D&D General Classic Monsters - Retired Roll Call?

[Dausuul]

My wife and I watched the D&D movie yesterday. Don't worry - I'm not including any spoilers here. But she and I had a discussion of some of the "iconic" monsters she hasn't encountered since starting the hobby 7 years ago, and maybe why that is.

My thought is that many of the classic creatures from her list harken back to an old style of play that has disappeared amongst 5e players (which is when she started the hobby).

Here's a selection from the list we made this morning (and the reason why I think she hasn't encountered them) ...

D&D isn't in Dungeons anymore...
Black Pudding
Gelatinous Cube
Carrion Crawler
Mind Flayer
Intellect Devourer
Roper
Umber Hulk

D&D doesn't like to trick players anymore...
Mimic
Roper
Gelatinous Cube
Rust Monster

Mid-Range CR creatures have limited windows of use...
(You can't use them like goblins in large numbers, and a single one isn't a challenge. They don't really have a place in encounter design.)
Displacer Beast
Intellect Devourer
Carrion Crawler

By the time you get to that level, the campaign will end or else the monster won't be a challenge...
Beholder
Marilith
Tarrasque

Out of these, I have used beholders, black puddings, and mariliths. And I will be introducing carrion crawlers and mind flayers in the campaign I started last night. Possibly displacer beasts at some point, too. (Probably not intellect devourers, though. Some of my players know enough about monster stats to be familiar with how vicious the intellect devourer is, and "Oh, good, it's just a mind flayer and not an intellect devourer" is not a reaction I want to get.) I have not used a tarrasque, but I have fought them in multiple incarnations, both 3E and 5E.

The gelatinous cube, roper, mimic, and umber hulk I am unlikely to use, but only because I don't like them on aesthetic grounds. Functionally, I have no problem with any of them.

D&D just has a crapton of monsters, that's all, and each DM (and adventure writer) is going to have things they like and things they don't. And of the things they like, they won't all fit the theme of any given campaign.

 

[iserith]

And though I don't have, isn't Chult/ToA pretty much an outdoor exploration adventure?

Except for the mini-dungeons that dot the landscape and that huge dungeon at the end.

 

[J.Quondam]

D&D just has a crapton of monsters, that's all, and each DM is going to have things they like and things they don't. And of the things they like, they won't all fit the theme of any given campaign.

"crapton of monsters" QFT! The nigh-infinite bestiary is, for me, both a joy and a curse of D&D.

 

[MGibster]

I used Ropers back in 2019 but I have to admit it was the first time I had seen them used since Bush was president. The first George Bush I mean. I remember when Rust Monsters were one of the scariest things out there. That and undead that would drain levels!

 

[Tonguez]

I use carrion crawlers a lot (homage to Mentzer's Basic) and I try to have Umber Hulks (or at least side tunnels caused by Umberhulks passing through)

I do use a few oozes but admit that Gelatinous Cube hasnt been one of them and I never liked Mindflayers or the Tarrasque so havent used them. Beholders I only use as a joke

Mariliths however fit with my ‘Empire of the Serpent Queen’ and so get use as Temple-Guard abomination, so yes its all very much about DM pallette

 

[Retreater]

Maybe it's that there's an easy thematic unity for goblinoids, giants, or undead.
Creatures like displacer beasts or umber hulks are just random things that don't really serve any thematic purpose. At least to my mind.
I run almost entirely prewritten adventures. None of these creatures have shown up.
It's just hundreds of goblins, skeletons, etc. Kinda bland, honestly.

 

[Clint_L]

I pretty much agree with all your comments but this one. Dragon Heist is the exception that immediately comes up. And though I don't have, isn't Chult/ToA pretty much an outdoor exploration adventure?

ToA is mostly dungeon - there's more wilderness than many adventures, but when you read through the adventure you see that most of the action is taking place either in mini-dungeons or the huge one at the end. Dragon Heist is also mostly either in mini-dungeons or dungeon proxies (i.e. the courthouse is really just another dungeon map, same with the villa, Xanathar's lair, Dragon's Vault, Cellar Complex, etc.). There is no WotC 5e adventure that is mostly outdoors, at least when it comes to the encounters.

D&D has never strayed far from its dungeon roots; though now adventures typically have more "in between" stuff than the old modules did (i.e. instead of a mega-dungeon you typically get a bunch of smaller dungeon or dungeon-proxies linked by some travel, some town encounters (often RP-focused) and then a final, larger dungeon of some kind).

 

[Tonguez]

Maybe it's that there's an easy thematic unity for goblinoids, giants, or undead.
Creatures like displacer beasts or umber hulks are just random things that don't really serve any thematic purpose. At least to my mind.
I run almost entirely prewritten adventures. None of these creatures have shown up.
It's just hundreds of goblins, skeletons, etc. Kinda bland, honestly.

I’d note too that the three you named are ‘people’ -small vicious people or big brutish people or even decayed putrid people - but all people who can be rationalised in Human milieu. Once you move out of People you then begin to bring in more thematic monsters be they demons, dragons, Manticores or Abberations

Many in the OPs list dont fit the default “Medieval Europe setting” and to me it looks like most things on the list fit more into the Sci-Fi end of the fantasy spectrum reflecting the Pulp ((Sword & Planet) and Lovecraftian influences on the unique DnD IP

 

[jasper]

I have seen all the monsters in official product.

 

[Stormonu]

Yeah, was playing with my son recently and crestfallen when I had to explain to him what a shrieker was.

But overall, D&D has sooo many monsters that you'll never encounter even a quarter of them within the life of a single campaign.