Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Every core monster ever in D&D
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="JEB" data-source="post: 9283533" data-attributes="member: 10148"><p>Wrapping up 2e, let's review the new core additions in the Monstrous Manual, and how things went for them after.</p><p></p><p>Core in every edition since the Monstrous Manual: Balor and marilith, pit fiend. After the initial 2e core retired fiends, the Monstrous Manual launched their comeback as core monsters.</p><p></p><p>Core in every edition since, except 3e: Cyclops, death knight, githyanki. (Mind, 4e's cyclopes were Feywild flavor rather than Greek, but they were still there.)</p><p></p><p>Core in every edition since, except 4e:</p><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Grimlock, nightmare, slaad: They almost qualify, as they were part of the 4e Monster Manual, but didn't make it into Monster Vault.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Cloaker: Held back for Monster Manual 3.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Ice, lava (magma), and steam mephits: Eventually made appearances in 4e Dragon.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Triceratops, tyrannosaurus rex: The Monstrous Manual brought dinosaurs back to the core alongside fiends, but 4e retired them again, for the entire edition. Dinosaurs were replaced in 4e by "behemoths" - perhaps to evade the paleontology issues just mentioned? FWIW, the triceratops does have a behemoth analogue, the "trihorn behemoth" in Adventurer's Vault. (Surprisingly, the T-Rex never did, AFAIK.)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Deep gnome (svirfneblin): While they never appeared as a monster in 4e (unlike the standard gnome, which infamously did), svirfneblin did appear near the end of 4e as a species option, in Into the Unknown.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Titan: Completely absent from 4e.</li> </ul><p>Core in the Monstrous Manual and 5e, but no editions between:</p><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Spectator: After being sourcebook material in 3e (Lords of Madness) and magazine material in 4e (Dungeon), 5e gave them an elite place as one of the three core beholder variants.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Thri-kreen: Had a respectable run in non-core monster books between the two editions (MM II in 3e and MM3 in 4e).</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Crawling claw, death tyrant: 3e made them Realms exclusives; 4e reserved them for Open Grave.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Peryton: Another Realms exclusive in 3e. In 4e, they appeared in the only dedicated Nentir Vale setting book, Monster Vault: Threats to the Nentir Vale.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Shadow dragon, faerie dragon: Reserved for the Draconomicons in 3e and 4e.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Quaggoth: Started off in 3.0 as a Realms exclusive, then was associated with Underdark-related sourcebooks in 3.5 and 4e.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Intellect devourer: Exclusive to 3e's psionic sourcebooks (which also put them in the SRD), but upgraded to MM3 in 4e.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Revenant: Another 3e Realms exclusive. In 4e they weren't monsters, but did appear as a PC option (most prominently in Heroes of Shadow).</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Scarecrow: Appeared more than once in magazines in the 3e era, but never in a proper sourcebook. 4e gave them more respect with an appearance in MM3.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Ogrillon: Nearly forgotten during 3e (just one appearance in Dungeon) but did get a slightly more prominent appearance in Threats to the Nentir Vale.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Vulture and giant vulture: Both appeared in 3e, neither in 4e.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Sprite: Both 3e and 4e dropped sprites as monsters, though they did appear as a familiar in 4e.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Ankylosaurus, pteranodon: Ankylosaurs appeared in 3e's MM II, but 3e's pteranodons were a Realms exclusive (in Serpent Kingdoms). 4e, as noted, didn't have dinosaurs at all, but both had analogues among the behemoths (the 4e MM's macetail, and MM3's skinwing, respectively).</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Goat: Just a single minor appearance in 3e Dungeon (same issue as the ogrillon, to be exact).</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Smoke mephit: Entirely missing between 2e and 5e.</li> </ul><p>Non-core in 5e:</p><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Tabaxi, of course, appeared as a PC option in Volo's Guide to Monsters. (They also appeared as monsters in Tomb of Annihilation.)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Volo's Guide to Monsters also brought back two beholder variants (death kiss and gauth), the deinonychus, the neogi, the rothé, the stench kow, the thorny, and the yuan-ti histachii (broodguard). Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes reprinted the derro (from Out of the Abyss) and also brought back the abishai, giff, phoenix, spirit troll, vampiric mist, and zaratan. Both showed proper respect for the Monstrous Manual! Notably, a few of these had been core in the meantime: derro and deinonychus (3.0 and 3.5 MM); gauth (3.5 MM and 4e Monster Vault); and phoenix (4e MM).</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Fizban's Treasury of Dragons revived the gem dragons (which, bar 4e, had appeared since 1e), as well as the deep dragon.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">5e Spelljammer brought back the arcane ("mercane", as they'd been renamed since 3e), pirate of gith ("githyanki buccaneer"), and curiously, the feyr (which had previously been associated with the Forgotten Realms, not Spelljammer).</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Mordenkainen's Fiendish Folio brought back the assassin bug, crab folk, fog giant, and mite (all vets of the 1e Fiend Folio, of course).</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Minsc and Boo's Journal of Villainy revived the gibberling, sirine ("sirene"), skeleton warrior, and sword spider. The sword spider was also core once in the meantime (4e MM, as the "blade spider").</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Giant fly: Buried in the DMG.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Other monsters revived in 5e adventures included wereraven (Curse of Strahd); jaculi and juggernaut (Tomb of Annihilation); giant raven (Storm King's Thunder); werebat (Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage); sea zombie (various "drowned" in Ghosts of Saltmarsh); ice troll (Icewind Dale); grippli (Candlekeep Mysteries); giant dragonfly and glass ("glasswork") golem (The Wild Beyond the Witchlight); and aurumvorax (Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel).</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Also the steel dragon, which appeared as a silver dragon variant in Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage... then got retconned in Fizban's as "actually just other types of metallic dragons that choose to look different".</li> </ul><p>Not in 5e:</p><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The Monstrous Manual had more monsters than any D&D monster book before or since, so unsurprisingly there are - once again - a lot that didn't make to 5e. Once again, doing just the highlights.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Gremlin: You'd think a monster as iconic in pop culture as gremlins would have been a lock after 2e, but they've only appeared once since, in 4e's MM3.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Dark naga: Apparently one of the more successful new variants of an established monster, since they remained core through 3e and in the 4e MM. But while other naga returned in 5e after their disappearance from the 4e Monster Vault, dark nagas did not.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Spriggan: Made respectable return appearances in 3e and particularly 4e (MM2). Would have expected a 5e return by now, considering this edition's embrace of fey.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Deepspawn: Returned to being a Realms exclusive in 3e, but surprisingly hasn't made a comeback (even though it's the perfect plot device for a weird, random dungeon).</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Obliviax: Made it through 3e (Dragon) and 4e (MM3's "oblivion moss"). Suspect the very similar oblex has taken their place in 5e (even though it's a new creation).</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Maedar: Male analogues of medusae, these did return in 3e, but were replaced by a different style of male medusa in 4e.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Crypt thing: A personal favorite, this only returned for the 3e Fiend Folio. But it also wound up as OGL content thanks to the Tome of Horrors, which led to appearances in Pathfinder.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Living wall: This creepy bit of undead body horror surely seems like it should have come back repeatedly, but nope, just in 3e (though at least it did appear in both Dragon and Ravenloft products).</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Wemic: Another personal favorite, since it was also a PC option in 2e. It became a Realms exclusive in 3e and hasn't returned since. (Guess lion-centaurs aren't appealing enough.)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Phantom: Hasn't appeared since 2e. One synonym for ghost too many?</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Snyad: Also disappeared after 2e. Not to be confused with the synad, a psionic species from 3e.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Other beholder-kin: Some of these (director, hive mother, and overseer) made it to 3e's Lords of Madness, but the rest have just plain disappeared since 2e.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Other dragons: Brown and mercury dragons became Realms exclusive in 3e, then appeared in 4e's Draconomicons, but apparently missed the cut for Fizban's. Mist dragons also became Realms exclusives in 3e, but disappeared after. The cloud dragon and the Monstrous Manual's yellow dragon haven't appeared at all since (though the cloud dragon became OGL, and other yellow dragons have made official appearances).</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Other giants: 3e revived three of them: the desert ("sun") giant, the jungle ("forest") giant, and the mountain giant. Subsequent editions seem to have been pickier about their giant rosters. The wood giant (voadkyn), which had premiered in 1e, made its last appearance in the Monstrous Manual, but did become OGL via Tome of Horrors. Reef giants haven't returned at all.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Dragonlance monsters: Various Krynnish birds, the eyewing, the hatori, and the horax only returned for 3e's Dragonlance books.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Ravenloft monsters: Greater mummies returned in 3e's Deities and Demigods, but seem to have been displaced by the mummy lord since. Broken ones reappeared in 3e's Ravenloft books, but as previously noted, seem to have been replaced by mongrelfolk in 5e. Ravenloft's bone, doll, and gargoyle golems, quickwood, and zombie lord similarly made their last appearance in the 3e Ravenloft books.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Dark Sun monsters: Gith appeared in 3e and 4e's Dark Sun revivals; kirre just in 4e's.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Elven cat: How "cats, but for elves" hasn't reappeared since 2e is beyond me. (I was going to lump the cooshee in here too, but just discovered they did reappear once, in 3e's Races of the Wild ("elven hound"). Another spreadsheet update!)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Hazards and diseases: Olive slime did <em>not</em> become one of these in official D&D, making a reappearance as a monster in 3e Dungeon. However, their appearance in Tome of Horrors did make it a hazard.</li> </ul><p>EDIT: Messed up my spreadsheet work and missed the githyanki, grimlock, nightmare, and slaad! More details in <a href="https://www.enworld.org/threads/every-core-monster-ever-in-d-d.702706/post-9283626" target="_blank">this post</a>.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="JEB, post: 9283533, member: 10148"] Wrapping up 2e, let's review the new core additions in the Monstrous Manual, and how things went for them after. Core in every edition since the Monstrous Manual: Balor and marilith, pit fiend. After the initial 2e core retired fiends, the Monstrous Manual launched their comeback as core monsters. Core in every edition since, except 3e: Cyclops, death knight, githyanki. (Mind, 4e's cyclopes were Feywild flavor rather than Greek, but they were still there.) Core in every edition since, except 4e: [LIST] [*]Grimlock, nightmare, slaad: They almost qualify, as they were part of the 4e Monster Manual, but didn't make it into Monster Vault. [*]Cloaker: Held back for Monster Manual 3. [*]Ice, lava (magma), and steam mephits: Eventually made appearances in 4e Dragon. [*]Triceratops, tyrannosaurus rex: The Monstrous Manual brought dinosaurs back to the core alongside fiends, but 4e retired them again, for the entire edition. Dinosaurs were replaced in 4e by "behemoths" - perhaps to evade the paleontology issues just mentioned? FWIW, the triceratops does have a behemoth analogue, the "trihorn behemoth" in Adventurer's Vault. (Surprisingly, the T-Rex never did, AFAIK.) [*]Deep gnome (svirfneblin): While they never appeared as a monster in 4e (unlike the standard gnome, which infamously did), svirfneblin did appear near the end of 4e as a species option, in Into the Unknown. [*]Titan: Completely absent from 4e. [/LIST] Core in the Monstrous Manual and 5e, but no editions between: [LIST] [*]Spectator: After being sourcebook material in 3e (Lords of Madness) and magazine material in 4e (Dungeon), 5e gave them an elite place as one of the three core beholder variants. [*]Thri-kreen: Had a respectable run in non-core monster books between the two editions (MM II in 3e and MM3 in 4e). [*]Crawling claw, death tyrant: 3e made them Realms exclusives; 4e reserved them for Open Grave. [*]Peryton: Another Realms exclusive in 3e. In 4e, they appeared in the only dedicated Nentir Vale setting book, Monster Vault: Threats to the Nentir Vale. [*]Shadow dragon, faerie dragon: Reserved for the Draconomicons in 3e and 4e. [*]Quaggoth: Started off in 3.0 as a Realms exclusive, then was associated with Underdark-related sourcebooks in 3.5 and 4e. [*]Intellect devourer: Exclusive to 3e's psionic sourcebooks (which also put them in the SRD), but upgraded to MM3 in 4e. [*]Revenant: Another 3e Realms exclusive. In 4e they weren't monsters, but did appear as a PC option (most prominently in Heroes of Shadow). [*]Scarecrow: Appeared more than once in magazines in the 3e era, but never in a proper sourcebook. 4e gave them more respect with an appearance in MM3. [*]Ogrillon: Nearly forgotten during 3e (just one appearance in Dungeon) but did get a slightly more prominent appearance in Threats to the Nentir Vale. [*]Vulture and giant vulture: Both appeared in 3e, neither in 4e. [*]Sprite: Both 3e and 4e dropped sprites as monsters, though they did appear as a familiar in 4e. [*]Ankylosaurus, pteranodon: Ankylosaurs appeared in 3e's MM II, but 3e's pteranodons were a Realms exclusive (in Serpent Kingdoms). 4e, as noted, didn't have dinosaurs at all, but both had analogues among the behemoths (the 4e MM's macetail, and MM3's skinwing, respectively). [*]Goat: Just a single minor appearance in 3e Dungeon (same issue as the ogrillon, to be exact). [*]Smoke mephit: Entirely missing between 2e and 5e. [/LIST] Non-core in 5e: [LIST] [*]Tabaxi, of course, appeared as a PC option in Volo's Guide to Monsters. (They also appeared as monsters in Tomb of Annihilation.) [*]Volo's Guide to Monsters also brought back two beholder variants (death kiss and gauth), the deinonychus, the neogi, the rothé, the stench kow, the thorny, and the yuan-ti histachii (broodguard). Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes reprinted the derro (from Out of the Abyss) and also brought back the abishai, giff, phoenix, spirit troll, vampiric mist, and zaratan. Both showed proper respect for the Monstrous Manual! Notably, a few of these had been core in the meantime: derro and deinonychus (3.0 and 3.5 MM); gauth (3.5 MM and 4e Monster Vault); and phoenix (4e MM). [*]Fizban's Treasury of Dragons revived the gem dragons (which, bar 4e, had appeared since 1e), as well as the deep dragon. [*]5e Spelljammer brought back the arcane ("mercane", as they'd been renamed since 3e), pirate of gith ("githyanki buccaneer"), and curiously, the feyr (which had previously been associated with the Forgotten Realms, not Spelljammer). [*]Mordenkainen's Fiendish Folio brought back the assassin bug, crab folk, fog giant, and mite (all vets of the 1e Fiend Folio, of course). [*]Minsc and Boo's Journal of Villainy revived the gibberling, sirine ("sirene"), skeleton warrior, and sword spider. The sword spider was also core once in the meantime (4e MM, as the "blade spider"). [*]Giant fly: Buried in the DMG. [*]Other monsters revived in 5e adventures included wereraven (Curse of Strahd); jaculi and juggernaut (Tomb of Annihilation); giant raven (Storm King's Thunder); werebat (Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage); sea zombie (various "drowned" in Ghosts of Saltmarsh); ice troll (Icewind Dale); grippli (Candlekeep Mysteries); giant dragonfly and glass ("glasswork") golem (The Wild Beyond the Witchlight); and aurumvorax (Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel). [*]Also the steel dragon, which appeared as a silver dragon variant in Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage... then got retconned in Fizban's as "actually just other types of metallic dragons that choose to look different". [/LIST] Not in 5e: [LIST] [*]The Monstrous Manual had more monsters than any D&D monster book before or since, so unsurprisingly there are - once again - a lot that didn't make to 5e. Once again, doing just the highlights. [*]Gremlin: You'd think a monster as iconic in pop culture as gremlins would have been a lock after 2e, but they've only appeared once since, in 4e's MM3. [*]Dark naga: Apparently one of the more successful new variants of an established monster, since they remained core through 3e and in the 4e MM. But while other naga returned in 5e after their disappearance from the 4e Monster Vault, dark nagas did not. [*]Spriggan: Made respectable return appearances in 3e and particularly 4e (MM2). Would have expected a 5e return by now, considering this edition's embrace of fey. [*]Deepspawn: Returned to being a Realms exclusive in 3e, but surprisingly hasn't made a comeback (even though it's the perfect plot device for a weird, random dungeon). [*]Obliviax: Made it through 3e (Dragon) and 4e (MM3's "oblivion moss"). Suspect the very similar oblex has taken their place in 5e (even though it's a new creation). [*]Maedar: Male analogues of medusae, these did return in 3e, but were replaced by a different style of male medusa in 4e. [*]Crypt thing: A personal favorite, this only returned for the 3e Fiend Folio. But it also wound up as OGL content thanks to the Tome of Horrors, which led to appearances in Pathfinder. [*]Living wall: This creepy bit of undead body horror surely seems like it should have come back repeatedly, but nope, just in 3e (though at least it did appear in both Dragon and Ravenloft products). [*]Wemic: Another personal favorite, since it was also a PC option in 2e. It became a Realms exclusive in 3e and hasn't returned since. (Guess lion-centaurs aren't appealing enough.) [*]Phantom: Hasn't appeared since 2e. One synonym for ghost too many? [*]Snyad: Also disappeared after 2e. Not to be confused with the synad, a psionic species from 3e. [*]Other beholder-kin: Some of these (director, hive mother, and overseer) made it to 3e's Lords of Madness, but the rest have just plain disappeared since 2e. [*]Other dragons: Brown and mercury dragons became Realms exclusive in 3e, then appeared in 4e's Draconomicons, but apparently missed the cut for Fizban's. Mist dragons also became Realms exclusives in 3e, but disappeared after. The cloud dragon and the Monstrous Manual's yellow dragon haven't appeared at all since (though the cloud dragon became OGL, and other yellow dragons have made official appearances). [*]Other giants: 3e revived three of them: the desert ("sun") giant, the jungle ("forest") giant, and the mountain giant. Subsequent editions seem to have been pickier about their giant rosters. The wood giant (voadkyn), which had premiered in 1e, made its last appearance in the Monstrous Manual, but did become OGL via Tome of Horrors. Reef giants haven't returned at all. [*]Dragonlance monsters: Various Krynnish birds, the eyewing, the hatori, and the horax only returned for 3e's Dragonlance books. [*]Ravenloft monsters: Greater mummies returned in 3e's Deities and Demigods, but seem to have been displaced by the mummy lord since. Broken ones reappeared in 3e's Ravenloft books, but as previously noted, seem to have been replaced by mongrelfolk in 5e. Ravenloft's bone, doll, and gargoyle golems, quickwood, and zombie lord similarly made their last appearance in the 3e Ravenloft books. [*]Dark Sun monsters: Gith appeared in 3e and 4e's Dark Sun revivals; kirre just in 4e's. [*]Elven cat: How "cats, but for elves" hasn't reappeared since 2e is beyond me. (I was going to lump the cooshee in here too, but just discovered they did reappear once, in 3e's Races of the Wild ("elven hound"). Another spreadsheet update!) [*]Hazards and diseases: Olive slime did [I]not[/I] become one of these in official D&D, making a reappearance as a monster in 3e Dungeon. However, their appearance in Tome of Horrors did make it a hazard. [/LIST] EDIT: Messed up my spreadsheet work and missed the githyanki, grimlock, nightmare, and slaad! More details in [URL='https://www.enworld.org/threads/every-core-monster-ever-in-d-d.702706/post-9283626']this post[/URL]. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Every core monster ever in D&D
Top