Gelatinous Cube and Mimics are awesome the first time a player runs into them (sometimes quite literally). The medusa and basilisk are evil the first time, because the players don't know how to avoid petrification, which is basically death. The most hilarious is the Rust Monster, because the fighter will be naked and defenseless afterwards!
-
NOW LIVE! Into the Woods--new character species, eerie monsters, and haunting villains to populate the woodlands of your D&D games.
Iconic low level monsters
- Thread starter Blue
- Start date
Eltab
Lord of the Hidden Layer
Moon rats (I was introduced to the 3e version).
During a new moon, they are ordinary rats. During the day, they are ordinary rats. On the night(s) of the full moon, they grow intelligence and plot against you. If they survive until next month, they pick up where they left off ! They are smart enough to read scrolls and a few can cast low-level spells.
Potential use: the last(?) cleric of the now-dead Moon God wants revenge on whoever defiled the Lunarium (great temple). He needs help. He isn't in a big hurry.
During a new moon, they are ordinary rats. During the day, they are ordinary rats. On the night(s) of the full moon, they grow intelligence and plot against you. If they survive until next month, they pick up where they left off ! They are smart enough to read scrolls and a few can cast low-level spells.
Potential use: the last(?) cleric of the now-dead Moon God wants revenge on whoever defiled the Lunarium (great temple). He needs help. He isn't in a big hurry.
mortwatcher
Explorer
If you have melee, throw rust monsters on them and watch their desperation as their gear falls apart. Build a nice buffer of fear in my poor melee guys whenever there was a chance to meet these.
Goblins/Kobolds are bland but not much gets more iconic at low level.
Gelatinous cube is always fun.
Goblins/Kobolds are bland but not much gets more iconic at low level.
Gelatinous cube is always fun.
Tonguez
A suffusion of yellow
Otyugh - remember they are intelligent!
Umber Hulk - best weird monster without tentacles
Shambling Mound
Ettin if they are roleplayed not just fodder
Barghest are great to have in a goblin encounter
Carrion Crawler - paralysis is scary (and a tribute to Aleena)
Bullywug - for personal nostalgia as I was introduced to DnD by two plastic Bullywugs and a carrion crawler
and a swarm of rot grubs and giant rats, lots of giant rats
Umber Hulk - best weird monster without tentacles
Shambling Mound
Ettin if they are roleplayed not just fodder
Barghest are great to have in a goblin encounter
Carrion Crawler - paralysis is scary (and a tribute to Aleena)
Bullywug - for personal nostalgia as I was introduced to DnD by two plastic Bullywugs and a carrion crawler
and a swarm of rot grubs and giant rats, lots of giant rats
Last edited:
Quartz
Hero
The oblex is an incredibly cool monster.
You could twist it so that the oblex is actually free and not a servant of the illithids. It sets itself up as an apothecary to disguise the smell. And it has apprentices to fetch and carry. Or it manages an onsen - the sulphur smell being explained by the volcanic vents. And it desperately wants to avoid going back to being a slave.
Something you might consider is to give the oblex the limitation that it cannot form clothes: the clothes its avatar wears have to be real.
Older Beholder
Hero
I like to throw a few cockatrice in with some carrion crawlers as a staple low level encounter (usually when they have something to do later in the day, making the 24 hrs paralysis a major problem.
Haven't seen anyone mention zombies.
I know people burnt out a bit on zombies as they saturated popular culture years ago, but they're ability to roll saves to stay on 1 hp really threw my players the first time they faced some in 5E, at first they fought there must be a head zombie that they had to kill first.
(Helped by the fact that for a second a forgot about the save, so just after I said the zombie fell, I remembered, did a quick roll and then described the zombie getting back up. It was one of those times that a stuff up added a little bit of detail that just really enhanced the moment.)
For me, the Vargouille was a monster I always loved, going back to Planescape but I don't remember ever using them, but recently I got a chance in 5E with a new campaign kicking off.
The opening session was at a small carnival with each PC competing in various events, the fighter had two rounds of 'first to 2 hits' type combat challenge, the first was a noble (who had already been 'kissed' by a vargouille The previous night and was looking pale and sickly) The player won the fight but lost against his next opponent, a thug. Later that night at the tavern the noble was there looking worse, he starting abusing the player calling him a cheat, I was hoping to have a fight start to maximise the shock of having the noble's head tearing off and sprouting wings mid battle. Thing was, with all the set up of describing the guy as Ill the player felt sympathy and had no interest in the attempts to provoke, in the end I had the noble storm off up a flight of stairs which still made for a dramatic moment when it happened.
No one in my group had encountered them before, so I was happy I took the time to set up the scene and then have a pay off, rather than just have the characters attacked by a bunch of flying heads in the woods or whatever.
Haven't seen anyone mention zombies.
I know people burnt out a bit on zombies as they saturated popular culture years ago, but they're ability to roll saves to stay on 1 hp really threw my players the first time they faced some in 5E, at first they fought there must be a head zombie that they had to kill first.
(Helped by the fact that for a second a forgot about the save, so just after I said the zombie fell, I remembered, did a quick roll and then described the zombie getting back up. It was one of those times that a stuff up added a little bit of detail that just really enhanced the moment.)
For me, the Vargouille was a monster I always loved, going back to Planescape but I don't remember ever using them, but recently I got a chance in 5E with a new campaign kicking off.
The opening session was at a small carnival with each PC competing in various events, the fighter had two rounds of 'first to 2 hits' type combat challenge, the first was a noble (who had already been 'kissed' by a vargouille The previous night and was looking pale and sickly) The player won the fight but lost against his next opponent, a thug. Later that night at the tavern the noble was there looking worse, he starting abusing the player calling him a cheat, I was hoping to have a fight start to maximise the shock of having the noble's head tearing off and sprouting wings mid battle. Thing was, with all the set up of describing the guy as Ill the player felt sympathy and had no interest in the attempts to provoke, in the end I had the noble storm off up a flight of stairs which still made for a dramatic moment when it happened.
No one in my group had encountered them before, so I was happy I took the time to set up the scene and then have a pay off, rather than just have the characters attacked by a bunch of flying heads in the woods or whatever.
Similar Threads
