Summary
Many monsters inDungeons & Dragonshave pre-defined alignments that represent typical monster tropes, such as evil wizards or demonic creatures that always seek to serve the same ends. This can be helpful for dungeon masters and players who expect a certain theme or expectations in roleplay that makes the game less complex.
For veteran players or those overly familiar with these tropes, seeing the same monsters treated in the same way can become overly predictable in a way that ends up becoming swing first and ask questions later. By converting these given alignments, some monsters can become much more interesting to both players and DMs.
8Beholder
Incredibly paranoid and unintentionally powerful, a beholder can create anything from its dreams and usually relies on its anxiety to build defenses against anything or anyone that would seek to harm it. Thedistrusting nature of a beholderusually leads it to becoming overly self-interested and destructive without remorse.
A beholder that isn’t beholden to these values, even through magical means, can find itself able to navigate a world without prejudice or conceit while still maintaining its crafty intelligence and power. Still tyrannical, in a sense, a good-aligned beholder would seek to create order from chaos, despite the fears of common folk or experienced adventurers.
7Vampire
Vampires come from a dense culture of trickery, despair, and morbid pleasure-seeking that they require to maintain a steady source of blood while staving off boredom. Learning from the master that created them, and centuries of being rewarded for their bloodshed, leads most vampires to becoming evil aligned, and even relish being so.
By crafting a good-aligned vampire, you can challenge players' preconceptions surrounding these undead tyrants while creating a memorable NPC. An amiable vampire will likely rarely be taken at its word, but can use its immense power and guile to aid the players in ways few other undead can while ever-battling with its need to feed on humanoids.
6Mind Flayer
Part of an aberrant cult featuring many other mind flayers under the control of an elder brain, all wrapped in a web of psionic energy, mind flayers are master manipulators and have little care for anything or anyone but their own ends. This is only a given if a mind flayer is still under the influence of an elder brain or other mind flayers.
Left to its own devices, a mind flayer has a choice like any other humanoid being, and aligning its goals with those on the side of good can lead to interesting dynamics. A chaotic good mind flayer might even forcibly gain the allegiance of untrusting individuals, knowing it is serving their interests against their will.
5Lich
Powerful and knowledgeable wizards that have achieved immortal life by confining their souls to a phylactery, liches always seek to increase their power and knowledge by any means necessary. While this usually leads to death, undeath, and a greater threat to the material plane, it doesn’t have to.
A lich might seek immortality for any number of reasons, such as to avoid a tyrannical god who vows to trap its soul, remain alive long enough to search for the answer to a great threat, or maintain a pledge to protect a lineage they are loyal to. Undeath and power alone do not have to ensure your lich has evil goals, and can be a powerful ally to players.
4Ettin
Big, dumb, and strong, ettin are two-headed giants with split personalities that usually rely on base instinct and a fair amount of self-arguing to meet their needs for meat and death. Since ettin are smarter than your average hill giant, and have a permanent ally to bounce ideas off of, any ettin can become good aligned with the right guidance.
This might evenlead to ettin tribe leaderswho use each head as the other’s counsel, and always make decisions with surety and grit. This makes for interesting roleplay moments between the ettin and players, as they attempt to seek their aid while engaging in a complex debate with two simultaneous authorities.
3Star Spawn
Created by elder evils that can threaten the existence of the entire material plane, star spawn take many different shapes and roles within the elder evil’s army, but are always within its control. Should a star spawn somehow break this control from its master, its fate becomes much more open to interpretation.
This can make a very interesting ally in a campaign focused on eliminating or imprisoning an elder evil, as the star spawn’s inside knowledge of its goals and methods will most likely help the players achieve their goal. With the vast array of star spawn available, this can be a quirky sidekick or a decrepit aberrant, struggling to maintain its sanity.
Larva Mages and Seers are the best star spawn for this case.
2Elder Oblex
An ooze far more complex and alive thanyour average gelatinous cube, and oblex grows more powerful and knowledgeable with every body snatched and dissolved. This is also how an elder oblex learns about their world and its politics, and even the moral values held by the people it devours.
This means an oblex is not inherently evil, but rather bases its worldview on the memories of the many individuals it consumes. A good-aligned oblex that chooses its targets based on their evil actions can be a useful source of information for players, trading its immense knowledge for another humanoid to gorge upon, should it match the ooze’s strict criteria.
1Cambion
Dealers and traders of souls to feed the ongoing Blood War in the fiery layers of Avernus, cambions tour the material plane, tricking mortals into signing over their afterlife for material riches and power. However, a cambion can still feed the Blood War while remaining good aligned, just by targeting the right individuals.
A cambion that makes deals exclusively with the vile and wicked can be an interesting ally to players seeking to use the cambion’s wit and wisdom to their advantage. This will also be a challenge for veteran players, as they will be convinced not to take a fiend at his word, no matter how convincing they sound or just their actions seem.
Lesser devils like imps can also become servants for players, as long as they can tame its baser instincts.
