Just wanted to make a comment here, as this video has been getting some criticism. Some of this criticism is very fair, and some less so. Essentially, the broad counterargument is "monsters are heavily tied to statues, sure. But they're heavily tied with other objects. That doesn't mean we stop using them." And, sure. I kind of agree. Most of my videos assume a continuity of sorts across a fantasy world's history, through which practical learnings are transmitted as folk tales, taboos, and ghost stories. And in the corpus of d&d monsters there's an awful lot of these statues that move that can be used for deadly purposes. My argument isn't that each society has a minor crisis and gets very scared of their own statues, but that based on the prevalence of living statues, artistic trends develop in a different way to our own - towards statues in more abstract forms, more set in with surroundings, and suchlike, rather than the freestanding figure. I do stand by the idea that art would respond to the threat of folkloric tales,(as we can see in the prevalence of things like evil eye wards in history jewellery.) These artistic traditions will only be solidified if the folkore is proven true every so often! This is not an attempt to call romanesque figurine statuary stupid, or claim that fantasy that uses a realistic style of statuary is plainly incorrect, but to provoke a discussion of other ways we can visually represent things, and hopefully learn something along the way. Hope this helps, Tom.

Rule 4: "No one carves statues of frightened warriors. If you see one, keep your eyes closed and your ears open."

carving giant spheres for potentially angry gods just asks for a indiana jone style boulder massacre.......

Adventurers see animated statues as monsters because they are often invaders and thieves. Even in our world, statues were used as guardians to stave off spirits and even living creatures. One animated terracotta soldier in the middle of a completely mundane army might be enough to make an orc warband choose to take a detour.

i think the problem with this thesis is that it assumes that animating statues is the only possible form of animation. i think the reason mad wizards use statues is *because* statues are the prevalent artistic status quo. if the world was full of giant cheese wheels then we would be seeing a lot more cheese wheel golems with magic custom built to turn them into things that kill. it's causation vs correlation, i guess. we've had plenty of examples of creatures in tabletop settings disguising themselves as *everything*, from mimics to flying portraits to whatever the hell an alraune is sometimes depending on the myth, to living dolls remember that people in these settings *do* invent their spells, there are D&D spells named "tasha's hideous laughter" and so on and so forth. whatever ritual they made to animate these statues was built on the premise that such statues exists, and i'm sure a crafty lich with too much time on their hands would come up with a way to keep those magically thin necked statues alive

I really like the idea that all statues are made with manacles, the stone carved to form bindings around the ankles, chaining the statue to the ground

The paranoid elf arguing why not to walk into the dwarven stronghold covered in beautiful stone carvings

If it’s scary, then statues are good for intimidation I actually love putting lifelike statues in my games sometimes just to mess with players. Sometimes a statue is just a statue

This assumes they dont want the statues to come to life. That the statues are not supposed to bring fear to the populace.

For one of my major trade cities, they build statues out of heroes and kings that are enchanted to animate during times of crisis to help defend and protect the city

Now I'm imagining stone busts kept in crypts that cast spells meant to kill rodents to keep the corpses safe from desecration, but they also guard against grave robbers. These busts might be of the dead, or perhaps of depictions of spirits meant to protect and guide the dead

The deity thing could go both ways though with gods rewarding people who manage to make good impressions of them. ALso a god being able to see through a statue may allow them to grant better protection(very handy in a monster filled world). So making realistic statues of deities might be a double edged sword. I can't remember where but I have read a story that plays with this idea, where being the sculptor of the goddesses statue was both a great honour and great risk either ensuring your family's place in the community(as none would harm you and risk divine wrath) or lead to an early death.

I think this one a bit silly, in a way that feels more like trying to outsmart the genre than do critical worldbuilding. Yes, in a D&D world there's always a chance that a realistic statue is construct in disguise, but any given piece of furniture in a room could also be a mimic. That doesn't mean every culture is stabbing their front doors with knives every morning and bludgeoning their bedframes with hammers every night, though!

If statues are among the worst things in D&D, Gazebos are the absolute worst.

I think statue monsters only exist because of statues already being an ancient aspect of culture. They’re often massive and form the centerpieces of locations i.e town squares, palace foyers and the like. So it makes sense for them to double as guardians from a pragmatic as well as stylistic perspective

Plot twist: monsters have a taste for beauty and simply carve sculptures for themselves.

I just assumed that statues are there for this explicit reason. Sort of the "in case of fire, break glass" scenario. Maybe it's more "there's no legitimate reason to have this 12 ft gladiator statue", but reliefs and busts are the norm in public places. Now I feel like any good defensible position should have statue protectors at the ready during the fallback. Thanks for the video and idea. Folding into future plans.

You put the statues of your ciry gods near the harbor or gates. Anyone trying to enter or invade the city would have to chance that the gods are watching and might take an active roll in the defence.

In a world where the relief-style is used to bind statues, I really like the idea of the group noticing a relief that was carved in inverse: Things that should be protruding out of the wall are instead recessed. What a curious style of statue this culture uses! Most of the figures look to the side, however, with high enough perception or maybe culture, the heroes might notice that where they would expect breasts and abs, the relief instead shows the peoples backs, and the one statue not looking to the side has no face, but rather just a full head of hair. Yeah, those statues weren't carved like that, they walked out.

Hey, Real interesting ideas. I particularly like the load-bearing and caricature versions. I would say, though, that in most settings you could imagine that statues (realistic or not) are more likely to be a boon than a liability, changing the cost-benefit analysis. That statue of a deity might have an aura that buffs people defending the city, or acts as a zone of truth, or cure the sick on full moons, or fully animate to warn the townsfolk and protect them in times of great danger. This statue of the Duke might provide a way for nonmagical people to call him to aid when needed, or maybe act as his eyes and ears (might be good or bad depending who said Duke is), ... That still implies a completely different treatments of statues than in a world where they are all mundane.

That makes me think of how to play off of this. 1. Establish that there usually are no free standing, full-body statues. 2. Describe an area that has one or more such statues, letting the players know that their characters has an unsettling feeling about the area but are not sure why. 3. Have them remember or realize why. 4. (optional) roll initiative

10:30 Great, you just combined deadly statue with “Rocks fall, everyone dies”

but my world is in a Renaissance-like setting! IT MAKES SENSE FOR MY WORLD!!!

My monk in my wife’s game was attacked by cultists who pretended to be statues, now he’s at a disadvantage anytime he’s near a statue.

In The Lord of Mysteries novel, there used to be a time when the gods walked and ruled on the earth, and during this time, it was popular to depict them with statues. But during the present time of the setting, building statue representations of the gods is highly taboo, and all the different churches and temples strictly use symbols associated with their gods. It's to the point where when the protagonist of the novel explores an old temple and finds a statue of a goddess, he becomes really confused and creeped out because it's widely known that all the churchs strictly ban any kind of anthropomorphic representation of their gods and the protagonist is shocked to discover that it wasn't always the case.

The reason defacing a statue warrented the death penalty in ancient times was because defacing a statue was murder. The act of defacing causes the god to suffocate.

1:10 almost like a lot of the culture and aesthetics present in DnD are inspired by Europe lol.

The painful hesitation before "a Medusa" was wonderful to behold. I'm with you there.

Obelisk’s and Carvings! I believe they would replace statues, in that world.

Bit of irony in this video and "why only humans use golems" by NetNarrator coming out within an hour of each other.

Tale of the Manticore dropped the latest pod on June 1, featuring an entire hall of magical statutes. Coincidence? I think not.

Vanity will forever draw man to solidify himself in nigh immortality, one way or another.

It is a Medusa lair. Time to start casting Greater Restoration.

This reminds me of that Treehouse of Horror episode of The Simpsons where the giant advertising mascot statues spring to life and start terrorizing Springfield like Kaiju. Be fun to do something similar in a magipunk setting, where your players' showcase encounter is against the in-universe equivalent of the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.

I find this idea really interesting. But, counter idea, all statues are known to be homes for spirits or the gods. They are all defenders of a society, all golems. And offerings are made to them. In that society, if youbsee a statue, you dont suspect it may move, you know it will whn the gods command it.

Well thats just unfair, one of my current characters is a living statue of an ancient hero

Let’s not forget that dead gods float around as petrified corpses in the astral plane. Depicting a deity in stone could well be seen as a threat.

Only Grungeon Master can talk about symbolic statues then immediately and unironically suggest putting shackles and manacles on statues of people without mentioning the obvious symbolism there.

I don't think people would rely on manacles. They would probably have some engraved spell formula or ritual that blocks animation of statues. And probably a second set on manacles. At least any done in a population center or master.

Imagine doing something similar to the trojan horse, where u gift the rival City with a realistic statue in order to it wreak havoc later

Aesthetics trumps everything.

You do also need to remember, in forgotten realms the deities are legit powered by prayer and faith, and stop existing if they don't get it, and can be changed by worship and belief. Clerics also for the longest time had to pay dues in D&D, and putting the money to giant statues likely generates a good deal of prayer and faith.

From a set dressing standpoint, photo realistic statues fit in right along with abstract and "impressionist" statues. All D&D settings are populated by at least three dozen distinct sentient races. Many of which are either aberrations, fey, or fiends with wholly alien minds compared to humans and the various humanoid mortal races. Lizardfolk are gonna have wildly different art standards and traditions than gnomes. From a game mechanics standpoint, statues prove that the bard has the best spell list in the game. Not only do they get all the good illusions, all the psychic damage, and potential access to both fireball and spirit guardians. Bards get both Awaken and Animate Objects. "This is Dave. He's a bear, and he's my best friend for the next thirty days. Next to him is Steve. He's a one hundred foot tall stone depiction of the nameless and forgotten kraken god, and he's our best friend for the next," checks watch, "forty-five seconds."

Imagine walking out to your garden one day and there's just a statue there that you've never seen before.

I love this channel; it has quickly become my favorite d&d content on youtube. I love how deeply you consider the practical and logical consequences of worldbuilding elements.

Now I want to make hyper realistic statues of people in a state of terror.

Abstract sphere statues covered in decorative lines would be seen as safe right up until some malevolent statue-making mage comes up with the idea of bakugan.

I think the real issue is how separated adventure life is from common life. Statues are commonplace in big cities because no statue monster would be caught dead in a place with so many eyes and guards. And humans specifically when surrounded by people who could have known their ancestors, could desire to immortalize themselves or others in carved statues

I wouldn't even be too sure about relief statues. Just because they look like they are bound to the stone, doesn't mean they really are. This is also why some people may want to create impressive statues that really could be a dangerous thing; to ward off those who are not in the know.

These are probably the most educational D&D videos out there

Interesting ideas. Enjoyed the video! I could imagine a noble society that likes to collect the frozen statues of basilisk victims or something so they can decorate their lawns.

tensegrity statues could work to fix the earthquake problem. they could be bound by wires that hold the statues together, but the proportions are too spindly to break the binds safely.

A fun twist on that from a book (I won’t name it here because this is a huge twist and it’s fairly popular) but there’s statues that decorate the city that are actually intended to be animated and were actually used in this setting’s ‘great offscreen war’ so basically the whole what I’d they were animated getting implemented

Statues have an inherent air of arcanity to them. Just like lanterns and bells

I used a very horrible idea of several goddess statues in the ancient Greek & Roman world, yes you would get attacked by living statues that are butt naked of Selûne, Shar, Eilistraee, Lolth, Sune! Several clerics & paladins rolled and got fate points during that encounter, they paid me 2 quattro stagioni pizzas to do it again years later, RIP team will miss you,

i think another important factor in this is religion and idols, the ancient people saw the idols they made as being a "body" for the gods, and was therefore a place both for them to come to the god and make offering but also was a place for the god to act from increasing there reach and influence. so if we apply that logic to our fantasy worlds, then the various gods still need a body to act from, so idols would still need to be constructed. and perhaps in times of need said idol is animated by the god

When you started talking about European statues, for some reason, the first thing that came to my mind were gargoyles; scary inhuman statues intended to ward off bad spirits or something of the sort...

10:05 : imagine a low Bering pillar with a statue then casting animate objects for the purpose of collapsing the building but they just start struggling to move as they are connected to the pillar.

Rows apon rows of exagerated nosed busts of Dwarven heroes past, acting as the pillars of a vast comemerative space in the city for all to see and venerate the dead. Pride captured in stone.

The issue I have with this interpretation is that most of the statue monsters are constructs made by mages for their own purposes. Servitors, maybe ones whose masters are gone, but there wouldn't be people around those.

necromancer statuemaker you can hire to preserve your memory and protect your family by having a statue made in your image that is then animated using your very soul

First time the party sees statues: regular statues. Second time: living statues. Third time: inanimate vanities of a nobleman. Fourth time: reliefs built into a wall- which animates into a wall of flesh style monster. Fifth time: busts. Sixth time: the busts and their columns animate into monsters. Oh yeah. Thats all goin in tha book of dm trickery and tomfoolery

The Easter island moyai aren't just heads, they also have large bodies that have been buried in the earth over time

Since most of the monsters indicated look like they do because they are mimicking our statues, wouldn’t having less realistic statues just mean the mimics would look like less realistic statues instead of very realistic ones? Like, a living statue doesn’t have to look realistic, it just does because that is what it is made from, a realistic statue, and it is made from that because it is usually the most common style. If the most common statue was abstract pieces, then those are what animated statues would be made from and look like. Similar for mimics, stone golems, etc. If anything, having more abstract statues as the norm is dangerous in its own way because that might be easier for a mimic or other morphing creature to imitate because it would be harder to tell if it got something ‘wrong’, which might net you more statue mimicking monsters because the bar for entry, as it were, would be lower than having to perfectly replicate a human form. Maybe the opposite happens and statues are pushed to be absolutely realistic down to the tiniest detail because anything less could be a mimic of some kind in disguise. Will certainly give you the parts about gorgons and the like. And the above isn’t a refutation, just a possible alternative to consider.

I enjoy all of the Grungeon Master videos

I just used Weeping Angels in my game on Saturday 😂😂😂

What about some structure having fake gargoyle statues in order to scare away intruders?

Using statues as a defense system in a city would be pretty fun, Terra cotta warrior type shit. Course a lot would require the ever elusive npc magic and explanations but I’m keeping that in my pocket

The visual pain you had while separating Medusa and gorgons was hilarious.

07:30 Lion-man? I would've guessed that's meant to represent a bear, standing up as bears sometimes do...

Complexity in detail for said statue is indicative of the technology level of tools at the time. And of course the visualization talent of said sculptor. If said DM wants to maintain the proper analogies of earth history in their world, then.. they would want to include statues in their worlds despite the risks. 😊

I could see a mad stone carver with the spell stone to flesh making hybrids of creatures before sending them off to cause mayhem

My players don't ever trust statues, so I gotta add them everywhere to reduce the "GM says statues? gotta be petrified people!" assumptions

Wait till mate hears about medieval (prerenaissance) tomb effigies, where they are ment to be super life like

So if we were in D&D we'd want the Spitting Image people in charge of art, amazing

Can you cast Animate Object on a petrified creature? Would it be ethical to buy or sell petrified creatures? And what if a petrified creature isn't rendered unconscious, would that be a fate worse than death or not? :3

I agree with this. A world with lots of magic and magic monsters would likely have a lot of defensive customs. No statues; all dead people get cremated within the hour with full religious rites (even if poor people found dead in the street) to prevent undead; people carrying a small bar of iron, maybe one of silver if they can afford it, to test for shapechangers.

I had an idea for a heist, more of a book then a D&D campaign just because you can make the players do what you want. But still it was with in the D&D mechanics. There this a collector of statues that were petrified people. The idea was that a Rogue of some other sneaky character would allow themselves to be petrified. Then you get a Cleric, a Druid or some other that can cast these two spells Greater Restoration and Meld into Stone. With Meld you can "You step into a stone object or surface large enough to fully contain your body, melding yourself and all the equipment you carry with the stone for the duration. " You can remain in the stone for 8 full hours. It is a strange spell mostly because it lasts for such a long time but also it is a self only spell, do no everyone taking long rests inside a stone. Then you have someone you trust to deliver the statue and not break it to the collector. The collector sets up the new acquisition in the "sculptor garden". The one in the stone waits a certain amount of time then steps out and Cast Greater Restoration on their buddy. Boom sneaky infiltration.

Somehow, my players are more on edge when I line walkways with gargoyles and statues.

The way I've always looked at it is that Ina world where stone can come to life and magic is open to anyone. They wouldn't get rid of the idea of statues, but improve on what they do. We can't think about their applications in our world compared to a world that grew alongside it. It could be a defense system for the town where it comes to life as some kind of guard made tor that reason, a symbol of hope that inspires people to keep fighting something that may seem unlikely. We saw this in BG3 where a statue would give you bless just for having it in your camp. Now we know they can have passive helpful properties. If they are worried about someone taking it under their control by controlling the stone then give it a metallic core, post guards around it. It's likely in a town square anyways and would need the guards, anti magic field, or some form of ward. Whichever would fit best with the setting. In one of my games I have a city that honors its dead by using a magic crystal either to crystallize their dead and put them on a gargantuan tree that will grow around them or they put them into the structure of their walls as pillars. They could be cultural icons. From a gameplay standpoint they could also be used intentionally for players to be able to use them. Maybe they're war forges under the look of stone. I don't disagree with what you are saying where they'd be cautious. But stripping away statues could strip not only creative interpretation from a world but stories that could come with them. EDIT: after posting this you said a few things similar to what I had. I do still stand by the idea of statues but the other things you brought up are a good idea to contribute as a lower costing option

That surprised me! Cool topic!

I love looking forward to your perspective on things. Also, I had thought caryatid columns were "katydid columns" this whole time! (They were in one of the 3rd edition Monster Manuals)😅

I used so many golems, eidolons, medusas, stone cursed, and gargoyles that my players instantly attack statues on sight

In a dnd story I have heard the King of a country was turned to stone while fighting a gorgant, while grappling it. Instead of using magic to heal him his sons instead built a coliseum and placed him in it. The beast is still alive to this day.

Yea yea, any way the door is red

I think Gargoyles makes a great counterpoint. They are not just mindless beasts, they are spiritual guardians of a space. That might be a person's home, a place of business, a public forum, etc. Not all statues are threats, because half of them are designed to protect something held dear by someone. It is almost like the idea of living in a dangerous area and getting a dog to help keep them safe. Instead of a dog, you have a permanently on-watch statue.

It's all fun and games until the innocuous dogu-like idol begins to levitate and shoot laser beams out of its eyes.

I just got an idea for a civilization that got secretly undermined by shapeshifting or "living statue" controlling evil doers. Luckily through some deus ex machina situation the plan didn't work out because in an iconoclast moment every single statue in the entire hegemony got destroyed. On could use this as a charakter background of an adventurer going out and warning others of the evil influence hiding in plain sight, somehow controlling others. Or they might be able to shapeshift into specific figures in power and banish a king to a live as a statue feeding or even sharing their memories. This also opens up a classic tragic player charakter background of dead parents, maybe as a nobel background. The second a statue of your parents, the royal couple got shattered as a precaution the individuals you thought of as your parents transformed into an amorphous being. The connection that dictated them what to be severed.

9:36 Are you sure about that? Don't forget, the Animate Objects spell gives statues a *flying speed* if they don't have legs/other appendages they can use for locomotion, making them much more dangerous!

You’re forgetting the value of using monsters as guard dogs. I could easily see a forgotten empire having a captured/tamed monster statue in their capitol, and then they export lifelike statues to project force, with some captured monsters amongst their retinue.

Thank you for that video! You are raising interesting points. I do like your take on: "What if DnD was real?" And I like your intercultural approach. My question would be: Does it work in a game? Mimics only work because they seem to be few and far between. If every object someone encounters is a mimic, objects become useless or at least not worth the risk. I would posit the same for statues. They are mainly scary because nobody expects them to be animated. So a counterargument to your hypothesis would be: The world of DnD must be filled with regular, harmless statues to make the animated statues surprising. Often times DnD games feel like: Everyone is living in a realistic world (working with their hands, making fire to heat and light their homes, getting sick and dying, having chests to put stuff in, having statues that never move) while the PC's encounter all manners of unusual things. As a GM I go out of my way, to show my players a lot of statues (and treasure chests) so that they don't expect that one particular one to be animated statue (or a mimic). So from a game design point of view you need an awful lot of statues in a DnD game to make that one animated statue have an impact. I generally prefere low magical settings. But even if magic is not ubiquitous it still produces a lot of inconsistencies. E.g. even if you have very, very few magic useres that can use second level spells: With "Continual Flame" the entire world should be illuminated by now (creating an insane amount of light pollution).

If you had played AD&D, you’d fear vampires and wraiths more.

To be fair, most statues in a human settlement are going to be installed in pretty particular locations, so a random statue on a street corner or in the middle of a hallway is still going to register. Plus, even most gargoyles and the like will still have to exert some level of effort to carry off a pre-existing statue so they can take its place on a pedestal or altar or the stone block in front of the courthouse.

Answer: when such statues are so rare that almost all people believe them to exist just in fairy tales. The adventurers that tell of such statues are not even remotely believed to be serious or sane.

You forgetting the most important part of moving and adjustable dolls are flexible material or balls and joints. Even if a status made from one indivisible piece would start to move it would start to crack, breek and fall apart. Or be like an forever paralyzed State.

What's stopping me from disguising a few stone golems in my dungeon as non-load-bearing pillars and putting them nearby a completely nonmagical statue?

Another good way to represent gods and heroes in a culture that doesn't do statues could be via massive landscaping projects like effigy mounds and geoglyphs.

Honestly I'd say Mimics would likely affect how statues are viewed the least. For Mimics, all that matters is size, so whether it is a beautifully carved out angel or little more than a round rock, they can become it all the same. I DO however think making statues exclusively as busts or as evenly spaced columns (so one could tell an "odd" one out would probably be tradition, with full body statues, especially highly detailed ones, being rare and potentially even deemed as offensive by some.

What if the statue is actually a stone construct that moves to action when the party steps into the temple and proceeds to hunt them down? This would induce the fear factor and would be soo awesome.

ok better idea: make it so monsters that disguise themselves are statues hate coins, which is why people sometimes throw coins at statues. also a statue in a location that is populated (such as a town square) isn't likely to be a monster since it would have to sneak past everyone to get to the square, perhaps there's some loose material like sand around it to make very clearly show if it moves. now societies generally do not expect themselves to end or collapse so when you're wandering the ruins of a fallen society those statues which once were safe may have been replaced because the people who surrounded it are no longer there.