D&D General The abandoned core monsters of D&D

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

It’s true, even in Rhode Island (which isn’t an island) has a serpent - the Block Ness Monster on Block Island Island, just off coast.
View attachment 351901

That's a nicely 1E illustration, as a bonus.

 

[Voadam]

Barsoomian White Apes of Mars are distinct from the Ape, White of Moldvay B/X Basic. Moldvay ones are albino cave apes, Martian ones are fourteen foot tall four armed beasts much closer to the 3e Girallion.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

The grip the Barsoom books have on D&D designers as late as the 21st century is something else.

 

[Reynard]

The grip the Barsoom books have on D&D designers as late as the 21st century is something else.

To be fair, Boroughs' Mars stuff is still great to this day.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

To be fair, Boroughs' Mars stuff is still great to this day.

It just amazes me the 3E MM had a four-armed white gorilla from Barsoom but not a grue from Zork, a winged not-nightmare from the D&D cartoon or countless other monsters with more contemporary relevance. I generally admire creatives sticking to their creative guns, but it's weird how resistant D&D has always been to add stuff that was thought up after 1974, even stuff that is a direct outgrowth or response to D&D itself.

 

[JEB]

but not a grue from Zork

D&D does have monsters called grues, though they haven't made an appearance since 3e (unless you count the update in the OAR Temple of Elemental Evil book). Not like those grues, though, they're all elemental.

 

[W'rkncacnter]

Haven't read the original description of the gnoll eh? A GNOME/TROLL HYBRID! I'm pretty sure even contemplating a visual on how that happens would not pass muster.

...well, uh...i mean...i mean that...certainly explains the name...

 

[JEB]

So, taking a look at the Basic D&D rulebooks...

Basic 1977
No monsters appeared as core here and nowhere else. (Basic '77 was kind of an odd duck anyway, more of an intermediate step between 0e and 1e.)

Basic 1981
Just one that didn't go onward at all - the medium, which was just a low-level NPC wizard. One presumes it was folded into the more general wizard NPCs in later editions, to include the 5e mage. (Though if you want an actual novice wizard in 5e, you have to go for the apprentice wizard in Volo's Guide to Monsters.) That said, its Basic D&D counterparts - the veteran (fighter) and acolyte (cleric) - made it into the current edition's core, so make of that what you will.

There were also many introduced here that stuck around through Basic '83 and the Rules Cyclopedia, but never moved onto the AD&D core:

• Living statues (in crystal, iron, and rock flavors)
• The legendary thoul
• White ape
• Rock baboon
• Robber fly
• Cave locust, later known as giant locust
• Basic's version of the giant bat (which was a bit different from the contemporary AD&D version, in that they had a vampire angle)
• Giant ferret and giant shrew
• Two types of giant beetle: oil and tiger
• Four types of giant lizard: draco, gecko, horned chameleon, and tuatara
• Three types of giant spider: black widow, crab, and tarantella
• Four types of snake: pit viper, giant rattler, rock python, and (normal-sized) sea snake

Some of the above did make non-core comebacks in the AD&D line, most notably in the 2e Mystara MC Appendix. Living statues have been the most popular to revive, having appeared in that plus 3e and 5e sources.

I'm not sure what these unique core choices say about the Basic D&D ethos. Maybe they were trying harder to make the low-level dungeon crawling experience interesting? They certainly felt empowered by 1981 to forge their own path of what should be in the core, in any case, such as going with "living statues" rather than golems. (Although Basic did later introduce its own distinctive golems.)

As for why any of these didn't carry forward, not sure. Much weirder things have gone the distance. Even the 3e Monster Manuals, which were clearly trying to draw on Basic D&D for ideas, skipped these older creatures in favor of Rules Cyclopedia options.

Basic 1983
Not much here that wasn't in Basic '81, but one exception was the giant racer snake. It did carry forward into the Rules Cyclopedia, but made no other appearances. Here's its '83 description:

Giant Racer: This is an “average” type of giant snake about 4’ long. It has no special abilities, but is faster than most other types. It is not poisonous, but its bite can be dangerous in itself. Larger ones may be found, averaging 2‘ long per Hit Die and inflicting 1-8, 1-10, or even 2-12 points of damage per bite.

Why did it get added to the other snakes? No idea. Maybe someone thought racer snakes were cool?

My guess as to why it didn't make it into other editions? It probably wasn't distinctive enough compared to other snakes.

 

[gorice]

I miss all the giant bugs the game used to have. Simple but effective.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

D&D does have monsters called grues, though they haven't made an appearance since 3e (unless you count the update in the OAR Temple of Elemental Evil book). Not like those grues, though, they're all elemental.

They're honestly some of the saddest monsters ever. I don't know what drugs were involved in "we should make an evil earth elemental hedgehog," but they should have gotten their money back. (Even drug dealers know when they've gone too far.)