Kuo-toa Love - or how do you like your fish?

[Tonguez]

Whilst I love Sahuagin and use them alot, I've never really had use for the Kuo-toa (or Loacath(sp) either.

So other than getting it on in Innsmouth how do you use Kuo-toa?

Why would you use them if you already have Sahuagin and Skum to play with?

Is there something really cool about them that I'm missing?

 

[The Human Target]

Yeah, I've never used them before.

And I've rather liberally used Sahuagin and Skum in my games.

Sorta nice fish people aren't that exciting, especially when you already have tritons and merfolk and aquatic elves etc.

Its monster glut to me.

 

[Teflon Billy]

I used Kuo Toa a lot in my last campaign, but it was not in a particularly innovative fashion or anything.

Evil God escapes his banishment and begins recruiting a cult in the material world.

That cult is essentially "Awakened" Kuo Toa (higher than normal intelligence and organization)

Worked good

 

[phindar]

Maybe I'm the only one that likes Kuo-toa. And part of that is the Shadow Over Innsmouth. I like sahaguin too, and locanth... well, I've never used them but actually just had an idea for them so I might use them in the near future. (Its an underwater portage point in the Sunless Sea.) Sahaguin are my fierce, savage, shark-worshippers; kuo-toa are my creepy, slimy, Dagonites. Sahaguin are going to eat you. Kuo-toa... you're lucky if all they do is eat you.

The point about monster glut is well taken. There's a lot of monsters that look the same or have the same schitck. (Witness a recent game where the Gm was trying to describe aranae as creatures both humanoid and spider-like and the players were rattling off monster after monster that fit the bill: "Drider? Ettercap? Chitine?") For me, the difference is mainly cultural, or what role the monster plays in the world.

 

[Brazeku]

Well, the thing about Kuo-Toa is that they're baggy looking fish people who worship a giant naked chick with the head and claws of a lobster

 

[Angel Tarragon]

Kuo-toa Love - or how do you like your fish?

Large and in charge.

 

[Shadeydm]

Fried with tartar sauce.

 

[DMH]

Kuo-toa will always be an underdark culture to me.

Locathah I think has gotten the short end of the stick since the first edition. I prefer them to human/fish hybrids, and place them in lakes and rivers as well as shallow seas.

Sahuagen and the eel people from Sea Devils are more of deep water dwellers that only rarely raid land (and for goods, not food).

 

[Piratecat]

I have a deep and abiding love for kuo-toa; a scene in a kuo-toa temple was one of my favorite moments in the big underdark-crawl I did a few years back in my game. It started with the PCs walking down a long smooth tunnel and the kuo-toa releasing a giant wall of water to carry them into barbed, coral gates. It ended with a huge fight in the kuo-toa plaza, with baby kuo-toa scampering hither and yon and the statue of Blibdoolpoolp animating to take divine vengeance. Really fun.

In comparison, I've never had much interest in sahaugin.

 

[zoroaster100]

I think the contrast between the original post and Piratecat's post illustrates why it is good to have both kuo-toa and sahuagin in the D&D world of monster options. A particular DM might be inspired to use sahuagin in his/her campaign, or might not be inspired by sahuagin but by kuo-toa instead. You don't need to use both monsters in a particular campaign, or even in a particular campaign world. But having varying shades of color in one's pallete makes it easier for the DM to paint precisely the campaign and campaign world they wish to create.