Copyright 2008 Wizards of the Coast

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I haven’t seen Foulspawn before 4e, though I suppose they could be a very late 3.x creation. Here, they’re present only on the Monster Manual.

The Lore

Foulspawn are humanoids corrupted by contact with the lovecraftian Far Realm or its energies. This warps them both physically and mentally, turning them into knife-toothed monstrosities with a hatred for the natural world and its inhabitants, and a compulsion to serve powerful aberrant creatures like aboleths, beholders, or mind-flayers.

That’s all the lore we get in the MM, though it does make room for some speculation. Deranged cultists are a traditional trope in adventures where the Big Bad is a cthulhoid monster, and foulspawn seem to be basically the end state for those cultists once they get deep enough into their trade. So their insane mindset might very well be something they already had with them when they underwent the physical transformation into foulspawn.

Does this mean you could find a foulspawn who was involuntarily transformed and still holds something of its memories to become an ally of the party? That’s interesting, so I’m saying yes.

They’d also be the terrible fate hangs over star pact warlocks who can’t cut it, mirroring the “eternal damnation” and “get turned into a mushroom” threats that hang over the other pacts.

The Numbers

Foulspawn are Aberrant Humanoids of varying size. They have low-light vision, and little else in the way of universal traits. Their magic, when they have it, tends towards psychic powers or stuff that bends time and space in that classic “non-Euclidean nightmare” style. Their typical alignment is Chaotic Evil.

Some foulspawn, but not all, also gain miscellaneous bonuses when they’re bloodied.

All of the foulspawn in this entry suffer very heavily from the damage bug, as their designer took a mistaken “naturalistic” approach when writing them up. This would probably be fine in 5e or 3.x, but here monster damage has to be purely a function of level. Making a monster’s basic attack deal 1d4+3 damage because it holds a dagger and has STR 16 makes it too weak even at level 1.

Foulspawn Grue

The one that eats you if you linger in the dark for too long. These Small Level 8 Controllers have 87 HP, and are fairly slow with Speed 4. They also have a teleport speed of 4, allowing them to come at you from unexpected angles.

They suffer quite a bit from the damage bug, as their basic claw attack is on the weak side. Its riders are pretty good, though - slow (save ends), or daze (save ends) if the target is already slowed.

Once per encounter they can infect someone with a Mind Worm (Ranged 10 vs. Will), which does no damage but inflicts a -2 penalty to Will and slows (save ends both). They can also utter Whispers of Madness (Recharge 5-6, Ranged 5 vs Will), which do a nice bit of psychic damage and have the same riders as the claw attack. Deafened targets are immune to the whispers, which might prompt some PCs to plug their ears (and become more vulnerable to the grue’s lurker buddies).

Foulspawn Mangler

This four-armed Medium terror is a Level 8 Skirmisher with 86 HP. It gains +2 to AC, Reflex and Speed when bloodied, taking its native speed of 7 up to 9.

Though the mangler is armed with four daggers its basic attack consists of a single, ridiculously weak stab (1d4+3 for a level 8 monster!). There’s a Dagger Dance ability that allows it to stab four times and shift 1 square between each attack, but that’s only usable twice per encounter.

The mangler can also throw 2 of those daggers at-will (Ranged 5/10 vs. AC), which doesn’t quite leave it weaponless because it has four backup weapons. It also deals +2d6 sneak attack damage and gains a +5 to AC against opportunity attacks from movement.

One way to bring the mangler’s damage up to speed is to simply make Dagger Dance an at-will action. Making its dagger damage something like 4d4+3 or 2d6+5 is probably still the better option though.

Foulspawn Berserker

This Medium Level 9 Soldier has 102 HP. Its projects a Berserker Aura (Aura 1); anyone within who makes a melee attack targets a random creature in their reach! You’ll want to keep your allies well away from the party’s fighter when fighting this monster. The berserker gains +2 to Fortitude and damage rolls when bloodied, is immune to fear, and runs at speed 7.

It fights with a greatsword, which once again suffers from a case of ill-thought-out naturalistic design. The berserker also deals 5 extra damage on a charge, and causes Mental Feedback on anyone who hits with a charm effect. This does 10 damage to the attacker and to the berserker, which means charm effects are actually a good choice for a PC who doesn’t mind getting a little hurt in the process.

Foulspawn Seer

This spellcaster is Level 11 Artillery with 86 HP and the Leader keyword. It projects an aura of Foul Insight out to 10 squares, giving any ally in range who can hear the seer a +2 to one roll (attack, ability, skill, or save) on their turn. It moves at Speed 6 and also has a teleport speed of 3.

Its attack powers are similarly all about warping space: the Warp Orb (Ranged 10 vs. Reflex) deals physical damage and dazes (save ends). The Distortion Blast (Daily; Close Blast 5 vs. Fortitude) does the same but is a little stronger and only does half damage to aberrant creatures. It can also teleport 3 squares as an interrupt when an attack would hit it, a defense which recharges on a 5-6.

Finally, it has a basic melee attack with its staff, which does physical damage and pushes the target 1 square on a hit.

This looks like a solid enough controller if you fix its overall low damage, as it suffers from the same “naturalistic” design flaw.

Foulspawn Hulk

This Large-sized foulspawn is a Level 12 Brute with 150 HP and absolutely nothing in the way of special attacks.

Its sole attack is a basic slam which does about half the damage it should. It becomes about 50% stronger when the hulk is bloodied, a state which also grants it +2 Fortitude.

You might as well rewrite the hulk’s stat block from the ground up - a level 12 monster who just stands there making basic attacks for the whole fight is a failure of design.

Sample Encounter and Final Impressions

The sample encounter is level 11: 1 seer, two berserkers, three grues, and a grell. That’s a lot of dazing and stunning attacks that are going to be thrown the party’s way. If the party is level 11 it’s likely not a lot of them will hit, but if this is being used as a boss fight for level 8 PCs they’re going to have a bad time.

I’m somewhat disappointed in these foulspawn. I kinda like them conceptually as the end-state for aberrant cultists. All their dreams of power and mad devotion has led them to this, and the fact that foulspawn are not all that weird or powerful leads a certain pathos to the whole thing.

Mechanically, though, they’re pretty bad for all the reasons we’ve already discussed. The Foulspawn Hulk is particularly galling for being so uninteresting.