Copyright 2008 Wizards of the Coast

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Grells have been around since at least the 2e Monstrous Manual. In Fourth, they’re only on the MM, but they got an update in Dungeon 192.

The Lore

These beaked, tentacled brain-things live and hunt in the Underdark. Like a lot of monsters in this book they’re carnivores who don’t mind if their prey is sapient. Though blind, they perceive the world through their latent psychic powers.

Grells are sapient, but lone grells tend to lead a feral existence and behave pretty much like clever pretadors. Those tend to be exceptions, though. Grell most often organize themselves in hive-like colonies with dozens of individuals, led by the most intelligent and powerful among them. These colonies are expansionist, though they tend to see their territory more as a hunting ground than as any sort of empire. Grell colonies don’t go for subtle manipulation, either.

Grells have a venomous bite, and venomous spines on the tips of their tentacles. Their leaders are called Philosophers, and have stronger psychic powers on top of that.

One interesting fact added by the Dungeon update is that brains are poisonous to grells! They’ll eat every other bit of their victims, but will either discard the brains or keep them in reserve for trade if there’s a mind flayer colony near their territory.

The Numbers

Grells are Medium Aberrant Magical Beasts who lack eyes and thus are immune to gaze attacks. They have Blindsight 12 and fly with speed 6 (hover). A grounded grell is reduced to a ground speed of 1 (clumsy). They’re Evil, communicate via Deep Speech, and are trained in Stealth and Perception.

Grell

The basic model is a Level 7 Elite Soldier with 156 HP. Its basic attack is a Tentacle Rake (Melee 2 vs. AC) using those spines, and while it does the damage expected by the new math that’s only because the designers went with the “one double-damage attack” approach for this elite monster. In addition to doing damage, the tentacles slow the target and give it a -2 penalty to attacks (save ends both).

Instead of raking, the grell can attempt a Tentacle Grab (Melee 2 vs. Fortitude) which does a bit less damage than the rake and grabs the target. The grell can only grab one victim at a time, and enjoys a +2 bonus to AC while it’s grabbing someone.

As a 1/round minor action, the grell can use its Venomous Bite (vs. AC) against a grabbed victim, dealing a bit of physical damage and stunning them (save ends).

You can expect a grell to be able to keep one PC stunlocked and the rest of them slowed. The update gives them two attacks per turn, each of which can be a Tentacle Rake or a Tentacle Grab. They retain their stunning bite, but the stun also ends when the grab does in addition to being (save ends).

Grell Philosopher

Philosophers are Level 11 Elite Controllers with 224 HP. They have Resist 20 Lightning on top of the common grell’s traits. Their basic attack is still the tentacle rake, whose damage is only 1 point higher than that of a standard grell.

They have a ranged attack in the form of a Lightning Lance (Ranged 10 vs. Reflex) which does lightning damage and blinds (save ends). If there are a lot of PCs nearby they can instead use their Venomous Mind (Close Burst 3 vs. Will, enemies only) which does psychic damage and forces its victims to choose random targets for any melee attacks they make (save ends). I love these unique conditions.

Occasionally the philosopher will be able to cause a Psychic Storm (Area Burst 2 within 10 vs. Will; recharge 6) which does psychic damage and dazes (save ends). The storm lingers as a zone until the end of the encounter, dazing anyone caught within (save ends).

Psychic storm is always available at the beginning of the fight, so that’s going to be the opener almost every time. It’s not a “friendly” area, so some care is required in its placement. Venomous mind is an excellent power to use on the PCs stunlocked by the philosopher’s underlings.

The dungeon update left them pretty much identical, aside from the usual damage improvements.

Sample Encounter and Final Impressions

There’s one grell encounter here, which is level 11: a philosopher, 2 standard grells, and 4 troglodyte minions. The lore didn’t give me the impression grells would work alongside anyone else, but the troglodyte association here is interesting. This works as a good boss battle for level 8-9 characters.

I think grells are a lot more interesting when they’re in colonies. As lone feral predators they’re interchangeable with a lot of other tentacled Underdark beasties.

One thing I noticed is that 2e seems to have described them as having a higher level of technology: they worn spear-tips on their tentacles, used magic items, and the Lightning Lance was an actual weapon instead of a psychic power. I wonder how much stress this caused GMs whose players looted a bunch of +5 rings and rayguns from a group of grells. So in that way it’s a good thing that these things are no longer in the game. Still, if you’re looking for some treasure to assign to a grell encounter, these items might be a good inspiration.

2e used to also have Grell Patriarchs as the “tier” above Philosophers. Patriarchs were large sapient masses of flesh that acted as the core of spelljammer vessels. If you’re including spelljamming in your campaign you could bring them back.