Best 3E era monsters?

[MerricB]

MMIII:
Chraals, Drowned

MMIV:
Tomb Spiders, Inferno Spiders

Cheers!

 

[DMH]

Secret Eater, Minions- the only men in black adapatation I consider using.

Hearth Horror, Minions- an excellent reason for evil building to keep coming back after the party tears it down.

Coral Dragon, Brixbrix's Guide to Creatures of Ados- great adaptation of the leafy dragon.

Night Creeper, Brixbrix's- undead vines. This book introduces undead plants in groups (dead wood, vines and whole trees).

Seedkin, Fantasy Bestiary- small, killer plants. It uses a high reproductive rate and can make even mid level characters' lives difficult.

Time Spider, FB- a time travel plot device that may eat the party.

Child of Darkness/Child of Light, FB- paired templates that cover 2 parts of the life history of a most unusual creature (the adult looks like an alien from The Abyss).

Burning One, Liber Bestarius- a walking firestorm, this critter is a cursed cleric.

Lich Hound, LB- a use for the defeated by liches, this is a twisted human body that hunts magic items.

Shadow Ooze, LB- a reason for characters to be afraid of their own shadow.

 

[Joshua Randall]

Monster Manual III or Eberron Campaign Setting:
* Redcaps (evil fey!)

I'm pretty sure these guys were in 1e AD&D. Regardless, they're cool.

= = =

Most of the ones I wanted to mention have already been mentioned, but I'd like to give a shout out to the Immoth. They have a neat backstory, they use runes (which are just inherently cool), and they're a lot more powerful than they look -- maybe too powerful, in fact, but since when did the DM have to play fair?

 

[demiurge1138]

I'm pretty sure these guys were in 1e AD&D. Regardless, they're cool.

= = =

Most of the ones I wanted to mention have already been mentioned, but I'd like to give a shout out to the Immoth. They have a neat backstory, they use runes (which are just inherently cool), and they're a lot more powerful than they look -- maybe too powerful, in fact, but since when did the DM have to play fair?

...ironic that immoth also predate 3e. They're pretty obscure, though. From the Planescape Monstrous Compendium 3.

Demiurge out.

 

[MoogleEmpMog]

The Epic Level Handbook. Seriously, I can't think of a single monster in it that isn't totally cool, and IIRC none of them showed up pre-3e except the demilich. Of course, they're mostly UNUSABLE, because the rest of the epic rules aren't a tenth as good as the flavor of those monsters, but what the heck.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I'm pretty sure these guys were in 1e AD&D. Regardless, they're cool.

I was all over 1E, and don't remember them, but I'm old and have taken many shots to the head over the years.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

The Epic Level Handbook. Seriously, I can't think of a single monster in it that isn't totally cool, and IIRC none of them showed up pre-3e except the demilich. Of course, they're mostly UNUSABLE, because the rest of the epic rules aren't a tenth as good as the flavor of those monsters, but what the heck.

The ones under CR 30 are still usable, although granted, that leaves out a lot of the most awesome ones. (Hence the atropal scion in Libris Mortis, I guess.)

 

[Remathilis]

The Epic Level Handbook. Seriously, I can't think of a single monster in it that isn't totally cool, and IIRC none of them showed up pre-3e except the demilich. Of course, they're mostly UNUSABLE, because the rest of the epic rules aren't a tenth as good as the flavor of those monsters, but what the heck.

Winterwights were pre 3e, but a moot point.

My Favs:

Chaos Reapers (LM) A great death-creature finally.
Aspects (MH) fightable demi-gods.
Death Giants (MM3) Scary, with a cool flavor.
Hecatoncheries (ELH) A CR 57 monster. How cool is that?
Quori (ECS) A great Psionic-Demon type. They need more of these...

 

[Cthulhudrew]

* Moon Rats (yes, I know -- they make fun opponents for low level games, though, especially if they can have a wizard's apprentice as their nemesis)

When I first read this, I read "if they can have a wizard familiar." Which, I agree, would be really excellent.

Not to belabor the tangent much further, but has anyone ever given an animalistic or monstrous spellcaster a human/demihuman as a familiar?

 

[Cthulhudrew]

The Epic Level Handbook. Seriously, I can't think of a single monster in it that isn't totally cool, and IIRC none of them showed up pre-3e except the demilich.

The Umbral Blot (Blackball, dangit!) and the Neh-Thalggu are both from OD&D/BECMI; Masters Set and X2: Castle Amber, to be specific.

The Mercane were from Spelljammer.

The Flesh Colossus was also sort of done in X2, but it really goes back to The Colossus of Ylourgne by Clark Ashton Smith.

A lot of those Epic Monsters are pretty cool. My only beef is that a couple of them are just identical monsters with "reversed" abilities- the Lava and Winter Wights, and the Shape of Fire and Shadow of the Void, respectively. Given how much room stat blocks take up, I'd much rather have seen two additional and unique monsters, rather than fire/ice variants that are virtually identical statistically.