D&D General D&D monsters that have been changed the most over time

[Casimir Liber]

Thinking outside the (white) box, how about when the gorgon got transformed from a Medusa into a catoblepas? A bad translation from the 1600s that we still follow 400 years later.

that always bugged me too...

 

[AtomicPope]

The flying frisbee flumph went from something stupid and useless to, well, the same now.. One monster we never encountered.

I have a reoccurring Fluumph in my campaign for Spelljammer, and there's a very good reason for it. In 5e Fluumph have a unique ability to "eavesdrop" on Telepathy and can sense a Telepathy at twice the range of its broadcast. Since Abominations are a staple of Spelljammer (Cthulhu-esque monsters like Mindflayer are the strange aliens of the DnD-verse) having a natural Telepath that always tells the truth can be quite useful, more useful than a parrot.

 

[AtomicPope]

Some monsters became more refined in their story while others lost what made them unique. The Tarrasque suffers from the latter. In AD&D the Tarrasque was a nigh unkillable monster. You needed an entire party of high level characters to kill it, in particular a Fighter (or Barbarian), Cleric, and Wizard. The only way to kill a Tarrasque was to chop it up and Wish it dead. Its natural weapons were the same as a high level Fighter's legendary weapons. The only way to survive its attacks was to have a high level Cleric keeping you alive. The Tarrasque has been reduced to a mediocre big lizard.

 

[Fifinjir]

The 1E and 2E monster manuals I have make no mention of skeletons and zombies coming from any source other than spellcasters intentionally raising them, and for the most part spear to be just “robots” that won’t do anything outside of their command. It may have been different in the more of certain settings, but in their entry I don’t see mentions of them coming from ambient magic or cursed/unholy ground.

I don’t have the 3E and 4E monster manuals, so I don’t know when the transition happened, but in 5E skeletons and zombies raised by impersonal causes are treated as no less common than those raised by necromancers.

 

[Yora]

I don't recall anything like this in 3rd edition.

 

[bergeboonp60]

Nightmares have had some interesting variations. The beyond-excellent Power Score RPG has a good article on them, A Guide to the Nightmare, though the author does note they seem to be an underutilized monster.Interesting to see that the nightmare went from an emaciated horse with only flaming hooves to an impressive steed with flaming mane and tail.

employee time tracking software

 

[BookTenTiger]

Some monsters became more refined in their story while others lost what made them unique. The Tarrasque suffers from the latter. In AD&D the Tarrasque was a nigh unkillable monster. You needed an entire party of high level characters to kill it, in particular a Fighter (or Barbarian), Cleric, and Wizard. The only way to kill a Tarrasque was to chop it up and Wish it dead. Its natural weapons were the same as a high level Fighter's legendary weapons. The only way to survive its attacks was to have a high level Cleric keeping you alive. The Tarrasque has been reduced to a mediocre big lizard.

One big change in 3e is that the tarrasque was so happy! (Especially if you cover its eye):

Bring back the happy tarrasque!