D&D 5E DM Confessions: What monsters do you overuse?

[Ralif Redhammer]

Same here. In part, Easley’s awesome undead depictions are surely to blame.

Heck, I think one of the first major villains I can remember creating as a DM was a lich.

Undead. Especially skeletons, ghosts and zombies.

 

[hejtmane]

Ogres something about them I use them quite often not sure why. I am dying for the party to be strong enough for a Beholder that is just one of my all time classic ones I love to throw at myplayers. To tell you the truth back in the 1E days I was more scared of fighting a beholder than a dragon.

Disintegration Ray for the win.

 

[SkidAce]

Stirges.

 

[Hjorimir]

I love me some undead and my players know it. "We're not playing D&D, we're playing horror survival here!"

 

[hawkeyefan]

Bulettes for some weird reason. I just dig the idea of landsharks, and I'll always work one into the story, usually as an alpha predator of some kind in the area where the PCs are based.

Most recently, I used the bulette riders from Princes of the Apocalypse and had ten mount an attack on my PCs. As soon as I saw that in the book, the encounter popped into my head. It was a cool fight.

Aside from bulettes, because they're more of a random encounter type, I dig mind flayers, also. And have been using gnolls a good deal as well...Yug-Anark, the priestess of Yeenoghu from Gygax's Maure Castle adventure in the 3E days was responsible for the death of a beloved PC, so she's been a major villain ever since. My PCs are working toward tracking her down, so when they're not being ambushed by the Earth Cult, they've been dealing with gnoll warlords.

 

[Oofta]

Gnomes. It's always gnomes. Tricky little bastards are always getting underfoot.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Also, I definitely love the creatures that came from the original Fiend Folio. They’re so off-the-wall and odd, oftentimes completely bemusing my players. One of the best parts of running a 1e throwback campaign was getting to use them all as originally written.

 

[TwoSix]

Tarrasques. I throw those guys pretty much everywhere.

 

[Jer]

Horrible Lovecraftian monsters and the cults that surround them. It's a tic and I know it. Likely because Tom Moldvay's D&D was my gateway drug into the hobby and I still think of things like The Lost City, Palace of the Silver Princess, Castle Amber and the Isle of Dread as the baseline for what D&D is (I bet you can guess when I started playing D&D). Even when I've run games that shouldn't have any Lovecraft or Ashton-Smith influence in them at all, it creeps in.

Oddly enough Mind Flayers don't show up as often in my games as you'd think from that. I should really think about putting some in...

 

[The Grassy Gnoll]

Also, I definitely love the creatures that came from the original Fiend Folio. They’re so off-the-wall and odd, oftentimes completely bemusing my players. One of the best parts of running a 1e throwback campaign was getting to use them all as originally written.

I recently ran a 5e-ified When A Star Falls. The machin-I-bozorgs were fun. Also, Derro. Little buggers.