Whizbang Dustyboots
Gnometown Hero
What are your favorite monsters created during the 3E era? Cite the source too, please, and say what's so cool about said monsters.
Best 3E era monsters?
- Thread starter Whizbang Dustyboots
- Start date
Shade
Monster Junkie
Just a few off the top of my head:
Chronotyryn (Fiend Folio) - Time-manipulating magical beasts from Acheron. I like these critters because they have a cool niche, they aren't outsiders like you'd expect, and they seem to come from an unlikely place for an affiliation with time.
Ethergaunts (Fiend Folio) - They just drip flavor and provide for so much campaign inspiration. Plus, they have a cool Stargate kinda vibe.
Nerra (Fiend Folio) - A great exemplar race for neutrality that lives on an underused plane.
Obyriths (Fiendish Codex 1) - An excellent treatment for the mysterious proto-demons that predated the tanar'ri, oozing with Lovecraftian flavor.
Maug (Fiend Folio) - The playable construct race that predates the warforged, with an interesting history and potential for expansion with their grafts.
Rotripper (Dragon Annual 5) - An almost-forgotten creature, this undead giant can rip the arms off its victims and add it to its own body as natural weaponry. Nothing says creepy like being beaten to death with your own arms.
Minion of Chaos (Dungeon #99) - The perfect ambassador from the Far Realm to scare the bejeezus out of your players.
Xixecal (Epic Level Handbook) - A walking glacier accompanied by white dragons circling its head like birds, it literally can bring on an ice age when it appears. An entire campaign in one creature.
Malebranche (MMII) - The name's not new, but the creature is. A good use of a nostalic name on a creature that fills a niche previously lacking in the devil hierarchy.
Kaiju Template (Dragon #289) - Create your own Godzillas, Mothras, etc. quickly and easily.
Elemental Monoliths (Complete Arcane) - These keep elementals viable at high-levels.
Rune Golem (Dragon #343) - A cool twist on an overused creature type, it incorporates Norse and druidic elements. The incredible artwork ices the cake.
Hellchain Weaver (Dragon #343) - Another nice gift for the Planescape fans, these infernal metallic spiders are tied to the kytons and have some truly frightening abilities.
Chronotyryn (Fiend Folio) - Time-manipulating magical beasts from Acheron. I like these critters because they have a cool niche, they aren't outsiders like you'd expect, and they seem to come from an unlikely place for an affiliation with time.
Ethergaunts (Fiend Folio) - They just drip flavor and provide for so much campaign inspiration. Plus, they have a cool Stargate kinda vibe.
Nerra (Fiend Folio) - A great exemplar race for neutrality that lives on an underused plane.
Obyriths (Fiendish Codex 1) - An excellent treatment for the mysterious proto-demons that predated the tanar'ri, oozing with Lovecraftian flavor.
Maug (Fiend Folio) - The playable construct race that predates the warforged, with an interesting history and potential for expansion with their grafts.
Rotripper (Dragon Annual 5) - An almost-forgotten creature, this undead giant can rip the arms off its victims and add it to its own body as natural weaponry. Nothing says creepy like being beaten to death with your own arms.
Minion of Chaos (Dungeon #99) - The perfect ambassador from the Far Realm to scare the bejeezus out of your players.
Xixecal (Epic Level Handbook) - A walking glacier accompanied by white dragons circling its head like birds, it literally can bring on an ice age when it appears. An entire campaign in one creature.
Malebranche (MMII) - The name's not new, but the creature is. A good use of a nostalic name on a creature that fills a niche previously lacking in the devil hierarchy.
Kaiju Template (Dragon #289) - Create your own Godzillas, Mothras, etc. quickly and easily.
Elemental Monoliths (Complete Arcane) - These keep elementals viable at high-levels.
Rune Golem (Dragon #343) - A cool twist on an overused creature type, it incorporates Norse and druidic elements. The incredible artwork ices the cake.
Hellchain Weaver (Dragon #343) - Another nice gift for the Planescape fans, these infernal metallic spiders are tied to the kytons and have some truly frightening abilities.
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Psion
Adventurer
Asaathi - Creature Collection Revised - Cool snake-men warrior-wizards that aren't quite yuan-ti. You can picture them having a sprawling empire, not just sinister jungle cults.
Slitheren/Ratmen - Creature Collection Revised - sinister servants of the titans, another great new humanoid villain type.
Swarms - In general, their 3.5 treatment have made them into a scary, different challenge.
Xxyth - Denizens of Avadnu - horrifying creatures of the void, with a bit of randomness and dragon-style customizability.
Tempus Twins - Creature collection 2 - More titan servants, these are shapeshifters who call pull copies of themselves from the future to help out.
Jovoc - MMII - a booby-trapped demon!
Faceless - Book of Fiends - moody assassin-devils
Daemons - Book of Fiends - the BoF take on daemons cast them along the lines of the seven deadly sins. They have lots of flavor and are loaded with plot potential.
Slitheren/Ratmen - Creature Collection Revised - sinister servants of the titans, another great new humanoid villain type.
Swarms - In general, their 3.5 treatment have made them into a scary, different challenge.
Xxyth - Denizens of Avadnu - horrifying creatures of the void, with a bit of randomness and dragon-style customizability.
Tempus Twins - Creature collection 2 - More titan servants, these are shapeshifters who call pull copies of themselves from the future to help out.
Jovoc - MMII - a booby-trapped demon!
Faceless - Book of Fiends - moody assassin-devils
Daemons - Book of Fiends - the BoF take on daemons cast them along the lines of the seven deadly sins. They have lots of flavor and are loaded with plot potential.
Cthulhudrew
First Post
I really like the Nilshai from Unapproachable East. They provide some real depth to an otherwise bland Ethereal Plane, IMO, by providing some native (and dangerous) creatures that dwell there.
(I'm not sure they are from 3E, though- they may possibly be from 2E.)
Similarly, I think the Ethereal Marauders and Ethereal Filchers (both, IIRC, from the MM) are interesting creatures as well. Far too often in previous editions, IMO, the Ethereal Plane was just a big empty realm people wandered through to speed up travel and disappeared into to avoid combat. Populating it with creatures makes it come more into its own.
(I'm not sure they are from 3E, though- they may possibly be from 2E.)
Similarly, I think the Ethereal Marauders and Ethereal Filchers (both, IIRC, from the MM) are interesting creatures as well. Far too often in previous editions, IMO, the Ethereal Plane was just a big empty realm people wandered through to speed up travel and disappeared into to avoid combat. Populating it with creatures makes it come more into its own.
Jefe Bergenstein
Legend
Chuuls!
Dud-a-chok? Did-a-cho?
Great ecology article on these guys from Dragon.
Honorable mention goes to swarms.
Dud-a-chok? Did-a-cho?
Great ecology article on these guys from Dragon.
Honorable mention goes to swarms.
frankthedm
First Post
Dire Awakened Lobstrocities is about right.ehren37 said:
Shemeska
Adventurer
Shade said:
Ditto on all counts. Acheron can always use more cool critters, and the Ethergaunts only got cooler once I read Mechalich's stuff that elaborated on them a bit.
I never really liked these guys, but then against I'd developed the Kameral a bit and they fit the same notch. If I did use the Nerra though, I'd probably have them as servitors or rivals to the Kameral.
I <3 these guys. They fit in nicely with some pre-Tanar'ri critters of my own that I'd developed for my campaign.
But a few things I've liked that haven't been mentioned yet:
Blackstone Gigant - multi-limbed constructs with a petrifying touch. They beg to be used as guardians for ancient tombs, the vaults of priesthoods, etc
Uvudu...err... The Thing in the Moonlight inspired Far Realms creature in the ELH. Lovecraftian yumminess.
Concordant Dragon - another of Ed Bonny's planar dragons, this one getting cool points for being linked to the Rilmani.
Howling Dragons - insane, pandemonium based dragons. I've had far too much fun with these. Especially great wyrm sized ones. Double especially when they have artifacts partially embedded in their brain because their madness is the only thing keeping them from listening to and succumbing to the whispers of a deity's avatar that's locked inside. Yes. Far too much fun.
Whizbang Dustyboots
Gnometown Hero
Monster Manual:
* Animated Object (sadly underused, but ultra-versatile)
* Darkmantle (much, much better than the piercer)
* Dire animals
* Ethereal Marauder (although I change its flavor to be a Zork-style Shadow Grue)
* Templates in general (although they can be grossly overused)
* Swarms in general
Monster Manual II:
* Elemental Weirds (yes, the original water weird was something VERY different, but I like these oracular beings)
* 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)
Epic Level Handbook:
* Abominations
* Glooms (although they desperately need a culture in an Ecology article)
* Worm that Walks
Fiend Folio:
* Fey-touched
* Jackal Lord
* Kaorti
* Nerra (I love the Plane of Mirrors, and these makes it a lot more interesting, and gives it a Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell vibe)
Monster Manual III or Eberron Campaign Setting:
* Changeling
* Forestkith Goblin (frankly, on some worlds, this should be the default goblin type)
* Eldritch Giant (I'm not high on multiple types of giants, but this one is different and interesting)
* Living Spells (Awesome, especially for the obligatory ruins once ruled by powerful arcanists)
* Redcaps (evil fey!)
* Shimmerling Swarms (cute Victorian fey, made dangerous without changing the concept)
Book of Vile Darkness:
* Khython
Ghostwalk:
* Artaaglith (minions of Orcus!)
* Dread Ram
Libris Mortis:
* Brain in a Jar
Miniatures Handbook:
* Aspects (probably the best single new monster category in 3E)
* Whatever the category of creatures from the Plane of Shadow is called
Stormwrack:
* Darfellan
* Jellyfish and piranha swarms
Tome of Magic:
* Murder of Crows
* Animated Object (sadly underused, but ultra-versatile)
* Darkmantle (much, much better than the piercer)
* Dire animals
* Ethereal Marauder (although I change its flavor to be a Zork-style Shadow Grue)
* Templates in general (although they can be grossly overused)
* Swarms in general
Monster Manual II:
* Elemental Weirds (yes, the original water weird was something VERY different, but I like these oracular beings)
* 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)
Epic Level Handbook:
* Abominations
* Glooms (although they desperately need a culture in an Ecology article)
* Worm that Walks
Fiend Folio:
* Fey-touched
* Jackal Lord
* Kaorti
* Nerra (I love the Plane of Mirrors, and these makes it a lot more interesting, and gives it a Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell vibe)
Monster Manual III or Eberron Campaign Setting:
* Changeling
* Forestkith Goblin (frankly, on some worlds, this should be the default goblin type)
* Eldritch Giant (I'm not high on multiple types of giants, but this one is different and interesting)
* Living Spells (Awesome, especially for the obligatory ruins once ruled by powerful arcanists)
* Redcaps (evil fey!)
* Shimmerling Swarms (cute Victorian fey, made dangerous without changing the concept)
Book of Vile Darkness:
* Khython
Ghostwalk:
* Artaaglith (minions of Orcus!)
* Dread Ram
Libris Mortis:
* Brain in a Jar
Miniatures Handbook:
* Aspects (probably the best single new monster category in 3E)
* Whatever the category of creatures from the Plane of Shadow is called
Stormwrack:
* Darfellan
* Jellyfish and piranha swarms
Tome of Magic:
* Murder of Crows
