"Yes, another very cool monster. The designers seem to have a much better grasp of the system now and are really churning out some good stuff."
The problem is, I like the MM1 creatures. I don't want good metallics and bag-o-hitpoint chromatics. I guess they can't errata the entire MM1. I suppose they could come up with an optional rule to reduce hps and increase damage (as many of us have houseruled).
Yeah, I agree with this. The game I DM is mostly guys who have never played D&D before, guys who don't even own a PHB. It's up to me to translate the whole D&D experience into something they can understand, so I stick to monsters they already know from myth (dragons, wyvern, dwarves, medusa) or ones that are just so iconic to D&D that they just can't be missed (beholders, mind flayers, kobolds (I know kobolds have their mythological roots, but I think it's fair to say that D&D has made them something new)).
So while the Pod Demon is super-awesome, it's something I wouldn't be able to use more than once in my campaign, if even that, because my players will be saying, "Come on, I want to fight some orcs, like in Lord of the Rings!" Same problem with the metallic dragons; my players already find the idea of chromatic dragons a little silly. "What, a dragon that breathes ice? Dragons are supposed to breathe fire!"
It's not so much that my players are unimaginitive, but more that, as a group, we prefer the iconic over the new and unexpected. Still, that doesn't mean the Pod Demon isn't a good monster. It's killer design, sounds like a lot of fun to play with. I just hope MM2 contains some stuff that players will recognize; some sprites or merfolk or a cerberus or something.
