Dungeons & Dragons Baby Nightmare Miniature

This is a highly detailed miniature of a Baby Nightmare.

This model was created by M3DM who makes amazingly accurate models of Dungeons & Dragons creatures and is provided by Commercial License.

A baby nightmare in Dungeons & Dragons is not an official creature found in any of the published monster manuals, but it is a concept that sometimes appears in homebrew campaigns or fan-created lore. To understand what such a creature would represent, it helps to first look at the nightmare itself. A nightmare is a fiendish steed, usually depicted as a demonic or infernal horse with flaming hooves, fire in its breath, and a supernatural ability to stride across planes of existence. Nightmares are traditionally associated with evil creatures, such as powerful warlocks, liches, and fiends who summon them as mounts. They are not born naturally but rather created when a pegasus is corrupted by dark rituals or infernal influence. This corruption strips the purity from the celestial creature and twists it into the hellish being known as a nightmare.

Because nightmares are not naturally bred but rather transformed, the idea of a “baby nightmare” is unusual and entirely speculative. Some storytellers and dungeon masters imagine that if a nightmare were somehow able to reproduce, or if one were only partially transformed from a pegasus, the result might be a smaller, less powerful creature with many of the same features. A baby nightmare might have faintly glowing eyes, small sparks of flame licking from its mane and tail, and tiny ember-like prints where its hooves strike the ground. Unlike its fully corrupted form, the younger version might lack the ability to fly into other planes or summon its fiery aura at will, but it would still exude an aura of unease and carry the potential to grow into something far more dangerous.

In narrative terms, a baby nightmare can be used by a dungeon master to create moral dilemmas for adventurers. Do they destroy the creature before it matures into a full fiend, or do they seek to purify it and perhaps return it to a celestial nature? Such a creature straddles the line between innocence and corruption, embodying both danger and hope, and this duality makes it a fascinating addition to campaigns where the themes of redemption, corruption, and moral choice are central.

27.82mm tall at 32mm scale