What's your favorite monster I've never heard of?

[megamania]

Anything from Darksun-

Tembos are a favorite of mine.

Also Anakor, Spider Cactus, Crystal Spiders and Bog Waders are fun.

 

[NiTessine]

Modrons, who really need to get a full 3.5 treatment, and soon.

I also have a soft spot for the various creepy crawlies of the Far Realm, such as the kaorti and the various pseudonatural creatures - and, by extension, the daelkyr.

 

[DMH]

From Minions (Bastion), the hearth horror is the reason evil temples and such keep being rebuilt. Secret eaters act as KGB and keep things buried. The polar is a big cat that zaps peoples' brains. The vapor bore is another big cat that eats charisma and then replaces it with a point of its own, thus taking control. And the crowd template describes an ooze that absorbs people and critters.

From Fantasy Bestiary (Atlas), the child of light/child of darkness templates follows the life cycle of something that looks like the aliens from The Abyss. Eyaks are constructs in the shape of flying eyes. Caffeine wasps are a resource. Da fong are wasp people who eat magic to the advantage of casters. Seedkin are a nightmare as they breed fast. There are too many jewel golems to name, but they are powered by air elementals and act more intelligently than standard golems. The temporal marauder moves to fast to see and lives but days. And the saboath are angels.

Liber Bestarius (Eden) has the lich hound- a humanoid twisted into a servant. Dream golems are made up of bodies and are not made by spellcasters. Mantids and skitterwings are fey representing mantids and mosquitos. Q'tsal and zhival are cthulhuish horrors. And shadow oozes move only in the dark.

 

[Henry]

Rycanada:

The Gambado's head is its own, but it looks like a skull. It's body is more like a scaleless snake with forearms ending in powerful claws, and it typically digs a hole, lays in the hole piling debris around it, and looks like a skull on a pile of debris. Anyone approaching gets basically charged in a spring attack.

If I were doing it for 3E, I'd probably give it the Pounce special ability, an awesome bonus to hide, and something special for its coiled "spring-jump" type movement.

 

[Shade]

I knew there was a problem when the dragon mind blasted the party... and they all needed at least 18s to make their saves. Well, not to worry, I thought; they may get stunned, but what's the worst that could happen? Trouble was, the dragon could use its stun an average of every 2.5 rounds, with a duration of 13.5 rounds - meaning once it stun-locked the PCs, it never had to let any of them get un-stunned, and it could re-use its mind blast often enough to ensure they all got stunned.

I think this is more indicative of a problem with mind blast in general than the brainstealer dragon. While the dragon has a longer duration of the effect, nearly all creatures with mind blast can use it every 1d4 rounds. But even mind flayers stun for a minimum of 3 rounds, which is usually enough time to recharge the mind blast power and fire again, leaving two rounds of other nastiness in between.

My party of six 24th-level characters were nearly decimated by four advanced (to CR 20) urophions. In my experience, It is the frequency of mind blasts that is problematic, not the duration of the stun.

Mind blast is a spell-like ability, so the cleric's spell resistance spell might be a good countermeasure. Interestingly, though, none of the creatures that possess mind blast list their effective caster level for the ability, so it's hard to know what they'd need to roll to overcome spell resistance. I'm guessing just use the fallback of caster level = HD (max 20th).

 

[werk]

I think they were exterminated by the local moneylenders guilds, werent they?

No...just captured.

 

[DestroyYouAlot]

I used to LOVE the Gambado from the old Fiend Folio (the first "trap door monster" I can remember!)

Also, the Nilbog from FF really hasn't made a 3E appearance, yet.

YES!!! I can't get enough of FF monsters. The gambado, in particular, is (as we speak) laying in wait for my PCs down an out-of-the-way cavern passage in my current game. (There's a great write-up in the Creature Catalog.) I remember an amazing investigation-based adventure in an old Dungeon that centered around a nilbog and a hapless village. That was a good one.

Another one from the FF is my favorite monster of all time: The volt. (Also features in CC here on enworld.) Greatlow-CR monster, cool special attack, and your players have probably never heard of it. (Let's just say the "introductory dungeon" in the Forgotten Realms grey box made quite an impression on me as a lad.)

 

[Kid Socrates]

I run a Final Fantasy game in the style of 7 and 8 (modern fantasy more than classic fantasy), and the monsters I was most proud of were my bio-mechanical insectoid Ruby Weapon scouts.

The Adarmantula, an armored-plated massive tarantula (name from the classic FF monster Adamantoise & tarantula, plus switching a syllable so I didn't stumble over the name).

Arachnicycles, mechanical spiders with their front two legs and back two legs hooked into giant wheels, with the middle four used to slash the enemy and protect the body as they wheeled around the battlefield recklessly.

It was a fun lead-up to the colossal bio-mech scorpion that was Ruby Weapon.

There aren't a lot of monster manuals that cater to that style of gaming, so I haven't had a chance to go hunting for appropriate monsters, really. Luckily, I enjoy designing.

 

[Rolzup]

I occasionally feel the desire to stat up the Bonnacon as a 3.5 beast. An aberration, probably. But thus far, good taste has prevailed.

Nothing is weirder than the stuff that showed up in medieval beastiaries, people.

 

[BOZ]

Like a giant burr with a "petrification" attack....hides in the woods, and if it sticks its proboscis into your PC

hey now - this is a PG board!