Mike Mearls' Monster Makeover Suggestions HERE

[Gold Roger]

I'm not so sure of those "closer to mythological roots" and "monsters as 1CR base" ideas. That doesn't exactly sound like a monster redesign a la mearls subject and more like "redesign D&D in my personal vision".

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I'm not so sure of those "closer to mythological roots" and "monsters as 1CR base" ideas. That doesn't exactly sound like a monster redesign a la mearls subject and more like "redesign D&D in my personal vision".

The CR1 thing actually hearkens back to previous R&D columns where drow, in particular, were the subject of pros' complaints for being over-CRed, with the effect that they turn out to be glass cannons at best, and freebie XP at worst. Rebalancing them as LA0 creatures would allow them to scale up more appropriately. Illithid are already there in the XPH.

The others, like gith* and yuan-ti would also be pretty easy to do this to. In the case of the yuan-ti, it would actually simplify all the various versions out there quite a bit to make the different forms choices picked from a menu, allowing them to both be customized more easily and to take less space to do so.

 

[Ridley's Cohort]

Remorhaz.

Extremely bizarre even by the standards of D&D. Flavorwise, it is something that might actually be okay on the Elemental Plane of Fire. But it never worked for me as written.

 

[Sir Brennen]

Actually, the catoblepas was in the original 1e Monster Manual, as was the gorgon. Both were separate monsters. The catoblepas as you describe it was in the 1e MM.

Gygax has said, right in one of his Q&A threads on this board, that the D&D gorgon is based on a critter from medieval heraldry:

The scale-mailed bull model of a gorgon came directly from a copy of a medieval bestiary, the title of which I do not recall, but it was and probably still is in the local (Lake Geneva) public library. I was happy to use that model, for it added another fearsome monster to the roster for DM use

Well, Topsell was mentioned, so it's probably from here.

Not quite as impressive as the 1e illustration, is it?

(Oh, and apparently, that was used as a reference text for another 17th century text on the exact difference between a basilisk and a cockatrice ...)

 

[ColonelHardisson]

Not quite as impressive as the 1e illustration, is it?

Nope. The gorgon (and catoblepas) illustrations in the 1e Monster Manual were both done by Dave Trampier, one of my favorite D&D artists. I like the catoblepas pic in the MM more than the gorgon's, but both are very good.

 

[Sir Brennen]

Remorhaz.

Extremely bizarre even by the standards of D&D. Flavorwise, it is something that might actually be okay on the Elemental Plane of Fire. But it never worked for me as written.

Wasn't that another monster based on the same set of plastic toys the rust monster was? (And the bullette?) Might be a pattern here...

 

[WayneLigon]

I'd like to see all the "traction" monsters like drow, illithid, githyanki, etc. get CR1 incarnations and let them be powered up by class levels ...
...

Create a standard fey template that can be added to humanoids, both to add consistency to the fey type and to let people make elves and gnomes (or even dwarves) into fey types if they want, which would push all three races more towards their mythological roots.

Excellent ideas. I'd like to see both of those.

 

[Land Outcast]

why would anyone cut a hydra's head?

stooooopid

 

[DungeonmasterCal]

Pimp my gelatinous cube!

That is sooooo gonna be a .sig file for me.

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

Bodak
Vampire
Lycanthropes (rebuild from the ground up, talk to those who did the Shifters from Eberron for inspiration)
Aranea: used to be a playable PC race in Mystara/Known World at low levels.
Allip: An undead, so it is immune to mind-affecting effects. Yet it has the Madness ability for when people target it with mind control or telepathy... What?!
Barghest: Feed ability and advancement to Greater Barghest should be worked over.
Chaos Beast: ... Surely incorporeal instability could be made simpler?
Cloaker: Moan and shadow shift and engulf... Bleh... Also, its should probably be given good fly maneuverability to help if fly in tight underground spaces it lives in. Speaking of which, its engulf ability, gelatinous cubes and living spells both abilities called "engulf" and they work completely different that a cloaker's engulf. Rename the cloaker's engulfing ability...
Elementals: Generally very well done, but a long problem I have had is that because they are so HD heavy, it makes the clerical elemental domain ability to turn elemental pretty pointless. Turning, remember, is based on target creature HD. How about giving elementals more hit points without more hit dice so clerical elemental turning is not nearly pointless? Why aren't air and fire elementals gaseous? Speaking of which, shouldn't a bralani eladrin's whirlwind alternate form also be gaseous?
Efreeti and Noble Djinni: Generaly, I'm pleased. But if the ogre mage is worthy of
reworking for strange abilities, surely the wish granting CR 8 creatures could get a polishing. I'm just saying...
Golems: Immunity to magic foil spells should be more generalized, rather then limiting it to specific spells from the core rules.
Hydras: as mentioned already.
Mimic: Some old shool fun... Would be nice to have heavy HD and not be Huge. What about a Medium sized mimic? Lets polish up the adhesive rules and how it works with grapple.
Thoqqua: As a summon nature's ally III or higher (5th-level+ druid spontaneous spell), have it burrow precisely at any dungeon's door's hinges and lock meet the walls... and voila... Make its movement more like an earth glide.