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Here is something about D&D that confuses me. There are insectoid monsters like hook horrors or umber hulks, and yet you never hear about them really having different looking larvae; presumably they just hatch looking like cute hulklets or something.

And then there are insectoid monsters like the maggot like Kyuss worms, rot grubs, or carrion crawlers, where they sure sound like larval forms of something, but then you never get to see an adult - okay so carrion crawlers are supposed to be the adult forms or something. Is it just like bot flies where the adults exist for a week or so worth of mating and then die, or could there be something like whatever adult rot grubs are lurking around the corner waiting to clobber and eat halfling rogues or whatever?

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From:

ysabetwordsmith

Basically, you've got two options: metamorhpic or non-metamorphic. The former are larvae and then adults, which look nothing alike. Either can be the long span. The latter are nymphs, basically just miniature versions of the adults, which get bigger until they are fully mature.

What the guidebooks present is the form(s) that poses an adventuring threat. That could be the immature or mature form, or both -- dragons, for instance, are troublesome from the time they hatch. Other species might only be a risk at certain times.

Now if you really wanted to psych out your players, you could go through and make a list of all the larval forms and adult forms ... and then match them up. Grub X becomes Adult Y. Set up the players with a grub infestation, then hit them with the adults, and then gruesomely reveal the connection.

Sound implausible? Hell, it took humans absurdly long to realize that elvers are baby eels, just because they look nothing alike.

From:

brushwolf

That sounds really cool, yeah!

From:

sarah_tv

You know, this works well for a Orge/Halfling connection. I mean think about it, they both are known for their ravenous appetites. Maybe Halflings are just Baby Ogres waiting for that day where they develop a taste for human flesh...