I need your help - to decide on a "basic" monster list

[The Sigil]

This is a good idea. Use monsters to showcase important special abilities.
Shadows: Incorporeal
Trolls: Regeneration
Goblins: Cleave
Displacer Beast/Blink Dogs: Miss chance.
Werewolf: Damage Reduction
Bear, Brown: Improved Grapple
Wolf, Dire: Trip

________: Spell Resistance

Gotta be careful, though, as I deliberately "cut out" some of the special abilities and combat options all us "advanced players" are used to in the interest of ease of use. Miss chance, for example, while interesting, is one more mechanic for a newbie to wrap their head around - which I want to avoid (until the "Expert" rules).

I think I may nix Shadows. Strength drain is workable as a dynamic, but incorporeal means miss chances, and that's ugly.

--The Sigil

 

[iwatt]

Gotta be careful, though, as I deliberately "cut out" some of the special abilities and combat options all us "advanced players" are used to in the interest of ease of use. Miss chance, for example, while interesting, is one more mechanic for a newbie to wrap their head around - which I want to avoid (until the "Expert" rules).

I think I may nix Shadows. Strength drain is workable as a dynamic, but incorporeal means miss chances, and that's ugly.

--The Sigil

I understand what you'er saying. Anyhow, the basic preimse remains the same: choose an iconic monster for whatver ability you decide to showcase.

 

[Conaill]

One other feature you may want to include: some *simple* suggestions for how to increase the CR of the monster.

I don't know how close you want to stick to the official D&D rules (in this case, monster advancement), but i would suggest adding a line to each monster for how you can create an especially fierce version by changing 2 or at the very most 3 of its stats. For example:

"For an especially fierce Wolf (CR2), increase hp to 18, and add +1 to all its attack rolls."

 

[Anson Caralya]

How about shriekers as a first entrant in the "plants as monsters" category? Very simlpe monster, but with some good D&D/fantasy flavor.

 

[Remathilis]

Not sure what is nixed, but this would be my list.

1.) Goblin
2.) Kobold
3.) Orc
4.) Lizardman
5.) Ogre
6.) Minotaur
7.) Skeleton
8.) Zombie
9.) "Vampire" - Weakened Spawn stats
10.) Fairy
11.) Treeman - Weakened Treant
12.) Werewolf - Stat out, not template
13.) Mummy
14.) Unicorn
15.) Hydra (just make it lots of heads, no sundering)
16.) Some Ooze/Pudding
17.) Golem/Animated (Weakened, choose type)
18.) Dragon (Red, Weak)
19.) Doppelganger
20.) Elemental (small, four types)
21.) Pegasus
22.) Maybe a weak demon/devil?
23.) Griffon
24.) Dryad or Nymph
25.) Centaur

I went with iconic or common fantasy monsters: you could probably find a picture of each of these things in various mythology books or a quick google search. I suggested a few more powerful ones with the idea of toning them down and removing stats you're not using.

 

[krichaiushii]

I agree that the humanoids should be cut down - either all the goblinoids, or the orcs, kobolds, gnolls. And some type of reptile humanoid should be considered - either lizardmen or troglodytes (potentially too complicated due to stench).

Would Harpies be too complicated?

And what about some monstrous vermin (spiders, centipedes, and/or scorpions - only 1 or 2 sizes provided)? To introduce poison.

While the cockatrice introduces petrification; a memorable way to die.

The assassin vine might make a good plant creature.

Dire animals; rats (disease), weasels (stat drain), wolf (tripping), ape (rending).

The girallon would be at the top end of the list and fall under the "bruisers" category. They introduce rend, as well.

Dragons (stick with evil ones) should be no older than very young. Perhaps a red wyrmling and a very young black might be best. Both introduce flying, dragons, area attacks via breath weapons, and perhaps grappling - with the black introducing the drowning rules if run from a watery lair.

Also, I wouldn't mind a link to your Basic Rules.

 

[Conaill]

I'll take a stab as well...

1) orc
2) kobold OR goblin
3) ogre OR troll
4) bear
5) wolf
6) horse
7) snake
8) dog
9) raven OR hawk
10) monstrous spider
11) lion OR tiger
12) rat swarm
13) red dragon (*)
14) gargoyle
15) pegasus
16) minotaur
17) centaur
18) unicorn
19) ghost
20) zombie
21) vampire OR mummy
22) werewolf
23) doppelganger
24) hell hound OR shadow mastiff
25) grig OR pixie

(*) just because you *have* to have a dragon, and the Red is the archetype. If you really want to stick to CR6 as the limit, I would design one that fits in between Very Young (CR5) and Young (CR7). If you need to round up or down somewhere, go with whatever makes it tougher (higher AC, hp, saves) but less deadly (lower attack roll and damage).

 

[Morpheus]

Here's my take. Do with it as you will...

1) Orc
2) Goblin
3) Ogre
4) Troll
5) Minotaur
6) Animals (Apes, Bears, etc.)
7) Giant Vermin (Rats, Spiders, etc.)
8) Dragon (Black-I'm partial to Nightscale from The Forge of Fury)
9) Drow Elves (Evil PC-type race)
10) Gelatinous Cube/Gray Ooze
11) Hydra
12) Manticore
13) Medusa
14) Mimic
15) Ghost
16) Mummy
17) Vampire (Spawn to make it less challenging)
18) Owlbear
19) Shrieker
20) Skeleton
21) Stirge
22) Unicorn
23) Zombie
24) Ghoul
25) Wyvern

 

[MichaelH]

Whatever monsters you decide to use, I suggest you have some unique monsters with perhaps centuries of legend and myth. As an example, Medusa is not a monster type but a proper name descibing one individual. Perhaps advance her from the MM version, or add some fighter levels to make her a better archer.

You could do this with the vampire, gorgon, pegasus, etc. After all, this does reflect the real world mythology so it might give your world a degree of similarity to our own which makes it more believable and real for your players.

 

[Nifft]

IMHO:

PC race is: Human
That really simplifies your world. Use some Human NPCs for fights, too. Without Half-Orcs & Half-Elves, you're free to cut or change those races.


1/ Goblinoids: typical "evil" race, and you get three for the price of one -- goblin, hobgoblin, bugbear. If you want to make your LotR addicted players happy, mention that they're also called "goblins", "orcs" and "uruk-hai".

2/ Wolves: goblins ride them, druids tame them, and they illustrate Tripping

3/ Rats -- Dire Rats & Rat Swarms: illustrate Disease and Swarm mechanics, respectively

4/ Horses -- people ride them

5/ Fey: Pixies (DR, invisibility) and Dark Elves (in fact, they're the ONLY elves, but they don't much care for humans and use drow stats. Illustrate SR, spell-like abilities, how much fun it is to kill elves.)

6/ Magical Beasts: Ankheg, Hippogriff, Griffon, Manticore, Owlbear -- stick to the classics

7/ Undead: Skeletons, Ghouls, Shadows. Illustrate DR, Fort saves, and incorporeality + ability damage (respectively). See below for why no Zombies.

8/ Outsiders: Imp, Quasit, Kyton, Babau, Hound Archon, Lantern Archon, Howler, Salamander. All of these should be RARE.

9/ Aberrations: Ettercap, Grick, Rust Monster, Will-o-Wisp.

10/ Elementals: Just the core 4 (air, earth, fire, water) in various sizes.

11/ Giants: Trolls. That's it. Reach, Rend, Regeneration -- who needs more?

12/ Oozes: Grey Ooze and Gelatenous Cube fill the niche nicely.

13/ Monstrous Humanoids: Hag, Harpy, Minotaur. These really cover the bases of spells, special abilities, and just a melee monster. They're also easily recognized -- no need to justify their existance, unlike a Grick (for example).

14/ Vermin: pick one that's native to your campaign area -- spiders, scorpions or centepedes. Illustrates poison and mindless-yet-living critters.

15/ Dragons: Just use Fire dragons. Alignment is individual -- you can't judge a drake by his scales, as they say. (You can judge him by whether he incinerated a whole village, though.)

16/ Constructs: animated objects are a staple of fantasy, and underused even in Core D&D. Consider changing "Summon Monster N" to "Animate Object N", which animates an object of the same CR as the monsters it would have summoned, but you have to pick a specific object that's in the scene to animate. They scale in size & CR, and illustrate Hardness.



NO ZOMBIES -- Skeletons do everything that Zombies do (damage-type DR, cheap, nice for Clerics to blast), but they don't require special movement & attack rules. Special rules are bad.

Anyway, that's my opinion of a fully-functional reduced monster palette.

-- N