I've been noodling over a comment made elsewhere that all the cool monsters are in the original Monster Manual and that the rest is all exotic stuff nobody has a use for. This made me cry. The biggest reason I think D&D keeps thriving while other settings die out is the vast diversity of cultures and creatures that permiate it. So while I love a good beholder or mindflayer as much as the next guy, I figured I'd open up a love thread for all the lesser known critters in the other MMs.
Avolakia-Wow! Undead eating spikey worm guys who worship Kyuss!
Bladelings-My freaking heroes!
Braxat-Dude...Conan rhino-anklosaur men!
Clockwork Horrors-World rending construct ravager bugs
Famine Spirit-AAAAHHHHHGGGG!
Fiendwurm-Perhaps the most clever approach to a portal I've seen! Ever.
Fihyr-Always a fave since 2nd ed.
Glimmerskins-Interesting idea
Gravecrawler-Creepy
Linnorm-Prehistoric proto-dragon...need I say more?
Meenlock-Saw in old fiend folio and loved it, even cooler now.
Myconid-I have always loved myconids
Neogi-Who couldn't love tarantula bodied guys with arched moray eel heads--and they enslave umber hulks! The 2nd ed. art was WAY better though.
Rukarazyll-these guys are great!
Yak Folk-Never woulda' thought these guys would be so cool.
That's just number two. I didn't even get to the latest two (three being my favorite so far)!
I really like Myconids and I'm hoping to send a horde of Zuggtmoy worshipping fungus people after my PCs sometime soon. And Neogi! The only monsters that honestly scared the crap out of me when I saw the illustration accompanying the statblock.
Not only do I agree with you, GrimCleaver, but I'd like to point out that the Monster Manual itself has some monsters in it that you should call silly/too exotic if you are that kind of a critic.
Tojanidas, for example, are cool, but they are weird as hell. And they're in a basic Monster Manual.
Bella Sara Charter Superscriber
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Tojanidas, for example, are cool, but they are weird as hell. And they're in a basic Monster Manual.
The Tojanidas, or a creature like them, are sorta a necessary evil. They MM has 4 elemental themed monsters that are not actually elementals, each of which has 3 scaled versions. Tojanida is water, Arrowhawk is air, Salamander is fire, and Xorn is earth. It's definitely weird, but no more so than the xorn or arrowhawk.
I haven't played so long as to have exhausted the utility of the "classic" monster types, and my games tend to favor roleplaying and thus humanoid NPCs with class levels. But I have found it is quite nice to have strange things to throw at players once in a while.
New oozes, fungi, and plant creatures are almost always welcome. Ironmaws, orcwarts, myconids, etc. (Hey, whatever happened to the venerable gas spore--that marvelous 1e beholder impostor?)
I'm a huge fey fan (being into all things Celtic and folkloric), and have purchased a couple of monster books in part because they bring folkloric fey into the D&D world. Glaistigs, kelpies, redcaps, selkies (yes, I know they're shapechangers, but . . .), oreads, grigs, dryads, and so forth, are all really cool. (I like outdoor adventures too--in real life and in D&D, though I must admit the Michigan mosquitoes have dampened my ardor for the former somewhat this summer).
I also like additions to the stocks of elemental and aquatic monsters--Dao and Qorrashi, weirds and tritons, ixitxachitl and merfolk, they're all good. (Incidently, my son just DM'd the Styes for me, and aboleths have gone from yuck to cool in my personal monster book).
In general my least favorite monster types are constructs and aberrations, probably reflecting my medievalist technophobe tendencies--these are the monsters in a new monster book I'm most likely to turn my nose up at the first time I see them. But still, these have their uses, and in general one can never have too many monsters to throw at one's players. Golems, mindflayers, animated objects, homunculi, etc. are too classic to be left out of the game, after all. I think the reason that constructs and aberrations are less favorite for me is that I'm more attracted to the folkloric elements in the game than the Lovecraftian ones--not that the latter don't have their place, and not that I can't admire the work of those of a more Lovecraftian bent than I (hats off to James Jacobs!)
I will say, though, that silly names are sometimes a turn-off, at least where initial impressions are concerned. The Froghemoth--a 1e aberration recently revived in AoW--is a case in point. It's a rockin' combat challenge, and I suppose the name is fairly evocative, but my initial reaction was to roll my eyes. Often, the creatures grow on you with a second reading (and enjoyable play), and it's easy enough to invent a more suitable name for one's own campaign world.
Monsters I've had the most RP and tactical fun with:
Drow
Ogre Mage
Mummy
Spawn of Kyuss
Dragons (naturally--the game's iconic monster still rocks after all these years--thinking of Tolkien's marvelous characterization of Smaug, how could it not?)
Mind Flayers (AoW's "Zyrxog" has been my first go at running one, yesterday, and it was really a blast).
Aboleths (see above)
Succubi
Quasits (my son made the Quasit in Flood Season into a very interesting recurring NPC)
Giants (if played as humanoids with motives and strategies, rather than big monsters with clubs)
Grigs
Pixies
Monsters I imagine to be the most fun, but haven't had a chance to run:
Beholder
Dracolich
Vampire (well, I ran one once, but he got turned on the first round of combat and hasn't stopped running yet. Vampires are perhaps best as a primary villain with levels high enough to prevent easy turning by the PCs, and perhaps some necronomicon feats to seal the deal. The ill-fated vampire in question was mate to the succubus sorceress noted above, who totally f***ed up my party after getting a holy water french kiss from the party's rogue/ranger).
Lich
Efreeti (some day, I want to run an adventure in the City of Brass)
Ixitxachitl
Sahuagin (some day I want to do a serious underwater campaign)
Ironmaw (some day, I want to do an adventure or two set in a fiendish forest)
The beauty of D&D is, you have hundreds of monsters
I'm pretty big on some of the new monsters too.
Redcaps- bring on scythe weilding disgruntled midgets!
Jovacs- this will hurt me exactly as much as it will hurt you
Sibrecs... Sisiberex... Sisibriax... the big bloated head chained to and enfernal pit with ego problems and mad flesh grafting skills
and had I the attention span to have looked at a few more pages I probably would have found some more gems.
But GrimCleaver I have to disagree with one small thing. I didn't find the feindwurms calling ability to be very clever. Actually I saw it as a rather bad pun. Don't get me wrong the monster is great on its own but the whole vomit infernal creatures thing is just the abuse of the word worm-hole.
GIVE ME MORE OBYRITH. The snippets in the Fiendish Codex left me craving more of them. (And while we're at it, make some epic ones! Yay!)
I, for one, welcome the return of the original demon overlords and would jump the chance to overthrow these upstart tanar'ri and loumara.
My name is Dave and I'm a monster junkie...
Can't get enough of them. Even if I never use them I just love reading the stats, looking at the pictures and thinking of the possibilities. Just the other day my girfriend had to stop me from picking up MM IV ("do you really need that?"). She was right, I didn't need it (and who knows where I'd find the room to put it) but I was severely jonesin' for it.
I always thought the Sharn from the Forgotten Realms were really cool. They send out little floating portals that they stick their hands through to cast spells and attack - meanwhile their bodies are walled up somewhere else. I harassed the hell out my players with these when they were exploring undermountain. Not a lot of RP opportunity, but perfect fun for a dungeon crawl like undermountain.
I'm pretty big on some of the new monsters too.
I liked a LOT of the Monster Manual III.
I've used, as a DM, the harssaf, the death giants, the witchknives, and the voidmind template. MMIII was also my first exposure to the changelings. I'm also building a campaign setting in which the lumi is a player race.
Good stuff . . .
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Ahhh...The Clockwork Horrors. They bring fond memories of when Spell Jammer was popular. I loved the idea of those little guys.
And Neogi have been my one of my favorites for a long time now. I was actually toying with the idea for a new type of Neogi just last night.
In the Lords of Madness book they talk about Dwarf Neogi. I thought about doing the opposit - a Giant Neogi. Basically, its when something goes wrong in the breeding process and instead of multiple eggs hatching you just get one, and it was affected by the same poison that caused the Great Old Master to swell up. But instead of getting really stupid, it only loses a few points of intelligence (or maybe none at all) and you end up with a REALLY big Neogi who likes to take levels in fighter so he can get feats like Power Attack, Weapon Focus, etc. for his bite attack.
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GIVE ME MORE OBYRITH. The snippets in the Fiendish Codex left me craving more of them. (And while we're at it, make some epic ones! Yay!)
I, for one, welcome the return of the original demon overlords and would jump the chance to overthrow these upstart tanar'ri and loumara.
I'm also looking forward to the FC II, and whatever they come up with as the pre-Baatezu race.
As someone who always hated Draconians and the demons of Tiamat (abilshi?) I found I really liked the Spawn of Tiamat in MM4. They have also got my players very worried....
I've always had a soft spot for Stirges. In fact, it's almost a running gag when I DM, the first encounter in every new campaign is with a nest of stirges...
And I guess I'm an old fashion kind of DM, as I tend to favor the classics like the Kobold, the Minotaur, and the Umberhulk. Heck, I still call Vrocks Type 1 Demons!!
I keep the new stuff for 'special' occasions when I want to surprise the group or when they travel far from their homeland.
Ultradan
I'm a huge fan of monsters, and so my "short list" of favorites is ridiculously long.
Outsiders are by far my favorite type.
I love and frequently use:
Demons
Devils
Yugoloths
Demondands
Rilmani
Celestials
Ethergaunts
Nerra
Abominations (Epic-Level Handbook)
Illithids and their associated creatures
Beholders and their kin
Dragons
Linnorms
Yuan-ti
Aboleths
Neogi
Nightshades
Golems
Sharn
Elementals
Anything from the Far Realm
Templates!
Just a few other favorites:
Rotripper (Dragon Annual 5) - Undead giants who rip the arms off other creatures and attach them to their own bodies. Imagine being beaten by your own arms...
Chronotyryn (Fiend Folio) - Avian timelords...cool.
Blackspawn Gigante (Fiend Folio) - Massive multi-armed fiendish constructs that petrify with a hit...then sunder the poor statues.
And the list goes on...
About the only thing I'm not fond of are humanoids and monstrous humanoids. There are too many, and the differences are usually too insignifcant to warrant yet another one.
Atropals (Epic Level Handbook) - something about these guys just creep me out. A lot.
First of all, I have to say that I love D&D, it's mood and lots of the monsters, specially dragons and evil outsiders... I also love the more humanoid races of traditional villains and the savage humanoids, specially orcs... boy, they are fun!
But there is one thing that I can't buy... there are too many of them! I think it's hard to give some credit to all those civilizations and sizes and ages and all that crap... Where are all this things? Do they have to share rooms? Like two great wyrm roomies?
Sometimes it feels like pokemon... where the hell are the regular animals? Not the dire ones... Where do they found food enough to sustain all that horde of colossal monsters, gigantic insects and the countless civilizations of brain eating monsters?
How does that tiny village of human commoners is not eatean when the PC's are not there? How does civilizations of weak intelligent beings (like humans) can develop when there are stronger and smarters beings out there? It was hard enough to survive and to develop here in this world where we are by far the more inteligent beings... imagine in a world where there are lots of beings that find us as smart and strong (and tasty) as small farm pigs!
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Atropals (Epic Level Handbook) - something about these guys just creep me out. A lot.
Amen to that Lilith. That picture of the Atropal is my favorite of Brom's contributions to D&D, and the idea of a stillborn godling is just too cool to pass up on. Two of them are buried in my own homegrown world, just waiting for unsuspecting parties to come dig them up.
I totally agree with your comments on the Obyriths: I want MORE! I really hope that either the WotC website or the release of new books in the future brings us a glimpse of new demonic spawn of chaos, and I'd love to see the website visit some of the layers described in the Fiendish Codex as being controlled by an Obyrith lord. The idea of a Blood War within the Blood War (demon vs. demon inside demon vs. devil) would be really cool as well, and certainly would help to explain why the devils are still even capable of mustering against an infinite (and much-better-supported-by-Wizards-of-the-Coast) demonic host.
Creative Director
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I totally agree with your comments on the Obyriths: I want MORE! I really hope that either the WotC website or the release of new books in the future brings us a glimpse of new demonic spawn of chaos, and I'd love to see the website visit some of the layers described in the Fiendish Codex as being controlled by an Obyrith lord. The idea of a Blood War within the Blood War (demon vs. demon inside demon vs. devil) would be really cool as well, and certainly would help to explain why the devils are still even capable of mustering against an infinite (and much-better-supported-by-Wizards-of-the-Coast) demonic host.
There'll certainly be more obyriths appearing in future issues of Dragon and Dungeon, if only because I've got a couple left over that didn't make it into the Fiendish Codex. There's also a few more tidbits that I snuck into the latest Styes adventure in Dungeon #138 about the obyriths, and they'll certainly play a part in the Savage Tide Adventure Path and some upcoming Demonomicons (of which the next is about an Obyrith Lord—Dagon).
There'll certainly be more obyriths appearing in future issues of Dragon and Dungeon, if only because I've got a couple left over that didn't make it into the Fiendish Codex. There's also a few more tidbits that I snuck into the latest Styes adventure in Dungeon #138 about the obyriths, and they'll certainly play a part in the Savage Tide Adventure Path and some upcoming Demonomicons (of which the next is about an Obyrith Lord—Dagon).
Yay! *does the happy Dagon dance*
Here are my top 5 (in no particular order) from each major monster book.
Monster Manual
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Behirs
Girallons
Otyughs
Remorhazes
Troglodytes
Monster Manual II
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Fiendwurms
Neogis
Spawns of Kyuss
Spell Weavers
Death Knights
Monster Manual III
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Cadaver Collectors
Drowned
Gloom Golems
Rot Reavers
Skindancers
Monster Manual IV
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Balhannoths
Concordant Killers
Kastighurs
Windblades
Zerns
Fiend Folio
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Paeliryons
Ethergaunts
Blood Golems of Hextor
Hullathoins
Ulgurstastas
And that's only the top five from those books, not counting many other books, and issues of Dragon and Dungeon Magazine!
I'm a monster lover, I think. I smile on the inside when my PCs decide to quit talking to the monsters and just give them hell. (I like it even better when it turns out that the monsters give the PCs hell!)
Displacer beasts!
Thanks to the idea in Keith Baker's second novel, I have a player whose current goal is to hunt a displacer beast, and serve a meal with meat that appears to hover off to the side of the plate.
There's a lot to love in the Monster Manual III. I particularly dig Astral Stalkers (Predator anyone?), Cheliceras (blood drinking spiders that hide in shadowy backalleys and mimic demihuman sounds), Death giants, Grimweirds, Grisgols, Gulgars, Phoelarchs, Quaraphons, Ragewalkers, Skindancers, and Witchknives.
There's gobs more, but these are the very cool ones.
Personally I don't mind a lot of races in a world--particularly when the entries of the characters nail them down to a certain region or kind of region. Most monsters don't live everywhere, and in fact many are pinned down pretty precisely. That and I figure challenge rating is a pretty good indicator of how rare something is. Thus running into a group of scrounging nycters looking to haggle some trade wares would be pretty common--not every day, but out there. Likewise a pack of ambush drakes out hunting game out in the rolling plains should be novel in the same way that running into a pack of lions out in the wild would be. On the other hand its not like shrieking horrors dot the landscape. They are unusual in the extreme, powerful and of highly exotic parentage--reflected by a fat challenge rating that suggests a serious and seldom seen threat. Using that guideline as well as the ecological notes makes it much easier to see how the creatures in a setting interrelate--what creatures are as common as bears or muggers are in the real world, and what monsters are more like running into Frankenstein's monster, or a 25-foot great white shark.
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Hmmm.
Carrien Crawlers
Rot Grubs
Drow
Kraken
Giant Spiders
Vampires
Undead (of the basic variety- think Night of the Living Dead with undead animals thrown in for good measure)
Lycanthropes(Wererats & Werewolves)
Liches and Demi-Liches
These are the monsters that D&D is made of.
Oh, and lets not forget about the Rabbitoids in S3:Expedition to the Barrier Peaks! (kidding)
Thoth-Amon
I love almost every one of the monsters listed here. I'll be the first to admit that there are far too many that I like to list. It would be far easier to tell all the ones that I don't like. I will add one that I haven't seen already, however; it just kind of popped back into my memory as I was typing this: Catoblepas.
Kobolds,
Mongrelmen,
and kobolds.
Did I mention kobolds?
What about mindflayers?!?
They are on my list above. I just called 'em "illithids". ;)
Kobolds are definitely cool. Of course, so are goblins.
Thoth-Amon
Goblins RULE! You couldn't have the monster manual without Goblins. It would be like PB&J without the peanut butter! Or D&D without one of the D's(you choose). Kobolds have scared me since a certain adventure though. I will try to list some of my favorite monsters off of my head.
Goblins-an obvious, I just like those little green fellows...
stirges-giant mosquitos, Hurray!
Corpse Terror-the monster that makes small children cry.
Vampires-nuf'said
Basically all ooze creatures-bone oozez are my favorite along side with elder black puddings
Gargantuan toad although I think it's a template made creature-read vampire description above
All mindflayer kin-who doesn't like floating eyeballs?
That's just a few, don't have any books on me so I could only name some. Oh and I think I forgot a monster...
GOBLINS, GOBLINS, GOBLINS, and MoRe GOBLINS!
Goblins RULE! You couldn't have the monster manual without Goblins. It would be like PB&J without the peanut butter! Or D&D without one of the D's(you choose). Kobolds have scared me since a certain adventure though. I will try to list some of my favorite monsters off of my head.
Goblins-an obvious, I just like those little green fellows...
stirges-giant mosquitos, Hurray!
Corpse Terror-the monster that makes small children cry.
Vampires-nuf'said
Basically all ooze creatures-bone oozez are my favorite along side with elder black puddings
Gargantuan toad although I think it's a template made creature-read vampire description above
All mindflayer kin-who doesn't like floating eyeballs?That's just a few, don't have any books on me so I could only name some. Oh and I think I forgot a monster...
GOBLINS, GOBLINS, GOBLINS, and MoRe GOBLINS!
I have to admit that I am really partial to goblins as well and their larger cousins, hobgoblins and bugbears.
Maybe it has something to do with Tony DiTerzili personalizing my 2nd Ed Monstrous Manual by drawing one at the front. I know I had no feelings for them one way or the other before that, and, since then, they have had a special place in my heart.
I love fey...because they are just so fun to mess players' heads with. All the diplomacy turns out so much more entertaining when the other side is a leprechaun or a satyr...
Oh, and basic undead. Skeletons, zombies, ghouls...one of the better things in 3.5 is that these critters turned out so much more fun.
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I love fey...because they are just so fun to mess players' heads with. All the diplomacy turns out so much more entertaining when the other side is a leprechaun or a satyr...
I'm also a big Fey fan (man that just sounds so wrong). I really like to include them in whatever world I create. I had this one idea once, where the main Fey realm in the world would be this forest called the Walking Wood. It would just kind of wander around from place to place. Some days it would move a few miles, others just a few inches.
Oh, and basic undead. Skeletons, zombies, ghouls...one of the better things in 3.5 is that these critters turned out so much more fun.
Zombies? Hoorah, I have fans!
i love the slaad. chaotic, but not all evil.
big frogs on two legs. with a lot of magic or extra abilities. real walking-desasters.
and i rememer the kane books by karl-edward wagner, one of them with froglike/lizardlike "things" in a swamp. cool setting.
greetings
I've always had a soft spot for Stirges. In fact, it's almost a running gag when I DM, the first encounter in every new campaign is with a nest of stirges...
And I guess I'm an old fashion kind of DM, as I tend to favor the classics like the Kobold, the Minotaur, and the Umberhulk. Heck, I still call Vrocks Type 1 Demons!!
I keep the new stuff for 'special' occasions when I want to surprise the group or when they travel far from their homeland.
Ultradan
I understand what you're talking about!
Types I, II, III, IV and V demons, devils (I never got into the Baatezu/Tanerrii (sp?) thing), stirges, ropers, carrion crawlers, trolls, rust monsters, displacer beasts, and basilisks are still my favorites.
This thread is pretty sweet and you guys covered most of the cool ones, although I do need to put my vote in for one of the coolest creatures.
Hoardlings.
Oh. And phanatons are cool too.
This thread is pretty sweet and you guys covered most of the cool ones, although I do need to put my vote in for one of the coolest creatures.
Hoardlings.
Oh. And phanatons are cool too.
Hell yeah!
I can't wait for STAP. Phanatons should show up by the boatload! :)
There are a lot of great ones listed here. Some of my favorites of the lesser-used critters are:
Wheep - a tormented soul with nails in its eyes
Angel of Decay - a walking plague vector
Nightwalker - just too freaking cool
Meenlocks - about as creepy as you can get
Aboleths - alien, deceptive, powerful - awesome flavor text
Chimera - simply classic, sadly fallen out of favor
Redcaps - a great take on twisted fey gnomes
Sorrowsworn Demon - its a very cool concept
The list could go on and on. I love new, evocative monsters that create a strong response in players.
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My favorites (in no particular order) --
Fang Dragons – (Smaller dragons that fight as well as the big boys)
Neh-Thalggu – (Sucks brains out from a distance)
Chwidencha – (As if spiders weren’t creepy enough)
Brain Golem – (Simply for the Eeewwweee factor)
Zodar – (Originally a nearly unstoppable force that when you did stop it, there was nothing left but destroyed armor)
Rukanyr – (Cool Scorpion from the Far Plane that can break weapons used on it)
Slaymate – (Would never use this around my wife)
Silthilar – (A “nice” aberration?)
Displacer beast – (“Where is he?”)
Trolls – (Trolls are fun at most levels)
Howler – (Pulls the skin off its face to scare creatures – I’d be scared)
Griffon – (Great classic)
Remorhaz – (My players will usually run from this no matter what level they are)
Umber Hulk – (We have lost more people to umber hulks than any other creature)
Grell – (10 attacks a round that can paralyze)
Neogi – (These are creepy even without the Great Old Master)
Prismatic Golem – (I can’t wait to use this)
Odopi – (Rolling ball of arms and eyes – again, Eeewwwweee)
Sharn – (Powerful creepy creature that attacks through portals)
Deepspawn – (Its lair can include nearly any creature)
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Grells are about my favorite- vile and mentally superior
Derro- no depravity is too deep for them. Seriously, they are more twisted than a foot long corkscrew!
Nerra- I like the Mirror world idea and the voices like nails scratching on glass.
Gibbering Mouthers- babbling pools of mouths and eyes that absorb you into the cacophany when they claim you.
I like demons (especially chasme) and devils (especially barbed and bone devils).
Ettercaps- just 'cause they're creepy.
For utility species: Kobolds, lizardmen, grimlocks, xvarts and wererats/werebats, gnolls, and bullywugs.
I like dragons especially ancinet huge red ones (WHAT?)
beholders
always liked hobgoblins
ogre magi
giants
demons devils daemon and demodands
the modron
pixies (so much fun for a Dm, so much fun)
grig
ghosts, zombies, vampires and undead of all kinds
humans (there scary ask the neanderthals, and the whooly mammoth oops you can't, thier extinct.)
This thread is pretty sweet and you guys covered most of the cool ones, although I do need to put my vote in for one of the coolest creatures.
Hoardlings.
Oh. And phanatons are cool too.
I always liked hordlings
*waves banners that say "Monsters, yay!"*
Displacer beasts!
Hook horrors!
Orcs and owlbears!
Displacer beasts!
Hook horrors!
Orcs and owlbears!
Displacer beasts!
Hook horrors!
Orcs and owlbears!
Yaaaaay!
-The Gneech
And I love the new Mike Mearls version of the ogre magi on the WotC website. Go Mearls!
Yeah. I didn't like his rust monster makeover, but the ogre mage was neat.
Anyways, I am also partial to phanatons, and I'm hoping to play one soon. (If my DM will allow it... :( )