Let’s Play D&D With Marvel’s Man-Thing
Get your monster-hunting and swamp-walking boots ready, this week we’re playing D&D with Marvel’s Man-Thing.
If you haven’t had a chance to watch Werewolf by Night, consider this your official invitation slash homework assignment. We know that it’s a Marvel product officially part of the MCU, but it doesn’t feel like the rest of the universe at all. The black-and-white camp-horror short is weird and goofy, but also tense and exciting in a really good and enjoyable way. And a big part of this is the characters, including Ted Sallis aka Man-Thing. This swamp beast shows up to look terrifying and act like the Werewolf’s nonconfrontational little brother. In a movie that looks like it should be scary, it’s actually delightful. So obviously, we have to figure out how to make this character part of our next D&D adventure. This week we’re playing D&D with…
Man-Thing
Sheet Made Using The Homebrewery.
You may be looking at this sheet and wondering why I made him a monster instead of a playable character. He’s not a bad-guy and your party probably won’t want to fight him. He is, in fact, a pretty good dude. But Man-Thing is a monster the same way the Werewolf is. Not all monsters in the manual are ones you’d want to fight and some of them fall on the good end of the alignment chart. But they’re still monsters.
Man-Thing is, as a base, pretty similar to any other swamp creature or the Shambling Mound. He’s a big plant creature with super strength and emotions. And so the Shambling Mound was a good place to start with Man-Thing in terms of borrowing things like Resistances. But Ted here has a few unique things going for him that we had to include.
For starters, he can sense fear in potential encounters. And when somebody does fear him, Man-Thing releases something corrosive from his skin that literally burns the scared party. Which I’m sure does nothing to make them less scared, effectively creating a terrible ouroboros of acid touch. I made sure that both of these skills were described because they’re sort of key in making Man-Thing Man-Thing instead of your average semi-intelligent sentient Florida swamp.
He is also hard to hurt and hard to keep hurt. The nature of Man-Thing’s body allows him to sloosh some wet plants from one place to another and close up any holes. Or make holes of his own for projectiles to go through without touching him. To reflect this, his AC is relatively high. It’s not armor as much as the natural defense mechanism of being a plant. But once you do hit him, he can regrow and regain those lost hit points.
Florida Man Strikes Again!
Finally, Man-Thing’s go-to physical attack is a simple Slam. He doesn’t need much more than that, especially so if he isn’t exactly a bad-guy your party will want to fight and with his burning touch do a bunch of the work. You could add a grapple if you’re feeling mean, but it’s up to you or your DM if you think it will be necessary for your game.
How would you make Man-Thing for a D&D setting? What is your favorite horror-adjacent character in Marvel Comics? Do you think Werewolf by Night did Jack Russell and Ted justice? Let us know in the comments!
Happy Adventuring!
