DnDs Most Overlooked Monster

Ever looked at a nothic and had your backstory sucked from you faster than you could say "Woah look a nothic"? Probably not, nobody uses these dudes but they're really friggin cool. Enjoy a video I done darn made about em.
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[@ryankelsay5984]

Nothics are one of my favourite D&D monster. I keep on adding one to at least one dungeon every campaign I run, and every time my players always decide to skip that room.

[@bruuze1258]

Maaan, I feel this so hard. I love these little gremlins, to the point that my current party has a Nothic as the adored "pet monster"

[@derpbeholder1905]

Perhaps you can make it go full golem and just have it follow them around

[@mindlessscientist3772]

I love these perfect lil fuck-ups so much. Made it part of the main quest that the party had to escort one to a big source of magic that he could feel. Made him into a sweet lil Smeagol-ass hobo man that they used to interrogate enemies.

[@Macarthur1950]

Literally happened today

[@nerdlingeeksly5192]

Perhaps you should make the room the only option.

[@ethanhobbs7278]

I love how we’ve got this positive feedback loop where one dnd creator goes “hey guys, look at this cool thing!” And then all the others go “holy shit that’s awesome” and make stuff on it too.

[@jamesruth100]

That's the best part of DnD videos: one person sees something neat, makes a video on it, and suddenly a thousand people have their brains going at full RPM. It's just this big, decentralized jam session, with everyone throwing everything at the wall and seeing what sticks.

[@Mozumin]

Damn. It's not often that one of these kind of videos actually convinces me to use a monster, but this time it definitely did. Little side note, a Nothic could be a great boss for a low level party to find at the end of a long-forgotten dungeon where a mad wizard was once conducting their research.

[@bruuze1258]

I feel like there's a reason why one of the weirdest enemies in the Lost Mine of Phandelver is a random Nothic hiding in a bandit hideout, for this exact reason

[@vedadtr3509]

It is in Lost mines of Phandelver ( at the end of the redbrand manor in Phandalin, if i remember correctly)

[@AutumnReel4444]

Found this video because this was already the plan babyyy

[@andyv8624]

When I ran Lost Mines, the bard had the brilliant idea to use Detect Thoughts on the Nothic. That prompted a whole side quest to get a sun hat in town so “Charlie” could venture outside and then they could help him rediscover his identity.

[@thedogmaticdirector]

I have a Nothic who calls himself Creepster. He trades in information and secrets. If the party runs into him, he can share a secret he's obtained IF the party gives him a secret of their own. If they try to deceive him, he'll use weird insight to pull a secret for himself instead. He is not hostile, but he does trade with other people, so there's always the risk that any secrets the party gives him might be traded to someone else.

[@sherlocksmuuug6692]

First encountered one of these with a party going through "Lost Mines". Always kinda wondered what their deal was.

[@DHTheAlaskan]

They also show up in Dungeon of the Mad Mage. It is how the party learned our fighter was subconscious about his smaller than average ears and my rogue's paranoia about geese.

[@vikingvarn4919]

I can literally remember running into this thing during Lost Mine, we chased it for hours trying to kill it but it kept running away whilst yelling our innermost secrets. God I miss Randy the Nothic, he was a wee shite but was comic relief whilst it lasted

[@Midwinter_Snow]

When I was running Lost Mine, the party were equally terrified of and enamoured with the Nothic. They managed to befriend it, thinking they were teaching it to be good but they just accidentally made it feel safer around people so it wandered into town and tried to eat a child.

[@agustinvenegas5238]

The one we faced we sort of adopted and named Secrets, he's still somewhere out there fucking shit up lol

[@spensirmclife6549]

Yeah I ran Lost Mine and that's where my love of these guys came about

[@swadloom40]

The second I saw the title in my notifs I was hoping it was these guys 😭 they're my little dudes my special guys yet I don't think they even have an official miniature :( why they're so scrungy

[@GethinHarrison]

Imagine talking to some big powerful king, in his court and your DM is like “make a charisma save, and another” but you have literally no clue why

[@raxenladevaldak1749]

it's even better, because it's a check instead of a save. "Make a deception check" "but I didn't lie" "That's not what it's for" ;) The could also hex you first and give you disadvantage or whatever. Checks are way more interesting than saves.

[@Konpekikaminari]

@@raxenladevaldak1749 liking this reply because I always support usage of the fluff part of Hex

[@Tastycrowinc]

As someone who literally started introducing one AS a gollum like creature, I appreciate this.

[@caityreads8070]

Me too. Lost Mines of Phandelver guy?

[@DemonaruMusic]

Nothic's actually the first monster I ever ran as a DM. Such a cool design and so much space to explore getting to know how the player's want their characters to be seen by introducing one of these.

[@Zer0Dakilla]

Imagine running a whole hive of nothics like the Nosferatu from VtM

[@majesticgothitelle1802]

I'm just imagining some kind of library pocket dimension library filled with wizards who got lost or lost themselves in knowledge then turned into nostic. So they form their own nostic society and government. I don't know how nostic reproduces when there are no new adventurers coming. Probably have some kind of nursery with a nostic nursery caretaker, nostic that's an education tutor for a newborn. A nostic magic farmer and water makers, and nostic magic estate constructor

[@TheOneMarty]

​@@majesticgothitelle1802I love how you persistently kept misspelling Nothic as Nostic and now I'm imagining this hive of monsters shaped like giant noses and I wanna statblock the hell outta them.

[@alpacaofthemountain8760]

I love the idea that they are desperately trying to regain their lost power. Maybe as a bit of a cruel twist they slowly drain the magic out of anything they touch, so they are always on the hunt for new magical items, just for the momentary feeling of power that eventually slips away…

[@unironicallylikesranger7122]

There’s quite a few just kinda hanging out in the dungeon of the mad mage, they’re pretty funny

[@ROYal_Brewery]

I’ve made them into a race in my setting! “Ancestral-Legacy” based race like Dhampir/Hexblood/Reborn, where you ended up this way because you found ANY knowledge cursed by someone who didn’t want this knowledge known. Good at Arcana, rotting gaze is a 1d10 con-save ranged attack, with weird insight still roleplay based. Really happy with how they turned out, can’t wait to try one out

[@claran3616]

Ooo fun

[@infirmusetiam7058]

You got a link or something? This sounds really great and I'd like to try it myself.

[@foxross]

Nothics are legitimately my favourite D&D creature. I have them in one of my current games and I turned the weird insight into its primary and only form of language. I had them be deaf but use visual memory as words and they can use any nearby memory too if they can get a hold of it. So the nothic might explain what it wants to communicate through a mixture of it’s own memories and those belonging to the person they are talking to. My players then have to communicate back by describing what memories their characters are imagining.

[@theman6422]

Ah, this reminds me of my first ever combat encounter. Though they weren’t really used in any cool way, they were still really cool and were pretty challenging. I like them even more now. They’re pretty cool

[@KJShell]

I just remembered that in Ravenloft, one of the Darklords, Azalin Rex, has a secret police force that spies on everyone and I thought of him having nothics because a.) he’s an all powerful lich king who’s a bigger bad than Strahd and b.) if you read the original lore(or maybe even watched Black Dice Society), him having nothic minions makes perfect sense to me.

[@profezzordarke4362]

You mean because Darkon is of Oerthen origin and Vecna has a major role in the setting's past? (I mean, the Demiplane is part of the reason he ascended to godhood)

[@KJShell]

@@profezzordarke4362 Actually, because 1) the fact that Azalin is one of the few known liches to have a secret police force 2) the Kargat also operates as Azalin’s personal spy network and go on missions throughout the domains of dread and 3) Azalin is one of the few darklords to have a vast knowledge of the domains as great as Strahd - if not, then greater - due to all his time researching the place in order to find a way to escape.

[@KJShell]

Therefore, him having Nothics not only makes sense because of his vast spy network, but also the amount of secret knowledge he holds that can attract Nothics to him allowing him to employ them as spies and minions. Also, due to this fact, you now have a potential plot hook to include in your “Curse of Strahd” campaign if you desire Azalin to be either a potential and powerful ally against Strahd and/or as the true final boss of your campaign due to Azalin technically being more powerful than Strahd and in my opinion, being a both better villain and character than Strahd.

[@KJShell]

But you do make an interesting point with Azalin originally being a lich from Oerth…🤔

[@geekarmy5874]

I just ran lost mines of phandelver and had the realization that these dudes are hella cool! So much cool roleplay opportunities with these lil guys

[@ghostdragon_6424]

They really are! My first time playing I encountered one in the Lost Mines and was so interested by the little guy I just sat there and talked to him for a bit. My character was from a diffident world and had been struggling with whether to try to find her way home, or just stay with her new family. I guess I failed me checks because the Nothic suddenly turns to me and asks, “But what do you *really* want?” Man, combined with the music we had playing and my DM’s voice I was genuinely a little freaked out haha. People should really use them more often!

[@ravnemagne9598]

A villain like Swain from League Of Legends, with just a huge army of Nothics spread all over the world would be really damn cool

[@iamerror1699]

Villain?

[@slakinof]

Ironically, I speak like Fiddlesticks when playing Nothics

[@SomeRandomDude821]

"You would do well to die before my ravens find you..."

[@raresnaftan3977]

Me running a game in the world of lol: Ah yeah, its all coming together. Well I now know how to stat his ravens, apply flight to a nothic

[@Miraihi]

Noxus will rise

[@David_Apollonius]

Crazy idea: Gynosphinx who became a large winged Nothic after reading the arcane secrets she was supposed to protect. Now she's just waiting for a couple of adventurers to come along to answer her riddles... that she makes up on the spot by using her Weird Insight. The riddles shouldn't be that hard, or even actual riddles, but the adventurers will be outing themselves to their closest allies if they answer truthfully.

[@lainafeign3569]

This is fire, I'd love to do something like that

[@jacobgonzalez1386]

I remember running the Lost Mine a long time ago, and theres just a random one of these guys chilling in the bandit dungeon. I read the lore and I decided not to even have the guy attack. He just asked nicely if he could eat a few secrets and left after learning about the lost triton city one of the PCs was from.

[@heww5682]

Literally the perfect video, I was planning to have a Nothic coven feature in my campaign now I can get even more ideas

[@spensirmclife6549]

Definitely my favorite monster, in the same tier as goblins for me which means they appear in almost every campaign at one point. I had one take control of a crashed Modron ship at an edge of the universe near where a Lich had it's base who thought he was an exploring from Sigil that crashed in this place. In another game there were hundreds of them hanging out in the bowels of an ancient advanced elven city

[@kylesaunders8436]

I need to have a nauthic hospital where they essentially serve as a crazed House or Good doctor finding miracle cures in exchange for magic

[@mattball8622]

I remember using the Nothic in Lost Mines of Phandelver to mess with a party I was DMing for, and it was genuinely a great story moment. Since it knew secrets about them it basically gave some room for the players to talk about their backstories. Also, for whatever reason, that particular Nothic has telepathy, which is awesome. Wish that was part of the regular stat block.

[@yamahadrag69]

I had a nothic when I ran Phandelver's for my group. I had to voice it like a double methed out skaven and it was just guarding a random ditch in a basement under an abandoned house. Weirdly enough there was a bandit group, some undead, and a garrison of bug bears all completely independent of each other and all just kinda coexisted with it.

[@cakedo9810]

A nothic is currently my BBEG in my campaign. He got his hands on a deck of many things and got lucky, wishing to choose what he drew. He has since rewritten reality to find a cure to his curse and is attempting to erase ontological consequence from himself. He’s ripping up the carpet of causality just to sate the cruel itch of his curse.

[@tylercoon1791]

My DM used a couple of these guys at the crash site of a dead god in our game. They spoke only through thoughts, and their names were the concept of the color blue, and the concept of the letter X. They were pretty cool guys, helped the rogue find their way back to the party after the weird geometry made them lose their way. Also they might not have even existed

[@derpbeholder1905]

Okay so I have to say as a DM this video really inspired me to use these creatures in a way I never thought to use them before. I actually never even considered putting them in a game until now. To me they give off real Zorn and Thorn vibes from FFIX.

[@MerkhVision]

Appreciate the FF9 reference! Is it because the way they took the Eidolons out of Garnet reminds u of Nothics stealing memories? Or some other connection?

[@ianyoder2537]

I like the idea of a corrupt paladin or inquisitor type who uses an enslaved Nothic minion to force secrets out of people. Like someone who's so defecated to eradicating evil that they've become evil themself. Forcibly taking people's secrets and persecuting them.

[@mindlessscientist3772]

It should be known in official lore, as part of their curse Nothics are forced to spill all the secrets they gather on someone as they do. It's meant to be a way to make everyone hate them and no-one ever help them with their curse. If you go by that though it totally ruins their spy potential. I think both are good ways of running them, just depends on if you prefer them pathetic or devious!

[@er1cdoom]

I have a Nothic in my game with Rogue Levels and an insane Deception skill who doesn't let anyone know what he is. He calls himself 'The Advocate' (yes it's a Titanfall 2 reference) and he basically runs a lot of scams, jobs, pit fights, and such in Waterdeep to make money to get information and magic items. He likes to take young inexperienced adventurers and finance/invest in them to help them grow in power, which leads to him having powerful friends that owe him. He's not malicious or anything, just extremely calculating and competent, able to Xanatos gambit situations to always score a payday. Nothics are awesome.

[@S.Ko.2204]

I saw this vid when it first came out and didn’t think too hard about it, but today my group met a Nothic. I remembered this video and tried to befriend him and ended up getting a necrotic blast (36 hp to 20). Then it ran out of the cave, the other two players gave chase deciding that I would be fine, but as I was climbing the wall (about 40ft in the air) a second Nothic tackled me back to the ground and made me start death saves. The worst part was that I made a joke about there probably being a second Nothic down there with me. So I made a failed perception check.

[@BatSnakegirl]

On one of the first games I played, I ran a Ranger who managed to arrow one in the eye…with me not totally knowing what Nothics were and that they only had one eye. The cheers around the table made more sense only after the game when I saw what they looked like.

[@Joechef_]

THANK YOU DUDE. This has been for a long time one of my favorite creatures, from their origins having vague implications about the maddening effects of knowledge, one of the most interesting and unique abilities. I would LOVE to see a campaign about a lich or something similar who makes extensive use of nothics to inform them of the party, as well as have someway to access their knowledge like a library, gaining access to their vast knowledge without risking their composure.

[@ianyoder2537]

The issue is you need a team that you know a lot about and that cares about the story, and you've got a few caveats to work within. If you're doing an adventurer's league with a bunch of strangers, or it's a beer and pretzel goofy campaign, or your party's a bunch of psychopathic murder hobo's then this monster's secret power isn't gonna work. So once you have your close friends who stick to the tone, then you've got to have the campaign last long enough for this monster to be effective. (or I suppose it could use it as a back story hook.) Then there's the fact that it's only CR 2 so it's only effective on it's own at the very beginning of the campaign unless it's a minion of another monster. But if you're able to work around all that it's fantastic. I like the idea of a corrupt paladin or inquisitor type who uses an enslaved Nothic minion to force secrets out of people.

[@aethyr4006]

I discovered Nothics when I first ran LMoP, and I was like "what the heck I am going to do with this guy?open fight? hide and learn secrets and maybe damage?" It's so weird that given their lore, this one is in a bandits hideout.

[@NotSoDrewby]

Our DM for a campaign a year ago hit us with a nothic who was once a wizard of legend named Asgrast. It was an opportunity to reveal secrets that the party was keeping from each other. My character was a pyrophiliac who made erotica about burning creatures and also burned down a mage college. Luckily he succeeded the nothic's weird insight.

[@Ozgand]

Nothics are great! One of my DMs and I made their Weird Insight a feat for one of my characters and it’s been a great tool for gathering information for the party. It also gives the DM another way to feed us hints and plot clues in case we get stuck.

[@arcanistthesonofianite249]

They are incredibly fascinating, and any wizard player has the risk to become one, I think

[@luke.friesen]

I love the Nothic because of LMoPhandelver. One of the only times a monster has out-stealthed a party for me. Even their ranger couldn’t figure out where it was. Then their wizard failed against its Weird Insight. He was there to see what had become of his fellow magic student, now known as Glasstaff. The nothic learned this, and pretended to be Glasstaff, and pleaded them for help. The party got weirded out-possibly because I reverse-gasped his voice (speaking while breathing in)-and they left the hideout for good. So, I had the nothic trailing them the rest of the adventure, all the way till they found the hidden Phandelver mines at the end. Along the way I had a great time playing head games with them, but it never got too far. Finally the Ranger did pin him down, and the party saw it there in the mine entrance for the first time, and slew it. Running that monster taught me how to make good use monster’s non-combat skills. I did LMoPhandelver with an earlier group, and back then I didn’t know what to do with him other than place him in that pit with the magic long sword. If they wanted the treasure, they’d have to deal with the freaky monster. They actually made friends with it, and tricked no less than 3 groups of bandits into looking down into the pit, and shoving them in from behind. The nothic was very well fed that day! And then they jumped down and killed it too 😝

[@promisingchaos]

Ooo these guys are cool. The campaign I’m in had one. It was hiding in a university and it had just stolen the magcguffin the party had JUST given to the university. My character’s introduction to the party was finding its illusory hiding space, wild shaping into a constrictor snake, hauling it out, and then rolling away still holding the nothic when the party tried to kill it.

[@severalpeople7625]

Ive got a Evil Npc in my campaign that had his eye cut out by one of the party members. He then later had a hag put a Nothic eye in his head as a replacement.

[@psykhosev]

I just found out about these today, and when thinking of a Bloodhunter Lycan idea I thought a Nothic was one of the perfect fits. My current backstories for this is that the BH accidently caught the attention of Vecna and used a dispell curse before changing, causing the form to be known but the magic is completley unknown and cannot be used. The other backstory is that the BH aquired a Nothic eye by unknown means, but when the eye tried to charm them to learn information they accidently formed a bond by some means (design it yourself if you want a Nothic BH). Causing the Nothic to temporarily take control via Lycanthropy.

[@LoreleiVieshvelle]

I only learned of Nothics from a pack of Magic cards I opened and got curious on the monster. You definitely make it sound more fun to play tho, and now I want one in my party

[@lucassanchez3734]

I absolutely adore Nothics. Ever since I stumbled onto the statblock, I've been dying to use one in my games. I just recently homebrewed a super swole one as a boss fight, and oh my God it was amazing to just spill everyone's beans.

[@darkranger116]

I made an Overlord campaign and i used these guys as the Blues Reds Greens and Browns! I gave each one their own specialty and made a bunch of extra custom colored ones to find and unlock from upgrades. That run was so much fun.

[@strikermodel]

I mean, they seem like one of the best ways to get a party to follow it and seek whatever it is seeking. If you plan on leaving around a magic item around you can have them hang around in those rooms. have it run around with something in their hand so the party might want to catch. It darts past magical traps thanks to it's vision, luring the party into them. They have so much use it's insane.

[@chassychan8229]

Nothic was my first monster I fell in love with as a DM so happy to see them getting covered!

[@wariyoshidirector]

I want to make a shop in Sigil called "Exotica" run by a Nothic. The shop would sell magic items (usually common/uncommon with a few rare), some trinkets and curios, a few unique potions, and a few random books. The thing is though that the shop doesn't accept money; only trades. This is because the Nothic's motive for having the shop is simply to learn as much information from travelers in the multiverse as possible. So if you wanted a super expensive magical item, you might just be able to trade him that super rare potion of giant's strength you picked up that you never use. Would be kinda cool.

[@enterchannelname8981]

What a throwback! My first DND game we fought a nothic. The DM forgot to tell us it had only one eye so I was picture gollum and when I finally found it in the monster manual I was quite surprised by how it looked.

[@oligb1469]

We had a Nothic encounter and our DM played his as maul from the clone wars he was mad, obsessed and tactically menacing with a seething air to his voice

[@mach2922]

In Dungeon of the Mad Mage, the mad mage has a nothic as its receptionist secretary to intercept messages sent to him. It curses at the sender and insults them (I told my players that he “didn’t want to hear about his Spelljammer’s extended warranty”)

[@serketenglish5963]

The Nothic in the second dungeon of a very common 1st-time players adventure (no spoilers) got persuaded by my party. It wound up becoming a merchant of sorts, selling the loot that was in its lair for the corpses of anything they killed in the dungeon. One benefit to it all was that the Nothic was able to help them against the dungeon boss (who was running away and passed the Nothic's lair), and one trade-off was that there weren't enough enemies in the dungeon to purchase all the loot from the Nothic. Whereas fighting it would consume resources, but yield every piece of loot they could find.

[@Cassapphic]

I'm so glad that there was a nothic in the first starter set adventure, that book has a handful of weird and creepy dnd monsters to get you thinking about some of the more interestin monsters than pulp fantasy staples but the wway the nothic is presented is so intriguing to me I have got to find a way to put one in a homebrew adventure at some point.

[@vindurza]

Naming a nothic Hudgen or Muegen is such a good idea to mess with party members

[@biteso2333]

Rime of the frostmaiden has some description of a kind of nothic transformation in Arcane Blight, where succesive failed con saves make you more and more paranoid unyil you slowly transform into a nothic over a few days.

[@benfisher961]

I used a nothic once in the first campaign i ever played because i balanced an encounter wrong so i turned to a random page in the MM to throw on the players side to help them which led to Norman the Nothic who runs an underground resthouse of sorts and is trying to train various underdark creatures to be guards and servants

[@lawaern3474]

These guys were in icewind dale. In the frozen netherese city. Probably the only situation where swarms of nothics make sense. Its kinda cool that each of the lil goblin things you cut through was once a promising wizard who earned a place in this great city of magic, but then Karsus screwed it up for all of them. Makes the greebly hoards feel deep for once.

[@kamikeserpentail3778]

Funny thing, for my first DMing experience I created a minicampaign where a Nothic was the first "enemy" encountered. It wasn't quite aware of its past, but still sought magical secrets to to reverse its curse, and continued to work with a wizard buddy toward accomplishing that goal. I found the "Weird Insight" ability to be very interesting, so I made sure to have a way to make it have a chance to be meaningful. It was an Indiana Jones inspired campaign centered on the idea of Pandora's Box, culminating in a fight against a Deepspawn. Yeah, I don't go easy on myself.

[@TheOnlyPacifist]

I love these guys so much! I tend to twist them slightly and my players JUST ran into a group of 5 Nothics in the underdark. The Nothics have been following them and judging them in a language none of my party members can understand so it's pretty hilarious. They work under a CR 4 Spectator that lives in ruined archives. Though the players don't know that.

[@corbettevans7483]

I actually have a campaign where nothics are a playable race! Very cool to see Runesmith during this!

[@willowgibbs7131]

As a first time baby DM about to start running Lost Mine literally next Saturday, this could not have come at a better time! Now I feel more prepared to decide whether this lil guy is a good fit for my group or not. Thank you so much!

[@smugreptile6695]

I think it would be a crazy character idea. Going rogue and just snooping on all the magic stuffs. If you always have true sight, and one of your party uses disguise self all the time, you wouldn't know, and they would always appear normal to you. Its just a big funny moment for you to bring up at some point.

[@Ruggedtoaster]

Nothics are great, I always come to the same conclusion as you. Vecna is totally trolling with this curse it has to come after the godhood and I picture that he has a little bell or light that flashes every time someone catches it.

[@fireknight4151]

Idea. Nothic thieves Guild where they steal magic and lore and collect secrets. All in vain of finding the right magic

[@lavendergorbach296]

I don't see these guys often, but I do have some fondness and nostalgia around them. We fought one in one of the first campaigns I played, and I got my first crit fail in that battle, breaking a bow string and injuring my half elf fighter.

[@knines6279]

If I were to add this, or a monster similar to this, into my campaign, here is what I’d do. I don’t usually use the dnd canon for my campaigns, so I’d improvise that these guys come from a curse that can no longer continue. Basically, if you curse someone to never be able to leave a room, and then the room is destroyed entirely, then the curse turns into a living creature (The Nothic). This Nothic could then have some sort of relationship. To whichever curse it once was

[@TheBlackSerpentBeta]

I ran these in one of my earliest campaigns, using it as a form of living Nightmare that spawned as a miniboss when the party failed a guard check while resting

[@thomaskalland9276]

I love these guys. I used them as underlings for a beholder giving the beholder a custom eye ray that stuns players who have had their secrets revealed by a nothic

[@thethorpius2289]

Another often overlooked monster are Vivisectors. They're deaf and mute, only CR2 (or 3) and their whole schtick is carving out and harvesting organs to sustain them, but thematically they could go a long way, especially if you make a colony of them in the sewers of a city, or heck have just one long-lived one that piggy-backs off the local serial killer's kills that mysteriously continue after the party catches said killer.

[@clementverkimpe940]

my DM made us fight a nothic that guarded the treasure of a magician commending a troup of bandits and bugbear. it started revealing our backstory and was pretty tough because we were only 4 level 1 or 2, and on a difficult terrain with a ravine between us and the monster.

[@foxowar3953]

Funny thing is that in the beginner's campaign, The Lost Mine of Phandelver, that I'm running, the encounter with the Nothic in the redbrand's den is one of the most memorable things so far

[@Muffled_voice]

God I want to play as a like wizard who is late stage nothic transformation where they are still crazy but still remember stuff from their past while also being homebrewed to the point where it’s not broken at early levels(Jekyll and Hyde kind of except a midpoint of madness and control) that just keeps a little note on their person at all times that just says “Still sane keep trying” that they will flash at their eye to insult or tempt vecna lol

[@Oooze3424]

Oh yeah! my DM loved these guys and used them often, he roleplayed them as basically pre-industrial conspiracy theorists and would which between funny and scary at the drop of a hat.

[@brettbeyer73]

We had these little buggers acting as guards for an enchanted forest. They were great for the "spooky eye in the trees" motif.

[@ether4211]

Nothics are my fav monster because of weird insight. I often use them early in a adventure to learn about the PCs - asking the players to answer odd questions or make up stuff like their characters most embarissing moment. For a high level BBEG Ravenloft game I used a Nothic hivemind for a Mean Girls inspired 'Highschool of Horrors' requring them to do saves vs divulging a embarissing secret - which the Nothics then used to tease/bully the pc. Oddly enough Vecna was one of the PCs and in typical 'dumb Vecna' style he had to flee from them because he wasn't immune to their effects!

[@freyanox9443]

I had considered using a nothic in my dungeon where its goal was to stalk the party and possibly take any magical loot they either missed or left behind once the more dangerous areas of the dungeon were cleared out

[@ExianProductions]

Had a nothic as the final boss of a major campaign chapter. A former archmage who was humiliated out of his position by a PC's older brother, he searched for decades to find magic research to surpass him and ruin him in the most horrible way possible, finding more than he was meaning to and slowly slipping into madness and shifting into a nothic over time. The party kept making perception checks while in the city and felt chills as they barely missed what looked like a green eye peering at them. When they faced him, he was still very much a spell caster, and had prepped his entire spellbook to counter the party after gaining information on them. Spellcrashing one of the warlock's spell slots, reading through the wizard's prepared spell list, and even casting swift gird on the druid with a suit of armor to prevent her from using her magic.

[@EndertheDragon0922]

I can’t believe I forgot about nothics, I’ve loved these guys ever since I saw their spooky design! I love their 4e art way better than their 5e art. Time to find a way to put ‘em in my Out of the Abyss game :)

[@sinistralhydra]

1:36 don't forget the Necrichor where you just become a sentient pool of blood.

[@MegaBloodeye]

My DM had our 5th lvl party encounter a pack of Nothics in a dungeon, but our wizard did some magic for them, hit a Nat 20 on a performance check to make the magic extra fancy, the Nothics clapped for him, and when we all got up from our long rest, they had left us a bunch of magic weapons and gear as thanks. Overall, they're pretty nice dudes.

[@NotThatHarrison]

My interpretation of nothings is that it’s like a parasite/virus in the weave, and as wizards have to access the weave itself to cast spells, it infects them more than other casters who source their magic internally or from other planes (sorcerers, warlocks, clerics)

[@treylenz1665]

Fun fact. Im a first time DM and i was scrolling through the monster manual to spice up our combat as up to this point my players have only been fighting guards. I then came across this interesting creature which had the perfect lore to be minions to a bbeg in my setting. So I run an encounter with these guys in it players are extremely confused (one of them is an experienced gm so that was a great time). Then not even a few hours later he sends me this video.

[@Haematite]

I once ran a game where the party found a version of a Geofront. A magic research arcology underground with a radiant portal as a sun with abandoned fields. It was overrun by Nothics, living spells, invisible stalkers (feral unseen servants), and magic oozes. A groop of manakin (mannequin) servants survived, no flesh to rot! The party found out a diviner found the "secret" to immortality, the breadcrumb spark to the curse. Once on the path, you can't step off, it's a magical curse and disease and no wizard can normally get cure disease.

[@justawizard3246]

I had an idea of a court that secretly employs Nothics that are fed and given access to various libraries by the government under which they serve. Right before the final verdict, a platform descends from the ceiling and seven Nothics that patiently waited there share horrible truths that they have learned about the party (or whoever is being judged at the moment), possibly influencing the sentence or causing the court to completely reconsider its decision. However, Nothics can be bribed with knowledge, which means they can reveal false truths if someone needs it, additionally most of them are probably already insane. I think the court should have something prepared for this kind of situation but idk.

[@sagedamage109]

Yes, they be overlooking at stuff with that huge eye

[@eternalvibe9083]

Just recently some player who was constantly doing stupid crackhead stuff got a taste of his own medicine when he tried to hit one of these guys with a fire ball point-blank. The Nothic hit him with a counter spell and reflected the fire ball right at him. To top it all off, he rolled a 4 on his death save, and this character he made was introduced in the same session (He changed it on a dime after he got bored with his previous character)

[@badjokezach6359]

Hey man, good video. I enjoy these informative shorts peppered with creative uses. Keep up the fine work.

[@yamato9753]

Theyre what happens when Gollum gets Saurons Eye. I encountered one in an Adventure of "Lost mine of Phandelver", where it gave the Fighter a +1 Longsword in exchange for the Flesh of the Bugbears that lived in the Dungeon... In front of my vigilante Warlock... Our Party was chaotic at best.

[@vaclavmusil1197]

I knew Nothics were cool since I read about them in the Monster manual. I knew I wanted to use one, but never knew what for. This video helped me come up with a few ways I could use them. One of those ways being: giving my players bits from their backstory they don't know. To explain: All three of my players have parts of their backstories they don't remember. Each has a slightly different reason why but each is under some kind of memory altering magic curse. I would rule that a Nothic could see through theese curses. I could use this as a way to give them little hints of what they forgot. Also I have a few places that are important to the story of my campaign where Nothics would definitely be gathering.

[@williamwray2522]

When I ran Curse of Strahd, the three Nothics in the Amber temple were ambushed by a fireball, survived and coped with the loss of their research by airing the dirty little secrets of the party. Stuff like the shifter barbarian wanting to eat the paladins pet squirrel Or that the cleric wanted to "eat" the paladin. They got married in game later. It was the best time in one of the scariest dungeons of that module.

[@elmorulez21]

I'm still wondering how the Nothic from the end of Critical Role's first campaign was supposed to either help or hinder the group.

[@Lukasaske]

Do you remember which episode?

[@spensirmclife6549]

​@@LukasaskeIt was in like the final Arc right as they were climbing the big titan and came to the city that was on top of it

[@rockeeb]

Probably gonna add the ''BBEG that uses Nothics as a spy group but also is a secretly Vecna worshipper'' thing to my sandbox game, and in case players take interest I can create a whole storyline from dealing with nothics to finding the BBEG and maybe even attacking Vecna's champion in the end

[@ladymecha8718]

I had a new player that actually kept a Nothic he found around as ally. So he stayed for part of the adventure doing random things, the rolls were in favour of the player, until the Nothic just wandered off one day, forgetting about the player, (randomly rolled). It was so fun to play it. Truly recommended. ❤😂 And yes, this player kept the Nothic interested and on his side by offering lesser magical items to it.

[@robertmastrobattista6333]

I actually have one of these guys in the campaign that I am running. Though I changed how he turned into it by having him be a dwarf that consumed the flesh of a beholder for centuries. Slowly it warped his body. As for the insanity bit, I had him encounter a grisgol. XD

[@joxyver]

Yeah I met an NPC that was one of those creatures in a campaign I used to be a part of, she was very freaky, and basically had this thing where she could like read into your mind and know a random secret about you. Kept talking about star maps, very weird.

[@reedster222]

I actually just ran a bunch of nothics in my last dungeon for my current campaign! Even made a homebrew stat block for this sweet "Nothic Behemoth" mini that I got from mini monster mayhem, to be a cool boss monster.

[@Netherdan]

When I read "Nothic Behemoth" the first thought in my mind was "heh, did a dragon wizard became a nothic or something?

[@fenixmeaney6170]

I've created a campaign where the party is a bunch of awakened automatons on a demiplane of a once powerful artificer/wizard turned nothic. They slowly start to realize that they are part of a simulation as the campaign progresses, culminating with them encountering their fallen creator.

[@hedgehogmorph7248]

04:40 "A single meeting with this and that..." And _ESPECIALLY THE WIZARD_