Non-dragon Monsters?

[gothwalk]

My campaign world has a problem, at least from my point of view. (I'm the DM, in case that wasn't clear)

Dragons are considered a respected race, and nobody goes around killing them off - not unless they want the wrath of the priests of the Dragon Goddess (currently the largest of the religious orders) down on them in short order.

However, it's becoming clear that I need some kind of creature to occupy the sort of archetypical niche that dragons occupy in most campaigns - the biggest, the most cunning, and the ultimate versatile opponent in terms of combat, as opposed to political opponent, which many of the dragons are.

The further these creatures are from being actual dragons, the better. I've considered advanced giants, titans, and elementals, but none of them seem to fit. Any suggestions?

 

[Crothian]

Go with one of the more powerful Demons or Devils. You can use the Kraken or Leviathon. They are water bound, but should still be very feared. A highly intelligent purple worm could be scarey. Never know when they dig under you and swallow you whole.

You can look towards the myths and see all the various monsters the heros fought.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Hehe... A Wizard10/Shifter10 is able to cast some powerful spells and to polymorph into some really big creatures

I know, that wasn`t what you expected...

Probably Demons or Devils might be the right kind of creatures, but they might not seem to be big enough. You could also use some awakened T-Rex or something like that...

Heroic Trolls with class levels will probably very intimidating...
(Remember that Hero creatures don´t have "average" stats, so you will spent some extra points - 25 point-buy will be fair)

Mustrum Ridcully

 

[gothwalk]

Ah, should have said that demons, devils, and other outsiders are already in use. I think I'm looking for something native to the Prime.

The purple worm bears thinking about, perhaps. I've looked at the mythical beasts too, but none of them seem to have the versatility that dragons do - breath weapon, and spells, and spell-like abilities, and all those claws, bites, wings buffets...

A T-Rex is quite like a dragon, unfortunately.

Trolls, hm. That's a possibility too.

I'll think about those, and see what I come up with.

Thanks!

 

[Lord Ben]

I've always thought the Cyclops was dying to be a main enemy. Sits in it's lair gorging itself on meat all day with tons of treasure lying about.

Renegade dragons would do the trick...

 

[wolfpunk]

Well if you were to use a heroic ettin with class levels, and perhaps even slap a template on it, I would say that would be a pretty good combination. the bonus of having two heads allows for multiple weapon use, and multiple spells cast simultaneously, things like that. Give it the half-dragon template and it could have two breath weapons.

Beholders and Illithid. While not of gigantic size, they certainly have very powerful abilities, and giving an Illithid levels or monk, or psiwarrior, makes them very very scary.

How about an awakened dire creature, you could go for something like an awakened dire scorprion.

Then again their is always the Gelatinous cube with druid class levels, that allows for a dramatic shapeshifting effect.

 

[whatisitgoodfor]

Mind Flayers are some of the most terrifying monsters in the book.

Especially if you give them a few levels in Drow Master (hey, anything counts as an animal as far as they're concerned).

The Illithid may not be physically large, but with a little bit of story work, they could easily be a larger than life enemy.

 

[uv23]

make something new.. have a look at some greek myths for examples of legendary beasts.. dragons are a boring cop out IMHO

 

[Crothian]

How about an ultimate shapeshifter? Can shape change into anything (basically Shapechange as spell at will). What can be scarier then something that can look like anything and anybody?

 

[rankarrog]

What abou simply adding the halfdragontemplate to whatever you want, perhaps even demons or devils, even the relgious cult could see them as "daemonic spawn" which in pervert way tries to copy the godly beeings which walk the earth.

Btw: Halfdragon-tarrasque,anyone !?