RPG Superstar 2011 Top 32
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Ok - just thought I would take a poll of everyone's favorite and least favorite monsters. They can be OGL or closed content, WotC property or that of some other company, I don't care.
I just want to know what they are and why. Just a brief explanation. The reasons for this are several - 1) my own curiosity, 2) as possible guidance in submitting articles/materials concerning monsters (i.e. if one in particular keeps coming up as everyone's least favorite, this might be something good to know), and 3) because once people explain their rationale, my views might change completely as to how I view (and use) a particular monster in my own games.
I'll start (hopefully others join in too):
Favorite: Unquestionably - the Darkmantle. The little buggers have always been my favorite. They are alien, can be menacing if you wish (or merely misunderstood), are cunning, and I love their abilities. They are very Cthulu-esque and have that Far Realm quality to them. They are a perfect little CR 1 monster that you can templates to and dress up as you see fit, if needed.
Least Favorite: Probably the Formians. Why? Just bored with them. They never stoked my imagination - rigidly lawful ant creatures from another plane....yawn.
Least Favorite: Probably the Formians - rigidly lawful ant creatures from another plane....yawn.
I'd agree if I hadn't read Gygax's blurb, from the 1st edition Monster Manual II, mentioning how the formian nests on the Prime use humans as slave labor, working them without mercy.
Favorite? Again, I'm heavily influenced by 1st edition, but kuo toa are one of my favorites (becuse of "Descent into the Depths of the Earth," and from reading Lovecraft's "Shadow over Innsmouth" too many times). Least favorite are Drow, because unchecked Slavatore fanboy-ism has ruined them forever.
Favorite: Unquestionably - the Darkmantle. The little buggers have always been my favorite. They are a perfect little CR 1 monster that you can templates to and dress up as you see fit, if needed.
And they replaced the much-maligned Piercer, at long last.
Least favorite-Tojanida. WTF is that supposed to be, it looks like something my preschooler made by glueing parts of broken monster figures to an old turtle shell. Stupid!
Ooh! Yeah, good call! And rasts are stupid, too--at least, the illustration makes them look like extras on "Barney."
RPG Superstar 2013 Top 32
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Hmm... okay, I'll bite:
Favorite: Drow. Yeah, it might be lame, but I just love evil humanoids as villains. They're vicious, stealthy, cunning, and widely feared by just about everyone on the surface. Their society supports a wide variety of wickedness - anything from necromancers to demon-summoners, assassins to battle-hardened warriors. Add some SR and a couple handy spell-like abilities and you've got yourself a serious threat, especially in groups. I generally only pay lip service to the whole 'spider worship' thing, however, as I find that to be somewhat less interesting than everything else about them.
Least Favorite: Derro/Duergar. They are the dwarves to the drow's elves. However, I've never seen them featured as anything noteworthy. There's no in-depth analysis of their culture, no strategies that stand out as viable options for them, and nothing really remarkable about them at all. They really are just 'underground dwarves.' I featured them as an encounter in a campaign once, but they had a very minor impact and I do not feel that they provided the sense of menace that drow do.
Favorite: Gibberlings. They never work as well mechanically as they could, but they're a great concept. Tons and tons of shrieking, angry humanoids that devour whatever's in their path. Awesome.
Least favorite: Shrieker. Giant whiny mushrooms. Wtf?
El Skootro
Least favorite-Tojanida. WTF is that supposed to be, it looks like something my preschooler made by glueing parts of broken monster figures to an old turtle shell. Stupid!
FH
LOL -- Totally agree with you on this one.
My favourite monster has to be the lich. There is just something so iconic and nasty about a BBEG undead spell caster.
I love beholders as well.
Hmm... okay, I'll bite:
Least Favorite: Derro/Duergar. They are the dwarves to the drow's elves. However, I've never seen them featured as anything noteworthy. There's no in-depth analysis of their culture, no strategies that stand out as viable options for them, and nothing really remarkable about them at all. They really are just 'underground dwarves.' I featured them as an encounter in a campaign once, but they had a very minor impact and I do not feel that they provided the sense of menace that drow do.
I would love to change this with a cool duergar focused adventure! I really like the dark dwarves, but I totally agree with you...they just haven't been given their coolness due!
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RPG Superstar 2013 Top 32
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I would love to change this with a cool duergar focused adventure! I really like the dark dwarves, but I totally agree with you...they just haven't been given their coolness due!
I wouldn't mind working on something like that. We should collaborate! Perhaps the adventure could feature some drow vs. duergar conflict that threatens the nearby surface dwellers?
I would love to change this with a cool duergar focused adventure! I really like the dark dwarves, but I totally agree with you...they just haven't been given their coolness due!I wouldn't mind working on something like that. We should collaborate!
That would be cool by me! Sadly, I won't have time anytime too soon! My schedule is all sorts of swamped! That's okay though, we'd have to wait for sub guidelines to go up first anyhoo, so we have some time. :-)
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RPG Superstar 2013 Top 32
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That's okay though, we'd have to wait for sub guidelines to go up first anyhoo, so we have some time. :-)
Indeed. 'Twould be an honor to be a co-conspirator with the illustrious Nic Logue. Drop me a line at zackthestguy@gmail.com and we can at least open the lines of communication. Perhaps I'll find a future for myself in freelance adventure design? Who knows!
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RPG Superstar 2011 Top 32
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Least Favorite: Derro/Duergar. They are the dwarves to the drow's elves. However, I've never seen them featured as anything noteworthy. There's no in-depth analysis of their culture, no strategies that stand out as viable options for them, and nothing really remarkable about them at all. They really are just 'underground dwarves.' I featured them as an encounter in a campaign once, but they had a very minor impact and I do not feel that they provided the sense of menace that drow do.
Would have agreed about the Derro (could still care less about the Duergar) except the latest issue of KQ had an ecology article on them. It raised their status in my eyes, at least a little bit.
Least favorite-Tojanida. WTF is that supposed to be, it looks like something my preschooler made by glueing parts of broken monster figures to an old turtle shell. Stupid!
FH
Quite right! How exactly should those things be used?
And their name is spelled weirdly. Whenever I see Tajanida it makes me think of "Trojan", which makes me think of condoms, which makes me giggle a little bit.
El Skootro
Blink dogs are a close second.
I really like blink dogs. I never get to use them, but I like the idea of smart friendly puppies that can blink around. They would be fun to play with.
Favorite: Goblinoids! Classic, easily customizable, and good for most levels of play. A close second are demons, of all sorts.
Least: Mimics. I hate hate hate mimics. I got killed by one last night. Stupid fake monsters. Bleh. Mind Flayers scare me too. I am only okay with my brain being eaten by zombies, thank you.
Least Favorite: Derro. They are the dwarves to the drow's elves. However, I've never seen them featured as anything noteworthy.
You need to read Gygax's "Sea of Death," then. The debased, subhuman descendants of the Suel are derro. And they're MEAN!
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RPG Superstar 2013 Top 32
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Least Favorite: Derro. They are the dwarves to the drow's elves. However, I've never seen them featured as anything noteworthy.You need to read Gygax's "Sea of Death," then. The debased, subhuman descendants of the Suel are derro. And they're MEAN!
Is there any actual difference between derro and duergar? Or is 'duergar' just a Forgotten Realms term for the same thing?
Is there any actual difference between derro and duergar? Or is 'duergar' just a Forgotten Realms term for the same thing?
Short answer: Duergar are LE, Derro are CE.
Tangential answer: Duergar is the Norse spelling of dwarf; Derro are the 'Detrimental Robots' from the Shaver Mystery.
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Favourite: Giants. As flexible as most other humanoids, only bigger and stronger, they are finally the badass mosters they should be. I also like goblinoids, salamanders and that whole djinn/efreet/marid crowd.
Least favourite: Vampires. Overused, clicheed, hate their guts. Undeads should be shambling, ravenous flesh-eaters, not debonair fashion plates. Other useless monsters include slaads and most of the other elemental monsters (has anybody ever used an arrowhawk?). I also have no use for halflings and gnomes - I probably read too much of Guns, germs and steel...
Elsewhere, I like the duergar, even though dwarves leave me cold. Go figure...
First, I'm leaving out humanoids, monstrous humanoids and giants, because they're always my favorites, and I rarely use these as "monsters" in my games - they're individual characters, invading armies and so forth. For some reason, I consider them different somehow.
Second, I really like monsters. Grey Oozes, Displacer Beasts, Owlbears, Demons, Devils, Carrion Crawlers ... All of them, really. Even the Tojanida (or whatever), and I'm going to slip one into the STAP just because of this conversation. Tojanida power!
That said, Chromatic Dragons are my favorite monsters. It is really easy to get even new players on board with the idea of "Nasty Dragon," and a variety of tactics make them a pleasure to run in combat. A low-level party making a plan to take out a dragon and putting it into action is pretty much my stock intro adventure. I'm not so sold on other dragons unless they're gold (or the old CN Nickle Dragon, for whatever reason) - what can I say? I'm old school.
Least Favorite: Non-OGL monsters. Or maybe Slaadi. I do like Slaadi (Non-OGL though they are), but why the exemplars of chaos are so consistent in their frog-like shape and color scheme, I'll never understand. Go chaos beast!
Is there any actual difference between derro and duergar? Or is 'duergar' just a Forgotten Realms term for the same thing?
Duergar are larger, saner, and psionic (or at least they were in 1e). Derro are smaller, more numerous, totally insane, and have magic-using "savants" and weird weapons (hook fauchards, etc.).
Is there any actual difference between derro and duergar? Or is 'duergar' just a Forgotten Realms term for the same thing?Duergar are larger, saner, and psionic (or at least they were in 1e). Derro are smaller, more numerous, totally insane, and have magic-using "savants" and weird weapons (hook fauchards, etc.).
That's sort of what gets to me. Do we *really* need *two* races of subterranian dwarves??? Can't we get by with one or the other? Do I, as a dedicated D&D fan really have to learn the distinction between them? Back in my day, I thought there was only one variety of each "demihuman" for the underdark...
Technically derro are "monstrous humanoids." They are the debased inbred and insane decendants of evil dwarves and humans (accounting for them being lighter of build and body hair than most dwarves). The gray dwarves (Duergar) are size-sifting, occasionally invisible work-aholics who can still be psionic - if you happen to have the Expanded Psionics Handbook.
As for my faves - geez too many to count. And personally I take lame complex, or underused monsters as a challange. I've got adventures featuring Ravids and Yak Folk after all and I even had proposal full of formians. I guess I'm not a big fan of the way devils and demons are broken up and then further by big extend families who happen to have similar resistances (I'm looking at you Tanar'ri and Baatezu), but other than that monsters are monsters.
In Monster Manual V though I have to say I do like the Ruin Chanter and the Ruin Elemental. I have slightly fonder memories of them when the chanter had an adamantine flute that functioned as a light mace and when the elemental was a clannish territorial giant - but hey. ;)
GGG
Favorite: Illithid. For a variety of reasons, from the creepy brain-eating aspect to the apotheosis aspect to the alhoon...Much goodness. That, and I always thought Estriss was a cool character.
Least Favorite: Phasm. Boooooring.
Yup, me too. Illithid.
I hate a lot of monsters. The first one to attract my ire, about 27 years ago, was the Owlbear.
Goodman Games has Dreaming Caverns of the Duergar (DCC 44).
My favorite monsters would be Modrons, Myconids and Sahuagin.
My least favorite monster is the Etherial Filcher. This one was made up just to take back stuff the DM realized he should never have given his players.
I would love to change this with a cool duergar focused adventure! I really like the dark dwarves, but I totally agree with you...they just haven't been given their coolness due!Hmm... okay, I'll bite:
Least Favorite: Derro/Duergar. They are the dwarves to the drow's elves. However, I've never seen them featured as anything noteworthy. There's no in-depth analysis of their culture, no strategies that stand out as viable options for them, and nothing really remarkable about them at all. They really are just 'underground dwarves.' I featured them as an encounter in a campaign once, but they had a very minor impact and I do not feel that they provided the sense of menace that drow do.
Hmm, I'll ignore some of the more intelligent beings as those I don't really use as "monsters", they are encounters. Otherwise human would be my favorite monster...
Favorite...I do like non-sentient undead, zombies, skeletons and funny variations. On higher levels they become rather pointless, but I don't feel that comfortable on high-level play anyway. And for lower level, the crumbling dead are classic. You can apply as much or as little story connection and ecology on them as you happen to need and feel like, they can be the most random of the random encounters or significant part of mood you are creating...versatility, baby!
Least favorite: I go for those numerous eats-diamonds-and-freezes-victims monsters which are little more than collection of stats jumbled randomly together. Sure, if someone did some work, some of them might turn out to be interesting but somehow few bother.
Oh, and mimics are awful. Using them always feels like a cheap shot, and putting just one of them anywhere turns the party into paranoid nutcases which will bog down the next sessions when everything needs to be double-checked...been there, done that, got the Elven Cloak. Use of those is allowable only in situations where the party will be expecting loads of traps anyway.
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My least favorite is the phantom fungus. An invisible plant that shoots tendrils...I think someone was taking hallucinogenic mushrooms when he came up with that one. Blink dogs are a close second.
Blink dogs are more fun when you use the tauric template to combine them with kobolds. I call them blink ko-dogs. Add rogue levels and enjoy.
That's sort of what gets to me. Do we *really* need *two* races of subterranian dwarves??? Can't we get by with one or the other? Do I, as a dedicated D&D fan really have to learn the distinction between them? Back in my day, I thought there was only one variety of each "demihuman" for the underdark...
That's like asking if we *really* need more than one variety of giant, or dragon. No, we don't. But some variety is fun. The derro and duergar had a much different "feel" from each other when introduced, so they were like the difference between drow and eladrins. Sure, they're both kinda like elves, but...
Least Favorite: Digester
I'm pretty sure digesters and ystraks (or whatever they're called) and shocker lizards were introduced for the sole purpose of providing "alternative" energy creatures from the ubiquitous cold and fire ones ("Ooh! We need a sonic one! And an acid one! And an electrical one!"). Unfortunetely, the attempt left them as profoundly uninteresting add-ons, rather than as useable monsters.
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Favorite monster: Blink elephant, as a DM these are great, especially on april fool's day... and they have a bad habit of blinking above whatever spooked them...
Least Favorite monster: Blink elephant, as a player these are terrible, especially on april fool's day... and they have a bad habit of blinking above whatever spooked them...
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RPG Superstar 2011 Top 32
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Least Favorite: DigesterI'm pretty sure digesters and ystraks (or whatever they're called) and shocker lizards were introduced for the sole purpose of providing "alternative" energy creatures from the ubiquitous cold and fire ones ("Ooh! We need a sonic one! And an acid one! And an electrical one!"). Unfortunetely, the attempt left them as profoundly uninteresting add-ons, rather than as useable monsters.
I kind of like the yrthaks - due in large part to the fact I love aberrations and the ecology article on them (several dragon issues ago) did a lot to make them more interesting to me.
I find that the Ecology articles often help me rethink a monster I may have unknowingly pigeonholed.
Least favorite: I go for those numerous eats-diamonds-and-freezes-victims monsters which are little more than collection of stats jumbled randomly together. Sure, if someone did some work, some of them might turn out to be interesting but somehow few bother.
I miss the reference. Give me an example.
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RPG Superstar 2013 Top 32
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I miss the reference. Give me an example.
Least favorite: I go for those numerous eats-diamonds-and-freezes-victims monsters which are little more than collection of stats jumbled randomly together. Sure, if someone did some work, some of them might turn out to be interesting but somehow few bother.
Sounds like this is a reference to the 'delver' in the MM1.
Favorite:Beholder
Least: MM2: Ocean Strider c'mon how many players wanted a ranger ocean strider named Wiley. stop the madness.
Oooo, this is a fun thread....but I can't just give one each...
Favorite: The beholder, an all-time classic. The night hag, evil coming soon in a dream near you....The kopru, something about the evil behind the evil BEHIND the Isle of Dread will always have a special place in the dark part of my heart....
Least Favourite: Many covered so far in this thread were very accurate. I'm not in favor of the trend of endlessly taking real-world animals and combining them to make "fill-in-the-blank FOLK." i.e. Badger-folk, marmoset-folk, ferret-folk, etc......Although, wait a minute...Ferret-folk...hmmmm....
I miss the reference. Give me an example.
Least favorite: I go for those numerous eats-diamonds-and-freezes-victims monsters which are little more than collection of stats jumbled randomly together. Sure, if someone did some work, some of them might turn out to be interesting but somehow few bother.
The reference is actually from Buffy the Vampire Slayer...:)
But for the actual examples, Kirth Gersen did comment on the same thing:
I'm pretty sure digesters and ystraks (or whatever they're called) and shocker lizards were introduced for the sole purpose of providing "alternative" energy creatures from the ubiquitous cold and fire ones ("Ooh! We need a sonic one! And an acid one! And an electrical one!"). Unfortunetely, the attempt left them as profoundly uninteresting add-ons, rather than as useable monsters.
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Hmmm, so many on both sides.
Favorites: Now that Pathfinder has made goblins rock, they are up here like nobody's business. Also, pretty much everything featured in Planescape: Torment.
Least Favorites: This may surprise some people, but dragons. I don't like using them as monsters. They're just too majestic to me to be a punching bag, albeit a really smart one. I use them as plot components. The only time anyone will see me run a dragon as an actual fight will be in one shots, probably specially made for dragon-slaying.
Favorites:
Spellstiched Undead(Vampires, Liches, and Ghasts, Oh My!)
Yeth Hounds
Wyverns
Least Favorites:
Formians
Any and all Constructs(Robots are for Starwars.)
Formians(I listed them again because they are soooo lame.)