"Yikes That Is Brutal": Unexpected D&D Monster Remains Overpowered, Even After Day One Errata
A classic Dungeons & Dragons monster has a terrifying and overpowered ability that wasn't corrected despite the Monster Manual's "Day 1" errata. This week, Wizards of the Coast released a new Monster Manual, retooling many of the classic monsters from the 2014 version of the D&D core rulebook. Many monsters have revamped attacks, higher stats, or stronger abilities. However, a few monsters seem to have undergone unexpected changes that aren't in line with their intended purpose.
One such monster is the carrion crawler, a classic low CR monster. A large worm-like scavenger, the carrion crawler is a classic D&D monster known for raiding crypts searching for dead bodies to eat. The carrion crawler has tentacles that paralyze its unwilling prey, allowing it to eat fresher corpses. But the newest version of the carrion crawler's tentacles have unexpectedly ramped up its difficulty, leading to many fans complaining that the monster is more difficult than intended. The DnDNext subreddit has a popular post complaining about the monster's unexpected difficulty, with many speculating that it's a mistake.
How The Carrion Crawler Became One of D&D's Most Unexpectedly Powerful Monsters
The Carrion Crawler Benefits From A Powerful Paralysis Ability
The new version of the carrion crawler is a scourge against low-level player characters due to a change to its paralyzing tentacle ability. The new version of the paralyzing tentacles forces players to make a DC 12 Dexterity saving throw or become poisoned and paralyzed for a minute. While players can repeat the Dexterity saving throw every turn, paralyzed D&D characters automatically fail Dexterity saving throws. That means, if the player fails the initial Dexterity saving throw, the player is guaranteed to remain paralyzed for a full minute....which is very deadly if the carrion crawler is already attacking.
Keep in mind that any attack made against a paralyzed creature also has the advantage and is an automatic critical hit if it's successful. That means that if the carrion crawler attacks the paralyzed creature and is successful, it'll take 4d4+2d6+2 damage. That averages out to 19 points of damage, which is enough to one-shot a Level 1 or Level 2 player character in a single blow.
More than likely, this is a mistake, as the 2014 version of the Carrion crawler required a Constitution saving throw to shake off the paralysis. However, a Day 1 errata released for the Monster Manualon D&D Beyond made no mention of the carrion crawler. This seems to imply that the carrion crawler's potent paralysis is a feature and not a bug....at least for now. While we'd expect this to eventually get corrected, D&D players may want to watch out if a carrion crawler comes a-lurking in dungeons soon.
Our Take: An Unexpected Mistake In The Monster Manual
The Carrion Crawler Is One Monster That Desperately Needs Fixed Soon
The Carrion crawler isn't the only D&D monster with an attack that doesn't quite make sense in the new Monster Manual. Thanks to various optimizations made in all monster statblocks, the Carrion crawler now only needs one player to have an unlucky throw to be in for a world of hurt. Based on complaints we've seen on social media sites like Reddit, we'd expect to see this get patched up soon. Otherwise, Dungeons & Dragons players may look at the carrion crawler in a new light for the next decade or longer.
Source: Reddit/DnDNext, D&D Beyond
- Franchise
- Dungeons & Dragons
- Original Release Date
- 1974
- Publisher
- TSR Inc., Wizards of the Coast
- Designer
- E. Gary Gygax, Dave Arneson
- Player Count
- 2-7 Players
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