Mythical beasts that need more attention

[Felix]

Doug McCrae, Jesus_marley, rycanada, Voadam:

I know that it's easy to come up with a bigger badder version of these monsters to make them more memorable, but what I'd like is a monster with a built-in "Holy crap it's the Terrasque!".

Because it's been written as a singular creature, the Terrasque has a mythic appeal to it that the others don't; the players instinctively know there's only one. But I've never read birthright, and I suppose they do what they can to create that sort of feel. I'll check it out.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Eberron got all three of those covered.

Hobgoblins and Bugbears are heirs to the greatest empire ever built on Khorvaire. Hobgoblins in Eberron can have PrClasses like bladesinger and Exotic Weapon Master, and all goblinoids are famous for their chain weapons (flails, spiked chains, etc).

Ogre Magi pay a large role in Sarlona, the cradle of humanity, as described in Secrets of Sarlona. There's even a "half-ogre mage") PC race, the (iirc), enoko (like Half-Giants and Goliaths, they have Powerful Build, but also a couple of spell-like abilities).

Eh, I own Eberron.

Bugbears still have weird football shaped heads and are big furry shambling goblin-things with no apparent linkage to goblins or hobgoblins.

While hobgoblins as scary Roman-style soldier humanoids are neat, that has no real tie to mythology and it doesn't make them distinct from, say, Roman-style humans.

What Eberron does is slap a Band-Aid on monsters that require major surgery.

 

[Roger]

I know that it's easy to come up with a bigger badder version of these monsters to make them more memorable, but what I'd like is a monster with a built-in "Holy crap it's the Terrasque!".

Sure, but the mythical Tarasque was captured by some chick using her garter belt and singing some hymns, and was then destroyed by a mob of angry commoners.

I'm all for big scary unique monsters, and I'm also all for returning to a monster's mythical roots, but I'm not sure there's really a lot of overlap between those two goals.



Cheers,
Roger

 

[GreatLemur]

I tend to agree with Crothian that pretty much all of the monsters in DnD would be greatly improved by going back to their mythological origins and reflecting these origins in the build and backstory rather than the generic cartoon creatures we have now[/I]

I don't think you can really count on legit mythology to provide better-developed versions of the monsters than their D&D incarnations. There's surely some stuff worth using out there, but I think most of what you'd end up with is OCD vampires that are compelled to count mustard seeds whenever they see them. Folklore generally doesn't try too hard to make sense.

 

[Felix]

Sure, but the mythical Tarasque was captured by some chick using her garter belt and singing some hymns, and was then destroyed by a mob of angry commoners.

I must have missed the memo.

I'm all for big scary unique monsters, and I'm also all for returning to a monster's mythical roots, but I'm not sure there's really a lot of overlap between those two goals.

Cheers,
Roger

As long as the players say, "it's the Minotaur" instead of, "it's a Minotaur", I'll think the job was well done; it's not like Theseus thought a bull-headed man of immense strength was commonplace.

 

[PhantomNarrator]

Depends, doesn't it?

Sphinx: "What walks on four legs in the morning, two legs at - " THUNK! "Augh! Arrows?" THUNK-THUNK-THUNK! "Wait, - no! Let me finish - " SHLUCK! CHOP! MAIM!

PC: "Who da man?!"

CR, my friend, it's all about CR. You can bet a group of low level tomb robbers would consider answering a riddle over being eaten.

 

[Felix]

CR, my friend, it's all about CR. You can bet a group of low level tomb robbers would consider answering a riddle over being eaten.

Funny thing about CR: the players may "know" it, but the characters don't. And if the characters act on something the players think they know, but are wrong about, then the characters go splat.

So if high or low level characters run into a Sphinx, it's the players that need to be willing to talk, regardless of what they may think the CR is.

 

[Land Outcast]

Which "treatment" did Rakshasas receive?

 

[Olaf the Stout]

I think the Cyclops needs some loving. It seems to have disappeared in 3E. (I'm sure it was in 2E).

Olaf the Stout

 

[Nyaricus]

I think the Cyclops needs some loving. It seems to have disappeared in 3E. (I'm sure it was in 2E).

Olaf the Stout

The Cyclopes (high and low) is in Deities and Demigods (3.0) and is presented very close to the mythological origins.

There is another version in Shining South, a FR sourcebook.

I agree with Crothian - ALL of them.