Favorite "New" Monsters

[Isida Kep'Tukari]

Oh man, what a treat to find new fun monsters. Here's a few off the top of my head.

The Charnal Hound from MMIII - It's like a mini, one-headed Cerebus that eats the corpses of your friends. What's not to love?

The Catterprism from Tome of Horrors II - Aw, it's a big ol' catterpillar! That just encased... my friends... in crystalline webs... and chomped off their heads in...a single... bite? Vorpal biting giant crystalline catterpillers! I love 'em!

I like the Oodopi from MMIII for no other reason than it looks so funny. A ball of arms with eyes in the palms, its a big, living Koosh ball!

The Crucifixition Spirit from Tome of Horrors II - It caused my players to throw dice at me, which is usually a sign that I've done a good job of being a Rat Bastard DM. Touch attack equals at least 2 negative levels and possibly more? That'll teach those PCs that think they're invincible!

All the many kinds of oozes from many books, the dun pudding, crystalline ooze, white pudding, and several others from Tome of Horrors, arcanoplasm from Tome Horrors II, and all the fun new oozes from MMIII (snowflake ooze, summoning ooze, arcane ooze, and all the living spells). What can I say, I like oozes. It's my dream to be able to play an awakened ooze some day...

 

[HellHound]

For me, it's the ability to advance the creatures easily and systematically - especially with class levels. Ghouls go from icky low-level undead to terrifying killers with a few rogue levels...

Now, ignoring the ones I wrote myself (mmm... true mummy Cairn Wyrm, how I love thee, villain of my Oathbound campaign)...

Cerebrelith from the PsiHB - had a great adventure with one of these playing "predator" with the party.

The Atropal from the Epic Level Handbook - never run one, but they are SOOOOOO darn creepy that I fell in love as soon as I saw them.

Nightmares & Dreams I from Mystic Eye Games included an undead ooze made up of the intestines of the dead. It ROCKS for sheer scare value against low level parties.

 

[jokamachi]

boneclaws are cool

 

[Pants]

Ah so many cool monsters...

Ethergaunts (Fiend Folio) - The fact that the 'lowest' caste of their society is an uber-genius when compared to a human says... a lot.

Dry Lich (Sandstorm) - I didn't really care for Sandstorm much, but the giant gem within that book was the Dry Lich template. I really like the flavor behind it and the abilities it gains.

Iron Lich (Monsternomicon) - I wonder why no one else has jumped on this idea. It seems so... logical. Yet the folks at Privateer Press delivered with one of the coolest undead templates... ever.

Eldritch (Monsternomicon) - This is what the Death Knight should have been. Everything about this creature is cool. The flavor, the abilities, and even the picture.

Pistol Wraiths and Shaft Wights (Monsternomicon) - Just in general, but the Monsternomicon really delivers in the kickass undead category.

Armageddon Beasts and Chamagons (Book of Fiends) - I'm running out of ways to say 'cool' and 'awesome' so I'll just leave it at that.

Atropal (Epic Level Handbook) - Mainly Abominations in general, but the Atropal is the coolest of the bunch. The fact that these creatures can be the premise for an entire campaign is even better. The Atropal's picture by Brom seals the deal.

Hellfire Wyrm, Nimblewrights, Elemental Weirds (Monster Manual II)

Charnel Hounds, Bone Claws, Chraal, Astral Stalkers, Drowned, Odopi, Living Spells (Monster Manual III)

Half-Farspawn, Elder Eidolons (Lords of Madness)

Chronotryn, Kaorti, Chwidencha, and Blood Fiends (Fiend Folio)

I'm sure I forgot some, but these are the ones that come immediately to mind

 

[Runesong42]

These are both found in d20 Modern, but they made such an excellent team in one of my adventures that they deserve honourable mention:

Liquefied Zombie (though I think it's a template; any hit with a piercing or slashing weapon causes an acid splash around it for 1d6 damage, no save!)
Toxic Sludge (essentially an acidic ooze/slime/jelly that also carries disease)

 

[Nightfall]

Doh! *can't believe he forgot about the baddest of the bad, Armmaggedon beasts*

Good choice there Pants.

 

[Soel]

Ethergaunts
Death/Ash Giants
Tsochari
Aartaglith (Ghostwalk)
Nightmare Collector (Denizens of Avadnu)
Igran-Krider (DoA)
Voidspawn subtype (DoA)
Xxyth (DoA)
Necromercer (DoA)
Reaver (Liber Bestarius)
Zug (LB)

 

[Frostmarrow]

The Famine Spirit is the coolest new monster in my opinion. Who's responsible for the recent draught?

You guessed it.

 

[DMH]

I picked up Goodman's Sky Captain's book and there are a couple really spiffy critters in it:

The limmer gaff is a creature that draws things out of the etheral plane and uses them to walk across the sky.

The khasri is a wingless bird person that magically draws blood out of a wound (up to 100 feet away), keeps it as a ball until the size is right, and then consumes it to gain a magical power (depending on how many hp are in the ball).

 

[Selenim]

Winter Wights and the Shadows of the Void for their blightfire. It's a nice change from the usual draining attacks. The bloodfiend is also a nice vampire variant. I also like the new shadow plane creatures.