- So there's gotta be
some pretty epic monsters
I have to expect now, (laughs) right?
- There are some pretty
epic monsters, yeah.
So we literally made a pass
through every creature card printed
for Theros blocks to see
what needed to be on cards.
The beauty is that D&D and Theros
both draw from a lot of the
same wells in Greek mythology.
There's a lot of things
in the Monster Manual
already that you would
expect to find in Theros.
But um, (clears throat) we did
a brief section talking about
how certain monsters like Cyclopes,
what their particular role in Theros is.
There's a couple of additional stat blocks
for monsters like hydras,
including one legendary hydra, Polukranos,
who played a prominent role in
the first Theros block story and cards.
There's a build your own chimera system,
and then there's a couple of monsters
that are designed to -
- I have to interrupt you there. (laughs)
Is this like the Build-A-Bear
version of chimeras?
- I think of it more like the
horrors in the Ravnica book,
so they're basically, here's the chassis
and you can put different heads on it.
So yeah, Build-A-Bear I
guess is right, TM. (laughs)
- Uh-oh, it's going to get real creepy,
it's gonna get so creepy. (laughs)
I can't wait for this. (laughs)
I can't wait to build my own chimera.
- So Ben Petrisor, when we
were talking about chimeras
and like, well, you know,
if we do that monster class,
how do we kind of, because when
you look at the Magic card,
every chimera's got a
different array of heads,
and so Ben went off into his meta-bunker
and just madly came up
with all this cool stuff
and when he showed that
to us, we were just like
Oh my God, so fun!
So yeah, such a fun list of tables
and that's kind of what I did for that day
was just like, making
chimeras one after the other,
I'm like, Ben, this is cool!
So, yeah, kudos to him,
he did a great job.
- What other kind of other epic monsters
can we expect in this?
- Well, yeah, you can
expect all the big bads
that you see in the Magic sets,
so my favorite, of course, is Polukranos,
which is the world destroying hydra
that shows up every now and then.
It's an enormous,
devastatingly awesome hydra,
and yeah, it's all statted out,
they have these enormous stat blocks,
and yeah, you can fight this
thing, uh, at your own peril.
But it also, it lines up
with the vibe of Theros,
that you're gonna start out
as a first-level character,
you're going to feel this pull
of your destiny calling you,
it's going to be an amazingly
hard destiny to achieve,
as are all good Greek destinies,
like, you've gotta go
get the golden fleece,
you gotta go sail across this area
and go to the lair of the
Medusa and steal something,
or talk to her and try to barter with her
to get some secret,
and then that leads to somewhere else
and you're gonna go on
this sort of pathway,
this odyssey of the gods.
And then eventually it's going to lead
to something horrendously huge,
like a kraken, or hydra, or some
of these mythic beasts
that we've got in here.
Ben, again, has cooked
up some amazing monsters
to fight at that moment when you are,
your party is, your Argonauts have reached
this 15th or 20th level, and
now you can fight a monster
that's of this mythic level.
And there's this special
system that's been designed
on how to fight these mythic monsters,
cause they're basically giant kaiju,
and you've gotta figure
out, like it's not just
the way you fight most D&D monsters.
There's levels of, you defeat this
and then this thing happens,
so that is something that, as a DM,
you're gonna get to feast
on when you open this book
and see those monsters and
you're gonna, you know,
then start to plot, like
okay, that's the endgame,
now build the path to it.
- We wanted to do something that,
what does it mean if we
want this mythic experience
to kind of emulate a Greek hero taking on
a monster right out of myth, right?
And so we created this mythic monster.
We have three, three in
this book that kind of show
how an encounter can last
beyond a three-turn encounter,
that this an experience by itself
that evolves throughout the
course of the encounter.
And so these mythic
monsters go through changes.
They have, I don't think
evolutions is the way to go,
but they kind of change in some way,
they have to recalculate
how you're going to
deal with this thing as
you're fighting them,
and they're a ton of fun,
and of course you've got your things like
a mythic kraken, and yeah -
- I'm sold.
- Yeah, that's it, right?
Yup, get it, mythic kraken.
This is a home-run book, got it. (laughs)
- Yeah, so you can, you basically apply
almost a new monster type onto
some other existing monster types?
So, there is a mythic version
of a couple of these things?
- Yeah, I don't remember,
I don't actually know
how it ended up being tagged,
if mythic was a thing.
But, you know that, basically what it is,
it's an action type.
So there are kind of
mythic actions that happen,
only if they have gone
through that transformation.
- Okay, so now we have legendary actions
and now we have mythic actions
on top of this as well.
- And so, it unlocked this new technology
that really kind of allows us to build
these kind of capstone monsters,
especially for higher-level play,
if you really kind of dig deep
into that Greek style hero,
and you wanna do that at high-level play,
and you're playing with these things
where you have you're
small group of heroes
that are gonna take on
this legendary kraken,
well, that's fantastic.
That's exactly the type
of cinematic experience
we're trying to build.
- How many monsters are we looking at?
I mean, this is insane because, a,
that's like my favorite part of D,
one of my favorite parts
of D&D are the monsters,
and to have a new monster system
where monsters evolve over time
is a massively cool addition to D&D.
And also making your own hydra
(laughs) is pretty cool too.
- Yeah, I mean, there are,
I think there's, what,
the three mythic monsters and
that kind of gives you a sense
of how they were built and you can see it
and go, oh, and then from there,
create your own mythic monsters.
And also, and then there's just a ton
of really high-level super bad monsters,
like you get, there's,
well you have Polukranos,
you get I think, what is it,
Typhon, there's the phylaskia,
which are these skeletons
that sort of guard
the barrier between the
underworld and Theros itself.
So there's plenty of monsters
in there to check out.
The bestiary is nice and big and robust,
and there's all your favorites in there.
And you get to look at
them, see how they're built,
and also there's new kinds of harpies,
and things that we already have that,
like the chimera is, I
think that's the marquis
of all the chimera, the
build your own chimera list.
So yeah, there's a ton of stuff there
that people are just gonna dig and love.
I'm looking forward to
seeing all the cool stories
that people come up with.
- I am terrified by the idea
of multi-evolving monsters
(laughs) in game.
Yeah, that's a whole new
mechanic for D&D, right?
- Yep, yeah.
There was a lot of hard work put on that,
a lot of play testing,
and yeah, they did an amazing job,
and to see that come out and then,
and to have it be a story, as well,
to say that as you fight this thing,
these things are happening,
and then it's changing and evolving,
and you almost get this sense of, like,
the god that is actually
kind of loves, say,
a monster like Polukranos, whether that's
Pharika, or whether that's
Nylea, or whoever it is
that that creature is their baby,
and you're fighting it,
the god is putting energy
into that to keep that thing alive.
And also, to test the champion,
to say like, well, are you a
hero enough to beat this thing?
Cause not only are you
beating the monster,
but you're also beating
the god behind the monster,
and then, and sometimes, like
in all great Greek myths,
we are the pawns that are, the gods
are fighting each other with.
So if I'm a champion of Iroas,
and I'm fighting Polukranos,
that maybe Nylea loves, or
that maybe Karametra loves,
or that maybe Pharika loves,
it's now Iroas versus Pharika,
and they're kind of at
each other's throats.
So now I'm caught in the middle, you know,
and I'm doing the best
I can, so, as a hero.
So it's fun. It's fun that way.
