DnD Head Canons

[Bohandas]

Kuo-Toa minds give rise to gods with their collective belief, much faster than any other race. What might take hundreds of thousands of mortal worshippers, kuo-toa could do with a few dozen devout worshippers.

So sort og like Banjo

https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0080.html

[Morphic tide]

• Wish is not a spell that gives its caster the personal ability to warp reality, nor is it a service that comparatively minor beings such as Monster Manual Djinni can provide. Whether invoked directly by a wizard or indirectly through an intermediary, wishes are appeals to entities or forces on the order of deities with world-shaping and even cosmic levels of power. Sorry, but reading spellbooks, lost scrolls, the tomes of ancient sages past, or the Wizard's manual- even the Appendices- isn't going to make you capable of magic of that magnitude.

Given that other 9th-level spells do stuff like create Demiplanes, acquire incredibly accurate knowledge of proximate threats for at least three hours making it wholly impossible to surprise the caster, duplicate 8th-level spells via tapping the Plane of Shadow to imitate your actions, warp the flow of time to an apparent standstill, and create an astral duplicate of yourself and 9+ friends to eradicate risk against anyone without an EXTREMELY limited list of countermeasures, the constraints of Wish as freeform reality warping fit pretty well. Very importantly, it's always been a ridiculous guzzler of a spell, with the original Greyhawk version burning the caster out for 2-8 days, in which one could usually accomplish more by use of a larger volume of less extreme magic. And this makes Rings of Three Wishes a very strange IOU.

Kuo-Toa minds give rise to gods with their collective belief, much faster than any other race. What might take hundreds of thousands of mortal worshippers, kuo-toa could do with a few dozen devout worshippers. Kuo-Toa clerics are basically using the collective directed psionic potential of their race as the source of their divine magic.

But very few kuo-toa ever awaken that potential in their own minds. And I think it's because of the Mind Flayers. What if the kuo-toa were a powerful ancient race of truly potent psions, but the mind flayers managed to lock away that potential into their minds, driving them mad? The Mind Flayers clearly never anticipated that the kuo-toa would be able to access a spark of that power through devout belief, they abandoned the kuo-toa because they were not useful as slaves, too unstable.

This is very exactly what the Ardent class was made to represent, oddly enough, so non-maddened (or non-feral, as the case may be) Kuo-Toa could well be a PP-engine of a Psionic society primed to abuse converted Spellpool rules, the usual Ardent jank, and Metaconcert.

[KorvinStarmast]

But I think a psionically awakened kuo-toa, such as one trapped in stasis from before the mind-flayers, would be a truly freaky entity for a party to encounter.

Might be a great basis for an adventure.

[hewhosaysfish]

Some scholars have speculated that the wood must be of equal or greater age to the vampire to be effective, but these conjectures are based on fragmentary accounts that have passed through numerous sources, languages, and even eras. Given the rarity of vampires and the dire consequences of failure, few have been willing to test such notions as whether green wood would suffice for newly-risen spawn... Note: petrified wood (if in game) may retain its effectiveness depending on the world, or might even be required to defeat Antediluvian-age vampires...

So an elder vampire would want to:

1. aquire antique furniture and burn it, so that it can't be carved into stakes by plucky adventurers
2. create and circulate fake (or rather, misdated) antiques (possibly replacements of ones they've burned), so that would-be vampire-hunters arm themselves with ineffective stakes
3. fake being a younger vampire, to likewise encourage people to bring the wrong stake

Those are some interesting quirks to work with.

[glass]

My main D&D (and adjacent game) headcanon is that as far as possible everything I have played or run happened in the same continuity. Obviously there are some edge cases where things have to be broad brush - I have played Night March of Kalkamedes once and run it twice, but it is not my headcanon that he went on his march three times (he went once, and the details are vague enough to cover any and all of those sessions).

[Batcathat]

So an elder vampire would want to:

1. aquire antique furniture and burn it, so that it can't be carved into stakes by plucky adventurers
2. create and circulate fake (or rather, misdated) antiques (possibly replacements of ones they've burned), so that would-be vampire-hunters arm themselves with ineffective stakes
3. fake being a younger vampire, to likewise encourage people to bring the wrong stake

Those are some interesting quirks to work with.

Clearly this guy is a really old and really paranoid vampire. Killing the oldest tree trying to date it? Suuuure you did.

[Spore]

My main D&D (and adjacent game) headcanon is that as far as possible everything I have played or run happened in the same continuity. Obviously there are some edge cases where things have to be broad brush - I have played Night March of Kalkamedes once and run it twice, but it is not my headcanon that he went on his march three times (he went once, and the details are vague enough to cover any and all of those sessions).

If you go multiverse theory (not the D&D cosmos, but actual parallel worlds), you can imagine all adventures of all player characters of anyone who ever played D&D being canon. Including video games. Including obscure fanfics.

[KorvinStarmast]

If you go multiverse theory (not the D&D cosmos, but actual parallel worlds), you can imagine all adventures of all player characters of anyone who ever played D&D being canon. Including video games. Including obscure fanfics.

This way lies madness, which ends up with a lot of Kuo Toa and Gibbering Mouthers, I think.

[Rockphed]

This way lies madness, which ends up with a lot of Kuo Toa and Gibbering Mouthers, I think.

Where do you think Kuo-toa and gibbering mouthers come from?

[KillianHawkeye]

In 3.5 ed D&D, a vampire's damage reduction is only bypassed by silver. So my headcanon has always been that the whole "stab them with a sharp piece of wood" thing has always just been some sort of misinformation campaign carried out by vampires to get people to attack them with ineffectual weapons.

[Luccan]

In 3.5 ed D&D, a vampire's damage reduction is only bypassed by silver. So my headcanon has always been that the whole "stab them with a sharp piece of wood" thing has always just been some sort of misinformation campaign carried out by vampires to get people to attack them with ineffectual weapons.

But you can still instantly kill one with a stake in 3.5. Actually 3.5 goes out of its way to include many of the classic vampire killing and repelling methods in a way it doesn't for most other monsters

[KillianHawkeye]

But you can still instantly kill one with a stake in 3.5.

Yeah, that's what makes it headcanon and not actual canon.....

[Luccan]

Yeah, that's what makes it headcanon and not actual canon.....

I suppose it would be. I suppose it's a personal bias towards headcanons. I tend to reject contradiction with the actual text. That said, looking at the MM as often containing "common lore" that might not be accurate could be a fun way to mess with expectations. Everybody at the table can use meta knowledge on monsters, with the in-game logic being you've heard about all these beasts in stories. But then, as has been suggested, it turns out the smart monsters all spread a bunch of lies. Or even failing that, the monsters know their own weaknesses and adapted.

Maybe vampires can't be staked or maybe they all just start getting magic armor embedded in their chests. And it could spawn various adventures as well. Vampires can't cross running water, so they start damming up rivers in their hunting grounds, killing off the mortals even faster than a few vampire attacks since they lost their natural access to water. Or maybe the myths started because it was a specific vampire's weakness. Sir Ivan was allergic to garlic, the Terror of Vladsburg was scared of deep water, people thought Count Dracula was a vampire, but he wasn't, and every mortal dies when you stab them in the heart, chop their head off, and set them on fire

[oudeis]

Adventurers become more powerful by killing because they absorb the life force of the defeated, like the Immortals in 'Highlander'.

Only fits if everyone who is an adventurer is a human (kind of like CoC).
But a neat idea.

Do you mean because of some sort of intra-species limitation? I always envisioned it as a kind of vitalist omnivorousness.

Bulettes are the larval stage of the Tarrasque

That doesn't scan. A bulette is a mutant giant armadillo hopped up on crystal meth.

That's what the authorities want you to think. No one knows for sure, but the prevailing (secret) school of thought is that the metamorphosis to Tarrasque is trigged when the bulette reaches a certain mass or 'energy' reserve. Bulettes are dangerous enough in their current form that the last thing anyone wants is swarms of half-assed 'heroes' to go questing for glory only to end up fueling the transformation they sought to prevent. Irony is all well and good in literature, but not when you are trying to prevent the rise of a civilization-ending (devouring) threat.

Archdevils such as Asmodeus are unique individuals with proper names. What we think of as the names of Demon Lords are actually titles claimed by whichever demon is strong enough to take it, as Roman emperors assumed the name Caesar upon taking the throne. Demogorgon is dead, long live Demogorgon.

Interesting take, but I go back to Demagorgon's origin (in D&D) in eldritch wizardry; he and Orcus have proper names, like your Asmodeus example; the various other demons were Types I through VI. So I can't buy this one.

I didn't express this as precisely/fully as I wanted: I was thinking that when a Demon Lord is slain, the challenger ends up taking both the name and the form of the fallen ruler. As far as outsiders are aware of circumstances, it's yet another of the unending series of failed revolts that end with the death of the would-be usurper at the hands/tentacles of the eternal Lords of the Abyss. Now that I've written this out, though, I'm wondering if this kind of inalterable morphism (morphisticism?) would be better suited for the adamantine rigidity of the Hells instead.

[Bohandas]

I didn't express this as precisely/fully as I wanted: I was thinking that when a Demon Lord is slain, the challenger ends up taking both the name and the form of the fallen ruler. As far as outsiders are aware of circumstances, it's yet another of the unending series of failed revolts that end with the death of the would-be usurper at the hands/tentacles of the eternal Lords of the Abyss. Now that I've written this out, though, I'm wondering if this kind of inalterable morphism (morphisticism?) would be better suited for the adamantine rigidity of the Hells instead.

IIRC it's explicitly a part of it. I'm pretty sure Fiendish Codex 2 had something about The Dark Eight generals giving up their previous names and identities upon joining the group and taking on the name and identity of the general they are replacing

[John Campbell]

The verbal component for feather fall is a Wilhelm Scream.

[Bohandas]

The verbal component for feather fall is a Wilhelm Scream.

Not a Goofy yell?

[Rockphed]

Not a Goofy yell?

I am fairly certain the somatic component is holding up a sign saying "help".

[Spore]

But you can still instantly kill one with a stake in 3.5. Actually 3.5 goes out of its way to include many of the classic vampire killing and repelling methods in a way it doesn't for most other monsters

I enjoy D&D vampires a lot, and I kind of like the explanation World of Darkness/Vampire the Masquerade gives for these. Vampires are deeply mystical creatures but short of sunlight killing them, one needs various methods to release them from their curse. Which it actually must be for all the edgy and dark vampire characters to work properly. Not a gift of immortality, but a curse.

It is hugely because they believe in it. Seeing how D&D magic works it must be how spells and weaponry interacts with high fantasy monsters. Why do we have to pay x amount of gold to resurrect a dead person? If the person is truly pious, is that not enough? Why the frankly huge amount of cash, it feels like buying your way out of the afterlife. Why is it bat guano for Fireball? Why do vampires and werewolves hate silver?

It is not because of the intrinsic value given, it is because common and personal belief gives the materials worth and properties. Suddenly, silver is for purity (because impure silver quickly dulls). Suddenly, a stake through the heart is lethal, not because of the stake, but because you plant a living material through the corrupted and dead center of a cursed creature, releasing their curse. Why garlic? Because it is antibiotic, it helps against vermin such as insects and as such is thought beneficially. It only "works" when the vampire believes in it. Same with holy symbols, same with flowing water.

I treat my vampire villains like deeply depressed and mentally ill people. Not to villify disability, but because their curse can make them sympathetic. Strahd for example resists physical damage and necrotic. His regeneration sets out if he is hit with radiant damage because he is a cursed individual. His other weaknesses are:

Spoiler: CoS spoilers

Show

Vampire Weaknesses.

Strahd has the following flaws:

Forbiddance. He can't enter a residence without an invitation from one of the occupants.

Strahd is a lord, and thus would never break the hospitality of anyone he cares for. He claims nobility and lordship over Barovia, he would not simply cast aside this due to his pride. Maybe another simile for his depression is that no one will visit him in his castle (he even extends an invitation to the group), lover or otherwise.

Harmed by Running Water. He takes 20 acid damage if he ends his turn in running water.

Strahd was a warlord as a human. For one streams of water carry strategic value, sometimes enough that they decide border; and his prison realm is lined with waterways. He hates the constant reminder he is trapped. Besides drowning oneself is another finale for depression.

Stake to the Heart. If a piercing weapon made of wood is driven into his heart while he is incapacitated in his coffin, he is paralyzed until the stake is removed.

Originally meant to be a piece of the cross, a reminder of his fall from faith and into darkness, and he does not instantly die like others, but usually coffins are made of wood, too. Maybe it is a reminder that he is truly dead, and just animated by dark magic.

Sunlight Hypersensitivity. While in sunlight, Strahd takes 20 radiant damage at the start of his turn, and he has disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks.

The campaign setting specifies that the last bastion of hope WAS the Morninglord (basically Lathander/Pelor by another name). He has since crushed the opposition and even cast his realm into eternal twilight by day, marking a limitation of divine powers. I say he is simply stunned anyone is able to still connect to their deity this way.

There are gothic horror explanation to this which lie in personal pride making vulnerabilities personal imperfections, but there are also heroic fantasy explanations that boil down to "the heroes are just so damn awesome the vampire ceases in their presence. Rule of cool-ing the vampires demise as "their reference game is on point we let them have this". (Otherwise Bruce Campbell would have been murdered by going toe to toe with a zombie horde with a dumb small shotgun.

[Bohandas]

I've been thinking, what if Common is universal because it's a debased pidgin of the magically effective languages (ie. truespeech, dark speech, words of creation, etc.). These are tangible things that are discoverable and so it stands to reason they'd be found in many different places and from there might make their way into local tongues, (albeit not pronounced correctly enough to have magical effect) and so from that you would get lots of different languages that aren't necessarily the same language, but are derived from the same root languages and therefore mutually intelligible to a degree

[thorr-kan]

I've been thinking, what if Common is universal because it's a debased pidgin of the magically effective languages (ie. truespeech, dark speech, words of creation, etc.). These are tangible things that are discoverable and so it stands to reason they'd be found in many different places and from there might make their way into local tongues, (albeit not pronounced correctly enough to have magical effect) and so from that you would get lots of different languages that aren't necessarily the same language, but are derived from the same root languages and therefore mutually intelligible to a degree

That's a clever idea with interesting implications. In this headspace, Undercommon would be another debased pidgin, possibly completely unrelated to Common.

Going back to 2E, the Language Primeval from the College of Wizardry supplement could be another source.

[Luccan]

I would assume Undercommon is some combination of Elvish and Dwarvish (owing to the Drow and Duergar seeming to be the largest civilizations) with maybe a few others mixed in, not actually being s similar language to surface Common. That's assuming your subterranean world is anything like the Underdark, of course. I think I'm at the point that unless I'm doing deep worldbuilding, I'm comfortable saying Common is just the word for what could easily be called Human. Makes about as much sense as having a single form of Elvish.

[Morphic tide]

I would assume Undercommon is some combination of Elvish and Dwarvish (owing to the Drow and Duergar seeming to be the largest civilizations) with maybe a few others mixed in, not actually being s similar language to surface Common. That's assuming your subterranean world is anything like the Underdark, of course. I think I'm at the point that unless I'm doing deep worldbuilding, I'm comfortable saying Common is just the word for what could easily be called Human. Makes about as much sense as having a single form of Elvish.

In modern D&D, you have near-universal literacy as well as a wide variety of far longer lived creatures who'd keep "archaic" linguistics "in circulation". Add in liturgical value as most races have Gods interested in them in particular to have a use-case where the point of comparison is Ecclesiastical Latin and you don't need to touch any of the esoteric factors to have things tend to stay mutually intelligible for well over a thousand years.

[oudeis]

The Sword of Kas isn't actually an evil superweapon: Kas himself was neither a vampire or evil warlord or even a servant to Vecna, but was in fact Vecna's sworn nemesis and the greatest hero of that epoch of the world. Such was the Lich's power and determination to corrupt and pervert the truth, however, that he was able to forever blacken his enemy's name. As with all matters pertaining to the arch-lich, his actions were driven by both uncontrollable malice and utterly emotionless calculation. By tainting the legacy of the one who overthrew him, Vecna ensured that only the evil and the power-hungry would seek after the weapon. Many aspiring tyrants have attempted to wield the Sword over the ages, only to find themselves consumed by the divine fire of perhaps the most powerful Holy Avenger ever to descend to the earth. A portion of Kas' spirit still lingers in the mortal plane, unbeknownst to even Vecna, hoping and striving to guide the right champion to take up his weapon and the struggle against the Master of Lies.

Magic weapons and items can't be used to attack their creator in all but extraordinary circumstances. The enchantments will fail or the item will simply not allow itself to be wielded.

Defiling hallowed ground or the remains of those interred in same is tantamount to an initiation of hostilities with the protecting diety. The severity of the response will be in proportion to the magnitude of the transgression, ranging from perhaps a minor curse for something like stealing treasure from a new grave, to the divine equivalent of a major military retaliation or even a full declaration of war for pillaging the tomb of a high priest or raising an army of undead from its followers.

In the same vein, Raise Dead is expected to be used on followers of the granting diety or those of its allied gods. Using the spell to raise someone not in those categories becomes more difficult the further removed they are from the diety's alignment or purposes (required level or DC, at GM's discretion). This can also have repercussions to the cleric, depending on the god and the recipient. Resurrection has even greater strictures placed upon it. Merely attempting to resurrect any but the most faithful will trigger immediate communion with one of the most powerful servants of your diety or perhaps the god itself. Failure to justify the use of the spell can result in immediate catastrophic consequences for the cleric and even his immediate vicinity, should the diety's wrath be sufficiently aroused.

Warlock Patrons are actually established dieties who need to empower contractors for clandestine and black ops while maintaining plausible deniability. The 'Arch-Fey' who approached you with the deal that was too good to be true? *cough Corellon cough*. Does anyone really believe that 'The Fiend' is acting without explicit sanction from the Diabolic Bureaucracy, if it isn't the Big A himself? And what self-respecting God of Knowledge wouldn't have a think-tank aspect with the public face of a 'Great Old One'?

The most magically advanced societies have the arcane equivalent of Cyberspace: the gifted can use crystal balls to scry upon or project to an analogue or aspect of the Astral plane.

Ioun stones assume different powers depending on how you pronounce the name.

Stone and Iron golems don't exist. Tales of such come from adventurers who got their asses kicked by armored Flesh or Clay golems created by wizards who got tired of constantly having to rebuild their constructs.

Brass and Bronze dragons are descended from long-ago Copper dragons who mated with the now-extinct Zinc and Tin dragons. This is best not discussed in the presence of these bloodlines, and besides, who among us doesn't have an embarrasing memory of a bad hookup?

Green dragons are unripe Red dragons.

[Bohandas]

The comedy version of Castle Greyhawk is a massive shadow illusion cast on top of the real castle by the epic level illusionist from the end of the adventure

[threefivearchve]

My D&D headcanon is that Zarus is Pelor's evil brother. Don't know why. Always felt like Pelor was the closest there was to a human god, despite there being some in Races of Destiny.

[Beelzebub1111]

I had a heretical cult in one of my games that believed that Heironeous and Hexor were not merely brothers, but the same divine entity. Two necessary halves of the same whole.

[KorvinStarmast]

In the same vein, Raise Dead is expected to be used on followers of the granting diety or those of its allied gods. Using the spell to raise someone not in those categories becomes more difficult the further removed they are from the diety's alignment or purposes (required level or DC, at GM's discretion). This can also have repercussions to the cleric, depending on the god and the recipient.

A number of DMs over the years that I have played with have levied such restrictions/constraints.

Brass and Bronze dragons are descended from long-ago Copper dragons who mated with the now-extinct Zinc and Tin dragons. This is best not discussed in the presence of these bloodlines, and besides, who among us doesn't have an embarrassing memory of a bad hookup?

Plaid dragons, on the other hand, are comfortable with their mixed heritage and are the arch nemisis of fashionistas the world over. (the Mysterious Plaid Dragon/Dragons are a feature of my instance of the World of Greyhawk. The party has met one (adult) once).

Green dragons are unripe Red dragons.

If you are not careful who you say that around, it could be trouble.

I had a heretical cult in one of my games that believed that Heironeous and Hexor were not merely brothers, but the same divine entity. Two necessary halves of the same whole.

Janus?

[Beelzebub1111]

Janus?

To be specific, the cult believed their methods required one another to function. Justice cannot be delivered without some sort of control, Valor and Heroism nessecitate a framework of war and conflict to perform. An open palm and a closed fist are both the same hand. And the conflict between them is a metaphorical struggle to balance the dichotomy within the same deity.

[Bohandas]

Iggwilv is a distant descendant of Orcus (from his mortal life). This rectifies Iuz's background as the son of Grazzt with his other background as a descendant of Orcus