Mageripper: D&D's Swarm of Wizard Hunters

hello and welcome to monster of the week the only show on the internet that took one look at this and said yeah let's make a video about that so this week we're talking about the Mage Ripper swarm as always my goal this week is to cover the lore and Ecology of this monster go over its publication history convert it from third to fifth edition d d and talk about some ways we might actually be able to use this thing at the game table I would highly suggest you turn off any magical devices on your person now but I'll leave that up to you just a reminder that this week's monster is called the Mage Ripper swarm after last week's video on the concordant killer I couldn't help but get hyped up on some of the monsters I've wanted to cover from DND 3.5's monster manual for for a while now so that's exactly what we're gonna do and the Mage Ripper swarm is a great little monster for anybody out there looking to rip apart a major two and honestly that should be everyone now I'm not saying all magic users are evil but they're certainly not all good either and clearly someone in the history of d d thought so as well because these little aberrations are meticulously formatted to be a spellcaster's worst nightmare so what exactly are they well each individual Mage Ripper is a little fuzzy creature no larger than the size of a Billiards ball it has no eyes but it does have a mouth full of sharp teeth a stinging tail for piercing spider legs and what appears to be a pair of tentacles similar to those that you might find on the back of a displacer beast and as I mentioned these creatures are very obviously not naturally occurring in fact it's clear that an absolute lunatic who is probably a bit of a spellcaster themselves looking at you the SLR took it upon themselves to create the first Mage Rippers and I have to say whoever did that was an they're probably dead now so that's good how do I know that they're probably dead well the book tells us that nobody knows the true origins of the Mage Rippers and given that magic was definitely used to create them it's likely that they turned on their creator like immediately after they were born why would they do such a thing well let's just say they're called Mage rippers for a reason these creatures are born with an innate ability to sense magic whether it be a magic item a person who can cast magic or a spell that happens to be affecting an area they are inexorably drawn towards the Arcane and it's not because they want to learn about magic or see some pretty colors even they want to consume it that's right these furballs survive primarily by absorbing magic into their little bodies until they've absorbed enough to split and divide thus making more of themselves the specific terminology the book uses to describe this act of propagation is budding that's right the Mage rippers grow little fur balls on their backs that eventually Bud into another member of their species which promptly pops off of their parent and skitters towards the next source of magic so that they can devour it maybe this is just me but I think budding to describe anything other than what a flower does should be illegal the extra cool thing about Mage rippers is that they can actually survive by eating meat so even if you aren't a wizard or someone else who can cast spells they're still liable to eat you if they're hungry enough but you should definitely be safe as long as you have someone with you who is magically inclined because while that person is being eaten you can run away individually these little critters aren't very dangerous at all but when a swarm of them comes rolling through an area it spells trouble for everyone who is even remotely connected to any kind of spells or other magic in other extremely cool news they have an intelligent score of six that means that they're technically sentient although they are described as being basically highly intelligent and motivated Predators whose only real goal is to find and feed on more magic and blood I don't know if that makes them more or less terrifying but it at least makes their behavior a little bit predictable they are always going to skitter directly towards the most powerful source of magic that is nearby so if a group of adventurers encounters them first up on the menu is going to be the wizard Druid sorcerer or cleric followed by classes that only have some magic like the Paladin or the artificer though this might not always be the case because if anyone happens to be carrying a powerful magical item on their person that will basically act like a magnet to pull these suckers in something I find especially interesting about that is that they can't actually draw out and feed on the magic that is imbued into items or objects for example if they were to try and feast on the magic that has been Enchanted onto a plus one long sword they wouldn't be able to actually disenchant the weapon in order to Feast on that magical gooey inside however they can definitely drain Magic from living creatures and boy oh boy are they good at it but I guess I can't really follow up on a statement like that without elaborating on how they do this so let's take a moment and talk about why these monsters are every spellcaster's worst nightmare a mage Ripper swarm is the last thing you want to come across as a person with magical abilities clocking in with a challenge rating of six they are a terrifying threat to throw up against a low-level party and in greater numbers they can basically constitute a threat at any tier of play like most swarms in d d they occupy a medium-sized creature's space and they can move through any space occupied by another creature as if it were no big deal at all also like most other swarms they want to be in the space that is occupied by another creature in order to use all of their abilities to the fullest extent possible and I'm sure the thing on pretty much everybody's mind is how their ability to consume magic translates into game mechanics and I promise it's worse than what most of you are thinking when they swarm all over their target they get to make two bite attacks you each turn each one of these bites deals a fair amount of damage but most importantly it causes the receiver of the bite to have to make a dc-15 wisdom saving throw if the target fails that save one spell slot at the highest level available to that character is drained away and spent as the Mage rippers consume the creature's magical energy oh yeah it's brutal also the Mage Ripper swarm gains temporary hit points equal to five times the Spells level so that sucks no pun intended but the secondary effect of the Swarm comes into play with its dispelling Aura trait when the creature ends its turn if there are any spells present in the space it's occupying one of those spells determined at random is dispelled for example if you have say protection from evil and good cast on yourself and these creatures swarm all over you that spell that enchantment is just devoured by them but if say you had that spell and The Wizard cast haste on you as well they don't get to choose which spell they're devouring you would just roll to randomly determine which of the two spells was consumed oh and also they gained two D4 temporary hit points every time this effect happens this stat block is ultimately pretty simple but holy is it mean one of these things cornering a spellcaster is basically a death sentence unless they can get some help from their allies but what might seem like an overwhelming set of abilities can also be exploited for another example here if you're able to stay far enough away from these creatures and you cast a spell like light on a rock and you throw it past them the creatures would be completely drawn towards that rock they can't see they don't have eyes so beyond their 30-foot blind sight radius the only way they really have to interact with the world around them is by relying on their ability to detect and go after magic so that's something a creative adventuring party might be able to use against the creature in an interesting way something else to keep in mind here too is that your Martial characters don't just get a pass when it comes to these creatures I mean sure your fighter or Rogue probably doesn't have to worry too much about losing spell slots but these creatures are just as attracted to magic items as they are the magic inside of a creature the only difference is they can't actually drain the magical properties from that item but that doesn't mean they won't bite the out of you to get to your stuff now aside from using this creature to murder the party magic users there are a few different ways we can use it at the table and I think that's where it really shines so let's talk about some [Music] Mage Ripper swarms are great because they can show up anywhere and everywhere that magic is present if you're in a city where magic is commonplace I imagine Mage rippers would probably be a pretty dangerous pest in small numbers and when they gather into a proper swarm they would be a huge problem that the city actually has to deal with and while not every city is going to be plagued by them I can imagine places like water deep in the Forgotten Realms might have an outbreak of Mage rippers spring up from the sewers on occasion and in a city saturated with magic like they Mage rippers would certainly be the bane of every magic Shop's existence I could also totally see them making an appearance in a place like strix Haven or any type of Magic School in general basically what I'm saying is that if you have an adventuring party going through any kind of location where magic is commonplace instead of a tired old quest to send them after a pack of dire rats in the cellar or something like that maybe send them after a swarm of Mage rippers this is especially intriguing if the party is primarily made up of spellcasters because not only will it give your Marshals a chance to shine they're gonna have to come up with some creative ways to solve this problem Beyond just casting spells I also love the idea of Mage rippers being used by creatures who are very intelligent but entirely non-magical a group of Orcs who don't have access to any magical equipment may have captured some and use them routinely in battle to level the playing field against enemies that do cast spells or me maybe a pod of Mind flares has found a use for them after all mind flayers don't cast magic they use psionic abilities so Mage rippers would pose no threat to them but would be a brilliant tool for disrupting magic using enemies and maybe it's just me but I also think they perfectly fit the vibe of what a horrible tentacle monster like a mind flare would keep as a pet and since we're talking about a creature from the monster manual 4 there was also a sample encounter included in the book and I think it's actually really good it describes a wizard whose tower has been overrun by a mage Ripper swarm and this poor wizard named Edgar has become trapped inside his own laboratory he can't escape because if he tries to run through the tower the Mage rippers will get him so in order to survive he's barricaded himself within a room and sent a message to the local Wizards Academy in search of help your adventuring party very well could be the help which that Academy has hired to go and help him out or maybe they simply stumble upon this trapped wizard in a tower by chance but either way I thought that was a really fun idea I also love the idea of a mage Ripper swarm that has grown just massive and out of control maybe in some abandoned glitches Lair that connects to an old Ley line the Mage rippers have been feasting for decades and the Swarm has grown to a massive proportion you could even invent some kind of huge Mage Ripper mutant creature that has evolved due to consuming so much pure magic in its lifetime and now it's directing the Swarm I'm imagining some kind of encounter where you have all these normal sized Mage rippers clinging to the massive one's body and dropping off to attack people as it emerges from the land to Rampage basically I'm suggesting a Kaiju Mage Ripper which is bent on destruction and consuming all the magic it can find these creatures are truly terrifying but they're also really cool and I think even just as like a set piece in some City merely mentioning that they exist as this sort of kind of constant pest that's annoying all the spellcasters in town can add quite a bit of flavor to any location so however you choose to use them I hope that you can find a spot at your table for the Mage Rippers and as always Linked In the description down below is a Google Document which contains all the information you'll need to run this creature in 5th edition d d if you do decide you want to use them also down there you'll find a link to this week's sponsor hit point press and their massive Black Friday sale Black Friday is here at hit point press there are tons of site-wide discounts and a whole bunch of new products just in time for the holiday season no not yet wait until December 1st but you know what can't wait these savings there are discounts on humblewood animated spells Griffin saddlebag the deck of many reference cards miniature stls and more and while you're there be sure to pick up your own copy of fablemaker's animated Tarot deck the new series 2 animated spell decks and try out a free download of the shift quick start beta a brand new RPG system which is currently in development and you can use code bf2022 at checkout to get an additional five percent off orders over 50 bucks so definitely check out the sale happening right now on hitpointpress.com the link is in the description below so thank you so much hitpoint press for sponsoring this video and bringing us here to talk about just the most horrible Little Creatures I've ever seen I also want to give a huge shout out to all the folks over on patreon for granting me that extra level of support and truly helping me do what I do seriously can't thank you guys enough which reminds me it is time for patron of the week this week selected Patron is cute fulu thanks for the support and long may your reign of Eternal darkness and dreamless Slumber stand and thank you for watching thanks for being here I appreciate it a bunch and yeah I don't know if I have a ton of announcements to make during the credits roll this week or what let me think about that first oh we're gonna be at Pax that's something to talk about Pax unplugged is coming up like really soon in fact I think when this video goes up it's actually gonna be the first day of packs maybe it's not the first day or it's starting tomorrow but either way I am in Philadelphia right now attending this convention I'm going to be interviewing attendees and guests and all kinds of people anyone who will talk to me if I'm being honest with you so if you see me there I'm gonna be wearing one of two ridiculous outfits definitely come say hi tell me what your favorite monster is let's chat maybe you'll end up in the video I don't know I'm gonna do a few videos about packs unplugged one that's just kind of a general this was the con experience you know cliff notes of everything that happened and depending on who I get to talk to and what other neat things happen there might be a few other side videos that'll go up here and of course the extended cuts of everything I'll probably put up on the patreon page for those who are interested in that kind of thing but yeah that's happening like really soon slash maybe right now so if you see me there and you're watching this video come say hi also because I am away this week at Pax unplugged that means there's probably not going to be a video next week I'm gonna do my best but I'm just not home or able to film during this time so it's gonna be at least a little bit delayed probably like a 10 day window or so if I had to guess but I can tell you for my next Monster video I have a really cool monster lined up and then the one after that is going to be one of the most requested videos of this year so I guess I will see you in one of those two videos thank you so much for watching I'll catch you guys in the next one until then [Music] thank you foreign [Music]

Channel: Dungeon Dad

Views: 156,816

Keywords: How to play Dungeons and Dragons, dungeons and dragons lore, dungeons and dragons combat, d&d lore, d&d story, d&d online, d&d basics, d&d battle, dnd monsters, d&d monsters lore, dnd monsters explained, dnd monsters for level 1, d&d game breaking monsters, best d&d monsters, d&d cool monsters, creepy d&d monsters, d&d 5e custom monsters, classic d&d monsters, Dungeon Dad, Monster of the Week, D&D 5e, Dungeons and Dragons 5E, aj pickett, mr rhexx, D&D explained, homebrew

Id: 7fzwb3kwML0

Length: 18min 10sec (1090 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 30 2022