D&D Monsters: Otyughs

There has been some speculation that the otyugh is based on the tentacled monster in the trash compactor in the first Star Wars film (referred to in the tie-in material as a "dianoga"). Certainly, there is a resemblance, especially given that we don't see the whole creature in the film; based on that alone, the rest of the body could look like almost anything. On the other hand, the film only came out a few months before the otyugh made its debut so it would have to have been a very last-minute addition to the 1E Monster Manual if that really was the source. More likely, it's a coincidence, leaving the D&D monster as an original creation.

D&D Monsters: Ropers

The roper is another of the "does what it says on the tin" monsters that are original to D&D. Alongside such creatures as trappers and piercers, it's clearly intended to disguise itself as part of the background and attack unexpectedly but does have a more distinctive look and an unusual method of attack that make it more memorable than they are, with the result that it consistently appears in the core Monster Manual books of each edition.

---

1E

In the original Monster Manual, the roper is a tapered pillar-like creature with a single large eye above the mouth near the top of the body - there are no apparent nostrils or ears. The eye has an odd brow-like structure that seems to partially cover the upper surface; this might be a ridge to protect it from falling debris, since it lives in caves and there's plausibly a lid that flips down from it as well. The mouth opens horizontally and has pointed isodont teeth in both jaws, although it seems unlikely that the creature has much of an internal skeleton to attach them to. The base is limbless and flat to the ground, while a vertically arranged row of three apparent tentacles arise from each side.

DW Monsters: Autons

It’s arguably a bit of a stretch to describe the autons as a “humanoid race”, but nonetheless, they are the fifth race I’m going to describe here.

Appearances

The autons make their debut in the first Third Doctor story, Spearhead from Space, making them the third race to appear in my list from that era (which is itself the only era to appear on the list more than once). They reappear only once more in the classic series, in Terror of the Autons at the start of the next season, and twice in the modern series, most notably in the Ninth Doctor’s debut story, Rose.

Outside of the TV series, they featured in a three-part straight-to-video series in the 1990s which, as with Sontarans and Zygons, indicates a certain degree of popularity. That, of course, existed outside the Doctor Who license since autons, like many other original races, have separate copyright status. But in material officially licensed by the BBC, they have so far appeared in three novels, two with the Sixth Doctor, and one with the Tenth. In the audios, they have faced the Doctor only once to date, but they have appeared in a Torchwood audio and a four-part box set featuring UNIT that, in some respects, updates Spearhead from Space for the 2010s. And, as one might expect, there are also a parade of shorter appearances in comics and short stories.

Description and Biology

The autons are not organic creatures, but plastic objects animated by the Nestene Consciousness. The Nestene themselves are alien but are less frequently faced as direct opponents than the autons proper (typically only at the end of an auton story, if then). So I will be dealing with them later.

It’s possible to classify the autons into three basic types. The standard version are the animated plastic mannequins, often in the form of shop window dummies; these are the main focus in the two classic era stories, and in Rose. They are, in effect, the Nestene’s foot soldiers, although presumably, they use other forms when invading planets that aren’t Earth. Secondly, there are more sophisticated plastic humanoids designed to duplicate specific people and used to infiltrate human society and lay the groundwork for a full-scale invasion. Finally, there are animated objects such as dolls, telephone cords, and wheelie bins – I’m going to exclude these from the post since they vary too much and animated objects often already exist with descriptions in RPGs.

The mannequins and animated objects possess only a very small part of the Nestene Consciousness, so far as one can tell, and simply stop working when the animating Nestene dies or is driven off. This is not, however, true of the auton ‘duplicates’ used for infiltration, which are evidently capable of independent existence without the presence of a Nestene; they are entirely controlled by it while it is present, but once the link is severed, they are able to continue as separate entities, sometimes unaware of what they really are.

Game Attributes

There is little evidence that autons are significantly stronger than humans and the ‘dummy’ autons are probably less agile – although effective enough at shooting, which is a more overriding consideration in most systems. Where they excel is their physical resilience, since they don’t tire and have no blood or vital organs that can be injured by bullets or sharp stabbing weapons. Weapons that bludgeon or slice are a different matter since the plastic they are usually made of does not seem to be exceptionally tough. But even then, losing a limb is no problem to an auton beyond the mere physical inconvenience of not being able to use it. It’s worth noting that, in some systems (especially some older ones), this could make an auton an unusually effective opponent. Since they don’t seem to be so on the show, this may require some adjustment to counteract the advantages they would gain. Being mass-produced, it is unlikely that the mannequin-style autons show much variation in their physical statistics, although the duplicates will necessarily be less consistent in form.

Auton duplicates seem to be capable of some independent thought, animated by a larger portion of the Nestene Consciousness and, in some cases, being able to survive as discrete beings after its departure. Thus, they can be given their own mental statistics, although there is little to argue that these would be any better than those of humans. Depending on how the attributes are used in different systems, they might even be lower. There’s a case to be made that they aren’t very charismatic, but they do seem to be at least reasonably good at deceiving humans into thinking they’re just behaving strangely, something that could be directly tied to charisma (or equivalent) in some systems.

The mannequin autons are a different matter. They seem to be directly controlled by the Nestene, so that most of what they do would be directed by its mental statistics, rather than their own. In D&D terms, for example, they are essentially ‘plastic golems’ and can be treated in a similar manner. They have essentially no intelligence of their own although, again, how different systems may handle that is likely to vary. For the same reason, while the Nestenes themselves may be different, independent autons do not necessarily have any particular alignment.

Special Abilities

In some episodes, we see auton duplicates controlling other autons, primarily the non-humanoid ‘animated object’ sort. However, this can probably best be described as the Nestene channelling their own powers through the perceptions of the duplicate. That is to say, it’s an ability of the Nestene, not of the autons.

Other than that, we are left with the concealed guns that the mannequin autons, and some auton duplicates, hide within their wrists. These are regular blasters, powered from some kind of internal energy cell, and seem to be short-range. Not all autons have them – or, if they do, they don’t use them in some circumstances when they’d logically be useful – but they seem reasonably common among the mannequins, and less so for the duplicates. So, for these purposes, I will assume that the typical mannequin has one and the typical duplicate does not.

---

5E - Auton Mannequin

Medium construct, unaligned

Armour Class: 12 (plastic body)

Hit Points: 34 (4d8+16)

Speed: 20 ft.

STR 12 (+1)	DEX 10 (+0)	CON 18 (+4)
INT 3 (-4)	WIS 8 (-1)	CHA 1 (-5)

Combat Skills: Melee Attack +3, Missile Attack +2

Damage Resistances: Lightning, piercing, psychic

Damage Immunities: Poison

Condition Immunities: Charmed, exhaustion, paralysed, poisoned, stunned

Senses: Passive Perception 9

Wrist Gun. Ranged Weapon Attack: +2 to hit, range 30/120 ft., one target. Hit: 2d6 fire damage.

Challenge: ½ (100 XP)

5E - Auton Duplicate

Medium construct, neutral

Armour Class: 10 (natural)

Hit Points: 43 (5d8+20)

Speed: 30 ft.

STR 12 (+1)	DEX 10 (+0)	CON 18 (+4)
INT 10 (+0)	WIS 10 (+0)	CHA 8 (-1)

Skills: Deception +1

Combat Skills: Melee Attack +1, Missile Attack +2

Damage Resistances: Lightning, piercing

Damage Immunities: Poison

Condition Immunities: Exhaustion, paralysed, poisoned

Senses: Passive Perception 10

Wrist Gun. Ranged Weapon Attack: +2 to hit, range 30/120 ft., one target. Hit: 2d6 fire damage.

Challenge: ¼ (50 XP)

 

BRP - Auton Mannequin

STR 1D6+9 (12-13)	CON 1D6+15 (18-19)	SIZ 1D6+9 (12-13)
POW 2D6 (7)	DEX 1D6+6 (9-10)
Hit Points: 16	Move: 8
Base SR: 5	Damage Bonus: +1D4

Armour: 3-point plastic body

Combat Skills: Brawl 50%, Energy Pistol 60%

Plastic Construct: The auton does not need to breathe, eat, or sleep and is immune to disease and poison. If using hit locations, each location must be destroyed separately. If the head is destroyed, the auton cannot sense its surroundings, and ceases to function.

BRP - Auton Duplicate

STR 2D6+6 (13)	CON 2D6+12 (19)	SIZ 2D6+6 (13)
INT 2D6+6 (13)	POW 3D6 (10-11)
DEX 3D6 (10-11)	CHA 2D6 (7)
Hit Points: 16	Move: 10
Base SR: 5	Damage Bonus: +1D4

Armour: 1-point plastic body

Skills: Fast Talk 30%, Persuade 40%

Combat Skills: Brawl 25%, Energy Pistol 50%

Plastic Construct: The auton does not need to breathe, eat, or sleep and is immune to disease and poison. If using hit locations, each location must be destroyed separately. If the head is destroyed, the auton cannot sense its surroundings, and ceases to function.

GURPS - Auton Mannequin

ST 12	DX 10	IQ 4	HT 12
Thrust: 1d-1		Swing: 1d+2
Speed: 6		Move: 4

Advantages: Damage Resistance +2, Doesn't Breathe, Doesn't Eat or Drink, Doesn't Sleep, Injury Tolerance (homogenous, no blood), Innate Attack (burning, 2d), Very Fit

Disadvantages: Automaton, Cannot Speak, Unhealing (total)

Skills: Beam Weapons (pistol)/TL8-13, Brawling-12

GURPS - Auton Duplicate

ST 12	DX 10	IQ 10	HT 12
Thrust: 1d-1		Swing: 1d+2
Speed: 6		Move: 6

Advantages: Doesn't Breathe, Doesn't Eat or Drink, Doesn't Sleep, Injury Tolerance (homogenous, no blood), Very Fit

Disadvantages: Unhealing (total)

Skills: Acting-10, Beam Weapons (pistol)/TL8-11, Brawling-11

Savage Worlds - Auton Mannequin

Agility: d6	Smarts: d4	Spirit: d10
Strength: d8	Vigour: d12

Skills: Fighting d4, Shooting d6

Edges: Armour +2, Construct, No Vital Organs

Hindrances: Mute

Animated Object: When not being controlled by a Nestene, an auton mannequin is inert and incapable of taking any action.

Pace: 4                  Parry: 4                Toughness: 10 (2)                   Size: 0

Savage Worlds - Auton Duplicate

Agility: d6	Smarts: d6	Spirit: d8
Strength: d8	Vigour: d12

Skills: Persuasion d6, Shooting d4

Edges: Construct, No Vital Organs

Pace: 6                  Parry: 2                Toughness: 8                   Size: 0

STA - Auton Mannequin

Control: 9	Fitness: 11	Presence: 7
Daring: 11	Insight: 4	Reason: 4
Command: 0	Security: 2	Science: 0
Conn: 0	Engineering: 0	Medicine: 0
Stress: 13	Resistance: 2

Traits: Wrist Gun: The auton has a type 1 phaser built into their wrist. Machine 2.

STA - Auton Duplicate

Control: 9	Fitness: 11	Presence: 9
Daring: 10	Insight: 7	Reason: 9
Command: 2	Security: 1	Science: 0
Conn: 0	Engineering: 0	Medicine: 0
Stress: 12	Resistance: 1

Traits: Machine 1.

D&D Monsters: Mind Flayers

The mind flayer is a creature original to D&D and, like many of Gygax's early creations has a "does what it says on the tin" style name. To my mind, it's one of the better such names - although almost anything is better than, say, "lurker above". The look of the creature is obviously reminiscent of H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu, and Gygax stated that it was inspired by the cover of a book by Brian Lumley that does, indeed, feature a being from the Mythos. But, as it happens, it isn't the Big C himself that's on the cover, but a chthonian, a creature with a similar name, to be sure, but actually rather different. Still, it has tentacles and this, seemingly, was enough.

---

1E

The mind flayer goes through relatively little change in physical appearance through the various editions of the game, to the extent that the few changes that are apparent could easily be put down to variations between individuals of the same species. Even the clothing doesn't change much, with the race clearly having a preference for robes and insisting on a skull motif somewhere on their belt. 

D&D Monsters: Umber Hulks

The origins of the D&D umber hulk are not clear. It predates what we'd now call 1E, first appearing in the Greyhawk supplement, and it has been proposed that it may be based on one of the same set of plastic toys that inspired the owlbear, rust monster, and bulette. If so, it doesn't closely resemble any of them, while the other three are very clearly drawn to resemble the toys in the 1E Monster Manual. So, if it's inspired by them at all, the connection is still vague enough that, to all intents and purposes, it's an original creation. Certainly, its signature power is original, doubtless intended to be related to its unusual appearance and, while evil sorcerers might be able to do something similar in myth, the same is not generally true of monsters.

---

1E

As originally depicted, the umber hulk is an upright bipedal creature with a powerful, squat build. Allegedly, it's similar enough in form to a human to be mistaken for one from a distance in dim light; this seems a bit of a stretch even if you can't see the head, but perhaps the writers were thinking of something like ogres. The skin looks smooth, although it could have fine scales or sparse hair for all we know, and lacks such features as a navel or teats. The legs end in three-toed feet, with one toe a small claw to the rear that may help to grip onto rock, and the others broader and supporting the body weight. The hands have four clawed digits, notably including an opposable thumb, although there is no other indication of tool use.

The head is obviously the most distinctive feature. It's broad with a very short neck and has a wide mouth with reptilian-looking teeth and no apparent nostrils. More significantly, a pair of large serrated pincers, reminiscent of the mandibles of a stag beetle, project from the cheek region. These are stated to be used in attack, and could also grab and manipulate food as it is being eaten or bitten, but a pair of shorter curved tusks positioned medially to the pincers have a less obvious function. They don't even come close to meeting in the middle, so they can't be used in chewing or tearing at anything that could easily fit inside the mouth making it hard to see how they would be used. Finally, there are the eyes, with a close-set pair of vertebrate-like eyes in the middle and a pair of compound eyes positioned on the periphery.

Oddly, the umber hulk is not, in fact, umber, but is black over most of its body with a yellowish-grey patch on what's anatomically the venter. Since their heavy build makes it unlikely that they are agile, and they are certainly very slow-moving, the hide must be as tough as plate steel to give them the stated armour rating. They have their own language and are said to be as intelligent as humans. They live in what appear to be small family groups implying some degree of sociality.

---

2E

In 2E, the appearance of the umber hulk changes significantly. They are said to be 'scaly', but the picture only shows a thick hide with sparse hair (there may, of course, be scales too small to see). Heavy plates of what could be either bone or chitin surround the upper arms and thighs and the outer parts of the lower arms - those on the shins may, or may not, wrap around the back. There is an additional armoured nodule over the patella, and what look like scutes on the hands and fingers. Further plates cover the shoulders, the pectorals and the front of the abdomen - the latter including a depression that might contain a navel. All of this goes some way to explaining the armour rating, but it's also worth noting that the unarmoured parts seem to show vertebrate like musculature under the skin, and there's a suggestion of ribs on the chest.

While the hands have the same number of digits as before, including the thumb, the feet have six short claw-like toes that look like they'd have difficulty supporting the creature's weight - the posture shown and the length of the arms suggests that it might knuckle-walk like an ape to compensate for this. The head is entirely enclosed in armour, with the main pincers smoother than before, and the overall shape much narrower. Although we're told the eyes are all small, this only seems to be true of the central pair, which are, in fact, too small to make out whether or not they are vertebrate-like in form. The creature does, however, clearly have antennae, increasing its insectile look.

We're told that they give birth to litters of one to three young and that there is some degree of parental care by the mother. Although they retain humanoid levels of intelligence, there's still no indication of language or even tool use, let alone a meaningful culture.

---

3E

In a break with previous interpretations, the 3E umber hulk is now umber coloured. It is also considerably more insectile, with chitinous plates covering almost the whole of the body. Nonetheless, it still has ape-like hands and, of course, remains four-limbed. The limbs are oddly shaped, with massive lower portions and more spindly upper ones, something that would surely cause something of its size and weight difficulties in moving about. We're back to three toes on the feet, all of them short, clawed, and forward-pointing, giving the feet an appearance between those of the two previous editions.

There is more of a neck now, and the head has shifted to a globular shape with a much narrower mouth that makes it possible to use those inner mandibles to help it tear at and eat flesh. There are still no visible nostrils, although there is a row of what could be spiracles along the sides of the chest. The antennae are more prominent and the arrangement of the eyes is different, with the compound ones below and only slightly lateral to the smaller vertebrate-style ones.

Although it still moves slowly, it is slightly more agile than one might expect and its intelligence rating has increased slightly (although still close to the human average). It turns out to be about as strong as a troll, which makes sense for its stated size if not, perhaps, the lack of upper arm musculature.

---

5E

After the two previous changes in appearance, the umber hulk remains broadly similar in form in 5E. This version has more solidly built thighs and upper arms than that in 3E and there is more of a suggestion of ribs on the chest (these could, however, just be ridging on the chitinous plates). The head, does, however, shift towards a slightly more insectile look. Specifically, the umber hulk has labial palps beneath the jaw, although quite what they would be used for is unclear. Furthermore, the inner set of eyes, while retaining the position they had in 3E appear to be arthropod-style ocelli rather than vertebrate-like, with no evident pupils, eyelids, or canthi. 

The statistics have, as usual in 5E, been toned down a little, but even so, the umber hulk is now stronger than a troll, and only just short of a hill giant. The intelligence has also dropped back to the original level. Umber hulks were specifically stated to be unable to speak in 4E, but they can in both 3E and 5E, regaining their own unique language in the latter. One oddity is that the tunnels they dig are eight feet tall but only five feet in width (2.4x1.5 metres), implying that they walk upright through them - one would have thought that they would just burrow them head-first, which would surely be quicker, but apparently not.

---

The umber hulk then, has become progressively more like an arthropod as its depiction has evolved through the editions. But, even if we ignore the earlier illustrations, this doesn't necessarily mean that it is one, since it obviously has some features that don't fit. The four-limbed form suggests a tetrapod, and the overall shape of the body is closer to that of a tetrapod vertebrate than is that of the similarly quadrupedal rust monster.

The forelimbs, for example, are divided into two segments, separated by an elbow joint. This contrasts with the four segments of an insect leg. The hindlegs are less clearcut, since they appear to have three segments, but its entirely possible that this is a digitigrade stance, with the metacarpals forming the third segment, as they do in dogs and other such animals. The arrangement of the digits on the extremities, especially the hands, support this since, again, they don't look at all insect-like and have same number of phalangeal joints as tetrapod digits. There is also no clear abdomen in the arthropod sense of the word, with the legs being attached at the hips, rather than further forward as they would be on an insect or spider.

If this is correct, it implies that most of the internal anatomy of the umber hulk follows the vertebrate form. There are lungs and a heart in the chest and liver, kidneys, bowels, and so on in the (tetrapod) abdomen. Furthermore, we would expect an internal skeleton that is merely supplemented by the external armour, much as it is in turtles or even armadillos. From a physics perspective, this makes sense, since a pure exoskeleton isn't likely to be strong enough to support the weight of something so large - of course, the existence of ankhegs and the like in the D&D universe implies that things might be different there, so it's not a guarantee.

It's with the head that this most seems to break down. Even so, it's notable that the jaws hinge horizontally, as they do in vertebrates, and each possesses triangular teeth, something they don't do in insects and the like. Countering this we have the "mandibles" which have no clear counterpart in any real-world vertebrate - they don't seem to be tusks like those of an elephant, for example. Thus, while it's plausible that there is a bony skull underneath the chitinous head-sheild, and one complete with a lower jaw, there must also be some major modifications.

Perhaps there are additional bony plates in the angle of the jaw, jointed to the temporal and/or zygomatic bones, to which the mandibles are attached. Or maybe these are dermal plates of chitin, anchored by ligaments to the underlying skull, but not part of its bony structure. There must also be extra openings in the skull, to allow for the additional eyes and for the nerves and blood vessels that supply the antennae.

Attaching compound eyes to a vertebrate nervous system isn't a problem, anatomically speaking, since they still have an optic nerve that works in essentially the same way. Nor is it an issue that the umber hulk must have a double set of optic nerves, since these could attach to the brain close by one another. Similarly, the third, fourth, and sixth cranial nerves, responsible for eye movement, could also be duplicated, although they might not be if the compound eyes, in particular, are fixed in position.

Whether the antennae also need extra nerves depends on what they are for, since this differs in real-world arthropods. The umber hulk has no visible ears, so the antennae could be for sensing sound, in which case, given their position on the head in the 5E illustration, they may simply co-opt the usual auditory nerves. But then again, it has no nostrils, either, so they might smell the air, using, or replacing the usual olfactory nerves. It's also not impossible that the antennae both hear and smell, in which case, either set of cranial nerves is an option.

The lack of nostrils does, however, raise the obvious question of how the creature breathes, especially if we assume that the lungs are in the chest. Here, we must assume a significant departure from the tetrapod norm. There are basically two possibilities, one of which is that the umber hulk breathes only through its mouth, entirely lacking a nasopharynx and nasal cavities, but otherwise with a typical respiratory layout. The other is that the spiracles visible on the sides of the body in 3E and (less clearly) 5E are respiratory openings, implying that multiple short tubes run to the lateral surface of each of the lungs. This would have some advantages, since the animal couldn't choke, and would be rather hard to suffocate by physical action alone - there are a lot of openings to cover up. 

If, on other hand, the spiracles aren't respiratory, they could still be sensory organs, since there's no reason that the organs of smell have to be attached to the breathing apparatus, as we see in a number of non-mammalian animals in the real world.

While the 2E illustration includes what appears to be a navel, implying that umber hulks are mammalian - a primate-like body with an insectile head - the later images do not. Thus, while they are tetrapods, umber hulks probably don't fit within any of the real world tetrapod classes; they're perhaps more like reptiles than anything else, but they aren't literally reptilian. For instance, living underground, in a stable thermal environment with insulating rock above them, they may well be cold-blooded and almost certainly won't have much need to regulate their internal body temperature. 

It seems most likely that umber hulks lay eggs, or perhaps are ovoviviparous, holding the egg inside their body until it hatches but lacking a placenta or umbilical cord. None of the pictures show anything that's identifiable as external genitalia, but, even assuming the pictures aren't of females, they could well retract any intromittent organs into their bodies when not in use, so we can't assume that they aren't there, or in the usual place.

There isn't much to say about the umber hulk's signature power since it's so obviously pure magic. Early descriptions imply that it might have something to do with the odd-looking appearance of the creature confusing those who look at it, but it's not as if it's non-Euclidean, and, anyway, the effect is more potent than mere befuddlement (although less so 5E than it was in 1E). It's also notable that the creature needs to be conscious to use the power, which it is implied is under conscious control and can be turned off if necessary.

DW Monsters: Zygons

The fourth race on my list of the seven key humanoid ‘monster’ races are the shape-shifting Zygons.

Appearances

The Zygons have a slightly unusual history, compared with those I’ve dealt with so far. They first appear slightly later, during the fourth Doctor story Terror of the Zygons, but that’s not the oddity. They immediately stood out due to a distinctive design and a particularly well-respected debut story and after that they… well, they just didn’t appear again in the classic series. In fact, they didn’t appear on TV again for another 38 years, although they have now shown up as significant antagonists twice in the modern era.

D&D Monsters: Devils

In regular English, the term 'devil', when not applied specifically to Satan, is essentially synonymous with 'demon'. Whereas the word 'demon' originally had a more benign meaning, 'devil' has always meant an evil entity, and now typically means one that is specifically part of the Christian mythos even if the general concept exists in other religions, too. 

In D&D, however, devils are distinct from demons, making up the organised legions of Hell rather than being rampaging creatures of malevolent chaos. In 1E, six main types exist, although other common ones have been added since, all fitting within a defined hierarchy where weaker devils can (with difficulty) be promoted to higher ranks at the whims of those even higher up the chain. Compared with the demons, these six standard types are more likely to owe their origins to myth or at least to traditional depictions of such beings, rather than just being odd combinations of animal parts.