Homebrew vs wotc monsters?

[ghostwolf29]

Pro and cons of both?

 

[Lamoni]

Pro and cons of both?

Homebrew pros
-Your players don't know about the creatures so they don't exploit any weaknesses that their characters wouldn't know about
-You can often play the homebrew creatures to their best ability since you know all their abilities inside and out... rather than remembering the monster had SR after he got killed by a spell.

Homebrew cons
-Can be quite difficult to judge the CR of the monster unless it is quite similar to one from wotc.
-It takes a lot of time that can often be spent better by working on other aspects of the game.

 

[Gort]

What he said.

I've seen some rather hideous custom monsters used. One was a giant ant, where the DM was a big fan of ants. He'd decided that they should all have strength 24, do 2D6 points of acid damage on every attack, and have about 4 vermin hitdice.

The party? Level 2.