Deathdrinker: The D&D Demon They Don't Talk About

don't be intimidated Squidward try to imagine him in his underwear oh no he hello and welcome to monster of the week the only show on the internet that's not afraid to admit some of the demons in the monster manual kind of cute today's monster has a bit of a story behind it see back in December I did a video about the Mage Ripper swarm from the monster manual 4 a book from Dungeons and Dragons Third Edition while doing my research for that video I was skimming through the book to see what else might be in there and I stumbled upon this young man right here I don't know what it is about this artwork but it makes me laugh every single time I look at it I mean sure he's an 18 foot tall demon with literal corpses hanging from his antlers but what is that pose I can't really tell if he's supposed to be on the front of a Playgirl or if he's just getting ready to pose for the cover of an r b album but of course after seeing this and having myself a chuckle I just had to know what this Monster's deal is and as it turns out the death Drinker didn't come here to [ __ ] around so as always my goal for today is to go over the lore ecology and publication history of the death Drinker and then convert it into 5th edition d d with some shiny new stats also you can expect lots of fun facts throughout today's video for instance did you notice that the death Drinker has six fingers oh yeah there's a lot more where that came from now let's get down to business laughs [Music] once again like a wizard to the fireball spell we return to the monster manual 4 from DnD 3.5 to exhume another fantastic Creature from the annals of ttrpg History it's no secret to you guys that I love this book I already went on about this at length in my last video so if you want to hear me go off about ttrpg best diary writing I suggest you go watch my main Tripper video if you haven't already seen it but as it relates to today's video the monster manual for is still one of the best Monster books ever printed and it has given us yet another gift death drinkers are wild creatures they typically stand nearly 20 feet tall decked out from chest to toe in plate mail and extravagant jewelry I have so much jewelry I got more jewelry and it's not even about the jewelry because you know jewelry their signature feature though is a pair of massive horns from which usually hang the corpses and body parts of their enemies gross now that probably wouldn't be my first choice in bling especially when you have access to jewelry all kinds of gold and treasures but I won't be a hater now at first glance sultry pose and corpse jewelry aside this might look like your typical demon bright red skin big fangs dark armor and a penchant for bloodlust are all certainly present here but what really makes the death Drinker unique is the way they conduct themselves both on and off the battlefield though to understand why their behavior is so interesting we need to pause for a brief history lesson d d has a long track record of including demonology in the game demons are among some of the first creatures that ever made it into a monster manual but largely in part due to the satanic Panic of the 80s and 90s the terms demon and devil were dropped from the game entirely with the release of second edition d d and replaced by made up fantasy words that held a less sinister education going forward all demons printed under tsr's ownership of DnD would be referred to as tanari this of course changed with the Advent of Third Edition d d where Wizards of the Coast brought back the terms demon and devil to describe residents of the lower Plains but they didn't drop the term tanari altogether in Third Edition the tanari became an overall umbrella race of demons that encompassed the general population of the Abyss they also included two new terms the obriths a very old race of demons which resemble Eldritch and Cosmic Horrors and the lumara which were said to be a very young race of demons that have a lot of similarities to ghosts with no static material form so basically all tanari are demons but not all demons are tanari hashtag not all demons in 5th edition d d the game has pretty well divorced itself entirely from the tanari obrith and lumara terminology G instead just calling them all demons and organizing them with type classifications ranging from one to six category one of course being the dregs of the abyss and Category 6 being something akin to a Demon Lord this whole history of terminology as it pertains to demons and Dungeons and Dragons is really complex and there's a lot more to go over here that I'm just not gonna get into in this video today but the reason I bring it up in the first place is because the death Drinker is one of the rare cases where it is a demon with no familial Association they aren't tanari obriths or lumara they're just kind of Their Own Thing a demon not fitting in with one of these familial classifications isn't that unheard of but usually when it happens it's because the creature in question is so weird that it just doesn't fit anywhere else and that is definitely the case when it comes to the death Drinker as free agents within the Demonic higher turkey they see themselves as somewhat above it all they don't really engage with politics of any kind and while they certainly are capable combatants they're not exactly Evil Geniuses or clever Generals in fact they seem to only have one all-consuming interest themselves they are egomaniacal in the extreme every death Drinker seems to think that they are the epitome of sentient life and the only other creatures they really seem to show any amount of true respect to are other death Drinkers and even then each one of them not so secretly thinks that they are the ultimate representative of their kind being the best is is stats um not just stats uh accomplishments wins um and the people tell you that you're the best but aside from other deaf drinkers they do enjoy the company of creatures that praise admire and flatter them but they would certainly never admit that openly now social relationships aside for a second when it comes to their layer in the places that they actually make their homes they have one of the wildest setups I've ever seen for a d d monster death drinkers are completely enamored with the concepts of death and violence and as such they tend to make their home nearby the largest Battlefield they can find and once they do find a place to finally settle down they will Adorn their Fortress or cave or whatever their Lair physically actually ends up being with tons of bodies just skeletons and corpses as far as the eye can see and I have to imagine that it's like a teenage Anarchist bedroom in there when it comes to the amount of skull Decor in fact they will go as far as to construct a room with a massive pile of bones and corpses which they will Lounge upon in place of a proper Throne suddenly that goofy ass artwork is a lot more disturbing and one of the wildest Things which I somehow haven't even mentioned yet is the way that their species is born or brood I guess would be the proper terminology to use here a death Drinker reproduces by dripping some of its blood into a specially prepared pit of vile Essence this pit of muck is essentially a big vat containing the ground up in boiled remains of countless corpses very cool typically when the death Drinker decides it's time to propagate it will have a bunch of its minions tending to this breeding pit this this unfortunate group of line cooks are tasked with stirring the mixture adding fresh corpses when available and ensuring the broth isn't overly salted eventually the blood donated by the death Drinker will start to clot and grow until a non-descript amount of time has passed and a new death Drinker emerges from the pit there is no information present in the book about what happens after this as egocentric Warlords I can't imagine a situation in which a death Drinker would want to create another of its kind because that just means potential competition down the road but who knows maybe they just reach a certain age and baby fever kicks in I do have a few more thoughts on death Drinker child rearing but I think we'll save those for when we get to the plot hook section of the video for now I think we should move along and talk about what the death drinkers actual abilities are because well let's just say they're very capable foreign I'm sure this won't come as much of a surprise but believe it or not the death Drinker is a big fan of killing stuff and they're real good at it death drinkers clock into fifth edition at a challenge rating of 17. this puts them up there with some of the biggest threats in the monster manual at least before you get into the tier of monsters that only ever come out if the DM is very angry for some reason as huge sized creatures they are very conspicuous but that doesn't bother them one bit because at the heart of the action with everyone's eyes on them is exactly where they want to be each one of them carries a massive plus three adamantine long sword these weapons are typically decked out with fine Engravings encrusted jewels and the blood of their enemies they get four attacks per round with this ornate blade and that is their primary method of dealing damage however there's a bit more to their methodology than simply swinging around a giant sword if they drop a creature to zero hit points they can take an additional attack on their turn using a bonus action back in the Third Edition days we used to call This cleaving And when they do drop a creature to zero hit points this also triggers one of their other abilities called glory in Slaughter this gives the death Drinker advantage on attack rolls and saving throws for one full minute as long as the creature they killed was a worthy opponent in game terms that means they had at least 10 hit dice but that's not all the Death drinkers titular ability death drink also restores one d8 hit points to the demon for every hit dice that a killed creature had individually any one of these traits would be a great ability but when you put them all together on one creature it turns the death Drinker into a very dangerous monster it's already going to be throwing a ton of damage around and since it only gets more dangerous as it kills it has potential to spiral out of control very fast also being obsessed with the concept of death it only makes sense that there would be some sort of Undead angle to this creature and that's where the aura of unlife comes in at all times the death Drinker is surrounded by an aura that does 2d6 necrotic damage to any creature that comes within 10 feet of it and this damage isn't a one-time thing it's recurring every turn so the longer you hang out near this guy the more damage you're gonna take so you better believe that's real bad for anyone trying to get up in your boy's business but it's real good for the death drinkers Undead minions because any Undead within the aura actually gain temporary hit points instead of taking damage the book even goes as far as to say that the undead are drawn to death drinkers like a magnet so that they can bask in this Aura of unlife so even if the death Drinker isn't seeking out new Undead minions the undead minions are likely to seek out the death drinker but what is probably the most most heinous part of the death drinkers stat block is that they can teleport now this ain't no Misty step or dimension door [ __ ] the death Drinker can full on cast teleport as many times per day as it wants just for the sake of balance I made this ability on our 5th edition conversion document a recharge ability so that much like a dragon's breath weapon there's sometimes gonna be a countdown between rounds when it can use this ability again but this effectively allows the death Drinker to appear anywhere it wants on the same plane of existence at any time oh and I should probably mention for this guy it's a bonus action and according to lore the death drinker's favorite way to use this ability is to teleport directly in front of a wizard or sorcerer or some other kind of spellcaster who is deliberately keeping their distance and hanging back in the further ranks in combat as to avoid getting being stabbed in the [ __ ] face with a 10 foot long sword the book specifically says that they take great pleasure in witnessing the fear and panic on the face of an unsuspecting spellcaster before going on an absolute tear with their weapon and this goes for flying enemies too there is literally nowhere you can be on the same plane of existence as a death Drinker where you are 100 safe so in terms of actually running combat with this thing how do we do that well this guy's gonna be zipping all over the battlefield dragging its Entourage of Undead with it in order to augment their assault one cool thing about this creature is because of the way its ability is worded if it ever runs low on HP it can just start chunking its Undead allies and absorbing their life Essence in order to regain hit points and that's pretty cool it's also definitely the kind of thing a demon would do just cutting down its own allies to absorb whatever Health it can from them stuff like that is just a little extra layer of Brute reality that I really appreciate in a monster there's also talk in the book of some death drinkers who choose to become clerics beholden to powerful gods of death and while these individuals may be exceedingly rare I feel like a death Drinker cleric of Miracle sounds like an incredible campaign villain and speaking of villains I feel like this is a perfect time to talk about what kind of stories we might be able to tell using the death drinker so let's talk about a few [Music] foreign something the monster manual this guy comes from mentioned specifically which I think is both hilarious and compelling is that on occasion a death Drinker will be essentially tricked into service of another individual they are so narcissistic and so self-obsessed that if a crafty individual appeals to their sense of importance for long enough the death Drinker might actually be quite easy to manipulate now mind you this method probably won't work if you're just some guy but if you're say a powerful wizard or a notable Monarch or just anybody who has any amount of clout by sending a steady stream of emissaries gifts and other such things meant to flatter into Peas the self-important nature of a death Drinker they might be open to helping you out from the death drinkers perspective they're simply doing a favor for one of their greatest admirers after all they are the most Supreme Being in the whole of the Multiverse and as a result forward for recognizing that they might see fit to crush an opposing Kingdom for you since it would be oh so easy for them but from the perspective of the manipulator it's all about convincing the death Drinker that you're their biggest fan and that you do anything for them just in a weird turn of events to get them to do anything for you I have to imagine there are probably some Hollywood Talent agents out there who would excel at this sort of thing when you really think of it they're just uppity celebrities that can also raise entire countries in a matter of days I feel like this is a great opportunity to introduce a Bard as the final villain of your campaign I mean sure the death Drinker might be the actual threat here but who better to flatter and suck up to the death drinkers whims than a Bard who is gifted in the ways of poetry and song Maybe they've been banished from a kingdom for making one too many jokes about the Monarch so in an act of petty Revenge they try to get this death Drinker on their side and convince them to go smash this castle and kill everyone inside but when the death drinkers aren't out on some Grand Mission on behalf of their favorite death God or tier 3 subscriber they often plan excursions to the plane where recently dead Souls tend to linger in faerun this would be the Fugue plane but depending on your world this might be anywhere from the rivers that ring the world to your local Arby's but the bottom line is by infiltrating the place where recently dead Souls gather before being sorted by Anubis or whoever they go about a grim Harvest of Soul collection their Aura of unlife acts like a beacon to all those ghostly spirits who will flock to the death Drinker in order to bask in its Rays so merely by just wandering around they can collect a huge amount of souls quite easily which can then of course be taken back to the abyss to be transformed into demonic minions traded to other demons or simply consumed as fuel this practice is seen as pretty Not Cool by most gods of Passage or Guardians Of Death so it's not like they can just get away scot-free without any resistance but they are exceptionally talented at doing battle so you can kind of see how this all fits together if you happen to have a cleric of the Grave domain in your party perhaps their deity summons them in their Pals to help Stave off a death Drinker incursion or maybe it's an organized effort involving multiple death Drinkers and the players have to find a way to stop it but whatever you choose to do here I think a death Drinker stealing Souls from the underworld would make for a great campaign plot another little tidbit dropped by the Source book here is that these guys love collecting magic items Trinkets and weapons that make them more capable in combat this is really great for a couple different reasons for one if the party manages to fail a death Drinker they are liable to find some pretty decent loot which is always a fun reward and a big motivator for a lot of players secondly it means that if anyone in your party has an especially valuable Magic item the death Drinker can use maybe they don't have to go to it but the death Drinker will come to them and if that's not your cup of tea maybe one of them moves to Raven Loft and tries to replace strut I'm only like half joking what I'm really getting at here is that the death Drinker works extremely well when paired with Undead allies the obvious choice here would be something like a bunch of Shadows or a horde of zombies but don't be afraid to expand on this idea a little bit a death Drinker working with a Vampire is a very interesting combo perhaps your death Drinker is the big bad guy of your campaign and they have a council of vampires working under them as a sort of group of generals the vampires might even secretly loathe working for such an arrogant creature with a poor grasp on tactics but maybe the gifts and powers granted to them by this master are far too good to pass up so they stick around and the death Drinker like pretty much every boss I've ever had simply goes to his vampire Council and comes up with a crazy scheme and tells them to make it work and and they do at least until your players intervene there are a lot of different interesting Dynamics you could explore with the death Drinker and various Undead creatures I think and hey if all else fails just give him a draco Lich to ride into combat on but whatever plot Hooks and story ideas you come up with if you do want to use this creature in your campaign and you're not playing Third Edition d d but you are playing 5th edition d d Linked In the description down below there is a Google Document which contains my 5th edition conversion of this monster which includes all the details you will need to run this creature at your game table and if you are one of my lovely patrons over on the patreon page you can of course find the dungeon dad special patreon style sap block which is a high resolution PDF which has some cool layout stuff and the artwork and a few extra little tidbits on there so if you want to support me support the channel support the content that we're making here and get a cool thing to stick in your DM folder check it out and speaking of patrons it is time for patron of the week this week's randomly selected Patron is Sean dally thank you so much Sean I appreciate you not Dilly dallying with your support and thank you for watching I appreciate it immensely I would not be able to do anything that I do without you here watching my stuff so thank you for that and if you do enjoy these videos please consider leaving a like or subscribing if you haven't subscribed already and definitely be sure to jump in the comments and let me know any plot hooks or ideas you might have for this monster also if you have a recommendation for a monster either from an older edition of d d or another RPG of the past please leave a comment down below or you can jump in the Discord which is also linked down below where we have a monster suggestions channel that we aggregate all the monsters into and who knows if you leave a monster suggestion you might just see it show up on an episode of Monster of the week I do also want to take a moment here to plug something kind of interesting I have a second YouTube channel now it is called dungeon dad dabbles I have a link to that in the description of this video as well as in the pinned comment probably right now there's not a ton of stuff over on that channel the entire uncut interview I did with Newton Ewell in my last video the spirit Warrior video is over there as well as that ridiculous shot for shot remake of the Evangelion intro I did that Standalone is also uploaded on that channel those are the only two videos there right now but I am planning on using that as a space to upload content that doesn't really fit on the main channel so that might be more extended cuts of stuff that go in my videos in the future if we end up doing more interviews the full version of interviews and that kind of thing will be over there and also I just have a few ideas for Content that I think will be really fun but won't necessarily fit with what I'm doing over here on the dungeon dad channel so if you want to see that when it comes up be sure to go subscribe over there but other than that stuff I got nothing else to say to you so thank you so much for watching once again and I will see you in the next one until then pass no definitely not too horny not a chance maybe but probably too smelly absolutely that is a corpse only if they want to play DK jungle beat after yes [ __ ] no way too similar to someone I know in real life a Clopper I am not hell yeah hell no pass that is a dog get that away from me 100 I I don't know how I would even begin pass too pointy too spooky I mean it wouldn't to broey that shouldn't even be on the list I shall not pass Three's a Crowd but if he leaves a snake ponytail at home still no [Music] dungeon dad takes the audience on a journey to the elemental plane of ice wind and water meet in the spectacular display that gives rise to countless unique monsters but only one of them is a new type of Genie that can do more than just grant wishes next episode karashi [Music] tune in next time for lots more fan service [Music]

Channel: Dungeon Dad

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Id: UC1PTzRTA0k

Length: 24min 42sec (1482 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 15 2023