A waste of statistics and an illustrators time.

[der_kluge]

I've never understood the "cloud" monsters like the Tempest. Just ecologically weird "hey, it's a sentient cloud!" and usually just uber-powerful. I mean, if they existed they'd wipe out entire cities. Dumb.

 

[VirgilCaine]

I've just discovered that Destrachans are really interesting, too.

Destrachans in the dungeon/cave/whatever, yrthaks outside! You can't escape the SONIC MENACE!! Bwaahahaaah!

 

[Fedifensor]

see Monster Manual 2.....

Yep - one of the most useless books WotC has put out in recent years. Over 120 monsters...and less than a dozen are worth the read. Especially if you have no interest in epic-level games.

 

[Archibald Theocliste]

How is this unplayable?

Sorry I shouldn't have said it that way. I consider trying to put that creature into my game a total waste of my time and my players time. At lvl 5 things can quickly take a bad turn so either they can kill it without noticing and I know how they will make joke about the monsters for weeks, either a character end dead and that will be no fun for anybody. Btw you don't have a lot of way of running from an encounter at that level, the result of an encounter with a Ravid is highly dependent of the situation.

So that monster is playable, right, actually any monster is playable as long as it is kept it in check and in that case you control its random ability. But I'm sorry, I consider the design on that creature completely flawed. A 16hp CR 5 monster able to cast animate object at will each round as a 20th lvl spellcaster won't work for me. I would consider it more interesting with more HD and a lower lvl Animate object but as it is I think it's more flawed than the Spellweaver since it was designed with lvl 5 encounters in mind.

So by unplayable I meant that I will never bother playing one in my game and I will never tell someone that it's an worthwile creature. But I admit that was a poor choice of words.
Of course that's just my personal point of view, nothing more, so I understand other posters may find it an interesting creature.

 

[JustKim]

The Denzellian from the 1E Fiend Folio always made me feel like I was being robbed.

Number of attacks: Nil
Damage per attack: Nil
Special Attacks: Nil
Alignment: neutral
Intelligence: Semi

What exactly was this thing for. Oh yes...and the picture was of a featureless blob.

It always reminded me of certain parts of the female anatomy, or perhaps a bean burrito, and then gave me epileptic seizures from the business of the hatching. Truly it was a work of art.

 

[DMH]

the ulgurstasta. What were they thinking? :\

Sam

It came from a Dragon issue about Kyuss. If you read the article, you would know why they exist. I do have to say that the art from the book is worse than the magazine.

 

[David Howery]

I'm not sure just which is the most useless monster of all time, but I'm sure it will be found in the 1E FF... home of the notorious flumph, almiraj, booka, carbuncle, enveloper, gorbel, gorilla bear, killmoulis, osquip, protein polymorph, snyad, thork, and umpleby. Any of these could qualify.... the illustrations alone make even the neat monsters look pretty useless...

 

[Crothian]

Yep - one of the most useless books WotC has put out in recent years. Over 120 monsters...and less than a dozen are worth the read. Especially if you have no interest in epic-level games.

Even the high level encounters are not that great.....:\

 

[Abstraction]

It always reminded me of certain parts of the female anatomy, or perhaps a bean burrito, and then gave me epileptic seizures from the business of the hatching. Truly it was a work of art.

Is bean burrito a part of the femal anatomy? Man, I know so little about women. Oh, and I'm never eating at Taco Bell again.

 

[Gez]

The Phasm. "Uh, it's an amorphous shapechanger. You never see it in its natural form. So, let us give you a crappy illo of its natural form you'll never see. Yup, we thought it was more important than illos of demons/devils/mephits/giants or the pseudodragon. Ain't you happy?"

The Tarrasque is useless as a monster. She's only a plot-device. Furthermore, she's bogus, as you need to put her down to -30, but you can't inflict her lethal damage! Weee! And you can wish for her regen to stop, but only once she's at -30... :insert missing rolleyes smiley: