D&D General Re-Loring Monsters

[Reynard]

The idea of "re-skinning" comes up pretty often, where you take a stat-block of a well known creature but alter the way you describe it, maybe change a few minor things like damage type, and have a whole new monster. What I think comes up less often is the idea of re-loring a monster: that is, giving a well known staple D&D monster a totally different backstory, place in the world and lore, but keeping it pretty much as is otherwise.

As an example, in one of my home brew worlds, ogres were explicitly the sons of hags ("bog witches" in this setting) who had seduce via shapeshifting local lords and such. in this setting, even bastard sons could claim their inheritance and these hags would create heirs so they could ruin the lords and their lands, putting their violent and deformed offspring on the High Seat.

In another setting, gnomes and goblins were the same fey "species" -- but if they were malevolent, their form changes to goblin and f they were benevolent their form changed to gnomish.

What kinds of re-loring have you done in your games and campaign worlds? Why? That is, what was your motivation for doing so? For example, I once decided to make succubi cosmic psycho-therapists just to combat the "evil hawt woman" trope; they were able to control minds and such because they were getting in there and helping put things back in order.

Do you have a favorite bit of re-loring someone else did, fan or pro?

Thanks.

 

[el-remmen]

Goblins, hobgoblins, and bugbears are three sexes of the same species. Traditionally, all goblins are male, all hobgoblins are female, and bugbears are non-binary but in a traditional set-up are nursemaids and guardians (since hobgoblins don’t nurse their children).

Edit: I said “traditionally” to mean the normative view of their culture. There are of course a range of gender expressions any of the three sexes might perform

 

[ezo]

What kinds of re-loring have you done in your games and campaign worlds? Why? That is, what was your motivation for doing so? For example, I once decided to make succubi cosmic psycho-therapists just to combat the "evil hawt woman" trope; they were able to control minds and such because they were getting in there and helping put things back in order.

Honestly, I don't think I have ever even reskinned a creature, let alone re-lored one...

Now, I've created monsters, but that's it.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

I typically do this with setting-specific monsters that I want to transplant into different settings. I did this a lot in my Eberron campaign.

When I wanted to use Exandria’s Core Spawn Worm in Eberron, I said that they were purple worms that ate Khyber Dragonshards and were mutated by the fiendish magic.

In my Eberron, Cyclopes are mutated Ogres that serve Belashyrra, the Daelkyr of Eyes, Divination, and Beholders. I have a version of seafaring raider Ogres in Eberron that live on islands near Xen’drik. They worship the 12 moons as gods and hunt dragon turtles. The ancestors of the Cyclopes were the Ogres that worshipped Cyra, the long destroyed 13th moon of Eberron. They fled to Droaam to prevent religious persecution. They now worship Belashyrra, believing her to be the ghost of the dead moon. She warped them into Cyclopes, and turns her favorite Cyclopes into Argusans, hundred-eyed giants based off of Argus from Greek mythology.

Succubi/Incubi are energy vampires that can feed off of any type of passion. An artist’s love of their art, the fierce rage of a Barbarian, or undying loyalty between friends is enough to sustain them.

Once I used the Warforged stats in a different setting to represent a Treefolk, if that counts.

 

[Reynard]

Once I used the Warforged stats in a different setting to represent a Treefolk, if that counts.

Not that there is anything wrong with it, but that is more traditional re-skinning, I think.

 

[ichabod]

I have redone the lore on hags, changing the name to kerl (an older word for churl) and allowing them to be of both sexes. I did this to reduce the number of "women are bad" monsters. However, I decided to make them all rabid sexists to parody all of the "women are bad" monsters. So the male and the female kerls are never seen together, and preferentially attack PCs of the opposite sex.

 

[Tonguez]

Trolls are male Hags, and like Nighthags are fiendish

Elfs (Sidhe) are formless creatures made of misty ephemera that must steal the physical substance (Con) of mortals inorder to form solid bodies for themselves, malevolent elfs will outright steal a mortals substance, while others might make a deal with the mortal and drain them slowly. Once an Elf has a body it can heal by draining hp from living things (including plants and animals)
Mortals who have their substance fully drained in this way become shadow tweens in the ethereal (so re-lore for 1e Tweens too)

I use Birthright Halflings and make them natives of the Ethereal Shadowfell too

There is only one dragon species (green) - their different colours is just environmental adaption and breath weapons are elemental spells. They do develop elemental affinities though.

Goblins are amphibians and swampdwelling scavengers

Hobgoblins are fey-touched, Bugbears are not goblins (theyre apemen)

Gnomes are fey and none are taller than 2 feet tall, they are eusocial burrowers who are all spawned by a single brood-matriarch. Theyre also all emphatically bound to their brood-mates which allows them to act as a single swarm. (Ie gnomes can get the swarm trait)

 

[jmartkdr2]

I've re-lored ogres to be ex-dwarves: I gave all dwarves the duergar ability to become Large, but put in a risk of losing their minds and getting stuck that way. If they get stuck, they are ogres.

I've also stolen an idea form an indie game for elves: no one is born an elf. You become an elf by achieving a sort of enlightenment where you are permanently channeling magic, which is both good for spellcasting but also makes you ageless (you grow to or revert to your late 20's, which is where you stop growing u and start growing old.) The kind of magic you channel determines the kind of elf you become; arcane high elves, shadowy dark elves, druidic wood elves, vampiric blood elves, et al. All of these tend to warp your perspective, so elves who been elves for a while tend to not care about individual people very much.

 

[J.Quondam]

I often "re-lore" monsters. I don't typically hew to any specific lore in the first place, since I've mostly always hopped between homebrew settings. A few off the top of my head:

• Owlbears, chimeras, and select other animal "hybrids" are not arcane experiments, but minor divine beings. Each is unique and enlightened.
• Goblins and their ilk are the same species. They just grow bigger and bigger, from goblins to hobgobs to bugbears to ogres to hill giants and eventually grow so big they go to sleep, become nondescript hills, and slowly decompose back into a pile of fresh baby goblins to be dug out by other goblins when the time is right.
• Doppelgangers are the first people made by the Creator. But after forming them of clay, the Creator left them unbaked, which is how they came to be imbued with their divine gift. As the precursors of Men and the other formed races, the Doppelgangers believe they are the rightful owners of the World.
• Beholders are the result of a magical disease that swells the head and one eye, multiplies the other eye, and shrinks the body. They are swollen misshapen abominations, with small drooling mouths and the tiny twitchy vestigial body that hangs off the great head.
• Each oni is the son of all night hags, all of whom can always feel his heartbeat no matter where he is. To kill an oni is to call down the wrath of all his night hag mothers.

 

[cbwjm]

I think my lore is similar to what's already come before but some highlights (or at least things I like are):

• Dragonborn were made by dragons to swell the ranks of their armies, in this respect it is similar to dragonlance but dragons at the time put forward their eggs to create the new race of soldiers.
• Genasi were made from humans by the elementals for much the same reason as the dragons made the dragonborn, they needed soldiers for their war. My players never ended up finding a temple that has imagery of humans being forced to kneel before a powerful elemental, an orb of power held high above them with the next image showing them imbued with the power of the elements.