I’ve been putting this article off for a while, because, to some degree, people already know what i’m talking about. Null-shaping is using the fact that certain objects and statblocks are marked with a “-” as their value, or their CR. This often but not all of the time also works with things marked as 0 worth or 0 CR. In some interpretations, 0=-.

That’s it that’s the article

Ok but really why the hell would I want something with a value of nothing or a CR of nothing?

Well, it means we can turn a tiny servant into a mighty servant of leuk-o, because both have a CR of “-“.

as another example, we can create a murgaxicors elixir of life out of nothing with creation bard, because it has no gold cost. We can turn a broken coin into a shatter stick using forge clerics channel divinity, as it also has no listed cost and isn’t a magic item.

Would you like to have an infinite number of steel defenders? you could, because they’re CR -. (and there’s ways to do this that isn’t null-shape, too)

CR null creatures worth knowing

Tiny Servant (construct) – mostly an easy way to get statblocks that last 8 hours that are CR null, to turn into other things on this list. Also good for other tech, and going from tiny servant to mighty servant is a cool evolution
Mighty Servant of Leuk-o. (construct) – we know what this is
Spellcaster (Mage) – (humanoid) a mage with up to 6th level slots, knows chain lightning, fireball, fly, shield, sleep, polymorph, wall of fire, and some others. 54 hitpoints and an AC of 12.
Spellcaster (Healer) (humanoid)- Likely even more useful than the mage stats for our sake, the healer has up to 6th level spells, including “heal”, greater restoration, mass cure wounds, banishment, death ward, revivify, aid, lesser restoration, bless, cure wounds, and shield of faith. Having a level 11 clerics worth of heal-bitch is fairly useful in a lot of situations.
Expert (humanoid) – has help as a bonus action that adds 1d6 to the roll, reliable talent, and evasion. decent for even more help with checks.

Take other classes class features

Wildfire Spirit – like teleporting multiple people as a bonus action using a familiar, but don’t want to go wildfire druid? well, this is an elemental of CR null, so go ahead and true poly one for yourself.

Homunculus Servant – free artificer infusion, sadly has hitpoints based on artificer level, but cool none the less. now we can keep one on each of our party members and cast touch spells at a range of 120ft

Steel Defender – We can produce steel defenders without being a battlesmith because they are CR null

CR 0 creatures worth knowing

Slightly less interestingly, CR 0 creatures are also often kind of busted, and they’re even easier to get our hands on through polymorph spells and the likes.

Commoner – Easy CR 0 creature to find to turn into various monstrosities. Similarly works with find familiar, and even buying roosters.

Meeseeks (humanoid) – from the rick and morty source book, a book I usually recommend not using. However, Meeseeks is a humanoid immune to all damage. This is obviously very useful, feel free to use a possession ability or magic jar on them to be immune to damage.

quick note, “immune to damage” isn’t going to make you entirely uncounterable, and with 10 in every stat, you’ve got issues. Things that still present major issues are;
-banishment
-charm effects
-force cage
-feeblemind
-Power-word kill (depending on reading)
and more! keep on your toes

I recommend keeping a meseeks corpse in your mighty servant of leuk-o body as a back up encase GITM goes awry. This thing is also amazing for a familiar since it won’t just die to AOE like every other familiar seems to.

Chwinga (elemental) – Chwingas are a CR 0! meaning we can true poly our familiar into one, we can also access them through conjure minor elementals and through conjure elemental. Chwingas are really useful and include things like pass without trace, going into objects, and guidance.

Living Demiplane (construct) – This thing is kind of wacky, so i’ll copy it’s whole statblock.

Dimensional Form. 

The living spell can enter another creature’s space and vice versa, and it can move through a space as narrow as 1 inch wide without squeezing. The living spell can’t detach from a solid surface, such as a wall, ceiling, or floor. If it has no surface to attach to, the living spell is destroyed (see “Planar Destruction” below).

Extradimensional Chamber. 

When the living spell enters another creature’s space (or vice versa) for the first time on a turn, the other creature must succeed on a DC 10 Dexterity saving throw or be pulled into the living spell’s extradimensional space, an unfurnished stone chamber 30 feet in every dimension. A creature too big to fit in this space succeeds on the saving throw automatically. Creatures in the chamber never run out of breathable air. Magic that enables transit between planes, such as plane shift, can be used to escape the chamber, which has no exits otherwise. Creatures trapped inside the extradimensional chamber can’t see, target, or deal damage to the living spell; however, they can damage the room around them. Each 5-foot-square section of ceiling, wall, and floor in the chamber has AC 17, 50 hit points, immunity to poison and psychic damage, and immunity to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage that is nonmagical. If any section is reduced to 0 hit points, the living spell and its chamber are destroyed (see “Planar Destruction” below).

Magic Resistance. 

The living spell has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.

Planar Destruction. 

The living spell is destroyed when it or a 5-foot-square section of its extradimensional chamber is reduced to 0 hit points, or when the living spell has no surface to attach to. When the living spell is destroyed, the contents of its extradimensional chamber are expelled, appearing as close to the living spell’s previous location as possible. Each expelled creature appears in a randomly determined unoccupied space, along with whatever it is wearing or carrying.

Unusual Nature. 

The living spell doesn’t require air, food, drink, or sleep.

The tech with this thing is actually amazing and maybe deserves its own article. So, think of this: a demi plane that can move and exist independently of you. our familiar can be a demiplane, that we can jump inside of and grab our glyphs out of anytime. We still need to teleport out somehow. teleportation circle on the ground is one option, plane shift is another, or if we need to be back where we were, killing the demiplane creature from inside works too.

This thing also serves as a fantastic hiding spot. Create a living demi plane and hide it in a 1inch surface somewhere and put nondetection on it, or keep it in a private sanctum. private demiplane more easily accessed than other demiplanes.

We can take this further by putting living demiplanes inside our living demiplane, creating them while there, making a living dimensional nexus of sorts. and if you’re feeling extra, a dimensional nexus within a dimensional nexus and ect. This might be fragile, given these things are living spells and can take damage, but it’s not something we bring directly into a fight. We’d keep a quick and dirty demiplane of buffs, and the more complex stuff stays very, very well hidden. We could contain the living demiplane to a single surface, like a floating rock in a case, or just the inside of a sealed container.

Living Unseen Servant (construct)- how the heck am i going to top infinite nigh-undetectable dimensional matrix? well, living unseen servant doesn’t. it doesn’t maintain it’s ‘being of force’ this way, and is defined as being medium sized, the only benefit it seems to retain is being invisible. This is lame

Rooster – This is only worth mentioning because chickens can be bought for 2 copper. note we can buy chickens for 2 copper

This means 2 important things:

1. you can only conjure chickens if they’re female
2. roosters are statblocks you can buy for 2 copper that are hypothetically capable of manning siege equipment, meaning I should update infini-chicken exit

Shrieker – mushrooms that can scream, indistinguishable from a regular mushroom, these could be used as a great early warning tool for your base that’s not as finicky as alarm, but more finnicky than a magic mouth.

Stone Giant Statue – 195hp, huge size, good immunities, immutable form, magic resistance, magic weapons. This thing is maybe the best direct combat tool you have that sits at a CR0.

Tressym – can detect magical invisibility at a range of 60ft and is listed as a possible familiar.

Vistana Commoner – free curse dispenser at a DC 10. includes the ability to un-attune a creature from items. interestingly, this curse can get us out of being cursed by cursed magic items.

objects worth null gp that might be useful

White ghost orchid seed, antimatter rifle, laser rifle, laser pistol, catapult munition, a ton of spelljammer ships, elixir of life, bullets, dynamite.

Conclusions

1. infini-chicken exit is better with roosters
2. mages with up to level 6 spells are kind of easy to get
3. GITM can be acheived partially through null-shaping
4. infinite-complexity demiplane systems are now usable in a single day thanks to null-shaping something into a living demiplane