D&D MONSTER RANKINGS - SPHINX TIERS
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- čas přidán 2. 07. 2024
- Sphinxes are some of the most amazing monsters in D&D, from territorial magical beasts to immortal guardians of sacred locations.
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0:00 Sphinxes from myth and D&D
3:49 Hieracosphinx
5:03 Criosphinx (3.5e)
5:59 Saurosphinx
7:37 Criosphinx (5e)
11:01 Crocosphinx
12:17 Scrolls of the Bard
13:09 Canisphinx
15:33 Androsphinx (3.5e)
17:46 Sphinx (4e)
21:17 Sphinx Mystery (4e)
24:55 Threskisphinx
26:48 Gynosphinx (3.5e)
28:28 Isperia
32:17 Gynosphinx (5e)
34:49 Androsphinx (5e)
38:30 Outro - Hry
So quick explanation about the naming of Criosphinx, crio is likely just a faulty transliteration of the word Krios, which literally means “ram” in Greek. Krios was also the name of the Titan of the South, brother to Kronos and uncle to Zeus, and is literally referred to as “The Ram”.
I had wondered if there was something going on with the etymology! I should have consulted with a Greek friend and lorekeeper 😆 Thanks for the word lore!
This also applies with the other Sphinxes. Andro and Gyno from those Sphinxes simply mean Man and Woman Respectively. Theoretically you could make other sphinxes based on the names in this fashion such as a Wolf headed Luposphinx or a Snake headed Serposphinx.
@@esperthebard Just to add a little bit to that : You are correct in your train of thought that the prefix "cryo-" implies some relevance to cold, as the greek word for cold is, indeed the word "cryo". It is in the spelling of the "crio" part that the difference lies. Noticing that now myself, I think it should have been a Kriosphinx, instead of Criosphinx, since the greek word is pretty much already being used.
Oh, damn I am late. Well the quick reserch got 2 words in greek: κριό - ram, and κρύο - cold, chill.
@@esperthebard Same applies to Hieracosphinx, "Hierak" ( ἱέραξ ) is old greek for Hawk (sorry if im butchering the westernized form).
Herodotus named the beast headed sphinxes after seeing the statues and depictions during a trip to egypt. The greeks only have human headed sphinxes in their mythology, these are of egyptian origin. Original hieracosphinxes do not have wings in the carvings.
It's always been weird that the hieracosphinx is chaotic evil. In egyptian mythology they are one of the forms of Horus The Elder (Haroeris for the greeks) and called Har-em-akhet or Harmakhis, "Horus on the Horizon".
Ron Spencer's one of the GOATs, he also did a lot of great art for the Werewolf the Apocalypse line in World of Darkness, and I've always found his work really gritty and cool, glad to see he got a shoutout here.
That's true! I totally forgot that he did some illustrations for Werewolf.
Spencer's Werewolf art is truly amazing!
Well that settles it, I have to make a arctic cryosphinx that actually has ice related powers. With the body of a giant snow leopard and the head of a snowy owl. It will be a cold but not cruel monster . Those that seek it out and answer its riddles will be blessed with a magical gift, and those that fail will succumb to icy petrification.
That sounds cool! If you make it and feel like showing it off, I'd be curious to see.
The sheer amount of sphynx art that is just incredibly stunning is pretty amazing.
MTG making a fair number of sphinx creature cards helps. XD
Had no idea there were so many sphinxes
Maybe the sphinx is almost extinct
That little difference between crio and cryo is pretty important, it seems. Also the crocosphinx reminds me a lot of Ammit.
Another fantastic video and thanks to your awesome insight, the sphinx are a key creature used in my campaign and even the actor causing the parties heroes to venture forth.
"but it really was 5th edition that brought them to the heights that they're at now"
Wow, 5th edition actually improving on monsters rather than making them worse. What a concept.
I does happen ... sometimes
To be fair Sphinx is the monster that comes to mind when I think of "glow up" in 5e.
Flumphs are a very VERY distant second place but still a big winner .
@@skuarf both also feature glowy bits in their art a lot
I just realized something! The time shift for the Androsphinx (5e) could be amazing if your party needs to go back a few years to stop the cataclysm for a doomsday scenario where they just need to foil the bbeg's plan once and they just that makes it fail. I think that's really neat, or perhaps they need to go back in time to train their old selves to show how they got their combat prowess. And the plane shift could be used to have the party be transported to an important location where they need to besiege a dungeon. The Androsphinx really is endlessly cool, huh.
Great, another ranking from my favourite bard.
I would be very curious to hear your thoughts on Pathfinder. Most people seem to agree that it has better monster design and has kept more of original grit/dark-fantasy feel.
I've been trying to convince Maximus of The Tower of Tomes to do a collab video with me comparing D&D and PF versions of the same monster.
The day's gonna be a great day if it starts with seeing a new video by Esper (and a ranking video makes it even better)! Thanks so much for all your effort. All the best!
Great I am looking forward to this so much!!! 😊
One of my favorite bits of lore on 3e sphinxes was the gynosphinx being evil and the androsphynx being good, but them implicitly needing to mate with each other to continue their shared kind, how even if you don't know a good riddle or mental puzzle you _can_ bribe a gynosphynx with juicy information on the location of an androsphinx for her to mate with. I can relate to the massive frustration androsphynxes must feel for their pool of potential mates and the likely future fates of their daughters...how much of this is cultural? Is it a curse put on their kind by some vindictive evil god? Did the cat bodied equivalent of Adam step up and reject temptation while his wife embraced it?
I really enjoyed the plane shift books. They provided a lot of new settings for DnD games (as opposed to lumping everything in the Forgotten Realms), with some interesting takes on old creatures. I especially loved the Zendikar and Ixalan's takes on vampires. Actually, Ixalan was my favorite; it was so different from the standard DnD setting.
Has there ever been a more tragic Greek hero than Oedipus? Jason, maybe, but Jason was a jack@$$. Oedipus was just trying to save his parents and fell into the most ironic (and squicky) twist of fate ever.
i had a really cool character once that became an original monster. she started out as a nymph, but later became combined with a succubus. yes, i know that sounds crazy. even though nymphs are usually good, mine was evil due to a frontal lobe injury in childhood. she later killed an angel who death cursed her to hell. there she became a succubus as well. we called her a nymphccubus, lol. that was a really fun character to play
Great video!
An ancient Egyptian bus pulls up to an ancient Egyptian school and the driver says
"Hey Spinx aren't you going to get on?"
The Spinx says "Oh, I forgot to tell you, my parents are picking me up today."
An ancient Egyptian car then pulls up with a man and a lioness in it.
Why does the sphinx have such a strange face?
No one nose.
(this works much better spoken, not written)
Great video keep up the great work. Always love the sphinx. Egyptian mythology has always been my favorite. The Desert of Desolation series of modules were some of my favorite AD&D adventures. I wish 5th edition would publish a new Egyptian pyramid based dungeon crawl adventure.
Totally agree!
“What can bring back the dead; make you cry, make you laugh, make you young; is born in an instant, yet lasts a lifetime?”
My favorite riddle from the sphinx in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey
Memories (no googling, on my honor as a bard)
@@esperthebard correctamundo
@@Takeda10K Huzzah, here's one for you:
Vicious siblings, who stab and grab and tear,
In steady unison they strike,
Menacing all who see them,
Yet, the more they kill, the more they give life.
Teeth
Love these Tier videos
I love the Sphinx. Thanks for the topic, Heimko. Thanks for the video, Esper. Maybe it's because of its real-world desert image in Giza in Egypt, but I almost feel that the Sphinx is the only mythological monster or creature that could exist in the real world. Them and maybe Gargoyles.
"The sphinx was thus vanquished"
That's a pretty weird way of wording 'it was so upset that someone answered its riddle that it committed suicide'.
I always like hearing you talk about the divine. I always feel transported.
If you ever decide to, I would pay money to hear your thoughts on a mount Celestea campaign or even an adventure that sends the players across the heavens. ☺️(sigh)
A seriously underutilized monster in D&D. Absolutely love them.
another great video, Esssper. I wanted to ask if you enjoy Shadowrun at all
I want to use a canisphinx or 2 in one of my games now
I love sphynxes. In the worlds I build, humanoids with the heads of various animals are the most common types of people, and to them the faces of the likes of a sphynx or lesser abominations like a harpy are truly alien.
CRIO-sphinx, not CRYO-sphinx
From Wiktionary:
Ancient Greek κριός (kriós, “ram”)
Very nice
I remember this one book I readcwgere the characters need to cross a bridge and the sphinx like guardian of the bridge asks its longwinded riddle and the characters answer correctly after giving it a lot of thought, but then after they cross the bridge the villain that's chasing them shows and the sphinx tells him he must answer it's longwinded riddle and before the sphinx can finish saying the riddle the villain slays the sphinx with a single fast sword swing and crosses the bridge. Sometimes the most simple solutions are the easiest.
I ran a campaign which included a Sphinx, a secret guardian of the local temple, who helped the PCs both defeat a coven of Hags and a demon's machinations to turn the local Baron into a vampire. The information wasn't easy to work through since it was contained in clues in riddles. Sounds unlikely but it worked.
Just want to remind everyone that one of the forms of The King In Yellow is a faceless sphinx
Hello once more, i hope this letter gets to you in good health. The life of an adventurer is a dangerous one. I was wondering if perhaps in your next video you could talk about the abominations? As disgusting as their existence is i think they would make a great topic for your work
Kind regards, Remarous
Indeed, if there's no danger, it's not an adventure. Hmmm, have any abominations been printed in 5e? I know there is an atropal in Tomb of Annihilation, which I believe is considered an abomination.
@@esperthebard Indeed it was printed, and from what im aware the tarrasque was also an abomination in earlier editions. I personally would love a look back at these mistakes of creations, and see what value can be brought out of their existence
Hell yeah! Monsters raking!
Crio was a term used as a ram (usually to be sacrificed) by Latdict. Thus why we have the Criosphinx who has noting to do with greek cryo/crio.
Can you do a ranking of the Archdevils please?
I love your videos about monsters, but it’s so weird to hear about a monster for the first time and think wow that is freaking cool and you just like it could’ve been cooler if it had glowing claws or something like that and I’m like but it’s already the coolest thing I’ve ever heard of every time I watch one of these videos I see a new monster or creature in this dude is like it’s OK and I’m like what.thank you for teaching me about DND monsters everyone is cool to me and I love it. I still think those weird frog creatures that impregnate you by cutting you with their claws are scary as hell but DM talk about them like they’re no big deal at all I’m like it just one of those got on earth are a small village with no heroes we be in trouble that’s what I always think about because I don’t actually play dungeons and dragons except boulders gate three
I could talk ideas for Sphinxes for days and the artists of Magic cards are to blame! I adore Sphinxes! For me they are S tier intelligent creature with the most potential simply because of the "human" head. I always hated how people liked dragons as both the pinnacle predatory creature and as an intelligent crystalline super wizard so i given the later to sphinxes. As an example one of my current campaign's bbeg is a Roman Emperor Sphinx that loves gladiatorial arenas especially throwing criminals to his lionesses and with the help of other sadists creating "stable" monstrosities from people that defy him (example he "turned" his sister Sphinx into a crazed Manticore for not bedding him).
Would be an awesome start to a campaign the party fighting a ginosphonx and getting send 10 years back in time to start the adventure
Ron Spencer is a favorite of mine (Terror, Yawgmoths will etc.) the croco sphinx could be a child of Ammit
Ok so plot idea recipe, first thing you need to know is this.
4:27
Next this
5:32
Then finally this
28:01
And then come up with a story based on this.
I noticed with gynosphinx the difference in fan service catering to a male audience the monster character was in earlier editions compared to later editions .
I've never heard of the sandstorm adventure is a land ruled by Darude
Man I'm hoping my chronurgy wizard can come across a Gynosphinx so I can use dominate monster, Nystual's magic aura and finally Majic jar for the ultimate time lord
I see so much potential in the saurosphinx rather than a large beast they can be like way Ward points in a deser city
Necrosphynx. Sometimes a Sphynx falls in combat. When such a Sphynx falls in battle and what he is assigned to protect is stolen, it cannot truly rest till the item is returned.
Think Revrent and Sphynx.
2E had a page for their sphinxes
It's not 'Cryo' it's 'Krios' as in the Greek word for ram, here see if you follow me, andro comes the greek andros and means man, gyno- comes from the greek gyne and means women, Saruo comes from greek sauria and means Lizard, Hieraco come from the Greek h(g)eraki and means hawk. Sphinxes in D&D get their names from the prefix version of the greek word for the creature that their head resembles.
I knew all the others except the Krios one, thanks for pointing that out 👍
I came to the comments out of curiosity and wow, EVERYONE is correcting the crio/cryo mistake. More comments for the algorithm, which is great!
The Androsphinx is such a set piece creature. Its so close to divinity that it only technically has stats. You can't evem save against it's Planeshift ability. It truly is beyond the ken of mortals.
I think the crocosphinx should offer challenges of battle rather then riddles. And rewarding those that defeat it, and devouring those that fail. Maybe if it is defeated, it must serve the victor for 3 days . Would be really cool to go out of the way so the barbarian can challenge the Sphinx in single combat , so he can ride it into a important fight. If maybe they desperately need acess to a large flying steed
I had a big bad i made up lasted allmost a year a very ancient sphinx lich with time stop it played my group into collecting its lost phlactery then time stoped half the party over a pit with a riddle to find a button to release a hidden cover to the pit. They ended up having to go to the outerplain and find anubis because the sphinx used to be the head priest of the cult of anubis but when it was his time to die he betrayed his god. The way of mercy monk became a champion of anubis and it ended with the big bad getting dragged underground by anubis like the ending of jason goes to hell.
Has there ever been a half sphinx humanoid race in D&D?
Funny you mentioned the Bolas translation. It's a big joke here in Brazil.
You say that you had created content for 3rd, 4th and 5th edition. Where can I find all this stuff? I would like the 3rd edition material
By the way Criospinx is called like that not because of ice, but because Krios, in ancient greek language, means "ram". Different words with similar sound, so there is no reason to give them ice powers!
I never liked human heads on animalistic monsters
In my heart of hearts, I am Azorius. Therefore, I greatly approve of this list.
Are there no bardic themed sphinxes which pose musical riddles?
Hello friend🤝
I wish crocosphinx have something more. Its concept looks good but is very undercooked.
Wait a minute.
Crocosphinxes have the same intelligence as humans, and yet breed with crocodiles..
Did nobody coming up with their lore think through the implications of that and realize they're basically zoophiles?
No zoophiles is a person who has sex with something that is not compatible on a genetic level. If a male highschool student has gotten nothing but F-eses but only because a teacher cannot legally grade him lower, and a female straight A+ student still thinks he's cute, it wouldn't be an abomination for her to move out and marry him after graduation.
@@rachdarastrix5251 There's a pretty big difference between two human beings, and a human being-level creature with an actual animal.
It would be far more appropriate to compare it to a human breeding with a great ape or other primate.
@@purplehaze2358 I was thinking you meant a regular wolf with a wolf who can talk and tell you what is wrong with your broken down car that went off road into the forest while also still being just a wolf. An actual wolf by the way.
But I don't think your description is quite accurate either. I think it would be more appropriate to say, a human with a human who has an IQ of 10 and the tail hands and feet of an iguana.
I like to point out that the greek sphinx (who is female) does the riddles meanwhile the egyptian sphinx (mainly depicted as male and sometimes even called androsphinx) isn't known for doing riddles.
Isperia is dead in current MTG lore, so that could be why her lore stops so abruptly. Nicol Bolas had the leader of the Golgari guild kill her so he could replace her with his own agent.
Link the owlsphinx in the comments! Looks dope may run one if i could read it all lol
CrioSpinx is sort of a name...
Cold related would be Cryo. Not crio.
pretty sure thats a griffin
So sad that most of the sphinxes don't have any cool abilities or lore. They have a lot of potential as a puzzle creature.
Cryo means cold, crio means ram. Thanks Google.
He has been told about 20 times already. I only know this because I looked to see if someone had already pointed this out to Esper. Lo and behold, there were a few in the first ten posts. I didn't have to waste my time pointing it out, since he has replied to at least 2 of them.
And Bolas could be a name without the potty humor
28:01
But didn't you say those 2 actively look for Gynospinxes?
Guess part of being evil is not caring about a woman's consent.
forive me - lol teen
you are mistaking cryo with crio. similar but different. id even argue you are mispronouncing crio
He has been told about 20 times already.
Take a shot everytime Azor or Isperia pops up on screen
What happened during 4e. Did they all smoke meth or something? It's so alien to everything dnd it's literally an aberration
That very shollow way of thinking about all need to be ugly human faces things mix it up is better