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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mustrum_Ridcully" data-source="post: 4034654" data-attributes="member: 710">I think the reason why such monsters might be "needed" is because they simply take less room in both the MM and your game world.If you have 5 different type of monsters instead of 5 variants of the same monster, you need to write up the base "fluff" for each monster. You might need extra artwork, a description of its organisation or culture, and a name. If you do this often, you simply get a lower "monster per book" ratio, and the designers spend a lot of their creative efforts coming up with details for a monster that might not be used at all.Then, if you want to use these monsters in your gameworld, they probably need a place in it. So you end up with 30 humanoid species, 12 reptiloid species and 3 insectile humanoids. Reusing the same base species (Goblin / Bugbear, Zombie) you don't need to explain this stuff. They are all Goblins/Bugbears/Zombies, they just use different tricks in combat. Now, if you want to introduce a new type of monster, you can just reflavour an existing bugbear variant. Off course you could do the opposite, and just use the Xorakh Beastmen and claim it's actually a Bugbear strangler. But that still leaves the "space in the MM" problem. The approach as whole makes it either to run "themed" adventures - and by themed I mean simple things like "Eliminate the Goblin Warband roaming the area" or "Explore the Spiderskull Caves".</blockquote>