I can't XP you right now... but this was a really great answer.
Apparently there's soemthing we can agree on right down to the being unable to XP.
Derro (Dwarf, Derro) was a 2E that stood out in my mind - primarily the section in habitat on the Uniting War. I'm not sure Derro are in MV, however.
Depends. Will you accept Duegar? Which are in MV - and the MM2 (but not the MM1). Same page as
Derro (and it's the Duegar not the Derro who launch the Uniting War). I agree that the Uniting War is a nice touch - and not one that made it as far as 4e.
For that matter 4e Duegar are slightly silly; they fling beard-quills at people. (No, I don't know either). But then the 2e Duegar entry seems utterly pointless.
4e Duegar vs 2e Derro.
Duegar
The duegar are slavers that dwell in the volcanic regions of the Underdark. They were once the thralls of mind flayers, but they turned to devils to help escape bondage. Now they aquire their own slaves by making raids into the surface world.
That sets their place in the world far better than "Derro live in large underground complexes, nearer the surface than the kuo-toans and drow, but deeper than goblins and trolls." And further "Other Underdark denizens also call on duegar to build keeps, castles, and other structures of stone." Or "Many of the fortresslike cities that duegar inhabit have places that serve as embassies for devils. Throughout these cities, devils travel openly in the streets." Monster Vault has sections on how Duegar pick slaves, how they treat slaves, how they raid for them, where the Duegar live, and what their cities look like. Much as I like the Uniting War, that is the
only point in the entire page I find remotely inspiring. As opposed to the evil dwarves who've rejected Moradin for demons and make cities where demons can walk freely "on islands in the middle of underground seas, in caverns surrounded by moats of lava, or on the edge of deep chasms."
I think the 4e Duegar win here even if the 2e Derro have a very cool way to hook them in.
Randomly picking a page, I'd also like to see you compare, say Vampire,
In the preview.
Compare with 2e. Over half the 2e text is combat - and that goes in the statblock; a section I find long winded and thoroughly tedious. Also a 2e Vampire is straight from the Hammer Horror Studios - whereas a 4e Vampire is much more post-White Wolf. I definitely know which I prefer; the decadence of a 4e vampire lends them an allure - and coming with Vampire Spawn (a.k.a. Buffy level Vampires) makes them social if you want them to be. But Vampires are an odd one as they are deep rooted enough in popular culture that almost no one is going to read the text that hard as we all know what vampires are.
Imp/Quasit. Quasits don't exist in 4e; demons just want to watch the world burn. The tempters are all devils. This puts clear water between the two and makes them distinct rather than groups that fight over how to be evil.
Imps get all the awesome 4e Devil fluff - I'm not sure whether you want to count "Fallen Servants of the Gods" as good fluff or not. But honestly I'll match
Tempters of Mortals: The follower of Asmodeus are, like their masters, nothing if not cunning. Many devils prefer to capture the souls of mortals through non-violent means, even convincing mortals to give up their own free will. For example, imps (small, red-skinned devils with leathery wings and stinger-tipped tails) whisper promises of power in mortals' ears, corrupting them with unholy contracts that divulge the secrets of arcane and divine magic. [Sentence on succubi snipped]. Both of these types of devils are capable of fulfilling their promises, but everything comes with a price. A wizard who agrees to a contract with an imp might learn spells beyond imagination, but he is likely to sink slowly into madness as the dark magic erodes his sanity.
I will take that for inspiring
any day over "Their main purpose on the Prime Material plane is to spread evil by assisting lawful evil wizards and priests. When such a person is judged worthy of an imp's service, the imp comes in answer to a
find familiar spell. Once they have contacted their new "master", imps begin at once to take control of his actions. Although imps maintain the illusion that the summoner is in charge, the actual relationship is closer to that of a workman (the imp) and his tools (the master)."
2E imps find evil people and work for them and empower them. 4E imps find corruptable people and tempt them to evil by offering them promises
that they can and will fulfill. A 2e Imp will leave a neutral but book hungry caster alone. A 4e one won't.
and Fungus (Shrieker, Violet Fungi, Gas Spore, Ascimoid/Phycamoid) [Are these guys even in 4E?!?) .
Not all of them. 4e doesn't run to Gas Spores - but has its own take on Myconids although those are in the MM2.
As an alternate, Beholder/Beholder-kin (ALL of 'em).
Oof! That's
twelve types. But it's fluff we're interested in. What do they do? 4e gets only three in Monster Vault - the Gauth, the Beholder, and the Eye Tyrant.
But where do Beholders fit? Where do they come from (other than bad puns)? And where do they go?
Let's take one of the Beholder Kin semi-at random (mostly because I remember reading books by that name).
Lensman (abomination)
A lensman has one eye set in the chest of its five-limbed, starfish-shaped, simian body. Beneath the eye is a leering, toothy maw. Four of the five limbs end in three-fingered, two-thumbed, clawed hands. The fifth limb, atop the body, is a prehensile, whip-like tentacle. Its chitin is soft and there are many short, fly-like hairs. Lensmen are the only kin to wear any sort of garb -- a webbing that is used to hold tools and weapons. Their preferred weapons are double-headed pole arms.
Lensmen are semi-mindless drones that don't question their lot in life. The eye of each lensman possesses only one of the following six special powers (all at the 6th level of ability).
1. Emotion
2. Heal
3. Dispel Magic
4. Tongues
5. Phantasmal Force
6. Protections (as scrolls, any type, but only one at a time)
That's not a description. That's a statblock and description of a faceless mook. Other than a slightly freakish appearance, I can't see
anything that really makes me want to use them. In fact far the most interesting of the Beholder Kin is one with no statblock at all.
Beholder Mage
Shunned by other beholders, this is a beholder which has purposely blinded its central eye, so that it might cast spells. It does so by channeling spell energy through an eyestalk, replacing the normal effect with that of a spell of its choice.
Now that's an interesting idea. Pity it wasn't developed - and equally a pity about the shunning contradicting with "Beholders and beholder-kin are usually solitary creatures". It's shunned ... by other solitary creatures. Wait, what?
That said, I
do like the death tyrant.
So why do I want to use 2e Beholders? Other than the appearance and the pun? And let's face it, the 2e beholder (the second one below) looks very goofy. The 4e one is
scary. Do I want a giant floating eyeball full of hate with a goofy expression on a silly looking face? Possibly. Do I want a giant eldritch bundle of tentacles raining death down on the PCs? Hell, yeah!
And why do Beholders look so weird? 4e has an answer.
Beholder
Creatures of abohorrent shape and alien mind, beholders seek dominance over all they survey. The floating horrors enforce their will by firing rays of magic from their eyestalks.
When the unwholesome plane known as the Far Realm comes into tenuous contact with reality, terrible things boil across the boundary. Nightmares form the thunderhead of psychic storms that presage the arrival of warped beings and forces undreamt of by the maddest dmon or the vilest devil. Many aberrant creatures stumble upon the world by accident, pushed in like a chill wind through a door suddenly opened. Others crash into reality because it is as loathsome to them as their surreal homeworld is to all sane natives of the rational planes. Beholders, however, come as conquerers. Each one seeks to claim all in its sight, and Beholders see much indeed.
Beholders do not belong in the world or in any of the planes inhabited by immortal or elemental, primordial or god. Their home, the Far Realm, is so antithetical to rational thought that most hwo glimpse the plane go mad. Like other unsettling inhabitants of that place, beholders have forms unlike those of natural creatures.
Or to sum up, 4e Beholders are half Conquistador, half Shoggoth. Means, motive, and explanation - and an explanation that can either make them a single entity looking to hold what it can or a vanguard to an incursion ending up with Dread Cthulu himself (or itself, or whatever is applicable). "When beholders work togeter or do the bidding of a more powerful master, the world is in peril."
Does that, strong theme, motivation, metaplot, and reason for looking the way they do, make up for not having the Lensman, the Overseer, the Watcher, and even the awesome Death Tyrant. In my view, Hell Yes!
To me that's a clear win for the 4e Imp (not even a contest), and a comfortable win on each of the other categories assuming you allow the Derro/Duegar substitution - the 2e Beholders might even scramble a draw due to the numbers, the variety, the Undead Beholder, and the Mage. (The 2e Duegar doesn't even make it to the starting blocks).
