What's your favorite monster?
My vote is owlbear.
Gelantinous Cube!
In no particular order...
Displacer Beast
Umber Hulk
Mummy
Wraith [and Dread Wraith]
Phase Spiders--> very annoying to new players who dont know the value of Readying an action. Eventually I tell them, but its so much fun to watch them squirm.
Any monster with grapple or trip.
Shadows and Wraiths
Vampires
Bonedrinkers(MM3)
Beholders
Edit: Drow
The Nymph. >_>
Lich
Githyanki
Drow (edit: as villains, not so much the CG Drizzt clones)
evil NPCs (particularly spellcasters)
and Dragons, of course!
The Beholder, classic.
I´ve loved it since in a random game i asked one to explain to me how it went to the bathroom. The answer was disintegrate.
That's really a good answer! And a great question... I don't think a character of mine would ever have the presence of mind to ask :)
(or did it disintegrate you for asking? it's a little ambiguous)
Back in 2nd edition it was a toss up between the Red and Gold Dragon. I've always had a soft spot of Mind Flayers and Beholders as well.
Now that I've got the Pathfinder Bestiary, just by the artwork, the White Dragon is my favorite. I'm really disappointed in the reinterpretation of how a Dragons look on most of the Dragons. They just don't have that majestic look I expect.
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As a DM I love running Dragons against my PCs, those fights are always the most epic and bring out my player's A game.
I also love Golarion's goblins, the party always races to see if they can kill more goblins (before the goblins do something suicidally stupid).
As a player, I've never fought anything too iconic. I like fighting goblins, because they are stupid and I favour trickster characters (and tricksters have the best time against stupid opponents).
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Gricks (welcome to DR, players!) and Monstrous Spiders. Monstrous spiders because nature adds so much to them (monstrous trap door spider snatches up a party member from his ambush hole, monstrous jumping spider drops in on the party in one football field-length jump, web-tossers, funnel webs, fishing spiders, etc.)
The variety is astounding.
Yuanti :D Just about awesome!
Would I be allowed to say "Humans" here?
I prefer to avoid the "Always Chaotic Evil" syndrome when I can.
I also really like bugbears. They're great for introducing some psychedelic terror in low-level adventures.
I've thought about creating a bugbear npc with sorcerer levels as a major antagonist in our current campaign. I've got him all statted-out, but I'll probably have to change that when the Bestiary PDF comes out on Wednesday.
I'd also like to add Tengus/Kenkus to my list.
And Warforged, if they even count as monsters.
Gelantinous Cube!
Such impecable taste!
Kobolds come in close second for me ever since "Dragon Montain".
Horned devils are a sentimental favourite of mine.
Trolls, Beholders and Liches.
Ogres, Illithid, Beholders, just about any undead
Gelantinous Cube!
G. Cubes hold a very dear place in my heart.
Some of our best "WTF?" moments involve G. Cubes.We once pushed a Cube off a ledge and it landed on our nemesis below, engulfing and eventually killing him.
the mimic...enough said
I always loved Giants
Would I be allowed to say "Humans" here?
With you 100%.
Bone Devil, just because the model is so damn good!
RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32, 2010 Top 8
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Blue Dragons of course, but you'll never see them coming.
Hobgoblins, though I'm not quite taken with the Golarion variety, They're growing on me so there's hope.
I liked the Blade Beast from the creature collection. Nice safe way to use the party's weapons against them for an encounter.
the mimic...enough said
I have to agree, the first time a 'reward' chest attacked me for trying to open it i knew it was an instant classic. It also led to a half orc barbarian character i really enjoyed becoming respectful of doors as a personality quirk. drove the party crazy when he insisted on knocking instead of kicking in or unlocking a door, but was alot of fun.
Orcs, partly because of Firefly (Lets be honest, the Reavers are just Orcs) and partly because of Warhammer (both fantasy in 40K).
In fact, in one of my Ebberon-esc campaigns, the PC's could spot an orc airship a mile away. It pretty much looked like a normal airship, but with crudly covered holes and red paint ("Because red makes them faster"), just like reaver ships.
Orcs. Orcs can be a great satire for aggressive, selfish, violent and outright evil behavior carried to self-defeating extremes. They can also be used to explore issues of nature vs. nurture, the effects of perpetual animosity (usually dwarf/orc or elf/orc) and outright racism. The difference between the "Always Chaotic Evil" mentioned above (in my games, a demon) and "somewhat slow-witted and aggressive by nature, and usually surrounded by and expected to be evil" (in my games, an orc) has always fascinated me.
The Tarrasque. This living embodiment of mindless destruction has been an evocative part of my D&D experience since I first came across him back in 2nd edition. To this day I still rank monsters according in terms of how they match up to him.
Let's say everything in MM (soft spot for blue Dragons). I like using the monsters, reusing the monsters, thinking of using the monsters in more and more weird roles... I love them all. Hugs nearest black puding.
Out of sheer DM malevolence I was going to say ochre jelly (A.K.A. "why heavy maces are better than morningstars"); but on further consideration, I think I'm going with the yellow musk creeper.
Personally, I like the Kythons from the Book of Vile Darkness (Monte Cook's version), simply for the 'evolution' factor. I've taken them a few steps further than listed in the book, giving them a wider variety of weapons (in addition to other stuff, like wings) to choose from. They let me recreate some of my favorite enemies, including a Resident Evil monster and the Tyranids of Warhammer 40k.
I know my kythons are no longer Mr. Cook's kythons, but I kept most of the crunch and a little of the fluff.
Rust monster, oh yeah!
Used to put the fear into me in my youth when I played.
Now they're just too much fun to throw in as a DM.
Lots of others, too, but I hadn't seen rust monster mentioned and thought I should include them in my own list. /salute!
Thoul. Part Ghoul, part Hobgoblin, part Troll, all good.
Why, myself of course.
The Tarrasque. This living embodiment of mindless destruction has been an evocative part of my D&D experience since I first came across him back in 2nd edition. To this day I still rank monsters according in terms of how they match up to him.
You might not like me saying this but if you must give a gender to the Tarrasque it should be female since the original French-Briton stories are told of "La Tarasque". Things that make you go humm... ;)