Underused Monsters

[Derro]

Derro being a possible exception.

For the record, I get plenty of use out of myself.

(What the hell is that supposed to mean?)

Personally, I don't use hags nearly enough. And the ethergaunt has yet to be utilized to their full potential in any of my games but once I get them balanced a bit more with the usual levels I run at they are definitely going to be a major villain for a story arc.

And the avolakea. That thing is just gross. It was the final "boss" in a d20 Modern game that I ran that unfortunately got derailed by a drunken fist-fight. Never actually got to use him but he's still somewhere in my notes, lurking.

 

[Richards]

Oh my god. That is so hilarious. (So that's what they mean by the "Duck Bunny." EGG must have been on an ale high when he made that creature.)

Actually, no, for two main reasons: EGG didn't create the duckbunny (I did), and I don't drink alcohol. Believe it or not, the duckbunny actually does have a somewhat logical reason for being: I envisioned it a sort of "starter kit" for crazed wizards who would eventually want to work their way up to owlbear creation and the like. Far better to start out trying to magically merge two non-dangerous creatures that won't rip your lungs out if you get careless or make a mistake.

Johnathan

 

[Cirex]

Right. Seems it's only us Swedes who can keep track of the difference between cannibal and man-eating.

Hurm. Spanish definition talks about human flesh (anthropophagus). I'd consider halflings, elves, dwarves, etc. "human" for the definition of cannibal.

Is there something else I'm missing?

 

[jmucchiello]

I don't know if anybody really uses cloakers. Do they even exist in 4e? If it wasn't for a recent article in Kobold Quarterly, I don't think they'd even really have a place in the game except as a once-per-player gotcha: "Hah, that wasn't a cloak, it was a flying monster thing!"

Cloakers first appeared in the 1e A1-4 Slaver tournament series (I think A2, specifically) as an alien beast hanging out in a wardrobe disguised as a cloak. So hanging them on a hook isn't all that original.

Reading this thread reminds me of lots of 1e weirdness: trappers, mimics, piercers. All the creatures that look like normal stuff, including the gas spore. (The carnivorous tree stump with rabbit-ish growth's name escapes me.)

I've never used dinosaurs. I suppose I should do that some day.

 

[Tervin]

Hurm. Spanish definition talks about human flesh (anthropophagus). I'd consider halflings, elves, dwarves, etc. "human" for the definition of cannibal.

Is there something else I'm missing?

Cannibal means eating your own kind. If halflings eat halflings they are cannibal. If lions eat lions they are cannibal. If either of them eat humans or elves or dwarves that doesn't make them cannibals.

This is kind of at the core of what Dark Sun halflings are about, the way I look at it. They are wild, uncivilized, xenophobic and don't feel a connection to other sentient races. In their culture eating the raw meat of dangerous creatures is part of the diet, and probably also something you do in order to grow as a warrior. Eating human meat is to them like eating bear, wolf or tiger might be to some tribes in hour world. (Of course finding food on Athas is not that easy, so its creatures tend to be less picky with what they eat than in most other worlds.)

Things like this made me fall in love with Dark Sun. And to get back on topic, I think there are many versions of popular creatures that have ended up being better monsters than the ones we commonly use.

 

[Cirex]

Cannibal means eating your own kind. If halflings eat halflings they are cannibal. If lions eat lions they are cannibal. If either of them eat humans or elves or dwarves that doesn't make them cannibals.

The origin of the word cannibal comes from Spanish (From the word "Caribs") and it equates anthropophagus. Considering halflings, elves and humans are all humanoid (they are not animals) I'd say that eating halflings, elves and humans is basic cannibalism.
If cannibalism is eating your own kind, it equates anthropophagus and anthropophagus means to eat human flesh...something is not working. Wikipedia specifies the eat your own kind when you are talking about zoology.

So, in short, and at least in my opinion, Dark Sun halflings are cannibals.

EDIT : This is probably the first time I "think too hard about fantasy" and semantics.

 

[Tervin]

So, in short, and at least in my opinion, Dark Sun halflings are cannibals.

EDIT : This is probably the first time I "think too hard about fantasy" and semantics.

I know what you mean about thinking too hard about certain things. In this case I do it, because it kind of helps people understand how come those dark sun halflings aren't necessarily "evil". Normally I would agree that in a fantasy setting "cannibalism" would be humanoids eating other humanoids. The difference with Dark Sun halflings, the way I see them, is that they don't really see other humanoids as humanoids. They feel so strongly apart from other humanoid races, that it becomes ok to eat them. Just calling that "cannibalism" takes away something from the term, and makes it harder to understand how their culture works.

 

[Cirex]

Spanish conquerors arrived to the Caribbean islands and called their natives "Caribas" or "Canibas". Human fleash eating tribes. Concepts like evil or good were unexistant for them, they just survived.
Now, the stories about cannibalism could have been grossly exaggerated back then. It's easier to annihilate people if you got an excuse about it...but that's a different story.

I don't know much about halflings from Dark Sun, but I kinda like that "set apart" mindset.

EDIT : Back on topic, all kind of "basic" humanoids never make it as monsters in my games, as I said, but not just halflings, but Elves, Dwarves and Gnomes aswell. I'm gonna change that, since I really like some of their racial powers at 4e for villains.

 

[Fifth Element]

I think kobolds are criminally underused. More kobolds I say!!!

What? I'd say that lately kobolds have been done to death. Enough with the kobolds already!

 

[Staffan]

Hurm. Spanish definition talks about human flesh (anthropophagus). I'd consider halflings, elves, dwarves, etc. "human" for the definition of cannibal.

Is there something else I'm missing?

Would you consider a lion eating a human to be a cannibal? I wouldn't. By the same token, I don't consider a halfling eating a human to be a cannibal. Now, a halfling eating another halfling, that's a cannibal, but they don't do that. Well, there's one published example, but that guy was exiled for precisely that reason.