Hmmm.
Because I intend to list all of the monsters in roughly the order I like them (I'm curious if the entries I intend to vote for will end up with the 9 top slots), and because others might like to do the same thing, here's a list of all 24 of the monsters in alphabetic order:
- Arbor Mortis: An intelligent plant that hates living creatures and can create moldering shamblers from corpses.
- Bazofohb: An undead that creates effects related to vertigo and to the fear of falling.
- Bhoga-kantaka, Ghost with Many Teeth: An outsider with bizarre anatomy that is a deadly predator.
- Blightspawned Fey: A fey that was once a dryad but now lives to destroy nature.
- Bloodbound Decrier: A monstrous humanoid mercenary that believes it deserves death, yet is honor bound not to commit suicide.
- Bloodless: An undead created from a creature killed by a bloodbound decrier and which exists to kill all bloodbound decriers.
- Brain Ooze: An intelligent ooze that can turn creatures into mindless transport and use rituals to create other oozes.
- Cloud Golem: A construct made of clouds over an iron skeleton.
- Complexity Golem: A construct, one whose incomprehensibility can kill you.
- Dream Distilled Creature (template): A construct formed from the dreams of a living creature.
- Dungeon Core: A construct that runs a dungeon.
- Electric Jelly: A medium ooze that has acid, electricity, and poison.
- Haemogoblin: A man-sized, translucent tick that revels in feeding on the blood of sentient creatures.
- Herne: A monstrous humanoid (with antlers) that tranforms other humanoids into its own kind.
- Koloiaq: A tiny fey that frolics in snowstorms and can do good or ill depending on its mood.
- Meki-Kantaka, the Foul-Winged-Blindness: A swarm of crow like creatures with poison and a hive mind.
- Moldering Shambler (template): An animated corpse created by an arbor mortis that can spawn a blightspawned fey.
- Palanquin (template): An ooze subtype created when a brain ooze turns a creature into a mindless slave.
- Patal-Kantaka, Memory of the Breeding Feast (template): A magical beast that exists to defend the bhoga-kantaka.
- Phutilafohb: An undead that creates effects related to depression and suicide.
- Squallherd: An elf-like fey that can fly and can occasionally turn into a living lightning bolt.
- Tamurga: A gargantuan intelligent ooze that lives under the tundra and doesn't like people.
- Thunderstruck (template): An undead created from the body of a creature killed by electricity.
- Ydrafohb: An undead that creates effects related to disease and drowning.
Sugar. Can't fit 'em all in one quoteable post. Well, here's a list of only names and types. That should fit. And the other post will make a good header for the thread.
- Arbor Mortis: An intelligent plant.
- Bazofohb: An undead phobia of falling.
- Bhoga-kantaka, Ghost with Many Teeth: An outsider predator.
- Blightspawned Fey: A former dryad fey.
- Bloodbound Decrier: A monstrous humanoid mercenary.
- Bloodless: An undead created by a bloodbound decrier.
- Brain Ooze: An intelligent, slave-taking ooze.
- Cloud Golem: A construct made of clouds and iron.
- Complexity Golem: An incomprehensible construct.
- Dream Distilled Creature (template): A construct formed from dreams.
- Dungeon Core: A construct that runs a dungeon.
- Electric Jelly: An ooze with acid, electricity, and poison.
- Haemogoblin: A man-sized, ravenous tick.
- Herne: A monstrous, cold-based, predatory humanoid.
- Koloiaq: A tiny, cold-based fey.
- Meki-Kantaka, the Foul-Winged-Blindness: A poisonous, crow-like swarm.
- Moldering Shambler (template): An animated corpse.
- Palanquin (template): A creature subjugated by a brain ooze.
- Patal-Kantaka, Memory of the Breeding Feast (template): A magical beast that defends the bhoga-kantaka.
- Phutilafohb: An undead suicide inducer.
- Squallherd: An elf-like fey that lives in the sky.
- Tamurga: An intelligent ooze that lives in the tundra.
- Thunderstruck (template): An undead created by electricity.
- Ydrafohb: An undead phobia of disease and drowning.
Here's how I laid them out. Note that this tends to downplay the synergy of several of the combinations (most notably The Darkblight and The Hunger that Moves), but it gives an idea of which creatures are most useful of themselves.
And the dungeon core can be behind so many classic pulp storylines, and the case where the creater has died and left it behind is often used as well. The Alan Dean Foster book The Mocking Program was based on it, as was Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (a movie that I SO wanted to like, yet was finally disappointed by).
Best
- Dungeon Core: A construct that runs a dungeon.
Great
- Blightspawned Fey: A former dryad fey.
- Complexity Golem: An incomprehensible construct.
- Haemogoblin: A man-sized, ravenous tick.
- Tamurga: An intelligent ooze that lives in the tundra.
- Thunderstruck (template): An undead created by electricity.
Good
- Arbor Mortis: An intelligent plant.
- Bhoga-kantaka, Ghost with Many Teeth: An outsider predator.
- Dream Distilled Creature (template): A construct formed from dreams.
- Meki-Kantaka, the Foul-Winged-Blindness: A poisonous, crow-like swarm.
- Palanquin (template): A creature subjugated by a brain ooze.
- Squallherd: An elf-like fey that lives in the sky.
Okay
- Bazofohb: An undead phobia of falling.
- Bloodbound Decrier: A monstrous humanoid mercenary.
- Brain Ooze: An intelligent, slave-taking ooze.
- Cloud Golem: A construct made of clouds and iron.
- Electric Jelly: An ooze with acid, electricity, and poison.
- Herne: A monstrous, cold-based, predatory humanoid.
- Koloiaq: A tiny, cold-based fey.
- Moldering Shambler (template): An animated corpse.
- Patal-Kantaka, Memory of the Breeding Feast (template): A magical beast that defends the bhoga-kantaka.
- Phutilafohb: An undead suicide inducer.
- Ydrafohb: An undead phobia of disease and drowning.
Meh
- Bloodless: An undead created by a bloodbound decrier.
Best
- Dungeon Core: A construct that runs a dungeon.
Just to illustrate how different opinions can be, I thought the Dungeon Core was a cheap knock off of Undermountain. In fact when I read it I was sure I had read it before (and didn't care for it the first time).
Okay
- Electric Jelly
And this one on the bottom half of your list I got into. while the ooze entry as a whole didn't do much for me I would probably throw this guy at my party - in particular with the critters from Born of Lightning.
Ironic the ooze jelly would have been a better fit in Born of Lightning than the Ooze Imperium. I can sort of picture a Gelatinous Cube with one of those electrocuted undead therein.
Just to illustrate how different opinions can be, I thought the Dungeon Core was a cheap knock off of Undermountain. In fact when I read it I was sure I had read it before (and didn't care for it the first time).
Right. That's what I was curious about. If you look at the ratings of Clark, Erik and Wolfgang, they often disagree on what's good and what's not.
And [electric ooze] on the bottom half of your list I got into. while the ooze entry as a whole didn't do much for me I would probably throw this guy at my party - in particular with the critters from Born of Lightning.
Ironic the ooze jelly would have been a better fit in Born of Lightning than the Ooze Imperium. I can sort of picture a Gelatinous Cube with one of those electrocuted undead therein.
I will probably use the electric ooze - but within the scope of this contest, I found it just ho-hum, rather than something I'd expect to see as part of the final eight.
Compare it to the mouldering shambler - that also is a pretty basic creature, but it fits perfectly into the ecology of the three creatures, and it has a twist as well - it morphs into a blightspawned fey.