Brainstorming monsters with a "Shadow Chaser"esque feel

[Ion]

I have the fun opportunity to start a "shadow chasers"esque game this week, and I'm very excited about it. It would almost be doing my players a disservice not to mine the wonderful minds of ENworld for cool monsters and ideas.

I love the writing of the "Adventure Setup" section of campaign model. If I had my way, that's how all adventures would be written. It says, "the monster is going to make or break your adventure", and I think there is probably some truth to that.

It's advice is essentially, pick a monster, and answer these three questions.
a) How does it behave in a modern setting?
b) What changes are you making to it's abilities / attitudes?
c) What is it's ultimate weakness?

As an example, Skeletons in an old warehouse, guarding mysterious crates. Whenever they drop to 0 hp, they fall apart, only to pull themselves back together again 1d4 rounds later. That is, until you pull out the two gold coins hidden in their eye sockets.

What sort of cool twists to monsters have you dreamed up? Or used in your own games?

Rob.

 

[The Shaman]

The spider-husk zombie: it moves in a strange, jerky way, striking with its fists until it takes 1/2 its HP in damage or is subjected to any slashing damage - at that point the skin splits open and it disgorges half-a-dozen monsterous spiders.

Creeped out my players pretty well.

 

[Kheti sa-Menik]

I created what I called the Vanashou Hunter:
A displacer beast who's tentacles are used to rip the eyes out of victims.
Basically, it trips, grapples, pins, attaches tentacles (another grapple check), then can literally rip the eyes out of the victim. I almost got one of my PCs with it.

It travels in packs of threes..two males one female. One male is the alpha...bigger, tougher, stronger, and is the breeding and protector male. The other male is the hunter for the group. The female's job is to raise the young and protect them.

 

[Tinner]

I modified a Gray Ooze based off the novel "Firefly" by Piers Anthony.
Essentially, the ooze gives off a pheremone that creates intense sexual arousal in multiple species. The touch of the ooze also secretes a powerul anaesthetic, which can also trigger sexual release.
Basically the ooze gets its prey so "hot and bothered" that it will literally just stand there and let the ooze dissolve it because it feels so good.
My players did NOT like that at all.

 

[Ion]

Ewww... all of those things are perfectly creepy

Though I did discover sometimes already made up myths are better than anything I could make up. Look at this!

The Red Ettin ate men's hearts or could turn them into a pillars of stone by knocking them on the head with a mallet. The ettin's power would leave him if a man could answer three riddles told by the three heads each. A young man was told the answers to the riddles by a good fairy. He answered correctly, cut off the three heads with his axe, and saved the princess.

Turning people to stone, riddles AND good fairies, that's just too good to pass up!