How to Create Tragic D&D Monsters: 3 Homebrew Examples

Three examples of tragic monsters and how they can enhance your worldbuilding!

Why Tragic?

Tragedies are as old as time. The Greeks wrote plenty, as did Shakespeare, and all the writers of La La Land. These stories persist due to the impact they can have on us emotionally and the dilemmas they put us through; tragedies, as odd as it sounds, make for enjoyable and engaging art. But the question is: do they make for enjoyable and engaging D&D monsters?

The answer is yes, of course! Tragic monsters are wonderful additions to the campaign. Including a tragic monster in your campaign is often an excellent way to bring emotion out of players, demonstrate themes, and add to worldbuilding.

This guide is about homebrewing your own tragic monsters, incorporating them into your setting, and how they can interact with your players. We'll do three examples of three different kinds of tragedies, and three different kinds of monsters, each one a worthy inclusion into any campaign.

Understanding The Right Monster and Creature Type

The Monster Manual, creature codex, and other official monster books are full of tiny beasts, massive monsters, dominating dragons, and creative creatures. These monsters, however, cannot possibly be perfectly suited to the needs of every Dungeon Master in their every encounter. Each game is different, and today, we'll be going over monsters made for the games with more tragedy than most.

Making the right tragic monster needs the right flavor text, the right stat blocks, and to be made for the right players. These tips should help, and be kept in mind when going over the examples we make together.

• Make sure your player characters are aware that the tone will be more solemn and intense than found in other creatures.

• Identify the themes in your game, and try to create monster backstories that involve those themes.

• Target creature types that will make for interesting encounters, then think of ways to make that creature type unique.

• Determine where your adventurers abilities and strengths are, and if you want to challenge them or encourage them.

• Check that your concept for your monsters fits within the worldbuilding that you've done, or that it reveals something about the world that you haven't gotten to yet.

• Find one incredibly interesting detail to focus in on, and build the monster around that inspiration. This gives you a path to making your monster, which makes preparation much easier.

The Tragedy of Innocence

Imagine a village absolutely full of life. Merchants shout their wares, fighting to be heard over the din of the blacksmith's hammer, the hammer making horseshoes for the farmer, who needs them for his children who want to learn how to ride. Meanwhile, the children wander the town, playing games and trying not to be noticed stealing pies and interesting trinkets.

Think of all that life, suddenly extinguished in a rain of dark blood.

The blood bursts from the chest of a dark god, pierced by a celestial spear. As the rain hits the straw-roofed homes, it turns into a crimson mist that the inhabitants cannot help but inhale. It burns their lungs, but doesn't kill them. Instead, it darkens their veins, turns their fingers into claws, and turns their pupils a bloody shade of red.

Thus we have the Crimsonborn, people turned monsters for the simple crime of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Once their village encompassed the entirety of human emotion and purpose, now it is only a living grave, and they will tear anyone who enters their home limb from limb. If you want to integrate this lore deeply into your setting's history, the WorldSmith world generator can help you map out the divine conflict that caused this cataclysm.

Mechanically, these are versatile monsters that can challenge a party in numbers or on their own. In combat, they use a claw attack, a ranged "bloodbolt" spell attack, and an ability called Cursed Shriek that forces players to make a Wisdom save or become Frightened. They are vulnerable to radiant damage, the same kind of damage that killed the dark god whose blood they now carry.

The Crimsonborn work as an example of a tragic monster because of their lack of agency. If your campaign discusses how the strong impact the weak, how violence can have unseen consequences, or the uncaring nature of fate, these monsters may help establish those themes.

The Tragedy Of A Fatal Flaw

While the Crimsonborn are victims of circumstance, another tragic monster could be born from a fatal flaw, like a good choice taken too far. Shakespeare wrote many tragedies focused around this idea as he found it a compelling way to move a story. It's hard to disagree with the Bard, so let's see how we could incorporate a fatal flaw into a monster.

Let's start in a library engulfed in flames. A single scholar stands at the center of the destruction, a man who would do anything to preserve this knowledge. Preserving knowledge is good, right? Well, at this moment, on this day, it pushes this scholar too far. He makes a plea to the god of knowledge to help him save the works.

A light emanates from the books, flooding the scholar. When the light clears, his flesh is parchment that flows into dozens of multi-jointed limbs. His blood has become ink, his eyes are gone, replaced with deep inkwells that do not see. The scholar succeeded in saving the lore, but to store new secrets, his memories and identity were deleted.

We'll name it the Archivist of Ash, a tall, spindly figure woven from yellowed paper with quill-tipped fingers that drip fresh ink. The WorldSmith monster generator is perfect for designing complex abilities for a creature like this, such as its signature move, Memory Leak.

Mechanically, the Archivist is a sophisticated threat for higher-level parties (CR 10) that turns a hero's strengths against them. Memory Leak forces a target to forget a spell or class feature, which the Archivist then steals and uses against them. It navigates the battlefield using Paper Cut Teleport, dissolving into confetti to reappear in a flurry of pages.

The Archivist of Ash serves as a dark mirror for the intellectual or magical characters in your party. It represents the tragedy of a virtue (the pursuit of knowledge) corroding into a vice. Your players may hesitate to burn the Archivist, knowing that doing so would destroy the lost history of a civilization.

Tragedy Of Revenge

Revenge tragedies, also known as tragedies of blood, are some of the most well-known stories. These rely on the unintended consequences of revenge to create drama and intrigue. A classic revenge tragedy, The Count of Monte Cristo, features the protagonist getting his revenge, but unintentionally getting wrapped up in the lives of those around them.That is how we set up a D&D monster based on the same sort of tragedy—with unintended consequences.

The captain of the guard stands proud before her city walls, preparing to defend the city with her life from the raiders that threaten to destroy it all. She fights valiantly, pushing through losses on both sides, until she is the only soldier left standing. Battered and bleeding, she marches into the city, where she finds a traitorous city councilman letting a small group of raiders in through a sewer gate.

In her fury, she focuses entirely on the councilman, striking them down, only to be killed by the raiders in her moment of distraction. Her anger and drive for revenge kept her spirit on this plane, but revenge consumed her. Her spirit becomes certain that all people in the city are traitors, leading her to attack at random, her ghostly glaive turned on innocent people.

Dreadcaptain Tamara Strongarm could be an excellent quest for players exploring a new city. A DC 15 monster, she could make a formidable enemy for even higher-level campaigns. When balancing a solo boss like this against a full party, use the WorldSmith encounter generator to ensure the action economy remains fair.

Her drive for revenge is featured in her abilities. Her Retributive Strike ability allows her to respond to a melee attack with an attack at advantage, which, if the attack hits, deals an extra 2d8 necrotic energy.

How to Use A Monster Generator For Homebrew

Conclusion

These monsters might not carry much plot significance, perhaps being featured in only one or two sessions, but they will give your players pause and force them to reflect on the tragic creatures.

Creating them for this article was simple using the WorldSmith monster generator, which helped take the concept and turn it into a stat block. Regardless of methodology, using tragic monsters in your campaign could take your world to the next level. And remember, even tragic monsters leave things behind—check the WorldSmith treasure generator to see what sentimental or cursed items the party might find in the aftermath.