Spelljammer Part 2: Boo's Astral Menagerie
In Part 1 of this series we covered everything you need to be a spelljamming adventurer. But what sorts of creatures might a spacefaring adventurer encounter? How does a DM populate the vastness of Wildspace and the Astral Plane? With the help of a miniature Giant Space Hamster, of course!
Boo's Astral Menagerie is the "Monster Manual" of Spelljammer: Adventures in Space. The titular character, Boo, is the constant companion of the legendary ranger, Minsc. First appearing in the Baldur's Gate video game back in 1998, the duo became a cult hit with the phrase "Go for the eyes, Boo!" As mentioned, Boo is a Giant Space Hamster (though a miniature one), one of more than 60 creatures and beings detailed in this book. Boo, like all space hamsters, is apparently so intelligent that he has been cataloging the creatures they have encountered and collected it here for your reference!
Who? - NPCs of Spelljammer
There are a number of entries for intelligent beings that you might encounter on your treks through space. Each of the races detailed in the Astral Adventurer's Guide has at least one entry for an encounter stat block. Many of them have several allowing for a diversity within the members of that race that might be encountered. For example, there are five Astral Elf entries ranging from Aristocrats to Warriors. Included in this variety are three specialized Githyanki, who hail from the Astral Plane but were already a playable race detailed in Monsters of the Multiverse.
Additionally, you will find entries for what would be considered "intelligent monsters" these are beings who are not a playable race but are at least as intelligent as the adventurers would be. These can be used in either combat or social encounters and many of them will make great overarching villains. A few examples are:
The Neogi, which first appeared in the original Spelljammer setting, are a race of insect-like aberrations that travel the planes, pillaging and conquering everything in their wake.
The Psurlons, first appearing in the Planescape setting, are worm-like beings with many legs that travel the planes devouring every humanoid they can find. The note in their entry about how they occasionally ally with Mind Flayers so they can have the corpses after the Illithids devour the brains is disturbing.
The Ssurran, lithe serpentine lizardfolk that first appeared in the desert wastelands of the Dark Sun setting. What differentiates them for regular lizardfolk is that some have psionic abilities and can cause vegetation to wither and die. This is a hold over from Dark Sun where magic, which came from plant-life, was scarce and many races developed psionic powers as an alternative.
As mentioned in Part 1, it is wonderful to see these nods to the classic AD&D settings.
There are also two new dragon species included in Boo's Astral Menagerie - the lunar and solar dragons. Called moon and sun dragons, respectively, in the original Spelljammer setting these two species make their lairs in the appropriate celestial body and being space dragons do not need to breath. As with all dragons they are intelligent and territorial. The ancient variants of them are the highest Challenge Rating creatures in the book (CR 19 and 20 respectively) and pack incredible punches with their breath weapons. The Solar Dragons' Photonic Breath is an amped-up Fireball spell that deals radiant damage rather than fire. The Lunar Dragons' Cold Breath is not as powerful as the Sun Dragon but their ability to become partially incorporeal as a Bonus Action adds an extra level of difficulty to any encounter.
What? - Creatures of Spelljammer
In addition to the intelligent beings, there is a plethora of animals and monsters available to make any encounter more unique and exotic. Additionally, one specific note at the beginning of the book states that Astral Variants of any existing creature can easily be dropped into an adventure just by giving them the Unusual Nature trait which states that the creature doesn't require air. Thus you can bring pretty much anything from other books into your Spelljammer campaign.
On the animal side of things you have many options (besides the Space Hamsters!). A few examples are:
Space Guppies are just like they sound - fish that fly through space and come in a multitude of shapes and colors. Chwinga, the tiny elementals found in previous books like Tomb of Annihilation and Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frost Maiden, can sometimes be found riding on these fish.
Scavvers are shark-like scavengers that cruise through space looking for their next meal. Like sharks they come in many shapes and sizes, the biggest of which - the Void Scavver, has a Ray of Fear, that it can fire as a rechargeable bonus action and cause a creature to be frightened of it for until the Scavver's next turn.
Kindori are the whales of the Spelljammer setting. They are technically massive Celestials, but are also mammals that resemble 80-foot long whales with no mouth (no need to eat or breathe in the Astral sea) and many glowing eyes which they communicate to each other with. Kindori are peaceful creatures and generally don't mind other creatures hitching a ride or living on their hides.
On the monster side of things there is a wide range of creatures that live in Wildspace and beyond ready to eat and destroy your adventuring party. Space is a dangerous place after all! Some notable monsters are:
The Braxat first appeared in Dark Sun and are similar in appearance to a small version of the Tarrasque. Braxats are intelligent, have psionic abilities and can also spew an acid breath! Their psionic barrier can be enhanced into a shield that is capable of deflecting even more attacks and also absorb magic missile spells.
Cosmic Horrors are the terrible "things that should not be" from the Far Realm. Roughly 100 feet in size, these massive beings of tentacles and eyes are the things of nightmares and secret cults. Hyper-intelligent and psychic, these Legendary creatures will make an excellent "end boss" at CR 18.
Starlight Apparitions are the remnant souls of beings who perished on in the Astral Plane or Wildspace. They are like a ghost in the fact that they are incorporeal spirits but unlike a ghost they are Radiant celestials instead of Necrotic undead. The other big difference is that Starlight Apparitions exist to aide people in the difficult obstacles or tasks that they could not overcome. Once that has been resolved, the Starlight Apparition is able to move on to the afterlife.
Whoa! The Bizarre Creatures of Spelljammer
The original Spelljammer setting pushed the boundaries of "typical D&D" in many ways. Its ships, people and places were at times very different from what was expected. That limit-breaking was most obvious in the setting's monsters and the updated version does not shy away from that!
Spelljammer: Adventures in Space has some of the most unique and sometimes outright bizarre creatures that are guaranteed to spice up your adventures. Here's a few to get a taste:
Dohwar - Shifty space penguins that fancy themselves the best black marketeers in the multiverse.
Eye Monger - Beholderkin that masquerade as large asteroids. They only reveal their singular eye and maw of teeth once a creature is close enough to swallow. Its anti-magic field is turned inward so a swallowed creature can't use magic to escape.
Murder Comet - An elemental being that resembles a comet with a screaming, murderous face!
Space Clowns - Fiendish Killer Clowns From Outer Space.
Space Swine - PIGS… IN… SPACE!
Vampirates - What's better than space pirates? Vampiric space pirates!
The Worldbuilding Wrap-Up
As always, I like to wrap-up my reviews with some ways you can kit-bash the content into your own homebrewed campaign setting. This book is an easy one to incorporate into your world. Most of these creatures could show up on a Material Plane straight out of the box. With the Astral Variant trait you can also move any of your homebrewed creatures out to space if your campaign heads out into the unknown.
Some of these creatures could also be customized into something campaign-specific. Here's a few quick examples to start with:
Vampirates crewing a dark ship with black sails that only attacks in the dead of night.
A mercane trader that is undercover as a wandering caravan leader who brings unique goods from distant lands.
Rumors of a hidden sect of elves (astral elves) that are more reclusive than the usual elves and keep an observatory high on a remote mountain.
And a few plot hooks inspired by other fictional works:
Space Clowns that have crashed onto your world and masquerade as harmless carnies to terrorize a small town. (Sound familiar?)
Massive Kindori that grow so big beings are able to live inside of them and use them as Spelljamming ships like the Leviathans of Farscape.
The possibilities are as limitless as the imagination, and these are all fun creatures to play with. I appreciate the diversity in tone with this setting. A campaign can truly cover the expanse of space-themed fiction stories so you can tailor it to your players' favorite. As I said in Part 1, I do hope that we see more Spelljammer content from Wizards whether it is in print or digital form. This book leaves me hungry for more space dwelling aliens and monsters!
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