This information is intended for use with the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game.
At a Glance
A lawful evil extraplanar outsider.
Absurd Adversary
Even within the context of a fantasy world which breaks many of the “rules” that govern our own, this monster is irrational and/or fundamentally stupid, earning it a spot in my Absurd Adversaries list.
- “…massive, 15-foot tall flightless birds…” — Being a flightless bird, this critter automatically has massive odds stacked against it. It’s just incredibly hard to take this kind of thing seriously as an opponent. I will give it some credit for being much better than the abrian… but that’s not saying much and it’s not enough to redeem the achaierai.
- The fact that it has a fart attack which causes insanity makes it even more dumb. There’s a spell based on it, so your PC can “release a choking, toxic black cloud” too, although theirs will only cause confusion instead of insanity… so they’ll never be as cool as the giant infernal parakeet.
This thing might show up on a random encounter list some day in a slapstick game where everything the PCs face is taken from the Absurd Adversaries list, but it will not appear in anything resembling a serious campaign.
Sources
- Monster Manual [17755] page 9
- WotC Monster Index
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