I can't believe this. I was working on an NPC with basically the exact same background and theme of a Grim Jester (I didn't even know that the Grim Jester existed until this video) and then you drop this. Thank you so much for the unexpected help with my work (in addition to the usual thanks for the amazing video in general).
There’s actually a proper term for vaguely demonic jesters: They’re referred to as herlekins, a sort of demonic conceptual prototype to harlequins and, by extension, jesters.
So I just want to thank you for keeping your "ad time" basically non-existent. I understand why creators take on these companies, and I would understand if one day you started doing ads, but I really do appreciate the sense of continuity your videos have compared to other creators who take these minutes-long ad breaks that can really mess with the overall feel of the video- especially if the ad is totally unrelated from the content. So thank you! I love your videos, they keep me interested and excited to hear more, from start to finish.
Even better, when they do that you often get bizarre ads. I got one on this video from a far right guy, where it was a leftist demanding respect from a far right guy while holding a sign saying the far right guy was a murderer. And yes, the ad was that bizarre and had absolutely no context. Just a nutjob showing video of another nutjob. It still doesn't compare to the "I swear we are not a cult" cult ad claiming to prove some historical fact doesn't exist by "inventing math." The invention was just simple high school level stuff by the way.
thanks, its a policy which has proven itself over time, channel and video sponsors are more trouble than they are worth to be honest, and they are responsible for almost ALL of the spam emails I have to deal with, like, seriously.
@@AJPickett Yes, but have you ever actually clicked one of the ads? The cult one left to a YT page where all of the comments were "this is a cult recruitment video" and how the title of the video was nonsensical, but the cult leader responded to every comment. And then I wonder why my YT feed randomly goes crazy, but I got this great video! I'd love using this concept in a game! Oh, and even better, I never got a single email from doing it. 😂
These are one of the few monsters I think deserve their own alignment category, “evil good”. They’re generally good people forced to commit atrocious acts.
Another thing Dr Bright is not allowed to do at the SCP Foundation is judge others on inappropriate jokes and pranks at other people's expense and safety.
NOTE: Yes, I am aware the audio on my voice is a bit off, I am working on dialing in some new audio software, so, thanks for bearing with me. Fun fact: In researching jesters for this video, turns out the long pointy bits with bells on them has its origin as a hat that had donkey ears and a tail on it... its a hat originally made to make the person look like a donkey.
_"Are we alone? Yes... yes... alone. Sweet solitude. No one will hear us, disturb us. Everything is going according to plan"_ Cicero, Elder scrolls V: Skyrim
I quite like the idea of a particularly malicious one trying to make other jesters die in funny ways in order to make an entire troupe, with the end goal of making a grand performance (see: massacre)
First concept that came to mind was a Jester who only kills people by dropping things on them. For example, the jester does a whole bit under a chandelier in their lair in a showey and over-dramatic fasion. However.... if they party cut the rope to the chandelier, a piano falls from a trap door in the roof onto whoever cut the rope. Then I realised using Mislead, the Jester could cause the party to chase the illusion through a complicated network of traps. Rather than trip wires and pressure plates that could be found by a rogue, the Jester's real body could pull leavers to set off perfectly timed traps. I love the idea of the jester dancing and waving through a complex maze, stopping to point at the party as ridiculous things get launched at them.
The jester can just mislead to swap appearance and location with a zombie minion and have the zombie run through all the traps, if the traps have no obvious sign they are being triggered, or all the traps are timed to delay before going off...
Here's a truly outrageous campaign/scenario idea: Grim Jester Spy vs Spy - you have a Grim Jester of Orcus (Death god of the undead) and a Grim Jester of the Raven Queen (Death god generally opposed to sentient undead) operating in the same general area. And they're effectively in a comedic war with each other.
AJ: "I know what you're thinking, a skeleton in a court jester outfit 'how scary can it be?" The Joker, Pennywise, Sweet Tooth, Kefka, John Wayne Gacy, and Ronald McDonald: *collective evil clown laugh*
i swear to god! i homebrew monsters and then a month later you put out a video and my idea already existed somewhere in dnd. I've been playing for 31 years and this happens far more than im comfortable to admit. on the real though thank you I use you as a resource all the time
I used this in my Spelljammer game! It was on board a undead themed spelljamming ship made of bones with beholder zombies locked into the sides as unliving armaments. The captain was a death tyrant, first mate was a death knight, and the hold was full of zombies, but the Grim Jester was the worst threat to the party.
First monster we faced when coming to Eberron via the Blue Veil. Honestly really scary. Persued and harried us for 3 days and we barely got away. Alot of tricks in their playbook
Idea: Grim Jester of the Raven Queen that was originally a really sadistic necromancer who attempted to become a lich but botched the ritual so badly they ended up destroying their entire lair and all their undead minions. The raven queen doesn't like undead, and found this hilarious. So she raises the wannabe lich as a Grim Jester, but curses them to do her bidding and spend the rest of their eternity hunting down and infiltrating *other necromancers*. It's the perfect Ironic Hell. They have to ingratiate themselves to any necromancer they're sent after, humiliating themselves and absorbing all kinds of abuse from the less experienced necromancers they're targeting, under the guise of giving (flawed) advice and knowledge. They're cursed to watch countless other necromancers of varying competence attempt to become liches, having their previous life's goal dangling in front of them but always *just* out of reach. Then, after months or years of doing drudge work and being endlessly tormented by their "master" and their circumstances, the lich ritual starts the Raven Queen finally takes the leash off and all that pent up rage explodes out. Some behind the scenes deific meddling and a town guard/army patrol/adventuring group stumbles in just in time to see the gruesome last moments of the necromancer and hear the Grim Jester give a darkly ironic speech like the Crypt Keeper and then disappear into the aether, cackling madly. The story gets told far and wide, getting exaggerated to hell and back like those kinds of things do, letting everyone know what the Raven Queen does to necromancers. All the while the queen herself got to watch the whole thing play out.
My homebrew version, which I will now replace with this one, was reanimated by two gods playing their god games... competing for influence over the mortal world via the same guy. One was the Lord of Murder, the other was a God of Mischief. They did not tolerate their favorite psychopath dying. And the Joker Corpse (Grimm Jester now) really loved becoming that monster. I'm ditching my 80s homebrew Joker Corpse for this far better canon version, the Grimm Jester.
I can 100% see using the Grim Jester as a servant of a character from In Nomine, specifically Kobal the Demon Prince of Dark Humor. Granted knowing Kobal's sadism, for every individual killed it makes the lives of another ten people the victim knew arguably WORSE than death.
Considering the original incarnation of my Kelemvor cleric was a bard/cleric with a relentless tendency towards, well, tomfoolery...this monster feels almost prophetic. Imagine being made into such a monster as a reward you never even asked for or wanted. "i like your funny words, mortal. Congrats, you get to NEVER stop."
Will a grim jester ever work with the living? Example: a grim jester of kelemvor working with some clerics of kelemvor or lathandor to stop a cult of necromancers? Or a grim jester of orcus assisting a group of necromancers?
Yes, certainly. Although, it is still undead and will still kill them if it doesn't have a reason to work with them any more... in fact, if it can get the living killed in the process of achieving it's goal, all the better, but Kelemvor doesn't find that amusing...
Hey bud, quick question. I have been collecting RPGs since the late 80s and got into AD&D during the Red Box set but have played mostly 2nd Ed. I enjoy your channel and was wondering if you would be interested in acquiring my collection. I have been collecting since Jr High and I just retired from the military and have not used any of it for over 20 years... Thing is, I cannot bring myself to pass them on unless I know it goes to someone who would really enjoy them. It's quite the collection and not just D&D. I have games no longer in print and others who have never made it to print and I offer it to you free of charge. Just keep doing what you do. ;) Let me know.
This is horrifying for the DM too as they have to find a bunch of funny comebacks and lines to not make the monster concept implode on itself. But then again it has to make jokes that entertain things like Orcus or other gods of death so you can probably have more leeway with that. Maybe Orcus really is entertained easily and any bad joke or rhyme will do
id love to see a moment in a game where the players figure out that they need to kill the jester in a way that amuses their god and then spends a lot of time arguing about what would be funny to something like orcus lol
Used this to mess with my players about a year ago. It really messed with my players as it was aboard a ship at sea that was abandoned except for the lone jester aboard. It's laughing, grinning, and tricks had my leave the ship really quickly and leaving a couple of their crew behind. Those poor souls.
Aj it’s been a minute since I’ve checked in, been a bit busy. I’m about too binge watch the past 4 videos you posted. I’ve got a beverage, an I’m ready to get nerdy. Let’s go..
I like the idea of using the revenant player race as the foundation for one of these. The npc would actually want to be humorless and deadpan, but would be compelled to act ridiculous because of a cursed cap/mask. Two polar opposite personalities ie: player race revenant, buzzkill that becames grim jester due to cursed item
The Grim Jester reminded me of the Undead Paladin- not corrupted or fallen Paladins who've achieved some sort of rewards for their misdeeds. Nope the one I thinking of has died fighting in the wrong battle and are thus cursed or blessed to attempt rescue of the living no matter the battle having failed the first time. Sorry nattering off topic
My only complaint is always the same two: these videos aren't fifteen hours long, and there aren't thirteen of them put up a day. Love this channel you are an invaluable resource to dms, players, and writers in general. Thanks you!
Someone needs to hire a pink dragon to teach those death gods some actual humor. I would rather deal with a dungeon full of bad puns than these guys. Let me introduce the more benevolent counterpart of the Grim Jester that I just mad up a few seconds ago, the gentleman spirit. Their role is to be festive and classy psycho pumps, bringing peace to the minds of the living and helping the dead cross over as well as fighting off evil spirits that aim to use the dead. They really know how to put on a show and are often employed by good underworld lords and embodiments of death.
How about a Grim Jester who's continuous death is the joke? Only has 1 HP, and comes back in 1d4 rounds, but every time it dies, it unleashes a random effect on whoever killed it. Be it a curse, disease, or, curses an item in their possession etc... Naturally the party wouldn't kill it once they figure this out, but that's where it casts seeming to blend in with a horde of Skeletons/Zombies. Think I'll call this ability 'Staying Power'.
I'm going with the idea of orcus having a grim jester based on silence. In my current campaign, the villains are demon lords vying for control of Cormyr. The grim jester I'm making is based on an unfathomably loyal knight who kept his vow of silence going far too long after the death of a previous monarch. I'll introduce him on Halloween.
.... oh... wow... I made a homebrew called the Grim Jester Bioma on d&d beyond a long time ago and now I see this pop up? I'm giddy that I did it again lol made something that already existed 🤣😂🤣 and didn't even know it
My first TPK with my current group of players was to one of these guys paired with a necromancer. The Necromancer didn't do much, the Jester cc'd and murdered everybody. My character grappled it and attempted to throw it off a cliff, which didn't work much to my surprise and everyone's dismay. We still talk about this fight even though it happened 3 years ago. Nobody is upset with it, we did get revenge later in the campaign, even at a higher level we were still terrified to fight it. Great memories of a brutally fantastic monster.
@@archonfett It switched with someone, I don't remember who, but it wasn't me. The DM wasn't ready to reveal that particular mechanic to us. I think it swapped with a zombie minion as it changed it's appearance to that of the zombie.
A king beheads his jester as a joke. The god of death chuckled and had an idea. He made the entire castle into grim jesters. And made the headless jester the king and the king his jester who's only goal is to get the headless king to laugh.
@@alphacat4927 Old gate keepers in D&D act like you only gain Xp in killing monsters and not for social encounters. Other game systems such as Whitewolf/World of Darkness (WoD) Vampire in base around a more social story telling them of game. With a set amount of given Xp gain given out during Role playing and not combat. 2.) Everyone plays a bard telling lame bad Dad Jokes, whoever tells the best or worst Dad Joke gains another die to their dice pool or class level. The rest gain 1/10th value of needed Xp. a.) Zombie/ghoul walks up to PC and shakes hands, and his hand breaks off. Zombie/ghoul, " Ah dam, I'm rotten apart here .. can you give me a hand ? b.) " Who wants to see a magic trick ? " Ghoul looks around the room, " Has anyone seen my thumb ?" " No that's not my thumb, wait a moment I need to check .. Ah man I'm really falling apart and dropping my .. can you hand my tool ? " c.) Troll sausage shop, the stock regenerates on a daily bases. Troll head shop ran by a gnome, place was full of small talk. d.) The gaming shop owner's wife DM a game where the party fought a land base giant Sea Slug, ...
I was actually thinking about a build for performers. I'm in public definitely give off a good guy persona but in private. I want to make a build that I can easily sneak into nobles homes and threaten them in a blackmail type away. I want to be able pull strings without my party noticing my intent and eventually get them to release a horror that was once forgotten.
@@eldarhighelfhealermiriella7653 i'm fully on board with this. so cool. i'll use this but the names will changed depending on which lord i'll be messing with.
Absolutely one of my favorite undead monsters. Like a combination of Jhin from league of legends and the Joker. Every joke is a performance, and every performance is a potential massacre. I tooled with a campaign where a Grim Jester was masquerading as a roving comedian with a Dirgesinger servant in tow. They traveled from town to town using illusions, music and the draw of "free" entertainment to kill in the name of a high cleric of Nerull. Each "show" ended with one snide patron being singled out for the Grim Jester's Killing Joke ability, then the rest of the crowd being slaughtered by summoned lesser undead being bolstered by the Dirgesinger.
Journey Through The Radiant Citadel describes the city of San Citlan, where sometimes the dead rise again as 'olvidados', peaceful and intelligent skeletons that remember their mortal life, but not the afterlife. Seems like prime real estate for a murder mystery adventure with a secretive Grim Jester to blend in.
I keep thinking you could draw inspiration from DC's Joker, the Saw movies and all sorts of such things if you wanted to make this a major villain. You could even have a Grim Jester "farming" adventurers, carefully challenging and shepherding a novice adventuring party until they were "ripe" enough for killing. Making their entire careers one long joke with a final bloody grisly punch line. Maybe you could even play with this by having the person the Grim Jester was leaving clues and aids in an effort to give the adventurers the tools to advert their fate. Which lends irony to the joke perhaps? Thanks for this AJ! I'll want to remember this idea I think!
These were one of the first monsters that caught my eye in Tome of beasts as well. My other favorites from that book were the Algorith, Chained angel, Bokoti, Cambium, Chronomental, all of the Clockwork guard NPC, and the City Watch Captain, Psoglav Demons, Camatotz, Chort/Gilded/Orobas devils, Void dragons, Alehouse/ Star drakes, Eater of dust, Einherjar, Elemental Locus, the Moonlit King/Queen of witches, Feyward tree, folk of leng, all of the Ghoul variants, Jotuns, the Goat-man, Salt/Horde Golems, Herald of blood, Hundun, Lich hound, Mask wight, Mi-go, Shoggoth, Star spawn of Cthulu, Mordant Snare, Ostinato, Rat king, Ravenfolk, rotting wind, Sandman, Skein witch, Slow storm, Son of Fenris, suturefly, wolf spirit swarm, temple dog, Theullai, Uraeus, Vila, Siabhra, Voidling, White apes, Xkharsh, and the Ychen Bannog. So quite a few I'd watch a video on :)
Since grim jesters function to amuse death gods, and some cases as assassin's, can this state of being be handed down as a punishment for a particular evil or amoral char. Sorta working off their as a form penance?
D&D sure isnt all sunshine and rainbows. The Nihilistic aoe joke immediately puts me in mind of Monty Python, I love this. I've been wanting to convert some Warhammer 40k into high level d&d and think I can use this as a basis for an Eversor assassin, thanks for the inspiration!
Another great Video. Would you be interested in making videos covering some of the famous D&D characters? Like Drittz, Elminster, Xanathar, Minsc and Boo Etc. Many of them have fascinating stories.
I have the Tome of beasts and after reading this creature I created my own creation known as the King of Nothing, who answers to No One. It's a bit of a riddle. He would show up and use cartoonish antics to tease the PCs, mentioning details only they know about their past and claiming to know the future. Only to answer with the riddle, I have no need to answer to you for I and the King of Nothing, who answers to No One. 5 points if you figure it out.
Idea for an April fools campaign, a prank war has broken out between a grey jester and a grim jester, the party must find a way to either stop them or make them loose interest before they destroy the Witchlight carnival with their ruthless roast off
This video is great! I have a certain love for fantasy and monster ecology and your videos give me such inspiration! I have been slowly working on an expanded illithid ecology document. Thanks for your great work!
This makes me think of a really fun quest idea. My players arrive at a town, said town has been having issues with mysterious deaths and the players are asked to help investigate. 2 Deaths will have happened, a drowned fisherman (will find out he was a fisher, through investigations around his life/house), and a Pyromancer who burned to death in his home (again, figure out he is a pyromancer through investigations).... Then the day after I'd introduce yet another death with, a somewhat ironic death like the previous, and slowly ease them into the idea that there's foul play at hand.
This one was really good. The rhymes were especially inspired. It's a shame you don't DM in real life, A.J. What a privilege and pleasure that would be.
@@AJPickett Can you at least record them and save the bits that are fun? You know, toss those bits into an "AJ's tabletop D&D highlights" video once in a while? I mean, your last broadcasted games were really cool. Well, before all your players traded out to be an all-Warforged party. The best character was that Narnia-type squirrel player character.
@@That80sGuy1972 Over the many years I have been online gaming, I have found this to be true.. there are broadcast games, and there are 'home' games, and the two are not the same. In my home games, I don't have to worry about what I say, what sort of comments will be directed at my friends, the sound quality, cameras, pace, etc... I can also talk about stuff outside of gaming with my mates, which is basically ALL of my social life, that's it, the moments I get to take off the DM hat and just chat about stuff... those moments are lost in a broadcast game. Yes, we do make audio recordings of our game dialogue, but we only do that for our own records and to refresh our memory about what is happening in the game, they are not intended for the public, and I do not have the consent of those involved to broadcast them (and I am not going to ask, that is something we decide in session zero, and lately, we always choose not to record for broadcast. I know its disappointing for folks, but I have to take the comfort, well-being, protection and sovereignty of my friends into account... always.
Hi Suzanne, no its most definately 5E, says so right on the cover, if your book says Pathfinder, that means it is a pathfinder system version of the same book, the company has its own world setting which I think uses the pathfinder system, or its own, I have been slowly reading the world setting book and Tales of the Old Margrave (which is also printed in a 5E version btw).
@@AJPickett Hi AJ! Makes me wonder why my brother thought it was Pathfinder, maybe because these monsters weren't made by Gary Gygax himself? I showed my brother your link and he automatically put the "Tome of Beasts" under Pathfinder so maybe he considers it a Pathfinder book. He has been into dnd for a long time. Also, thank you so much for your videos, I learn so much from them and I joined your discord. You are like one of ten people I watch on RUclips specifically to help me write stuff and help me learn about dnd!
We had something like this show up as the sidekick/comedic foil/chief assassin for a Lich King back in the day. We thought the little creep was the Big Bad of the campaign for a couple of months.
He had a couple of forced dancing abilities, as I recall. One that the DM called the Dance of the Red Shoes, make a Charisma save or dance uncontrollably, taking levels of exhaustion the longer it goes on. The other I never got a name for but he used it to make people dance off of rooftops, ledges, cliffs, etc.
Dm i played under had a great setup for one of these boney lads. He had an underground "court" set up. Spots around a table were taken by dressed up "nobles" and the jester was hanging fromthe chandelier. Not cool dave.
Wicked. And brutal, God damn that thing is deadly. Btw, quick question: Where in Baator would you place a factory that produces undead and necromantic magic items? That's the thing of a homebrew archdevil of mine.
2nd and 8th circles seem like the prime choices to me. Dispater, Lord of the Second, is hells armorer, and Memphistpophles, Lord of Cania/the 8th is hells foremost Archmage, and the most likely to be experimenting with necromancy
@@agentchaos9332 Of those, Dis sounds the most fitting, given the nature of the factory. He is also one of those archdevils who cares more about the Blood War than politics, so this would put him closer to the action too.
Great video, AJ. I have a very similar home brew monster that I'm now going to replace with this. You'd be shocked as to how effective such a "fun-loving murderer" is at being the BBE. My most effective one was one I based (in personality) somewhere between DC's Joker and The Smurf's Jokey Smurf. Party's Dwarf: **drinks found healing potion** As the Dwarf heals, his body glows in a faerie fire effect, drawing all arrows to curve their flight to land in him... including arrows just launched now. All missiles fly like homing missiles and smack right into the dwarf despite his taking cover. Evil Voice in Crowd: Surprise! You're dead! Happy Afterlife! Thanks for playing. Grim Jester. I like that monster name too. Mine was "Joker Corpse".
"My dog has no nose!"
"How does he smell?"
"Terrible!"
I am surprised they do not have Tasha's Hideous Laughter
I can't believe this.
I was working on an NPC with basically the exact same background and theme of a Grim Jester (I didn't even know that the Grim Jester existed until this video) and then you drop this.
Thank you so much for the unexpected help with my work (in addition to the usual thanks for the amazing video in general).
There’s actually a proper term for vaguely demonic jesters:
They’re referred to as herlekins, a sort of demonic conceptual prototype to harlequins and, by extension, jesters.
Fear of clowns + fear of undead. Humor of the joker with the abilities of ragdoll.
So I just want to thank you for keeping your "ad time" basically non-existent. I understand why creators take on these companies, and I would understand if one day you started doing ads, but I really do appreciate the sense of continuity your videos have compared to other creators who take these minutes-long ad breaks that can really mess with the overall feel of the video- especially if the ad is totally unrelated from the content.
So thank you! I love your videos, they keep me interested and excited to hear more, from start to finish.
Even better, when they do that you often get bizarre ads. I got one on this video from a far right guy, where it was a leftist demanding respect from a far right guy while holding a sign saying the far right guy was a murderer.
And yes, the ad was that bizarre and had absolutely no context. Just a nutjob showing video of another nutjob. It still doesn't compare to the "I swear we are not a cult" cult ad claiming to prove some historical fact doesn't exist by "inventing math." The invention was just simple high school level stuff by the way.
thanks, its a policy which has proven itself over time, channel and video sponsors are more trouble than they are worth to be honest, and they are responsible for almost ALL of the spam emails I have to deal with, like, seriously.
@@AJPickett Yes, but have you ever actually clicked one of the ads? The cult one left to a YT page where all of the comments were "this is a cult recruitment video" and how the title of the video was nonsensical, but the cult leader responded to every comment.
And then I wonder why my YT feed randomly goes crazy, but I got this great video! I'd love using this concept in a game!
Oh, and even better, I never got a single email from doing it. 😂
These are one of the few monsters I think deserve their own alignment category, “evil good”. They’re generally good people forced to commit atrocious acts.
I feel like more chainsaws will be the answer
Whaaaa?
There is an alignment for that, though: Lawful Good.
@@ianr7014 oh yeah. Good point.
Another thing Dr Bright is not allowed to do at the SCP Foundation is judge others on inappropriate jokes and pranks at other people's expense and safety.
NOTE: Yes, I am aware the audio on my voice is a bit off, I am working on dialing in some new audio software, so, thanks for bearing with me. Fun fact: In researching jesters for this video, turns out the long pointy bits with bells on them has its origin as a hat that had donkey ears and a tail on it... its a hat originally made to make the person look like a donkey.
Pshhh... you sound as nerdy as always, partner 🤘
This sounds like a really fun monster for a horror based adventure.
_"Are we alone? Yes... yes... alone. Sweet solitude. No one will hear us, disturb us. Everything is going according to plan"_
Cicero, Elder scrolls V: Skyrim
I quite like the idea of a particularly malicious one trying to make other jesters die in funny ways in order to make an entire troupe, with the end goal of making a grand performance (see: massacre)
see the image of a group of Grim Jesters at the end of the video? How scary is that idea?
@@AJPickett Downright terrifying! 😱Awesome! 😈
Having to keep a death god entertained strikes me as a *well and truly unenviable* obligation.
I can imagine this creature using the finger of doom while doing fingerguns- "Prepare to be bismirched, draw!"
"I dont know, math." Lmfao. I feel that
Ancient joke of necromantic power? Is that the monty python funniest joke?
A masochist asks a sadist, "Please hurt me."
"No," replies the sadist.
The joke that killed the ranger, " An invisible man and woman made a child. It was nothing to look at. "
First concept that came to mind was a Jester who only kills people by dropping things on them. For example, the jester does a whole bit under a chandelier in their lair in a showey and over-dramatic fasion. However.... if they party cut the rope to the chandelier, a piano falls from a trap door in the roof onto whoever cut the rope. Then I realised using Mislead, the Jester could cause the party to chase the illusion through a complicated network of traps. Rather than trip wires and pressure plates that could be found by a rogue, the Jester's real body could pull leavers to set off perfectly timed traps. I love the idea of the jester dancing and waving through a complex maze, stopping to point at the party as ridiculous things get launched at them.
The jester can just mislead to swap appearance and location with a zombie minion and have the zombie run through all the traps, if the traps have no obvious sign they are being triggered, or all the traps are timed to delay before going off...
Here's a truly outrageous campaign/scenario idea: Grim Jester Spy vs Spy - you have a Grim Jester of Orcus (Death god of the undead) and a Grim Jester of the Raven Queen (Death god generally opposed to sentient undead) operating in the same general area. And they're effectively in a comedic war with each other.
Great idea 👍😁 I remember playing Spy vs Spy as a kid, to this day I'm still wary of booby traps! 😆
I can’t help but feel these are inspired by the Harlequin Solitaire.
AJ: "I know what you're thinking, a skeleton in a court jester outfit 'how scary can it be?"
The Joker, Pennywise, Sweet Tooth, Kefka, John Wayne Gacy, and Ronald McDonald: *collective evil clown laugh*
i swear to god! i homebrew monsters and then a month later you put out a video and my idea already existed somewhere in dnd. I've been playing for 31 years and this happens far more than im comfortable to admit. on the real though thank you I use you as a resource all the time
You must be in tune with the D&D Zietgeist 😎
A grim jester walks into a talent agent's office and says, friend, have I got an act for you...!
I used this in my Spelljammer game! It was on board a undead themed spelljamming ship made of bones with beholder zombies locked into the sides as unliving armaments. The captain was a death tyrant, first mate was a death knight, and the hold was full of zombies, but the Grim Jester was the worst threat to the party.
A Grim Jester was one of the main antagonists in my Ravnica game. They fit extremely well into the Rakdos cult
First monster we faced when coming to Eberron via the Blue Veil.
Honestly really scary. Persued and harried us for 3 days and we barely got away. Alot of tricks in their playbook
Making Kelemvor, the Raven Queen, or Orcus laugh is no easy feat. Kudos to the fools that managed to get a chuckle out of them!
Kudos squared for both, in the same room, at the same time.
Grim Jester BBEG with a legion of Space Clown Minions.
Idea: Grim Jester of the Raven Queen that was originally a really sadistic necromancer who attempted to become a lich but botched the ritual so badly they ended up destroying their entire lair and all their undead minions. The raven queen doesn't like undead, and found this hilarious. So she raises the wannabe lich as a Grim Jester, but curses them to do her bidding and spend the rest of their eternity hunting down and infiltrating *other necromancers*.
It's the perfect Ironic Hell. They have to ingratiate themselves to any necromancer they're sent after, humiliating themselves and absorbing all kinds of abuse from the less experienced necromancers they're targeting, under the guise of giving (flawed) advice and knowledge. They're cursed to watch countless other necromancers of varying competence attempt to become liches, having their previous life's goal dangling in front of them but always *just* out of reach.
Then, after months or years of doing drudge work and being endlessly tormented by their "master" and their circumstances, the lich ritual starts the Raven Queen finally takes the leash off and all that pent up rage explodes out.
Some behind the scenes deific meddling and a town guard/army patrol/adventuring group stumbles in just in time to see the gruesome last moments of the necromancer and hear the Grim Jester give a darkly ironic speech like the Crypt Keeper and then disappear into the aether, cackling madly. The story gets told far and wide, getting exaggerated to hell and back like those kinds of things do, letting everyone know what the Raven Queen does to necromancers. All the while the queen herself got to watch the whole thing play out.
This is the way.
My homebrew version, which I will now replace with this one, was reanimated by two gods playing their god games... competing for influence over the mortal world via the same guy. One was the Lord of Murder, the other was a God of Mischief. They did not tolerate their favorite psychopath dying. And the Joker Corpse (Grimm Jester now) really loved becoming that monster. I'm ditching my 80s homebrew Joker Corpse for this far better canon version, the Grimm Jester.
Kobold Press is always welcome in my 5e games, also this seems like it could be an interesting idea for warlock PC of the undying patron
Oh God that intro gave me goosebumps. I'm so ready to be filled with Halloween.
I can 100% see using the Grim Jester as a servant of a character from In Nomine, specifically Kobal the Demon Prince of Dark Humor. Granted knowing Kobal's sadism, for every individual killed it makes the lives of another ten people the victim knew arguably WORSE than death.
Considering the original incarnation of my Kelemvor cleric was a bard/cleric with a relentless tendency towards, well, tomfoolery...this monster feels almost prophetic. Imagine being made into such a monster as a reward you never even asked for or wanted. "i like your funny words, mortal. Congrats, you get to NEVER stop."
Telekinesis and some acid spell, gust of wind, ventriloquism etc. seems mandatory ;)
create so many accidents....
I love the concept of every Grim Jester having different motivations depending on the God/Goddess/Entity that raised them🤩🍿
Grim Jester prank compilation (GONE WRONG)
I think you mean GONE RIGHT.
@@abdullahalghanimi379 They ended with the Jester dying, not the intended target.
Will a grim jester ever work with the living? Example: a grim jester of kelemvor working with some clerics of kelemvor or lathandor to stop a cult of necromancers? Or a grim jester of orcus assisting a group of necromancers?
Yes, certainly. Although, it is still undead and will still kill them if it doesn't have a reason to work with them any more... in fact, if it can get the living killed in the process of achieving it's goal, all the better, but Kelemvor doesn't find that amusing...
Hey bud, quick question. I have been collecting RPGs since the late 80s and got into AD&D during the Red Box set but have played mostly 2nd Ed. I enjoy your channel and was wondering if you would be interested in acquiring my collection. I have been collecting since Jr High and I just retired from the military and have not used any of it for over 20 years... Thing is, I cannot bring myself to pass them on unless I know it goes to someone who would really enjoy them. It's quite the collection and not just D&D. I have games no longer in print and others who have never made it to print and I offer it to you free of charge. Just keep doing what you do. ;) Let me know.
contact me at ad4emperor@gmail.com thanks Jorge, it would be my honor to look after your collection for you.
Man I hope this worked out and we get a follow up video
This is horrifying for the DM too as they have to find a bunch of funny comebacks and lines to not make the monster concept implode on itself. But then again it has to make jokes that entertain things like Orcus or other gods of death so you can probably have more leeway with that. Maybe Orcus really is entertained easily and any bad joke or rhyme will do
Yeah, it's almost better if the jokes and punchlines are just really confusing... Remember, things that humans don't understand tend to frighten them.
id love to see a moment in a game where the players figure out that they need to kill the jester in a way that amuses their god and then spends a lot of time arguing about what would be funny to something like orcus lol
Used this to mess with my players about a year ago. It really messed with my players as it was aboard a ship at sea that was abandoned except for the lone jester aboard. It's laughing, grinning, and tricks had my leave the ship really quickly and leaving a couple of their crew behind. Those poor souls.
Aj it’s been a minute since I’ve checked in, been a bit busy. I’m about too binge watch the past 4 videos you posted. I’ve got a beverage, an I’m ready to get nerdy. Let’s go..
We are going to need a bigger beverage.
I like the idea of using the revenant player race as the foundation for one of these. The npc would actually want to be humorless and deadpan, but would be compelled to act ridiculous because of a cursed cap/mask. Two polar opposite personalities
ie: player race revenant, buzzkill that becames grim jester due to cursed item
The Grim Jester reminded me of the Undead Paladin- not corrupted or fallen Paladins who've achieved some sort of rewards for their misdeeds. Nope the one I thinking of has died fighting in the wrong battle and are thus cursed or blessed to attempt rescue of the living no matter the battle having failed the first time. Sorry nattering off topic
natter away
Seems to be something between Pennywise and the Joker🤣the real challenge seems to be for the DM to properly utilize this monster. Great video AJ👍
My only complaint is always the same two: these videos aren't fifteen hours long, and there aren't thirteen of them put up a day. Love this channel you are an invaluable resource to dms, players, and writers in general. Thanks you!
God if that happented my schoollife would suffer so hard
@@esbeng.s.a9761 I get it. Luckily I work from home and can spam aj videos half the week. Even if I gotta rewatch them
Someone needs to hire a pink dragon to teach those death gods some actual humor. I would rather deal with a dungeon full of bad puns than these guys.
Let me introduce the more benevolent counterpart of the Grim Jester that I just mad up a few seconds ago, the gentleman spirit. Their role is to be festive and classy psycho pumps, bringing peace to the minds of the living and helping the dead cross over as well as fighting off evil spirits that aim to use the dead. They really know how to put on a show and are often employed by good underworld lords and embodiments of death.
How about a Grim Jester who's continuous death is the joke?
Only has 1 HP, and comes back in 1d4 rounds, but every time it dies, it unleashes a random effect on whoever killed it. Be it a curse, disease, or, curses an item in their possession etc...
Naturally the party wouldn't kill it once they figure this out, but that's where it casts seeming to blend in with a horde of Skeletons/Zombies.
Think I'll call this ability 'Staying Power'.
Excellent
Named Kenny?
@@bluebird3281 And they keep killing him; The Bastards..
Excellent as usual. Sounds like a really fun big-bad to a shorter campaign. Awesome!
I could also see adapting this guy into a stronger form of Space Clown from the new Spelljammer stuff.
very much so.
Oh jester, my grim jester. How I long for death, only to be brought back to the land of the living. What a cruel joke indeed.
I'm going with the idea of orcus having a grim jester based on silence. In my current campaign, the villains are demon lords vying for control of Cormyr. The grim jester I'm making is based on an unfathomably loyal knight who kept his vow of silence going far too long after the death of a previous monarch. I'll introduce him on Halloween.
.... oh... wow... I made a homebrew called the Grim Jester Bioma on d&d beyond a long time ago and now I see this pop up? I'm giddy that I did it again lol made something that already existed 🤣😂🤣 and didn't even know it
This has to be somthing every dm needs to use once and giving it grease is hilarious
My first TPK with my current group of players was to one of these guys paired with a necromancer. The Necromancer didn't do much, the Jester cc'd and murdered everybody. My character grappled it and attempted to throw it off a cliff, which didn't work much to my surprise and everyone's dismay. We still talk about this fight even though it happened 3 years ago. Nobody is upset with it, we did get revenge later in the campaign, even at a higher level we were still terrified to fight it. Great memories of a brutally fantastic monster.
so it let you toss it over the cliff then switched places with you? cause that's how I would have ran it.
@@archonfett It switched with someone, I don't remember who, but it wasn't me. The DM wasn't ready to reveal that particular mechanic to us. I think it swapped with a zombie minion as it changed it's appearance to that of the zombie.
Bless the Mighty GlueStick
Bless the Author
A king beheads his jester as a joke. The god of death chuckled and had an idea. He made the entire castle into grim jesters. And made the headless jester the king and the king his jester who's only goal is to get the headless king to laugh.
Maybe the king can use sign language to say Ha Ha
@@alphacat4927 or he's the only one not brought back to life. So the jester is trying to get a dead guy to laugh.
and one day, he did... your quest is to find out how and if possible, return with the greatest joke ever told.
@@AJPickett I bet it was the one where he pulls his thumb apart........ oh wait that was a magic trick.
@@alphacat4927 Old gate keepers in D&D act like you only gain Xp in killing monsters and not for social encounters.
Other game systems such as Whitewolf/World of Darkness (WoD) Vampire in base around a more social story telling them of game. With a set amount of given Xp gain given out during Role playing and not combat.
2.) Everyone plays a bard telling lame bad Dad Jokes, whoever tells the best or worst Dad Joke gains another die to their dice pool or class level. The rest gain 1/10th value of needed Xp.
a.) Zombie/ghoul walks up to PC and shakes hands, and his hand breaks off.
Zombie/ghoul, " Ah dam, I'm rotten apart here .. can you give me a hand ?
b.) " Who wants to see a magic trick ? "
Ghoul looks around the room, " Has anyone seen my thumb ?"
" No that's not my thumb, wait a moment I need to check .. Ah man I'm really falling apart and dropping my .. can you hand my tool ? "
c.) Troll sausage shop, the stock regenerates on a daily bases. Troll head shop ran by a gnome, place was full of small talk.
d.) The gaming shop owner's wife DM a game where the party fought a land base giant Sea Slug, ...
I have been hoping you would cover this for a long while
I was actually thinking about a build for performers. I'm in public definitely give off a good guy persona but in private. I want to make a build that I can easily sneak into nobles homes and threaten them in a blackmail type away. I want to be able pull strings without my party noticing my intent and eventually get them to release a horror that was once forgotten.
"Hey little "Lord Jimmy". Closing your eyes won't make the evil monsters go away Kekekekekekeke!"
@@eldarhighelfhealermiriella7653 i'm fully on board with this. so cool. i'll use this but the names will changed depending on which lord i'll be messing with.
Absolutely one of my favorite undead monsters. Like a combination of Jhin from league of legends and the Joker. Every joke is a performance, and every performance is a potential massacre. I tooled with a campaign where a Grim Jester was masquerading as a roving comedian with a Dirgesinger servant in tow. They traveled from town to town using illusions, music and the draw of "free" entertainment to kill in the name of a high cleric of Nerull. Each "show" ended with one snide patron being singled out for the Grim Jester's Killing Joke ability, then the rest of the crowd being slaughtered by summoned lesser undead being bolstered by the Dirgesinger.
I love these things . My favorite part is that they’re only killed for good if they die in a suitably entertaining manner
Journey Through The Radiant Citadel describes the city of San Citlan, where sometimes the dead rise again as 'olvidados', peaceful and intelligent skeletons that remember their mortal life, but not the afterlife.
Seems like prime real estate for a murder mystery adventure with a secretive Grim Jester to blend in.
Oh yes, yes it does. heh heh
When the glue leaves you with a funny aftertaste... Muhahahaha.
I keep thinking you could draw inspiration from DC's Joker, the Saw movies and all sorts of such things if you wanted to make this a major villain. You could even have a Grim Jester "farming" adventurers, carefully challenging and shepherding a novice adventuring party until they were "ripe" enough for killing. Making their entire careers one long joke with a final bloody grisly punch line. Maybe you could even play with this by having the person the Grim Jester was leaving clues and aids in an effort to give the adventurers the tools to advert their fate. Which lends irony to the joke perhaps?
Thanks for this AJ! I'll want to remember this idea I think!
These were one of the first monsters that caught my eye in Tome of beasts as well. My other favorites from that book were the Algorith, Chained angel, Bokoti, Cambium, Chronomental, all of the Clockwork guard NPC, and the City Watch Captain, Psoglav Demons, Camatotz, Chort/Gilded/Orobas devils, Void dragons, Alehouse/ Star drakes, Eater of dust, Einherjar, Elemental Locus, the Moonlit King/Queen of witches, Feyward tree, folk of leng, all of the Ghoul variants, Jotuns, the Goat-man, Salt/Horde Golems, Herald of blood, Hundun, Lich hound, Mask wight, Mi-go, Shoggoth, Star spawn of Cthulu, Mordant Snare, Ostinato, Rat king, Ravenfolk, rotting wind, Sandman, Skein witch, Slow storm, Son of Fenris, suturefly, wolf spirit swarm, temple dog, Theullai, Uraeus, Vila, Siabhra, Voidling, White apes, Xkharsh, and the Ychen Bannog. So quite a few I'd watch a video on :)
I'm noting down all of these, btw, for future videos.
The photos you add to the narrative is awesome!!! Keep up the good work.
OH POOR CICERO! Mother ADORES sweet Cicero!
Reminds me of Eldar Harlequins.
16:49 Oh the Nagpa. Have you considered doing a video on those skeksis-inspired birb bois?
I have ruclips.net/video/yupkp3aAyvs/видео.html They just got folded into the lore of the Raven Queen.
Oooohhhh that's why I didn't remember. I'll watch it now. Much thanks. :)
Since grim jesters function to amuse death gods, and some cases as assassin's, can this state of being be handed down as a punishment for a particular evil or amoral char. Sorta working off their as a form penance?
Yes, I don't see why not.
D&D sure isnt all sunshine and rainbows. The Nihilistic aoe joke immediately puts me in mind of Monty Python, I love this. I've been wanting to convert some Warhammer 40k into high level d&d and think I can use this as a basis for an Eversor assassin, thanks for the inspiration!
If D&D was all sunshine and rainbows, the party would have nothing to do.
Lol I thought you buckled and did a "Space Clowns" episode.
I went for the "if you can't join them, beat them" tactic.
Old anvil to the head never got boring
Summon anvil.
Dm used living creatures with this guy…. Let’s just say jokes was on him .
Another great Video. Would you be interested in making videos covering some of the famous D&D characters? Like Drittz, Elminster, Xanathar, Minsc and Boo Etc. Many of them have fascinating stories.
I have the Tome of beasts and after reading this creature I created my own creation known as the King of Nothing, who answers to No One. It's a bit of a riddle. He would show up and use cartoonish antics to tease the PCs, mentioning details only they know about their past and claiming to know the future. Only to answer with the riddle, I have no need to answer to you for I and the King of Nothing, who answers to No One. 5 points if you figure it out.
There is a song called King Nothing by Metallica.
@@itsmeanunoriginaljoke9870 yeah, it's a good song.
Idea for an April fools campaign, a prank war has broken out between a grey jester and a grim jester, the party must find a way to either stop them or make them loose interest before they destroy the Witchlight carnival with their ruthless roast off
This video is great! I have a certain love for fantasy and monster ecology and your videos give me such inspiration! I have been slowly working on an expanded illithid ecology document. Thanks for your great work!
Grim Jester is a clown.. And there are Clowns in spelljammer.. O god.. old one grim jester clown ship?
Yeah, I don't do clowns... jesters on the other hand.
Your party encounters a bad dmt trip
This makes me think of a really fun quest idea. My players arrive at a town, said town has been having issues with mysterious deaths and the players are asked to help investigate. 2 Deaths will have happened, a drowned fisherman (will find out he was a fisher, through investigations around his life/house), and a Pyromancer who burned to death in his home (again, figure out he is a pyromancer through investigations).... Then the day after I'd introduce yet another death with, a somewhat ironic death like the previous, and slowly ease them into the idea that there's foul play at hand.
Anything I do is no sin, so let the chaos begin.
Freedom denys the right to choose. In this game everyone will lose!
There's a certain npc in Divinity 2 that fits this monster description almost perfectly.
Remember the name?
This one was really good. The rhymes were especially inspired. It's a shame you don't DM in real life, A.J. What a privilege and pleasure that would be.
I do, every week if I can, I just don't broadcast my games.
@@AJPickett Can you at least record them and save the bits that are fun? You know, toss those bits into an "AJ's tabletop D&D highlights" video once in a while?
I mean, your last broadcasted games were really cool. Well, before all your players traded out to be an all-Warforged party. The best character was that Narnia-type squirrel player character.
@@That80sGuy1972 Over the many years I have been online gaming, I have found this to be true.. there are broadcast games, and there are 'home' games, and the two are not the same. In my home games, I don't have to worry about what I say, what sort of comments will be directed at my friends, the sound quality, cameras, pace, etc... I can also talk about stuff outside of gaming with my mates, which is basically ALL of my social life, that's it, the moments I get to take off the DM hat and just chat about stuff... those moments are lost in a broadcast game. Yes, we do make audio recordings of our game dialogue, but we only do that for our own records and to refresh our memory about what is happening in the game, they are not intended for the public, and I do not have the consent of those involved to broadcast them (and I am not going to ask, that is something we decide in session zero, and lately, we always choose not to record for broadcast. I know its disappointing for folks, but I have to take the comfort, well-being, protection and sovereignty of my friends into account... always.
@@AJPickett I totally respect that, bro.
I apologize for even asking for nuggets from them.
#1 juggling hot potato fireballs!
Those are some sick rhymes for unaliving people to lol
These are the guys who make all the Spooktober memes.
So happy to be back to tome of beasts! Love seeing you cover 3rd party monsters 😁 always know it's going to be a good day
Plenty more of that to come!
Enjoyed this very much
I can imagine a Deadpool style death jester messing with heroes and villains for some neutral death god (perhaps a female one)
The 3.5 good God of undeath and love Evening Glory fits Deadpool perfectly.
@@brianzmek7272 Yep just call her Lady Death
@@zacharyweaver276 or at least the jester does
@@zacharyweaver276 oh and there is an arcane with a skin condition who opposes him
Hi AJ. "Tome of Beasts" is Pathfinder not dnd but dang, Grim Jesters are scary!
Hi Suzanne, no its most definately 5E, says so right on the cover, if your book says Pathfinder, that means it is a pathfinder system version of the same book, the company has its own world setting which I think uses the pathfinder system, or its own, I have been slowly reading the world setting book and Tales of the Old Margrave (which is also printed in a 5E version btw).
@@AJPickett Hi AJ! Makes me wonder why my brother thought it was Pathfinder, maybe because these monsters weren't made by Gary Gygax himself? I showed my brother your link and he automatically put the "Tome of Beasts" under Pathfinder so maybe he considers it a Pathfinder book. He has been into dnd for a long time. Also, thank you so much for your videos, I learn so much from them and I joined your discord. You are like one of ten people I watch on RUclips specifically to help me write stuff and help me learn about dnd!
We had something like this show up as the sidekick/comedic foil/chief assassin for a Lich King back in the day. We thought the little creep was the Big Bad of the campaign for a couple of months.
He had a couple of forced dancing abilities, as I recall. One that the DM called the Dance of the Red Shoes, make a Charisma save or dance uncontrollably, taking levels of exhaustion the longer it goes on. The other I never got a name for but he used it to make people dance off of rooftops, ledges, cliffs, etc.
Hey aj I noticed you have not made a monster ecology video on the girallon. You should definitely make one in the future
Dm i played under had a great setup for one of these boney lads. He had an underground "court" set up. Spots around a table were taken by dressed up "nobles" and the jester was hanging fromthe chandelier. Not cool dave.
You say monster, I say player character background.
Wicked. And brutal, God damn that thing is deadly.
Btw, quick question: Where in Baator would you place a factory that produces undead and necromantic magic items?
That's the thing of a homebrew archdevil of mine.
2nd and 8th circles seem like the prime choices to me. Dispater, Lord of the Second, is hells armorer, and Memphistpophles, Lord of Cania/the 8th is hells foremost Archmage, and the most likely to be experimenting with necromancy
@@agentchaos9332 Of those, Dis sounds the most fitting, given the nature of the factory. He is also one of those archdevils who cares more about the Blood War than politics, so this would put him closer to the action too.
Malbolge is a pretty good bet, that place is still crawling with night hags.
@@AJPickett Oh? That could be useful, and it's a realm of decaying flesh too, so it's thematic as well.
This skulduggery is just to humerus? what can i say this hits my funny bone.
I kinda whant to make one a pc
Reborn Bard
I made my grim jester basically Betelgeuse
This will need to be added to my campaign somehow...
Great video, AJ. I have a very similar home brew monster that I'm now going to replace with this. You'd be shocked as to how effective such a "fun-loving murderer" is at being the BBE. My most effective one was one I based (in personality) somewhere between DC's Joker and The Smurf's Jokey Smurf.
Party's Dwarf: **drinks found healing potion**
As the Dwarf heals, his body glows in a faerie fire effect, drawing all arrows to curve their flight to land in him... including arrows just launched now. All missiles fly like homing missiles and smack right into the dwarf despite his taking cover.
Evil Voice in Crowd: Surprise! You're dead! Happy Afterlife! Thanks for playing.
Grim Jester. I like that monster name too. Mine was "Joker Corpse".
Green hobGoblin grim jester, CEO of wizard of Oz Corp. Arch nemesis? A male drider.
Their delayed fire ball can be pumpkin bombs.
watching this make me think of some 80s horror movies Stephen king IT, Chucky and the killer clowns from outer space
Killer Klowns*