In worlds brimming with impossible creatures, why only use horses for mounts? The range of available mounts stops only at your willingness to find and train them.
If you want to add some personality or quirks to each creature, swing by Steal [Our] Idea: More Than Hairy Motorcycles: Horse Breeds, Personality Traits, Visual Distinctions, and How They all Matter
While you can easily adapt for other systems, they are designed for Dungeons and Dragons 5e.
Giant Amblypygi (whip spider)
Medium beast, unaligned
Created by: u/ReixonJesse
Armor Class 14 (Natural armor)
Hit Points 18 (3d10+1)
Speed 40 ft., climb 30 ft
| STR
16 (+3) |
DEX
12 (+1) |
CON
12 (+1) |
INT
2 (-4) |
WIS
11 (+0) |
CHA
4 (-3) |
Skills Stealth +5
Senses Blindsight 10 ft., Darkvision 60 ft., passive perception 10
Challenge 1/4
Spider Climb. The spider can climb difficult surfaces, including upside down on ceilings, without needing to make an ability check.
Grappler The whip spider has advantage on attack rolls against a creature it is grappling.
Detect Trap A giant whip spider can be trained to use its feelers to find traps when it is mounted. The rider use their own bonuses to the roll, treating it as if they were looking for traps 10 ft. in front of them. This requires a specialized trainer who charges 400 gp to train the spider.
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature. Hit: 6 (1d6+3) piercing damage plus 3 (1d6) poison damage. The poison has no additional effect.
Claws. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 10 ft., one creature. Hit: 6 (1d6+3) piercing damage. After hitting with a claw attack, the whip spider can immediately attempt to grapple the struck creature.
The wide, flat body and eight eyes of a whip spider are its most spider-like features. It’s front two legs are wispy and around twice as long as its body that it uses to feel for its environment, prey, and traps in the dungeons it occupies (granting it blindsight 10 ft.). It has two long, retractable arms with spike-lined claws meant for grabbing prey. They produce no webs, and hunt for prey by tearing it to pieces since their poison is not very effective. Their resilient exoskeleton grants them powerful natural armor.
Their natural nocturnal behavior and climbing abilities makes them ideal mounts for cave-dwelling creatures and size small creatures such as kobolds, goblins, and gnomes.
Greater Dynastinae (Rhinoceros Beetle)
Medium beast, unaligned
Created by: u/ArchRain
Armor Class 16 (Natural armor)
Hit Points 32 (3d10+1)
Speed 30 ft. Fly 20 ft.
| STR
20 (+5) |
DEX
8 (-1) |
CON
15 (+2) |
INT
2 (-4) |
WIS
11 (+0) |
CHA
4 (-3) |
Skills Athletics +5
Senses Blindsight 10 ft., Low Light Vision 30 ft., passive perception 10
Challenge 1
Disruptive Horn. Enemies damaged by the Greater Dynastinae’s horn attack have disadvantage on grapple checks and melee attacks against the Greater Dynastinae until the beginning of its next turn.
Multiattack: The Greater Dynastinae can make one Horn Smash attack and one slam attack per round.
Horn Smash. Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature. Hit: 11 (1d8+7) piercing damage. On a critical strike the Greater Dynastinae can hurl any medium or smaller creature up to 30 feet in a direction of its choice dealing 3d10 additional bludgeoning damage.
Slam. Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, +8 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature. Hit: 11 (1d8+7) piercing damage
A large creature known for its imposing horn, the Greater Dynastinae is a loyal and calm creature, rarely spooking and capable of carrying small creatures in flight upon their backs. It moves across the ground with a majestic grace and flies without either descriptor being applicable. It is a calm herbivorous creature content to feed on fruits, vegetables and rotting trees. They are also excellent pack beasts eager to display their strength in moving items, hopefully not fragile ones. Being highly territorial, these creatures do require strict training to operate in teams.
Deepwillow Mouse
Large beast, unaligned
Created by u/RexionJesse
Armor Class 13
Hit Points 16 4d8
Speed 30 ft
| STR
14 (+2) |
DEX
17 (+3) |
CON
11 (0) |
INT
2 (-4) |
WIS
10 (0) |
CHA
4 (-3) |
Senses Darkvision 60 ft., passive perception 10
Stealth +6
Challenge 1/4
Keen Smell. The Deepwillow mouse has advantage on Wisdom (perception) checks that rely on smell.
Pack Tactics. Deepwillow mice have advantage on attack rolls against a creature if at least one of the mouse’s allies is within 5 ft. of the creature and the ally isn’t incapacitated. This includes the rider.
Soft Feet. Despite their increased size, Deepwillow mice are still almost completely silent when they walk due to their padded feet. Creatures attempting to perceive them by listening with a wisdom (perception) check do so with disadvantage. This check counts for both the mouse and its rider.
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: (1d4+2) piercing damage.
The Deepwillow is known for its untouched landscapes and oversized creatures. The same breeds of mice that grow only as large as a human’s hand can become rideable beasts in Deepwillow. The dark eyes, wiggly noses, and curious faces that make mice adorable to some lose none of their potency as they scale up in size. Their fur remains soft, feeling nice to the touch but offering them no protection.
Giant Locust
Medium Beast, unaligned
Created by /u/Intoxicated_Imp
Armor Class 15 (natural armor)
Hit Points 20 (4d8+4)
Speed 30 ft
| STR
11 (+0) |
DEX
17 (+3) |
CON
12 (+1) |
INT
2 (-4) |
WIS
10 (0) |
CHA
3 (-4) |
Skills Acrobatics +5
Senses Passive Perception 10
CR 1/4
Camouflage A giant locust in its natural habitat (Chosen from the Ranger’s favourite terrain list), gains a +5 circumstantial bonus to stealth checks if it remains immobile.
Improved Jump A giant locust can jump 10 ft high, and leap 20 ft. If allowed to charge up for a round, these distances change to 15 ft (jump) and 45 ft (leap).
Slow Fall A giant locust can use its wings to slow its descent. If unrestrained, it takes fall damage as if its fall was 30 feet shorter.
Kick Melee weapon attack +4 to hit, reach 5 ft, single target. Hit: 8 (1d8+4) bludgeoning damage. On a critical hit, this displaces the target 5 ft if it’s medium or large, or 10 ft if it’s smaller.
Regurgitate Ranged attack +6 to hit, reach 15 ft, single target. Hit: 4 (1d4+2) poison damage. This poison has no additional effect.
For eons, locusts have been the bane of farmers and overzealous leaders alike. These larger varieties show up all over the Material Plane, with each different area affecting the coloration of these imposing creatures. After brave and foolish attempts by goblins and kobolds to use these creatures as mounts proved successful, reports of this spread through the world, prompting other intelligent races to try it out. A giant locust has lost the ability to fly like its smaller cousins, rather opting to use its wings to slow its descent after a long leap to avoid crushing itself and its rider. Their tough thorax offering them protection, giant locusts can make capable fighters. They use their strong hind legs to deliver fierce kicks that can displace even strong humanoids, and have access to a toxic spittle that they can regurgitate. Their swarming nature makes them excellent for hunting in packs, given that the rider can control this temperamental creature.
Great Hawk Moth
Large beast, unaligned
Created by: u/sage-wise
Armor Class 14 (Natural armor)
Hit Points 90 (12d10+24)
Speed Ground: 20 ft, Fly: 90 ft
| STR
12 (+1) |
DEX
16 (+3) |
CON
10 (+1) |
INT
6 (-2) |
WIS
6 (-2) |
CHA
12 (+2) |
Skills Flight
Senses Blindsense 15 ft. forward, left, and right, Darkvision 60 ft. on ground (100 ft. in air), Passive Perception 10
Challenge 3 (700xp)
Flight The average moth spends most of its life in the air, and the Great Hawk Moth is no different. Able to take flight in less than a half second (no action required) and can fly 90 feet in any direction.
Blindsense Because the great hawk moth has antenna it can sense anything without using any other senses within 15 feet at the front and both sides.
Slam When in the air, the Great Hawk Moth may use an action to rapidly descend on a target, doing 1d10 damage for every 10 feet it descends. Above 30 feet the Great Hawk Moth will take half the damage it deals. Due to it’s size, there is no roll to hit. Instead, the target makes a DC 14 dexterity save to dodge, taking half damage on a successful save.
Wing Smack When the GHM opens it wings, any target within a 10 ft cone on either side is keen to being smacked into next week. This will cause 1d6 damage, a push back 10ft, and knock the target prone.
Distract In order to defend itself against prey, the GHM has camouflage that can confuse or intimidate targets. Extending its wings up and overhead to show off the patterns and shapes, any target in a 30-foot cone needs to make a DC 12 Will save or they are stunned for one turn. Creatures who make the will save are immune for the rest of the day.
Light Sensitivity The GHM is distracted by and attracted to strong sources of light. Without proper training, the GHM will ignore commands or targets when a strong source of light is present within 100 feet. (Training requires the use of 3 whole Long Rests or 500gp from a certified handler.)
The Great Hawk Moth might seem fuzzy and cute from far away, but once it lands, all ~800 lbs of it, you might think differently. The GHM has an extended wingspan of 30 feet wide. When the wings are not deployed, it sits quite nicely at 10 feet wide, 15 feet long. Their antenna extend 5 feet forward at all times. The patterns on the wings and body will look different to everyone, playing off their fears and desires like a Rorschach test. When in the air, this beast is majestic, graceful, and dangerous. But when it is on the ground, it can’t move very far and is limited in what it can notice compared to when it’s in the sky.
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RexiconJesse - Jesse Galena 