Classic Gygaxian Gibbering Mouther (Pure breed from Tamoachan)
(Solitary, Large, Magic, Divine, Devious, Terrifying, Amorphous)
Countless jaws (d10+2 damage, 3 piercing) HP: 21 Armor: 5
Close, Reach, Messy
The gibbering mouther is not regarded as an “evil” creature, but in order to sustain its mad self, it must feast upon the bodily fluids and sanity of mortal creatures, preferably intelligent ones. It attacks by spitting strings of protoplasmic flesh which end in a mouth and one or more eyes at opponents, which then bite them, causing both acid and blinding damage. When it has defeated an opponent, it swallows them whole, and then proceeds to suck away both their bodily fluids and sanity. It is possible for the victim to cut their way out.
Having so many eyes, gibbering mouthers are difficult to sneak up on.
Gibbering mouthers can speak any language, but most seldom speak anything other than mad babble and gibberish. Some have been reported that gibber useful information or riddles in strange or ancient tongues.
Instinct: To eat and drive insane
• Drive insane with its endless gibbering
• Engulf
• Melt ground under it into quicksand (Defy Danger or be trapped)
• Spit acid in the face (1d12 damage, Far)
Custom Move: When you meet a Gibbering Mouther, ROLL+WIS. On a 10+, it is simply a disturbing and disgusting thing. On a 7-9, you stay sane but choose 2:
• You flee from the unspeakable horror.
• You are unable to speak and can only gibber until you make camp.
• You are mildly delusional and take -1 on all rolls until you next make camp.
On 6- suffer all 3.
A gibbering mouther will swallow a victim instead of killing him or her if that damage roll would have normally killed the player. The player is allowed a ROLL+DEX to prevent being swallowed and no damage is suffered.
When you’re swallowed by a mouther, take -1 forward from the mouther’s digestive juices and don’t get too comfortable. Mouthers digest anything but stone and metal.
When you escape from the inside of a mouther, roll+CON. On a 10+, you get out and pick one:
– deal your damage to the mouther;
– none of your stuff is ruined.
On a 7-9, you just barely struggle free.
On a miss, the mouther deals damage to you and some of your non-stone and non-metal stuff gets ruined.
I like it! I might change “ooze out to surround” to “Swallow whole” or “Engulf”, just because they sound scarier to me.
I don’t love the sanity move, but sanity moves are always difficult in swords and sorcery. At least, I wouldn’t call the third choice “confused”, since “confused” is already a specific debility (-1 WIS).
(You have “when you try to escape inside a mimic” where you mean mouther.)
colin roald Thank you, useful feedback! i borrowed the swallow mechanic from a version of the mimic that I use. Hopefully this mouther has all of its classic D&D powers.
Sounds more than vaguely Lovecraftian. Dungeon World meets Call of Cthulhu?
Nitpicking again, but I feel the escape move has a bit of a non-choice option. I would change it to this:
When you escape from the inside of a mouther, roll+CON. On a 10+, you get out and pick one:
– deal your damage to the mouther;
– none of your stuff is ruined.
On a 7-9, you just barely struggle free.
Chris Stone-Bush Works for me.
That armor – it’s equal to an Apocalypse Dragon. Why so high?
Ray Otus
I used the Codex and some other Gibbering Mouther adaptations to help. If you input the Gygax style stats directly it is a massive thing. That is part of the reason I designed the Gibbering Pudding first, but a lot of Tavernites wanted the full old school Apocalypse Blob, which really is a Lovecraftian Shoggoth nightmare. So I wrote up both and thought up a Dungeon world starter with it where a smart party will sneak or run.
Ray Otus I actually designed a weaker one for a Starter recently:
Ythill Gibbering Mouther Solitary, Large, Terrifying, Amorphous
Countless jaws (d10+2 damage 1 piercing)
Close, Reach, Messy 12 HP
Special Qualities: Gibbering causes -1 on all rolls
A Gibbering Mouther is a horrible creature seemingly drawn from a lunatic’s nightmares. It resembles a writhing mass of ooze covered with dozens of randomly placed eyes and gibbering mouths, of different sizes and shapes.
Nice. I get it. Thanks for explaining. BTW, small thing but the tag should be “Terrifying” not “Terrify.”
Ray Otus Thanks. I’ll correct the Starter too.
I think the d12 acid could be made to a d10 that ignores armor. Gets in all the little cracks and crevices. Everything else seems pretty solid.
Scott Selvidge its already mega-deadly.
A d8 that ignores armor then? lol
Scott Selvidge Tavernites wanted the monster manual version and this was my best effort. I made it into “run away” shoggoth but feel free to modify. I did experiment with some still fearsome but more “kill-able” cousins on the Tavern.
I did use in a starter at the end of a dungeon. The idea is “grab the loot and RUN!!!” https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7cav44145d9QjhLUHpPcHBsWUE/view?usp=sharing
Nice