishBill]

I can make it, if I knew what a Nydus Worm was.

Its a big worm from the Star craft games that Zerg can use to travel through, It generally bursts out of the ground and bad guys come out of it and attack. That is pretty much what I am going for.

[JNAProductions]

Its a big worm from the Star craft games that Zerg can use to travel through, It generally bursts out of the ground and bad guys come out of it and attack. That is pretty much what I am going for.

Purple Worm with an interior compartment for carrying people?

[Ninja_Prawn]

Yeah, I'm not familiar with Starcraft, but that sounds like a reference to the sand worms from Dune (a google image search seems to corroborate that), which I'm pretty sure are also the inspiration for the purple worms in D&D. You can almost certainly get away with tweaking a purple worm, rather than writing something from scratch. Assuming the CR works for your players. Purple worms are strong!

[Anachronity]

@JNAProductions & Ninja_Prawn
Youtube Link
In the game they're literally just a nigh-instantaneous two-way fixed transportation device (they don't even move once deployed), but the Zerg are entirely biological so they're called 'worms' instead of 'teleport pads'.

In the lore I think they do move around, but are less instantaneous. They're basically extremely long (potentially many miles) self-digging tunnels.

[BritishBill]

That purple worm might work. Any advice on what creatures I could have travel through them? I dont want to be lame and use Zerg I wonder if there is a DnD equivalent?

[Composer99]

That purple worm might work. Any advice on what creatures I could have travel through them? I dont want to be lame and use Zerg I wonder if there is a DnD equivalent?

Let's say that some Underdark creatures have, over centuries (or even millennia) of selective breeding, "tamed" and modified purple worms into something approximating the Zerg Nydus worms.

What sort of creatures might these be? If you don't want Zerg translated into D&D terms, then any number of classic Underdark villains fit the bill: mind flayers and drow are two suspects that spring to mind as having the magic, the know-how, and the lifespans to do such a thing, although I daresay drow would on the whole prefer not to travel through slimy worm innards.

Goblins strike me as the kind of creatures that might put up with traveling through a "Nydus worm" equivalent, although not as the kind of creatures that could have bred such things.

[BritishBill]

I appreciate all the help there are some good ideas here. I am thinking about using the Kreen as my bad guys for the worm. They seem to fit the bill nicely. Has anyone used them before? Any feedback?

[Composer99]

Kreen? Do you mean the Thri-Kreen?

[BritishBill]

Kreen? Do you mean the Thri-Kreen?

Yup lol my bad.