Hey guys! Do PLEASE check out my new Monster Classes 5 on my website: mrrhexx.store/ There's lots of dope stuff in there as well! Thank you so much for the support Also, sorry for the constant peaking on the microphone - and the way too overhyped narration hahah. I was recently prescribed Adderall and this was my first recording with it 😓 i had way too much energy. Will do recordings in the future without it.
Honestly seeing you announce another monster classes book i jumped up and down like a little kid, thankyou so much for making these, iv always wanted to play a gnoll!
Ok idea for a beggining campaign, ankeg attacking a village, adventurers confront it in the tunnels, BUT the ankeg has grafted human parts in itslef and is in the process of cutting appart the villagers corpses. How is that for creativity?
I want to correct you on the Ankheg's vision. Two slashes ( " ) means inches, not feet - which is a single slash ( ' ). In old D&D distances were measured in inches for tactical combat. Each inch is 5 feet. So the vision is 30 ft, or 60 ft on daylight. Source: What I remember from my 1e days back in the 80s.
Correction- in AD&D the Ankhegs visions wasn't 12 feet, it was 12 INCHES. Distance in 1e was a carry over from wargaming and was expressed in inches. One inch was equal to 10 yards outside or 10 feet inside. So the original Ankheg actually had pretty good vision.
Yeah so underground or in darkness they have ultra vision of 180ft or 36 squares in 5e, and 360ft or 72 squares in open daylight…. Which is better than most creatures inDnD except for perhaps dragons
*Looks at Ankheg stat block and physiology* *Looks at Thri-kreen stat block and physiology* *Sudden urge to have insectoid knights charging at my players intensified*
@@gratuitouslurking8610There's nothing saying a Thri-kreen couldn't selectively breed a colony of Ankheg to be more intelligent, especially since Thri-kreen are slightly psionic.
Whoever wrote this definitely owned a tarantula. The moulting, breeding and conservation of venom which also acts as their digestion is just spot on. Although they also resemble vinegaroons in some ways.
@@LeDingueDeJeuxVideos what a worthless point tho. You can study tarantulas on your own but you can also be inspired by things you enjoy such as a pet you own, a show you watched etc. its possible the creator of the creature just randomly made this but its more possible they were inpired by something they like IRL. ALOT of dnd creatures were made that way.
6:12 That position is actually called "supine". Laying on the back. Prone is laying on the belly. So the monster manual is actually describing flipping the monster into a supine position in order to attack its belly, where the armor is weak.
@@AJPickett😂😂 I was going to ask if @matthewdickerson826 had heard of The Mighty Gluestick and then noticed your name. You and Mr. Rhexx are my go-to for lore and ecology.
Ankheg was the first monster I faced in D&D, about 25 years ago. The paladin rolled the lowest Moving Silently in the party and got attacked... and ended up dying. My friend (playing the paladin) had been using the character for a long time and went to cry in the toilet. That's when I realised how immersive RPG can be. [Our party was two Rogues, 1 Paladin, 1 Ranger (me)]
@@Grambo58Imoen just got gib by simply step on pebble, I’m not wasting my time on dead weight, bro, EVEN WITH HACK STILL GET HER GIB BY THE EXACT SAME PEBBLE, WHAT THE FUCK?????
I liked the animations for this episode a lot! Very nice combination of animated scenes to get visuals across along with static images for an impressive array of artwork.
My favorite Ankheg memory is when the PC's were hired by a circus to reclaim a stolen giant hamster from a clan of Kobolds that lived in the city sewers. Instead of attacking the kobold clan outright they decided to try and parlay and make some kind of exchange for the hamster. The kobold's leader said that if they could bring him a live war turtle to use as a mount he would give them the hamster. One of the kobold's guided them to where they could find the 'war turtles' and it was a nest of ankhegs! For several glorious rounds of combat the PC's scrambled to protect themselves from ankheg attacks without harming them while the ranger used a Ring of Animal Friendship to finally charm one of them, it took his very last charge to accomplish the feat. The kobold's were suitably impressed with their ankheg wrangling skills and turned over the hamster, but then their leader wanted to try out his new mount and the PCs had to fight him and his ankheg anyway, but his warriors refused to reneg on their deal and didn't fight the PCs, which left their boss to fight (and die) on his own. The kobolds then became uneasy allies to the party.
I've started many a campaign with a simple Ankheg fight. Sometimes it's just an ambush on the road, sometimes it's a main quest for a new party. One time the party arrived at the homestead of a farmer in response to a posting at the local inn's work board requesting hunters for a monster killing the livestock, and arrive to find the halfing farmer standing on the roof shouting at them to 'Get off the ground for the love of the gods!" Just as they noticed the funnel shaped, blood soaked hole next to the horse feeder beside them, it attacked.
"Hey there Mrs. Tiller, I'm Verrin Silverholt from Grigglak's Pest Control. I've got my Smoking Orb and some Turpentine here, and we're gonna go ahead and take care of that Ankheg problem for you."
If you played Baldur's Gate, then you remember these shits and their battle tactics. And the image at 3:50 is gonna give you flashbacks (Unless you waited until after Nashkel before doing that quest). *burrows behind you* "nothing personal, kid" *one-shots your character* I love them.
Oh, you mean the armored AND deadly gigantic ants that are basically at the start of the game and are ALSO, somehow, made out of concentrated gold and xp? Of course I remember man, I love'em. Killing them always felt like graduating from nobody into an actual adventurer.
@@allthatishereYup, could also craft a sweet suit of armor from their plate! Minsc certainly enjoyed the flexible joints when his righteous boot reached up for the bad guys' buttocks!
LETS GO!!! Whenever I get a notification for a new MrRhexx video, I'm immediately put into a better mood. This content is so good. I even showed my 60 year old mother your content before going to watch the Honor Amongst Thieves movie, and she said she understood the movie better because of it.
at 21:22 the text says "6 inches ultravision" but you say "6 feet ultravision" the 6 inches is measuring irl inches on a 1 inch battlemat so thats actually 30ft of ultravision in game
First comment? Anyway, before seeing the video, I want to share my 3.5e experience with them. We were a party of 3, meant to kill the adults and find the eggs in their hole (dude wanted the eggs, don't know why), I was a sorcerer with draconic feats from perfect arcana, we also had a druid and a warrior. We decided for what I thought was a good plan. Silence and distance with ranged weapons, so the fighter could engage. So, what happened. This thing can dig, we knew that, we also knew he was an ambush predator. What I thought it did, was come out of the ground and spit acid. Nope, not at all. It has the grappler feat for monsters with size large, that with str means +12 to grapple. So, he felt me on the ground (unlucky), Came out, grappled me and dealt damage. Hit dice is a d4, and I was lvl 2, so even with feats for hp in average I was on deaths door step. What insued was incredible. The fighter at lvl 2, with a +4 to grapple, used his movement and grappled the beast from behind. He manage to beat it. For a single round. Druid run for a round, while the fighter kept grappling the beast from behind. He started losing badly, but the creature had no way to bite him, so no grapple damage for now. We wacked each other for a round or 2, then that thing run away. Being an ambush predator and all. We were half dead at this point. We later killed it in his cave after stealing some of the eggs, and finding the dead body of another one half eaten. I wasted a spell slot on that fake body, because noone passed a 15 check to tell that it was dead. I also got spit in the face bit the other one. One the most dangerous sessions I ever experienced, and that same campaing we later fought a whole goblin village. For those wondering, village means goblins are in the hundreds, with different lvls for various roles (70% not fighter, those last 30 with a lvl 6-9 boss, multiple segeants lvl 3 and various lvl 1-2 combatant, also count in the wolfes and worges, they had a specialized militia with various roles). We were lvl 3. The lvl 6 goblin was a tribe boss, a class from the miniature manual. That thing could give +6 str at area, and he was accompanied by a cleric and a war-wizard. We never got to that point, campaign ended too soon, but al lvl 3 we fought one of the seargents. I got one shotted again, because we didn't check the whole area since we didn't have a ranger so he managed to sneak up to me in the middle of the fight, take me down and basically turn the fight on us. Then he escaped. This DM is wild. If we do something wrong, or we fail at something, someone is down. Last week, new adventure, we got almost creamted alive. He pulled out some loney toons lvl of stuff to give to 2 lvl 1 characters a chance against us, and in 2 lvl 3 we chased then for a whole city. It was totally fair and predictable, we just don't onow the game enought to be prepared and our builds aren't compensating for enought situations, but damn he is good and raising the stakes.
I love your content. I learned so much about dungeons and dragons. I started at fifth edition, and hearing the lore you spoke about in all of your videos just got me more and more interested, and now i'm addicted happily addicted lol years later and trying to get absolutely everyone to play!❤
You either got better at editing those vids or got yourself a good editor. Comparing your old and new videos is like night and day. Non theses the informations you convey are awesome as always keep it up man :D
15:06 Hmm mayby they need the enzymes in their acid to grow their new chitin, could also bee a cool thing to think they may use it to eat their old chitin and reclaim a small amount of nutrients and minerals from their old skin.
7:00 can't believe I've run these at least 4 times and only now realize that a player simply needs a way to remove 1 intelligence from the mob and you got an insta-"kill" ability. Especially considering it has 13 Wis, meaning you'd have to roll around 13-15 at the least to succeed against your player.
@MrRhexx I'm quite surprised that there wasn't a single mention of the Ankhegs Queens in the video. It's quite strange that you didn't include unique variants of these monsters as well.
For D&D 5e I find them great at lower levels, I'd like to see some stats like a "greater" Ankheg that could range in the CR 13 ish area. I could see with their exoskeleton that a greater Ankheg would have real high AC, much higher acid, claw and mandible damage, etc.
yoooooo this was just what I needed for a part of my next campaing, I love the big bug trope and the Ankheg took my atention when I seen it on the monster manual so this is just perfect at this time
I recently used the Ankhegs on a side quest in my campaign and it was pretty fun. In short they took over an old mine that some dwarfs decided to reopen and dig further, accidentally stumbling on an ankheg colony underground. It was pretty cool to run them because the whole thing turned like a horror episode of the players searching the mines in the dark for survivors, kill the queen and seal the tunnels.. all the while being ambushed by oversized insects comming from the walls and below. It gave of a Starcraft Zerg vibe but in medieval fantasy lol
I've always thought of gnolls as just another humanoid, so I was surprised by how much I like the gnoll class. Keep the monster classes coming. I hope you make a chromatic class and something inspired by Mimics next.
So, my brain decided to summarize ankhegs as large, burrowing acid spitting bug. Slight problem, they're not the only thing that fits that description, the other thing (that I know of) is kruthik hivelords... which kruthiks in general would be cool to have a video like this on, seeing as 5e doesn't mention kruthiks being the result of a tiefling civilization combining velociraptors with fiendish insects
Just found these "what they don't tell you about..." videos. Despite the weird accent of the author, these videos are quite good. Never understood why people don't post videos in their native tongues, but still, it sates my D&D curiosity. I've only played D&D video games, never the pen and paper. Favorite series is Eye of the Beholder 1 & 2. I've fought Ankhegs in Dungeon Hack (I think that's what they are) but they don't burrow into the ground. I'd love there to be more dungeon crawlers like EotB or using the Legend of Grimrock engine to make some good D&D games.
Glad to see Monster Classes 5! The earth elemental is so cool. Can you please make a fire elemental soon? I just started a campaign with two players who are using your monster classes (vampire and dragon), and I'm planning to give the vampire a chance way at the end of the campaign to make a deal with a fire god to become a fire elemental. I was gonna try to homebrew it myself based on fire genasi + a fire version of storm sorcerer, but I would love it if I could just hand her the fire elemental class pdf if she says yes! It'll probably take a couple years to get to that point, so no rush. 😊 No matter what you make next, I'm excited to see it!
I love this new intro and way of reading entries with text highlights, keep these changes if able please❤. Just in time for my players are now in the desert and the ranger guide needed some favors for being a guide...
Imagine a tribe of clever little kobolds making use of the free tunneling service that is the ankheg. All they need to do is reinforce it and try not to get in it's way too much. Then fall happens and massmurder ensues as the ankheg gets voracious in preparation for hibernating. Oops!
I can actually imagine some very clever kobolds taking advantage of ankhegs and their tunnels. A 5' tunnel could be annoying and cramped for a medium sized creature, but small kobolds?
This looks and feels like a good starting foe for a budding adventurer. Pretty simple, having a complex enough encounter and just tough enough that any level 1-3 character will have issues with alone.
One of my oldest characters in D&D has homebrew armor and weaponry made from the chitin and mandibles of an ankheg, so I’m hyped for this episode to see how I can flesh the details of that character out even more.
15:00 I like to think of the molting period like that of either a crustacean (crab or lobster) or dragon fly larva going airborne in it's adult form after pupating.
A fun quest line idea. After a previous ankheg attack, a vein of precious material is discovered within its tunnel. Now the town needs adventurers to protect the locals as they are turning the tunnel into a proper mine. Possible intrigues: The local who is leading the conversion is not very experienced but is working as hard as he can for the town's benefit (it's also on his land). The expert he wanted to hire would do so only if his company took a perceived exorbitant portion of all profit, so the local declined. That expert is now propositioning other elements within the town. Do the adventurers help the local or make deals with the other elements in town? A tunnel collapsed (sabotage or poor workmanship?), trapping most of the crew (local or hired) on the other side. What deals will be made so they will be rescued? Will those deals be honored? And how can the adventurers impede/help?
Actually reminded me of the quest we got in 1st town we visited after fleeing from Candle Keep in 1st Baldur's Gate game,, actually snooping around for hidden loot and doing this quest could get us 2 sets fo Ankheg plate armor, insanely good for how early in game we got it
One stunt I could see the Ankheg doing in winter would be 'burying' itself under some loose dirt in one of its tunnels. Its antennae can still sense visitors, and the burying will give them a slight advantage as any intruders won't notice the disturbed dirt as easily compared to a full-sized ankheg. Now a fun idea would be smarter ankhegs that set up lots of dirt along a tunnel, then bury itself under that loose dirt. If the players take time to examine all of the dirt, that will give the ankheg time to wake up fully. If the characters run forward to the end of the tunnel, then the characters have gone past the ankheg and are in a dead end. Even more fun is if the ankheg made a U-turn tunnel so the characters have to get within the tremorsense range while running down the tunnel. This gives the ankheg time to wake up before the characters get to the other part of the U-turn tunnel where the ankheg is located.
My druid once convinced an abused Ankheg mount to throw and devour its rider on promise of a home free of people beating it, and plentiful prey. Kept that promise, too.
I remember the only time I encountered ankhegs in DnD media was from a webnovel by a Chinese author, translated to english. Story was called Abyss Domination. It was a DnD story that followed a Rogue and was set in 3.5e. Really enjoyed that story but sadly translation efforts died out at some point.
I created a short, tutorial dungeon for new players or to see if a group is a good fit for me as GM. With the last version, I included an injured baby ankheg. The first group killed it mercilessly. The second group nursed it back to health and adopted it as the group pet. It even helped them defeat the boss. It nearly died in that fight, but they, again, nursed it back to health. The players really bonded with it. Warmed my heart.
The new book is awesome, though it caused me to notice we lack a movie on Gnolls! What are the odds we will see a Gnoll movie before the Sands of Doom release? 🙃
I can't help but notice this came out right after Helldivers 2. If you're playing I'd love to party up one day let's kill some bugs for the sake of managed democracy!
I havent played dnd for too long, but i was making a homebrew druid class based around bugs specifically. I made a modified version of the Ankheg for that the druid can turn into.
A dm moving/playing the enemies how they would act in universe would be amazing. the dm i used to play with always mysteriously had them spread out enough to make hitting 2 or more at once with a single spell really hard after i got access to good area effect spells. Kinda made my character a cantrip bot cause there was never anything worth using a spell slot on. meanwhile the arakokra fighter was dominating pretty much every combat encounter with their ridicules speed and the magic weapon they got.
Hey guys! Do PLEASE check out my new Monster Classes 5 on my website: mrrhexx.store/
There's lots of dope stuff in there as well! Thank you so much for the support
Also, sorry for the constant peaking on the microphone - and the way too overhyped narration hahah. I was recently prescribed Adderall and this was my first recording with it 😓 i had way too much energy. Will do recordings in the future without it.
You should make a vid on lesser known chromatic dragons like grey and purple dragons
Honestly seeing you announce another monster classes book i jumped up and down like a little kid, thankyou so much for making these, iv always wanted to play a gnoll!
Ok idea for a beggining campaign, ankeg attacking a village, adventurers confront it in the tunnels, BUT
the ankeg has grafted human parts in itslef and is in the process of cutting appart the villagers corpses.
How is that for creativity?
I want to correct you on the Ankheg's vision. Two slashes ( " ) means inches, not feet - which is a single slash ( ' ). In old D&D distances were measured in inches for tactical combat. Each inch is 5 feet. So the vision is 30 ft, or 60 ft on daylight. Source: What I remember from my 1e days back in the 80s.
@@POKEMONYAAYYYYYY254Check out dungeon dad,he did videos on all those and more plus made 5th edition stat blocks for them
Correction- in AD&D the Ankhegs visions wasn't 12 feet, it was 12 INCHES. Distance in 1e was a carry over from wargaming and was expressed in inches. One inch was equal to 10 yards outside or 10 feet inside. So the original Ankheg actually had pretty good vision.
Upvote. Good catch.
Yeah so underground or in darkness they have ultra vision of 180ft or 36 squares in 5e, and 360ft or 72 squares in open daylight…. Which is better than most creatures inDnD except for perhaps dragons
The ankheg is everything the bugbear advertises itself to be, it is a bug… the size and ferocity of a bear
Lol, nice.
*Looks at Ankheg stat block and physiology*
*Looks at Thri-kreen stat block and physiology*
*Sudden urge to have insectoid knights charging at my players intensified*
Dew it
oh this, I like this
The biggest issue with that would mostly be the ankheg's int score I think. It's too stupid to even train reliably.
@gratuitouslurking8610 thri-kreen are psionic, at least slightly. In theory they should be able to "calm" the ankhegs enough and direct them.
@@gratuitouslurking8610There's nothing saying a Thri-kreen couldn't selectively breed a colony of Ankheg to be more intelligent, especially since Thri-kreen are slightly psionic.
Whoever wrote this definitely owned a tarantula. The moulting, breeding and conservation of venom which also acts as their digestion is just spot on. Although they also resemble vinegaroons in some ways.
they deffinitly liked bugs
Yeah they couldn't have done research or anything
@@thomasshirley318 They can do both homie
@@Strawberrymilkdrinkthe point is you don't need to own a tarantula to know about tarantulas
@@LeDingueDeJeuxVideos what a worthless point tho. You can study tarantulas on your own but you can also be inspired by things you enjoy such as a pet you own, a show you watched etc. its possible the creator of the creature just randomly made this but its more possible they were inpired by something they like IRL. ALOT of dnd creatures were made that way.
6:12 That position is actually called "supine". Laying on the back. Prone is laying on the belly. So the monster manual is actually describing flipping the monster into a supine position in order to attack its belly, where the armor is weak.
I don't believe there's a supine condition in the 5e game rules
Best DND lore channel on RUclips fr.
Agreed
Seconded@@the-neko-warlock
Fr fr
@@AJPickett😂😂 I was going to ask if @matthewdickerson826 had heard of The Mighty Gluestick and then noticed your name. You and Mr. Rhexx are my go-to for lore and ecology.
I think Dungeon Dad is better than me as well, lol@@Chaz-zh3ge
Ankheg was the first monster I faced in D&D, about 25 years ago. The paladin rolled the lowest Moving Silently in the party and got attacked... and ended up dying. My friend (playing the paladin) had been using the character for a long time and went to cry in the toilet. That's when I realised how immersive RPG can be. [Our party was two Rogues, 1 Paladin, 1 Ranger (me)]
Every DM aspires to make a player cry.
Most important fact: They can give you a ton of xp if you go north before going to Beregost and the Nashkel mines
Not to mention a set of armour if you bring back the carapace :)
Fellow men of culture, I see. :)
@@migueldelmazo5244 There be safety in numbers, and I am two or three, at least!
You must gather your party before adventuring forth.
@@Grambo58Imoen just got gib by simply step on pebble, I’m not wasting my time on dead weight, bro, EVEN WITH HACK STILL GET HER GIB BY THE EXACT SAME PEBBLE, WHAT THE FUCK?????
Just a quick note Mr. Rhexx - 6" and 12" are 60 feet and 120 feet in 1st Edition D&D for indoors, 60 yards and 120 yards outdoors.
Came here to say this. 1" means one inch, but that was literally one inch on the tabletop, not in the world.
The 5e art always makes me think of a chunkier Hydralisk from Starcraft.
Some Zerg homebrew monsters would be cool now that I think about it.
The kruthik are basically zerg/starship troopers arachnids.
The time i ran ankhegs on my campaign i did use them like a zerg infestation on some mines, it was pretty memorable lol
The original Boulders Gate was my first encounter with one.
I have loved them ever since, they are just... well suited.
The suit of armor you can make out of them was so good. Stayed useful all the way through the end game.
I liked the animations for this episode a lot! Very nice combination of animated scenes to get visuals across along with static images for an impressive array of artwork.
My favorite Ankheg memory is when the PC's were hired by a circus to reclaim a stolen giant hamster from a clan of Kobolds that lived in the city sewers. Instead of attacking the kobold clan outright they decided to try and parlay and make some kind of exchange for the hamster. The kobold's leader said that if they could bring him a live war turtle to use as a mount he would give them the hamster. One of the kobold's guided them to where they could find the 'war turtles' and it was a nest of ankhegs! For several glorious rounds of combat the PC's scrambled to protect themselves from ankheg attacks without harming them while the ranger used a Ring of Animal Friendship to finally charm one of them, it took his very last charge to accomplish the feat. The kobold's were suitably impressed with their ankheg wrangling skills and turned over the hamster, but then their leader wanted to try out his new mount and the PCs had to fight him and his ankheg anyway, but his warriors refused to reneg on their deal and didn't fight the PCs, which left their boss to fight (and die) on his own. The kobolds then became uneasy allies to the party.
I've started many a campaign with a simple Ankheg fight. Sometimes it's just an ambush on the road, sometimes it's a main quest for a new party. One time the party arrived at the homestead of a farmer in response to a posting at the local inn's work board requesting hunters for a monster killing the livestock, and arrive to find the halfing farmer standing on the roof shouting at them to 'Get off the ground for the love of the gods!" Just as they noticed the funnel shaped, blood soaked hole next to the horse feeder beside them, it attacked.
"Hey there Mrs. Tiller, I'm Verrin Silverholt from Grigglak's Pest Control. I've got my Smoking Orb and some Turpentine here, and we're gonna go ahead and take care of that Ankheg problem for you."
If you played Baldur's Gate,
then you remember these shits and their battle tactics. And the image at 3:50 is gonna give you flashbacks (Unless you waited until after Nashkel before doing that quest).
*burrows behind you* "nothing personal, kid" *one-shots your character*
I love them.
Oh, you mean the armored AND deadly gigantic ants that are basically at the start of the game and are ALSO, somehow, made out of concentrated gold and xp?
Of course I remember man, I love'em. Killing them always felt like graduating from nobody into an actual adventurer.
I haven't played BG1 in forever! Were these also the guys that you could collect their heads, and they weighted a metric ton?
@@allthatishereYup, could also craft a sweet suit of armor from their plate! Minsc certainly enjoyed the flexible joints when his righteous boot reached up for the bad guys' buttocks!
@@allthatishere
Yup
900 xp a pop, though. Great for later, especially with how many there are around.
Legitimately one of the most interesting homebrew compendiums I've seen in a while. Fascinated to check it out.
LETS GO!!! Whenever I get a notification for a new MrRhexx video, I'm immediately put into a better mood. This content is so good. I even showed my 60 year old mother your content before going to watch the Honor Amongst Thieves movie, and she said she understood the movie better because of it.
I really liked the cartoon battle effect from top down. It looked almost like a video game.
They also don't tell you that Yeenoghu keeps two of them as pets. One is called Mr. Bitey and the other is called Paul.
I really missed your videos, they are always a good time and I really needed something like them lately. Thank you very much for posting again!
He's been very busy working on Sands of Doom. It's an absolutely gigantic module.
Loving the new animations and music man! Great video as always
New editing format. Nice. AND you didn't make us sit through four minutes of you advertising yourself at the start! Good job!
at 21:22 the text says "6 inches ultravision" but you say "6 feet ultravision" the 6 inches is measuring irl inches on a 1 inch battlemat so thats actually 30ft of ultravision in game
This was from 1e. There were no battle mats. 1" equaled 10 yards outside or 10 feet inside.
@@backcountry164 even if I'm wrong on the numbers it still wasn't 6 feet of ultravision
First comment?
Anyway, before seeing the video, I want to share my 3.5e experience with them.
We were a party of 3, meant to kill the adults and find the eggs in their hole (dude wanted the eggs, don't know why), I was a sorcerer with draconic feats from perfect arcana, we also had a druid and a warrior. We decided for what I thought was a good plan. Silence and distance with ranged weapons, so the fighter could engage.
So, what happened. This thing can dig, we knew that, we also knew he was an ambush predator.
What I thought it did, was come out of the ground and spit acid.
Nope, not at all. It has the grappler feat for monsters with size large, that with str means +12 to grapple.
So, he felt me on the ground (unlucky), Came out, grappled me and dealt damage. Hit dice is a d4, and I was lvl 2, so even with feats for hp in average I was on deaths door step.
What insued was incredible.
The fighter at lvl 2, with a +4 to grapple, used his movement and grappled the beast from behind. He manage to beat it. For a single round.
Druid run for a round, while the fighter kept grappling the beast from behind. He started losing badly, but the creature had no way to bite him, so no grapple damage for now.
We wacked each other for a round or 2, then that thing run away. Being an ambush predator and all. We were half dead at this point.
We later killed it in his cave after stealing some of the eggs, and finding the dead body of another one half eaten. I wasted a spell slot on that fake body, because noone passed a 15 check to tell that it was dead. I also got spit in the face bit the other one.
One the most dangerous sessions I ever experienced, and that same campaing we later fought a whole goblin village. For those wondering, village means goblins are in the hundreds, with different lvls for various roles (70% not fighter, those last 30 with a lvl 6-9 boss, multiple segeants lvl 3 and various lvl 1-2 combatant, also count in the wolfes and worges, they had a specialized militia with various roles).
We were lvl 3. The lvl 6 goblin was a tribe boss, a class from the miniature manual. That thing could give +6 str at area, and he was accompanied by a cleric and a war-wizard.
We never got to that point, campaign ended too soon, but al lvl 3 we fought one of the seargents. I got one shotted again, because we didn't check the whole area since we didn't have a ranger so he managed to sneak up to me in the middle of the fight, take me down and basically turn the fight on us. Then he escaped.
This DM is wild. If we do something wrong, or we fail at something, someone is down. Last week, new adventure, we got almost creamted alive. He pulled out some loney toons lvl of stuff to give to 2 lvl 1 characters a chance against us, and in 2 lvl 3 we chased then for a whole city. It was totally fair and predictable, we just don't onow the game enought to be prepared and our builds aren't compensating for enought situations, but damn he is good and raising the stakes.
I'm so happy you are back with a new video! I was starting to worry that you are moving away from yt. Love your videos and your personality.
I like the sudden increase in production quality 👍.
I love your content. I learned so much about dungeons and dragons. I started at fifth edition, and hearing the lore you spoke about in all of your videos just got me more and more interested, and now i'm addicted happily addicted lol years later and trying to get absolutely everyone to play!❤
17:55 I never thought I'd see a Signalis reference in one of your videos, I love that game!
You either got better at editing those vids or got yourself a good editor. Comparing your old and new videos is like night and day. Non theses the informations you convey are awesome as always keep it up man :D
15:06 Hmm mayby they need the enzymes in their acid to grow their new chitin, could also bee a cool thing to think they may use it to eat their old chitin and reclaim a small amount of nutrients and minerals from their old skin.
7:00 can't believe I've run these at least 4 times and only now realize that a player simply needs a way to remove 1 intelligence from the mob and you got an insta-"kill" ability. Especially considering it has 13 Wis, meaning you'd have to roll around 13-15 at the least to succeed against your player.
@MrRhexx
I'm quite surprised that there wasn't a single mention of the Ankhegs Queens in the video.
It's quite strange that you didn't include unique variants of these monsters as well.
For D&D 5e I find them great at lower levels, I'd like to see some stats like a "greater" Ankheg that could range in the CR 13 ish area. I could see with their exoskeleton that a greater Ankheg would have real high AC, much higher acid, claw and mandible damage, etc.
It would be interesting if the greater ankheg had eggs on the back, so babies would come out and attack players during the battle
yoooooo this was just what I needed for a part of my next campaing, I love the big bug trope and the Ankheg took my atention when I seen it on the monster manual so this is just perfect at this time
Pre-ordered the soft cover monster classes book. Plan to grab the pdf's of 4 and 5 at some point too. Keep up the good work!
Super awesome intro! I always love the old school introductions, but this was evocative
Excellent lore! Been missing these videos and looking forward to your adventure!!
Ankhegs... the armored wolves of D&D!!!
Awesome video. I loved the little adventure example and the animation there. Please keep posting.
Love to see the quality increase as always. It'd be great for you to cover Goliaths.
I recently used the Ankhegs on a side quest in my campaign and it was pretty fun.
In short they took over an old mine that some dwarfs decided to reopen and dig further, accidentally stumbling on an ankheg colony underground. It was pretty cool to run them because the whole thing turned like a horror episode of the players searching the mines in the dark for survivors, kill the queen and seal the tunnels.. all the while being ambushed by oversized insects comming from the walls and below. It gave of a Starcraft Zerg vibe but in medieval fantasy lol
I was actually just wondering if this channel was active anymore! Glad to see the upload!
"...resembles an enormous many-legged insect" - not to be confused with the common single-legged insects most of us are familiar with.
I've always thought of gnolls as just another humanoid, so I was surprised by how much I like the gnoll class. Keep the monster classes coming. I hope you make a chromatic class and something inspired by Mimics next.
This is absolutely perfect - I'm actually running a one-shot with ankhegs as the main enemies tonight, so this is great lore material!
So, my brain decided to summarize ankhegs as large, burrowing acid spitting bug. Slight problem, they're not the only thing that fits that description, the other thing (that I know of) is kruthik hivelords... which kruthiks in general would be cool to have a video like this on, seeing as 5e doesn't mention kruthiks being the result of a tiefling civilization combining velociraptors with fiendish insects
you are really one of the best youtube original creators out there..
Okay... lets do this. *clears throat*
ROCK AND STONE!
Apparently they compete with Giant Ants, and their young can be captured and enslaved by Giant Ants if they’re pushed out of their territory.
Nice see you working again. Your work keep just improving
Just found these "what they don't tell you about..." videos. Despite the weird accent of the author, these videos are quite good. Never understood why people don't post videos in their native tongues, but still, it sates my D&D curiosity. I've only played D&D video games, never the pen and paper. Favorite series is Eye of the Beholder 1 & 2. I've fought Ankhegs in Dungeon Hack (I think that's what they are) but they don't burrow into the ground. I'd love there to be more dungeon crawlers like EotB or using the Legend of Grimrock engine to make some good D&D games.
Glad to see Monster Classes 5! The earth elemental is so cool. Can you please make a fire elemental soon? I just started a campaign with two players who are using your monster classes (vampire and dragon), and I'm planning to give the vampire a chance way at the end of the campaign to make a deal with a fire god to become a fire elemental. I was gonna try to homebrew it myself based on fire genasi + a fire version of storm sorcerer, but I would love it if I could just hand her the fire elemental class pdf if she says yes! It'll probably take a couple years to get to that point, so no rush. 😊 No matter what you make next, I'm excited to see it!
yoooo ultra rare Rhexx video. HYPE
Love the editing man another amazing video! Can’t wait for your book 😁
Commonly believed myth, hibernation is not sleeping. A lot of the time a hibernating creature is awake.
I´ve never used them in my games, but I´ll for sure use it now at some point. Very cool. I never knew how fun it really is. Thanks a lot
Awesome! The channel, the content, the books are all awesome!
I love this new intro and way of reading entries with text highlights, keep these changes if able please❤. Just in time for my players are now in the desert and the ranger guide needed some favors for being a guide...
What a cool monster to run for a young group. Awesome video!
The new animations on the video looks amazing!
Imagine a tribe of clever little kobolds making use of the free tunneling service that is the ankheg. All they need to do is reinforce it and try not to get in it's way too much.
Then fall happens and massmurder ensues as the ankheg gets voracious in preparation for hibernating. Oops!
Cool background. In addition, IMO ankhegs are one of a handful of non-beasts that are perfect thematically for druids for wildshaping
Yeah, I definitely did not know about 20:26 and have been using it on a recharge basis. Welp. New thing learned I guess.
That intro gave me the chills. The ankheg was a nightmare in BG1. (And a gold farm if you could kill them)
Love your content, thank you for all the work you put into your videos
I've binged almost all your videos, I love your content ❤
I can actually imagine some very clever kobolds taking advantage of ankhegs and their tunnels. A 5' tunnel could be annoying and cramped for a medium sized creature, but small kobolds?
Am i the only one that has never played D&D the board game but just love the deep lore of it all? Plus i love Rhexx voice he should make audiobooks
8:18 Like a cross between a bulldog ant and an earwig. I like it.
This looks and feels like a good starting foe for a budding adventurer.
Pretty simple, having a complex enough encounter and just tough enough that any level 1-3 character will have issues with alone.
One of my oldest characters in D&D has homebrew armor and weaponry made from the chitin and mandibles of an ankheg, so I’m hyped for this episode to see how I can flesh the details of that character out even more.
Love this content dude has passion
The bugs on Helldivers are basically Ankhegs
15:00 I like to think of the molting period like that of either a crustacean (crab or lobster) or dragon fly larva going airborne in it's adult form after pupating.
You have upped your game. Production quality has improved, and I really liked it before :)
Yay a new episode ive been really hoping for another
A fun quest line idea. After a previous ankheg attack, a vein of precious material is discovered within its tunnel. Now the town needs adventurers to protect the locals as they are turning the tunnel into a proper mine.
Possible intrigues:
The local who is leading the conversion is not very experienced but is working as hard as he can for the town's benefit (it's also on his land). The expert he wanted to hire would do so only if his company took a perceived exorbitant portion of all profit, so the local declined. That expert is now propositioning other elements within the town. Do the adventurers help the local or make deals with the other elements in town?
A tunnel collapsed (sabotage or poor workmanship?), trapping most of the crew (local or hired) on the other side. What deals will be made so they will be rescued? Will those deals be honored? And how can the adventurers impede/help?
Welcome back dude!🎉 Missed ya!
0:00 0:39 interesting intro can’t wait to have more
Actually reminded me of the quest we got in 1st town we visited after fleeing from Candle Keep in 1st Baldur's Gate game,, actually snooping around for hidden loot and doing this quest could get us 2 sets fo Ankheg plate armor, insanely good for how early in game we got it
One stunt I could see the Ankheg doing in winter would be 'burying' itself under some loose dirt in one of its tunnels. Its antennae can still sense visitors, and the burying will give them a slight advantage as any intruders won't notice the disturbed dirt as easily compared to a full-sized ankheg.
Now a fun idea would be smarter ankhegs that set up lots of dirt along a tunnel, then bury itself under that loose dirt. If the players take time to examine all of the dirt, that will give the ankheg time to wake up fully. If the characters run forward to the end of the tunnel, then the characters have gone past the ankheg and are in a dead end. Even more fun is if the ankheg made a U-turn tunnel so the characters have to get within the tremorsense range while running down the tunnel. This gives the ankheg time to wake up before the characters get to the other part of the U-turn tunnel where the ankheg is located.
YEAH! I have needed to know more about these things since they showed up in Dragon of Icespire Peak
My plasmoid Moon Druid just gained these as a wildshape in our campaign. I can't wait to use it!
My druid once convinced an abused Ankheg mount to throw and devour its rider on promise of a home free of people beating it, and plentiful prey. Kept that promise, too.
I remember the only time I encountered ankhegs in DnD media was from a webnovel by a Chinese author, translated to english. Story was called Abyss Domination. It was a DnD story that followed a Rogue and was set in 3.5e. Really enjoyed that story but sadly translation efforts died out at some point.
I created a short, tutorial dungeon for new players or to see if a group is a good fit for me as GM. With the last version, I included an injured baby ankheg.
The first group killed it mercilessly.
The second group nursed it back to health and adopted it as the group pet. It even helped them defeat the boss. It nearly died in that fight, but they, again, nursed it back to health. The players really bonded with it. Warmed my heart.
Dude... love your videos as always... Where did you get those maps... I need some nice straight tunnel like that for my online games 😅
The new book is awesome, though it caused me to notice we lack a movie on Gnolls!
What are the odds we will see a Gnoll movie before the Sands of Doom release? 🙃
Those bugs need Liberty
bruv , u do the best lore videos 🔥🔥🔥
I can't help but notice this came out right after Helldivers 2. If you're playing I'd love to party up one day let's kill some bugs for the sake of managed democracy!
He returns! Welcome back man
I havent played dnd for too long, but i was making a homebrew druid class based around bugs specifically. I made a modified version of the Ankheg for that the druid can turn into.
You are a cool DM
@@vileluca i hope so lol
Of mr rhexx uploads its a good day to be conscious
Collapsable tunnel, the bane of wizards everywhere.
Love your lore videos, never fail to give me ideas
How is the egyptian campaign coming? That's another I am eagerly waiting for
Ankheg are great monsters, love the video 👍
A dm moving/playing the enemies how they would act in universe would be amazing. the dm i used to play with always mysteriously had them spread out enough to make hitting 2 or more at once with a single spell really hard after i got access to good area effect spells. Kinda made my character a cantrip bot cause there was never anything worth using a spell slot on. meanwhile the arakokra fighter was dominating pretty much every combat encounter with their ridicules speed and the magic weapon they got.