Which monsters (or closely related groups of monsters) make the best campaign theme?

[Shade]

Demons, devils, yugoloths...they have varities to challenge a party at almost any level, and have many tie-ins with other beings.

Yuan-ti! What drow do for spiders they do for snakes.

 

[Keeper of Secrets]

I like the idea of undead. Honestly, they provide low level threats, middle level threats and high level threats (again all in the same theme). Furthermore, there are ones that have no intelligence and personality (skeletons and zombies) and those range to ones with lots of intelligence and personality (vampires and liches). Also, at higher levels you could aslo foctor in some demons (which is not too much of a stretch when dealing with undead).

 

[Gold Roger]

I have to second the call on Yuan-Ti. They are clever, vile and adaptable. Stylish as well. They also have lots of realated creatures, an excelent book about them and theyr allies with serpent kindoms and can be used in nearly all kinds of rolls: As "Demons" or their servants, dark sorcerers, psionic meanance, scheemers, disguised as human aristocracie, Lording over a state of slavery, old empire, lovecraftian horror creatures, mutated humen or even in hibernation in the high ice. And that's only the tip of the iceberg.
I think Undead are tricky. They gimp some important abilities and on the other side tend to be pushowers to a proper prepared or build party. They have some of the most player frustrating abilities and I've nearly allways experienced fights with them to be rather boring.

 

[Wraith Form]

Let's see... we're talking about creatures that are ambitious, have an agenda, are intelligent enough to form plans and are varied enough in their abilities to make fighting them an interesting experience.

Huunh.


Sounds just like my favorite monsters: humans.

 

[Tonguez]

Problem with undead is that they have become ubiquitous and thus cliche

personally I'm fond of goblins because they are largely underestimated. Mixed with Blues, Hobgobs, Worgs and Barghest maybe even Ogres and Trolls if you want to stretch it they are a race with all kinds of potential

I also love insectoid template and the ability to create insectoid goblins and insectoid ogres to go along with your ettercaps, giant spiders and driders (as a true race not cursed drow). The bugs in Spyro really made my skin crawl and the Gargoyles episode that featured Anasi the spider was one of my favourites.

Oh and when it comes to undead I think Ghouls are the way to go. I like urban settings to have resident ghouls who lead gangs of goblin 'sewer rats'. Scenes of goblins eating children in the city back streets are just so much fun

(and yeah I seem to have a thing for Goblins)

 

[Von Ether]

I also love insectoid template and the ability to create insectoid goblins and insectoid ogres to go along with your ettercaps, giant spiders and driders (as a true race not cursed drow). The bugs in Spyro really made my skin crawl and the Gargoyles episode that featured Anasi the spider was one of my favourites. ......

I've found what makes the best campaign theme monsters are templates.

In Eberron, all the aberrant types have a common origin. I decided to slap an insect template on the type to give them a uniting theme and it's been a blast since.

Sometimes we forget that once there was only one drow monster and one mind flayer. It wasn't until TSR decided to make modules centering on these guys that they suddenly get all their back story and related monsters. In essence the same can be said of any monster handled by an enterprising GM.

Problem with undead is that they have become ubiquitous and thus cliche.

As an aside, for someone on a timetable, undead is pretty much a no-brainer in running DnD. For my quest to find some modules or adventures for my game, I was about to tear out my hair at the sheer volume of undead used. It seems like two out of every three adventures center around a vampire, lich or necromancer.

 

[Zappo]

I'm partial to fiends myself. They span the whole range of CRs from Cultist Lackey to Asmodeus. They have powerful casters, sneaky types, and melee monsters. They have weaknesses for the PCs to discover and exploit, and they have motivations as complex as you can imagine. And they come in several races with different packages.

 

[humble minion]

Something I've always been curious to try is a campaign focusing on the followers and cultists of Yeenoghu.

There's ghouls, gnolls, human cultists and shamans, vrocks and other servitor demons, hyenas etc. It gives you a strong single theme, and because there's humanoid foes, undead, outsiders and animals involved your rogues, clerics, wizards and druids all get something to do, and you don't have to worry too much about rangers stacking on the favoured enemy bonuses...

 

[Nightfall]

Ratmen, Assathi, Hags, High Gorgons, servants of the Titans. List is endless here!

 

[Pants]

Any monster has the potential to make a good campaign theme (ignoring vermin and animals, though they could work). Though, my favorites would probably be:

Undead - Classic, I use them all the time
Dragons - Movers and shakers armed with some lower-CR minions with which to plague parties of any level with.
Fiends - Typically for High-Level games, but, IMO, they have the potential for some of the most interesting themes (see Sepulchrave's story hour).
Orcs
Gnolls
Mind Flayers