Sphinxes are, of course, classic creatures from Egyptian and Greek mythology - The Sphinx is one of the most iconic sculptures in the world, and of course the Riddle of the Sphinx is one of the great stories of Greek myth (and probably what Oedipus wishes everyone remembered him for, other than, you know, that other thing).
The 2014 Monster Manual had two sphinxes, which had the quite explicitly gendered names of Gynosphinx and Androsphinx. As we've seen monsters less explicitly gendered, with the advent of male hags, medusas (medusae?) dryads, and succubi, and the introduction of female incubi, it makes sense to change this aspect of sphinxes (which, to my knowledge, never had any mythological basis even. Don't get me started on how Medusas should be called Gorgons, and Gorgons should be called literally anything else).
But, they didn't stop at just renaming the Gynosphinx and Androsphinx. Sphinxes got expanded to a family of four, a creature-type change, and a pretty cool new, colorful art design.
Let's talk creature type first:
Sphinxes are now considered Celestials. This does not make them good-aligned. As before, they remain Lawful Neutral (except, oddly, the familiar-sized Sphinx of Wonder, which is lawful good, and a perfect familiar for a Chain-pact Celestial warlock). As we saw starting largely in Spelljammer, the creature-type of Celestial has really expanded in its definition. No longer necessarily a being of the Upper Planes, I think of Celestials as being kind of the default "otherworldly" creature type, which could include beings from neutral planes as well as beings from the Astral Plane. I could even imagine a world where Fiends were actually Celestials that just happened to have the evil alignment, but I think having a creature type tag that specifically latches onto evil outer planar entities keeps things in line with real-world folklore, where divine magic can bind and smite demons.
In fact, as an aside, I've been looking at my own homebrew setting and considering the role of various powerful beings in it. It's a thing in that setting that several angels descended to the world thousands of years ago to keep watch over it, working on behalf of the good-aligned gods before accidentally becoming the subject of worship themselves (which most felt appropriately uncomfortable with.) But I'd also had a number of evil servants of, originally just the God of Death, but then I decided to make these figures the proxies/servants of other evil deities. And then I realized that between these two groups (who warred with each other in the world's pre-apocalyptic history) were kind of the same thing.
The question, then, was whether the evil servants ought to be fiends or celestials. One of them, the Angel of Death, who is the God of Death's top lieutenant (and proxy, to use a Planescape term,) is obviously referred to by a celestial creature type. In a sense, I see Fiends as operating kind of independently of the setting's gods, more of a separate force that might actually oppose even the evil gods (if Asmodeus and Tharizdun represent the most powerful deities of the Hells and the Abyss, respectively, and are associated with Devils and Demons, respectively, then both probably harbor hatred and resentment for my setting's evil deities).
But I think this really opens up possibilities to make a lot more Celestial creatures, and make it easier for your party to have reasons to fight them.
Case in point:
Sphinxes, in 2025, are defined as a kind of celestial manifestation of curiosity and knowledge. By CR, you can kind of think of the four of them as working well as creatures a tier 1, tier 2, tier 3, and tier 4 party might encounter (not unlike the four ages of Dragons). All appear as winged lions, with colorful, runic patterns all over their bodies.
Again, each is an embodiment of curiosity.
The Sphinx of Wonder, the Tiny-sized one that is a potential familiar for Warlocks who have Pact of the Chain, are CR 1, with a simple rend attack that does slashing and radiant damage, as well as magic resistance, and, most notably, a 2/day reaction that allows the Sphinx to add 2 to an ability check or saving throw of their own or of a friend within 30 feet.
Said to come into being whenever a person has an original thought on the Material Plane, a Sphinx of Wonder obviously works for a curious warlock (my GOO-lock would probably have one of these as his familiar if he took Pact of the Chain). But I think you could easily have one of these serving as the companion of a classic wizard. I love one of these as a bodega cat, too, who loves meeting and conversing with anyone who comes in.
You could fight one of these, but they seem built more to be friends (especially with that reaction).
Moving up, though we come to the Sphinx of Secrets.
These CR 8 creatures safeguard sites of magic and learning. Because of their extreme longevity, a Sphinx of Secrets can outlive the institution where it lives, and so I think these work really well as guardians of ancient sites. If a player character is trying to extract lore or ancient magic (actually, a good example would be the dungeon that my Wizard currently finds himself in, which I wrote into the character's backstory, and the dungeon my DM came up with does not disappoint) they might encounter a Sphinx of Secrets who is not so keen on people coming in to plunder the place. Given that we're now in lawful neutral territory, a party trying to recover some ancient but dangerous magic or knowledge could encounter a sphinx who doesn't care how many people they're trying to save, and will stick to their duty to keep anyone from getting their hands on this stuff.
The Sphinx of Secrets has Magic Resistance as well as the Inscrutable trait, which gives players disadvantage on insight checks against them and prevents anyone from reading their thoughts without permission.
In combat, the Sphinx can make some claw attacks that do slashing and radiant damage, but they can replace one attack with Curse of the Riddle, which potentially curses a target with the need to solve a riddle, distracting them with the brain puzzle until they finish it. They get disadvantage on ability checks and attack rolls, and if they try to use a Magic action (such as to cast a spell,) they need to succeed on a DC 15 Intelligence saving throw or the action is wasted (though I'd guess not the spell slot or other resource). However, if they take the Study action to try to solve the puzzle, they can do so on a successful DC 15 Intelligence check. That's actually somewhat tough to do - even with a maxed out Intelligence, that's only a 55% chance to succeed. (Keen Mind would be great for this, as you can Study as a bonus action).
I think this is a creature that I'd really try to flavor interestingly - what does the puzzle taking root in a person's mind look and feel like?
Much like Dragons, when we get into the final two versions, we can also have lairs, which, of course, not just grant additional legendary resistances and legendary actions, but they do have environmental effects, which help the Sphinx keep an eye on things.
The Sphinx of Lore is the updated version of the Gynosphinx. With more damage to their Claw attacks, they get a recharge ability (5-6) in Mind-Rending Roar, which hits essentially everyone (unless you're over 300 feet away somehow) with psychic damage and the incapacitated condition on a failed Wisdom saving throw. The Sphinx of Lore also has a number of spells, though most are pretty utility focused. Its legendary actions are Arcane Prowl, allowing it to teleport up to 30 feet and make a claw attack, or Weight of Years (once per round,) which can age a target and inflict levels of exhaustion - which, again, is not as debilitating as it used to be, but could potentially make recovering from a fight take a long time (that Ranger ability to cure a level of exhaustion on a short rest is looking more powerful).
Lorewise (heh,) the Sphinx of Lore is the powerful guardian of a particular secret, with a reputation as a great sage or oracle, but who tend to live in remote locales. Obviously, it could be a whole quest just to find a sphinx of this sort, and a fight against one might be a test to prove yourself worthy of the secret they keep (indeed, I see a lot of fights with Sphinxes having the potential for them to surrender rather than fight to the death, and maybe even fight the party as a test rather than true animosity.)
Finally, we have the Sphinx of Valor, our replacement for the Androsphinx. As before, the centerpiece of the this sphinx is their ability to roar three times a day, having a different effect each time they do. The roars first frighten, then paralyze, and then inflict a hefty chunk of thunder damage on top of knocking targets prone, and these can be used along with its ordinary Claw attacks (which, interestingly, only do slashing damage).
The premise of a Sphinx of Valor is that they guard extraordinarily dangerous secrets or deadly artifacts, and they're meant to have the power to keep those secrets from falling into the wrong hands - not really unlike the others, but with a stronger emphasis on "better that a good person seeking this truth die than an evil person seeking it discover it."
I think the opportunity for a Celestial is that their perspective is very different. These beings are probably quite ancient, and their lawful neutralness (again, excepting the Sphinx of Wonder) could be portrayed as a kind of callousness, or at least a sense of broader responsibilities that require a cold heart.
As masters of knowledge and truth, I also think it makes sense for them to be associated with contemporary learning institutions (one of my setting's top universities is run by a sphinx).
The obvious quest involving a sphinx is to seek out the knowledge that it possesses. But I think you could also have a sphinx found outside of its traditional home in order to try to contain some bit of information that got out. Safeguarding knowledge can mean both keeping it hidden as well as keeping it preserved, and I could imagine a possible adventure in which a sphinx is holding onto some deadly truth that would be better off forgotten (if you want to go into true cosmic horror territory.)
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