D&D's Forgotten Talking Bridge Monster

hello and welcome to monster of the week the only show on the internet that Bridges the gap between old school d d monsters and your current 5th edition campaign we've been talking about a lot of monsters that got their start in either first or second edition d d lately and today we're going to continue that Trend by talking about one of my favorite one-off monsters to ever see print the spanner as you can see in their artwork this creature is a living bridge that loves to throw people to an untimely demise but they also have an incredibly interesting backstory with tons of plot Hood potential way more than you might think so as always today we're gonna go over this creatures publication history lore and ecology then we're going to convert it into 5th edition d d and talk about how we might actually use this thing at the game table so if you're ready to throw a spanner in your DND campaign and see what happens I welcome you to join me on this journey of Burning Bridges and getting over it because it's time for monster of the week [Music] in 1981 the UK division of TSR published the fiend folio for advanced Dungeons and Dragons this was widely regarded as a good move and since it was so well received over a decade later in 1992 TSR released the ad 2nd edition monstrous compendium fiend folio appendix a title that just rolls off the tongue the idea here was that this compendium would update and in some cases enhance all the monsters from the original fiend folio into second edition but it wasn't just a rehash of classic creatures they would also add in a handful of new monsters so long time fans of the game had some new creatures to play with and one of these new creatures of course would be the spanner something great about a lot of these old compendiums is that in the front of the book it actually lists who designed witch creatures this is how I was able to track down Newton you will when I converted the spirit Warrior and it's also how we know who is responsible for the spanner and all its Glory Chris and Steve hardinger you have my sincerest thanks for unleashing this monster onto the world to my knowledge this is the only D and D book that these two are credited on but I guess when you come out the gate this strong you might as well finish on top now at first glance the spanner is indistinguishable from a bridge they vary in size ranging from a small Cobblestone walkway across a brook to a 200 foot long monster for context 200 feet is just over 14 stories these Bridges were originally created by an unnamed wizard who was experimenting on mimics to see if they could repurpose them somehow the end result of these experiments of course was the spanner and ain't that just the most classic wizard that I've ever heard leave it to a wizard to accidentally make a living bridge now of course the spanners eventually went walkabout and became integrated with the world around them as a new monstrous species and before you get to thinking oh the spanner is just a mimic in the shape of a bridge let's address that don't think of this creature as a mimic variant rather think about the mimic as an ingredient in this creature's creation unlike mimics spanners are not only as intelligent as your average human but they have entire personalities as well and as intelligent beings there's basically no limit to how much one individual's personality might vary from another's but overall they tend to be fairly personable they often love to gossip and generally go about collecting new juicy tidbits of information regarding the creatures who live nearby in one of two ways some spanners are content to just listen in on the conversations being had by others as they walk across their back choosing to remain silent and Anonymous others take a more direct approach and will openly ask travelers to share stories with them as a sort of tool to cross the bridge they don't seem to have many or possibly any physiological needs such as food or water so a good tale is the bartering tool of choice if you want to get across the bridge speaking of their physiology spanners don't seem to have a natural upper limit on their lifespan making them effectively biologically Immortal in the event that a spanner is killed in combat the creature simply just becomes inert and effectively causes them to become a normal bridge and this is where the spanner really starts to blur the lines between construct and creature back in second edition we didn't really have creature categories that work the same way as what we've come to know ever since third edition d d usually the creature's type is pretty obvious a hyena is a beast the pink dragon is a dragon a Golem is a construct but once in a while you'll come across a bizarre creature like this that can fit in one of the many different categories that exist You could argue that the spanner is simply a construct animated by magic or as an intelligent creature that lives in the wild with some very obviously Arcane traits you could also argue that it's more of a monstrosity given its association with mimics you could even argue you that it's maybe a type of ooze for me in my conversion I ended up landing on monstrosity as the creature type for the spanner but feel free to let me know in the comments if you disagree but regardless of what the creatures type actually lands on in your personal d d campaign in the interest of transparency I want to talk about some of the ways that I altered this creature's design to make it a little bit more interesting in my opinion so let's talk about that foreign ly my version of this monster is pretty much a one-to-one conversion of the original creature just updated to fifth edition most of what I changed actually has very little to do with the mechanics of the creature and more to do with its visual design in the original printing the only artwork that exists of this creature depicts it as literally just a sentient arched Bridge don't get me wrong that's totally cool and completely fine but it did get me thinking that maybe there is a way to make this creature a little bit more involved I actually have the creatures artists to thank for this one because when I was chatting with Tam about getting some new fresh updated artwork for the spanner it was their idea to give it eye stocks and make it a bit more insectile in its appearance like a giant centipede this led us down the path trying to figure out how to modify the spanner while maintaining its core concept and I think Tam did an awesome job on the final design personally I love the way that this looks and I think it gives the creature a lot more personality because while laying inert of course it will still look like just any old bridge however by giving the creature retractable eyes and these little Stone legs that can be easily hidden I think it makes the monster a bit more visually interesting and somewhat less goofy while still maintaining a somewhat silly spirit that was attached with the original Monster's entry and the best part about this in my opinion is that it is for the most part an entirely visual change it's all descriptive so if you don't like this or you just like the idea of it being a sentient bridge that hobbles back and forth you can just describe it to your players that way and you do not have to use the new artwork the only way this actually impacted the mechanics of the creature is that now since it has these little legs I gave the monster a climb speed because that just makes sense to me and I will admit the addition of the eye stocks in its little feet is part of what made me lean more towards monstrosity when figuring out what type of monster I wanted this to be I don't know what it is there's just something about giving it eyes that changes the whole dynamic of this monster for me please let me know what you think about this because while this is less of a change than say the Chrono Tyrant and how we kind of rework that whole thing a few months back I do think that this is surprisingly impactful in regards to how this creature will be perceived by the players so let me know but with all that said let's move on and talk about what kind of abilities this living walkway actually has access to [Music] as you would expect a creature sure with a hide made of stone is going to have a colossal AC sitting at 18. for a cr5 monster that's pretty dang good but that said the trade-off here is that this creature does have a slower move speed with only 20 feet per round meaning that if you do get in combat with one of these things and you feel like you can't take it on the best option is gonna be to just run away but if you do find yourself in combat with the spanner honestly it's probably your fault to begin with spanners are notoriously averse to battle and would almost always rather settle a dispute with words over violence but when push comes to shove it does have a couple brutal tricks up its sleeve the first is less of a trick and more of you getting crushed by a bridge it can make two slam attacks per round that each clock in for 2D 10 plus 3 damage which at lower levels can be pretty rough but the real threat of the spanner only actually enters into play if you begin combat while you're on the creature back at the start of each turn the spanner can force somebody on its body to make a dc-16 dexterity check if you fail it either rocks back and forth hurling you over the side of the bridge or opens up a hole Beneath Your Feet causing you to fall straight down in either case depending on how high up off the ground you are this can either be a minor inconvenience or certain death meaning that if you ever decide to literally cross paths with a spanner you better make sure you're on good terms before taking that first step across the bridge outside of that surprising basically no one there isn't a lot that the spanner can do I mean what do you expect it's a living Bridge it can do living Bridge stuff if you really wanted to make this a more deadly and challenging encounter you could always increase the number of creatures it can affect with its ability to throw them off the side or shoot them down below maybe instead of only being able to affect one creature per turn it can affect anybody who's on its back potentially sending the entire party creating into the abyss or you could even increase its speed give it a ranged attack where it hurls bricks from its body at people or allow it to Sunder the ground beneath it to create an earthquake if it's not hanging over a giant gap of some kind there's a lot of different things you could add if you're interested in ratcheting up the danger but to be fully honest nine times out of ten this is likely gonna be a role play encounter but I mean it's always good to have a plan in case things turn ugly speaking of which let's talk about a few ways this might pan out and go over a few plot hooks the first thing I want to talk about is how truly camouflage the spanner actually is in its unmoving state due to its false appearance trait while remaining entirely motionless it is indistinguishable from an ordinary Bridge we've seen Monsters of this trait before such as the Trent or the mimic but something I always like to consider when this trade comes up is what are some circumstances in which a player might actually notice something is off for example if a player decides unprompted to just investigate the bridge take a closer look before they cross and they roll ridiculously high on their check what sort of things might they notice as for the trade they're not going to just notice oh this is a creature but there can always be context clues to tip them off maybe there are marks in the ground on one side of the bridge indicating something really heavy passed over here recently or perhaps the bridge itself seems to be made of stone that doesn't correspond to the Rock typically used by masons in this region if you want to give them a real hot tip maybe the bridge itself has something odd about its construction perhaps it doesn't have a keystone which should raise a lot of red flags for anyone who knows anything about architecture in the party this can be especially interesting if the one investigating the bridge is a dwarf due to their Stone cunning trait they might get all sorts of bad vibes about the bridge itself how much you want to give the players here is definitely up to you as the dungeon master but I would at least be prepared to give them something because if a player rolls stupid high on an investigation check and then gleans nothing of the situation and then the spanner attacks or it turns out that the spanners revealed to them in some way to be a real magical creature they're gonna feel bad but in terms of actually using the spanner as a plot element I think that this is a really diverse creature with a lot of options anytime bridges come up in DND I always immediately think of trolls action trolls are the de facto toll collectors of most fantasy worlds and I could see a really interesting encounter where the spanner has formed a sort of symbiotic relationship with a troll that has taken up resonance beneath its body the two of them might stay in one place or maybe they travel the countryside setting up shop near bustling towns whenever a grand festival or something is about to take place the troll of course actively extorts any Travelers for Treasure and if things get feisty the spanner jumps in to help defend the troll by the time any local Knights are dispatched to deal with the troll the pair has already moved on and suddenly there just isn't a bridge there anymore and if your party isn't ready to handle the troll maybe a spanner is doing this extortion routine all by themselves hoarding treasure for some unknown reason perhaps the bridge has even adopted a pack of Cobalts or something and it's using the money to buy food and supplies for them that honestly isn't even too far-fetched from the creature's basic lore as creatures originally created to safeguard an area from Intruders they often adopt towns and Villages as people under their protection a spanner that has lived in a particular region for a long time likely knows many of the people who might live nearby and is bound to have friendships and connections with many of the folks who travel the road regularly the spanner might be a vocal member of the community even or perhaps it keeps its true nature mostly concealed only revealing itself to a select few individuals maybe it's made friends with a local eccentric hedge wizard who will gleefully claim the bridge is alive to anyone that will listen but of course people just write them off as a Madman because the bridge chooses to remain silent when anyone else is around either because it doesn't trust them or maybe it just wants to mess with the wizard and if you happen to be planning an adventure that takes place in a Wizard's Tower or a similar location like that you could use this creature as it was originally intended to be used as the first encounter the sort of Guardian protecting the path to that place but whatever the case they're great to have around for pretty much everyone because they don't eat anything and as long as they're friendly to the villagers or who ever happens to be living nearby they can be a great protector should Bandits ever try to cross the bridge and make their way towards town they might be in for a nasty surprise once they get across the bridge or rather once they get halfway across the bridge now as for the original rules these creatures max out in size around 200 feet long but as we all know rules are more like a guidelines perhaps there's an exceptionally long-lived spanner that began its life in a small town among a group of peasants and that town slowly grew and grew and grew and now it is a large capital city and potential seat of power over time what started as this small Stone Bridge has grown to a colossal Marvel of engineering maybe there's even a local Legend of a guardian Spirit who lives on the bridge and protects Travelers as they come and go from the city and within this myth as is often the case there lies a singular grain of Truth The Bridge isn't haunted by a guardian Spirit but rather it is a sentient living being that watches over the city at all times only a speaking to a select few it counts among friends and who knows what kind of information a spanner that's lived that long might have access to it could know all manner of secrets about the kingdom the people within it maybe even if you plot relevant details to your ongoing campaign story as we know spanners love Gossip so if you're doing a political Intrigue Style game in a high magic setting having the spanner be the sort of go-to Gossip Girl of the city so to speak could be really interesting and very silly even if you don't want to go with the massive Bridge thing though a very old spanner would likely have lots of insight into ages gone by so even a relatively small spanner that's lived in a single area for its entire life which could be hundreds or even thousands of years would likely know all sorts of stuff that nobody else would have any recollection of but no matter how you choose to use this creature I sincerely hope you get a chance to run one of them at a game table sometime because they are just a joy to use in a role play encounter at the very least it's just another one of those weird little hidden gems packed away in D D's history I'm so glad I got to talk about it today I want to give a special shout out to all of you fantastic patrons out there who help make this show possible and a special shout out to our patron of the week this week's randomly selected Patron is Matthias Haas this Haas to be one of my favorite episodes yet and I appreciate you helping me make it as always if you do want to use this monster in your campaign Linked In the description down below is a link to a Google document that contains all the information you will need to successfully run this creature at your game table and if you are one of those aforementioned lovely patrons over on the patreon page you can find the dungeon dad style stat block it is a high-res PDF document that contains all the same information but it's got the new artwork it's in a real neat layout situation gives you something cool to bust out at the game table and uh it helps support the show helps keep all my hot lights turned on I ordered more of them by the way keying the green screen is sucks sometimes it's not good so there's more hot lights on the way everybody yay also if there's a monster you'd like to see converted into d d fifth edition from an older version of the game or even a different RPG all together and you want to see it talked about on the channel here let me know in the comments down below or on the dungeon dad Discord and the monster suggestions Channel and who knows you might just see it show up on a future episode of Monster of the week as we broach the second half of September I will remind you all that spooky season is coming so give me your best horror themed Monster recommendations as is tradition throughout the month of October we will be talking about some more scary and spooky and gross themed creatures I want to give you all the tools I can to prepare you for your Halloween one shots anyways that's all I've got for you this week thank you so much for watching see you in the next one till then [Music] the leaves are changing color a chill can be felt in the air your neighbor has a 30-foot Skeleton on their lawn that can only mean one thing spooky season is upon us it's a crying shame we have to kick things off with such a horrific creature next episode weep [Music] tune in next time for lots more fan service

Channel: Dungeon Dad

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Id: mvv81nWJlrk

Length: 19min 9sec (1149 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 23 2023