Best 3E era monsters?

[Ripzerai]

2e Planescape Monstrous Compendium II (did it come before or after that Gamma World creature?), and yes it looked goofy then as well. Still needs laser beams. Hehehe.

Before. Planescape got the idea from Gamma World. In fact, the Planescape Monstrous Compendium Appendix II said that they came from the Material Plane originally, so I assume they emigrated from Gamma Terra to the Gray Waste in-game as well as metagame.

They look different, though. terls were feathered, wingless barracudas who traveled by psionic levitation. Terlens are winged sharks who travel by gliding.

Nerras were not in Planescape. They're new to 3e.

 

[Monkey King]

It's very tough to choose, but there have been dozens of outstanding new monsters in 3E. Here's my Dirty Dozen.

Death Giants (MM3): Lots of flavor, and well-designed high-level foe.
Devil-Bound Template (Advanced Bestiary): The whole AB is an amazing set of work, but this one stands out for fitting the mythos of devils well, and really tempting players into evil.
Eladrins (MM and BoED): Fill a planar need, and work as good-aligned foes.
Flesh Jelly (MM2): An ooze that actually makes me go "ick". Shoggothy goodness.
Inevitables (MM and FF): Fill an important niche in the planes, and hey, they have fun obsessions that make them easy to use.
Midgard Dwarves (Frostburn): Closer to the real Norse dwarves of myth. Also, badasses.
Necropolitan Template (LM): Technically taken from the 1E true ghoul (Dungeon #70), but the makeover in LM is well executed and makes them easier to adapt to a wide range of settings.
Nimblewight (MM2): Very cool clockwork flavor, so I wrote them into a Dungeon adventure.
Nerra (FF): Excellent themed monster, wrote them into a WotC adventure.
Shadow Fey (Open Design): One of mine, and extremely useful. Planar and with a strong set of nobles and appropriate special abilities.
Urskans (Frostburn): Swiped from Pullman, but who cares? Fun to roleplay, and just not much like most other arctic monsters.
Zombie Angel (Open Design): An idea from Matt Forbeck that tends to freak players out. Alas, not publically available.

Honorable Mention: Rune Golem, Dragon 343. Because druids need to shout "Blood for my lord Odin!" more often.

I'm sure there's many more. 3E has given us almost all the good monsters from 1E and 2E redone, plus whole new swathes of monsterdom. Life is good.

 

[ColonelHardisson]

I've never heard someone speak up for either of these. What do you like about them? Maybe I need to give them another look.

Delvers I like because they give a rationale for all those labyrinthine tunnels, and make nifty allies/pets for dwarves.

Grey Renders are cool because they hint at a lot of potential backstory. In my world, they are the remnants of a breed of bodyguard creatures created for the ruling class of a long-dead empire.

 

[megamania]

Templates!

Templates!

and more

Templates!


Templates have given new life to many creatures in my games. No more "its a blank creature. Fire ball it" Now one must stop and figure out if it is a standard version or not and in that time I get to attack freely and without mercy. [various books]

Elderich and Death Giants I like a lot also. [MMIII]

Warforged work well for me. [Eberron / MM III]

and the one that will get me stoned.... Spawn of Tiamats.

I'm sure with more thought there can be some really neat stories centered around these critters.... [MM IV]

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Actually, I'm thinking of using the green dragonspawn as the guardians of a dragon's mountain in my campaign while their mistress is away. Thematically appropriate while still having a decent amount of variety. And without the ick factor of them all being half-green dragon critters.

 

[DMH]

Delvers I like because they give a rationale for all those labyrinthine tunnels, and make nifty allies/pets for dwarves.

Thank you for reminding me. Maze of the Minotaur created 3 new versions of the mythical creature- females (casters and crafters), sterile bull-like animals that eat stone and an elder form of the male. What is interesting is how the racial level write ups show a metamorphosis from basic male to bull lord.

 

[Fishbone]

Cerebrilith. Hmm, wonder what obscure 1E or 2E book that was in 2 or 3 decades ago?

 

[Echohawk]

As far as I can tell, the cerebrilith first appeared in 2001's Psionics Handbook, so you should be okay, Fishbone.

I've put digesters, destrachans and yrthaks all to good use. I'd really like a digester mini please, WotC. And maybe even a yrthak in the next huge set.

 

[DMH]

As for templates, Shaping the Self from Genjitsu developed the idea of leveled templates. Some are racial levels, but most are like standard templates. My personal favorite adapatation of one example is selected high priests becoming gargoyles (using the gargoyle levels) to protect their flock.

It makes me wonder what would Savage Species be like if the racial levels could be used as prestige classes.

 

[Psion]

As far as I can tell, the cerebrilith first appeared in 2001's Psionics Handbook, so you should be okay, Fishbone.

Yep. In 1e, all demons where psionic, so there was nothing special about a psionic demon.