The best D&D references in the new Dungeons & Dragons movie
Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves is pretty great and arguably its best trait is that it works whether you're a lifelong D&D fan or you've never played a single campaign in your entire life.
Although Dungeons & Dragons, in reality, is limited only by its players' own imaginations, the current guides and adventure materials published by Wizards of Coast, alongside a long list of spin-off books and video games, all take place in a sprawling, fantasy world known as the Forgotten Realms.
This is also, unsurprisingly, the setting for the movie, but it's far from the only nod to the game the movie is based on.
The new movie is absolutely stacked with D&D references for the fans, but they don't get in the way of telling a hugely entertaining fantasy romp. They're still fun to spot though so we've delved into Honour Among Thieves to pick out our favourites.
1. Dragonborn & Aarakocra
There are a host of creatures in Dungeons & Dragons to spot, but one of the most impressive is early on, Edgin and Holga are faced with a parole board, consisting of a Dragonborn and an Aarakocra, two of the possible races people can play as.
The Dragonborn are humanoid, draconic creatures, though technically Dragonborn have neither tails nor wings, unlike in the movie (which may technically make this character a Dragonkin, which appears in earlier editions of the game). They can, like their draconic relatives, breathe fire. Which can be very useful in a fight.
The Aarakocra, similarly, are basically humanoid birds. And they do have wings, which proves to be pivotal in Edgin and Holga's escape plan.
2. Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter & Waterdeep
The directors drew heavily from the geography of the Forgotten Realms, so fans may hear a fair few familiar names.
Forge (Hugh Grant) becomes The Lord of Neverwinter, while Edgin is in prison. Also known as the City of Skilled Hands and the Jewel of the North, Neverwinter is cosmopolitan and civilised metropolis known for its craftswork, from jewellery to gardening to precision water clocks.
It inspired a 2013 free-to-play massively multiplayer online game titled Dungeons & Dragons: Neverwinter, which saw factions battle for control of the city after an attack by dracolich (in layman's terms, basically a zombie dragon).
Mentioned by Edgin are two cities: Baldur's Gate and Waterdeep. The former is another massive, trade-orientated city, home both to wealthy merchants and pirates and smugglers. That city formed the basis of a series of BioWare games, adapting D&D's turn-based mechanics, and first released in 1998.
Waterdeep, also known as the City of Splendors or the Crown of the North is another city and (you guessed it) another huge trade hub. (Players need to stock up on swords and spells before they fight monsters, so it tracks, okay!)
3. Mimic
When navigating Forge's intricate gladiatorial arena maze, the party come across several beasts of true D&D infamy.
The first is a Mimic, a predator that assumes the form of ordinary objects in order to entire prey – most commonly doors and chests. In short, the Mimic exists because it's a really good way for Dungeon Masters (ie. the players who control the game), to trap their party into an unwitting trap and force them into combat.
It's also a very quick way to make your party hate you.
4. Displacer Beast
Another monster they come across in the maze is a displacer beast, otherwise known as dirlagraun or omlarcat, which looks – to us – like a panther with two sets of tentacles sprouting out of their shoulders, with those tentacles ending in hungry, snapping jaws.
5. Spells – Detect Evil, Bigby's Hand, Otiluke's Resilient Sphere
One of the fun things about D&D is that it's possible to do almost anything you want with a spell, so much that a lot of the spells mentioned and cast can be traced back to real moves in the game.
We spotted Detect Evil, a divination spell that lets you know about objects or creatures in the near vicinity which radiate an aura of menace; a spell that creates a giant hand that seems to be a riff on several magical, giant hand spells invented by a legendary wizard named Bigby; and Otiluke's resilient sphere traps targets in a shimmering sphere of force (read: big bubble).
6. Owlbear
One of the creatures Doric can transform herself into is the owlbear, whose name is pretty self-explanatory – it's got the body of a bear, and the head of an owl, and is covered in a thick coat of both fur and feathers.
They have a notoriously harsh and terrible screech, are completely feral and aggressive, and are actually one of the most fearsome predators you can fear to cross paths with.
7. Intellect Devourer
While venturing into the Underdark to find the helmet of disjunction, Elgin & co cross paths with a pack of Intellect Devourers, which look to our eyes like little brains on legs.
They are loyal servants of the mind flayers (as referenced in Stranger Things), and like to chow down on their targets' minds and memories and even possess players' bodies. At their worst, they can leave players completely incapacitated.
8. Mordenkainen's disjunction
The helmet of disjunction the characters are chasing after might be inspired by a spell called Mordenkainen's disjunction – a very powerful spell that can essentially reduce and cancel out the effects of magical items.
Any spells in effect in range would also be instantly ended.
9. Szass Tam
Szass Tam, who launched the attack that took out Xenk Yendar's family and nearly ended him, is a real lich (undead creature) from the game and, like the film, is one of the most powerful leaders amongst the Red Wizards of Thay.
His powers are focused on necromancy and he commanded the Legion of Bone, a huge army of undead soldiers, led by his vampire and lich generals. In the movie, we only see Szass in flashbacks, with Daisy Head's Sofina carrying out his evil bidding.
Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves is out now in cinemas.
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