For those who want to check out some of the research I did for this video on their psychology and social structure en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empathising%E2%80%93systemising_theory
Thanks for this i have wanted to play a grell in a cloak l. He just says he's a aracocra that has suffers horrible burn injuries and dosent want to be seen
The grell are such a deeply unusual monster. I at first suspected them in some way related to intellect devourers, they no doubt share a great deal with their design process, but their lore seems somewhat unrelated.
In my last campaign I used a Grell as the brood mother of a hive of wild intellect devourers that were infesting a portal nexus deep in the underdark the look on my players faces when I described the grell hovering/climbing down out of the hole in the ceiling in the second round of combat was priceless
I remember when I first got into D&D back in the early 2000s, the grell and the carrion crawler both freaked me out. So bizarre and grotesque, ugly things that come wriggling and squirming out of the dark.
18:10 "...they can be fully blinded if this is accompanied by an extremely loud noise which also knocks out their hearing..." [Hollyphant with glowing red eyes.jpg]
as we're dealing with insanity here... 1) change the Ilithid's mouth from that of a lamprey to that of a squid; 2) make the Grell a parallel society within an Elder Brain colony; 3) sometimes, an Elder Brain that was touched by the Far Realms decides that it will promote a tadpole from that to a baby Grell, which flees the pool & becomes like a pet to the Mind Flayers; 4) the independent thought of the Grells helps the hive-minded Ilithids to develop, while the Philosophers serve the Patriarch, which is the Elder Brain.
I don't know if it is new or not, but I am just now realizing that the intro image of AJ in a study has pages of the Draconomicon laid out like a scroll on the desk in the study, the pages depicting Gold and Silver Dragons in flight (from below). Ridiculous detail and I love it.
The Flesh Dimension kind of sounds like other world in Silent Hill. Honestly I've had a concept for Silent Hill's other would in DnD what I call the Fleshvale, it's like the Shadowvale that reflects the prime world but covers things in flesh and mutations that reflect the people around them. Fleshvale would be the place where Prime and Flesh dimensions meet. So it possible to travel into the Fleshvale then travel from there into the Flesh dimension. I also have concepts for things like Icevale and Firevale. Firevale for example is a place where Prime and Fire planes meet looks like the Prime dimension but on everything you know is on fire or fire warped and people have like fire shadows of themselves turning into a genasi clone once someone crosses into the Firevale.
I'm running the tearing of the weave right now, but with 5e rules. The next session is going to be the lizardfolk attack that includes a grell. So, perfection in timing.
Can't wait to watch this! When I opened a monter manual for the very first time I saw the Grell and just about lost my mind, and looking at the stat block saw that they weren't just mindless beasts and actually spoke their own language and lost my mind again. Idk why but reading about this creature alone got me so pumped to run a dnd game for my friends for the first time
I have never been interested in Spelljammer but all the kernels of lore you have in you videos has me rethinking. Thanks do much for your awesome channel.
When I think of Grell I think of deadly creature combos. An elite Grell Philosopher which utilizes a pair of Far Realm-corrupted Darkmantel as "hunting companions" could be a brutal combatant in the proper setting. The Darkmantel keep the surrounding area magically dark and...eerie, then the Grell springs from the deepest shadows to grab the nearest player and drags them off into a corner to flay the paralyzed victim at their leisure. Since both can float/fly the Grell would also be smart enough to ambush in locations with pits so the players have a chance to fall to their deaths' in the magical dark without the Grell having to even lift a barbed tentacle.
My idea on grell reproduction is the patriarch simply fuses with the chosen mate. This causes strange cysts to develop which eventually become eggs that are deposited at the grell's discretion. The chosen grell gains status as such so of course they accept. And the very direct and business like manner of it suits the grell.
Watched this video yesteray night. Even today it's creeving me to say: "Thank you so much for redoing the old (er) core creature videos!! This one was an informative pleasure!"
Since grell operate according to enlightened self interest, are betrayals among grell common? Example, a grell philosopher decides that the best interest of itself and therefore the colony is getting rid of rival grell philosophyer?
Upside of looking at the far realm: +1 wis/int because reality seems simple in comparison Downside: -2 dex because you can't shake the feeling you have 6 arms and everything is 3.1415926535 inches to the left of where it should be.
Concept: an ambidextrous grell equipped with a flail, spell sling, and spear with the ability to use them proficiently simultaneously multitasking while articulating it's hunt.
I really love aberrations their weirdness also makes them so Fascinating to learn about even if most of them are Pure evil thanks for making this Video AJ.
i absolutely want to use these weird alien horrors in my games, and I would like to use them as the weird technologically advanced alien species who are just so foreign that they simply appear monstrous to anyone with a typical humanoid mindset. What might happen when someone tries to detect the thoughts of a grell or communicate telepathically with them? Who knows! Also, a bit off topic, but I have been reading some of the forgotten realms novels and I was wondering if you could do a video one of these days about the Chosen of the gods? I know that the Chosen of Mystra manifest spellfire and other metamagic-like abilities, and the chosen of Asmodeus manifest something weird powers like a fear aura, fire immunity, and a sorta prototype pact of the chain type connection to the hells, but other abilities of the other gods are pretty vague? What exactly makes a Chosen special?
I once had a party member grabbed out of a boat on the Darklake by a grell, nearly carried off into the "sky." She was saved when some ranged spell damage gave her advantage on the grapple check after the paladin tried, uh, *standing up in the prow and throwing his mace at it.*
Hey AJ, great video! Love the old school picture of the Grell. They seem so advanced in some areas and so primitive in other areas at the same time. It's like they are trapped in their own hell. Cursed to endlessly search for long forgotten knowledge. Thanks AJ you have a wonderful day!
Great video AJ! Though it is currently on hiatus, I have a campaign that features a grell laboratory beneath a major city. I even adapted the 'Grell Alchemy' feat from Lords of Madness (probably my favorite sourcebook)
I love when you bring back monsters I read about in the 2E days but hearing all your deep lore makes me realize how teenage mutant dm me used them so underwhelmingly lol
in my setting grell are living neurons sending back messages to their godlike projenator in the Far realm. Though by themselves not super intelligent everything they encounter inadvertently feeds their patron with knowldege.
@@lelduck6388 ....and unlike the Illithids they don't have the excuse about brain matter being the only thing they can consume, which means they are being nasty by choice.
Great video, AJ! I've been working on a 5e scifi-fantasy space travel setting for the past few months that is heavily influenced by your videos on the Draeden, Slaadi, and other alien-like monsters of the D&D multiverse. Thanks for all that you do. Your videos have been and continue to be very inspiring... and they just keep getting better!
Looks like it can strangle a person then bite their head right off their body how horrific how terrifying why do these exist and how do we get rid of them
Your original Grell video was a great resource when I was trying to come up with a new challenge for my group a few months back. Now I'm thinking it's time to reintroduce them with some intelligence and weapons. Thanks as always.
I much prefer the green coloration for these monsters and really like the thought of them being essentially a bacteria. I can't find anywhere about grell being green other than the beginning of this video. Where did you find that about them?
Regarding the history of GW and D&D, it's fairly well known that the shop was started as a means to distribute all ttrpgs and that they manufactured minis for a lot of different games and built their wargames around them. I bring this up because just like the vrock to the changer of ways, they seemed to shift the grell to the enslavers from what little art appears of the enslavers.
@@BasedBroad it's actually a really neat era of GW and you can find some old 80's, maybe late 70's interviews with them on RUclips. They used to make the Judge Dredd and Doctor Who games back then. Have fun learning about nerd history, very fun deep dive.
Bizarre. I was literally just brushing up on my draeden lore, like five minutes ago. Then saw this posted. I’ve heard your take on grell before, but I did _not_ expect this level of serendipity tonight lol. Verrrrry unsettling.
@@AJPickett oh shit, speaking of mr kenreck; what do you think of his new creation and very good boy, the Bagman? I know it’s a totally brand new creature as of Van Richtens guide, and thus there is not much more out there to be had on it, but i would love to see your take on it, I know damn well you could expand on what’s available already most sastisfactorily. Especially because I’ve listened to the episode you made ages back in which were discussed your very own sort of bag of holding inhabitants/internal planes etc. (almost makes me wonder if he and Meghan took some inspiration from you? I’m sure he knows of your channel...) in fact when I first saw the Bagman and read a little about what he was, I immediately thought of you and that video from what feels like so long ago now. I know I certainly borrowed some concepts from you on that for my players, which ended up disrupting everything most spectacularly. =] butnyeah. If you’re inclined to do a video on the Bagman I’d love to see it. I’m not on your patron just yet, although i did throw in for your kickstarter. I did it without requesting you send me any of the products because I just wanted to help without draining your resources, but I’m now regretting my decision in retrospect because they look dope...so maybe that counts as an acceptable substitute for a patreon request? Please please please don’t feel pressured to do a whole video on it, it’s absolutely not necessary. You’re a busy man these days, and your time is worth a great deal, I should think. Should be. It is to me at least. I must voice that this is not meant to be construed as an attempt at leveraging you for anything, in fact I feel somewhat awkward for even mentioning the Kickstarter thing, but I do want you to know that I appreciate you and what you do enough to feel a compelling urge to contribute. I’d be more than happy to just chat with you about it via email or something if that would alleviate any time shortages you may be experiencing. if you do happen to find that you have the time and interest to do so, it would be lovely, but if not I’ll be just as happy with whatever content you release. =]
I see no reason why they couldn't, I don't recall seeing anything in print... there may be issues with most grells not reaching high enough level in wizardry or divine casting to perform the ritual themselves, but, that's just a technical issue.
Becoming undead would not really be inline with Grell psychology. For example, Grell are tool users, and use their alchemy to create Lightning Lances and things like Grell crystal barriers and doors, but Grell actually spend very little effort to build or improve their lairs - they just move into some old ruins or caves they find, don't bother with making any changes except for specific practical needs, and whatever loot they have just gets left wherever it lies on the ground. A Grell's identity is "hungry". A Grell wouldn't even want to become undead because ... undead don't eat. Why would a Grell work fervently to give up its primary identity? Grell aren't personally ambitious. When in a colony, they participate in group decision-making where the Patriarch's voice has more sway but the Patriarch isn't a dictator. The colony concerns itself with survival and with eating. When feral i.e. not in a colony, Grell are simply lone-hunters, they definitely aren't off in some tower doing arcane research. Grell are a fairly easy opponent for DM's to manage. Not too complicated - trying to run an Aboleth can be HARD, because of Aboleth intelligence and motivations - but Grell are interesting and definitely threatening enough to keep players on their toes. A Grell colony can destroy village after village until a group of adventurers gets in there to properly clean them out. It turns out that right at this moment I am running a party in a moderate-sized arc to deal with an encroaching Grell colony, in a 3.5 campaign. Grell provide great core combat experiences including opponent spellcasters, but pretty much zero opportunity for any social resolutions, and their tremorsense totally nerfs stealth attempts by the party - it's basically march on in and smash, not much chance for the party to do very much that is subtle.
Thought popped into my head when you were talking about how they fly. Would buoyant creatures like Grell, Flumphs, and Beholders be sent “falling” even faster by spells that reverse gravity? Figure they’re floating by acting against gravity as it normally is, so to have that suddenly flipped would leave have their buoyancy forcing them in the same new gravitational direction, right?
It has occurred to me that you seem to have a frightening interest in krang,as you have mentioned it in many of your recent videos. Don't think that hasn't gone unnoticed, and with your strong inclination toward Palladium games, and in particular the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles role playing game, I'm starting to wonder.... is AJ Pickett, in fact....KRANG???#rockthedrome
Delightful, well worded, informative, information dump xD. Already had too losten to twice, maybe a third time is due xD. Thank you for the obvious love and hard work on this video xx.
Another monster I have used a few times (and have a funny story about a Gnome who turned into one to save her party). One monster I would like to see more of that I think don't get enough attention is the Ethergaunt.
The biggest danger to a DM who chooses to run Grell is that your players WILL get one and probably multiple Lightning Lances, and your players WILL eventually have a good enough ability to activate those devices reliably. With 5/day uses each, that DPS will simply become part of the party's standard power. It at-will 3D6 ranged touch attack sounds overpowered for your party, then be very careful.
@@mikewaterfield3599 Sure, a DM can cheese-it and just prevent the party from getting the item: "As the Grell dies, it loses its grip on the Lance, and when the Lance touches the ground, it melts away into nothing." At which point your player's just groan at you, because they know what's up. If that's what you are going to do, then don't even have the Grell have Lances. Just give them innate 5/day ranged touch lightning attacks as an SLA. At least then the players won't groan at you.
@@AJPickett As long as the DM does that BEFORE the party casts Identify and finds from the description that it is 5/day. But if you didn't think ahead, and you gave them a 5/day item, then you are in the position of ... needing to take it away from them? You can never take an item away from the party, that is just the cheapest move and the players see right thru you. Hence my recommendation to "be careful" in regards to their Lances.
One of the very first monsters I came across before I even played D&D. Such a classic! Hope we see it with the far realm mentions with Call of the Netherdeep
An old DM of mine had a mad wizard mess around with Grell and Intellect Devourers. To make a long story short, he made Grell that could do the "brain replacement" thing that Intellect Devourers could do. But it didn't work quite right, because grell are so much bigger than our skulls theyd teleport in and immediately pop the head of the poor victim. I lost a good character to that. And I'm frankly still kinda salty.
Sweet Jesus a phlogiston Ramjet! Well that's going to get abused. I need some dwarfs, a couple gnomes, and some suicidal artificers. Let's make this puppy!
i just love strange alien looking lifeforms in D&D bring on the sci fi D&D the Grell to me look like the squid aliens from war of the worlds that drove the fighting machines with the heat ray weapons they used in battle with the humans of earth
For those who want to check out some of the research I did for this video on their psychology and social structure en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empathising%E2%80%93systemising_theory
I vastly prefer my personal system of
General Apothy-Strict Categorization
Greatly appreciated at this time of the evening (Brazil time).
@@lefu87williford55 There is no book for New Zealand, and yes, I am very, very familiar with the TMNT RPG :)
Thanks for this i have wanted to play a grell in a cloak l. He just says he's a aracocra that has suffers horrible burn injuries and dosent want to be seen
Imagine a group of grill patriarchs melding into something like an elder brain illithid! Great high level boss monster!
Draden are the type of creature that makes me love spelljammer
The grell are such a deeply unusual monster. I at first suspected them in some way related to intellect devourers, they no doubt share a great deal with their design process, but their lore seems somewhat unrelated.
In my last campaign I used a Grell as the brood mother of a hive of wild intellect devourers that were infesting a portal nexus deep in the underdark the look on my players faces when I described the grell hovering/climbing down out of the hole in the ceiling in the second round of combat was priceless
Beautiful.
perfect timing! was just about to lay down and wanted something to watch before.
Me too ha!!
Sweet dreams
Word
To lay what down?
AJ Carries me to sleep every night
Yay! New AJ video!
ya love to see it!
I’m loving the remakes AJ
I remember when I first got into D&D back in the early 2000s, the grell and the carrion crawler both freaked me out. So bizarre and grotesque, ugly things that come wriggling and squirming out of the dark.
Hey, fancy seeing you here
Perfect timing just got off work! Just drinking a beer while I warm up from this frigid Alaskan day.
Every time I see one of these I think "Eldritch Turkeys?"
LSD: It's all fun and games until you p^ss off the flying tentacle turkeys.
More on the flesh realms please. I love that stuff.
seconded
The Grell art has always given me the creeps lol such a disturbing monster
Oh hell yea and updated monster vid!
18:10 "...they can be fully blinded if this is accompanied by an extremely loud noise which also knocks out their hearing..."
[Hollyphant with glowing red eyes.jpg]
Given the look of the Grell this is a great video for late October.
as we're dealing with insanity here...
1) change the Ilithid's mouth from that of a lamprey to that of a squid;
2) make the Grell a parallel society within an Elder Brain colony;
3) sometimes, an Elder Brain that was touched by the Far Realms decides that it will promote a tadpole from that to a baby Grell, which flees the pool & becomes like a pet to the Mind Flayers;
4) the independent thought of the Grells helps the hive-minded Ilithids to develop, while the Philosophers serve the Patriarch, which is the Elder Brain.
I find the Grell to be a very under appreciated monster. They’re effectively the Martians from War of the Worlds.
Yes I held off on this one and now I got two this morning before bed. This is cool thanks for making all these cool videos.
I don't know if it is new or not, but I am just now realizing that the intro image of AJ in a study has pages of the Draconomicon laid out like a scroll on the desk in the study, the pages depicting Gold and Silver Dragons in flight (from below). Ridiculous detail and I love it.
The Flesh Dimension kind of sounds like other world in Silent Hill. Honestly I've had a concept for Silent Hill's other would in DnD what I call the Fleshvale, it's like the Shadowvale that reflects the prime world but covers things in flesh and mutations that reflect the people around them. Fleshvale would be the place where Prime and Flesh dimensions meet. So it possible to travel into the Fleshvale then travel from there into the Flesh dimension. I also have concepts for things like Icevale and Firevale. Firevale for example is a place where Prime and Fire planes meet looks like the Prime dimension but on everything you know is on fire or fire warped and people have like fire shadows of themselves turning into a genasi clone once someone crosses into the Firevale.
Flesh genasi..
Loving these remastered videos. Had no idea grells were like a proper race and not just monsters
I'm running the tearing of the weave right now, but with 5e rules. The next session is going to be the lizardfolk attack that includes a grell. So, perfection in timing.
You give the most vivid, vibrant descriptions of the Far Realm that I've ever heard/read and I am absolutely *here for it*. 👍
Can't wait to watch this! When I opened a monter manual for the very first time I saw the Grell and just about lost my mind, and looking at the stat block saw that they weren't just mindless beasts and actually spoke their own language and lost my mind again. Idk why but reading about this creature alone got me so pumped to run a dnd game for my friends for the first time
I have never been interested in Spelljammer but all the kernels of lore you have in you videos has me rethinking. Thanks do much for your awesome channel.
Love those flesh realms ever since first seeing them on Ren & Stimpy during the space episodes. Thanks again.
AJ has posted!!! Praise the God's!!!
"lore-wise their top speed is twice that"
AKA the dash action
More or less, yeah, they must spend an entire move action before they can make a dash action the following round... how's that?
When I think of Grell I think of deadly creature combos. An elite Grell Philosopher which utilizes a pair of Far Realm-corrupted Darkmantel as "hunting companions" could be a brutal combatant in the proper setting. The Darkmantel keep the surrounding area magically dark and...eerie, then the Grell springs from the deepest shadows to grab the nearest player and drags them off into a corner to flay the paralyzed victim at their leisure. Since both can float/fly the Grell would also be smart enough to ambush in locations with pits so the players have a chance to fall to their deaths' in the magical dark without the Grell having to even lift a barbed tentacle.
My idea on grell reproduction is the patriarch simply fuses with the chosen mate. This causes strange cysts to develop which eventually become eggs that are deposited at the grell's discretion. The chosen grell gains status as such so of course they accept. And the very direct and business like manner of it suits the grell.
Makes sense.
Great, I guess the Mind flayer wasn't enough. Now we have another squid abomination.
Watched this video yesteray night.
Even today it's creeving me to say: "Thank you so much for redoing the old (er) core creature videos!! This one was an informative pleasure!"
Yay! Something to watch while cooking!
These things scared me as an adolescent in the early 90's looking at the old D&D books.
Since grell operate according to enlightened self interest, are betrayals among grell common? Example, a grell philosopher decides that the best interest of itself and therefore the colony is getting rid of rival grell philosophyer?
Yes, and no, those in positions of authority who become weak are taken out by those under them, and yet, grell colonies make decisions by consensus.
Upside of looking at the far realm: +1 wis/int because reality seems simple in comparison
Downside: -2 dex because you can't shake the feeling you have 6 arms and everything is 3.1415926535 inches to the left of where it should be.
Excellent video AJ, and congratulations on the subs!
These are the kooky looking monsters from old DND I love to see!
Concept: an ambidextrous grell equipped with a flail, spell sling, and spear with the ability to use them proficiently simultaneously multitasking while articulating it's hunt.
I really love aberrations their weirdness also makes them so Fascinating to learn about even if most of them are Pure evil thanks for making this Video AJ.
i absolutely want to use these weird alien horrors in my games, and I would like to use them as the weird technologically advanced alien species who are just so foreign that they simply appear monstrous to anyone with a typical humanoid mindset. What might happen when someone tries to detect the thoughts of a grell or communicate telepathically with them? Who knows!
Also, a bit off topic, but I have been reading some of the forgotten realms novels and I was wondering if you could do a video one of these days about the Chosen of the gods? I know that the Chosen of Mystra manifest spellfire and other metamagic-like abilities, and the chosen of Asmodeus manifest something weird powers like a fear aura, fire immunity, and a sorta prototype pact of the chain type connection to the hells, but other abilities of the other gods are pretty vague? What exactly makes a Chosen special?
Your voice is very soothing. Excellent nerdy content to wind down to c:
Haha, In my head, if these things spoke common, I gave them the voice of Krang from TMNT then you said it😂🍿❤️
Would such a creature with the celestial template be the Holy Grell?
I see 4th dimensional abberations as an opertunity to add wacky colours
I once had a party member grabbed out of a boat on the Darklake by a grell, nearly carried off into the "sky." She was saved when some ranged spell damage gave her advantage on the grapple check after the paladin tried, uh, *standing up in the prow and throwing his mace at it.*
I wanna do a 40k game if D&D but I’d be afraid of GW storming my table and suing me XP
Hey AJ, great video! Love the old school picture of the Grell. They seem so advanced in some areas and so primitive in other areas at the same time. It's like they are trapped in their own hell. Cursed to endlessly search for long forgotten knowledge.
Thanks AJ you have a wonderful day!
Fantastic video!
I assume they were mind flayer experiments and pass over them in the Monster Manual. Good to know they are their own thing.
Gratz on 100k, on to a million!
I swear the second d&d has a revival this channel explodes :-)
The environment described at three minute mark sounds like Geiger-Matrix.. Disgusting, I love it!
So the predators in the far realms are like white blood cells?
Yep
I hardly use aberrations in my games, but occasionally I say "Oh what the Grell"
Just found your channel. Love it!!
Welcome!
Oh a classic monster! Love it.
Great video AJ!
Though it is currently on hiatus, I have a campaign that features a grell laboratory beneath a major city. I even adapted the 'Grell Alchemy' feat from Lords of Madness (probably my favorite sourcebook)
I love when you bring back monsters I read about in the 2E days but hearing all your deep lore makes me realize how teenage mutant dm me used them so underwhelmingly lol
There are strange creatures in these far realms, I even saw a human... once
terrifying things those humans
Meanwhile, Kaorti exist.
in my setting grell are living neurons sending back messages to their godlike projenator in the Far realm. Though by themselves not super intelligent everything they encounter inadvertently feeds their patron with knowldege.
Great concept!
Clear audio good picture quality
Superb as always!! I missed not having the story/first person style though, you've spoiled us!
Awesome video AJ
I can't believe your almost to 100k.
they dont sound so evil they just trying to get by every day as a grell
They eat people
@@lelduck6388 ....and unlike the Illithids they don't have the excuse about brain matter being the only thing they can consume, which means they are being nasty by choice.
Great video, AJ! I've been working on a 5e scifi-fantasy space travel setting for the past few months that is heavily influenced by your videos on the Draeden, Slaadi, and other alien-like monsters of the D&D multiverse. Thanks for all that you do. Your videos have been and continue to be very inspiring... and they just keep getting better!
You are so close to 100k subs, congrats ahead of time.
Thank you for your craft.
Looks like it can strangle a person then bite their head right off their body how horrific how terrifying why do these exist and how do we get rid of them
Nightmarishly Nasty! 😲
Great Work Mr A J Sir,
I'll never sleep again! 😁
Carrion Crawler (green version) is another super alien looking monster
Just as I was looking to unleash fresh hell on my players. Cheers AJ 🍻
Your original Grell video was a great resource when I was trying to come up with a new challenge for my group a few months back. Now I'm thinking it's time to reintroduce them with some intelligence and weapons.
Thanks as always.
Always looking forward to this
[Glitch inserted into code here] We Hunger for the Rich
Motorcycle revs
How about a fleet of Grell Charity, What comes from on High?
You mean Solid Flood Stealth Death Stars? By Job, (note, auto correct swaps Jov for Job) I may have discovered the Vashta Nerata!
Dude, stop. You sound crazy talking to ourselves
I much prefer the green coloration for these monsters and really like the thought of them being essentially a bacteria. I can't find anywhere about grell being green other than the beginning of this video. Where did you find that about them?
Probably my favourite D&D brain monster 🧠
Intellect devourers are maybe my third fav, but... elder brain baby, all day.
Regarding the history of GW and D&D, it's fairly well known that the shop was started as a means to distribute all ttrpgs and that they manufactured minis for a lot of different games and built their wargames around them. I bring this up because just like the vrock to the changer of ways, they seemed to shift the grell to the enslavers from what little art appears of the enslavers.
damn, Warhammer has been with me since I was a kid while D&d is pretty recent for me, so this is very interesting
@@BasedBroad it's actually a really neat era of GW and you can find some old 80's, maybe late 70's interviews with them on RUclips. They used to make the Judge Dredd and Doctor Who games back then. Have fun learning about nerd history, very fun deep dive.
Bizarre. I was literally just brushing up on my draeden lore, like five minutes ago. Then saw this posted. I’ve heard your take on grell before, but I did _not_ expect this level of serendipity tonight lol. Verrrrry unsettling.
Ah, you have experienced a brush with the zeitgeist of D&D.
@@AJPickett hahaha indeed.
@@AJPickett wait, you mean Todd Kenreck? No, I don’t think he was in my trailer.....I feel like I would have noticed.. 😏
@@kadoj oh I do think Todd's plugged into it, just maybe not this time 😉
@@AJPickett oh shit, speaking of mr kenreck; what do you think of his new creation and very good boy, the Bagman? I know it’s a totally brand new creature as of Van Richtens guide, and thus there is not much more out there to be had on it, but i would love to see your take on it, I know damn well you could expand on what’s available already most sastisfactorily. Especially because I’ve listened to the episode you made ages back in which were discussed your very own sort of bag of holding inhabitants/internal planes etc. (almost makes me wonder if he and Meghan took some inspiration from you? I’m sure he knows of your channel...) in fact when I first saw the Bagman and read a little about what he was, I immediately thought of you and that video from what feels like so long ago now. I know I certainly borrowed some concepts from you on that for my players, which ended up disrupting everything most spectacularly. =] butnyeah. If you’re inclined to do a video on the Bagman I’d love to see it. I’m not on your patron just yet, although i did throw in for your kickstarter. I did it without requesting you send me any of the products because I just wanted to help without draining your resources, but I’m now regretting my decision in retrospect because they look dope...so maybe that counts as an acceptable substitute for a patreon request? Please please please don’t feel pressured to do a whole video on it, it’s absolutely not necessary. You’re a busy man these days, and your time is worth a great deal, I should think. Should be. It is to me at least. I must voice that this is not meant to be construed as an attempt at leveraging you for anything, in fact I feel somewhat awkward for even mentioning the Kickstarter thing, but I do want you to know that I appreciate you and what you do enough to feel a compelling urge to contribute. I’d be more than happy to just chat with you about it via email or something if that would alleviate any time shortages you may be experiencing. if you do happen to find that you have the time and interest to do so, it would be lovely, but if not I’ll be just as happy with whatever content you release. =]
Description of the drayden makes me think of xenoblade chronicles a bit, but even bigger
Have there ever been any documented cases of grell becoming liches?
I see no reason why they couldn't, I don't recall seeing anything in print... there may be issues with most grells not reaching high enough level in wizardry or divine casting to perform the ritual themselves, but, that's just a technical issue.
Becoming undead would not really be inline with Grell psychology. For example, Grell are tool users, and use their alchemy to create Lightning Lances and things like Grell crystal barriers and doors, but Grell actually spend very little effort to build or improve their lairs - they just move into some old ruins or caves they find, don't bother with making any changes except for specific practical needs, and whatever loot they have just gets left wherever it lies on the ground.
A Grell's identity is "hungry". A Grell wouldn't even want to become undead because ... undead don't eat. Why would a Grell work fervently to give up its primary identity?
Grell aren't personally ambitious. When in a colony, they participate in group decision-making where the Patriarch's voice has more sway but the Patriarch isn't a dictator. The colony concerns itself with survival and with eating. When feral i.e. not in a colony, Grell are simply lone-hunters, they definitely aren't off in some tower doing arcane research.
Grell are a fairly easy opponent for DM's to manage. Not too complicated - trying to run an Aboleth can be HARD, because of Aboleth intelligence and motivations - but Grell are interesting and definitely threatening enough to keep players on their toes. A Grell colony can destroy village after village until a group of adventurers gets in there to properly clean them out.
It turns out that right at this moment I am running a party in a moderate-sized arc to deal with an encroaching Grell colony, in a 3.5 campaign. Grell provide great core combat experiences including opponent spellcasters, but pretty much zero opportunity for any social resolutions, and their tremorsense totally nerfs stealth attempts by the party - it's basically march on in and smash, not much chance for the party to do very much that is subtle.
Thought popped into my head when you were talking about how they fly. Would buoyant creatures like Grell, Flumphs, and Beholders be sent “falling” even faster by spells that reverse gravity? Figure they’re floating by acting against gravity as it normally is, so to have that suddenly flipped would leave have their buoyancy forcing them in the same new gravitational direction, right?
Yeah, particularly Grell who are not very agile flyers.
It has occurred to me that you seem to have a frightening interest in krang,as you have mentioned it in many of your recent videos. Don't think that hasn't gone unnoticed, and with your strong inclination toward Palladium games, and in particular the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles role playing game, I'm starting to wonder.... is AJ Pickett, in fact....KRANG???#rockthedrome
Delightful, well worded, informative, information dump xD. Already had too losten to twice, maybe a third time is due xD. Thank you for the obvious love and hard work on this video xx.
Another monster I have used a few times (and have a funny story about a Gnome who turned into one to save her party). One monster I would like to see more of that I think don't get enough attention is the Ethergaunt.
Noted.
The biggest danger to a DM who chooses to run Grell is that your players WILL get one and probably multiple Lightning Lances, and your players WILL eventually have a good enough ability to activate those devices reliably. With 5/day uses each, that DPS will simply become part of the party's standard power.
It at-will 3D6 ranged touch attack sounds overpowered for your party, then be very careful.
Thats assuming a DM allows effective collection. Nothing quite like a mage attempting to collect beholder eye stalks and having things go…… wrong.
@@mikewaterfield3599 Sure, a DM can cheese-it and just prevent the party from getting the item: "As the Grell dies, it loses its grip on the Lance, and when the Lance touches the ground, it melts away into nothing."
At which point your player's just groan at you, because they know what's up.
If that's what you are going to do, then don't even have the Grell have Lances. Just give them innate 5/day ranged touch lightning attacks as an SLA. At least then the players won't groan at you.
@@dondumitru7093 or give them disposable bolts with a number of charges that doesn't replenish.
The DM never has to explain why the technology stops working, the player characters just think its some new-fangled kind of magic rod,
@@AJPickett As long as the DM does that BEFORE the party casts Identify and finds from the description that it is 5/day. But if you didn't think ahead, and you gave them a 5/day item, then you are in the position of ... needing to take it away from them? You can never take an item away from the party, that is just the cheapest move and the players see right thru you. Hence my recommendation to "be careful" in regards to their Lances.
hypothetically if you were to reincarnate in D&D what race would you choose and why?.
Gnome, long life span, great food and community, lots of stuff to study, can talk to animals, skilled with magic, not as delicious as Halflings.
@@AJPickett mountain dwarf for me
@@AJPickett Last one's probably a point more people should consider, but to which pallet?
Yay!
One of the very first monsters I came across before I even played D&D. Such a classic! Hope we see it with the far realm mentions with Call of the Netherdeep
An old DM of mine had a mad wizard mess around with Grell and Intellect Devourers. To make a long story short, he made Grell that could do the "brain replacement" thing that Intellect Devourers could do. But it didn't work quite right, because grell are so much bigger than our skulls theyd teleport in and immediately pop the head of the poor victim. I lost a good character to that. And I'm frankly still kinda salty.
I picked up on that :)
Nice work on the video & thanks for posting!
The humanoid form of the grell ship may be a result of an enslaved elemental or giant golem, you may notice that most of them are humanoid.
Yo that "flesh dimension" sounds like my kind of place.
His Far Realm descriptions are very good, and I find them quite inspiring.
Ever think of posting these as podcast episodes on Spotify/itunes?
I'm waiting for RUclips to expand it's music category that way Google AdSense would still operate.
Sweet Jesus a phlogiston Ramjet! Well that's going to get abused. I need some dwarfs, a couple gnomes, and some suicidal artificers. Let's make this puppy!
Literal bird brains
I was pretty sure the grell were getting a rewrite awsome A.J.
A classic
One of my all time fav monsters!
i just love strange alien looking lifeforms in D&D bring on the sci fi D&D the Grell to me look like the squid aliens from war of the worlds that drove the fighting machines with the heat ray weapons they used in battle with the humans of earth
Aka lovecraftian beak-brains.
Thanks.