Have You Ever Used Monsters from Dragon Magazine?

[Presto2112]

The title says it all. Have you? Are they as balanced in terms of CR or power level as monsters from other WotC sources? I ask because I've recently discovered several monsters that would fit flavorwise perfectly into a campaign I'm devising; namely the Gray Shiver, Hellchain Weaver, and the huge bug critter from the most recent Dragon whose name escapes me.

What's your experiences with Dragon Mag critters?

 

[Kormydigar]

Nothing recently, but I did use the Greater Aboleths from an issue back in the late 80's. The players had no idea what the hell they were. It was great

 

[Stormborn]

Yes, from both Dragon and Dungeon, and the only problem I have ever had were the occasional typos in the stat blocks which tended to be either a) easy to catch or b)inconsequential.

 

[Ry]

Dragon introduced me to the Flumph, and some awesome varieties of trolls. If not for Dragon, lots of core monsters would remain out in the cold as well, because Dragon (& Dungeon) tend to give great ideas on what monsters to use.

Then again, I don't use their stat blocks. I've basically house ruled stat blocks out of existence.

 

[BOZ]

many are updated on the Creature Catalog site.

 

[Isida Kep'Tukari]

I've use several, though several of the ones I've used have ended up in books at a later date. Teratomorph remains my favorite.

I've used the lesser golems, some drakes, some other golems (I like golems), and probably some stuff that I've for gotten. But in terms of balance I've never really had a problem. I do a lot of minor adjustments of monsters on the fly to adjust CR if I have a bigger/smaller/more or less powerful party facing them, but that has little impact on the rules as written.

I find it useful to use stuff from almost any source than the monster manual to keep my players from metagaming (if only inadvertantly). It works very well, and keeps them from growing complacent.

 

[Sammael]

I've used several. The most recent ones (IIRC) were amoebic crawlers and cranial encysters.

 

[diaglo]

i used some from The Strategic Review and the old White Dwarf too. does that count?

 

[freebfrost]

I am using a Tome Dragon from issue #343 as a major NPC in my current campaign.

 

[Shade]

Frequently. I use Dragon and Dungeon as a monster source as frequently as any of the books.

I find the stat blocks and CR estimates to be on par with the monster books in general.