By: Chris Acuff

I will say, the main appeal of these guys is that they look weird as hell. 

What do you mean a floating brain with a bird beak and jellyfish tentacles? Who? Why? This thing is hell’s idea of a platypus and I love it. The official lore is that they’re kind of aberrant aliens, but they could be failed magical experiments, or a weird-ass pet for a weird-ass guy, however you want to incorporate them into your world. 

Like the Bulette, these guys are ambush predators, and should act as such. They’re not unintelligent, with a score of 12, but they’re only concern is for food, and they only work together to take down larger prey. (or perhaps, a party) In the past I have used these things as a kind of subterranean jellyfish, sorta floating around on their own and congregating once the party causes a commotion. Since they are smart enough to work together, they are also smart enough to have some self preservation, these guys SHOULD dip outa there, especially if they have a weak prey paralyzed in their tentacles. In 5.5 they don’t suffer half movement for moving with something grappled, which means if they get someone, they should immediately start trying to retreat to snack on their prey. 

This is fun! It can cause a chase sequence and high tension as the paralyzed wizard is whisked away by a brain-jellyfish-bird. 

I think my love for these guys comes from 2 places.

1. They’re really weird. A lot of monsters in DND have relatively normal or understandable vibes. Not the case with the Grell. They bring a bizarre alien horror that can be really useful for setting the tone in a weird dungeon or to emphasise how nuts a bad guy is for keeping a few of these on retainer
2. I think I just like ambush predator monsters. They force players to think and use their tools differently. I keep hinting at it, but I especially like these guys in addition to more normal enemies in a battle, because they are smart enough to go for the party member with the lowest constitution with it’s paralyzing tentacles. This creates a sub-plot within a larger battle, and if you haven’t picked up on that from my other posts, I am all about that. 

Other funky things these guys have going on is their immunities and senses, blindsight is dope, and part of the ambush predator vibe, but in lore it’s that they sense through a mix of sound and electrical fields. 

They’re also not so terribly strong at CR3, but they can help throw a wrench in an otherwise straightforward fight for an intermediately leveled party or be a potentially scary threat for a low level party going through an aberration themed adventure. Either way you use it, it is sure to be memorable.