Lamest Creature You've used to good effect in your campaign

[VirgilCaine]

I once had the party up against an aranea swarm that was in a prolonged war with formians

Nice, I like.

 

[the Jester]

I have a couple of cool ones...

Back in the day I helped run a tournament whose final villain was the king who had been sending the pcs on their missions- turned out that he had been replaced by an enveloper, who was steadily eating his way to incredible power.

One of my favorites has to be the dire squirrel encounter: pcs are halflings at a halfling gathering. They hear a woman scream "MY BABY!" Investigating, they find a halfling toddler tottering on a branch 20' above the ground (pcs are 1st level). They try to lure it down with food, but as it starts to succumb, it suddenly cries, "Kitty!" and points.

Two dire squirrels are in the tree, their cheek-pouches stuffed with rocks. Good times!

Finally, my magnum opus when it comes to funky monsters is prolly the dire badgers, who had built a large dam that the pcs destroyed (with green slime). This flooded the town whose water supply they were trying to restore. (Same halflings as the dire squirrels.)

Oh, gosh, there are more- the edible jelly, for instance... or the sassy carbuncle... and doesn't every old-skooler have a story about al-mi'raj?

Let me just say, in 1e (and 2e), the Fiend Folio was my favorite monster book.

 

[the Jester]

Aranea are lame? Shapechanging spellcaster masterminds who infiltrate and manipulate jungle cities are lame?

No, no, formians.

 

[the Jester]

Hey, has anyone made the tojanida cool?

 

[HeavenShallBurn]

Not Kewl, but threatening?

I did have a group of Tojanidas that had become trapped in the material oceans of my homebrew. It was a sort of New World situation with a major confederation of city-states invading the next continent over and sending back the loot. The tojanidas were sinking the treasure ships from below then looting them to construct a giant golden Gate that they would enspell allowing them to return home. As the players began to find out more and started looking for divined insights they realized the gate would also drag their entire world in Water after them, which was in their opinion a Bad Thing.

 

[davidschwartznz]

Looks like the using a lame creature as some sort of deception or somehow tricking the party with it is the way to go.

Short while after the Cube, still in Pandemonium, the PCs encountered a village of helpful gnomes who offered to cure them. Two things the PCs didn't realize: 1) the gnomes were evil 2) they didn't have clerics - but they did have illusionists. Next encounter: "You get hit. Make a save vs. spells... looks like you disbelieve the "cure" spell... here's your actual current hit points." Yes, I was a rat bastard, but it's Pandemonium, you have to expect these things.

 

[Fieari]

I have entire nations terrified of pixie knights that ride on the backs of giant hummingbirds.

 

[Kunimatyu]

A rogue in one of my games ended an encounter at -6 in a giant hamster's(ToH) cheek pouch.

 

[Old Gumphrey]

In 1e, I once had the PCs searching a place that had been inhabited by a wizard. He had kept both potions and root vegetables in one pantry, and under some smashed potion bottles, the weird admixture of the potions had brought life, sentience, and "humanoid" form to the carrots that lay in a burlap bag.......

......The tiny humanoid carrots then claimed and defended that section of the building.

Not a huge combat challenge, but it was fun.

They killed them? I would have allied.

 

[Baron Opal]

Has anyone used Gricks at all?

Oh, sure. My mindflayers keep them as pets. They even have different breeds with novel colors, different tentacle arraingements and other such variations.

I mean, when have a Gorvik Cavern Green when you can buy a clutch of eggs and raise you own Ixian Crossbeak?