Can You Believe the Mouth on This One?

Get ready to crack a big ol’ smile on this fine Friday as we have a dandy monster to share with all the Dungeon Masters out there. Prepare your printers!

Today we’re talkin’ about those odd-ball monsters that illicit the endorphin-releasin’ response of, “What the heck is that thing?!” DM Ben lives for those moments at the game table. The trick about wild and wacky enemies is you gotta really think the encounter through, so the actual fight is just as memorable as the 3D-printed mini.

Our STL is by the dastardly crew over at The Dragon Trapper’s Lodge. Not sure what those guys are drinking over there, but their creativity knows no limits. They came up with this frenzied, arm-swinging, Elvis-lip-curling monster and dubbed him The Grabbler. Like, we even adore the name! We rushed to get it on our resin printer. They do a free download every Friday, so you really, really should follow them on Instagram so you never miss one.

We may have printed it quickly, but the poor fella sat in our pile of shame for far too long. DM Ben wanted to paint him, as he literally has no eyes, but he kept resisting the weekend urge because he was so nervous about trying a skin tone. Still, he got some inspiration from YouTuber Miniature Hobbyist, so he decided to stop whining about it and do something!

You wouldn’t believe how many layers of paint are on this guy. DM Ben kept going back over it because he felt he either colored the body too light or too dark. Like, he was way overthinking it. #learnings

Welp, in the end, he decided darker was better. It’s not like these sorta lunatic monsters are super hygienic. They constantly wander around, looking to get into a tussle with some unsuspecting adventurers, and probably don’t rinse off afterwards. Grime wins out here, and we think we went in the right direction.

Any TTRPG Dungeon Master will wholeheartedly admit they are attracted to multi-attack monsters, especially when their players are at higher levels. If you think about it, if there’s just one or two monsters on the table, a party of five adventurers can be pretty devastating, especially if they get a vicious Stun effect in there.

Our Grabbler has six arms, and that’s gonna give it seven total heavy-handed whallops to its enemies (when you add in its bite). Now we’re talkin’, right?! Two similar official D&D Monsters that possess that same sort of whirling derby of attacks could be the Marilith (seven attacks but more weapon-focused) or the Glabrezu (four attacks but of the punching and grappling variety). We’re going to use the Glabrezu for our reskinning here.

You might recall our previous Gorilla Grouping post, which included a DnD Girallon. Its 5e stats are a bit lower than those of the Glabrezu, which is why we’re still going with the stronger set of stats here:

• AC 17 | HP: 157
• Resistances: cold, fire, lightning; bludgeoning, piercing, & slashing from nonmagical attacks.
• Seven total attacks: six arms and one bite.
• Attacks: +9 to hit/2d10+5 damage.

Still, you could opt for the Girallon’s stats for a lower-level adventuring party and the Glabrezu for higher levels. Also, don’t forget to add this one as a replacement row on either of our free Wandering Monster Tables: Wilderness Trek or Dungeon Delve.

Until next time.