D&D General Curated monster lists - world building

[RoughCoronet0]

while I enjoy creating and using all manner of crazy and cool creatures, their are a few monsters that I have decided will not be in my world.

1. The Genie Races - I just don’t like them, and have replaced them with Elemental-infused Aboleths, Primordial Giants called Titans, and a wider variety of elemental creatures.
2. Yuan-Ti Purebloods - all my Yuan-Ti are proper snake people, not humans with slight snake features.
3. Standard Beholders - only Death Tyrants and the odd Beholderkin.
4. Standard or Variant Humans - the only type of human that exists in my world are called Munthreks which is Draconic for human, and they are all Draconic Touched due to multiverse shenanigans in previous campaigns. They are also very new to my campaign world and only exist on the Dragon Continent.
5. Half-Orcs and Half-Elves - don’t care for them, plus humans aren’t native to my world and only arrived recently, as mentioned above.

 

[cbwjm]

I don't use most aberrations and I often won't have dinosaurs if unless I'm doing a lost world setting but otherwise I don't really think about it, I look through the MM and pick out monsters that seem to fit as I'm designing adventures.

 

[MNblockhead]

For the campaign where you were entering all the monsters into Realmworks, do you remember how many you ended up with?
I'm kinda curious on how many monsters it takes to run a campaign.

I had to power up the VM where I store my old copy of Realm Works and its data.

78 monsters. This doesn't include variants. E.g. goblin chief, goblin shaman, etc. It would be difficult to give numbers including variants because my approach then was to create one entry for, say, goblin where I would have overview fluff and subsections for different variants with their stat blocks, tactics, etc. I'd have to open each article and count the variants.

 

[Clint_L]

I also like to show off my miniature collection when playing, so I like the potential possibility to use anything in my games.

That's my curated monster list! Seriously, I only use monsters that I have miniatures for, and I am constantly painting miniatures, so that tends to strongly influence what will happen next. Like, you just know that a flail snail and Baba Yaga's house are in the party's near future, somehow.

 

[Tonguez]

one thing I really liked about 3.5e templates was that you could have a really limited pallette of monsters and then create endless variations. So across the Islands of one setting I had various variations of Ogre including Insectoid Ogres, Elemental Ogres (a Half-Magma Elemental Ogre named Flametooth became a major NPC), Spectral Ogres, Blightspawn Ogre, Umbral Ogres and Were-boar Ogre as well as Ogre-Magi and Merrow (Sea Ogre). When I do that every templated creature is a Unique Entity with its own personality and motivations and I tend not to describe them as Ogres (unless they have Ogre minions). Most of them are served by thematically aligned goblinoids instead.

The same setting had Sahuagin replacing Orcs (no orcs and no dwarfs and no elfs), plus halflings were fey. It did have lizardfolk, half-giants (anti-ogres), half-fey, human variants and gnomes. I also used templates to create a Aquatic Psionic Otyugh and a aaerakocra death knight as protagonist. Other monsters were dire animals including lizards, sharks, eagles, wild board, snakes, plesiosaurs and velociraptors

Laterly I’ve been using lots of fey (celtic/north european) and Ghost although the 'Ghost' theme might be broad enough that I'll use a Hellhound or a Spectral Guardian or Dybbuk as the 'ghost'.

 

[Older Beholder]

I had to power up the VM where I store my old copy of Realm Works and its data.

78 monsters. This doesn't include variants. E.g. goblin chief, goblin shaman, etc. It would be difficult to give numbers including variants because my approach then was to create one entry for, say, goblin where I would have overview fluff and subsections for different variants with their stat blocks, tactics, etc. I'd have to open each article and count the variants.

Thanks looking that up for me. I appreciate it.
I'm interested in making a curated list, more as an intellectual exercise. But I won't get the time to sit down and go through things for a while.

One thing I've been think about, is the idea of having to pick say 3 undead only for a world, and how that would influence/reflect in the worlds religions/ beliefs.

For a example, worlds with only one of the undead type such as:
Ghosts or Zombies or Vampires
would differ greatly in how the afterlife was viewed in each of those worlds/settings.

 

[Fifinjir]

One of the main things in my setting is the rather troubled relationship between the Mortal and Divine Realms, as well as the Dreamworld that exists between them. This means Outsiders are prominent, and fey and some Shadowfell related beings can slot in as living dream creatures. Giants and their relatives are also part of this, being essentially distant descendants of demigods.

This has actually resulted in sorrowsworn being one of the main enemies, meaning that I’ll have to expand on them quite a bit. Undead are very closely related to them.

Mutations are also common, giving an excuse for anything to show up, but I like the idea of chimeric beasts being one of the primary things to watch out for in the wilderness.

Dragons I’m torn on. They kind of feel right for this world in a vague sense but I haven’t thought of a place to put them yet. At present I’m thinking that their beings of the end times that are supposed to stay asleep until doomsday, if one wakes up before then that means something has gone seriously wrong even if the dragon themself just wants to bask for a while.

I never found a place I liked for goblinoids. I toyed with the idea of making them like Bowser or King De De De in comparison to the more serious villains of their respective franchises, but the tone wasn’t there and it have to be for a system that presumed a lot of non lethal combat.

Individual aberration types might still be used, but overall they’re not really part of the setting.

 

[steeldragons]

Wow. 16 seems like a stretch. Is that in total? A "no more than 16 per category" I could probably see. Does that/is it supposed to count PC species/races OR any/all non-human species/races (or none)?

I'll give it a shot...but if I go with what I have already established to exist in my homebrew....I'm pretty sure we get way past 16.

Let's see...hmmm...Well, let's start at some of the first things at first level and go from there...

Monstrous Humanoid Species
1. Kobolds
2. Goblins: standard goblins
--Puckwudgie (monkey-tailed jungle variant),
--Grindylow (aquatic variant)
--Boggle
--Redcap (evil fae variant)
--(2a) Froglins (evil amphibious mutated goblins, created in the ancient past {see Gorgons., below}, bullywug replacement)
--2b) Bugbears
3. Orcs: black (subterranean/mountain/wasteland), green (surface-dwelling alpine woods/valleys), and blue (ice/tundra orcs)
4. Trolls - which includes the typical green rending male of the species and Hags (the females of the species)
--Forest/"Green" Troll & Green Hags
--"Rock Trolls" (a.k.a. "Ogors" in the original dwarvish & Black (Annis) Hags
--"Aquatic Trolls" (Aughisky) & Sea Hags
--Oni (extraplanar/"ruling class" trolls, the only male trolls who can use magic) & Night Hags
5. "Gorgons" ( the remnant mutates of a fallen empire dedicated to/cursed by an unnamed/forgotten reptilean/ophidian demonlord)
--Lizardmen (the "common folk"/mass population of the empire, reduced to "dark age" type primitives with little-to-no memory of the heights of their depraved but advanced former reptile-civilization)
--Medusae ( the priestly caste, male and female, of the fallen Gorgon empire)
--"Snakemen" (the "nobles" caste, ophidian half-man/half-serpent, Yuan ti abomination replacements)
6. Grorn (D&D gnoll replacement, more canid/wolf/jackal men than hyena, still demon worshippers, barely more than feral, relentless tracker/hunters, eat anything - even orcs and lizardmen fear a grorn tribe in the area)

Giants & Giantkin
7. Giants
--7a) Forest Giants (ent/treant replacement, Neutral)
--7b) Hill (mostly Evil, some Neutral can be tricked/bribed/or bargained with into being helpful)
--7c) Stone (Neutral, some Evil or Good individuals)
--7d) Frost (Evil)
--7e) Fire (Evil)
--7f) Sky/Cloud (mostly Neutral, some Good, some Evil, believed to be myth)
--7g) Sea/Storm (Good, believed to be myth)
8. Giantkin,
--8a) Firbolg (Good, old school celt redhead forest-dwelling giant warriors with magical abilities)
--8b) Cyclops (Neutral -but quick to anger- island cave-dwelling)
--8c) Fomorians (Evil, monstrous shadow-evil-fae-affiliated, mortal enemies of the firbolg)
9. Titans - the origins of all giant species. Mythic celestial creatures, believed to exist only in the world's ancient pre-historic (pre-elf/dwarf/human) past.

10. Beasts, Monstrous/Magical. I kinda feel like this should just count as one. You can have creatures from tiny harmless librarian "bookworms," giant speaking hawks, to multi-headed fire-breathing man-eating giraffes (hell, even just dire rats or wolves/wargs!) that are all just standard "fauna" in a magical world. This is just a sampling of some of the "animals" that are a bit more than just "flavor" trappings of the world.
--Griffons
--Silverfawn (white elk/stags that can cover great distances and teleport like unicorns)
--Elfcats (cougar to tiger-sized grey-green mottled or striped "forest cats" with magical abilities)
--Moorcats (D&D displacer beast replacement)
--Demonbats - fire breathing wolf-headed bats.
--Blackwood Beasts (magic-mutated chimeric creature, bites like a lion, claws/hug like a bear, constrict like a serpent, scorpionic tail-sting and venomous spittle, gorge with horns/antlers, big enough to crush/trample, all nasty animal things in one critter)
--Bonnecon (D&D bull-gorgon replacement, more monstrous horned caprine or antelope than bull. I made it acid cloud-breathing instead of turning you to stone)

12. Undead. (I know this isn't all of 'em. But the ones I've actually used/had in the world. This seems like enough.)
--12a) Skeletons
--12b) Zombies
--12c) Ghouls
--12d) Shadows
--12e) Wights
--12f) Wraiths
--12g) Mummies
--12h) Vampires
--12h) Death Knights (believed only legend/none known)
--12i) Liches (only 2 known in the current world, myths/legends of others)

Dragons & Dragonkin
13. Dragons
--13a) Dwimunduun (chromatics): White, Black, Yellow, Green, Blue, Red, Purple
--13b) Glimmariin (metallics): Brass, Copper, Bronze, Iron, Silver, Steel, Gold (exist only in myth/stories, to anyone's knowledge)
--13c) Astraeliin (planar): Faer(-ie), Gloom, Shadow, Prismatic ("Rainbow"), Ethereal ("Mist"), Astral ("Star")
--13d) Vaetalaer (gemstone, only singular individuals of each remain): Topaz, Onyx,"Crystal" (Quartz), Amethyst, Sapphire, Ruby, Emerald

14. Dragonkin
--14a) Lapdrake (standard D&D pseudo-dragon replacement)
--14b) Beithir ("Behir")
--14c) Hydra
--14d) Linnorm (serpentine non-winged, forelimbs only)
--14e) Drakion (D&D dragonne replacement)
--14f) Wyvern

15. Elementals, as a general rule, must be brought by magic into the world (or find their own way in from their plane, if they desire. But why would they want to?!). So, for the most part, they don't count as "in the world" creatures with a few noted exceptions:
--15a) Salamanders, the fire elemental serpentine men have a stable gate to their plane and claim a large section of desert called the Flaming Sands as their own territory. They are not found (and quickly die, unless kept somewhere comparably hot) anywhere outside of this territory.
--15b) Ifrit, the fire-based genies flow in and out of the portal(s?) found in the Flaming Sands., occasionally moving into other of the Seven Deserts that comprise the desert empire of Thel to cause trouble and harass caravans (pilfer treasures). It is believed a powerful Ifrit sheik is setting itself up as a ruler over the Salamanders and other random elemental denizens (and fire giants!) of the realms' hottest desert - literally, burning, aflame - flaming geysers, fire-"nadoes," conflagration "fire-sand storms," etc...
--15c) Wyrds. The typically conjured elemental guardians, typically of a serpentine form -water wyrds being most common, but other types/shapes are known to exist- can by from any of the known elemental planes and serve as guards/protectors/alerts for special sites, items, or persons. Among Thel's priestly-vizier caste of elementalist magi, wyrds of their preferred element are used as (roughly equivalent to, it is understood among the arcane classes,) a non-Thellic wizard's "familiar."

16. The Obliterax. ...You do NOT want to run into one of those.

Aw crap. Forgot about the Fae. Well, like elementals, we can go with they are not "in world" creatures but must be brought or find their way into the prime....granted, with far greater ease than elementals can (there are many more "thin places," if not active/permanent "gates," between the veils of Faerie and Orea's "Prime Material").

Of course, if I were to include Player species, then we have to add: Humans, Elves (6 kinds), Dwarves (5 kinds), Halflings (currently, 3 kinds), Half-Elves, Gnomes (5 kinds, most of which are not known to the general world), Horken (half-orc/hobgoblin replacement), Zepharim (winged humanoids - think Thanagarians, not Aarakocra), Jerali (felinoids - think Thundercats, not Tabaxi), Ossan (ursine humanoid shapeshifters, not exactly "werebears"),Centuars, Satyrs, and Sprites.

 

[RoughCoronet0]

I completely forgot that normal horses were all killed in my world during the Dawn Wars.

The myth of my world is that horses were so universally respected by the gods for carrying their followers into battle against the Primordials that several gods took the spirits of those fallen steeds and transformed them into the various horse-like mythical creatures such as the Unicorn, Pegasus, Nightmare, Drasill (an eight-legged undead horse that ferry souls to the God of Death in my world), and more.

 

[Orius]

I use whatever I want wherever I want. That's why they're called random encounters.

Having said that, I do have my favorites, and I tend to keep the staple monsters fairly common. But I like to throw in the occasional oddball in every now and then to keep the players on their toes.