I remember when I was in a campaign we had a ranger who domesticated a Rust Monster she named "Copper". Had a Goliath Druid who carried it in a wooden crate. Served no combat purpose or anything but the Player for the Ranger took one look at the PHB picture of it and fell in love.
I wanted to make a character for my mom that was an oddball, female, dwarven life domain cleric, that used a rust monster, she, my mom, called fluffy. The idea, She would've used to find metal, for her husband's forging. She would feed him failed forged equipment.
The greatest reason for having a pet rust monster. We had one in a campaign back in collage. Our druid kept us protected with uses of Iron Wood. The only time our pet "broke the game" was when we needed to get into a vault.
Lucky person. I've never found a DM that would allow me, or anyone for that matter, one of these for anything short of spell/magic item creation and nothing else. Even when shown the Gary Gygax stuff about it being bacteria. Wouldn't allow any of that. He called it insanely over powered, being able to belch a stream of armor/weapon eating vomit or break a vial of blood on all his bad guys. We basically HAD them in our world, but only when a spell component quest came along, LOL.
The meta reason for the rust monster’s existence is because Gary Gygax ripped it off of a toy found in a bag of random monster toys you could find at a dime store. Same story for the Bulette
Yeah I think it's some weird monster print of a flea and tick or spring tail combined. I used to love buying those bags of those monsters as a kid(I'm old we had no internet). Whoever dreamed them up in the first place was a genius. There was always new ones.
"Traces of metal immersed or suspended in liquid sand or clay do not attract the smell of the rust monster." I think this is using immersion or suspension in the sense of chemistry, like if you took *traces* of metal (iron filings, etc) and shook it up in water, it would not be interested in it, only in large coherent chunks of metal that would disrupt a magnetic field. So jumping in a lake, or burying you armor in sand would not dissuade it or make it invisible to the rust monster.
Think that's more to wave away the fact that all living creature with hemoglobin(red blood) have iron in them, meaning without that hand wave the rust monster would jump and chomp on adventurers to drink their blood for the iron in it.
@@twilightgardenspresentatio6384 Don't mean to nitpick, just a big fan of lore and worldbuilding. And this channel is such a great resource seen by so many people, want to contribute if I can,
If you condensed all the iron in an average adult's blood I think you only get about a nails worth of metal, I imagine such quantities wouldnt interest a rust monster, I could be wrong though.
i dont know about what it evolved into over the years, but the ORIGINAL rust monster that was a cute plastic toy with a smiley face and therefore was one of the most scarily ironic creatures in the game if you were lucky enough to have the little yellow miniature.
The reason the critter is smiling is because it just ate the elven female thief's metal underwire. Without the underwire she was no longer supported, and went berserk
I love these critters! I don't even know why, but I love 'em... I also love that, in some older editions, someone said that, once old enough, a Rust Monster can develop a cocoon and grow into a young Rust Dragon... how cool is that!
That's amazing! Imagine having a pet rust monster grow into a rust dragon. It would also be terrifying to fight because it could breath and your armor would be gone.
In 3.5 its creature type is “aberration”, meaning it was probably engineered. Perhaps it was created by super-intelligent beings that did not use much, if any, iron but needed to fight enemies that were using a lot of iron. Like the mind flayers or Kaorti.
I feel that "Monstruosity" is more about being a magically created animal, but aberration are out-of-this-world monsters. Maybe they're from earth elemental plane.
Had a stone age tribe of hobgoblins that raised rust monsters to level the playing field with the advanced humans. I had it to where the skin would turn red when metal was applied so the hobs would use metal scraps to make patterns on them.
I did something with quest giving nobles have nothing but non metal armor and weapons such as glass (I stole the idea from skyrim) but they would hold all metal objects away from their main manor and mines and all their guards had metal alternatives. The rust monsters were like pets around the buildings and the metal holding room was underwater. I even had some of the people be rust eaters to hunt for gold and silver while they fed the rust monsters and people some extra iron. Preventing assassinations and theives entirely as they moved the metal in pathways the rust monsters didn't take and had weaponized bacteria they grew to coat their own weapons and armor or throw like a grenade.
7:00 my brother is a food engineer and i asked him about this "iron into sugar"-bacteria-thing. He sais that sugars are made of carbon chains, not iron. They could make some sugar with the carbon present in steel but is not much. They could be more like those bacteria present in the bottom of the ocean (extremophiles), that live out of mostly volcanic gases. But we don't know the specifics... So is more likely magic bacteria. Or it can create acids that only works on iron and is (mostly) harmless.
my theory is the bacteria live on the decomposition of metal , gaining they energy by oxidation (they corrode) and with a part of the energies they get ,they syntheses sugar (with other element ...) for feeding the rust monster carrying they around , this also explain why rust monster doesn't hunt metal in water because is already oxidated , making it unusable . Also the rust monster probably give a protection to oxigene for bacteria because if my memory this king of bacteria are kill by o2 (so a little hope for your armor) . by bio synergy the batéria in oxygene environment (aka out the rust body) should focuse on break the metal rather them fully decompose it. make it falling in small peace to be easily eat by the rust .
So yeah they are totes right but solid note, our iron these days is super pure. That would be the case for medieval fantasy types. It wasn't until about 300-200 BC range that we really got to make cast iron and that's 3.5% carbon. What's more- The Halomonas titanicae bacteria are gram-negative bacilli, as most species in the Halomonas genus are[4]. They are typically unpigmented or yellow tinted. It is an extreme halophile (salt loving) with peritrichous flagella for motility [2]. As a chemo-organotrophic organism its metabolism is respiratory. Catalase as well as oxidase are produced. They ferment D-galactose, D-glucose and D-fructose [2]. They are capable of anaerobic growth with the aid of glucose but in addition they are able to perform denitrification to gain energy through taking nitrate, but not nitrite, and converting it to nitrogen. It is known as a "steel munching" bacteria because it metabolizes steel rust as with the Titanic. When the bacteria breaks down the rust it gains energy in the form of electrons from the degradation iron that is present. What's more to even make rust they need water, which means they MUST have water somewhere, especially since they have liquid blood. They could easily obtain carbon from the water or it was suggested they get some energy from the sun. They probably use that tail to photosynthesize. Or more likely they breath in carbon dioxide and use the heme iron to create sugars. It did say they circulate throughout the blood which indicates a respiration process otherwise they would only exist in the gut. Just a thought.
@@Zippyser great thoughts, i will look over this bacteria. But for now some objections: you need a lot of surface area and sun exposure to photosintezice food to sustain themselves, not counting a big ass bug, so it would not work at all. Unless the bacteria are something like the "Moorella thermoacetica" (better known as cyborg bacteria), in that case it could work, but they would also need rare metals and still a lot of sunlight (no dungeon dwendeling). Also Cast iron is brittle, you don't use that for battle gear. The Rust monsters would need a lot of water. They also would need other kinds of bacteria to fix nitrogen and other nutrients to be able to live, we need a lot of stuf to maintain out bodies, bot just glucose. Also in one of the images that Rex uses there is a diagram that says "enchanted gland" or something like that, so it is magical, lets just say its magic XD.
The feathery end of the tail could easily be part of the pulmonary system of the Rust Monster. It could act as a way to circulate oxygen into the blood, as well as filter out some of the more toxic gases of the Underdark. Perhaps it could also allow the creature to better survive traversing submerged tunnels.
The ability to digest metal would be useful underground where there may be plenty of ore in certain locations. I could imagine a quest where one is tasked to clear out a mine infested by them, where they are rusting the ore out of the walls until a potential mine collapse.
I remember how ticked off our Half-Orc fighter was after an encounter with a rust monster back when we were playing AD&D in high school. I have had a fondness for the rust monster ever since.
This is iconic? 😒 What a boring concept this creature is. Made for troll-GM's. This is one of these beings that feel personal if one is a "metal gear user" of any kind.
My first stint as DM I put a rust monster without antenna in a pit covered by metal bars, inviting the players to feed it any spare metal items they may have had. It was a small custom adventure centred on pranks, but a pet rust monster suited the location of the central dungeon.
Back in the day (2nd ed) they could not do damage. For this reason many Wiz towers would have these on the second floor or so in their towers as it would hurt the other classes so much and not the Wiz to much. Also my party one killed one of these and bottled (glass) the blood. They would then put a nail in the jar each day. Then when they would use a drop of blood on locks to destroy lock or on hinges. Then again this was the same party they keep a cut up troll as a portable food and would eat the limbs as they regrew. Yes they where sick and Not GOOD.
I feel like this is just one more reason that adventurers should be wearing brigandine armor. It has plates in between two layers of leather, which makes it easy to repair in the field, and if it's waterproofed probably safe from rust monsters too.
I've heard of really terrible DMs deciding it'd be hilarious to suddenly have 30 rust monsters appear in a room that locks behind the poor fighter completely destroying everything he's got. If what you hear about Gary Gygax is true, I bet that's exactly what he had planned for the rust monster, the reason it was made.
I know he's mentioned them a lot but I don't think he's done them in his "series". I rewatch them a lot and he mentions them and a lot of the textbook monsters a lot(umber hulks, dragons , orcs' drow etc)
I've recently discovered the pleasure of pairing these with aurumvorax, xorn, and galeb dur. The party can't hide in the dungeon, and all of their equipment is a homing beacon.
The whole notion of the symbiotic bacteria digesting metal and producing a sugary byproduct gave me the idea of an eccentric brewer who obtained a live rust monster antenna and uses it to generate this byproduct as a base for fermenting a unique sort of alcohol. Ironmead sounds like something dwarves might like!
Dwarves, originally used these animals to clean up slag and scrap heaps. Until its symbiotic nature started destroying thier work. When it came to the war with the Giants, rust monsters were pivotal. Most giants have enchanted weapons but not armor. These fearless mounts carried many of dwarves into battle where they feasted and cleared the battle field of metal. This inadvertently is why Giants have learned to be experts at throwing rocks....lol.
I think that you should specify that is nonmagical ferrous metals, meaning a forge cleric or +1 armor/weapons aren't affected, in fact just placing magic over your weapon basically protects it
Although, one could argue that such a magical item caught within an antimagic field might lose that protection, and become vulnerable to corrosion while it remains therein.
I thought you would bring up the claim from the "Planes of Law" Planescape boxed set that the rust dragon, native to the plane of Acheron, is in fact the mature version of the rust monster.
If I may suggest something, will there be a series about ancient Imaskar, simillar to the netherill one? I think that imascarcanas and mortals going 1v1 with gods would be awesome
He does source material mostly from gaming. Imaskar is more a novel thing. You're not going to do it justice without reading about thirty Faerun novels. He doesn't do the novels sadly. Wish he did. He'd love the eilistrae ones(and the 18 lolth based ones heh). On edit the netheril one was quite basic and off much like the elf one as it pulled once again mostly from source for gaming instead of the novels. Still love both though. But I'm biased to any sword n sorcery or tech n sorcery stuff(love Shadowrun) I'm really picky on some touchy(ones I adore) areas for accuracy(Elminster ,Drizzt, Jarlaxle, any of the Faerun pantheons ,elven and Faerun history). Yes I bore all women I date except for one (she still plays , great gal).
Ah yes, the one creature that can potentially hit the resetbutton of an entire region. All it would take is a single druid breeding them and nobody would ever be able to use metal again.
in BECMI D&D they are a lot tougher. They have an AC: 2 which would translate to AC: 17 in AD&D 5e. Originally only the rust monsters antenae had the rusting effect, which made a lot of sense to me.
I know you mentioned that eating a raw rust monster would theoretically allow you to digest metal but I think it would just be a fast-pass ticket to anemia land, considering how much iron there is in our blood and how said blood is in contact with basically every part of our body, stomach included.
I ran into some recently while playing a mod for Neverwinter Nights called Swordflight. They are really horrible when you play a class that wears plate, the very thought of permanently losing my precious equipment... even a dragon is less frightening. 😬
Regarding the antennae, I believe the ability might be that if the monster sees you and you are within 5ft of it, it will use its antennae to corrode non-magical ferrous stuff. Not sure though, but it seems likely
I swear I'm gonna stare a DM down over this at some point. Just gonna argue the magic flower eye inside the head of my Warforged uses its power to resist exhaustive or corrosive effects instead of poisons and diseases, because Warforged already are resistant to poisons and diseases, so the only thing to passively enhance is the armor. TLDR, gonna get into a fight about character lore and mechanics because they didn't ask. I just know it.
Old enough to remember the Dragon magazine cartoon where the Paladin in full plate jumps into the arms of his magic user friend because of a rust monster!🤣🤣🤣
Thank you for clarifying the "ferrous" red-herring. Post-TSR AD&D writers and editors often abuse that term, thinking that rust monsters only affect iron-based metals because its attack turns metal to rust dust. In the real world, science-based world, only ferrous metals rust... other metals oxidizing are referred to as "tarnishing" or "corroding" and gold never rusts... and in AD&D neither does adamant nor mythril. That's what makes the Rust Monster's rust power so underratedly powerful. It turns ANY metal to rust dust. Silver/copper doesn't tarnish, it turns to rust dust. Aluminum doesn't corrode, it turns to rust dust. Rust-immune never-oxidizing gold, electrum, platinum, mythril, and adamant turns to rust dust. Any imaginary metal you bring into AD&D... Rust Monsters turn that into rust dust. By this time, edition after edition, interpretation after interpretation, Rust Monster's rust-any-metal thing may often have been nerfed-down, but that does not mean it was ever correct in doing so. This is an easy to kill bugger that people with awesome metal items, especially if those are magical, are to run in fear from them out of complete terror of having them obliterate their most valuable possessions.
Had an idea for giant rust monsters that live in a mountain with crazy high amounts of minerals, the reason it's so huge is because it's got a direct link to the elemental plain of earth, so no matter how much raw material the monsters eat, there's a near limitless supply of it. Quest would be someone who has acquired the land wants to mine the mountain, but monsters are preventing that, and brave adventures are needed. Bonus is if the players succeed, then the mountain continues to grow, threatening to disrupt nearby farm lands and towns. Because only the massive family of rustmonsters were able to destroy enough material to keep the mountain in check. I love letting players be responsible for a bigger problem lol
Still one of my favorite 3.5 items was the Rust Monster wand, just a rod filled with rust monster larvae with a screened off end on one side you can press against metal items for their antennae to reach through to break down metal objects.
Perfect timing on the video! I had to think of what to tell my players after they brought back guts of a Rust Monster in a vial xD But also that PDF is dope! I need it!
13:30 - If you ingested the bacteria, you would die a slow painful death as it would eat the iron in your bloodstream. In fact, getting it on your body might have some severe consequences.
If the ring mail might be okay from the corrosion because it’s separate rings, full plate would also be somewhat similar… it’s not all one piece of metal, but multiple metal plates strapped onto the torso. A bigger piece would be corroded but not the whole suit
17:16 Finding out what those tracks are made of would be an important story piece, because they’re completely untouched. Also, using non-metallic materials for armor would really mix things up, potentially tying in the subject of more armor variations from another video.
The chad knight in full plate looks down the long cave. He sees a pair of eyes staring back at him. It is a rust monster. The chad is not a chad. He is merely a scared little beta. there is no escape. O _ O
I was really looking forward to this one. There is however an odd detail on the wikis mentioning how rust monsters might actually be the larva forms of rust dragons from Acheron. I was waiting for you to talk about it, but thank you regardless for this information.
Love your videos man, it was because of your videos that I started to get interested in D&D. By the way can you do a video on the Lady of Pain? I think she is very interesting and mysterious. Keep up the good work, your passion is really inspiring!!!
I love the idea of this. Load up some glass jars with its good and a single metal arrow head. And then throw them at heavily armoured enemies as sudo grenades to destroy their AC characteristic.
I'm a huge fan of the Rust Lord.. a beefed up version of the rust monster that rips the iron from blood and deals con damage along with it's normal rusting effects.
I was wondering if there was enough unknown content for a video on Goliaths, I would really like to know if there has been a crazy event that involved a Goliath or an in-depth character and culture breakdown would be awesome
Back in the 90s I made a rust monster with a rust breath weapon. The party who were getting too big for their britches laughed the the monster until he sprayed his rust breath. Then they were like oh crap!
The other fun would be giving it a Damage Resistance to its carapace, but the Damage resistance is weak to metal weapons. So the fighter that put their greatsword aside and is trying to damage it with a club doing d4 (plus Strength bonus), but the Rust Monster has DR 5. So do you keep hitting it with a wooden stick, or do you sacrifice your metal weapons to hurt it?
13:25 I just think the bacterio would consume your blood iron unless you actually eat metal. And then I imagine the bacteria symbiotically giving you an iron outer shell for protection, expreading the iron through you body if you eat enough, but giving more and more hunger - eventually turning you into an iron devourer monster.
Also, if they make their way to the plane of Acheron, which is composed of massive floating iron cubes, they can eventually develop into a Rust Dragon.
what would be cool to see is a book/pdf for ALL adventure modules... with conversions for each d&d version... ie, temple of elemental evil has not been seen/redone for quite a while now.... maybe even a what they don't tell you series for some of these adventures.....
Dragon Magazine #88 has an "Ecology of the Rust Monster" article says: Large enchanted objects (such as an iron golem) get a saving throw vs. petrification at +1 to avoid the rusting effect. An iron golem striking a rust monster would do 4-40 points of damage, perhaps killing the creature - but if a golem carrying an edged weapon struck the antennae or the body of the rust monster with its blade and not with a crushing blow from its fist (the golem is unintelligent and does not choose its attack mode deliberately), the golem would begin to corrode immediately and would collapse into a mound of rust at the end of the following round. During this second round, the iron golem can move only 3" without toppling, and it will do only half damage on any attack.
I think one of the biggest gripes I heard from detractors of 5E was that gold was pointless you "didn't have anything to buy" Glad you made the magic items pdf so that which was available in editions of yore is now available again.
We had a dungeon master who refused to give us ANY equipment and when he did we had an encounter with a rusty... we had a rule that we could have a secret action writen in a card that would be stored for latter use. The terror in the dms face when i finaly revealed the card in a battle agains a group of evil well equiped warriors that would have captured us if it was not for the card with the cursed inscription "i remove a antena and use preserve organ in it. Every day i will renew the spell. I keep it in a cloth bag by my waist"
9:00 Things generally don't burst when you hit them hard. If you've ever hit a deer with your car you'd have first hand experience. critters aren't full of explosives by default.
MrRhexx... Was binge-watching your back videos and you did several videos on Mind Flayers and after 2 videos, you said you: "Haven't even covered the Elder Brain yet, for the next video." I don't see a 3rd Mind Flayer video, or an Elder Brain titled video??? Did you ever make it? If so, which video? Great video on the Rust monsters! Thx!
Keep in mind something's AC is not just how tough its armor is. An Ankylosaurus has an AC of 15, which is only 1 point higher than this. Moving in a way that minimizes injury is just as important as actually stopping an incoming attack.
Hey MrRhexx. That new PDF on magic items, the enchanting rules. So if a player wants to enchant an item, all they need is the gp value, but they do not need to know a specific spell to enchant upon the item?
Also, if they get big enough, they metamorph into rust dragons (still not dragons, they just look draconic). Strangely, these are only found on the plane of Archeron and no one really knows why.
Probably because the only solid surfaces in Acheron are the 4 giant perpetual iron cubes that float around and slam into each other. All the iron they could ever want, and it grows back presumably.
I love your listening/watching your videos, could you have a look into Kalashtar or Quori / The Realm of Dreams. No one had a proper video on this yet in my opinion! Keep up the very enjoyable work ;)
I love these creatures in game. I always ignore the solitary tag, and do groups of 4-6, make them “prefer” ferrous and they become a more respectable menace
DM: You strike the rust monster, fighter. Its blood splatters everywhere as you kill it. Player: I cast Heat Metal on the fighter's plate armour. DM and fighter: Wait what, why? Players that watch MrRhexx know.
That is why i like having Bronze Plate mail, it is unaffected my Rust Monsters, and is only 1 AC lower than normal plate mail! I have cut the feelers off a Rust Monster and stored it in a bottle to use later!
i can't stop imagining a underground city of dwarfs where their mines have being plaguege by those creatures, and when upon a siege the dwafs feed thenselfs from the creature meat being able to survive years eating metal!
I remember when I was in a campaign we had a ranger who domesticated a Rust Monster she named "Copper". Had a Goliath Druid who carried it in a wooden crate. Served no combat purpose or anything but the Player for the Ranger took one look at the PHB picture of it and fell in love.
That's adorable
I wanted to make a character for my mom that was an oddball, female, dwarven life domain cleric, that used a rust monster, she, my mom, called fluffy. The idea, She would've used to find metal, for her husband's forging. She would feed him failed forged equipment.
The greatest reason for having a pet rust monster.
We had one in a campaign back in collage. Our druid kept us protected with uses of Iron Wood. The only time our pet "broke the game" was when we needed to get into a vault.
This makes me want to play D&D even more. 😱🤩
Lucky person. I've never found a DM that would allow me, or anyone for that matter, one of these for anything short of spell/magic item creation and nothing else. Even when shown the Gary Gygax stuff about it being bacteria. Wouldn't allow any of that. He called it insanely over powered, being able to belch a stream of armor/weapon eating vomit or break a vial of blood on all his bad guys. We basically HAD them in our world, but only when a spell component quest came along, LOL.
The meta reason for the rust monster’s existence is because Gary Gygax ripped it off of a toy found in a bag of random monster toys you could find at a dime store. Same story for the Bulette
Was about to post the same thing. :)
That odd tail was part of the old rubber toy. It just stuck around all these years.
that's the meta reason for its appearence, yes. I have seen photos of those toys
Yeah I think it's some weird monster print of a flea and tick or spring tail combined. I used to love buying those bags of those monsters as a kid(I'm old we had no internet). Whoever dreamed them up in the first place was a genius. There was always new ones.
I had that bag of monsters as a kid a long time ago.
Owlbear too
"Traces of metal immersed or suspended in liquid sand or clay do not attract the smell of the rust monster." I think this is using immersion or suspension in the sense of chemistry, like if you took *traces* of metal (iron filings, etc) and shook it up in water, it would not be interested in it, only in large coherent chunks of metal that would disrupt a magnetic field. So jumping in a lake, or burying you armor in sand would not dissuade it or make it invisible to the rust monster.
Think that's more to wave away the fact that all living creature with hemoglobin(red blood) have iron in them, meaning without that hand wave the rust monster would jump and chomp on adventurers to drink their blood for the iron in it.
@@Geraduss well most blood in most animals, at least real ones, have some kind of metal in them, copper and so forth.
Both of those answers. Man the nit-pickers we have to prepare for these days.
I guess it was always like this, there’s just more of us now.
@@twilightgardenspresentatio6384 Don't mean to nitpick, just a big fan of lore and worldbuilding. And this channel is such a great resource seen by so many people, want to contribute if I can,
If you condensed all the iron in an average adult's blood I think you only get about a nails worth of metal, I imagine such quantities wouldnt interest a rust monster, I could be wrong though.
i dont know about what it evolved into over the years, but the ORIGINAL rust monster that was a cute plastic toy with a smiley face and therefore was one of the most scarily ironic creatures in the game if you were lucky enough to have the little yellow miniature.
The reason the critter is smiling is because it just ate the elven female thief's metal underwire. Without the underwire she was no longer supported, and went berserk
I love these critters! I don't even know why, but I love 'em... I also love that, in some older editions, someone said that, once old enough, a Rust Monster can develop a cocoon and grow into a young Rust Dragon... how cool is that!
That's amazing! Imagine having a pet rust monster grow into a rust dragon. It would also be terrifying to fight because it could breath and your armor would be gone.
@@cultofnatethemagnificent5879 ecoterrorist drud that vows to destroy technology with a pet rust monster/dragon, I need to make this into a reality!
@@brotquel1592 That would be so cool, you go do it!
I swear I read once that the origin of the rust monster was a magic experiment / defense for a wizard that bred out of control
@@nicholasgeere5125pretty much like owlbears
In 3.5 its creature type is “aberration”, meaning it was probably engineered. Perhaps it was created by super-intelligent beings that did not use much, if any, iron but needed to fight enemies that were using a lot of iron. Like the mind flayers or Kaorti.
In my campaign they are also created by Mind Flayers
Could be anything go back far enough and IF I remember correctly 2nd or 1st advanced had them as normal endemic species.
Ahh "abetration", the same as Beholders
@@bayoubilly5176 you’re on the internet dude, cite your sources
I feel that "Monstruosity" is more about being a magically created animal, but aberration are out-of-this-world monsters. Maybe they're from earth elemental plane.
Had a stone age tribe of hobgoblins that raised rust monsters to level the playing field with the advanced humans.
I had it to where the skin would turn red when metal was applied so the hobs would use metal scraps to make patterns on them.
Ok that's brilliant. You mind if I steal that for my game?
@@shaderig349 have at.
Thats badass
I did something with quest giving nobles have nothing but non metal armor and weapons such as glass (I stole the idea from skyrim) but they would hold all metal objects away from their main manor and mines and all their guards had metal alternatives. The rust monsters were like pets around the buildings and the metal holding room was underwater. I even had some of the people be rust eaters to hunt for gold and silver while they fed the rust monsters and people some extra iron. Preventing assassinations and theives entirely as they moved the metal in pathways the rust monsters didn't take and had weaponized bacteria they grew to coat their own weapons and armor or throw like a grenade.
7:00 my brother is a food engineer and i asked him about this "iron into sugar"-bacteria-thing.
He sais that sugars are made of carbon chains, not iron.
They could make some sugar with the carbon present in steel but is not much. They could be more like those bacteria present in the bottom of the ocean (extremophiles), that live out of mostly volcanic gases. But we don't know the specifics...
So is more likely magic bacteria.
Or it can create acids that only works on iron and is (mostly) harmless.
my theory is the bacteria live on the decomposition of metal , gaining they energy by oxidation (they corrode) and with a part of the energies they get ,they syntheses sugar (with other element ...) for feeding the rust monster carrying they around , this also explain why rust monster doesn't hunt metal in water because is already oxidated , making it unusable .
Also the rust monster probably give a protection to oxigene for bacteria because if my memory this king of bacteria are kill by o2 (so a little hope for your armor) . by bio synergy the batéria in oxygene environment (aka out the rust body) should focuse on break the metal rather them fully decompose it. make it falling in small peace to be easily eat by the rust .
So yeah they are totes right but solid note, our iron these days is super pure. That would be the case for medieval fantasy types. It wasn't until about 300-200 BC range that we really got to make cast iron and that's 3.5% carbon.
What's more-
The Halomonas titanicae bacteria are gram-negative bacilli, as most species in the Halomonas genus are[4]. They are typically unpigmented or yellow tinted. It is an extreme halophile (salt loving) with peritrichous flagella for motility [2].
As a chemo-organotrophic organism its metabolism is respiratory. Catalase as well as oxidase are produced. They ferment D-galactose, D-glucose and D-fructose [2]. They are capable of anaerobic growth with the aid of glucose but in addition they are able to perform denitrification to gain energy through taking nitrate, but not nitrite, and converting it to nitrogen.
It is known as a "steel munching" bacteria because it metabolizes steel rust as with the Titanic. When the bacteria breaks down the rust it gains energy in the form of electrons from the degradation iron that is present.
What's more to even make rust they need water, which means they MUST have water somewhere, especially since they have liquid blood. They could easily obtain carbon from the water or it was suggested they get some energy from the sun. They probably use that tail to photosynthesize. Or more likely they breath in carbon dioxide and use the heme iron to create sugars. It did say they circulate throughout the blood which indicates a respiration process otherwise they would only exist in the gut.
Just a thought.
@@Zippyser great thoughts, i will look over this bacteria.
But for now some objections:
you need a lot of surface area and sun exposure to photosintezice food to sustain themselves, not counting a big ass bug, so it would not work at all. Unless the bacteria are something like the "Moorella thermoacetica" (better known as cyborg bacteria), in that case it could work, but they would also need rare metals and still a lot of sunlight (no dungeon dwendeling).
Also Cast iron is brittle, you don't use that for battle gear.
The Rust monsters would need a lot of water.
They also would need other kinds of bacteria to fix nitrogen and other nutrients to be able to live, we need a lot of stuf to maintain out bodies, bot just glucose.
Also in one of the images that Rex uses there is a diagram that says "enchanted gland" or something like that, so it is magical, lets just say its magic XD.
10:45 THE BEST Rust monster art. So perfect
The feathery end of the tail could easily be part of the pulmonary system of the Rust Monster. It could act as a way to circulate oxygen into the blood, as well as filter out some of the more toxic gases of the Underdark. Perhaps it could also allow the creature to better survive traversing submerged tunnels.
Thank goodness you covered Flumphs in a previous video i dont think i could handle a scarier monster for Halloween
The original DM guide has a great fun illustration portraying a plate mail fighter being held by a wizard and a rust eater on the floor.
I think you could throw out a bunch of iron ball bearings to distract the rust monsters. It would be like little pieces of candy all over the place.
The ability to digest metal would be useful underground where there may be plenty of ore in certain locations. I could imagine a quest where one is tasked to clear out a mine infested by them, where they are rusting the ore out of the walls until a potential mine collapse.
Thx for the idea friendo.
Might work with an iron crises like Balder's Gate 1.
I remember how ticked off our Half-Orc fighter was after an encounter with a rust monster back when we were playing AD&D in high school. I have had a fondness for the rust monster ever since.
This took longer than expected for one of the most iconic monsters
This is iconic? 😒
What a boring concept this creature is.
Made for troll-GM's. This is one of these beings that feel personal if one is a "metal gear user" of any kind.
My first stint as DM I put a rust monster without antenna in a pit covered by metal bars, inviting the players to feed it any spare metal items they may have had.
It was a small custom adventure centred on pranks, but a pet rust monster suited the location of the central dungeon.
For Halloween this year could you cover an especially scary monster like an Oni or something?! 😱
Implying there is anything scarier than a rust monster eating your full plate?
@@eros5420 oh god that the worst thing
@@eros5420 A Disenchanter eating your expensive magical equipment would arguably be a lot worse.
@@Krishnath.Dragon Great. Now the night terrors are back. ;p
@Ghost Phoenix and dming the adventure itself. If any only player understood... Would be nice.
Back in the day (2nd ed) they could not do damage. For this reason many Wiz towers would have these on the second floor or so in their towers as it would hurt the other classes so much and not the Wiz to much.
Also my party one killed one of these and bottled (glass) the blood. They would then put a nail in the jar each day. Then when they would use a drop of blood on locks to destroy lock or on hinges. Then again this was the same party they keep a cut up troll as a portable food and would eat the limbs as they regrew. Yes they where sick and Not GOOD.
I feel like this is just one more reason that adventurers should be wearing brigandine armor. It has plates in between two layers of leather, which makes it easy to repair in the field, and if it's waterproofed probably safe from rust monsters too.
I've heard of really terrible DMs deciding it'd be hilarious to suddenly have 30 rust monsters appear in a room that locks behind the poor fighter completely destroying everything he's got.
If what you hear about Gary Gygax is true, I bet that's exactly what he had planned for the rust monster, the reason it was made.
I thought you covered this before... but then again this is even more in depth than last time making it an excellent companion piece.
I know he's mentioned them a lot but I don't think he's done them in his "series". I rewatch them a lot and he mentions them and a lot of the textbook monsters a lot(umber hulks, dragons , orcs' drow etc)
10:48 the simple yet complex story that is told in the picture is beautiful.
I've recently discovered the pleasure of pairing these with aurumvorax, xorn, and galeb dur.
The party can't hide in the dungeon, and all of their equipment is a homing beacon.
What would made me to throw my shoes at the DM?
A Kender riding a Rust Monster.
That is an awesome image. Hoopak swinging and calling out anyone got something I can borrow.
The whole notion of the symbiotic bacteria digesting metal and producing a sugary byproduct gave me the idea of an eccentric brewer who obtained a live rust monster antenna and uses it to generate this byproduct as a base for fermenting a unique sort of alcohol. Ironmead sounds like something dwarves might like!
They'd never be anemic, at least!
Love your content Mr. Rhexx I never miss a video and I look forward to your each and every upload!
Dwarves, originally used these animals to clean up slag and scrap heaps. Until its symbiotic nature started destroying thier work. When it came to the war with the Giants, rust monsters were pivotal. Most giants have enchanted weapons but not armor. These fearless mounts carried many of dwarves into battle where they feasted and cleared the battle field of metal. This inadvertently is why Giants have learned to be experts at throwing rocks....lol.
I think that you should specify that is nonmagical ferrous metals, meaning a forge cleric or +1 armor/weapons aren't affected, in fact just placing magic over your weapon basically protects it
Although, one could argue that such a magical item caught within an antimagic field might lose that protection, and become vulnerable to corrosion while it remains therein.
@@derekstein6193 that wouldn't be an argument, it would just be a fact.
I thought you would bring up the claim from the "Planes of Law" Planescape boxed set that the rust dragon, native to the plane of Acheron, is in fact the mature version of the rust monster.
If I may suggest something, will there be a series about ancient Imaskar, simillar to the netherill one? I think that imascarcanas and mortals going 1v1 with gods would be awesome
He does source material mostly from gaming. Imaskar is more a novel thing. You're not going to do it justice without reading about thirty Faerun novels. He doesn't do the novels sadly. Wish he did. He'd love the eilistrae ones(and the 18 lolth based ones heh).
On edit the netheril one was quite basic and off much like the elf one as it pulled once again mostly from source for gaming instead of the novels. Still love both though. But I'm biased to any sword n sorcery or tech n sorcery stuff(love Shadowrun) I'm really picky on some touchy(ones I adore) areas for accuracy(Elminster ,Drizzt, Jarlaxle, any of the Faerun pantheons ,elven and Faerun history). Yes I bore all women I date except for one (she still plays , great gal).
Ah yes, the one creature that can potentially hit the resetbutton of an entire region. All it would take is a single druid breeding them and nobody would ever be able to use metal again.
Thank you MRRHEXX for making a seemingly mundane monster more interesting :3
in BECMI D&D they are a lot tougher. They have an AC: 2 which would translate to AC: 17 in AD&D 5e. Originally only the rust monsters antenae had the rusting effect, which made a lot of sense to me.
Monk: Exists
Rust Monster: Sweats nervously
I know you mentioned that eating a raw rust monster would theoretically allow you to digest metal but I think it would just be a fast-pass ticket to anemia land, considering how much iron there is in our blood and how said blood is in contact with basically every part of our body, stomach included.
So what color do you think Rust Monster blood is? I think blue or green.
I think blue, maybe, or a deep shade of purple@@beastwarsFTW
I ran into some recently while playing a mod for Neverwinter Nights called Swordflight. They are really horrible when you play a class that wears plate, the very thought of permanently losing my precious equipment... even a dragon is less frightening. 😬
Regarding the antennae, I believe the ability might be that if the monster sees you and you are within 5ft of it, it will use its antennae to corrode non-magical ferrous stuff. Not sure though, but it seems likely
I swear I'm gonna stare a DM down over this at some point. Just gonna argue the magic flower eye inside the head of my Warforged uses its power to resist exhaustive or corrosive effects instead of poisons and diseases, because Warforged already are resistant to poisons and diseases, so the only thing to passively enhance is the armor.
TLDR, gonna get into a fight about character lore and mechanics because they didn't ask. I just know it.
Old enough to remember the Dragon magazine cartoon where the Paladin in full plate jumps into the arms of his magic user friend because of a rust monster!🤣🤣🤣
Thank you for clarifying the "ferrous" red-herring. Post-TSR AD&D writers and editors often abuse that term, thinking that rust monsters only affect iron-based metals because its attack turns metal to rust dust. In the real world, science-based world, only ferrous metals rust... other metals oxidizing are referred to as "tarnishing" or "corroding" and gold never rusts... and in AD&D neither does adamant nor mythril. That's what makes the Rust Monster's rust power so underratedly powerful. It turns ANY metal to rust dust. Silver/copper doesn't tarnish, it turns to rust dust. Aluminum doesn't corrode, it turns to rust dust. Rust-immune never-oxidizing gold, electrum, platinum, mythril, and adamant turns to rust dust. Any imaginary metal you bring into AD&D... Rust Monsters turn that into rust dust.
By this time, edition after edition, interpretation after interpretation, Rust Monster's rust-any-metal thing may often have been nerfed-down, but that does not mean it was ever correct in doing so. This is an easy to kill bugger that people with awesome metal items, especially if those are magical, are to run in fear from them out of complete terror of having them obliterate their most valuable possessions.
Had an idea for giant rust monsters that live in a mountain with crazy high amounts of minerals, the reason it's so huge is because it's got a direct link to the elemental plain of earth, so no matter how much raw material the monsters eat, there's a near limitless supply of it. Quest would be someone who has acquired the land wants to mine the mountain, but monsters are preventing that, and brave adventures are needed. Bonus is if the players succeed, then the mountain continues to grow, threatening to disrupt nearby farm lands and towns. Because only the massive family of rustmonsters were able to destroy enough material to keep the mountain in check. I love letting players be responsible for a bigger problem lol
There is a great webcomic about a Rust Monster, Mimic, and Gelatinous Cube who are adventurers!
@MrRhexx can we get a video about ArchLiches. its one of those things that every DM glosses over, and barely anyone seems to cover it in a video.
Still one of my favorite 3.5 items was the Rust Monster wand, just a rod filled with rust monster larvae with a screened off end on one side you can press against metal items for their antennae to reach through to break down metal objects.
The magic items PDF sounds amazing!
Perfect timing on the video! I had to think of what to tell my players after they brought back guts of a Rust Monster in a vial xD But also that PDF is dope! I need it!
A warforged meeting one of these must be a nightmare for the warforged.
Hi MrRhexx, love your lore videos. I've learned so much from you about D&D and it helped improve my games. Can you do a video on Acheron?
Glad to see you back. I was wondering, do you have a "what they don't tell you about gnomes" video planned?
If not, please plan it. =)
I like how in depth all your videos are. Will you be doing one about centaurs coming up?
13:30 - If you ingested the bacteria, you would die a slow painful death as it would eat the iron in your bloodstream. In fact, getting it on your body might have some severe consequences.
I love the fact that in the magic item PDF, things are organized by price.
I really like the kobold video it helped me fill in the blank spots in my pc history and I was wondering if you could do one for reborns.
Love the PDF. Always thought it was lazy of 5e not to include actual prices with reasonable price ranges.
Listening to your description, a real set of creatures come to mind. Corals and their zooxanthellae 😅
If the ring mail might be okay from the corrosion because it’s separate rings, full plate would also be somewhat similar… it’s not all one piece of metal, but multiple metal plates strapped onto the torso. A bigger piece would be corroded but not the whole suit
17:16
Finding out what those tracks are made of would be an important story piece, because they’re completely untouched.
Also, using non-metallic materials for armor would really mix things up, potentially tying in the subject of more armor variations from another video.
So Thorin Oakenshield had the right idea for defense?
The chad knight in full plate looks down the long cave.
He sees a pair of eyes staring back at him.
It is a rust monster.
The chad is not a chad.
He is merely a scared little beta.
there is no escape.
O _ O
I was really looking forward to this one. There is however an odd detail on the wikis mentioning how rust monsters might actually be the larva forms of rust dragons from Acheron. I was waiting for you to talk about it, but thank you regardless for this information.
Rust monsters are the most adorable companions ever, also my Warforged fighter named Rust has an intense fear of them
Love your videos man, it was because of your videos that I started to get interested in D&D. By the way can you do a video on the Lady of Pain? I think she is very interesting and mysterious. Keep up the good work, your passion is really inspiring!!!
When I was a kid I had the plastic monsters that Gygax based the Rust Monster, the Owlbear and others off of. LOL.
You never cease to amaze, man. Thank you.
I love the idea of this. Load up some glass jars with its good and a single metal arrow head. And then throw them at heavily armoured enemies as sudo grenades to destroy their AC characteristic.
I'm a huge fan of the Rust Lord.. a beefed up version of the rust monster that rips the iron from blood and deals con damage along with it's normal rusting effects.
Wonderful video, love this content. One question could you cover the Mephit next time?
I really like this suggestion.
throwing some support for Mephits
I was wondering if there was enough unknown content for a video on Goliaths, I would really like to know if there has been a crazy event that involved a Goliath or an in-depth character and culture breakdown would be awesome
Omg I have been asking for this so long yes love it. My favorite monster
Back in the 90s I made a rust monster with a rust breath weapon. The party who were getting too big for their britches laughed the the monster until he sprayed his rust breath. Then they were like oh crap!
The other fun would be giving it a Damage Resistance to its carapace, but the Damage resistance is weak to metal weapons. So the fighter that put their greatsword aside and is trying to damage it with a club doing d4 (plus Strength bonus), but the Rust Monster has DR 5. So do you keep hitting it with a wooden stick, or do you sacrifice your metal weapons to hurt it?
13:25 I just think the bacterio would consume your blood iron unless you actually eat metal. And then I imagine the bacteria symbiotically giving you an iron outer shell for protection, expreading the iron through you body if you eat enough, but giving more and more hunger - eventually turning you into an iron devourer monster.
Also, if they make their way to the plane of Acheron, which is composed of massive floating iron cubes, they can eventually develop into a Rust Dragon.
what would be cool to see is a book/pdf for ALL adventure modules... with conversions for each d&d version... ie, temple of elemental evil has not been seen/redone for quite a while now.... maybe even a what they don't tell you series for some of these adventures.....
Would have loved to hear your opinion on Rust Monster vs Iron Golem/Automaton
Iron Golem is magical, and therefore immune to the rust monster.
Dragon Magazine #88 has an "Ecology of the Rust Monster" article says:
Large enchanted objects (such as an iron golem) get a saving throw vs. petrification at +1 to avoid the rusting effect. An iron golem striking a rust monster would do 4-40 points of damage, perhaps killing the creature - but if a golem carrying an edged weapon struck the antennae or the body of the rust monster with its blade and not with a crushing blow from its fist (the golem is unintelligent and does not choose its attack mode deliberately), the golem would begin to corrode immediately and would collapse into a mound of rust at the end of the following round. During this second round, the iron golem can move only 3" without toppling, and it will do only half damage on any attack.
I think one of the biggest gripes I heard from detractors of 5E was that gold was pointless you "didn't have anything to buy" Glad you made the magic items pdf so that which was available in editions of yore is now available again.
the reason rust baby follows their parents are proberly to eat the po, as that is how colla bear gets the ability to eat ecolyptus
We had a dungeon master who refused to give us ANY equipment and when he did we had an encounter with a rusty... we had a rule that we could have a secret action writen in a card that would be stored for latter use. The terror in the dms face when i finaly revealed the card in a battle agains a group of evil well equiped warriors that would have captured us if it was not for the card with the cursed inscription "i remove a antena and use preserve organ in it. Every day i will renew the spell. I keep it in a cloth bag by my waist"
Imagine you made a wish that spawned a rust monster into mechanis, turning it into candyland
2:41 to skip the advertisement
9:00 Things generally don't burst when you hit them hard. If you've ever hit a deer with your car you'd have first hand experience. critters aren't full of explosives by default.
When Mr rexx uploads I click the notification and stop what I'm doing.
MrRhexx... Was binge-watching your back videos and you did several videos on Mind Flayers and after 2 videos, you said you: "Haven't even covered the Elder Brain yet, for the next video." I don't see a 3rd Mind Flayer video, or an Elder Brain titled video??? Did you ever make it? If so, which video?
Great video on the Rust monsters!
Thx!
"ooo....gourmet buffet!!" sqees the rust beasts, whenever they see high grade armour.
Keep in mind something's AC is not just how tough its armor is. An Ankylosaurus has an AC of 15, which is only 1 point higher than this. Moving in a way that minimizes injury is just as important as actually stopping an incoming attack.
Hey MrRhexx. That new PDF on magic items, the enchanting rules. So if a player wants to enchant an item, all they need is the gp value, but they do not need to know a specific spell to enchant upon the item?
Also, if they get big enough, they metamorph into rust dragons (still not dragons, they just look draconic). Strangely, these are only found on the plane of Archeron and no one really knows why.
Probably because the only solid surfaces in Acheron are the 4 giant perpetual iron cubes that float around and slam into each other.
All the iron they could ever want, and it grows back presumably.
I love your listening/watching your videos, could you have a look into Kalashtar or Quori / The Realm of Dreams. No one had a proper video on this yet in my opinion!
Keep up the very enjoyable work ;)
Rather than just monsters would love to see influential characters covered in the realms, locations, key events like time of troubles or organisations
I love these creatures in game. I always ignore the solitary tag, and do groups of 4-6, make them “prefer” ferrous and they become a more respectable menace
Live birth is interesting, but I’m interested in using rust monster eggs, they seem like the perfect gift for a thief happy party.
*druid in darkwood armor with a darkwood shield and sword*
"You underestimate my power."
I’m not too well-versed in D&D lore, but rust monsters were like the only “hidden” creature I recognized in DnD:HaT.
Do Shadows. I’d love a compilation of Shadow lore from previous editions
Weaponizing the blood is very cool.
DM: You strike the rust monster, fighter. Its blood splatters everywhere as you kill it.
Player: I cast Heat Metal on the fighter's plate armour.
DM and fighter: Wait what, why?
Players that watch MrRhexx know.
That is why i like having Bronze Plate mail, it is unaffected my Rust Monsters, and is only 1 AC lower than normal plate mail! I have cut the feelers off a Rust Monster and stored it in a bottle to use later!
i can't stop imagining a underground city of dwarfs where their mines have being plaguege by those creatures, and when upon a siege the dwafs feed thenselfs from the creature meat being able to survive years eating metal!
Cool side-story: A bored or mad mage teleports a dozen of Rust Monsters to Mechanus....and Chaos!
Oh no a pack of rust monsters are rushing us! What should we do?!
*throws bag of ball bearing*
*game of hungry hungry rust monsters begins*
I never miss your content!