D&D 5E Monster Manual - What pictures really stood out, or changed your view on a monster?

[steeldragons]

I thought this was always their established backstory...at least since Expedition to the Barrier Peaks.

 

[Sage Genesis]

There was an ecology article in the Dragon back in the day (and one of my favorites) where this was basically true.

Yep. It's also mentioned in the AD&D supplement, The Illithiad.

 

[GameDoc]

I was very amused by the sketches at the end. Especially the adventurer poking at a flumph with a 10-foot pole

 

[thalmin]

I was very amused by the sketches at the end. Especially the adventurer poking at a flumph with a 10-foot pole

I enjoyed the otyugh under the outhouse.

 

[TerraDave]

I was very amused by the sketches at the end....

The dragon LUV one is the one that I can't quite get over.

But who am I to judge?

 

[Mercurius]

There was an ecology article in the Dragon back in the day (and one of my favorites) where this was basically true.

Except instead of being stranded, they deliberately came to this dimension because theirs is dying. The author put a lot of work into imagining what the illithid homeworld must have been like. He had it as a tidally-locked world with the sun always above one side; the mind flayers' big goal is not to put out the sun, but to stop the Earth's rotation, thereby "illith-forming" it.

It also tied a lot of other monsters into that dimension. The oozes, a lot of the fungi, and some of the giant insects, as I recall.

Interesting. Either its a case of "great minds think alike" or it is one of those things that maybe I read decades ago, forgot, and then re-created in the present. Either way, a cool idea and I'll have to try to track that down.

 

[Scorpio616]

I enjoyed the mind flayer picture....I found it very menacing

I really dug how the head harkened back to the 1E design.

I'll second the vote for Merrow. That piece of art is just menacing.

It's cool, though what I thought at first was somebody wanted their Slitherblade Tidehunter miniature statted up.

And the carrion crawler, I love this pic!! woot!

Yeah, nasty and ugly as it should be and it nicely echos the 2E Monstrous Manual version.

Myconids!

I strongly suspect these guys started out as a joke about psychedelic mushrooms, but the 5e art is majestically unearthly.

Well, the psychedelic colours are an homage to the colour palette old school D&D artist Erol Otus often used.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Along with the already mentioned art pieces, I also like the gnoll, bone naga, mummy, and black pudding. Text wise, I really like the realm affects of legendary creatures. Love it. Every time I read some of the affects, I immediately start thinking about how I can create a campaign around it.

 

[Wrathamon]

for a positive (since griffon was my negative)

the Kraken, we now have Harryhausen inspired monster instead of a giant squid/octopus (which may be more historically accurate, but not as cool imo)

 

[edhel]

Behir really stood out with its serpentine body. It's almost mythic in its appearance.

OTOH I'm really disappointed at the devils and demons. Most of them don't look supernatural enough. They're just cartoony and not intimidating, freaky or unnatural.

Here's some better devils/demons http://waynebarlowe.wordpress.com/artwork/hell/