List of Dungeons & Dragons creatures (B)

Babau

In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, the babau (/bəˈbaʊ/ bə-BOW)^[1] is a demon. They belong to the category of demon known as tanar'ri.

Publication history

The babau (minor demon) debuted in the first edition Monster Manual II (1983), under the demon entry.^[2]

The babau greater tanar'ri appeared in second edition first in the Monstrous Compendium Volume Outer Planes Appendix (1991), under the tanar'ri entry.^[3] The babau greater tanar'ri also appeared for the Spelljammer setting in The Astromundi Cluster (1993), and for the Planescape campaign setting in the first Planescape Monstrous Compendium Appendix (1994).^[4]

The babau (tanar'ri) appears in third edition in the Book of Vile Darkness (2002).^[5] The babau appears in the revised 3.5 edition Monster Manual (2003).

The babau is one of the monsters that will appears in the fourth edition Monster Manual 3 (2010).^[6]

Physical description

Babau resemble tall, gaunt, elongated, skeleton-like humanoids. They are about 6 feet tall and weigh 140 pounds. Their skin is a dark brown-reddish-black in color, glossy, leather-like, and highly form fitting, hence the skeletal appearance. They have sly, sneaky, goblin-like faces, and long, thin, claw-like fingers. They always walk with a sneaky, alert posture. The most notable feature of the babau, however, is the single, short, curved horn coming from the back/top of their head. Covering a babau from head to toe is a red, caustic jelly-like slime which protects them from attacks.

Environment

Babau are native to the Outer Plane of the Abyss, like the majority of all demons in Dungeons & Dragons.

Society

Babau are the cunning and sneaky but powerful assassins of the Abyss. They are very careful and devious, and always form cunning plans before doing anything (or at least before combat). Babau sometimes work with succubi, but hate and are hated by glabrezu, hezrous, nalfeshnees and vrocks. They are particularly fond of the flesh of nalfeshnees, and nalfeshnees especially fear and despise them with a passion. Due to their horn, babau are sometimes known as the one-horned horror, and due to their color, as the ebony death.

Combat

Babau are assassins, and hence they are sneaky, sly, cunning and stealthy, and this is the governing factor in their combat. They are adept at hiding, moving silently, searching, listening, and making sneak attacks, and use this greatly to their advantage in fights. For actually damaging foes, Babau prefer to use weapons. If they are unarmed, they will use their claws, and their horn. They tend to start fights with an ambush, and excellently use a combination of sneak attacks and multiple attacks. They tend to attack the most powerful foe first if they are fighting multiple enemies, seeking to eliminate the true threat and then toy with the others. Due to the protective slime mentioned before covering a babau, melee attacks against them only cause half damage, plus they cause damage to the weapon used.

Babau also have numerous spell-like abilities, which vary between game edition and between source.

They also have the typical demon characteristics of immunity to poison and electricity, and resistance to fire, cold and acid.

They can telepathically communicate with any creature that has a language within 100 feet.

Last but not least, once per day a babau can summon another babau to aid it. This ability is equivalent to a third level spell. They are chaotic evil in alignment, typical of a demon.

Barghest

Basilisk

Behir

Beholder

Black pudding

In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, the black pudding is a fictional creature of the ooze family. It resembles a bubbling, heaped pile of thick, black, pudding-like goo, roughly fifteen feet across and two feet thick.

Publication history

The black (or gray) pudding first appeared in the original Dungeons & Dragons set (1974).^[7]

The black pudding appeared in the D&D Basic Set (1977),^[8] D&D Expert Set (1981, 1983),^[9][10] and Dungeons & Dragons Rules Cyclopedia (1991).^[11]

The black pudding appeared in first edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons in the original Monster Manual (1977).^[12]

The black pudding appeared in second edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons in Monstrous Compendium Volume One (1989) under the "deadly pudding" entry,^[13] reprinted in the Monstrous Manual (1993).^[14] The creature was expanded on in Dragon #219 (July 1995).^[15]

The black pudding appeared in the third edition Monster Manual (2000) under the "ooze" entry,^[16] and the version 3.5 Monster Manual (2003) along with the elder black pudding.^[17] The elder sentry pudding appeared in Dungeonscape (2007).

In fourth edition the black pudding appeared in Monster Manual 2 (2009).

Depiction

Throughout its long history in the game, the black pudding has been portrayed as a mindless, underground-dwelling scavenger which drags itself around caves and sewers and absorbs and digests whatever it finds. Like most oozes, puddings are mindless and thus neutral in alignment. Black puddings with increased game statistics were included in the 3.5 edition Monster Manual as elder black puddings to provide a challenge for more powerful player characters. These use the same descriptive language as normal black puddings with the addition of some foreshadowing to give players a clue that the elder black pudding is more dangerous, a trend in 3rd and 4th edition D&D to provide the Dungeon Master with simple methods of scaling a monster's degree of challenge to the players developed.

Other puddings

Other types of deadly pudding creatures in Dungeons & Dragons have included the white, dun, and brown puddings. The only significant variation between black puddings and these other types is the terrain they usually inhabit: black puddings live underground, white puddings live on arctic plains, dun puddings live in arid deserts, and brown puddings live in marshes.

Other publishers

The black pudding appeared in Paizo Publishing's book Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Bestiary (2009), on page 35.^[18]

Blink dog

Bugbear

Bulette

Bullywug

References