New Monster: Lava Worm
This content can now be found at its most updated version in The Elements and Beyond, a free 246-page compendium that you can download right here, filled with 23 subclasses, 8 spellcasting feats, 134 spells, 213 spell variants, 85 monsters, 30 magic items, 4 races plus 12 new subraces each with racial feats, and even more goodies for both players and DMs!
Art Credit: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/68wbBn
How do you take the sheer terror of a purple worm encounter to the next level (or seven)? The classic way to make any monster more dangerous: just add fire! The concept of a gigantic burrowing worm is at least as old as Frank Herbert’s Dune, and the biology of these giant worms is certainly far beyond realistic whether the worms are of the sand or the purple variety. Perhaps that’s why the concept of a giant worm that lives in lava has been relatively common — it’s not much of a leap in realism to get there from the sand worm in the first place. Whatever the reason, the lava or magma worm has been found in some form or another in a huge variety of video games, tabletop games, card games, and fantasy media.
This lava worm has a variety of attributes that set it apart from its purple cousin, besides just its missing tail stinger. Its so hot that it can’t feel the cold, and of course it’s used to extreme heat as well. It’s got thicker armor plating to help resist the lava, and its heated body leaves the tunnels it makes ablaze! Feel free to throw this enemy at a group inside a volcanic dungeon — it makes an excellent (and terrifying) boss for any fire temple, magma cavern, efreeti palace, or even the Plane of Magma. When this giant worm bursts out of the lava, your players may think to flee. But even distance from the lava won’t save them from the worm. While the worm can leave the pools of lava to chase down its prey, it can also spit superheated flame at them from afar. If you manage to wrangle one of these monsters, it will make an unmatched siege weapon. Not only is it capable of melting even the most magical defenses with its bite, but this lava worm can torch towers and parapets from afar, incinerating structures with more than one-hundred average damage dealt to objects at range. And to top it all off, the worm can spray lava back at you! If this worm manages to eat your friend, you’d better kill it fast, before the ashes dissolve in the acid!
