...and xvart.
I searched high and low for these in 3.5 but have come to the conclusion that they don't exist. I swapped all my Xvart tribes out for Kobolds or Goblins. Mostly I used Goblins since Xvarts appear to deliver live young and Kobolds do eggs hence I think the Xvarts are closer to Goblins which also deliver live young.
Which reminds me - anyone seen Quicklings around? I have note noticed them in 3.5 either. They where certianly a cool humanoid.
I dunno. I always have the most fun running NPCs. Much more fun to run a group through, say, an encounter in the lavish Lavender Lily than a dungeon any day. Especially after the barbarian ate the dessert that was laced with a drug causing Confusion effects. Yee-haw!
However, there are some creatures that have struck my fancy recently.
1. Dinosaurs. EVERYONE likes fighting dinosaurs. And everyone forgets how truly heinous those trample attacks can be. Last event I wrote, I spent several days looking up assorted creatures and making stats for them. And the Carnegie Institute makes AWESOME dinosaur figures that are pretty damn near the right scale for d20 figs. Should have seen their faces when I pulled the Diplodicus out of my gaming bag. If I only had that Spinosaurus one ...
2. Halfings. Of course, by now nobody *ever* trusts any halfling they ever see in something I'm running. Which is why it was so great to get them involved in a tribal dispute between two halfling tribes, one of which was ...
3. Half-trolls! Yep, one of the two halfling tribes was of half-troll halflings. Yeah, they weren't too pleased when the little fellows started clawing and biting and their wounds started healing. Not pretty.
4. Gricks. They're fun at low levels, at least. At higher levels the DR is pretty much wasted, but at low levels they're definitely good for a "what the hell is THAT?" Plus the figures are cool.
5. Any of the Lovecraft creatures from the old Deities & Demigods. What fun I had hitting a party with an old-school Shoggoth. But alas, hit points just don't mean what they used to - time was that a 10d10 hit really meant something, and characters weren't throwing over 100 points of damage per round because they're 20 strength power attacking bull strength critical hitting raging barbarians with weapon focused magic weapons striking 3 times per round. Bleah.
1) Linnorms, like big scary felldrakes
2) Myconids (usually as guides or helpers), you gotta love the mushroom men!
3)Trygodolytes, as said before, great for low-level dungeons
4) Ethereal Slayers, I like the ambush attack idea
5) All the kinds of worms (frost worms, purple worms, etc.) great for an end of game boss for lower levels
1. NPCs
2. Drow raiding parties
3. Ogres (w/class levels if necessary)
4. Lich (w/cronies if necessary)
5. Mixed Goblinoid bands (Orc/Gnoll/Bugbear NPCs)
What really blows my wad is when my even or weaker matchups whup up on the party due to superior tactics or well-planned ambushes...
I just ran the assassination attempt from the AP "Soul Pillars"; after adding a fourth assassin and arranging to have the party poisoned (they all passed their saves - oh well...), it was 4 on 8, at about equal levels per character...
The assassins cleaned house, with an organized and effective ambush that caught the party unaware, with two fighters out of their armor and the party's tactics haphazard at best.
It rocked.
They ended the fight and saved the four characters who fell in battle due to the party's warlock using the 17th level scroll of Shape Shift that he dropped 12,000 gp on and turning into a Dragon...
M
Creative Director
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I am a big fan of some of the classics...
1. Mind Flayer
2. Displacer Beast
3. Otyugh
4. Owlbear
5. Gelatinous CubeBut truth be told.. I am also a big fan of Vrocks, Doppelgangers, Lichs, Giants, Golems, Mephits, Mummies, Rust Monsters, and Carrion Crawlers...
So... so why don't you have one of these monsters as your Avatar? You make no sense, Bulmahn!
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Director of Game Design
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So... so why don't you have one of these monsters as your Avatar? You make no sense, Bulmahn!I am a big fan of some of the classics...
1. Mind Flayer
2. Displacer Beast
3. Otyugh
4. Owlbear
5. Gelatinous CubeBut truth be told.. I am also a big fan of Vrocks, Doppelgangers, Lichs, Giants, Golems, Mephits, Mummies, Rust Monsters, and Carrion Crawlers...
Because there is no Otyugh!
uh...
Mephits
Giants
Baby Dragons
Lycanthropes
Slaads
-rob
PS I'll feel differently tomorrow
So... so why don't you have one of these monsters as your Avatar? You make no sense, Bulmahn!
Which would make your avatar...Froghemoth?
:)
Whats a froghemoth, a big frog?! Seems like a stupid idea to me.
P.S. If this isn't 3.5E then I wouldn't know about it, thats all I've ever played.
Gee, when you have to pick five suddenly it seems hard, but after much thought I'd have to say (in no particular order):
1) Bullywugs. I never get tired of these little swamp dwellers.
2) Trolls. Just a truly horrendous creature that always make players groan.
3) Bulette. Need I say more?
4) Ettercap. An experience in my youth left me terrified of spiders, so I guess I probably think them a bit scarier than they are. Frankly, they give me the wiggins.
5) Beholders. Another of my one-eyed favorites which always strike terror into the hearts of my players.
-Del
Gnolls: The creepiest, most alien of the standard savage humanoid races. The proper way to play gnolls is to make them terrifying.
Have you ever seen pictures or video of hyenas in a feeding frenzy? They get covered in blood, particularly their faces. I could imagine a really terrifying illustration of Gnolls in a feeding frenzy. It could be especially gruesome depending on what they're feedin on...
Check out this picture of hyenas in action.
Kobolds. I really like other monsters, but I will always remember my players looking at me with disgust in their eyes, since after all the kobolds played smarter (even if they weren't smarter) than the group of 3 wizards, a fighter and a thief. They still refer to my kobolds as Brandy's Evil Kobolds of Death, Sniper division. I'll mention my other 4 choices after I've looked though my monsters books again.
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Creative Director
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Whats a froghemoth, a big frog?! Seems like a stupid idea to me.
P.S. If this isn't 3.5E then I wouldn't know about it, thats all I've ever played.
The froghemoth's a critter from Ye Olde Days; it first showed up in Expedition to the Barrier Peaks. It's basically what you'd get if you had a teleporter mishap and combined a frog, a tyrannosaurus, an octopus, and a shark. They rock.
In alphabetical order:
Aboleth. Love the idea of giant mastermind fish enslaving populations.
Chuul. My favourite "surprise" monster for seafaring adventures when the PCs leave their ship unattended...
Genies. Used to play Al-Qadim in 2nd Ed. and loved the variety of genies, their haughty attitudes despite being easily enslaved, and their diverse powers.
Giants. Always had a soft spot for these guys.
Githyanki. They look cool. Their name sounds cool. They can take PC class levels and serve as excellent "mirror image" foes for my party.
I don't really have a top five monsters, as my picks change constantly. Here's a few new monsters from various sources that have recently inspired me:
a) The zeugalak from Lords of Madness. They look funky with their starfish mouths, and I love electrical monsters.
b) The necronaut from Monster Manual III. I'm populating the Blood Dunes in Fraz-Urb'luu's realm with an entire army of these things!
c) Grell, particularly half-farspawn grell!
d) The saguaro sentinel from Sandstorm. One of the all-time best plant monsters ever made (and one created specifically for desert environments).
e) Any monster with a template (or two, or three, or four...)
Like Erik my favorite humanoids are xvarts and gnolls. They also worship two of the best gods/demon thingies (Raxivort and Yeenoghu).
By the way James, since you worked on Monster Manual III, Fiend Folio, and Lords of Madness I thought you could get the froghemoth into at least one of them.
And here I thought your favorite monster would be something like the crawling head or shivad ;)
I'm obviously not very interesting as my monster selections are pretty standard fare.
1. Beholder: who doesn't love a good beholder? Or better yet, a really evil one! :D
2. Orcs: what can I say, they're like Klingons, only smarter.
3. Great Wyrm Red Dragon: geez, I can't believe this isn't the number one selected monster...
4. Ghoul/Ghast: a highly underrated critter. If played properly, are easily over their CR. But nobody ever DM's them properly.
5. Ogres: again, highly underrated. My ogres have killed more PC's than I can count. One of the infamous last words from one of my campaigns was, "I charge the ogre!"
Ropers
Sto-ropers
Prismatic ropers...erm
aren't there some roper golems out yet?
Zombie ropers...
OK, sorry - got carried away in roperland
Ropers
Were-rats
Yeenoghu (and anything to do with him)
Cambion
The centaur mummies in Tamoachan
Favourite humandoids - orcs and hobgoblins.
Damn, missed out owlbears. Oh, and gas-spores. Can't we have a top twenty instead?
Ropers
Sto-ropers
Prismatic ropers...ermaren't there some roper golems out yet?
Zombie ropers...OK, sorry - got carried away in roperland
Ropers
Were-rats
Yeenoghu (and anything to do with him)
Cambion
The centaur mummies in TamoachanFavourite humandoids - orcs and hobgoblins.
Damn, missed out owlbears. Oh, and gas-spores. Can't we have a top twenty instead?
I should have known. curious that with a roper avatar available that you chose the xorn instead...
- Ashavan
Ropers
I should have known. curious that with a roper avatar available that you chose the xorn instead...
- Ashavan
Hey Ashavan,
Baleful Polymorph...or cunning disguise. All will be revealed in due course.
Besides, you already know that the cad Greg Vaughan has a gang of ropers he sends to harass dungeon writers who cross him, his have been attacking my poultry for three years now and I'm powerless in his henchmans tentacled, stretchy grip. They insisted I put ropers down as my favourite or suffer the consequences.
M'naaaaaaar.
P.S. I've just remembered, I really like kenku to, they have loads of potential, and mind-flayers.
And you can't beat an iron golem, and a lich, and whiz-bang beetles...Can we make it a top fifty?Rich
1. Kobold
2. Bodak
3. Kerenth(or whatever that meat-faced leopard is called)
4. Mind-flayer
5. the classic: Red Dragon.
1. Gnolls-I had never really used them until the late great Chainmail minis were released. Since that time their evil demonic ecology has plagued my waking hours.
2. Froghemoth-I have not yet seen an official conversion but my home conversion made for a fantastic midlevel combat. That beastie took a lot of punishment (inside and out) before it's tongues stopped grappling.
3. Rakshasa-Like a previous poster, I'm lovin' the rakshasa monk with deflect arrows.
4. Hydra-When you start slapping templates on a creature like this the fun doesn't stop. The half-dragon symbiotic hydra/human sorcerer with multivoice was great stuff.
5. Troll-Classic creature with regenetive powers that rips PCs in half, oh yeah.
Terry
My favorite would have to be:
1)(tie)Orcs, Kobolds, and Goblins (including Hob-goblins): They make for great hoards(best used on up to five PC's)
4)Fire Elementals: I love fire...
5)Destrachens: I love there mouths. They're just hilarious.
Top 5 Creatures.....For me....lets see.....
1. Darkstalkers (Fiend Folio): Creepy, sneaky and just plain cool, excellant abilities and great for mysterious assassin-like NPCs, excellent ecology in Dragon.
2. Drow (anywhere): Drow are awsome, not only are they sinister, brilliant and deeply religious, they're elves! Love the new twist they have in Eberron (white tattoos, scorpions etc.)
3. Goblin (Monster Manual): Goblins, so small and inconspicuous,striking from the shadows, great story opportunities.
4. Erinyes (Monster Manual 3.5): I'm so glad they changed Erinyes' from the devil equivalent of a succubus to the fallen angel, its just so much cooler, how many frivolous, seductive hussies do we need in one game?
5. Asura (Book of Exalted Deeds): Crazy angel-like creature with wings of fire, bird-like claws and blue skin (awesome), love love love
Here's my top five list for those classic monsters from 1st and 2nd Ed that have never been updated for 3.5 by WotC. I know that a few other gaming companies have done the statistics for these creatures, but its not the same as seeing it in a proper monster manual.
1. Vilstrak (a great low-level beastie that is also known as a tunnel-mugger. Now there's a name!)
2. Forghemoth (yes, I love them to, but I'd make it a really tough monster, say CR12+.)
3. Adherer (gotta love these walking glue pots. They look like mummies, but they're not!)
4. Wolf-in-sheep's clothing (best plant monster of any edition, full stop!)
5. Ssendam and Ygorl (when, oh when are these slaad lords going to get the treatment they deserve? Enough with the demonomicon, I want the slaadinomicon!)
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5. Ssendam and Ygorl (when, oh when are these slaad lords going to get the treatment they deserve? Enough with the demonomicon, I want the slaadinomicon!)
OH YEAH! I would be behind that faster than a Quickling on meth! The Slaadi are so cool and so under-used... how I do love them so. But, of course, the fact that they are underutilized means that my mid-level players never know when there's an ovipositer with their name on it skulking about.
One of my favorite characters (from a campaign that never got off the ground) is a Chaos Mage who doesn't realize his patron (way up the line, of course) is Ygorl. He's a ship's cartographer plying the Azure Sea with some privateers fighting the Scarlet Brotherhood and has adopted the Broken Circle as his personal symbol for his maps. Unfortunately, the DM for that particular game moved, creating much disorder in the system. Hail the Lord or Entropy!
Let's see now....
1.) Dragons (my name says it all!)
2.) Minotaurs (powerhouses to the end)
3.) Skeletons (great for fodder for the real baddies)
4.) Mind Flayers (manipulative and evil!)
5.) Gray Renders (just like the name!)
I haven't played any other edition besides 3 and 3.5, i only started playing in 2000. But I wouldn't mind getting the other MMs from the old editions and converting the other monsters over to 3.5. Does anyone know where I can get a conversion chart?
I really like the classic ones: Dragons, Beholders and Mind Flayers ("I give him a head butt").
Far more often though, the boring human wizard creeps up and takes over the place as my Evil Guy.
MY Gosh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I thought everyone would say kobald!
They are so cute, pathetic and not menecing at all, but they got something special to them thats not in the stat block. I once added a titanic template to a kobald, oh that was fun...lol. Anyway my list is kinda awkaward.
1. Kobald, see above
2. Vampire, they live forever, have +2 CR, turn bonus, ability to spawn, the perfect villian! Add it to a dragon or drow to have some fun
3. Undead Baby, do I say any more...
4. Drow, +1 CR, evil, scary, hot, Drizzt is one!
5. Dragons, Dungions and Dragons, they are basic elements of the game and they are cool and powerful.
My top five, off the top of my head, are:
1) The Lady of Pain: not really a monster, but she popped into my head first.
2) Githyanki - just look at the Fiend Folio cover.
3) Any giants. Against the Giants does it for me everytime.
4) Tiamat. Say no more.
5) Beholder. Just cool looking
Let's see now....
1.) Dragons (my name says it all!)
2.) Minotaurs (powerhouses to the end)
3.) Skeletons (great for fodder for the real baddies)
4.) Mind Flayers (manipulative and evil!)
5.) Gray Renders (just like the name!)I haven't played any other edition besides 3 and 3.5, i only started playing in 2000. But I wouldn't mind getting the other MMs from the old editions and converting the other monsters over to 3.5. Does anyone know where I can get a conversion chart?
Look for a book called "Tome of Horrors" by Necromancer Games (I think). It converts a goodly portion of them over.
- Ashavan
I don't know if these are my top five...but when I have to run an adventure on the fly. I flip right to M in the MM.
Manticores - I love em!
Medusa - Awesome!
Mind Flayer - Fantastico!
Minotaur - they have horns dude, they're cool!
Mummy - classic undead goodness
When my group says "Hey Nick, run something!" I go right for M. A couple pages right together can fill out a whole adventure (and yeah, throw in a Mimic, cause why not).
1. Mind Flayer - the classic. One of these usually shows up in the campaign, somewhere.
2. Beholder - I love a beholder boarding party in naval combat (yes I admit, I stole it from the Spelljammer Cloakmaster books).
3. Pazuzu, or any of the demon princes.
4. Any good guy turned bad.
5. Any bad guy turned good.
1.Drow (I know they've been done to death, but they still can be EVIL!! Mwahahaha!)
2.I'd have to say Goblins. They can actually be interesting foes, as long as the DM does a good job.
3.Kobolds. What DM dosen't like little trap-makers! :)
4.Lichies or Vamps. Undead still can creep me out.
5.Derro. Why aren't they used alot?
WaterdhavianFlapjack
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Here is my top five in countdown form:
5. Driders - half spider/half drow, you gotta love it.
4. Dark Nagas - every since the Ruins of Myth Drannor boxed set.
3. Neogi - I loved killing them in our old Spelljammer campaign.
2. Colonial Grell - I loved its picture in the Spelljammer Monsterous Compendium, holding that lightning lance.
and...
1. Zombies (of course) - simple, but with lots of potential.
Dire Weasels: If you give them advanced hit dice so that the fighter cant get rid of them with a power attack/cleave combo. You have a group of low challenge rating enemies that can take just about anyone down. No matter how tough you are con damage sucks.
Mind Flayers- there classics. There smart and they always have fodder.
Death Knight/Vampire: These two are about equal in my book. Nothing like a death knight riding a nightmare and sprouting bad poetry to make a party cringe. I also have a soft spot for the hero fallen from grace sterotype.
Celestials- hard to believe,but to me there is nothing like having a party run afoul the forces of good. It offers them a problem that they can't hack-n-slash there way out of. they have to role-play and it usually teaches the group that sometimes alignments aren't as clear cut as they seem.
Kobolds- this only happens in high-level campiagns. I usually run high power campaigns. Usually when I run a campaign where I use notiable NPC's there is always the temptation for the PC's to get cockey and break the law or some other nonsense because they look at their character and begin to feel that they are upstoppable and that they can take anything. Which is why I always warn players who haven't played under me before because those are usually the one's out to prove the point that since they now have this really good equipment such as the "+2000 sword of god-slaying" then obvious there unstoppable and I can't provide a challenging encounter....I simply say. "I can kill you with kolbolds and I can do it using existing rules..." Of course I never do. I just give them a good run for their money to prove my point.
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Kobolds, man! Kobolds! Kobolds riding krenshar like goblins ride worgs. Organized, sneaky, and brave. (If you can be killed by a cat, why fear a dragon? They're functionally equivalent and no one fears cats.) A kobold nation will figure in my new campaign. They may even have...NEEN-jas! (Hope they don't Vyth it!)
Gnolls - I like sending the dog-boys after a party of players. Bark, bark, chomp!
Skeletons. Don't know why, I just like to use them as disposable necro troops.
Landsharks! ...er, bulettes. That fin moving across the land, spooking the players' horses. The dive deep just as it gets close. The eruption of gnashing teeth and dirt, followed by the terrible bite!
Shocker Lizards. Despite the Pikachu picture, throw a mess of these little buggers at the party and have them start chain-reacting. A couple double-digit lightning strikes later and suddenly no ones making pokemon jokes any more.
1. Trolls - Like them so much that I've put one in every module I've ever done... 2 normal trolls, a Troll Were-wolverine (trolls are giants and susceptable to lycanthropy), a half clay golum/troll, and most recently a spell warped advanced cave troll (for a 14th-ish lvl party).
2. Aboleths - Fish are scary...
3. Wemics - just cause they look cool
4. Shadows (wraiths, dread wraiths, allips) - nothing quite as mean as something that is incorporeal and drains abilities
5. Basalisk
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Hehe, xvarts, I love 'em too, just because they conjure images of Smurfs Gone Bad. That and I've scarred a generation of gamers with how tenacious the buggers can be.
1) Giant Scorpions (killed more PCs with these than anything else)
2) Hierocosphinxs
3) Griffons/griffins/gryphons
4) Otyughs (especially Harry-the-Otyugh)
5) Red Dragons (Smaug started it, Flame kept it going)
Typically, I prefer low powered critters (humanoids) as I can present them in a manner that makes them very horrifying to the players and allows them to really enjoy laying waste to them.
The goofy monsters I like to use on occasion:
1) Xvarts (3.x rules for them in the Living Greyhawk Jounal #1 if memory serves me)
2) Flumphs (thank you Dungeon for an official 3.x version)
3) Leprechauns
4) Disenchanters
5) Ewokusii (my vision of flesh-eating, psionic, killer ewoks of the SW universe)