Editing Crypt Thing

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The '''Crypt Thing''' is a skeletal monster/plotdevice that first appeared in [[AD&D]]'s ''[[Fiend Folio]]'', by Roger Musson. 2nd edition made it undead and promoted it to the Monstrous Manual. 3rd edition hoped the whole concept would go away until [[Scott Greene]] revised it for third-party [[Tome of Horrors]], so it ended up in 3e's own Fiend Folio. 4e downgraded (or restored) it to a trap in its [[Book of Vile Darkness]]. It returned to being a monster in a play test module for 5th edition, but never appeared officially in that edition.

This 'thing is an intelligent skeleton wearing a dark robe.  Their purpose is to guard graves, and their primary ability is to teleport intruders away. Thus, not a challenge in itself; it's [[That Guy|That DM]], trolling players.  The first edition description of the monster even says that the crypt thing will lie (in the Neutral alignment-language) that the teleported person was disintegrated.  While it can't teleport a victim into a solid object, they can teleport a victim into the air and let them fall, though not all crypt things are clever enough to realize they can do that.  Some rare crypt things can't teleport enemies, and instead paralyze victims while turning them invisible at the same time, which will troll players who have encountered a normal crypt thing before.  

Definitely a relic of [[Old School Roleplaying]], this is a great example of the non-lethal sub-branch of [[Gotcha Monster]]s.

[[Category:Undead]]
[[Category:Dungeons & Dragons Monsters]]