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Sentient beings: *exist* Neogi: it's free real estate

Neogi are the perfect evil civilization. Thank you for reminding me about them! Best DND channel on KZfaq!

"It's an ugly planet! A bug planet! A planet that is hostile to life as we know it!"

A Halloween special about some lower CR undead like wights and banshees would be great

I love how this broke down into you guys brainstorming how to put these into a campaign. Some good shit, man.

"Drowning the baby in the bathwater" is something I need to use one of these days

Two monsters!? What is this, Christmas in October?

I really like the idea of the Aboleth from your previous video guiding the Neogi, using its dominate on them, and then they use their dominate on others, and the neogi end up being like the mid-range creatures for the Aboleth's army. Because lets face it, an Aboleth, with all the time in the world, will get its hands on a Kraken soon enough, and other high level monsters as its personal guards, then to something else to extend it's reach. I like the setting of the Aboleth trying to take over to find Kua-Toa, or whatever species it is that can flat out create a reality if there are enough of them kind of like Warhammer Orks. To gather those creatures, which it would treat like super expensive pets, it needs to extend it's influence, to make sure it has the most chance of getting the reality shapers. (remember, gotta take down Gods) The Aboleth finds Neogi, figures out where they tend to come, with all the history of the world, and lays a trap at the landing zone. Maybe it gets MindFlayers that suddenly have to go to it to be able to breath. It forces them to do their blasts in an epic psychic battle on the landing, uses them up, and catches... I guess all the aboleth would need is three Neogi. A male, female, and host. Make sure the other neogi are hatched in the slime, and now it has them for life. Then it just uses them to extend its radius of power. As long as they are within a mile of the Aboleth, it controls them. It controls them to take over others, and as long as those others are in a mile of the Neogi that controls it, by extension the Abolth controls them too. Etc etc. It goes out specifically to gather super creatures, a Tarrarasque or what have you, as its interior protection. And boy howdy, that Aboleth is on its way to domination. Once it gathers enough reality shapers, it can take on a god. It controls them absolutely, and if enough of them believe in something, it happens. I would use the above plot if a player wanted one of the reality shaper species as its PC. Because then it becomes personal. But also if they are a heavily chaotic party. Because the lack of free will would really get under skin. It would be a fun way to drag players into a celestial conflict and to show off "there is always something bigger" to them.

Jim Davis messing around with the minis at the beginning of the video made me smile and reminded me that the weekend was near.

You guys are and continue to be the best. You deserve all of the success that is coming to you. Keep em comin.

I felt oddly compelled to watch this episode.

The way you guys describe Neogi kind of reminds me of the alien from "Slither." Small physically, focused on enslaving and building up an army of minions, psychically connected.

Dragon #403 Sept 2011, Class Acts-Warlock: Strange Constellations is the one that describes the Stars you are looking for.

keep the aberrations and extraplanar stuff coming! :) For those curious, the issue cited is Dragon Magazine No. 366, with fantastic Chris Seaman art. Star Pact warlocks ruled.

You guys probably just saved my campaign with these things, I was having trouble justifying my baddies and now I can just say "oh they were mind controlled the whole time"

The monster in the thumbnail is not a neogi, it is a young kruthik, found on page 211 of MToF. EDIT: They have since fixed the thumbnail. I can now rest peacefully.

Great video for me since I have actually started running a Spelljammer inspired campaign recently using 5E! You guys always do a great job breaking down the information and finding a way to inspire (as well as entertain) me with it! :D

I always learn so much from you guys, what a lovely diabolical duo! I will be using this at some point!

Our campaign has a rotating DM's chair, and I'm about to take over. The party just went through a portal to a drow stronghold deep in the Underdark, and wanting to leave the other DM's fey/drow story be, this video was the perfect inspiration for me! One of their party (my PC, hah) dragged off through a crack in the wall, they've gotta go rescue him from a ship full of neogi and various enthralled slaves that have holed up in a long-abandoned deep gnome community that the drow sealed up after a slave trade deal gone sour.

Awww yeah Neogi!! I love these guys. I made this cool dungeon out of a Neogi death spider that had become stranded in the shadowfell, my players were travelling on a magic river that flowed between planes. They had to hold up on this island on the river in the fell and wait a couple days until their guide said the river would take them back to the material plane. They'd already passed trhough Carceri and the Feywild, so they were cautious. They decided to explore the island, and spotted the strange giant metal spider, and after a while realized it was a vessel. So I didn't really know how the ships worked, so I came up with these psychic control orbs, and these sort of psychic IV rigged oars to control the legs, which were connected to slaves. The Neogi have been stuck, because the main control orb is in the Master's chamber, which is locked so he can't be killed by his underlings, and the master is dead. So all of the Neogi are trying to get through the door, using the Umber Hulks, at the back of the ship. There was a Beholder in the treasure hold, who was rigged by the master to wake up from a drug coma f anyone enterd without his permission, and some prisoners not so far gone as the others, who knew how to access the back room, and would use this to convince the less heroic players to free them. But my players never saw any of that. Anyways, the party figures out how to get on the ship, and went into the bridge. They immediately began messing with all the control orbs, which were fist sized orbs of coloured crystal, that required psychic power to use, but looked valuable and so were taken and shoved in bags as loot. They could see their little boat on the south end of the island through the front window, and were starting to get suspicious about this wierd spider ship they were on, when a Neogi patrol came into the cockpit. All hell broke loose as I described the weird eel spider monsters, and the party tried to kill them out of disgust alone. But one got away, and as the party argued about what to do, reinforcements, which included a couple Umber hulks, about a dozen neogi with firethrowers (a weapon that shot firebolts, and was equivalent to a heavy crossbow) and a bunch of Neogi hatchlings swarmed into the cockpit. It got crazy, and turned into a big fire fight. The umber hulk's confusion almost caused one of the strongest fighters to kill another player, and by the end everyone was trying to take cover behind the neogi control creche in the front of the ship, so someone would get pushed out of cover every round and shot, before diving back in and shoving someone else out. One PC was an Artificer, and so had some explosives, and he had been busy trying to blow open the window panel. I reasoned that the front window of a planar ship was probably strong stuff and so he only blew a head sized hole in it. The others used misty step to get out taking him along with, and leaving the druid behind (we have a house rule that you can take one person along for a misty step if you are carrying them, due to the wording of the spell) the druid, who was confused, snapped out of it and turned into a weasel, because he was out of slots. He forgot his pack though, and so a weasel was pulling a pack full of alien orbs out of the front window of a spider spaceship, as psychic eel spiders shot bolts of fire at him. It was pretty funny. The best part was that the party had only left enough control orbs to move one half of the ship at a time. So when the Neogi realized this I had them try to make a deal over a loud speaker with the PC's. "We have many treasures, and much desire to trade. We have no intention of dominating your pathetic brains and enslaving your disgusting meat. Come back and be intrigued by our many very good deals." The PC's sailed around the island for a couple days, while the big metal spider hobbled around after them, some poor neogi constantly trying to sell them on trading back the orbs. Of course because they are PC's they were tempted, but their guide told them the river was open, and they left the neogi behind, trapped in the shadowfell.

I was just looking at Neogi this morning in Volo's, now here this is!

The "Mini" highlights at the end were a cool touch. Hope to see that again!

I come for the thumbnails, and I stay for the outros. This is my favourite channel to listen to while doing chores or working.

I recommend using them like Xenomorphs, lurking in the shadows stalking prey that seems good to control. Also a horde of them could easily take over an ancient white/black dragon's(13/15 wisdom respectively) brood. Perhaps an ice cave that led into a frozen area of the fey wilds/underdark.

Neogi are like super hardcore Narcississts-Egoists. "Nothing is more real than a man and his property" (where he considers literally every(one/thing) as his property)

If you guys actually read your comments just know that I love you. I would not be a better dm today if not for y'all. So much inspiration and info I love to watch every video.

Dragon Magazine-366 for Star Pact Warlock & Dragon Magazine-393 for Star Pact Hexblade FYI

GASP! TYPO IN THE SUMMARY! (love you guys, keep rockin)

I've always wanted to make an extraplanar insectile group like the D&D equivalent of Zerg meets Borg, who've encountered, overrun, and assimilated groups of Neogi, Umber Hulks, Chitines and Choldrith, all sorts of creepy bug types. Might make a good foe for a campaign, the Swarm or something

I once wrote an adventure where the party found themselves stuck in an auction house run by a Neogi. They found themselves rubbing elbows with a Goblin lord, a Drow Matron Mother, a Mind Flayer, a Baelnorn, and other unsettling companions. The Neogi's lawyer was an Arcanoloth. I even had a scene where they all had dinner together. All very Agatha Christie in feel. One of my favorites.

Been waiting so hard for this

Fantastic work as always! By the way I loved the aside you had at the end to discuss your miniatures, I know I for one would love to see more of them up close, perhaps in a short video of their own!

All the talk of minis at the end kind of inspired me to start working on my 40k army again

An episode on survival would be awesome

Hi, i'm from Italy and i really love your show! I'm now mastering an adventure and your show is truly full of insipiration and ideas for me! I really liked this episode Just like the others and i loved the miniatures showcase at the end, can i see some more of them?

Never heard of Neogi before today and I had always thought Umbral Hulks were an underarm native monster until this video. I really need to get a hold of some AD&D Planescape books sometime

Speaking of enemies escaping,just make sure that the party still gets the EXP from the fight,if you don't reward EXP without the party killing everything they will turn into murderhobos and never let anything escape nor will they ever spare anyone's life.

My divine soul goblin once enslaved a umberhulk to get out of the underdark. It was great he brought us straight up to the surface.

Okay, the Neogi have their thralls sell their hatchings as pets to spread out as quickly as possible.

The Bright Wizard looks like It could be from the old AD&D action figure line. I like it.

I work with Guam Rails, Jim. Thanks for the species shout out. Friggin Brown Tree Snakes....

I'm about to run Neogi in my game. Perfect timing.

Make their poison addictive

If Neogi have spider climb, then their ships don't need fake gravity. Watch the party members get thrown about as the ship changes rotation constantly on one axis while in space and the Neogi just don't care!

two for the price of one loving it

The Dragon mag article you're refering at 21:00 about the star pack warlock is called Wish Upon A Star by Bruce Cordell . It was published in the 4e Dungeon magazine Annual and Dragon #366 www.dmsguild.com/product/142876/Dragon-366-4e?filters=0_0_0_45349_0_0

3:08 Wait...Mostly Just your mind? XD

I need more content of Jim's mini collection

Bugs: *exist* Gary gygax: what if this was 50 times bigger and more powerful

Thank you, was fun.

For some reason, I always picture the neogi as being like the Ferengi, but with less in the way of scruples or morals lol.

"You just have this cycle of dominance and violence and possession and control" Huh. Sounds Like Paultin Seppa.

Let it begin

Couldn't find the dragon article, but if you look up Neogi on the Forgotten Realms wiki they have articles on those star patrons.

Umber Hulks have a awesome name and looks cool

This is just the Chimera Ant Arc of the D&D universe.

i love the thumbnail

Dr Smith in the 1998 Lost in Space turned into a Neogi.

I randomly watched this over a year ago while researching ghosts for a one-shot I was preparing. My poor party has been slowly honed and gently nudged towards a plot for a whole year now and has no idea that they're going to run into these cuties very, very soon, as they have completely infested and corrupted an entire mountain range under the Mror Holds in Eberron. I'll tell them it's entirely your fault.

The Neogi remind me of the little alien spiders from the Lost In Space movie.

These things remind me of the worms from MIB. Weeeeengaaaaaaaa. Could add some dark humor to these guys I feel. Lots of potential.

In my regular game the BBEG (whom my PC's sister serves) also teleported. I loved it! But my PC broke down (the BBEG stole an artifact from the team and my PC still blame herself).

Hope this hasn't been mentioned in the Episode and I missed it, but I can't stop thinking about Goa'Uld from that Stargate Series. Just let these buggers rest Inside their victims bodys. Would make them more vunerable if their host get's blasted to pieces tho'.

MORE MINIS!!!

Thought they were going for a thanos reference when they said you had to go for the head XD

@ 7:41 I guess Roll20 is run by Neogi.

one word, Dnyarri

I tried to eat lunch while watching this episode... I failed.

I don't know how other DMs run their games, but it seems that the monsters usually have instinctive knowledge of the PCs in our games, but the players always encouter an unknown monster that they can't discern anything from looking at it even though they are basically professional monster slayers :D.

I need a video on hobgoblins lol

I find the best way to teach someone new the dangers of an ability, is target the creature who has the highest save, then all the players are like "wait, what is it doing?" Then you can take the gloves off and target anyone and they won't be pissed, plus it builds tension

The advantage of having Small creatures with ranged abilities is that you can riddle the dungeon with tunnels and tiny holes to spy through, that the monsters can access and operate in. I've been wanting to have an Illithid base with crawl spaces that cranium rats can hang out in, acting as the eyes and ears for the Mind Flayer. And when the party finally engages the Mind Flayer, the cranium rats are in the walls, looking out through tiny holes around the room, continually reading the minds of the party. The only thing they do is read minds, then feed that data back to the Illithid telepathically, so he gains Advantage or imposes Disadvantage against everything the party does. So if the party wants to put a stop to it, they need to realize the cranium rats are there, and eliminate them, taking away this Advantage against individual party members. For Neogi, the process is basically the same. All the enslaved minions use the main hallways, but the Eel Spiders walk around secret service ducts or little tunnels, peeking through grates or spyholes. Trying to enslave intruders as they are making their way through the lair. Occasionally activating traps manually, or releasing enslaved minions from confinement areas around the dungeon.

Weren’t umber hulks the first race they found?

I like the idea of them having all these diverse slaves, all the questions about why they'd work together.

Has anyone taken notice of the video description? "The want tn enslave you."

I would be down for a whole episode that is just showing off minis!

The thumbnail depics a Kruthic from Mordenkainens tome of foes.

Neogi 2: The New Batch

I made a neogi NPC who was true neutral, (and a level 15 warlock) and had made it through his life by enslaving other neogi, being lucky, and being duplicitous, but most of all by providing quality slave products to creatures throughout the spheres. His bonds are capitalism and a good trade. He loves nothing more than trading goods and making a healthy profit at a fair price, as well as creating repeat customers, and has realized that in order to sell, he really should make sure he doesn't alienate potential customers by enslaving them. His ship crashed onto the planet the party was on, and the party killed a whole bunch of neogi, only one of them got enslaved but that was brief, because there were 3 archers in the party. They killed a number of umber hulks as well, but the party really kind of caught them with their metaphorical pants down (there were only like 4 umber hulks outside the ship), but this neogi has become a reluctant player favorite with his menagerie of creatures in an extradimensional prison inside the ship, and a willingness to trade.

Your talking about them as if they are chaotic evil but they are lawful, they have a hiarchy and their enslavement ability isn't a free for all against each other

Dragon Magazine 393 Revelations of Melech sidebar On a side note, trying to figure out why Hadar and Glasya would work together for a campaign and the sheer amount of lore and understanding I have to figure out and plot has given me a headache to the point I worry my brain has either turned to mush or ascended to a level it shouldn't have.

What books are neogi and umber hulks in?

How did you guys rule on the helmsman's spell slots because I feel like all of the spellslots being consumed is going to be a little boring for the player.

Sweet

Always said it as ... knee og ee

I feel like Y'all could do a whole episode on miniatures

Can't remember what the name is, but Tome Of Foes has an astral aboleth that'd be perfect for what ya'll want.

So would this episode be called a Creature Double Feature?

but are they Doc Brown spider monsters?

Good video! But at 16:16 Jim starts to make some kind argument and I want to know what he was trying to say... It starts with "Here is an example of why CR is less of a science and more of an art: both the troll and the umber hulk is CR 5 creatures." Jim states that the umber hulk is straight up better in many ways and then gets sidetracked. Can someone explain to me what point he was getting at?

There is probing but mostly just your mind... mostly.

Where did Umber hulk's come from? They're such a weird monster; do they have a specific influence from some fantasy book? Ty

And this is why I miss high lvl 2nd edition fighters

I would subscribe again if I could because of that One Punch Man t-shirt.

What book has Neogi stats in it? I'm not seeing it in the Monster Manuel.

Another Thursday vid?

Omg. Pokemon. Neogi are just building decks. Sheisty little Cartmans.

Dragon #214 p. 52

Wait, are you the same guys that made "Three in the Afternoon" and "Six in the Morning?"