D&D 5E My MMII Wishlist

[the Jester]

Just for kicks, I put together a thorough listing of what I hoped would form a speculative MMII. What do yiu think? What would your list look like? What would you add/remove? It's likely more than they could fit, but hope springs eternal.

I like this exercise, but it would be awesome if you'd remove the color formatting so you don't have all that black text on a background.

That said, here are the monsters I've converted to 5e so far, at least tentatively, which I consider to be a pretty good start (although some are homebrewed monsters to begin with).

Aag [homebrewed undead]
Adherer
Algoid
Alley Stalker [homebrewed urban monster]
Ant, Giant (worker and soldier)
Apparition
Arbalaster
Avolakia
Bat (mobat and phantom bat) [phantom bat is homebrewed]
Beetle (giant boring; giant oil; jishin mushi)
Billyman [homebrewed demon]
Blindheim
Boneclaw
Bunyip
Canus [homebrewed dog-man]
Cave Cricket (giant)
Cave Fisher
Centipede (megalocentipede and tunnel worm)
Chagmat (and chagmat priest)
Choker
Clockwork Horror (copper, silver, electrum, gold, platinum and adamantine horrors)
Coral, brain (homebrew)
Crab, gigantic
Crawling Head
Dark Ones (dark creeper and dark stalker)
Deathjack
Deathlock
Demon (Abyssal scavenger, evistro, solamith)
Deodanth
Digester
Dire Corby
Dragon, Gray (young only so far)
Drake (guard drake and needletooth drake swarm)
Dream Stalker [homebrewed creature from the Plane of Dreams]
Elementals (lesser air, earth and fire; thoqqua)
Filth Bird [homebrewed]
Formian (worker and warrior)
Foulspawn (berserker, grue, hulk, seer)
Fundamental
Fungus (ascomoid, graybones [homebrew] and phantom fungus)
Gear Hound [homebrew]
Gibberling
Goatfolk (Ibixian and Ibixian Berserker)
Goldfolk [homebrew]
Golem (alchemical)
Green Visage [homebrew plant with dead Grandpa's face]
Harthom [homebrew]
Huecuva
Iron Cobra
Ironmaw (normal and starving)
Kercpa
Leucrotta
Living Statues (bronze swordsman, caryatid column, stone guardian)
Lizard (subterranean lizard variant of giant lizard, shocker lizard, yellow shocker lizard)
Loathe [homebrew undead]
Maggot, Giant
Merrow Champion
Modron, Decaton
Mohrg
Moltarr [homebrew magma dude]
Mudman
Ocularon
Ogre Shaman
Ooze (bloadbloater ooze swarm, mutant bloodbloater, crystal ooze, flesh jelly, red slime [homebrewed infectious slime])
Osteopede
Phallusian (normal and priest of Froth) [homebrewed upright phallus-people that serve the god of perversion in my campaign]
Phraint (red, black, gold)
Pistol Wraith [homebrew]
Praying Mantis (giant and vision mantis) [homebrewed fey giant mantis that can induce visions as an attack or to provide divinations]
Quickling
Rot Spider [homebrew undead spider]
Rothe
Scanlianan [homebrew aliens from a water-stealing moon that was actually a spaceship]
Screaming Devilkin
Skin Kite
Slug, Giant
Snake (amphisbaena, sea serpent)
Spawn of Kyuss
Spider (acid spider [homebrew] and tarantella)
Squirrel (dire squirrel and megalosquirrel, with notes that individual squirrels or squirrel swarms use reskinned rat/rat swarm stats) [homebrew]
Su-Monster
Tabaxi
Tendriculos
Termite, Giant Harvester (worker and soldier)
Terror Bird (bird of Pandos, kocho) [homebrew]
Toad, Ice
Urban Stalker [homebrewed urban monster/serial killer type]
Vargouille
Vicious Toby [homebrew unique half-troll goblin]
Volt
Worm (giant bloodworm, nematodean [homebrew epic worm sealed away that can split over and over again])
Yellow Musk Creeper (and Yellow Musk Zombie)
Yugoloth (guardian)

I'd definitely like to see some more npcs. There are a few other monsters that I haven't gotten to that I'd love to see in the 5e palette, though- rilmani, gehreleth, bonedrinkers, various troll mixes (giant troll, giant two-headed troll, etc), scyllans, giant jellyfish, olive slimes, mustard jelly, etc. God, I could go on for days.

 

[Jester David]

Great list (although the text is formatted dark so I can't easily read).

Although, personally, I don't want a MM2 until 2016. I'd rather have them do adventures and other stuff and then release a new MM with the best of creatures used in the adventure stories and the missing monsters.

 

[the Jester]

Assassin Vine

Check out the vine blight- I've seen it suggested that this is a renamed assassin vine.

Although, personally, I don't want a MM2 until 2016. I'd rather have them do adventures and other stuff and then release a new MM with the best of creatures used in the adventure stories and the missing monsters.

I am so down with having a 5e MM2 or Fiend Folio come out, like, tomorrow.

 

[bleezy]

Nymph, Sea Serpent, Noble Genies, Unique Demons and Dragons.

 

[Trickster Spirit]

Check out the vine blight- I've seen it suggested that this is a renamed assassin vine.

Eh, I've seen others speculate the same but I don't buy it. The humanoid form and Gulthias tree lore, it's intelligence and capacity for speech, and the fact that IMO the assassin vine should be a tad deadlier than CR 1/2 means they're separate entities in my campaign. YMMV!

 

[Jester David]

I am so down with having a 5e MM2 or Fiend Folio come out, like, tomorrow.

I'm okay with Paizo's model of having a new MM each year.
Or was, because they just released their sixth and that's really enough, and they cheated by having two with NPCs rather than new monsters.

After three monster books you really have to work hard to find quality monsters to include. At one a year that only gets WotC to 2016.

--edit--
A second MM focusing on or erring on the side of higher CR monsters might also be keen. The MM1 skews low for challenge.

I also miss the: allip, aquatic elf, assassin vine, barghest, bodak, catoblepas, cave fisher, derro, froghemoth, green slime, grippli, larva mage/ spawn of Kyuss, mongrelman, nerid, nymph, pech, sirin, and sylph.
Being a child of 2e and the Monstrous Manual, creatures like the aurumvorax, formians, feyr (or fihyr), gibberling, hatori, ixitxachiti, and neogi are just as iconic to me as the mind flayer (or more so, as I never used an illithid until 4e).

 

[Mouseferatu]

While I also love the catastrophic dragons as well, why the gem dragon hate?

I don't like 'em. I mean, I really don't like them. They feel silly and shoe-horned to me on every level--flavor, mechanics, even a meta/gameplay level.

Sure, if they're ever included, I can (and will) ignore them. But every single time I've seen them, I've wished the word count could have been expended on something else.

 

[Lancelot]

I don't like the gem dragons either... but I also don't like the catastrophic dragons. Call me an old-schooler, but I'd like to see the oriental dragons back. Pan Lung, Shen Lung, etc. These guys made a lot of appearances in the classic modules: Danger at Dunwater, Dwellers of the Forbidden City, Slavers series (perhaps; the Earth Dragon was never statted out, but it always *felt* like a Lung dragon of some kind, to me). The beauty of these dragons, to me, is that...

1) They're morally ambiguous. Most are various shades of neutral, and could be friend or foe.
2) They have genuinely different powers, rather than traditional dragon breath. Scaly command! Water fire! Summon tempests!
3) They provide new options beyond the Euro-centrism of most Monster Manual creatures. They seem more exotic to (Western) players.
4) They would make FANTASTIC mini options. Instead of a winged lizard painted in a new color, you have a sinuous wingless snake-dragon with beard-like tendrils, levitating through it's own power.

As for things that I want to see in an MM2...

Planescape: More Demons, Devils, Yugoloths, Angels, Archons, Guardinals, Modrons... but NOT the named varieties. These should be in a separate supplement, where more time can be taken to discuss personality, motivations, etc. Graz'zt and Dispater are not just collections of stats. They have backstory and domains and long-term plans and lairs and named servants. Treat them as such.

Classics: Barghest, Bodak, Catoblepas, Cave Fisher, Derro, Froghemoth, Gibberling, Ixitxachitl, Jermlaine, Leucrotta, Mongrelman, Nymph, Quickling, Shedu, Son of Kyuss, Su-Monster, Sylph, Tasloi, Triton, etc

Mystara: Actaeon, Aranea, Athach, Bhut, Decapus, Kopru, Malfera, Manscorpion, Mek, Mystaran Golems (wood, bone, amber, bronze), Neh-Thallgu (Brain Collector), Phanaton, Piranha Birds, Thoul, Vampire Rose, Velya, etc

Ravenloft / Cthulhu / Spelljammer: I'd love to see a small selection of creatures that specifically use some of the DMG rules options. I'm talking about things like horror (Doll Golem, Living Wall, etc), madness (various Far Realm creatures... Foulspawn? Elder Brains? Neothelids?) and firearms (the Giff from Spelljammer are the most notable example, but there could be others...).

 

[RotGrub]

Here are a few more that need to be on that list.

Maedar, Gibberling, Book Worm, Crypt Thing, Rot Grub, Ju-Ju Zombie, Xvart

MM 2 or rather planescape should also have alternate versions of demons and devils that are closer to tradition.

 

[Eric V]

They do feel shoehorned, yeah...I guess I never understood why dragons have to be so tied to alignments. IMO, 4e making metallic dragons unaligned handled that in a more elegant way, but I suppose once we had dragons for each of the alignment poles, it was inevitable to have some to represent balance. Oh, well.

P.S. Loved 'Tomb of Horrors.'

I don't like 'em. I mean, I really don't like them. They feel silly and shoe-horned to me on every level--flavor, mechanics, even a meta/gameplay level.

Sure, if they're ever included, I can (and will) ignore them. But every single time I've seen them, I've wished the word count could have been expended on something else.