Minisode 1: The Elephant in the Room

On our very first minisode, help us dust off the cobwebs and address the elephant in the room. Or the three of them. They're also all fighting.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:26

Hello everyone and welcome to Dungeon Pedia, an exploration into the lore of Dungeons and Dragons. I'm Taylor, one of three hosts, and welcome to the very first Dungeon Pedia mini soad. For today's mini soad, let's address the elephant in the room. Dungeons and Dragons has a number of creatures based on elephants and their relatives. From the Holy Phants, the malephants, Tontors, Kalics, and the Loxodons, with Magic the Gathering's Ravnica setting being added in 2018, DD has a lot of elephants. Right, hold on to that thought. The real elephant in the room. If you got this notification on your podcast player of choice, it means that at some point in the past seven years, you listened to three nerdy adults spending way too much time and energy talking about and debating everything there is about DD. And for some reason you decided, yeah, I want more of that. I will forever be grateful to you. You stuck with us through good audio and bad. Through that phase where the audio got really bad for some reason. From Travis's deep dive on Vecna before Stranger Things made it impossible to get a picture of the real Vecna without extra keywords. Through my own endless exploration of the plains and all their inhabitants, and as Lewin asked a question that still stands unanswered, what's an elf? We never really said goodbye when we left. It wasn't intended to be a goodbye, just to see you later. And now, I'm so glad we didn't. Because it's later. I am so, so happy to announce to you all that Dungeon Pedia will be returning on June 16th, just a few weeks from now. All three of us will be back and ready to go. Dungeon Pedia will also be getting multiple formats. So on June 16th at 11 a.m. Central Daylight Time, I think we're on daylight time, we will be doing our first ever live recording. We will be streaming the episode from our Twitch, followed by chatting with the audience and each other about the topic and DD in general. Just anything you guys want to ask. The video version will be accessible as a Twitch bot immediately and on our YouTube page shortly after. The audio version will then be released to all regular podcast players shortly after that. I will pin down an exact time between live recording and audio release once I see how long it takes me to edit the audio. I'm expecting it'll be a little faster than previously, but I can't say for certain. I could be a little rusty. I did recently edit some audio for a friend and was impressed with the fact that I still kinda had it. So who knows. I am so excited to get to do this with you guys again. Thank you so much. And now you might be asking, what is a mini sode? A mini sode is something that we have been tossing around since 2019. The idea is that there might be something small that we really want to tackle that just doesn't have enough info for a full episode, or even just a deep dive on a topic or specific article that we just couldn't make time for in the main episode. Mini sodes will feature any combination of us or just solo, depending on the episode and just what's going on in our day-to-day lives. Today's mini sod, which I will actually be doing on a number of the elephant-themed creatures in DD, will be free and stay up as an episode of the podcast. The video version should also be live on our Patreon for free right now to all subscribers, regardless of tier. Future audio and video versions will only be available to paid members of our Patreon, and we will release information about the tier rewards and pricing as soon as we make those decisions. We are still debating on a couple of different things. Clips of these may make it onto future full episodes in the forms of compilations or in reference to, like, say we do a full version where of Ravnica and then I reference Loxodons. Something like that. But the full mini sodes will remain only on Patreon for now. Now with that, let's get into the mini sod. Alright, I got Travis now. He got off work, so I roped him into finishing it up with me.

SPEAKER_00 4:31

That you did. Didn't really uh hardly walk through the door. Mm-hmm. Until you were like, hey, let's go. And I was like, oh, alright.

SPEAKER_02 4:39

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 4:40

So I'm here.

SPEAKER_02 4:41

So I did pick the topics of this episode just to make a dumb joke. Obviously. Yeah, yeah. But elephants are a very interesting topic to discuss. There's a surprising amount of creatures based on elephants and mastodons in DD. I was mostly surprised just because I couldn't think of any off the top of my head other than loxodons and holy fants. Obviously, elephants are admired and even revered worldwide, particularly where they're native. I just hadn't thought about how that might be reflected into DD.

SPEAKER_00 5:09

I mean, yeah, no, the only thing that I can think of are holyphants and mastodons.

SPEAKER_02 5:15

Mastodons?

SPEAKER_00 5:16

Mastodons?

SPEAKER_02 5:17

Do you mean loxodons?

SPEAKER_00 5:19

Yeah, loxodons. Mastodons.

SPEAKER_02 5:22

Well, I mean mastodons too, why not? So uh there were actually a lot, so I actually did have to narrow it down. Today we're going to be talking about the Holyphant, the Baku, and the Melephant.

SPEAKER_00 5:36

Cool. So only one of those I have actually heard of.

SPEAKER_02 5:41

Yeah. It's okay. We got this. Let's start with the goodest of creatures on this list. Literally. The Holyphant.

SPEAKER_00 5:49

Everyone loves Holyphant.

SPEAKER_02 5:51

Yeah. Uh, they were actually originally introduced in first edition. And Monster Manual 2, which was released in 1983, uh, which is solely credited to Gary Gygax. I think he's the only author listed on that.

SPEAKER_00 6:06

Damn. Yeah. Nice.

SPEAKER_02 6:08

Uh overall the vibe has remained consistent since first edition. That's unique for DD. Yeah. Rare. Well, you'll see part of that, part of the reason why later. And you will probably call it out too. Oh boy, alright. Uh HollyFans are about two feet tall, tiny flying elephants with golden fur and wings, small tusks, and a general glowing aura. Uh, I put more on that later. Not really. Uh sometimes their wings are described as glowing, sometimes their fur is described as glowing, but overall glowing.

SPEAKER_00 6:43

In some variety, they are glowing.

SPEAKER_02 6:45

Their eyes are described as being a glowing amber brown color in first edition, but by second edition that became a glowing rainbow. So I think this might be a rule of cool when you decide what you want your holly fans to look like.

SPEAKER_00 6:59

Okay, well, now I just want them all to have glowing rainbow eyes.

SPEAKER_02 7:02

Okay, well, rule of cool, you've decided. All holly fans have rainbow eyes.

SPEAKER_00 7:06

In in your uh glowing specifically.

SPEAKER_02 7:09

Yeah, yeah, sorry. Well, they glow no matter what. Don't worry.

SPEAKER_00 7:12

Okay, well, good.

SPEAKER_02 7:14

Interestingly, makes no mention of the words elephant, mastodon, or mammoth in the first appearance. But it does mention things like trunk and ivory, so even without the picture, which I will have somewhere on the screen, and you can see. Um you kind of get the gist of it.

SPEAKER_00 7:33

I mean, it is very elephant-like.

SPEAKER_02 7:37

At this point, no second form is mentioned. It's just the tiny furry elephant.

SPEAKER_00 7:43

Oh, okay, so they don't have the I'm gonna go big and stomp things.

SPEAKER_02 7:48

No big mode. Uh they are from the from the get-go, used as messengers and helpers by the deities, traveling across all planes and using the astral and ethereal to get around.

SPEAKER_00 7:59

That hasn't changed.

SPEAKER_02 8:01

Nope. They travel alone or with up to two others. They have an innate desire to aid good and destroy evil. Um, they're since they're so small, sometimes when they call for aid, a really powerful celestial can come, such as an asura, an avarol, or even Dave's.

SPEAKER_00 8:18

Well, alright.

SPEAKER_02 8:19

They are listed as having genius level intelligence, minus four AC, which, as you'll recall, first edition, that's really good.

SPEAKER_00 8:27

Taco, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:28

Uh, and lawful they're lawful good.

SPEAKER_00 8:31

Naturally.

SPEAKER_02 8:32

The strange also hasn't changed. Yeah. The sight of the strange goldenford creatures will engender great fondness and desire to cooperate in good characters, unease in those of neutral standing, and loathing tinged with fear in evil characters.

SPEAKER_00 8:49

I don't know why, but as soon as you said loathing, all I pictured was the Grinch.

SPEAKER_02 8:57

I do think that the Grinch uh pre-uh heart growing incident would loathe them, yes. Uh, they get two attacks per round. They have a normal attack of an upward jet of their tusks, which only does one to three damage. Not one to three dice. One to three damage.

SPEAKER_00 9:17

They they they are, you know, two feet tall, so.

SPEAKER_02 9:20

Yeah. Uh but three times per day, they can trumpet from their trunk with a specific effect: a hornif blasting, deafening, or a blast of sunsparkles.

SPEAKER_00 9:31

Okay, so I mean for the most part, that also hasn't changed.

SPEAKER_02 9:36

Yeah. You'll you'll kind of see the evolution here. Yeah. Uh the hornet- the only hornif blasting, and this is actually what took me so long to this whole section to fig to like start nailing down, was because I was trying to find these things. The only horno blasting I know is from Baldur's Gate 2. You know, the video game. Right. Um, that one has a 2D10 Sonic Wave effect once per day, and is otherwise a stun effect. That's it. That's all I got.

SPEAKER_00 10:06

Man, that was not a lot of uh fruit for the effort there.

SPEAKER_02 10:10

No, it was not because I was desperately trying to find what it was referring to, aside from that. I I can't. So I'm just going to assume. Same thing was this one. Um, deafening functions like the drum Hello, Hades. Hi. He's like, you're in my spot, Dad.

SPEAKER_00 10:35

I'm sorry, bud. Blame your mother.

SPEAKER_02 10:36

Uh deafening functions like the drums of deafening. I couldn't find exactly what that was in first edition either, but I was able to find something for second edition that might be what it is, which is a magical instrument. These kettle drums come in a pair. Each is about one and a half feet in diameter. Nothing would happen if you only struck one of the drums, but if both the drums were struck at the same time, all living creatures within 70 feet or 21 meters for our non-Americans, everyone with uh, you know, sensibility, was permanently deafened. Permanently? Permanently. Unless magically healed. What the hell? Yeah. Anything within 10 feet or 3 meters uh was also severely stunned. Yeah. Okay. So the deafening trumpet, I assume, works similarly to that, because it's it uh just instead in a 70-foot cone instead of 70 feet radius. And then the sun sparkles, uh, that was just right in the book. I didn't have to look that up at all. It's a blast of positive energy in a 50-foot cone that damages undead or infernal creatures with 8d6 plus 8 of what I assume to be very early radiant damage before radiant damage was a thing.

SPEAKER_00 11:55

That is also what I would assume as well. Yeah, so, um turns out back in first edition, uh, Gary Gygax and friends were not very organized at anything really. It's like, hey, this is gonna function like this item. W where do I find the item? Where is this item? It's like, I swear you just made that up and didn't put it in a book. But the spell. Yeah, like what spell? Where is the spell? Don't get me wrong. Love the, you know, it's gone as far as it has, but I'm so glad I did not play.

SPEAKER_02 12:37

Oh yeah, we're too disorganized to comprehend the disorganization.

SPEAKER_00 12:41

Yeah, no, not even a little bit would my brain be okay with that.

SPEAKER_02 12:45

Yeah. So Holly fans also have use of several spells, which they can use once per round with some restrictions. At will at the 16th level. This was before Mistress said, fuck you, only up to ninth level, you freaks.

SPEAKER_00 12:58

I forgot about that. Yup. 16th level. Yup! Sixteenth.

SPEAKER_02 13:04

Yep. Um, so they can use blessed light and teleportation anytime they want, once per round.

SPEAKER_00 13:12

Okay, that has changed slightly, at least in 5e. They can do teleportation once per day.

SPEAKER_02 13:18

Yep. Uh, they can cure serious wounds and use protection from evil twice per day. Uh, they can banish, flamestrike, heal, and raise dead once per day.

SPEAKER_00 13:29

I'm sorry. They can raise dead?

unknown 13:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:34

I so admittedly I should have gone to look into this, but I had spent two hours trying to find a magic a magical instrument and the Horn of Blasting, which might also be a magical instrument now that I think about it. Uh so I didn't look up what it m is for sure. Hi, sweet boy, but I think it's basically the um it's not raised dead like zombies. It's like revival or the other one that I can't think of now.

SPEAKER_00 14:06

Uh, resurrect. Resurrect.

SPEAKER_02 14:08

I think. Anyway.

SPEAKER_00 14:10

No, I mean I guess that would make sense. Oh my god, Hades.

SPEAKER_02 14:13

Hades, buddy, why don't you come hang out? They are always protected by a globe of invulnerability, which is apparently radiated by their fur.

SPEAKER_00 14:24

So if you had no I'm not even gonna get to finish that.

SPEAKER_02 14:33

No, because the uh monster manual um saw what you were what you were doing back in the 80s and said no.

SPEAKER_00 14:41

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 14:42

Their tusks give them im so I'll explain that in a minute. Their tusks give them immunity to all diseases and poison, but the tusks and fur do not function for others.

SPEAKER_00 14:52

Okay, so you cannot cut the tusks off and or skin them and have the protection. Okay. Nope.

SPEAKER_02 15:01

They can only be harmed by plus one or better magical weapons and automatically detect evil in a two-foot radius.

SPEAKER_00 15:09

I mean, I guess it would make sense that they can only be harmed by plus one or better magic weapons, considering everything else about them.

SPEAKER_02 15:16

That detect evil in a two-foot radius might actually be twenty feet and mistyped.

SPEAKER_00 15:23

You know, there over the you know, past several years of being a DM, and also during research for this, um, I have actually seen that a few times where it's like something is written very oddly, like two feet or eight feet, and I'm like, that doesn't make sense with a five-foot system.

SPEAKER_02 15:46

Yeah. We're gonna go with 20. Because that makes sense. Uh psionic disciplines are usually four minor and two major ones. Do you remember how psionics work in first edition?

SPEAKER_00 15:58

No. Me neither. No, I do not. I barely remember how psionics work in fifth edition. The edition that we play. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:06

Yeah. Um, so communication is by their own speech or by a limited form of telepathy that does change throughout. Um, I'm not gonna get into it super extensively, but it will sometimes go to exclusively telepathy. Sometimes it will be 50-50, and I think now it's like just however they're feeling.

SPEAKER_00 16:28

Crap, see, now I can't remember. I know that they can speak with telepathy in fifth edition, but I don't remember if they actually speak common. Common.

SPEAKER_02 16:40

I can't recall at the moment, but HollyFans come back in second edition's Planescape settings, specifically the Montrous Compendium, Planescape Appendix 2. Oh man, the names. By Richard Baker. Oh my god, Planescape is the worst at names. It it goes on forever.

SPEAKER_00 16:56

It it really does.

SPEAKER_02 16:58

This is where first mention about them being goofing look goofy looking was made. Yeah. I think it's because uh the narrative of the Planescape source books is very tongue-in-cheek and sort of sarcastic and sort of like gritty. But they make fun of the little guys for being such silly looking creatures that nature wouldn't have dreamed it up.

SPEAKER_00 17:21

But they're just elephants with wings.

SPEAKER_02 17:25

I know, but they really like hammer this home. Like they go on and on about it, and uh they actually have a thing in there that says some sages speculate that hollyfans are actually spirits or manifestations of some kind because they couldn't possibly just look like that.

SPEAKER_00 17:42

Like, I'm sorry, have these sages actually seen other celestial beings? Like.

SPEAKER_02 17:49

As an aside, by the way, I actually love the art for second edition's Hollyfans.

SPEAKER_00 17:57

They actually straight up, like, just made them look like normal elephants with a little bit of fur and wings. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:07

So, like, they're not that goofy. I I think that they're very cute. Kinda weird looking.

SPEAKER_00 18:13

Yes. But not terribly goofy in the grand scheme of things.

SPEAKER_02 18:18

Anyways, the whole that whole thing with the spirits or manifestations is later referenced in in a later edition in Shotdown.

SPEAKER_00 18:27

Good.

SPEAKER_02 18:28

Yes. Uh, this is actually the first written reference to them being tiny furry elephants. I'm unsure why they went with that instead of mastodons or mammoths, which are already furry, but I digress.

SPEAKER_00 18:40

Uh we're we're just not gonna question that.

SPEAKER_02 18:43

Still no mention of the large mastodon form, though.

SPEAKER_00 18:46

Okay, so they still don't have the ability to go big.

SPEAKER_02 18:48

Yep. Still have a genius intelligence, still negative four AC, still neutral good. Um, two attacks, same. Uh small tusks only do one d3 damage, which I believe is you roll a d6 and have it half it. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 19:04

Also, I thought they were lawful good in first edition.

SPEAKER_02 19:08

Oh, they might have been. I may have uh they were lawful good. You're right. That is a change.

SPEAKER_00 19:13

So they changed them from lawful to neutral good.

SPEAKER_02 19:16

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 19:17

Alright.

SPEAKER_02 19:18

There are aspects of it that make more sense neutral good, and aspects that make more sense lawful good. You'll, you know. I think that either one you is fine for a Holly fan.

SPEAKER_00 19:31

Yeah, I mean, they you could easily make it work either way.

SPEAKER_02 19:34

Yeah, so all the spells and trumpets are the same as first edition, so I don't even need to get into all that again. Cool, cool, good. Yeah. Uh Holly fans automatically detect evil within a 20-yard range and go to great lengths to avoid fights with good aligned or even neutral creatures. However, evil creatures get their asses kicked. If they cannot outright smite them, they will look for ways to harass or hinder them and try and call for aid from the tougher good creatures.

SPEAKER_00 20:01

So they kind of just took the form of like pixies. Oh, you'll even more.

SPEAKER_02 20:08

Not the form, but even more. They're surprisingly mischievous and love a good prank or joke. Okay, yeah, so they're they're pixies. Yeah. As for the psionics, they have clairsentience, uh, a danger sense, no direction, no location, poison sense, and spirit sense. Sure. Spirit sense. Alright. They have telepathy, which I guess is ESP identity penetration. Is that like true sight? I guess yes, that would make sense. Um, invisibility and post-hypnotic suggestion. As opposed to pre-hypnotic suggestion.

SPEAKER_00 20:53

But in order to have post-hypnotic suggestion, you would have to have hypnosis in the first place. Where does that come in? Oh no. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 21:03

They're common to the beast lands, Bitopia and Mount Celestia. As proxies of good powers, Holly fans are often given missions that bring them into contact with mortal adventurers and heroes, where they act as advisors and aid their charges by helping them to defeat evil instead of doing it for them.

SPEAKER_00 21:21

Alright, I mean I do like that.

SPEAKER_02 21:23

Yeah. Now their tusks can be ground down into a powder that transforms water or wine into an elixir of health. You will be hard pressed to find a holly fan that would be okay with that.

SPEAKER_00 21:35

Um, yeah, I'm going to assume that the only ones doing that are the evil ones that have killed the Hollyfans. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:43

In third edition's Faiths and Avatar or sorry, Faith and Avatar supplement. Hollyfans are useless messengers or acting for Ilmater and Mil Milil. Millil. Millil. The crying god. God and the Lord of Song respectively. The source book Netherell Empire of Magic adds Mistral to this list. Crucially not Mistra, just Mistral. Just Mistral. Yes. Okay. And Dimmy Human Deities adds quite a few others. There's really no point in going through it. Basically, just assume if they're a good deity, they might use a Holly fan.

SPEAKER_00 22:22

Okay, so HollyFans are just spread around and are used by all good deities.

SPEAKER_02 22:27

Yeah. Cool. So Hollyfans are now once again brought back in 2003's Book of Exalted Deeds for 3rd edition. This is the first instance I can find their mastodon form.

SPEAKER_00 22:38

Oh wow. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 22:44

I don't know. Okay. So, um, heads up. Oh my god. I do not like the appearance of third edition SaliFans. What the fuck is that? Immense leathery black wings sprout from the broad shoulders of the this bipedal mastodon. It has bright eyes, shaggy black fur covering mo most of its great bulk, and curved tusks like gleaming scimitars. In its large form, the Holy Fan stands at 12 feet tall and weighs 1200 pounds, and in its small form measures two feet long and weighs 60 pounds. Yeah, no, there's not a lot I like about this picture. Um the first of all, the wings on the small form look like insect wings. Yeah. The I just don't like it looks like a creature that should belong to the lower planes, I'll be honest.

SPEAKER_00 23:53

It it does. I mean the leathery wings are basically just like demon or bat wings, and just the form and the way that they like drew them standing in general gives very like mind flare vibes. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 24:07

Yes, it's odd. This feels like a fourth edition edit, but it's third.

SPEAKER_00 24:12

See, that's what I was thinking, and now I'm kind of scared to know where fourth edition went with this. Because that this is not okay.

SPEAKER_02 24:21

No. Ignore that though, because this is basically the only mention of this visual. So the reference material describes the big form as both mastodon and mammoth, which isn't too weird, but it does bother me.

SPEAKER_00 24:36

Because mastodons and mammoths are different creatures. Two separate, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:40

Yeah. Same family, obviously, but different species. They tend to avoid combat. Um, they have a 24 AC in their elephant form and a 28 AC in their big form. They're neutral good.

SPEAKER_00 24:54

God damn. That's actually a high AC.

SPEAKER_02 24:56

Yeah, I can't remember. I think third edition was similar to 3.5 in that like numbers got big real fast.

SPEAKER_00 25:03

Numbers got big, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 25:04

Yeah. Two attacks, still at 1d3. So uh I forgot to look and see what the Mastodon version of that is. Uh they have two slams at 1d8 plus 6 and a Gore attack at 2d6 plus 3.

SPEAKER_00 25:22

I mean, that does make sense for you know the bigger massive side of them.

SPEAKER_02 25:29

Yeah. Uh Magic is cast as a six-level sorcerer. No more 16th level spells. Nope. Uh they have Blessed Sight, which allows you to see evil auras within 120 feet of you. It doesn't require concentration like a detect evil would.

SPEAKER_00 25:43

Okay, but it kind of like acts similar to the Yes.

SPEAKER_02 25:46

Uh they have Detect Chaos and Detect Law, Detect Poison, Detect Thoughts, Invisibility, No Direction, Sea Invisibility, and Suggestion. Okay, yeah. So the thing about uh being caught like going around and calling for help is kind of brought back as a an actual like ability that they have. Once per day, they can use summon celestial.

SPEAKER_00 26:11

Ah, there it is. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 26:13

Yeah. They can summon another Holyphant, an Asura, or an Averall Gar Gardinal, with a 45% chance of success.

SPEAKER_00 26:22

Which is actually still a pretty high success chance.

SPEAKER_02 26:25

Yeah. But unfortunately, there is no Dava. Ah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:29

That is kind of sad.

SPEAKER_02 26:30

Yep. So, back to their trumpet. So, again, three times per day, a Holyphant can use their their trunk to blast. Yep. Uh, so the first one is a 60 first 61st? Shut up. Okay. It's a 60-foot cone sheep burst of sound that forces creatures in its area to make a DC 14 42 save or take two d10 points of sonic damage and be stunned for two rounds. So it sounds like sort of the um corn of blasting. And then skip the drums of deafening. Now you have a 30-foot cone-shaped burst of sunsparkles. The moats of holy power deal 8d8 points of damage to evil outsiders, undead, any other cre any other creatures vulnerable to holy water. We are all but saying this is radiant damage.

SPEAKER_00 27:26

Yeah, which I thought radiant damage was already a thing by third edition, but maybe 3.5. Yeah, I'll say, but I might actually be wrong on that. But it is literally just radiant damage.

SPEAKER_02 27:37

Yeah. No Holly Fence in 3.5, by the way. At will, they can use bless, light, greater teleport, self, and up to 20 pounds of objects only.

SPEAKER_00 27:47

But not other creatures.

SPEAKER_02 27:49

It that's what it said.

unknown 27:51

Hmm.

SPEAKER_00 27:51

Alright.

SPEAKER_02 27:52

Um, and three times per day they can use cure moderate wounds, protection from evil. Once a day they can use banishment, flame strike, heal, raise dead, and they go at a caster level of 15. Banishment is such a fun spell. It is. A small Holyphant's glimmering coat protects it as a continuous orb of invulnerability. So it is still from their fur. Only the Hollyphant is warded. In large form, the Hollyphant loses this ability. Uh, it can shift between its small and large forms as a standard action. And a callback to the weird suggestion about Hollyphant's projecting your form, it's described that using a true seating spell reveals both forms simultaneously. So both of them are its true self.

SPEAKER_00 28:35

What the hell?

SPEAKER_02 28:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:36

That would be trippy.

SPEAKER_02 28:38

Yeah. As usual, fourth edition sucks. There's no Holly fans. You don't have to worry.

SPEAKER_00 28:47

I mean, of course. I don't know what the hell they did in fourth edition. I don't understand what their thought process was.

SPEAKER_02 28:55

They were trying something new. Well, they suck. It was their it was their experimental phase.

SPEAKER_00 29:01

Thank God that did not last too long.

SPEAKER_02 29:04

Yeah. I'll actually go ahead and break the uh wonderful news to you now. We're not visiting 4th edition at all today.

SPEAKER_00 29:10

Oh, thank God.

SPEAKER_02 29:12

Um, Holly fans came back in 5th edition's campaign, Baldur's Gate Descent into Avernus, which came out in 2019. They have an 18 AC. They're lawful good. And interestingly now, there's a focus on them being very wise instead of intelligent.

SPEAKER_00 29:27

Hmm.

SPEAKER_02 29:28

Which I I actually think that that's a pretty good step in the right direction.

SPEAKER_00 29:32

You know, I'm actually kind of surprised that HoloFans didn't return in fifth edition prior. Prior to Descend into Avernus.

SPEAKER_02 29:40

I saw something that said that they were in like the monster manual or something like that. I couldn't find it.

SPEAKER_00 29:44

Hmm.

SPEAKER_02 29:45

Maybe they were referenced somewhere?

SPEAKER_00 29:47

They might have been referenced or after Descent into Avernus, maybe they were added to newer prints of the monster manual. I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 29:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:56

I'm just guessing.

SPEAKER_02 29:57

There are a few descriptions of the Holyphant that I really like, but Fifth Edition is definitely one of the best ones. Holyphants are gentle, stalwart creatures native to the upper plains. Good line deities and angels use them as messengers and help helpers. Holyphants treasure friendship and honesty. A holyphant looks like a miniature elephant with luminous gold fur and small, rapidly fluttering wings that not only hold it aloft, but also propel it at great speed. Although kind, a holy phant won't bear witness to an evil act without punishing the malefactor. Its pearlescent tusks are far from formidable, but it can unleash a trumpet blast from its trunk that can deafen creatures or engulf evildoers in radiant sparkles of positive energy. A Holyphant is also blessed with powerful innate magic to help it combat evil and protect its friends.

SPEAKER_00 30:45

Yep, which we are all too familiar with, Hollyphants, at this point.

SPEAKER_02 30:49

Yep. Uh in our own personal game, uh, one of the players has adopted a Hollyphant that we rescued. So Hollyphants are resistant to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from non-magical attacks. They're immune to poison damage and poisoning. Uh tusk damage is now one attack and does 1d6 damage.

SPEAKER_00 31:09

Hey, it got upgraded.

SPEAKER_02 31:11

All attacks with weapons are considered magical. Uh, they have innate spell casting. They can cast light at will twice per day. They can use bless, cure wounds, protection from evil and good, and once per day they can use banishment, heal, raise dead, and teleport. Uh they can trumpet three times a day. Which that one they can choose the different It's just the two uh that carried over into third edition. The Trumpet of Blasting, which is 5d6 thunder damage and deafened for one minute. So it sort of combined a little bit of the drums of deafening.

SPEAKER_00 31:41

They just, you know, don't go permanently deaf.

SPEAKER_02 31:44

Yeah. And then uh the trumpet of sparkles, which is the sun sparkles evolution. Evolution, yeah. People who fail to make their saving throw take 4d8 plus 4 radiant damage. Finally, it's labeled. There's the radiant. Yep, evil creatures have disadvantage on the saving throw. Good creatures in the cone take no damage. So it does sort of tie everything back in. Yeah. Uh, they have an aura of invulnerability.

SPEAKER_01 32:09

Uh yeah.

SPEAKER_02 32:11

An invisible aura forms a 10-foot radius sphere around the Holyphant for as long as it lives. Any spell of fifth level or lower cast from outside the barrier can't affect creatures or objects within it, even though the spell is cast using a higher level spell slot. Such a spell can target creatures and objects within the barrier, but the spell has no effect on them. Similarly, the area within the barrier is excluded from areas affected by such spells. Holyphant can use an action to suppress this trait until its concentration ends as if concentrating on a spell. It has to concentrate to not.

SPEAKER_00 32:43

Which, I mean, I really don't see why you would do that. Zone of truth, stuff like that. Yeah, okay, yeah. The more like beneficial spells.

SPEAKER_02 32:53

Yeah. So Dissenter Vernus heavily featured Lulu, a Holyphant who was the warm out and friend of Zaryel before she fell. Oh, nice. Yeah. And became an archdevil. Lulu. Mm-hmm. Uh Lulu was subsequently splashed with water from the river sticks and lost her memories and abilities.

SPEAKER_00 33:10

Aww.

SPEAKER_02 33:11

Yeah. So the Rakshasa who splashed Lulu.

SPEAKER_00 33:16

Of course it was a Rakshasa.

SPEAKER_02 33:18

Delivered her to Zaryel as a gift, because at this point Zaryel's an archdevil. And um Zaryel actually sent her out of the hells to keep her safe because she didn't want to hurt her, and she would have had to hurt her if she stayed.

SPEAKER_00 33:31

Wow, so even an archdevil has some compassion for their former friends. Yeah. Especially if it's a holly fan.

SPEAKER_02 33:40

Yeah. Um, but she also just wandered around like that for like a thousand or so years before the descent to avernus because she didn't have any memories.

SPEAKER_00 33:50

Right.

SPEAKER_02 33:51

And she's a holly fan.

SPEAKER_00 33:52

Hmm.

SPEAKER_02 33:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:54

We just won't think about that part too much.

SPEAKER_02 33:56

She is featured in Descent to Avernus, and like she is like a character and you can help her and that sort of thing.

SPEAKER_00 34:02

Nice.

SPEAKER_02 34:02

Yeah. So let's go uh on to the Baku. This is gonna be a pretty short section, because unfortunately, they're not in a lot.

SPEAKER_00 34:13

Uh yeah, I don't actually know what a Baku is.

SPEAKER_02 34:16

Um, well, that picture won't help.

SPEAKER_00 34:20

What the fuck?

SPEAKER_02 34:22

It's not super um, you know, discernible.

SPEAKER_00 34:27

It's not pretty.

SPEAKER_02 34:28

No. Uh they were also originally introduced in sorry, originally officially introduced in First Edition's Monster Manual 2, but they were first mentioned in an article in Dragon magazine number 65 in September of 1982. Nice. Uh Baku looked a bit like nine-foot-tall elephants, except for the lizard tails and lion hind feet. Dragon-like tail uh sorry, I wrote dragon-like tails, but I meant dragon-like scales, blend the back and tail together.

SPEAKER_00 34:54

Yeah, uh, I'm seeing that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 34:57

Uh they have a thick rhino hide covering the rest of them. Uh their trunks were rather short for their size, about four feet long. More on that later.

SPEAKER_00 35:06

Alright.

SPEAKER_02 35:07

Yeah. Uh they're originally from the outer plains, but not really specified other than semi-tropical forests and in the outlands.

SPEAKER_01 35:16

Hmm.

SPEAKER_02 35:17

Yeah. They mostly seem to keep to themselves and are rather peaceful. They live in groups of around two to five.

SPEAKER_00 35:23

Well, that's surprising because I ain't gonna lie, they do not look peaceful.

SPEAKER_02 35:26

They don't in this one. They look better later. Uh, despite being pretty neutral and timid, they hate evil and abandon their peaceful ways to combat them. They have exceptional to genius intelligence, negative two AC, and are neutral good. They get three attacks.

SPEAKER_00 35:41

Oh.

SPEAKER_02 35:42

Special, aren't we? Yes. Attack is by means of a goring gouge and two stomping attacks with the four legs on human-sized creatures. Or smaller. Gore is three to eighteen damage, and the double stomp is two to twelve damage times two.

SPEAKER_00 36:00

How do you roll three to eighteen damage?

SPEAKER_02 36:03

I don't know. I'm I I've never been able to fully parse first edition. Just end of sentence, actually.

SPEAKER_00 36:11

Yeah, there's yeah.

SPEAKER_02 36:13

Baku can become invisible at will. They can become ethereal and travel at will. Well, that's just cheating. They can also travel astrally.

SPEAKER_00 36:22

So basically, Baku are just holly fants, but better.

SPEAKER_02 36:28

I disagree with the but better, but definitely but different.

SPEAKER_00 36:32

Very different.

SPEAKER_02 36:33

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 36:34

Well, better in terms of they just have better abilities in general. Like being able to, you know, turn invisible at will is kind of insane.

SPEAKER_02 36:41

I mean, teleportation with no error is pretty cool. And the ability to resurrect. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 36:47

But that's not at will.

SPEAKER_02 36:50

Once per day, though, that's pretty cool. It is. They have the following psionic powers: 12th level animal telepathy, 6th level body control and body equilibrium, 12th level fighter cell adjustment, 12th level detection of good or evil, 12th level reduction, and shape alteration.

SPEAKER_00 37:12

Okay, so I'm going to take a guess that reduction is reduced size.

SPEAKER_02 37:18

Probably. That's the only one I got. Fighter cell adjustment? I'm looking right at it. I don't know what it means.

SPEAKER_00 37:28

Yeah, I got fucking nothing, man.

SPEAKER_02 37:30

Again, I could have looked into this. I should have looked into this. I did not want to look into this because I don't understand first edition.

SPEAKER_00 37:38

Fighter cell adjustment, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 37:40

That's the trumpeting roar of a Baku causes all evil creatures within a four-foot radius to take one to eight points of damage, cause paralyzation, or they flee in panic as if affected by a flea a fear spell. Huh. Baku can roar like this once every four melee rounds.

SPEAKER_00 37:58

Okay, so kind of like a recharge. I mean, I guess it is a recharge, you're just not gonna be a good one.

SPEAKER_02 38:02

It's just a set recharge. Yeah. Which if they uh I'll spoil it, they're not in fifth edition.

SPEAKER_00 38:09

Yeah, I'm not surprised.

SPEAKER_02 38:11

Um if they were were to come back in fifth edition, or I guess 5.5 or whatever it is, they might have like a recharge, like a roller recharge. Um so Baku folly follow the Holyphant route and were reintroduced in Planescape's Monstrous Compendium Appendix 1. Alright, that's his butt. That's his face. They're much cuter now. I like them a lot more.

SPEAKER_00 38:37

I mean, yeah, they basically just look like elephants.

SPEAKER_02 38:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 38:40

Like they're more elephant-like than polyphants. Except for that long ass tail. And that short ass trunk. And that short ass trunk, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 38:49

And the lion paws. Oh, I forgot, yeah. Yeah. There is actually a fantastic story and description of the Baku in this supplement. If it's okay, I want to read it. If not, that's fine.

SPEAKER_00 39:00

I mean, go ahead.

SPEAKER_02 39:02

Yay! I learned the art of coppersmithing from an old man in the village named Lonjonga. He was a kind and gentle fellow, and his patience at the work taught me not only how to work with metal, but how to have patience and fixity of purpose. He never laughed at my mistakes, but always applauded my triumphs. He taught me lore of the woods surrounding my village, which herbs heal, and which stones may cut into sparkling gins. He taught me the principles of art, symmetry, harmony, and mystery. Only once did I see him angry. A runner came to our village with sad news that that woman who ruled the next village had been trampled by a strange, evil beast that looked like a small elephant. Lahajanga called me to him. I saw his eyes, which normally sparkled with joy, were dark with storm clouds. He said to me, Vimilanda, I'm giving you my shop. I had hoped to work here longer, but I have other business I must attend attend to. Vimelanda, do not cling to the shop. From here, someday you will be called for a greater mission. When the time comes you will know, and you will make use of my lessons then. He turned to leave the village, but I begged him to tell me what was going on. He took me with him into the woods, and there he showed me his true form. He said that after this revelation he could no longer work among men, and that he had to go fight the evil Baku who had killed in the next village. I asked if he knew the evil one. Yes, he said. It is my brother. Then he ran like lightning into the dense woods. I never saw him again, save in dreams. A Baku looks like a strange elephant with a lizard's tail. It has an elephanting head, complete with trunk, but its trunk is rarely longer than four feet. Baku traditionally regard longer trunks as indicators of high ability, but this is only superstition. Two curving tusks jut upward from the creature's lower jaws. The front feet look like an elephant's, but the rear feet have lioned pads equipped with claws. Dragon-like scales cover up Baku's Baku's back and thick tail. On male Baku, the scales continue over the back of the head. The rest of the hide is rhinota. So yeah, uh he he was he was a secret Baku in disguise.

SPEAKER_00 41:13

He was, yeah, he was a Baku in disguise.

SPEAKER_02 41:15

And now we'll get into the dark ones and the evil ones or what Okay's Second Edition does a really cool thing where it like completely fleshes out their story and like it makes it so much cooler. I love the Baku.

SPEAKER_00 41:31

Nice.

SPEAKER_02 41:32

So uh they still have exceptional subgenius and intelligence, negative 2 AC. Now they can be any neutral, so any form of neutral. Uh they get three attacks still, 3d6 gore attack, and two d6 double stomps. So now I can I can assess that.

SPEAKER_00 41:49

Yeah, like that that makes sense.

SPEAKER_02 41:51

Now they use psionics to become invisible at will. A baku's trumpeting more trumpeting roar now affects creatures of certain alignments. So neutral good Baku can only affect evil creatures. Neutral evil evil Baku can only affect good creatures. True neutral or holy baku can affect either good or evil creatures at their discretion. Huh.

SPEAKER_00 42:14

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 42:15

Yeah. So most Baku, about 80%, are good. They secretly dwell among humankind and serve its interests. About 15% of Baku are evil. These are called the Dark Ones by their brethren, and they also move among humankind, but they thwart the plans of their good brethren and cause suffering.

SPEAKER_00 42:34

Of course they do.

SPEAKER_02 42:35

The remaining 5% of Baku are true neutral. Other Baku know them as great ones or holy ones. There's not really any discernible abilities that set them apart, but other Baku reverently obey them regardless of good or evil. Holy Baku always have an intelligence of at least 18.

SPEAKER_00 42:53

Jesus.

SPEAKER_02 42:54

They are very smart.

SPEAKER_00 42:55

Of at least 18.

SPEAKER_02 42:57

Yeah. The trumpet kind of works the same as previously. Any vulnerable creature within 40 feet suffers 1d8 points of damage, but also must make a save against paralyzation or fleeing. Baku can trumpet once every four rounds.

SPEAKER_00 43:10

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 43:10

Yep, so about the same. Now, their psionics. I can comprehend No, I can't. I can't comprehend. Um, I'm just gonna rattle these off because they're some of them make sense, others do not. Comprehend writing, danger sense, absorb disease, cell adjustment, ectoplasmic form, lend health, reduction, aw, conceal thoughts, contact, invisibility, no cost, mind link, mind thrust, that's a typo.

SPEAKER_00 43:45

Telepathic.

SPEAKER_02 43:47

Telepathic projection in truth ear. No, that one's not a typo, by the way. I got that one straight. Truth ear. Actually, I got both the the uh t typo and truth ear, which I don't know what it is. So, I mean some of those I can Oh wait, I'm not done. Oh. Dream travel, astral prediction.

SPEAKER_00 44:16

Okay. So some of those I can kinda more or less figure out. I mean, Lind Health I can kind of figure out sort of reduction. I mean, we kind of covered that earlier. Ectoplasmic form, I'm thinking, is maybe like gaseous form or something similar to gaseous form. Yeah, I don't know. I still don't sell adjustment. I have no fucking clue. Truth ear, mind thrust. Mind thrust was caught caught me for a loop. But they have a lot of psionics.

SPEAKER_02 44:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 44:52

Which I'm sure people playing second edition could understand.

SPEAKER_02 44:58

Maybe. Maybe. Um, so uh faiths and avatars and dimmi human deities decided that Baku also needed to be messengers for some reason. Uh yeah, that I I would I would take that out if I brought them back to fifth edition. Just for Dinir, Gond, Ladigur, Morden, Thardhar, and Urugalan.

SPEAKER_00 45:21

Thardhar. And just say like a pirate, and that's the only thing I can think of.

SPEAKER_02 45:25

Yeah, and that's it for the Baku. They've never been back, unfortunately.

SPEAKER_00 45:29

They so wait, they ended in second edition and that was it? Yep.

SPEAKER_02 45:34

I I'm really I I I'm sad because I find them really intriguing. Like they have a lot of really cool stuff that could make for some really cool lore.

SPEAKER_00 45:44

Yeah, that's kind of crazy, actually. Like bring the book back in homebrew. Shit, someone might have already.

SPEAKER_02 45:52

Probably. I meant specifically for me, but oh, okay.

SPEAKER_00 45:56

I'll I'll think about it.

SPEAKER_02 45:57

Okay. Alright. Finally, we're gonna go do the male fat.

SPEAKER_00 46:00

Oh, right. I forgot. I thought we were only doing two at the moment.

SPEAKER_02 46:04

No. This one's actually a little different. This one was first introduced in second edition in the Monstrous Compendium Outer Plains Appendix by J. Paul Lafontaine. LaFontaine? In 1991. Is that what I think it is? That oh I might have to censor this. Oh wait, it's Patreon. It's fine.

SPEAKER_00 46:27

Yeah, you can do whatever you want on Patreon.

SPEAKER_02 46:29

So maybe a censored version and then an uncensored version. Because that's what it looks like. I'm not saying it out loud. No, but but if you're you're seeing it on Patreon, you know. And you can probably guess what it is because it's between his legs. Anyway. So they are denizens of the lower plains. Uh they're large, nine feet tall, bipedal monsters with packaderm heads, with trunks that end in a vicious barb.

SPEAKER_00 47:00

They're packing something. Trunks that end in a vicious barb.

SPEAKER_02 47:11

I thought you were gonna use it use that for another joke. No, no.

SPEAKER_00 47:15

I I decided to just go with that one for now.

SPEAKER_02 47:17

Well, the barb is used for combat, obviously. No.

SPEAKER_00 47:24

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 47:26

Uh the feet are anth its feet are anthropomorphic elephant feet, but its hands have fingers and talons. Don't like it.

SPEAKER_00 47:34

It just it looks so weird. I don't know. I don't like it.

SPEAKER_02 47:39

Malephants are common guardians of the lower plains. Powerful lower plane or creatures will strike a bargain with a malephant to guard an item or area. The term of service is typically around 100 years. During that time, the melephant will be absolutely loyal to the terms of the agreement and will fight to the death to perform its instructions. Uh malephants are never seen in groups. They will never guard with another melephant. In fact, when they see each other, they will fight to the death.

SPEAKER_00 48:09

What the fuck?

SPEAKER_02 48:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 48:11

Then how do they reproduce? I think more of them.

SPEAKER_02 48:16

Don't worry about it.

SPEAKER_00 48:18

Okay. I'm just saying that thing looks like they reproduce.

SPEAKER_02 48:22

Okay, they do, but we have to drop this to reproduce exclusively. So it basically they have a time period where they no longer will fight to the death, but if it goes any longer than that, they will.

SPEAKER_00 48:39

Then then it's back on.

SPEAKER_02 48:41

Yeah. Uh they have high intelligence, uh, zero AC. And lawful neutral per parentheses evil originally. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 48:52

I'm guessing that means that they could either be lawful neutral or lawful evil?

SPEAKER_02 48:58

Dude, I don't understand first edition. We're in second edition. I don't understand either of them uh because I don't know. I I think it's like an evil slant on lawful neutral, but that's not a thing. I don't know. That's my guess.

SPEAKER_00 49:19

I I don't know, man.

SPEAKER_02 49:20

The claws inflict uh one to six points of damage per hit. The trunk spike causes two to twelve points of damage per hit. If both claw attacks hit in the same round, the opponent is held fast, so grappled. Um the victim will suffer one to three points of crushing damage per round, and subsequent spike attacks will automatically hit. Makes sense. Yeah. They're fond of charging into combat. Uh their movement increases to 18. I don't know what that means. Second edition, I think that means 18 squares, which is a lot.

SPEAKER_00 49:59

That is a lot.

SPEAKER_02 50:01

Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe it's increases by 18, but that's still a weird amount. This is back to one of those things about like this doesn't make sense in terms of a five-foot system.

SPEAKER_00 50:14

It's possible. I mean, I guess if it's charging.

SPEAKER_02 50:20

Yeah, you know what? A nine-foot tall creature uh tar charging at me might go 90 feet in one round. I'm gonna go with it's eight eighteen squares at 90 feet.

SPEAKER_00 50:32

At some point, we'll probably actually try to look this stuff up and understand it, but for now.

SPEAKER_02 50:38

The point of this is us being stupid and finding things out together. Exactly. Uh, it gives them plus two attack on their attack rolls for the round two. They have a breath weapon attack.

SPEAKER_01 50:48

Oh.

SPEAKER_02 50:48

Three times per day. A male phant can breathe a noxious cloud vapor that is 10 feet wide and extends 30 feet in front of them.

SPEAKER_00 50:56

Yeah, I can absolutely see a noxious cloud coming out of their mouth.

SPEAKER_02 51:00

Yep. Anyone caught within this cloud must make a saving throw against poison or suffer complete memory loss. Oh shit, what the fuck? Yeah. Uh the memory loss will last until a neutralized poison poison spell is used. That's it. You have to use a a neutralized poison spell. Yeah. They have an array of spell-like abilities they can use one at a time, once per round. Uh, alarm and bind at will, blade barrier three times per day, entangle, gust of wind, and light at will, polymorph, other, not themselves, three times per day, true seeing and warp wood at will.

SPEAKER_00 51:39

I mean, the joke just kind of writes itself.

SPEAKER_02 51:42

I didn't even think about that. They're immune to attacks from non non-magical weapons. They are never surprised and have infravision up to 240 feet.

SPEAKER_00 51:53

I forgot that infravision was a thing in second edition. Me too.

SPEAKER_02 51:57

I was like, what is this supposed to- Oh, right. Dark vision, more or less. Yeah. Their auditory and all factory senses are double the human norm. Okay. They regenerate at a rate of two hit points per melee round. Holy shit. And they will fight until victorious or dead.

SPEAKER_00 52:13

I yeah, that I definitely could have gathered from everything else. Everything else.

SPEAKER_02 52:18

Yep. Um, in planes of conflict, they are interestingly established as the ancestral enemies of the Baku. Oh okay. Yeah. I definitely would have seen it as being the Holly Phant, but in demi-human deities, they are sometimes found in the service of Dwargard deities.

SPEAKER_00 52:37

Huh.

SPEAKER_02 52:38

Deep dwarves to those unaware.

SPEAKER_00 52:41

The deep dwarves.

SPEAKER_02 52:43

By the Book of Chaos, they are found throughout all Lower Plains. And they remain largely unchanged in Planescape Monsters Compendium Appendix 1. So much so that there's literally no point in talking about them because it's all the same. It's all the same. It's just copy paste. I do prefer the art a little bit more and the tasteful loincloth.

SPEAKER_00 53:06

Yeah, the tasteful loincloth is good. The art is definitely a little bit better. Although, honestly, I feel like they did them a little dirty in the art on this one with the barb at the tip of their trunk. I feel like the barb should be bigger.

SPEAKER_02 53:20

Yeah, that there's definitely some um some barb envy between uh the uh first one and the second one. Oh yeah. We don't know about other envy because one is covered up by lawn cloth, but uh I overall I like a lot of the changes that were uh made for um the art in this one. Oh look, they're carnivores. It's shocking, right? Okay, so I very much prefer the uh art style in third edition. Holy shit. They look monstrous.

SPEAKER_00 54:03

Yeah, they do.

SPEAKER_02 54:04

My and their head does not fit their body anymore. Head is way too small for their body. I kinda like it.

SPEAKER_00 54:15

They they got juiced. Very juiced.

SPEAKER_02 54:19

Uh they are now appropriately lawful evil.

SPEAKER_00 54:21

Okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 54:22

They have an AC of 20, two claw attacks at 1d6 plus 6 each, and the trunk spike is 2d6 plus 3. Alright. Oh, I forgot to mention they were introduced in 2003's fiend folio for third edition. Uh, yes, the good old fiend folio. The creature is humanoid, stands at nine feet tall, and weighs 800 pounds. The malephant's hands appear oversized for its body and are tipped with claws.

SPEAKER_00 54:48

You could say oversized for its body? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 54:51

Its head is similar to a small-eared elephant's head, having a small mouth filled with tiny teeth, small roomy eyes, uh R-H-E-U-M-Y, which I think basically means um like yellowed.

SPEAKER_00 55:07

Okay, I was gonna say, can you explain what that means? Because I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 55:11

Oh, sorry, watery, like bloodshot. Oh, okay. I was confusing roomy with jaundice.

SPEAKER_00 55:18

Oh, um, those are definitely two different things.

SPEAKER_02 55:23

Uh an inflamed and moist red eyes. Marigold is snoring like crazy.

SPEAKER_00 55:35

I don't think that that actually got picked up on the mic, but that was funny. It was. Okay, so watery red eyes, basically.

SPEAKER_02 55:43

Yeah, and they have a long coiling trunk tipped with a long, thin spike, which I like their spike better. I I think that this so far is the best spike.

SPEAKER_00 55:52

Agreed.

SPEAKER_02 55:54

They were originally created by powerful Beitizo lords to serve as guardians in the in this version. Yeah. Many melephants escaped their servitude when their lords were deposed, and now each one travels the lower plains alone, driven by an overwhelming urge to protect and guard without anything of its own to protect.

SPEAKER_00 56:13

Huh.

SPEAKER_02 56:14

If a powerful individual can provide a melephant with a great amount of living flesh, which it devours for sustenance, it readily agrees to serve as a guardian for that individual or those in that individual's possessions.

SPEAKER_00 56:28

So put in other terms, if you make a living sacrifice to this thing. A large living sacrifice.

SPEAKER_02 56:38

Yeah. Then it'll serve you. Cool. A male phant never leaves it leaves its post and immediately breaks off any attack to protect a new threat to its charge. So it I is on the prize. It doesn't care about fighting as much as it cares about doing what it was supposed to do. So if it's engaged in a fight, but someone else is a bigger threat to its charge, it will divert.

SPEAKER_00 57:03

Alright, yeah, cool, cool.

SPEAKER_02 57:05

Yeah. It will actually erect a defensive screen around its charge. Like it will spend its time, like first few rounds in combat, trying to beef it to buff its charge, basically.

SPEAKER_00 57:16

Wow. Yeah. Alright, that's kind of cool.

SPEAKER_02 57:19

Um, Maliphants can be summoned using the summon monster spell.

SPEAKER_00 57:22

No, that's frightening.

SPEAKER_02 57:23

Yeah. They have their breath weapon back, which is now a noxious vapor, 10 feet wide, 30 feet long. They must make a fortitude save or suffer complete memory loss.

SPEAKER_01 57:34

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 57:34

Memory loss suppresses all of a creature's ranks in its skills and feats, and it prevents use of any class abilities, including spell casting. Currently, prepared spells are not lost, they're just simply in inaccessible.

SPEAKER_00 57:47

Jesus, so it basically just knocks you down to level zero. Yes. Not even level one, like level zero.

SPEAKER_02 57:54

Temporarily at least. Yeah. Uh racial abilities are retained. However, the victim no longer knows whose friends and enemies are, doesn't remember its past, and can't even remember its own name. Can create new memories, but each time it sleeps or rests, any new memories it has created completely vanish. Oh my god. This condition can be cured by any effect that cures poison. Otherwise, it's permanent.

SPEAKER_00 58:16

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_02 58:17

Yeah. Okay. Luckily, it can be cured in a number of ways.

SPEAKER_00 58:21

Thankfully, because damn, that would fuck someone up so bad.

SPEAKER_02 58:25

Mm-hmm. Once per minute, a malephant can make a frenzied charge. During the round in which this occurs, the melephant's speed increases to 45 feet and it gains a plus two bonus on all attack rolls. They have improved grab, which is basically the same thing as the original thing mentioned in second edition.

SPEAKER_00 58:42

It can grapple anything that's one size smaller.

SPEAKER_02 58:45

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 58:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 58:46

It deals normal damage and uh attempts to grapple as a free action. Uh if it gets hold, it automatically hits with its trunk spike yet again. So there is a small change. Afterwards, the Malephant has the option to conduct the grapple normally or simply use its claw to hold the opponent. Uh in either case, each successful grapple check it makes during successive rounds automatically deals claw damage.

SPEAKER_00 59:09

Okay. Yeah. I mean that would make sense if you're, you know, fighting to hold on to something and yeah, your claws are just gonna dig in and yeah.

SPEAKER_02 59:16

Exactly. Spell like abilities, at will, alarm, entangle, gust of winds, light, truceering, trucing, and warp wood. Of course.

SPEAKER_00 59:24

It can still warp its wood. It's gotta warp its wood.

SPEAKER_02 59:28

Three times a day, it has blade barrier, baleful, and polymorph. I definitely took down way too much information here.

SPEAKER_00 59:37

For a minisode shocker.

SPEAKER_02 59:44

Um so uh it can adopt a defensive stance as a free action on its turn. It it really just adjusts the takes penalties to some stuff and buffs other things. It's really not that interesting, but it it's third edition and they were doing stuff like this.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:01

Yeah, and it's as typical. Third edition, a whole lot of text and a whole lot of numbers.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:06

Yeah, they have keen senses. Eyesight is four times as good as a human's, it has low light vision and dark vision up to 240 feet, so back to that infra vision. Yeah. Which 240 feet is quite a range. Yeah. They have fast healing, so back to the regaining hit points at rate of two per round. Fast healing does not restore hit points lost from starvation, thirst, or suffocation, and it does not allow a melephant to regrow or reattach lost body parts.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:34

I love how they had to be specific in this one compared to second edition.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:38

You know that there were people Oh yeah. Yeah. Malephants can detect approaching enemies via scent, sniff out hidden foes, and track. Malephants cannot be raised or resurrected. Yeah. Because I'm my theory is it has something to do with the fact that it's because of the fact that they were made by the Bates of Zoo.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:03

Yeah. A wish or miracle spell can restore life, but uh they any other resurrect spell is not gonna work. My assumption being they don't have souls.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:12

Yeah. Makes sense.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:14

Melephants, we're not in fourth edition. We're we're no fourth edition today. Yay. Fuck fourth edition. Fuck fourth edition. Um, Melephans were reintroduced in fifth edition a couple years ago. Well, more than a couple years ago, three years ago now, in 2023's Planescape Adventures in the Multiverse, Morte's Planar Parade, which I actually need to look into all of the Planescape stuff because I I did not look into any of that. Uh for fifth edition specifically.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:43

Right.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:43

When it was reannounced. Yeah. They look a little weird. They they do look a little weird, but I kind of dig it. So their story and appearance is at least in description, largely unchanged. Again, it is kind of difficult to parse that image.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:03

It it is, but like, do they have it? Looks like, at least that one specifically, it looks like it's actually wearing armor of some sort.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:11

Yes, it does wear plate armor or half plate.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:13

Oh my god, okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:14

Yeah, but it looks like it has five eyes now. Am I interpreting that correctly?

SPEAKER_00 1:02:20

So it looks like it has five eyes, but at least as far as uh that kind of weird design goes for games and stuff, I've seen it a lot of other times where the people do only have like two eyes, but for whatever reason that multiple eye thing is just a really cool aesthetic. Okay. So I'm gonna guess that it only has two eyes still, and that's just kinda to help freak out anything that looks at it.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:49

Maybe. Either way, really cool. Largely unchanged, fiends guarding a treasure. Most seem to be a being to fight. There's really not a whole lot of backstory here in fifth edition.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:03

They're basically just pawns to use to fight.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:07

Yeah. They're lawful evil, AC of 15 wearing half-plate armor, attacks once with its barbed trunk at 2d8 plus 4 piercing damage, plus 2d12 poison damage now.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:19

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:20

Now it also carries a glaive instead of using a um claw attack, which it attacks twice with with a reach of 10 feet, and it does 2d10 plus 4 slashing damage.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:31

Dude, glaives are so cool.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:33

I know. Now they have a um an ability called Mind Poison. You can guess what that is. Yeah, yeah, and poisons your mind. The male elephant expels poisonous gas from its trunk in a 60-foot cone. Each creature in that area must make a DC16 constitution saving throw. On a failed save, a creature takes 6012 poison damage. It has the poisoned condition. While poison in this way, the creature loses all weapons and skill proficiencies. It can't cast spells, it can't understand language, and it has disadvantage on intelligent saving throws. Basically, this is reorganizing all of the memory loss stuff from before in a new way.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:14

Um, it does not appear to actually cause memory loss, but if I were to put them in my game, I would put that. Make that be the reason. I mean, yeah. I mean, memory loss will or or memory tainting or something like that. Or inability to access memories.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:31

It would certainly cause you to not be able to use your weapons or anything. So yeah. Basically the same thing. Just like you said, reorganized in a different way.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:40

Yeah. The target can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turn, ending the effect on itself on a success. On a successful save, the target takes half as much damage and is immune to the Malephant's mind poison for 24 hours.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:53

Okay, so that is also a uh fairly common uh thing for fifth edition as well. A lot of the abilities or spells have that particular, you know, you can repeat the saving throw at the end rather than it being a one thing. One and done done. Yeah. No, don't get me wrong. There are some that you cannot repeat, and if you fail it, that's it.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:16

Yeah. No, I've been on the receiving end of on a few of those. Yeah. And this one is a recharge, so like we were saying, I know that was for the Baku, but you know, some stuff just turns into a recharge. Um Melephant has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects. They are resistant to acid, fire, and lightning damage, and they are immune to poison frightening or they're moison.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:40

Charlie good?

SPEAKER_02 1:05:41

No. They're immune to poison, the condition frightened, and the condition poisoned.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:48

Basically, they cannot be affected by like weapon poison, and they cannot be poisoned by other means as well.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:55

Yeah. Poison damage and poisoning. Yeah. Essentially. But that's it. That's all I got.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:03

Shit's kind of crazy. Shit is kind of crazy. Um, I also just want to point out for the record that before we started this, it was it'll probably only be 30 minutes. In my defense, the cat kept yelling. Yes, but even after you cut all that down, it's definitely gonna be over 30 minutes.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:25

I think it'll be probably closer to like 45.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:28

Yeah. Just wanted to state that for the record.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:30

Look. I tried my best.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:34

I'm sure that uh no one is gonna be complaining about it.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:38

Oh no, what a disaster. My first mini soda is almost the same length as our full episode.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:47

Tragic.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:48

Future ones will be shorter. More than likely, unless we all suck at this.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:54

In which case, then there's just gonna be the main free episodes, and streams, and then these extra equal-length episodes that we're gonna call mini sods.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:08

I'm trying to think on if there's any other housekeeping that we need to take care of before we finish up, because I went over the Twitch stream. It's gonna be just a reminder: June 16th, 11 a.m. Central Daylight Time. You can follow us there, you can follow us wherever you've been following us, you can follow us on YouTube. We will put up the video version there afterwards. If you have any questions or stuff that you want to have us discuss on the premiere episode, because we're so the way we're doing it is I'm I think I already mentioned this earlier. After the fact, after the main episode where we talk about everything, we're gonna like respond to the audience and talk to people and stuff if they have if they're in chat and everything. So if you are not going to be able to make it and you want to send something in, please email us at dudgepedia.podcast at gmail.com and we can respond to all of your emails. Just, you know, put in subject, you know, for the premiere or something like that.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:13

Yeah. Or go to our Discord.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:15

Yeah, also that.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:17

But yeah, we can uh set up like a different chat uh channel in there for questions specifically for the premiere episode.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:24

Yeah, and thereafter, if people have questions, they can submit their too, especially if they're not going to be able to watch the live up the live episodes. But I think that's it. Um I'm about to do something that I haven't done in a very long time. You ready? Oh my god, I haven't seen that in Alright, well, that's all the information I have for this week. Thank you so much for listening. Don't forget to follow us on our various social media platforms. Um I don't do we have a Twitter anymore?

SPEAKER_00 1:08:57

I mean, it still technically exists, but we may not use our Twitter. Maybe we'll migrate- We're probably not gonna bother with Twitter.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:06

Maybe we'll migrate to like Blue Sky or Threads or something.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:09

Yeah, I was thinking like maybe threads or blue sky because Twitter is just a cesspole that I don't really feel like dealing with anymore.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:16

But we will always make announcements on our Discord and on our Patreon.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:21

Yes. Don't forget, spread the word to your friends. We would uh really appreciate it. And like uh we said earlier, if you have anything that you would like to suggest as a topic for us to cover, you can email us at dungeonpedia.podcast at gmail.com or join our Discord, which we will have linked on our YouTube and everywhere. Everywhere, so you can easily access that.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:47

Thank you once again for listening, and we'll catch you on June 16th here on Dungeon Pedia.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:56

June 16th.