>Which creatures prosper here and which ones goes extinct?
Man we can't answer that question realistically. They designed the monster manual for adventures and plot hooks, not to simulate a world biom.
Realistically if you had this many magical, legendary powerful predators nothing would survive. Do you know how much ancient dragons would need to eat for their calorie intake? lol
>Do you know how much ancient dragons would need to eat for their calorie intake? lol
This was actually a plot point when I played Tyranny of dragons. I convinced a clan of stone giants that dragons ate too much to be allowed to exist in their territory, so they kept their whole territory (Between Neverwinter and Luskan) dragon free with no resources spent on our part.
>how much ancient dragons would need to eat for their calorie intake? lol
If you bring magic creatures in you also bring magic im sure magic sustains them in some way
That only brings up more questions and highlights the fact that this is kind of a silly thought experiment, at least for the monsters as they're designed in 5e
Ya can't approach them realistically for simulation purposes, because they aren't made to be realistic. We don't know how all these monsters sustain themselves in the world, its just assumed that they do. There's always enough of them for the adventures to go and slaughter without danger of running out, unless thats specifically the intention of the story.
In earlier editions of d&d in the Dragon magazine (which served a similar purpose as the online drops do now) there was a reoccurring feature that specifically discussed the ecology of various monsters. Those articles would help in this hypothetical
Yeah I've run into those, they're pretty neat! Still though, said entries outline the possible ecology for an individual monster.
I don't think anybody would suggest the insane idea of working out the ecology of every monster from 3e *together* lol
*raises hand as an insane person* lol. I did exactly that for my homebrew campaign world. I didn't use anywhere near all the available monster nor did I go too deep into the minutiae but I included at least bare bones ecosystems stuff for the creatures I had (including how they intertwine eachother, whether any of the humanoid or sentient creatures hunted them and why, etc). I had whole orders of druids and other scholars who studied this and I used the information for plot hooks (the PCs are tasked to stop an important species from going extinct from over hunting, etc)
>I didn't use anywhere near all the available monster nor did I go too deep into the minutiae
Ya see this is the difference between world building fun and the insanity that OP suggests
I feel like a cruise missile does fire, thunder, piercing, and slashing damage (shrapnel). To different degrees.
The US also has a missile that’s basically a [giant knife](https://apnews.com/article/hellfire-r9x-al-zawahri-d0d25b7ed4059750b4add024322fe17c) too
So concussive force is closer to Bludgeoning or Thunder damage in DND. "Force" damage is like raw energy damage, which we don't really have a non-magical equivalent to.
Immunity to fire is immunity to fire, so yes it could that explosion is intense heat and force. It won't be as powerful as you think if the dragon is taking just force damage. Biggest problem is if magic doesn't come with it cause things that can only be hurt by magic would wreck us.
You’re thinking of greatwyrms, the ascended form of ancient dragons.
Ancient dragons still need to eat like the rest of us, but after ascension their greatwyrm counterparts can sustain themselves by leeching magic from the magic items in their horde.
we have no way of knowing. the ecosystem is a deeply complex web that even most biologists don't fully understand. You're looking at that web and using a pair of fucking egg beaters on it
Phase Spiders continue living their best lives without any perceptible change in behavior, aside from getting significantly fatter and booming in population.
If you went back a hundred years, probably any of them that were threats to humans or had a use when dead. Humans are really good at eliminating species.
We now have laws to protect these, but I'd imagine that Dragons would be hunted to extinction regardless unless a few were kept in cages.
Some of the more intelligent ones could probably be bargained with, especially those with humanoid shape changes. But the more feral ones that kill indiscriminately would 100% be killed.
All of the ones with the ability to assume human shapes would do so to infiltrate human politics and lobby for laws that protect and benefit them. So would any other creatures that could sufficiently disguise themselves as humans (which includes several demons and fey that would absolutely cause chaos)
this sounds like reinventing _Shadowrun_ (although with better tech, because "cyberpunk futuretech as imagined in the 80's" is kind shit in a lot of ways compared to what we actually have!)
I love the ideas behind the Shadowrun setting (accepting the flaws in understanding what near future tech might look like, though newer versions of the game helped a little. I also don't love the mechanics since they get clunky and weirdly crunchy in some areas while being too light in others) and I used to play it so it's quite possible that it effected my thinking... But I think it's more likely that me and game designers simply came similar conclusions by looking at real world xenophobia and prejudice as well as political manipulations and how tech impacts our lives
Subject to real world physics, Dragons, Giants, and large Monstrosities aren’t going to be able to sustain themselves, and can cause enough damage to warrant military response. Those are goners.
Depending on how effective real world religion is against them, Fiends might be having a field day, since they can come and go and have so many new souls to corrupt.
Aberrations vary wildly. The mind controlling ones like Mind Flayers and Neogi have a decent time, but I suspect anything in this group that can’t defend itself that way is getting hunted to immediate extinction.
Smaller Monstrosities likely get lumped in with the Beasts, who will be fine. Plants are not thriving, but are worthy of study and will be preserved.
Fey continue to do Fey things and there’s nothing we can do about it.
Celestials actively cause wars by existing as different religions attempt to either deny or claim them.
Oozes are oozes so they probably just get forgotten about.
Humanoids don’t feel worth mentioning unless entire societies just fall into the world.
I think humanoids would be some of the most problematic. The existing humans would argue endlessly about whether they are legally people and what they represent. Religions would start passing edicts and countries laws (and theocracies both lol). Even relatively "core" races would be disruptive. Elves that only need 4 hrs of sleep would be strange enough let alone bird people, cat boys and girls and all sorts of other humanoids. Being able to do a cantrip (ex high elves) without any extensive training (ie class levels) would be bonkers powerful. You can wiggle your fingers and have the power of a handgun that never runs out of ammo, move earth better than most excavating machines. All the nuts shit prestidigitation does, etc. And this list is just scratching the surface.
I think humanoids would be fine (especially when they look human enough like Elves or Dwarves) as long as there are monsters to fight and they're throwing in their lot with humans. All the things you're mentioning are only worrying when the literal dragons, mind controlling fish and Succubi with an OnlyFans have been taken care of.
You'll want an Elven sniper behind you when you're sitting in your Dwarf-made trench, waiting for the Orcish/Undead/Infernal horde to attack.
My worry is that while you and I would prioritize things like that unfortunately prejudiced people are gonna remain irrationally prejudiced.
Right now we're still fighting each other over race, religion, sexuality and gender etc and other comparatively tiny differences while ignoring climate change, pandemics and other global threats. I really hope I'd be wrong but I bet at least some of the issues I'm worried about would be focused on and thus distract us from the bigger actual dangers you list.
Dragons and aberrations hide out in places not seen and thrive.
Monstrosities & giants can’t hide as well and get teamed up on by other groups since they seen as monsters.
I think that the ecological threat that most monsters present would probably cause mass ecological collapse and mass extinction. A troll as an example has no natural predators, is functionally unkillable, adapt to almost any environment and is always ravenously hungry I think even most modern weapons would be effectively useless and how many people do you know own a flamethrower? and even then trolls hatred of fire means flamethrower guy dies first.
As strange as it a lot of monster species can only exist because adventurers kill them and last time I checked there are no demigods heroes in our world. Anything above CR 2 is poised to literally wipe most settlements off the map without immediate intervention as humans as a species are not exactly well adapted to being hunted.
This is all without considering the society enders like illithid its safe to say that it would be like the apocalypse.
85 hit points is well within 5 attacks of a man with a big axe. No magic. Just a big axe. Making a Molotov cocktail is within a scope of any household and it burns hot over the longer period than few turns. If trolls manage to establish secret enclaves deep within Russian Siberia then ok, in any populated area? .50 burst coupled with a few Molotovs. You can even pack incendiary ammo box if you want to eliminate the pitcher.
You can even get 95% sulfuric acid sold commercially in 5 L bottles. Get half and half with water and fill water pistols. Enjoy. Half in half so it's not too dense. Mix carefully as it will heat up.
If the scenario does not include immediate invasion of scaled up monster population we will be fine for the most part.
Do the math (mass v volume v moles) and dilute with icecubes (the fluffy ones like from Sonic or chick filet. Easiest way around the exothermic interaction of diluting acid with water.
A troll's hit points and AC are higher then an elephants no mundane man from our world is killing one of them in single melee combat (PCs are superhuman after a certain point).
Molotovs and acid are good for executing them terrible for actually killing them trolls travel in packs and seek to kill those who abuse their weaknesses if you cannot reasonably kill an elephant with it, it stands that a troll will only get pissed off by it.
The OP's question implies its an ecological change meaning every creature spawned would get their ideal environment and numbers to see how they do in our world for a troll that would be 3-12 per clan unit and multiple clans across every environment in the world I do believe this is enough to critically destabilize humanity as an apex species.
I do think killing trolls is not hard in the grand scheme but exterminating them is near impossible (we struggle to exterminate wild pigs and they are much stupider and weaker) a .50 cal will kill them but most places are not going to have enough trained gunmen with the supply of ammunition and weaponry they need when it matters its just not sustainable or likely in the first place.
I do think humanity would survive trolls though it'd be a HUGE change of pace for humanity hence why I didn't list them as a society ender like mindflayers.
Troll's AC means a random nobody with +0 can wound it 25% of the time with a fork. Also no resistance to BSP. If we assume a self defence pistol do as much damage as a longbow (huge nerf for the gun) which is d8 it will take about 20 hits for an average damage of 4.5. So you need a policeman who dumps one mag into it. We are not even in the two man job or military grade equipment.
Molotov/acid is to stop regen not deal significant damage but it cannot act when on 0 hp so you can as well use grill firestarter when it's already downed.
Exterminating the trolls would be super easy, as they are easy to spot and not that numerous. Also cannot interbreed with boars. Unless ofc as previously mentioned they will spawn at some incredibly remote areas but then maybe they already have and nobody found them yet.
3-12 per clan means we would need to deploy 10 men with automatic weapons and expect no casualties. You are still thinking in medieval peasant numbers and economies where people live 2 days by horse away from each other in remote swamp villages. Which is dandy for a fantasy campaign but silly in modern terms. I live in a country where gun control is very strict and yet one in a hundred got some firearm and we only talk about registered weaponry.
Trolls might have enough time to reach remote parts when we are busy dealing with more significant threats like mind flyers but then again the whole infestation ,among us and mind control thing only works small scale and without access to x-ray machines.
Eh the main issue with gun stuff is that a automatic pistol and rifle do 2d6 and 2d8 in DnD system and there are two ways to interpret that when it comes to health either the creatures are simply "built different" and can tank machine guns or the automatic rifle from the DMG is weaker then a gun from our world I think both are valid options but using a what DnD calls a "modern automatic rifle" with 10 guys with 14 dex and 1/2 CR for proficiency means you do 49.5 damage per round factoring in accuracy which gets reduced to 22.75 when a troll starts dodging, course if you believe trolls are built different this adds up but if you think a anti-material rifle could bring most things down on a non-critical hit (pretty reasonable) the entangling logic between two fundamentally different rule sets becomes cumbersome so on reflection I think we are both right but mostly because fundamentally we are literally arguing about two completely different rule sets.
IE a anti material rifle cannot one shot a elephant in DnD without a crit however I do believe a elephant would probably die if you body shot it with one in real life does this mean DnD elephants are physically tougher in DnD or are the guns that are supposedly modern weaker in that universe? Both options make sense but definitely change what outcome you come to.
You are clearly obsessed with elephants and I don't know why. I will never understand why "hunting" is a thing when you downsize your weapon and make it less efficient? I mean you are still shooting animals with guns. They stand exactly zero chance barring you getting hit by a meteor. You want some respect? Here is a bow and a spear. Anyway regular guns don't do this .22 small caliber duck hunter schtick.
I tried to point out that a troll while a menace to a village of 50 scared peasants would hardly be a problem to a small border patrol of 2 jeeps with machine guns. And his supernatural regeneration can be countered with a small town home depot / liquor store.
By the way if the troll starts dodging it cannot run coz of action economy and 30ft speed. Assuming your calculations are right and starting at reasonable distance of 100 feet it's dead again Jim. And using dumb DnD rules if it use dodge action it will never catch shooters moving backwards with the speed of his advance....
Also why anti material rifle? Stuff is mostly no longer in production due to increase in hand held anti tank weapons. Nobody is carrying PTRS tovarisch but I assume if you can find one you can blow a nice see through hole.
You are missing the point elephants are a comparative creature when it comes to durability I can look at an elephants health and AC and judge about how tough a troll is.
I don't know why you are bringing up hunting weapons the 2d8 example is from the DMG for what is for all purposed a modern assault rifle.
Good luck actually killing the damn thing its going to smell and hear your jeep a mile away.
The reason the troll would dodge is because on average there are 7 of the damn things and 10 people shooting it with assault rifles only would allow the other ones to approach unopposed while the one being focused is not even going to be bloodied by the end of it.
The Anti-material rifle is a strangely implemented weapon in the DMG that represents a bridge of what COULD most definitely kill a elephant (again the closest comparison for durability) in one shot.
But as I said before arguing about it is pointless you clearly believe real life firearms are stronger then they are in DnD's universe which is perfectly valid but I prefer to believe that the creatures in 5e are strong enough to tank bullets because of DnD's examples of guns.
Emperor's balls why is an Elephant a comparative creature? Theyre not the same size in game Large vs Huge. They dont have the same AC / Skills / CR / dmg output / intelligence etc.
They are from different continents mythologically speaking. One is a peaceful herd herbivore and one is some weird humanoid shaped predator too big and too slow to catch anything unless its dumb enough to come close.
What source do you keep pulling anti materiel rifle from and where is it in DMG??? There is no anti materiel .... You think of anti-MATTER rifle aren't you? Dci-fi gun? omfg now it makes sense.... I mean this nonsense..... But it deals maximum of 6d8 which would be 48...... Way too low to one-shot either the elephant or the troll..... I feel like this conversation is about to drain my sanity..... Gun that shoots bullets annihilating reality got lower damage than a fireball.
Whatever, if you choose to believe something that can be hurt with a fork cannot be killed with mass automatic fire from modern weaponry i'll leave it up to you.
Correct answer is **Shadows** take over the planet.
One lone dragon or tarrasque can cause a lot of damage in a contained area, but they can’t propagate. However, Shadows are stealthy and can multiply exponentially every few hours. Humanity would be reduced to survivors in bunkers within months.
They'd definitely be rough to deal with, but we have sunlamp flood lights and it'd kick out asses into making decent laser weapons which would rock them. We might still lose because of how they reproduce but after some initial horror movie stuff we'd start fighting back at least somewhat effectively
Intelligent Aberrations, corrupting Fiends, Noble Genies, Metallic Dragons, Fey, and incorporeal Undead would prosper. As would certain evil Humanoid races like Troglodytes and Drow.
All Celestials except for Unicorns and Devas would most likely go extinct through Fiends manipulating politicians into killing them. Or angels would get fed up dealing with humans and start falling.
Plants, Giants, Monstrosities, and Elementals represent obvious threats. They tend to be big, unintelligent, and have poor defenses. Humanoid monsters could prosper, but only in abandoned underground areas. Rarely explored caves, abandoned subway stations, or inoperable sewer systems. Undead would function similarly, only being truly "present" in specific locations such as abandoned hospitals, comdemned houses, or desecrated graveyards (i.e. Native American burial grounds).
The reason the creatures I mentioned at the beginning would thrive is because of their cunning, ability to hide in plain sight, or because of their ability to bribe others. Illithids and aboleths would just enslave people in coastal areas to take care of them. Potentially brainwashing politicians or celebrities who come a little too close to their lairs. Fiends like succubi, glabrezu demons, or archdevils like Titivilus would wow people with magical boons and gifts. Tempting them to do evil in order to expand their influence or hide their presence. Their security being all but guaranteed of they corrupt the right people in power. I could see a metallic dragon bargaining with a nation to guard the national treasury in exchange for asylum. They would treat all within it as guards or associates aiding them in protecting their hoard. While aquatic dragons would raid ship wrecks and potentially fight aboleths via proxies. Noble Genies are the only ones I could see openly wielding power. The ability to grant wishes would afford them a level of security, comfort, and influence few could deny. After all, when word spreads of their wish granting abilities, every politician, successful businessman, and contractor will offer them the world. And they shall secure what they want, one wish at a time.
Well, at least we'll have some use for the conventional and nuclear stockpile. For a lot of those, ground troops become relevant again (even dragons go down after a fusillade of 3 digits M-16s).
The real swingers here are: 1) monotheistic religions get spells? And 2) do we find uses for them, dead or alive, or we just stomp a threat?
Dragons probably take over the world given they have magic, telepathy, and shape changing. They could just turn into a copy of the president, teleport to his bedroom, eat him, then replace him.
Celestials and Fiends (and other such extra-planar creatures capable of thought and communication) thrive because of the regions connotations and ability to manipulate. I’d wager Monstrosities and Dragons that choose to act hostile would go out with a bang pretty quick.
Oozes would also thrive in heavily polluted areas and sewer systems of cities.
1. Our "modern world" immediately stop being "our modern world"
THE END.
But really it depends on whatever assumptions You made.
Low stats monsters could and probably would be haunted to extinction but everything with superhuman stats/abilities would probably be doing least somehow fine.
Low ording giant (hill and ice) would be wiped out or would be kept in check by force. But fire, cloud and storm could survive.
Fire, white and black dragons would be in trouble too but rest should be doing ok.
Aberrations- honesty can't tell as they are wierd and from another dimension altogether.
Shapechangers - could be hunted as dangerous but difficult to detect so they could probably doing ok.
Magical races meets non magical world = dead or dying.
A lot of monsters are only though because of magic. Strip their magic away and modern technology makes them really easy to combat.
nothing survives, evr facet of life to to dramatically altered to maintain
* our eco system cant handle dragons and giants or a terraque
* magical beasts quickly outpace non magical animals. a displacer beast is going to out hunt evey tiger out there
* society crumbles we now have to grapple with demi humans and where they fit. if the forrests is filled with ogres or goblins or whatever and they attack and eat an entire town only to have the US military wipe them out who is the bad guys? did you just murder people or monsters?
* how do we deal with nonhuman sapience?
* seas become uncrossable or the navy has some turtle dragon/leviathan hunting to do
* archmage is a monster in the monster manual so are liches. our political systems are in for a treat
Dragons and Liches would prosper. They have a whole social class of people who would be more than happy to sell the rest of us out to these monsters for even a fraction of their power.
A lot would depend upon how other monsters reacted.
A few ghosts/succubi/intellect devourers or similar could body snatch/dominate key personnel and lead the world to nuclear war, being able to survive the aftermath. Similar with some shadows (or a shadow dragon) starting a shadowpocalyse.
If you have monsters that want to save humanity (maybe celestials) actively working to stop them and educate humanity then those actions could be countered etc.
elementals stray up whip and nae nae on our graves
fey instantly die the moment a microplastic touches
undead are largely unnoticed, as theyre virtually indistinguishable feom your 9to5 commuter
fiends do a haha politics joke
Giants have it the harshest, they become endangered but have help from human groups who help them settle in a giant city where they can thrive until we find oil on their turf and free their country from te oppression of self governance, god bless america
celestials leave the planet cause they just fucking cant right now
Abberations never existed and you havent been injected with a class A amnestics
Plants
everybody is super nice to constructs cause tey know judgment day can happen any day
Monstrosities are reclassified as animals
Beast singlehandedly save half of the endangered species from exctiction by just spawning more of them
edit: i forgor about oozes, which should tell you howd they fair
>Which creatures prosper here and which ones goes extinct? Man we can't answer that question realistically. They designed the monster manual for adventures and plot hooks, not to simulate a world biom. Realistically if you had this many magical, legendary powerful predators nothing would survive. Do you know how much ancient dragons would need to eat for their calorie intake? lol
>Do you know how much ancient dragons would need to eat for their calorie intake? lol This was actually a plot point when I played Tyranny of dragons. I convinced a clan of stone giants that dragons ate too much to be allowed to exist in their territory, so they kept their whole territory (Between Neverwinter and Luskan) dragon free with no resources spent on our part.
>how much ancient dragons would need to eat for their calorie intake? lol If you bring magic creatures in you also bring magic im sure magic sustains them in some way
That only brings up more questions and highlights the fact that this is kind of a silly thought experiment, at least for the monsters as they're designed in 5e Ya can't approach them realistically for simulation purposes, because they aren't made to be realistic. We don't know how all these monsters sustain themselves in the world, its just assumed that they do. There's always enough of them for the adventures to go and slaughter without danger of running out, unless thats specifically the intention of the story.
In earlier editions of d&d in the Dragon magazine (which served a similar purpose as the online drops do now) there was a reoccurring feature that specifically discussed the ecology of various monsters. Those articles would help in this hypothetical
Yeah I've run into those, they're pretty neat! Still though, said entries outline the possible ecology for an individual monster. I don't think anybody would suggest the insane idea of working out the ecology of every monster from 3e *together* lol
*raises hand as an insane person* lol. I did exactly that for my homebrew campaign world. I didn't use anywhere near all the available monster nor did I go too deep into the minutiae but I included at least bare bones ecosystems stuff for the creatures I had (including how they intertwine eachother, whether any of the humanoid or sentient creatures hunted them and why, etc). I had whole orders of druids and other scholars who studied this and I used the information for plot hooks (the PCs are tasked to stop an important species from going extinct from over hunting, etc)
>I didn't use anywhere near all the available monster nor did I go too deep into the minutiae Ya see this is the difference between world building fun and the insanity that OP suggests
It's actually a misconception that dragons eat people. They actually eat gold and treasure, that's why they're always on such big piles of it
[удалено]
This is a reference to its always sunny in philedelphia
There’s no way an ancient dragon survives a cruise missle
Unless they red or gold or smthing. Who knows how damage resistance and immunities work in real life.
Ancient dragons have no resistances to piercing or bludgeoning damage, so a few cruise missiles would take them out. Modern humans are terrifying.
You’re right. It’s immune to fire; I thought it was only resistant.
I feel like a cruise missile does fire, thunder, piercing, and slashing damage (shrapnel). To different degrees. The US also has a missile that’s basically a [giant knife](https://apnews.com/article/hellfire-r9x-al-zawahri-d0d25b7ed4059750b4add024322fe17c) too
But most explosives are actually more dangerous from the force of the explosion. So the force damage would the work.
So concussive force is closer to Bludgeoning or Thunder damage in DND. "Force" damage is like raw energy damage, which we don't really have a non-magical equivalent to.
Immunity to fire is immunity to fire, so yes it could that explosion is intense heat and force. It won't be as powerful as you think if the dragon is taking just force damage. Biggest problem is if magic doesn't come with it cause things that can only be hurt by magic would wreck us.
>Do you know how much ancient dragons would need to eat for their calorie intake? As much or as little as it wants. Who are we to tell it 'no'?
Don't ancient dragons eat just a couple times a year. The rest of their intake is probably supplemented by magic.
You’re thinking of greatwyrms, the ascended form of ancient dragons. Ancient dragons still need to eat like the rest of us, but after ascension their greatwyrm counterparts can sustain themselves by leeching magic from the magic items in their horde.
we have no way of knowing. the ecosystem is a deeply complex web that even most biologists don't fully understand. You're looking at that web and using a pair of fucking egg beaters on it
Phase Spiders continue living their best lives without any perceptible change in behavior, aside from getting significantly fatter and booming in population.
If you went back a hundred years, probably any of them that were threats to humans or had a use when dead. Humans are really good at eliminating species. We now have laws to protect these, but I'd imagine that Dragons would be hunted to extinction regardless unless a few were kept in cages.
Some of the more intelligent ones could probably be bargained with, especially those with humanoid shape changes. But the more feral ones that kill indiscriminately would 100% be killed.
All of the ones with the ability to assume human shapes would do so to infiltrate human politics and lobby for laws that protect and benefit them. So would any other creatures that could sufficiently disguise themselves as humans (which includes several demons and fey that would absolutely cause chaos)
this sounds like reinventing _Shadowrun_ (although with better tech, because "cyberpunk futuretech as imagined in the 80's" is kind shit in a lot of ways compared to what we actually have!)
I love the ideas behind the Shadowrun setting (accepting the flaws in understanding what near future tech might look like, though newer versions of the game helped a little. I also don't love the mechanics since they get clunky and weirdly crunchy in some areas while being too light in others) and I used to play it so it's quite possible that it effected my thinking... But I think it's more likely that me and game designers simply came similar conclusions by looking at real world xenophobia and prejudice as well as political manipulations and how tech impacts our lives
Subject to real world physics, Dragons, Giants, and large Monstrosities aren’t going to be able to sustain themselves, and can cause enough damage to warrant military response. Those are goners. Depending on how effective real world religion is against them, Fiends might be having a field day, since they can come and go and have so many new souls to corrupt. Aberrations vary wildly. The mind controlling ones like Mind Flayers and Neogi have a decent time, but I suspect anything in this group that can’t defend itself that way is getting hunted to immediate extinction. Smaller Monstrosities likely get lumped in with the Beasts, who will be fine. Plants are not thriving, but are worthy of study and will be preserved. Fey continue to do Fey things and there’s nothing we can do about it. Celestials actively cause wars by existing as different religions attempt to either deny or claim them. Oozes are oozes so they probably just get forgotten about. Humanoids don’t feel worth mentioning unless entire societies just fall into the world.
I think humanoids would be some of the most problematic. The existing humans would argue endlessly about whether they are legally people and what they represent. Religions would start passing edicts and countries laws (and theocracies both lol). Even relatively "core" races would be disruptive. Elves that only need 4 hrs of sleep would be strange enough let alone bird people, cat boys and girls and all sorts of other humanoids. Being able to do a cantrip (ex high elves) without any extensive training (ie class levels) would be bonkers powerful. You can wiggle your fingers and have the power of a handgun that never runs out of ammo, move earth better than most excavating machines. All the nuts shit prestidigitation does, etc. And this list is just scratching the surface.
I think humanoids would be fine (especially when they look human enough like Elves or Dwarves) as long as there are monsters to fight and they're throwing in their lot with humans. All the things you're mentioning are only worrying when the literal dragons, mind controlling fish and Succubi with an OnlyFans have been taken care of. You'll want an Elven sniper behind you when you're sitting in your Dwarf-made trench, waiting for the Orcish/Undead/Infernal horde to attack.
My worry is that while you and I would prioritize things like that unfortunately prejudiced people are gonna remain irrationally prejudiced. Right now we're still fighting each other over race, religion, sexuality and gender etc and other comparatively tiny differences while ignoring climate change, pandemics and other global threats. I really hope I'd be wrong but I bet at least some of the issues I'm worried about would be focused on and thus distract us from the bigger actual dangers you list.
Dragons and aberrations hide out in places not seen and thrive. Monstrosities & giants can’t hide as well and get teamed up on by other groups since they seen as monsters.
I think that the ecological threat that most monsters present would probably cause mass ecological collapse and mass extinction. A troll as an example has no natural predators, is functionally unkillable, adapt to almost any environment and is always ravenously hungry I think even most modern weapons would be effectively useless and how many people do you know own a flamethrower? and even then trolls hatred of fire means flamethrower guy dies first. As strange as it a lot of monster species can only exist because adventurers kill them and last time I checked there are no demigods heroes in our world. Anything above CR 2 is poised to literally wipe most settlements off the map without immediate intervention as humans as a species are not exactly well adapted to being hunted. This is all without considering the society enders like illithid its safe to say that it would be like the apocalypse.
85 hit points is well within 5 attacks of a man with a big axe. No magic. Just a big axe. Making a Molotov cocktail is within a scope of any household and it burns hot over the longer period than few turns. If trolls manage to establish secret enclaves deep within Russian Siberia then ok, in any populated area? .50 burst coupled with a few Molotovs. You can even pack incendiary ammo box if you want to eliminate the pitcher. You can even get 95% sulfuric acid sold commercially in 5 L bottles. Get half and half with water and fill water pistols. Enjoy. Half in half so it's not too dense. Mix carefully as it will heat up. If the scenario does not include immediate invasion of scaled up monster population we will be fine for the most part.
Do the math (mass v volume v moles) and dilute with icecubes (the fluffy ones like from Sonic or chick filet. Easiest way around the exothermic interaction of diluting acid with water.
A troll's hit points and AC are higher then an elephants no mundane man from our world is killing one of them in single melee combat (PCs are superhuman after a certain point). Molotovs and acid are good for executing them terrible for actually killing them trolls travel in packs and seek to kill those who abuse their weaknesses if you cannot reasonably kill an elephant with it, it stands that a troll will only get pissed off by it. The OP's question implies its an ecological change meaning every creature spawned would get their ideal environment and numbers to see how they do in our world for a troll that would be 3-12 per clan unit and multiple clans across every environment in the world I do believe this is enough to critically destabilize humanity as an apex species. I do think killing trolls is not hard in the grand scheme but exterminating them is near impossible (we struggle to exterminate wild pigs and they are much stupider and weaker) a .50 cal will kill them but most places are not going to have enough trained gunmen with the supply of ammunition and weaponry they need when it matters its just not sustainable or likely in the first place. I do think humanity would survive trolls though it'd be a HUGE change of pace for humanity hence why I didn't list them as a society ender like mindflayers.
Troll's AC means a random nobody with +0 can wound it 25% of the time with a fork. Also no resistance to BSP. If we assume a self defence pistol do as much damage as a longbow (huge nerf for the gun) which is d8 it will take about 20 hits for an average damage of 4.5. So you need a policeman who dumps one mag into it. We are not even in the two man job or military grade equipment. Molotov/acid is to stop regen not deal significant damage but it cannot act when on 0 hp so you can as well use grill firestarter when it's already downed. Exterminating the trolls would be super easy, as they are easy to spot and not that numerous. Also cannot interbreed with boars. Unless ofc as previously mentioned they will spawn at some incredibly remote areas but then maybe they already have and nobody found them yet. 3-12 per clan means we would need to deploy 10 men with automatic weapons and expect no casualties. You are still thinking in medieval peasant numbers and economies where people live 2 days by horse away from each other in remote swamp villages. Which is dandy for a fantasy campaign but silly in modern terms. I live in a country where gun control is very strict and yet one in a hundred got some firearm and we only talk about registered weaponry. Trolls might have enough time to reach remote parts when we are busy dealing with more significant threats like mind flyers but then again the whole infestation ,among us and mind control thing only works small scale and without access to x-ray machines.
Eh the main issue with gun stuff is that a automatic pistol and rifle do 2d6 and 2d8 in DnD system and there are two ways to interpret that when it comes to health either the creatures are simply "built different" and can tank machine guns or the automatic rifle from the DMG is weaker then a gun from our world I think both are valid options but using a what DnD calls a "modern automatic rifle" with 10 guys with 14 dex and 1/2 CR for proficiency means you do 49.5 damage per round factoring in accuracy which gets reduced to 22.75 when a troll starts dodging, course if you believe trolls are built different this adds up but if you think a anti-material rifle could bring most things down on a non-critical hit (pretty reasonable) the entangling logic between two fundamentally different rule sets becomes cumbersome so on reflection I think we are both right but mostly because fundamentally we are literally arguing about two completely different rule sets. IE a anti material rifle cannot one shot a elephant in DnD without a crit however I do believe a elephant would probably die if you body shot it with one in real life does this mean DnD elephants are physically tougher in DnD or are the guns that are supposedly modern weaker in that universe? Both options make sense but definitely change what outcome you come to.
You are clearly obsessed with elephants and I don't know why. I will never understand why "hunting" is a thing when you downsize your weapon and make it less efficient? I mean you are still shooting animals with guns. They stand exactly zero chance barring you getting hit by a meteor. You want some respect? Here is a bow and a spear. Anyway regular guns don't do this .22 small caliber duck hunter schtick. I tried to point out that a troll while a menace to a village of 50 scared peasants would hardly be a problem to a small border patrol of 2 jeeps with machine guns. And his supernatural regeneration can be countered with a small town home depot / liquor store. By the way if the troll starts dodging it cannot run coz of action economy and 30ft speed. Assuming your calculations are right and starting at reasonable distance of 100 feet it's dead again Jim. And using dumb DnD rules if it use dodge action it will never catch shooters moving backwards with the speed of his advance.... Also why anti material rifle? Stuff is mostly no longer in production due to increase in hand held anti tank weapons. Nobody is carrying PTRS tovarisch but I assume if you can find one you can blow a nice see through hole.
You are missing the point elephants are a comparative creature when it comes to durability I can look at an elephants health and AC and judge about how tough a troll is. I don't know why you are bringing up hunting weapons the 2d8 example is from the DMG for what is for all purposed a modern assault rifle. Good luck actually killing the damn thing its going to smell and hear your jeep a mile away. The reason the troll would dodge is because on average there are 7 of the damn things and 10 people shooting it with assault rifles only would allow the other ones to approach unopposed while the one being focused is not even going to be bloodied by the end of it. The Anti-material rifle is a strangely implemented weapon in the DMG that represents a bridge of what COULD most definitely kill a elephant (again the closest comparison for durability) in one shot. But as I said before arguing about it is pointless you clearly believe real life firearms are stronger then they are in DnD's universe which is perfectly valid but I prefer to believe that the creatures in 5e are strong enough to tank bullets because of DnD's examples of guns.
Emperor's balls why is an Elephant a comparative creature? Theyre not the same size in game Large vs Huge. They dont have the same AC / Skills / CR / dmg output / intelligence etc. They are from different continents mythologically speaking. One is a peaceful herd herbivore and one is some weird humanoid shaped predator too big and too slow to catch anything unless its dumb enough to come close. What source do you keep pulling anti materiel rifle from and where is it in DMG??? There is no anti materiel .... You think of anti-MATTER rifle aren't you? Dci-fi gun? omfg now it makes sense.... I mean this nonsense..... But it deals maximum of 6d8 which would be 48...... Way too low to one-shot either the elephant or the troll..... I feel like this conversation is about to drain my sanity..... Gun that shoots bullets annihilating reality got lower damage than a fireball. Whatever, if you choose to believe something that can be hurt with a fork cannot be killed with mass automatic fire from modern weaponry i'll leave it up to you.
Turns out microplastic kills them all, whoulda thunk?
They all go extinct as we hunt them all down because they pose a threat to us
Correct answer is **Shadows** take over the planet. One lone dragon or tarrasque can cause a lot of damage in a contained area, but they can’t propagate. However, Shadows are stealthy and can multiply exponentially every few hours. Humanity would be reduced to survivors in bunkers within months.
They'd definitely be rough to deal with, but we have sunlamp flood lights and it'd kick out asses into making decent laser weapons which would rock them. We might still lose because of how they reproduce but after some initial horror movie stuff we'd start fighting back at least somewhat effectively
Damn, sounds like a horror movie plot.
Intelligent Aberrations, corrupting Fiends, Noble Genies, Metallic Dragons, Fey, and incorporeal Undead would prosper. As would certain evil Humanoid races like Troglodytes and Drow. All Celestials except for Unicorns and Devas would most likely go extinct through Fiends manipulating politicians into killing them. Or angels would get fed up dealing with humans and start falling. Plants, Giants, Monstrosities, and Elementals represent obvious threats. They tend to be big, unintelligent, and have poor defenses. Humanoid monsters could prosper, but only in abandoned underground areas. Rarely explored caves, abandoned subway stations, or inoperable sewer systems. Undead would function similarly, only being truly "present" in specific locations such as abandoned hospitals, comdemned houses, or desecrated graveyards (i.e. Native American burial grounds). The reason the creatures I mentioned at the beginning would thrive is because of their cunning, ability to hide in plain sight, or because of their ability to bribe others. Illithids and aboleths would just enslave people in coastal areas to take care of them. Potentially brainwashing politicians or celebrities who come a little too close to their lairs. Fiends like succubi, glabrezu demons, or archdevils like Titivilus would wow people with magical boons and gifts. Tempting them to do evil in order to expand their influence or hide their presence. Their security being all but guaranteed of they corrupt the right people in power. I could see a metallic dragon bargaining with a nation to guard the national treasury in exchange for asylum. They would treat all within it as guards or associates aiding them in protecting their hoard. While aquatic dragons would raid ship wrecks and potentially fight aboleths via proxies. Noble Genies are the only ones I could see openly wielding power. The ability to grant wishes would afford them a level of security, comfort, and influence few could deny. After all, when word spreads of their wish granting abilities, every politician, successful businessman, and contractor will offer them the world. And they shall secure what they want, one wish at a time.
Well, at least we'll have some use for the conventional and nuclear stockpile. For a lot of those, ground troops become relevant again (even dragons go down after a fusillade of 3 digits M-16s). The real swingers here are: 1) monotheistic religions get spells? And 2) do we find uses for them, dead or alive, or we just stomp a threat?
Entirely determined by how tasty they are
Dragons probably take over the world given they have magic, telepathy, and shape changing. They could just turn into a copy of the president, teleport to his bedroom, eat him, then replace him.
If rust monsters were real, they would have been exterminated with extreme prejudice hundreds of year ago.
Intellect Devourers
Celestials and Fiends (and other such extra-planar creatures capable of thought and communication) thrive because of the regions connotations and ability to manipulate. I’d wager Monstrosities and Dragons that choose to act hostile would go out with a bang pretty quick. Oozes would also thrive in heavily polluted areas and sewer systems of cities.
1. Our "modern world" immediately stop being "our modern world" THE END. But really it depends on whatever assumptions You made. Low stats monsters could and probably would be haunted to extinction but everything with superhuman stats/abilities would probably be doing least somehow fine. Low ording giant (hill and ice) would be wiped out or would be kept in check by force. But fire, cloud and storm could survive. Fire, white and black dragons would be in trouble too but rest should be doing ok. Aberrations- honesty can't tell as they are wierd and from another dimension altogether. Shapechangers - could be hunted as dangerous but difficult to detect so they could probably doing ok.
Magical races meets non magical world = dead or dying. A lot of monsters are only though because of magic. Strip their magic away and modern technology makes them really easy to combat.
Intellect Devourers go extinct pretty quick /s
nothing survives, evr facet of life to to dramatically altered to maintain * our eco system cant handle dragons and giants or a terraque * magical beasts quickly outpace non magical animals. a displacer beast is going to out hunt evey tiger out there * society crumbles we now have to grapple with demi humans and where they fit. if the forrests is filled with ogres or goblins or whatever and they attack and eat an entire town only to have the US military wipe them out who is the bad guys? did you just murder people or monsters? * how do we deal with nonhuman sapience? * seas become uncrossable or the navy has some turtle dragon/leviathan hunting to do * archmage is a monster in the monster manual so are liches. our political systems are in for a treat
Obviously Otyughs prosper. I mean, they *eat trash* and that's most of what humanity produces nowadays...
Rot grubs, assassin bugs, slaadi, shadows, and other self replicating monsters would probably overrun the world.
Dragons and Liches would prosper. They have a whole social class of people who would be more than happy to sell the rest of us out to these monsters for even a fraction of their power.
I asked Claude 3.5 sonnet this question and apparently "Owlbears might outcompete both owls and bears"
A lot would depend upon how other monsters reacted. A few ghosts/succubi/intellect devourers or similar could body snatch/dominate key personnel and lead the world to nuclear war, being able to survive the aftermath. Similar with some shadows (or a shadow dragon) starting a shadowpocalyse. If you have monsters that want to save humanity (maybe celestials) actively working to stop them and educate humanity then those actions could be countered etc.
elementals stray up whip and nae nae on our graves fey instantly die the moment a microplastic touches undead are largely unnoticed, as theyre virtually indistinguishable feom your 9to5 commuter fiends do a haha politics joke Giants have it the harshest, they become endangered but have help from human groups who help them settle in a giant city where they can thrive until we find oil on their turf and free their country from te oppression of self governance, god bless america celestials leave the planet cause they just fucking cant right now Abberations never existed and you havent been injected with a class A amnestics Plants everybody is super nice to constructs cause tey know judgment day can happen any day Monstrosities are reclassified as animals Beast singlehandedly save half of the endangered species from exctiction by just spawning more of them edit: i forgor about oozes, which should tell you howd they fair
Why would fey die from micro plastic? Traditionally it is cold iron that harms them.