D&D General D&D monsters that have been changed the most over time

[Sacrosanct]

Nightmares have had some interesting variations. The beyond-excellent Power Score RPG has a good article on them, A Guide to the Nightmare, though the author does note they seem to be an underutilized monster.

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Interesting to see that the nightmare went from an emaciated horse with only flaming hooves to an impressive steed with flaming mane and tail.

The 3E Monster Manual established the existence of greater, Huge-sized nightmares called cauchemars (which is the French word for nightmare). Pathfinder retained the cauchemar but made it more unique by making the ability to enter the Ethereal Plane an exclusive trait of cauchemars rather than all nightmares.

In 4E, all nightmares are said to be the progeny of two immortal parents: Sin's Reward, the greatest nightmare of the Nine Hells, and Thunder of Hooves, a huge, many-legged nightmare that roams the Abyss. When the urge takes them, the two travel to the Shadowfell to mate, the resulting foals split between those that follow Sin's Reward to the Hells, those that follow Thunder of Hooves to the Abyss, and those that remain in the Shadowfell. 5E presents a simpler but more wicked origin for the nightmare: they are pegasi whose wings have been torn off in an evil ritual.

I'm not certain which origin I like more. The defiled pegasus angle works for me, but I also like the idea of Sin's Reward and Thunder of Hooves (though there's no reason the pair couldn't still exist as unique nightmares even with the defiled pegasus origin).

In 1e, they were pretty impressive and not emaciated. That was a 2e change.

 

[Hexmage-EN]

Talking about modrons leads me to an even greater example of change over the editions in both design and lore: the marut.

Maruts in 2E, 3E, and 4E are all creatures of inflexible law that appear to be made of stone. In 2E and 3E in particular, the maruts enforced the inevitability of death.

3E folded the marut into a new group called the inevitables, which were effectively one of two replacements for the modrons as the inhabitants of Mechanus along with the formians (not to be confused with the older fomorians). The marut as an inevitable maintained its role as enforcer of death and a punisher of those who would avoid it, whereas the other inevitables focused on enforcing other laws of the multiverse.

4E got rid of the inevitables but effectively expanded the role of the maruts to encompass their former role. No longer merely enforcers of the inevitability of death, the 4E maruts were created by an alliance of gods (bodies crafted by Moradin and souls crafted by other gods of Law) to be impartial arbiters in terms of disputes between the gods, the creators of the first written language (which put the language of the gods into writing), and enforcers of order throughout the Astral Sea. With Mechanus not yet introduced into 4E, the maruts became a presence throughout the Astral Plane with multiple fortresses of law in which contracts were stored and protected, the two greatest being the Tower of Judgement (where the first and most powerful marut was said to dwell) and the Bastion of Inevitiability, which maps the Astral Plane thanks to its ability to teleport vast distances whenever any explorer of the plane enters a new, unmapped location. When the modrons were brought into 4E towards the end of the line they and the maruts were able to coexist without infringing on each other's conceptual space, the maruts being impartial arbiters of law between the lawful gods and the modrons being the components of Primus, a more alien form of law beyond the gods.

5E brought about the most radical change to the maruts, nearly completely reinventing them. Now more metallic than stone and bearing a slight visual similarity to the modrons (with very little coming from the designs of previous editions), the 5E maruts are stationed in the Hall of Concordance within Sigil. A unique being called the Kolyarut (which in 3E was a kind of inevitable rather than a unique individual) dispatches maruts to punish violators of agreements that were made before the Kolyarut. The 5E marut is also a veritable powerhouse at CR 25, capable of dealing a constant amount of damage with each attack and even forcibly teleporting itself and up to two targets to the Hall of Concordance in Sigil.

Personally, I like the 4E take on the marut the best as arbiters of law that even the Lawful gods defer to, as well as their wider distribution and number of roles they can fulfill in a campaign where exploration of the Astral Plane occurs. They also helped to populate the Astral Sea of 4E, fitting in alongside githyanki, angels, and corals. The 5E marut has a unique design and its sheer power is notable, but they seem like they would be very limited in terms of when a DM could actually use them due to having such a very specific purpose and enormous power that eclipses that of several demon lords. I'm honestly a bit curious what the thought process was behind making 5E maruts so limited in scope. Even if you ditch their link to the Hall of Concordance they're so powerful that I'm struggling to think what else you could use them for other than serving as Mechanus' equivalent to pit fiends or something.

 

[Mind of tempest]

It is kind of funny that 5E in terms of mechanics was a step back from the changes 4E made but in terms of lore has itself become pretty different. There was probably an expectation that 5E would continue on from the lore that 3E had carried over from 2E, but instead it made changes such as yugoloths being commissioned by Asmodeus rather than the original fiends (when even a late article in 4E, the edition where most yugoloths were folded into demons, mentioned that the yugoloths were rumored to have once been the first fiends who eventually got subsumed into demonkind).

Late 4E did a bit of work trying to establish the default setting as sort of an alternate timeline version of the older established lore for the Multiverse. The article that reintroduced the Modrons even included a portion about how their progenitor, the Prime Architect, attempted to transform the Elemental Chaos into discrete Elemental Planes before being thwarted.

Speaking of the modrons, here's a 2E quadrone versus a 4E modron:

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it is trying way too hard to not be goofy, but the legs and arms are much better.

 

[Hexmage-EN]

it is trying way too hard to not be goofy, but the legs and arms are much better.

True, though it makes some sense given that 3E had previously ignored modrons completely (other than a late 3E Dragon magazine article) in favor of focusing on the inevitables and formians. 4E attempted to bring them back while also trying to make people take them more seriously (although that could also have been done by featuring the more freakish modron varieities, like the decaton).

Monodrone (kinda cute)

Decaton (OH MY GOD WHAT IS THAT?!)

 

[Mind of tempest]

True, though it makes some sense given that 3E had previously ignored modrons completely (other than a late 3E Dragon magazine article) in favor of focusing on the inevitables and formians. 4E attempted to bring them back while also trying to make people take them more seriously (although that could also have been done by featuring the more freakish modron varieities, like the decaton).

Monodrone (kinda cute)
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Decaton (OH MY GOD WHAT IS THAT?!)
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that is a massively inefficient design reminds me of this video on them

 

[Ruin Explorer]

True, though it makes some sense given that 3E had previously ignored modrons completely (other than a late 3E Dragon magazine article) in favor of focusing on the inevitables and formians. 4E attempted to bring them back while also trying to make people take them more seriously (although that could also have been done by featuring the more freakish modron varieities, like the decaton).

Monodrone (kinda cute)
View attachment 139789

Decaton (OH MY GOD WHAT IS THAT?!)
View attachment 139788

Wow that monodrone is so perfectly in the DiTerlizzi style I didn't realize it wasn't him until I saw the "Paizo" then went "Huh?" and looked at the artist name. Good though, his take was iconic, and the 4E take is ludicrous in that it just draws attention to the issues. I mean, is that a Modron or is that The Goddamn Batman?

If D&D isn't allowed to have ridiculous outer planar beings anymore though, frankly I quit. I mean, it's better than 3E's attempt to delete them by stealth (BOOOOOOO! I blame Regdar. We all know Regdar only listened to nu-metal and pop-punk and thought Modrons were "lame, man") but come on. Getting rid of Modrons for not being cool enough is the deleting Devils/Demons of the 21st century.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

is that a Modron or is that The Goddamn Batman?

 

[Paul Farquhar]

 

[Kobold Stew]

As to Gnolls Lord Dunsany wrote a short story called "How Nuth Would Have Practised His Art upon the Gnoles" so I always thought Gnoll came from that,

Yes. The Gnome/Troll is a false etymology from this. Found in the White books and not after.

As far as I'm aware, gnolls effectively being demons wearing humanoid hyena skins was a 5E invention. ...

Gnolls pretty much morphed in 5E, for whatever reason, into the ideal version of an "always Chaotic Evil" mortal race; no young to worry about, essentially being demons made flesh through exploding out of corrupted natural beasts, intrinsically-linked to the essence of a demon lord, etc.

There's good evidence that it was Mearls specifically who wanted to exclude them as a playable 5e race. A lot of discussion in and around Volo's, and with tweets about the conscious decision to remove them from play, covered with non-explanations like "in our lore" or reference to "the data I have". (The first link also hints at another race "that might fill a similar role [to the gnoll]" but looking at Volo's I have no idea what he is thinking of with that comment; another red herring?)

 

[Voadam]

I mean, I'd say a lot had changed myself. Prior to 3E there was no clear indication they were even "reptilian", per se. They're scale-y, sure, but this is D&D and lots of things are, and they have horns, and are consistently drawn in a non-reptilian way. I can't think of a single "reptile-style" kobold prior to late 2E/early 3E. You can even see a dog-nose on the example you have from 1E, and ears! The 2E description from the MM doesn't mention them as reptilian at all, just scale-y (they lay eggs, but so do some mammals), but they have "rat-like" tails, smell, like dogs, yap like dogs, and so on.

Scales and lays eggs could be considered a clear indication. It is a matter of interpretation if their old art is reptilian such as the head ridge and hairlessness of the dog-like B/X kobolds from 1981.

"These small, evil dog-like men usually live underground. They have scaly rust-brown skin and no hair."

Here is the 1e DMG 1979:

And the 1979 1e MM's other picture of kobolds:

I considered the old art as indicative of humanoid reptiles with dog like faces.