Some of the Elemental Beacon staff members are currently engaged in a homebrew campaign named The Wrath of the Ghoul Emperor, run by myself. It is a homebrew campaign based in a continent named Conia where a self-proclaimed emperor is raging war against the humanoids that came from the Forgotten Realms to colonize the land.
During one arc of the campaign, the party had to visit an island to help some locals with their business. Here, they find out that the villagers are constantly attacked by a savage tribe of cannibals. The party decides to investigate this further since, after talking with some locals, they understand that the cannibals might be somehow related to one of the main allies of the BBEG. They decide to travel towards the cannibals’ village to investigate further.
It was time then to come up with some cannibal homebrew monsters for them to fight. Let’s learn how I did it.
The hierarchy of the tribe
The first thing I had to figure out was how is the tribe organized. They must have a leader, and maybe some warriors and hunters. Lastly, the commoners.
This was quite easy to create. They must have a leader, and what best leader for a tribe of savages if not a shaman? The tribe also needs someone to protect them, and also they would be the ones hunting and attacking the human village. These are the cannibal warriors. And lastly, the cannibal commoners, taking care of everyday things.
They also should probably have some kind of animals that they can use as pets. For that, I decided to use two Tembrils from the Tome of Beasts 2 by Kobold Press.
With this in mind, it’s time to create some stat blocks.
The Cannibal Commoner stat block
Starting with the most basic of all of them, the Cannibal commoner stat block is fairly simple to come up with. They should be weak but not as weak as a normal commoner, with one attack only just because it does not sound realistic that a cannibal would not be attacking even if they are just a commoner. The most obvious attack for a cannibal is a Bite attack.
With this in mind, here is the stat block I came up with:
The 2d8+2 HP should ensure that the Cannibal is not a one-hit enemy. It could be on a low HP roll, but not all the time. The Bite attack damage is low enough to be more an annoyance than an actual danger. Of course, it really depends on what level the party is. If you throw too many of these on a party they will become dangerous simply because of the action economy. Be mindful of the number of enemies you are using and they should be very easy to deal with, as intended.
In my campaign, I had about 15 of them in the tribe but spread around the village and they were coming in waves of 2-4. Some of them were also more frightened than others and would only attack if a player would attack them.
I could not share this stat block publicly because DNDBeyond.com considers it too similar to another creature’s stat block.
The Cannibal Warrior stat block
Now things start to get interesting. The Cannibal Warrior is a fun monster to play since it is quite skilled in combat and it has a nice reaction.
The warriors are the bodyguards of the shaman, they must protect the commoners and also hunt. I think a good inspiration for this kind of creature is the Monk class. They should rely mostly on unarmed strikes and have some way of defending themselves from enemies.
For this reason, I think that the Unarmored Defense feature is a good one to boost their AC a bit. They should be wise since they are hunters and the commoners look upon them. That justifies a little boost in Wisdom, which also boosts AC because of the Unarmored Defense. I renamed it Cannibal Defense for flavor.
For their self-defense, I think they could have had a reaction. They are savages, they can play dirty, and that’s exactly what they do. How about giving them a bag of sand that they can use to blind the attacking enemy?
A few of them can quickly become dangerous if played right, so mind the numbers.
Here is the stat block that I created:
They have quite some HP, enough to last a few rounds of combat. Their reaction gives them a chance to avoid an attack if the Hit dice reduction is high enough. The multiattack with three attacks also gives them the versatility to deal with multiple players at once, and if in a group, they can give a hard time to a higher-level party. The catch is that their AC is relatively low at only 14.
The Cannibal Warrior would not attack alone, it would at least group up with a couple of commoners or another warrior. They would always try to use their Bag of Sand at first. If they understand that the attacking player is not a skilled fighter and has low chances to hit them, they would save it up for the fighters of the party instead.
Their +1 INT and +2 WIS give them the ability to play tactically on the field and use the environmental advantages as best as they can, and also a bit of knowledge of combat strategy. They are hunters, after all, they know how to collaborate with each other to take down prey.
If you like this stat block, you can add it to your collection using this link.
Cannibal Shaman stat block
And for the main course, the leader of the tribe, the Cannibal Shaman.
This creature is of high intelligence and has the ability to cast spells. That’s how they became the leader of their tribe. Their AC and HP should be relatively low, but their spells should be powerful, to compensate for their weakness. They are not skilled in melee combat, so they will try to keep their distance from the party, blasting them with spells while the warriors keep them occupied.
The shaman also would not come out of their tent immediately when the combat starts. They would wait in there until the situation requires their intervention. When they come out, they are calm and confident. They don’t need to run ahead towards the party, they can blast them from 120 ft. away with Eldritch Blast while they approach. They know that they are powerful and they try to frighten the party with their confidence.
For the list of spells in their arsenal, I chose mostly spells that they can cast from a distance. They have Inflict Wounds and Blight if someone gets too close, with the opportunity to upcast them at level 5. They have a few defensive spells like Shield and Mage Armor, which they cast before entering combat to boost their AC and stay alive, and Hellish Rebuke to burn down any ranged player that tries shooting at them with a ranged weapon or spells.
If they have to deal with a group, they would not hesitate to cast a Fireball or Vitriolic Sphere, and if all of their allies die, they can Summon Undead to help them or make the player drop their weapon with Heat Metal, or even better, burn them in their own full plate that they so much love. They also would not consume all of their best spells when they enter combat. They would keep them for the big finale, if necessary.
Be mindful of when you introduce this foe. If the party is already engaged with many commoners and warriors, the shaman will be their death sentence.
You can find the stat block here:
If you want to add this creature to your collection, here is its page.
A tribe in your campaign
Do you like these monsters’ stat blocks? Are you thinking to use them in your own campaign? If you do, please let me know in the comments how it went, and how you used them!
Featured image by Manyu Varma on Unsplash.
