D&D General Curated monster lists - world building

[Older Beholder]

The idea of curating the monsters in your world came up in another thread, so I thought I'd start a this on the topic as it's interesting to me. I remember reading, (or maybe it was watched in a youtube vid?) that 16 is a good number of unique monster species to have in setting.

It's one of those ideas that just seems to always be kicking around in the back of mind.

Now, I should say that I've never done this, I tend to have a lot of unexplored 'here be monsters' type areas on my homebrew world maps.
I also like to show off my miniature collection when playing, so I like the potential possibility to use anything in my games.

But, that being said, I do see the value in the curated monster list as a way of giving your world a theme or flavour. It’s also easier to then think about how the select monsters would shape the world, interact with each other, etc…

So...
...tell me about your curated monster list...

What monsters are on the list?
Is there a theme, and if so, what is it?
Did you have a set number you were aimed for and if so what was it?
What were the issues, advantages, or things that surprised you when you started running your world at the table?

Thanks in advance.

 

[aco175]

I tend to have a set number of monsters found about anywhere like ogres, rats, and skeletons. Then I have more regional monsters that fit only in certain parts of the world and if found elsewhere it should alert someone's spider-sense. I do not place too many types of humanoid monsters together like orcs, hobgoblins, gnolls, and snakefolk. I find they would tend to compete with each other and have more or less been pushed to certain locations or even kingdom-sized areas. Right now I have been playing a lot of FR centered around Phandalin and there tends to be just orcs and goblins. It makes things a bit boring but also makes sense. Finally, I have anywhere monsters like beholders and dragons. Places are set around them and I try to foreshadow their coming.

The Phandalin area tends to have a lot of human(oid) bad guys as well. So, there are a lot of bandits and thugs around with maybe some pirates. I still have the various cultist from the elemental evil campaign not totally destroyed to use and the dragon/demon cultists are fun as well. If the PCs moved from this region to another one like the giant forest to the east then they would have more elves and centaurs. I picture trolls there as well. There would still be some of the other stuff but maybe the cultists are on a mission of their own to be this far in the woods.

I do not have a set number of monsters but some tend to get used only once or twice. There may be a theme or specific location the group goes only once. I might have a place called troll swamp where there are trolls and there will likely be a few types of them to mix it up a bit. There might not see a troll again for a while until one happens to be working for another bid bad as some kind of fodder.

 

[Oofta]

Most of the enemies the PCs will meet in my campaign are human or were summoned from another realm by humans. So in one game I have a cult that is communing with eldritch horrors, pulling in aberrations or transforming themselves. I guess you could say this involves multiple species, but the creatures the group have faced are definitely not native to Midgard (prime material plane in D&D parlance).

Other than that, most monstrous species don't originate from Midgard. Goblins, ogres and trolls come from the feywild although only goblins are all that common. Orcs and giants are from Jotunheim (land of the giants) and orcs aren't even a species that can reproduce on their own. One of the few monstrous races created indirectly by the gods are gnolls, which are the result of a defeated giant demi-god who's comatose form rests in Midgard.

In addition, there are only a handful of monstrous types in any given region. There isn't ever really a crossover in regions between "advanced" monstrous creatures other than goblins. Goblins may be found just about anywhere but goblinoids (e.g. hobgoblins) are mostly restricted to a couple of regions. In other regions orcs and potentially giants dominate.

Other less intelligent monsters vary by region, but again there's not a lot of crossover, different regions have a different bestiary much like we have cougars in North America but not Asiatic lions.

Undead are a bit different because most are just different ways of malevolent spirits manifesting themselves, or are cursed to live on past their normal life.

So I typically limit it to less than 16 species, with potential exceptions for aberrations and undead. There are occasional "What the heck is that!" monsters now and then of course, because why not have the PCs attacked by some creature never seen before once in a blue moon?

One thing that video games do that I avoid is having a new monster every few miles. I get it in video games, it's just part of their nature. But for the most part monsters are few and far between unless you go looking for them or they're part of an invasion force.

 

[Remathilis]

I was the one who suggested it, and while I don't curate my monsters (I barely curate my PC options). But I wanted to address my thoughts on it a bit more.

Curation can refer to a couple different ideas. It could be a monster by monster decision (ie no nothics), groups (no metallic dragons) or over groups (no aberrations). It is consciously decided upon as a limit; just because you've never used a mimic doesn't mean they don't exist (an effect coined Shrodinger's Monster Manual). The idea is that the DM plays by a similar set of limits as PCs usually do: clear boundaries of what is or isn't there.

A good example of this is running Middle Earth. The Bestiary of ME is well established and functionally limited. You have monsters ranging from orcs to shapechangers to wraiths to dragons, but you really can't push the boundaries beyond that without breaking the feel of ME. You might be able to extrapolate something like lesser undead, but you're probably going to get side-eyed introducing a vampire.

Obviously, specific settings (Athas) or themes (Greek myth) come with this expectation, but I'm likewise curious about DMs who limit otherwise generic "sandbox" settings. Those who basically say "my world is mostly normal D&D, except no giants" or something.

 

[el-remmen]

you're probably going to get side-eyed introducing a vampire.

Which is strange because both vampires and werewolves are mentioned in Tolkien's work (though the former are man-sized bat creatures that served Morgoth - so you still have a point).

As for my own approach, I don't do a curated list ahead of time but do a case by case basis as I come across monsters in books or in published adventures and will change them out if they don't fit the feel of the setting or the region. And while I will ban a creature type from the wider world, I never want to rule out the possibility for a rare and unknown creature (or community of them) tucked away somewhere in the world.

I kind of miss the old "Frequency" category in the stat blocks from 1E/2E days - and will still look them up for use in 5E.

 

[the Jester]

I have certain monsters that dominate, or that don't exist, in certain areas of my campaign world; but it's a huge world and there is no arbitrary number or anything like that.

Near Fandelose, the final city of the campaign world- which is to say, the last standing city- there are rugged hills rising into mountains to the north. In this area you will find lots of goblinoids; griffons dominate the sky; there are tribes of ogres and hill giants; a small group of aaracokra; and any number of normal and giant animals. Lots of other things exist, but those are the dominant ones. Small groups of other creatures live in smaller areas, e.g. there is a section full of strange pits that host gambados.

To the south and west are extensive plains, which digesters roam. Every seven years there is a great digester migration, too.

A river runs from the mountains through the city and to the south. This is inhabited by giant bloodworms. To the south, where it dumps into the plains, trolls- especially aquatic ones- live in and around it, and commonly attack or claim the one bridge that crosses it. Giant snapping turtles also live in and around the river

East of the river are extensive forests, haunted by various types of Fey and full of apes, including the occasional giant ape. There is even a temple established generations back by a druid who interbred with the apes, forming a small colony of half-apes.

 

[Remathilis]

Which is strange because both vampires and werewolves are mentioned in Tolkien's work (though the former are man-sized bat creatures that served Morgoth - so you still have a point).

Yeah, I was thinking of the Bela Legosi style.

 

[Bitbrain]

I prefer curated to kitchen sinks and my home games are therefore set on a world where various settings (WOTC and 3rd party) exist as different time periods. Also, just for fun, the sun is a different color at each of the four primary time periods.

Generally speaking, each region of any given time period has no more than 18 monster species and 4-6 humanoid species within it. There is one exception to this, and that’s the Principalities of Glantri. Because Glantri.

To give just one example:

Primeval Thule is the deep past, technology is at Bronze Age level (although the dwarves are in the Iron Age), the sun is a white star, and the region-in-focus is a conanesque “lost world” forest region.

local monsters:

• elemental-infused dinosaurs (Late Cretaceous Period, specifically)
• firbolgs
• fomorians
• green dragons (breathe electrified mist, not poison gas)
• marilith demons
• elemental-infused pterosaurs
• stone giants
• yuan-ti

Local humanoids:

• humans
• dwarves
• elves
• bugbears
• g’rosh (gatorfolk)
• tritons

 

[FrozenNorth]

Generally, I find very little value to curating monster lists.

Suppose you have a game set in the Bronze Age. You wouldn’t expect there to be any beholders, right?

Of course, there was that one myth of Argos, Hera’s watchman that had 100 eyes. In order to make him a credible threat to a mid-level party, it would be pretty cool if each eye could shoot a different ray. You might change the beholder’s appearance cosmetically to match a celestial guardian, but otherwise, you’re not really making substantial changes to the statblock.

 

[Yora]

After deciding on a general style and feel for a setting, deciding on the creatures that populate it is always my first step. They are the main building blocks from which nearly everything else that makes up a setting is derived.

All the way back since I played Morrowind, I've been a huge fan of fantasy settings that are not a reimagining of medieval Europe in which magic is real. I really like the idea of fantasy settings as a planet that evolved on its own, with its own unique creatures and cultures. To keep the world still accessible, I removed common European animals like dogs and wolves, cats, horses, cows, boars, and bears, and replaced them with functionally comparable fantasy animals. Most of which are actually just touched up real extinct animals that are obscure enough to not pop out immediately as famous dinosaurs.

• Archaeopteryx (hawk)
• Civet (dog)
• Crocodile
• Dicynadon (boar)
• Dinosuchus (giant crocodile)
• Gorgonops (wolf)
• Hadrosaurus (bison)
• Inostrancevia (dire wolf)
• Megalania (advanced monitor lizard)
• Megatherium (dire bear)
• Pterodactyl
• Triceratops (rhinoceros)
• Weasel
• Wolverine
• Dragonhawk (hippogriff)
• Riding Deer (light horse)
• Riding Goat (pony)
• Swamp Eel (constrictor snake)
• Swamp Beast (giant octopus)
• Ankheg
• Carrion Crawler
• Dire Rat
• Dire Weasel
• Dire Wolverine
• Giant Bee
• Giant Praying Mantis
• Medium Monstrous Scorpion
• Monstrous Centipede (tiny to huge)
• Owlbear
• Snake (tiny to huge viper)
• Wyvern

The next most important group are humanoids. PC races are mostly human and elf-like, as well as goliaths. I don't want to have the classic Tolkienian humanoids for the reasons given above. And I'm a huge fan of the Monsters of Faerûn book, so I settled on these. I also wanted to keep the list short, to give each people room to develop full cultures and places in the social structures and history of the world, rather than being faceless, low-level monsters. This is the list after it already grew out of hand. (Because they are all so cool.)

• Chitines
• Fishmen (amphibious locathah)
• Gnolls
• Goblins (though reskinned very insect-like, like dromites)
• Giants (half-ogers)
• Grimlocks
• Quaggoths
• Raptorans
• Serpentmen (yuan-ti purebloods)

I like to have a cleat distinction between alien animals and supernatural monsters, with little middle ground in between. I settled on these for the later type.

• Annis Hag
• Bhuer Hag
• Dark Tree
• Doppelganger (predatory carnivores)
• Dragons (black, bronze, deep, green, red, silver)
• Elementals (air, earth, fire, water)
• Ettercap
• Fey'ri (the main fey folk of the Spiritwold)
• Gibberling
• Gloomwing
• Green Hag
• Green Warder
• Manticore
• Phase Spider
• Treant
• Unicorn (reskinned as an elk)
• Werewolf
• Yuan-ti abomination

It took me a very long time to come to a decision to not have a hellish underworld plane in the setting, and that there's already enough going on with eldritch forest spirits and supernatural nightmare threats. Having outsiders as well would dilute their presence and distract from them. The role of fiends will instead be occupied primarily by aberrations that come from a dark, watery realm beyond the Plane of Shadows.

• Aboleth
• Cloaker
• Ethergaunt
• Ghaunadan
• Gibbering Mouther
• Grell
• Kraken
• Mind Flayer
• Neothelid
• Thought Eater
• Tsochar

And aside from the generic undead, that is it. Which I think is still a pretty long list. Ideally, I would like to have all creatures be interconnected with others and have them referenced in culture and history. But with this many this is already getting challenging.