Deep Dive - The Otyugh
We wish we could say the Otyugh was a loveable, friendly creature that wanted nothing more than to be your best buddy. However, once again we will tell the story of a creature that would like nothing more than to eat you. Maybe if you were nice to a creature every now and then, they wouldn’t try to suck the marrow from your bones - then again, no one ever got rich by making friends and they aren’t going to give your their treasure just cause you asked nicely.
What makes the Otyugh unique is its appearance. It’s the kind of creature only a mother could love, and even then the jury’s out. Don’t feel too bad for them, however, since any creature living in a pile of poop and trash isn’t someone you’ll be taking home to introduce to the family. Plus, have we mentioned that they want to eat you?
It’s time to dive into the crapper pile and find out the dirty dodo on the Otyugh.
AD&D - Otyugh
Frequency: Uncommon
No. Appearing: 1 (2)
Armor Class: 3
Move: 6”
Hit Dice: 6-8
% in Lair: Nil
Treasure Type: See below
No. of Attacks: 3
Damage/Attack: 1-8/1-8/2-5
Special Attacks: Disease
Special Defenses: Never surprised
Magic Resistance: Standard
Intelligence: Low-average
Alignment: Neutral
Size: M-L
Psionic Ability: Nil
Level/X.P. Value: Nil
Monster Manual, 1977 TSR Inc.
We begin our journey into the weirdness of the Otyugh with the Monster Manual (1977). Now we know we are always saying that the current creature is the ugliest creature we have ever written about, but come on, look at the picture. You can’t blame us when we describe this big turd as a big… well, turd. It has a big round body that looks like a blob of clay sitting on three squat legs, and in the middle of this blob is a giant suction mouth filled with sharp teeth. If that wasn’t bad enough, three protrusions extend out from its body, the first is a sensory organ stalk which is where the creature’s eyes are located. The remaining two are the tentacle arms, both of which are covered in sharp ridges that look like thorns. If gazing upon this creature is enough to make you reconsider your adventuring career, well, we are legally obligated to inform you that there is a smarter, faster, and stronger version of the Otyugh known as a Neo-Otyugh.
You may be saying to yourself, “I want to avoid these creatures at all costs. I wonder where they live.” Like any good monster, they hate sunlight and so they live underground with all the other baddies, but that is not the end of that. The real reason they reside in the darkness is to eat the excrement offerings of those bad guys we just mentioned. If enough creatures, or maybe one real big monster, lives in proximity, the Otyugh will make its home in the poop depository and just gorge itself. That’s right, folks, the Otyugh not only eats dung but lives in it as well. From its pile of dung it barricades itself under, it extends its eyestalk over the defecated heap, keeping a vigilant watch over its excreted hoard, making it so that it can never be surprised. Often, subterranean monsters will make a deal with the Otyugh that they can have all the poop it wants, but the Otyugh is responsible for keeping the area free of nosey adventurers.
Monster Manual, 1977 TSR Inc.
When you run into one of these creatures, and you know you will when your GM runs across them in the Monster Manual, you’ll need to keep your distance. The thorny tentacle arms hurt when they slap you across the face, delivering 1-8 damage each. Don’t think that is the only attack you have to worry about, for the Otyugh would love nothing better than to take a big chunk out of you with its teeth. If the creature does manage to bite you, there’s an excellent chance you won’t feel good later if you’re lucky enough to survive the encounter. It should be no surprise that a creature that lives in excrement would be a great disease carrier. You have a 90% chance of being inflicted with typhus if you’re bitten. For all these reasons, we highly recommend trying out those ranged attack weapons you’ve been carrying around, or just sacrificing your wizard.
If you are fortunate, you may run into an Otyugh couple. Love comes in many forms, so don’t judge. The Otyugh can profess its love through their own language, or since they are also semi-telepathic, perhaps by singing love sonnets directly into their partner’s brain. Also, the Neo-Otyugh are “slightly better at telepathic communications”, we aren’t entirely sure what that means but we guess that the Neo-Otyugh may have more to talk about than what they are currently eating.
Dragon #96, April 1985 TSR Inc.
In Dragon #96 (April 1985), we are presented with The Ecology of the Gulguthra written by Ed Greenwood. Gulgurtha is another name for Otyugh, and so apparently is Dung-eater and Dungheap. Once again, it is Elminster telling a rather disturbing story to a bunch of children about how a lord disposes of his enemies by having them over for mead and mutton, only to then push them off his balcony into a garbage pit, where the Otyugh devours them. That aside, we do pick up some useful information about our poop-eating friend.
The most common creatures that the Otyugh will partner up with are the doppelganger, ettin, will-o-the-wisp, and maybe even a beholder. They can also partner up with another Otyugh, which is done through a mating ritual that requires them to make a pilgrimage to a massive bone pit somewhere deep underground. Once they all arrive, each Gulguthra vomits up a huge booger, which is known as an eggmass, that must then be swallowed by another to fertilize it, then they vomit it back up. This eggmass must then gestate for a week or so, after which time it turns into a baby Otyugh. This young creature must then set off to find food and a warm place to call its own. It’s a strange circle of life, but we suppose it could be weirder… somehow.
Monster Manual, 1977 TSR Inc.
2e - Otyugh
Climate/Terrain: Subterranean
Frequency: Uncommon
Organization: Solitary
Activity Cycle: Any
Diet: Omnivore
Intelligence: Low-Average (5-10)
Treasure: See below
Alignment: Neutral
No. Appearing: 1 (2)
Armor Class: 3
Movement: 6
Hit Dice: 6-8
THAC0: 6 HD: 15; 7-8 HD: 13
No. of Attacks: 3
Damage/Attack: 1-8/1-8/2-5
Special Attacks: Grab, disease
Special Defenses: Never surprised
Magic Resistance: Nil
Size: M-L(6’-7’ tall)
Morale: Elite (14)
XP Value: 6 HD: 650; 7 HD: 975; 8 HD: 1400
Monstrous Compendium Volume 2, 1989 TSR Inc.
Found in the Monstrous Compendium Volume 2 (1989) and reprinted in the Monstrous Manual (1993), we are provided information for the Otyugh and the Neo-Otyugh. They are still known as the Gulguthra, which means dung-eater, and they are still the horrible mass of dung they were before. The main difference between the Otyugh and the Neo-Otyugh is that Neo- is bigger, smarter, has more hit dice, deals more damage, and, oddly enough, has a smaller mouth. They are also more vicious than their smaller cousins, so when you see a Neo-Otyugh feasting on the finest of nuggs, we recommend you run away or be ready to get slapped around by thorny tentacles.
This bizarre poop-fiend still lives under a pile of trash and poop, deep in the underground and far away from any sunlight. Their skin is brownish gray and is surprisingly as hard as a rock, which explains how they have such a greater armor class. Of course, that tough skin is covered in dung, giving them a lovely aroma of whatever the defecator last ate. Otyughs have three legs that it perches its misshapen body upon with three tentacles, one its sensory organ with three eyeballs on it, and the other two that end in thorny spikes.
Monstrous Manual, 1993 TSR Inc.
Otyughs are opportunistic omnivores, meaning they’ll eat anything that wanders just a bit too close to their dung piles. Though, strangely enough, you might get a bit of warning before it attacks as their sensory organ with the three eyes on it gives them the ability to telepathically speak to other Gulguthra and friends. Did we say friends? We meant meals. For whatever reason, when an Otyugh goes on the attack, they like to blast telepathic messages about how you are their next meal and that your death is imminent. This doesn’t mean you don’t have a chance for negotiations, you just have to throw as much food as you can at it and hope that the Otyugh likes rations.
If the Otyugh decides you are a better meal than some gross rations, well there are three different ways it can pick from to kill you. Its first option is to simply whack you around with its thorn-covered tentacles. While it is throttling you, it could choose its second option by grappling you with its tentacles and then smashing you into the ground. If it’s a Neo-Otyugh, it can simply use your body as a meatshield while it has you grappled, increasing its armor class and using a special ability to throw you in front of attacks targeting it so that you take damage instead of it. Its last option is to simply take a huge bite out of you, infecting you with either a debilitating or fatal disease.
Monstrous Compendium Annual 2, 1995 TSR Inc.
If you thought that two types of Gulguthra are bad enough, get excited for the Gulguthydra revealed in Monstrous Compendium Annual 2 (1995). This huge creature has the multiple heads of a hydra, but all the charm of an Otyugh. It has six heads, three thick legs that it balances its blob of a body upon, and two tentacles that are constantly checking the vicinity for food and absentmindedly binging on anything it can find. Of course, it thinks the only difference between you and food is absolutely nothing and quickly goes to the attack if it stumbles across you in its swamp. It shoots its tentacles out, grabbing onto you, and then the closest hydra-head leans over and attempts to bite off your head. It is unstoppable in its hunger for food and the only tried and true method to get it to ignore you is by offering it up to 100 pounds of food in the brief second you get before it barrels down on you. The description states that it is unknown how or even if these creatures reproduce, so hopefully they don’t reproduce and we never have to witness these creatures in person.
3e/3.5e - Otyugh
Large Aberration
Hit Dice: 6d8+9 (36 hp)
Initiative: +0
Speed: 20 ft. (4 squares)
Armor Class: 17 (–1 size, +8 natural), touch 9, flat-footed 17
Base Attack/Grapple: +4/+8
Attack: Tentacle +4 melee (1d6)
Full Attack: 2 tentacles +4 melee (1d6) and bite –2 melee (1d4)
Space/Reach: 10 ft./10 ft. (15 ft. with tentacle)
Special Attacks: Constrict 1d6, disease, improved grab
Special Qualities: Darkvision 60 ft., scent
Saves: Fort +3, Ref +2, Will +6
Abilities: Str 11, Dex 10, Con 13, Int 5, Wis 12, Cha 6
Skills: Hide –1*, Listen +6, Spot +6
Feats: Alertness, Toughness, Weapon Focus (tentacle)
Enviroment: Underground
Organization: Solitary, pair, or cluster (3–4)
Challenge Rating: 4
Treasure: Standard
Alignment: Usually neutral
Advancement: 7-8 HD (Large); 9-18 HD (Huge)
Level Adjustment: -
Monster Manual, 2003 WotC
Found in the Monster Manual (2000/2003), the Otyugh doesn’t go through a drastic transformation though we lose something dear to us. The Neo-Otyugh is gone and a large-sized hole in our offal pile will never be filled again. In addition to that, the disease they carry around in their mouth will no longer just kill you, though they do carry filth fever which can severely incapacitate you unless you can make a fairly easy Fortitude saving throw against it. Oh, it also lost its telepathy and its unique language, but it can speak common, so while it can’t blast your mind with poop-related puns, it can blurt them out between mouthfuls of you.
The Otyugh is still a rotund chunkster with rock-like skin and a giant mouth in the middle. Its eye-stalk is two feet long and ends in a leaf shape with three eyes, it also acts as the olfactory organ for the Otyugh. If you are hoping you can stand 10 feet back from this creature and not get hurt, then you’ll be sorely mistaken as they have a reach of 15 feet with their thorny tentacles. They stumble around on their stubby three legs and prefer to cover themselves in rubbish and rotting meat that makes up their lair, with only their eyes peeking out over the trash.
These Otyugh are more likely to leave passing adventurers alone so long as they don’t feel threatened and they aren’t hungry. Though, that shouldn’t be a sigh of relief for adventurers as these creatures never stop eating. While they are hidden under the pile of rotting crud, they are constantly shoveling food in their mouths for hours on end… it takes a lot to keep up their 500-pound figure. If you do happen to wander past them, and they do, for whatever reason, decide to attack, they explode out of the rubbish pile and attempt to grab you with their tentacles. Once they grab you, they begin squeezing you and pulling you closer to their yawning maw, ready to feast upon fresh dead-adventurer. If you can somehow convince them you don’t taste as good as a turd, you might be able to parley with them and coexist with the Otyughs, who are happy to be convenient garbage and sewer disposals.
Monster Manual III, 2004 WotC
This edition introduces a new Otyugh into the family and adventurers around the world are not going to like them. The Lifeleech Otyugh appears in the Monster Manual III (2004), and while at first glance the only difference you might detect is that the Lifeleech is green instead of the weird poop-color of its cousins… you’ll soon find out in battle, it has a few extra tricks up its tentacles. A favorite of villains everywhere, the Lifeleech is more powerful than a typical Otyugh and feeds off of the healing power of spells, able to feast on the tendrils of energy that seep from positive energy. When a creature within 60 feet of it is exposed to healing magic, the Lifeleech also heals the same amount. If it was already at full hit points, it then gains temporary hit points, up to its hit point maximum. This means simply that the Lifeleech is much more likely to start a fight, targeting any divine casters it senses, hoping to force them to channel some healing magic into the combat, thus filling the Lifeleech’s gullet with healing magic. It's no secret why divine spellcasting villains love these guys as they can heal themselves and their poop-devouring minion at the same time!
4e - Otyugh
Level 7 Soldier
Large natural beast / XP 300
Initiative +5 / Senses Perception +11; darkvision
HP 82; Bloodied 41
AC 23; Fortitude 22, Reflex 16, Will 19
Immune disease
Speed 5, swim 5
Tentacle (standard; at-will) Reach 3; +12 vs. AC; 1d8 + 6 damage, and the target is pulled 2 squares and grabbed (until escape).
Diseased Bite (standard; at-will) ✦ Disease +12 vs. AC; 1d10 + 6 damage, and the target contracts filth fever (see below)
Spying Eye An otyugh can hide beneath murky water or refuse, leaving only its eyestalk exposed. While doing so, it gains a +10 bonus to Stealth checks but is immobilized.
Alignment Unaligned / Languages -
Skills Stealth +8 (+18 while using spying eye)
Str 22 (+9) Dex 11 (+3) Wis 16 (+6) Con 18 (+7) Int 1 (-2) Cha 5 (+0)
Monster Manual, 2008 WotC
A great travesty hits us in this edition, even though the Otyugh appears in the first Monster Manual (2008). This great travesty causes us unending suffering as they can no longer speak a language. It can no longer talk your ear off before eating you, it can’t ask for you to pass the poop, or make a deal with you that it won’t eat you if you let it eat your barbarian, who has way more meat on their bones than you do.
While they lose their language, not much else changes for these walking garbage disposals. They love hiding below giant trash heaps and playing a game of I Spy with its three little eyes peeking above the detritus. If you get too close, and the Otyugh is hungry, it will latch onto you with its tentacles, and drag you into your new home. You won’t get a chance to enjoy it though as it quickly bites down on its victim, killing them. The Otyugh then stuffs the body into a deep pocket of offal in its lair, waiting for the carcass to reach the peak of rotted flavor.
There are some changes, pumping a little bit of fresh air into the poop monster. They become quite stealthy creatures, which on the surface probably seems a bit odd. That is until you remember they are never sneaking around on the surface, but rather hidden under a trash pile of organs and rotting filth. In addition, the Otyugh now gains a swim speed, we can only imagine it’s because the Otyugh lives in sewers, which is probably the creature’s version of the French Riveria.
Luckily for the Otyugh, this isn’t the end of their involvement in this edition, as they appear with a few more friends in Monster Vault (2010). This book also brings in a few new word associations we never would have guessed for these grotesque monsters, like how they “snuggle into squishy nests of decaying matter”. The new friends include the Charnel Otyugh, similar to the Lifeleech Otyugh from the previous edition, and the Neo-Otyugh, the much larger Otyugh who happily grabs onto victims and uses them as its shield, warding off any oncoming blows. The Charnel Otyugh deals necrotic damage with every lashing of its tentacles and can leech the life out of its victims, healing its hit points as it deals with food that fights back. The Neo-Otyugh is just your standard Otyugh fare, except stronger, bigger, and meaner than ever.
All these Otyugh gain a new stench trait, a testament to how incredibly awful they must smell, that imposes a penalty to any attacks made by nearby creatures. In addition, we also find out that Otyughs don’t play nice with each other. If you happen to get between two Otyughs, and both would like to add you to their filth lairs, they’ll begin playing tug-of-war with your body. The victor gets the largest portion of your torn apart body to add to their collection of grossness, while the loser gets… well, whatever remains they can gobble up.
5e - Otyugh
Large aberration, neutral
Armor Class 14 (natural armor)
Hit Points 114 (12d10 + 48)
Speed 30 ft.
STR 16(+3) DEX 11(+0) CON 19(+4) INT 6(-2) WIS 13(+1) CHA 6(-2)
Saving Throws Con +7
Senses darkvision 120ft., passive Perception 11
Languages Otyugh
Challenge 5 (1,800 XP)
Limited Telepathy. The otyugh can magically transmit simple messages and images to any creature within 120 feet of it that can understand a language. This form of telepathy doesn't allow the receiving creature to telepathically respond.
Multiattack. The otyugh makes three attacks: one with its bite and two with its tentacles.
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 12 (2d8 + 3) piercing damage. If the target is a creature, it must succeed on a DC 15 Constitution saving throw against disease or become poisoned until the disease is cured. Every 24 hours that elapse, the target must repeat the saving throw, reducing its hit point maximum by 5 (1d10) on a failure . The disease is cured on a success. The target dies if the disease reduces its hit point maximum to 0. This reduction to the target's hit point maximum lasts until the disease is cured.
Tentacle. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 7 (1d8 + 3) bludgeoning damage plus 4 (1d8) piercing damage. If the target is Medium or smaller, it is grappled (escape DC 13) and restrained until the grapple ends. The otyugh has two tentacles, each of which can grapple one target.
Tentacle Slam. The otyugh slams creatures grappled by it into each other or a solid surface. Each creature must succeed on a DC 14 Strength saving throw or take 10 (2d6 + 3) bludgeoning damage and be stunned until the end of the otyugh's next turn. On a successful save, the target takes half the bludgeoning damage and isn't stunned.
Monster Manual, 2014 WotC
The Otyughs are unleashed upon the worlds in the Monster Manual (2014) and with them comes a new look and… that’s pretty much it. A lot of the lore given for these creatures lifted from the Monster Vault with only a few new tidbits on how they hunt thrown in for these poop-craving monsters.
The Otyugh can now bravely stand atop of its pile of filth and fetid corpses, looking for all the world like not a horrific dung-eater. It retains its two horrible tentacles, three legs, mouth full of sharp teeth, and its sensory organ vine-stalk for its eyes, but now it doesn’t look misshapen. It appears powerfully built, with thick claws at the end of its feet and a body that is more akin to a hippo than a festering blob of congealed rotting ooze. Though don’t let its sweet new look fool you, it will kill you and throw you into its pile of rotting filth to properly age your decomposing body, blasting your mind with poo-ridden puns and insults about how good you are going to taste when your body decays.
Monster Manual, 2014 WotC
While their stealth is abysmal, they still like to hide under their mounds of grotesque matter, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. Wherein it shoots forth its tentacles, grabbing at creatures and dragging them to its gaping maw where it bites down with a powerful bite that spreads not only pain through your body, but a horrible disease that slowly rots your body away until you perish from it in a few days. If you are a bit of a tougher meal than it is used to, it can instead tenderize you against an ally it has grabbed in a second tentacle or just smash you over and over into the ground until you give up your delicious flesh to its rotting lair.
The Otyugh regains its telepathy and its very own language, though don’t expect to have much of a two-way conversation with it as its telepathy only works for it. That’s right, you can scream all you want and it won’t understand what you are trying to tell it. It’ll probably assume you are actually sacrificing yourself, because why not?
Lucky for us… actually, probably unlucky for us, the Neo-Otyugh returns in the Infernal Machine Rebuilt (2020) and is much how we remember it. It’s bigger, meaner, and stronger than ever with a new trick up its sleeve. Neo-Otyughs now gain innate spellcasting, capable of casting detect thoughts at will as well as command and hold person once per day. While we aren’t opposed to these new abilities, it does come at us as a bit of a surprise, just as it will come as a surprise to our players.
The Otyugh may smell. It might be called ugly. It may even live in a rather crappy situation, but that’s OK. We still love these horrible, grotesque, dung-eating, horrific monsters… even if we want them to always be, at minimum, 100 feet downwind from us. For these Otyugh, not much has changed as they wade their way through the crap of editions, hiding beneath pits of filth and rotting matter, always looking for something new to fill their gullet.
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