Last week on the r/dnd reddit, we came to you for our first annual Monster Mayhem bracket! You all submitted your ferocious beasts and we have our first lineup; Gelatinous Cube vs. Flail Snail and The Shambling Mound vs. the Beholder. We will lay out the facts and history of these four beasts and then YOU will be the ones to decide on who proceeds forward on the r/dnd poll that will be released along side this article (meaning you can vote immediately after reading). Without further delay, lets get started!
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Gelatinous Cube vs. Flail Snail
How could we not put the two slimiest creatures against each other this week? Both have advantages and disadvantages that makes this a surprisingly balanced encounter when you consider the difference in AC and health. These two category large creatures are going to go neck-in-neck (do they even have necks?) this week to see who is the baddest and slimiest creature around.
Gelatinous Cube
The Gelatinous Cube comes to us from the classic and terrifying Monster Manual. The Gelatinous Cube is a Unaligned Ooze, not really caring about its devouring nature. I’ve always thought of it as a cell, just mindlessly trying to extend its existence by consuming nutrition (nothing personal, kid). While the Gelatinous Cube ranges in size, we are going to go with the average Large cube that we see in the Monster’s Manual.
The most detrimental edge the Cube has is the acid damage it inflicts to any organic matter it encounters. In an instant, any creature it is attacking could be digested by its Engulf ability that deals a disgusting amount of acid damage (6d6) at the start of the engulfed creatures turn.
On the other hand, it only has a movement of 15ft of movement per round. Meaning most adventures could scatter away before they have to worry too much. This actually gives the Cube advantage in this match up, with the Flail Snail only being able to move 10ft per round.
Flail Snail
The 5e version of the Flail Snail comes from our good friend Volo from Volo’s Guide to Monsters. The Flail Snail is considered an unaligned elemental creature, meaning that it’s more like an animal out in the wild rather than a monstrosity maliciously seeking out to do evil. It’s behavior on the Forgotten Realms Wiki is described as “completely non-aggressive until threatened”. Even with a docile nature, this wouldn’t stop people from activity seeking out the creature, as it produces a number of valuable resources that can be used in the creation of magical weaponry.
The Flail Snail has an extremely slow metabolism, causing it to be immune to poison and the thick mucus that covers much of the snail allows it immunity to fire. Although very cool, these immunities doesn’t exactly give it an advantage against the Gelatinous Cube’s acid attacks. On the flip side, it has a very low dexterity score(-3) and only a speed of 10ft per round. This could allow it to be easily swallowed up by the Cube’s Engulf ability. This doesn’t mean it hasn’t it’s own ways of combating against its jello foe.
The Flail Snail has the upper hand when it comes to the action economy. It’s Multiattack ability allows it to make as many Flail Tentacle attacks as it possesses. This could be quite detrimental to the Gelatinous Cube as each Flail Snail contains between 4-6 of these tentacles that extrude from its head, slowly swaying about, waiting to inflict 1d6+3 bludgeoning damage! Combine this with its 10 foot reach and +5 to its attack role, then the Gelatinous Cube might be in trouble.
Shambling Mound vs. Beholder
When I was putting together a part of this bracket, I thought that the Beholder would have an easy win. Alhtough, now that I have actually done the research and analyzed the Stat Blocks, I’m not too sure anymore. They are both pretty similar in terms of health and AC and the main difference (that makes a difference) is going to be the Challenge Rating. The Shambling Mound has a CR of 5 and the Beholder has a whopping 13. But hey, who uses Challenge Rating anyways?
Shambling Mound
The Shambling mound comes from the Monster Manual and can be found on page 270, right between the Shadow creature and the Shield Guardian. It is described as an unaligned plant and is spawned by the magical lightning of the fey (it’s giving me visions of a hippie version of Frankenstein’s Monster).
Lightning is a big part of this creatures anatomy. When struck by lightning damage, it will actually use that damage count and heal it self the same amount. It also benefits from resistance to cold and fire damage. One of its actions is the always nasty Multiattack where it will make two slam attacks, dealing a crippling 2d8+4 bludgeoning damage. Additionally, if the slam attack hits a medium or smaller target, it becomes grabbled and the creature can instantly use Engulf on its target. While this won’t work against the Large category Beholder, I still think it’s a sick move that DM’s can use.
Beholder
There is not much of an introduction that I can write that doesn’t pale in comparison to the Beholder’s historic reputation. It has haunted player’s since the very beginning of Dungeons and Dragons and it isn’t leaving anytime soon. It is so influential that it’s likeness is on the cover of the Monster Manual.
This is our first creature in the Monster Mayhem bracket that is maliciously evil. It’s lawful evil nature arises from it’s xenophobic nature and causes it to attack enemies that they deem as inferior to themselves. Which is pretty much everyone.
While not very strong, with a strength score of 0, the Beholder holds great magical power. Each of it’s eye stalks carries with it a different ray ability. The eye stalk’s rays range from a charm ray to a debilitating death ray that deals 10d10 necrotic damage. Not to forget to mention that it has a central eye that creates a 150ft cone of anti-magic, not allowing any magic to exist within this area.
The main fallback of the Beholder is it’s personality. They are famously vain and are easily tricked into traps or other disadvantages simply by challenging their ego.
Want to Implement this into Your Campaign?
I believe that both of these 1vs1’s would be hilarious to stumble upon during your party’s adventures. It could used to show how powerful an upcoming opponent could be. I would personally use it to weaken a stronger enemy before a weaker party encountered it. This would allow them to boast killing a strong enemy without the fear of a Total Party Kill.
Who do you think would win the combat above? Comment below your thoughts before next Sunday’s Monster Mayhem article!
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Resources:
https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Flail_snail
https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Shambling_mound
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