Copyright 2008 Wizards of the Coast

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Grimlocks appeared in a Monster Manual for the first time in AD&D 2nd Edition, though it’s likely they appeared in a 1e or earlier supplement before that. I’m pretty sure they’re inspired by the Morlocks from H. G. Wells’ The Time Machine. Here they’re only on the MM.

The Lore

It seems like every “civilized” surface people has a more brutal “deep” counterpart in the Underdark. Elves have drow, dwarves have duergar, and so on. I’ve seen it argued that grimlocks are the equivalent of humans, though their dramatic role is a lot closer to that of your typical Angry Humanoid like an orc or gnoll.

Anyway, grimlocks are a humanoid people who apparently evolved in the Underdark. They have no eyes, and perceive the world through their keen senses of hearing and smell. Some sonar might also be involved here.

Grimlocks are quite strong, and their society has a Stone Age level of technology. As it’s unfortunately quite common for D&D, they’re described as stupid, savage cannibals who have a particular taste for human flesh and an Evil alignment.

That’s already quite enough to make them hostile to any given PC group, but there’s more! Grimlocks are surrounded by lots of powerful, technologically advanced evil empires, which means they often end up as slaves to drow, duergar, mind flayers, and so on. So you might end up fighting a grimlock horde either because they’re servants of the Big Bad, or just because they’re hungry.

The bit I like the most here is the statement that grimlocks evolved in the Underdark. That would make them one of the only sapient species native to the place - most others came either from the surface or from the Far Realm, as did much of the wildlife.

The Numbers

Grimlocks are Medium Natural Humanoids, which corroborates the evolution bit. Their signature traits are Blindsight 10, and the Blind keyword. This makes them immune to sight-based effects, and allows them to fight normally in full darkness or against invisible opponents.

They have no other special tricks, relying on “hard fighting” instead.

Grimlock Minion and Grimlock Follower

These are Minion Brutes, level 14 and 22 respectively. They fight with stone greataxes that do a bit more damage against bloodied targets, and otherwise hope to swarm their enemies with their huge numbers as minions often do.

You can expect to find large numbers of them in the service of some powerful Underdark villain, or if you end up raiding a grimlock settlement for some reason.

Grimlock Ambusher

A Level 11 Skirmisher with 110 HP, trained in Athletics and Endurance. It fights with a greataxe that has the High Critical property.

Its special move is the Offensive Shift, a reaction usable when an enemy moves within 2 squares and attacks an ally of the ambusher. It allows the creature to shift and make a basic attack against that enemy. This recharges when the ambusher is first bloodied.

Grimlock Berserker

This Level 13 Brute has 156 HP and seems to be visually indistinguishable from the ambusher above. It has training in the same skills.

The berserker fights with a greataxe as well, and in addition to its basic attack it can make a Power Attack that’s slightly less accurate and deals more damage. It can also make two basic attacks against a bloodied enemy.

When the berserker bloodies an enemy, it gains 10 temporary HP.

Sample Encounters and Final Impressions

The sample encounter is level 13: two berserkers, 2 hook horrors, and 1 mind flayer infiltrator who is likely the boss of this group.

I’m not really a fan of grimlocks. They fill a necessary role of mind flayer muscle but otherwise conform to all the usual Angry Humanoid stereotypes, with the words “murderous”, “savage”, “brute”, and so on appearing rather frequently as descriptors.

Mechanically they’re a bit weak, heavily affected by the damage bug due to being paragon-tier opponents. Even the berserker’s power attack falls short of what its basic damage output should be according to the new math. Fixing that is a priority if you want to use grimlocks as opposition.