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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Crusher" data-source="post: 5974805" data-attributes="member: 6697285">Certainly.  The way we look at it is that lots of little hints have been dropped in various strips, but there are 3 big "scenes" that revolve around the MitD and show off some of its attributes in various ways.  So, the big cut off for considering monsters as candidates is how well they fit the "3 big scenes" and then there's a length list of minor hints that are considered pros and cons depending on how well the monster fits those as well.The three big scenes, in a nutshell, are:- "the circus scene", the MitD is a circus sideshow act and people get to see it.  While the reader doesn't get to see the MitD we get to see the audience's reaction (the MitD just stands there) and the reactions really vary.  Some people throw up, some people are afraid, some are confused, one says it looks beautiful.  One little girl says looking at it makes her feel funny inside and a wizard-looking fellow looks perplexed and says he's never seen anything like it.  But a family of goblins (who come to the show a lot) cheer and yell happily.  He also says that "its hard to be looked at by so many people".- In, the "tower scene", the MitD is attacked by a mid-level paladin (probably level 13 or 14) and the attack does nothing more than tickle the MitD.  The MitD then good-naturedly gets into a contest with the paladin to see who can hit the softest.  The MitD goes first and knocks her through the tower wall and seemingly hundreds of feet away.  He then does it to her horse as well and appears genuinely sad to have lost the game.  A fair bit of math has been done assuming various wall compositions and rule assumptions and a minimum STR of 30 was worked out (and that assumes everything else is perfect).- The "escape scene" has the MitD worrying that his friend O-chul (another paladin who was paralyzed for a while) is about to be killed by the MitD's "boss" Xykon an epic-level lich sorcerer.  The MitD closes his eyes, concentrates and appears to cast a spell while saying "Escape".  O-chul and another character are then suddenly teleported hundreds of miles away to the safety of their companions.  The MitD definitely appears to have caused the escape, however, the MitD claims to have no spellcasting ability.Plus, we know a zillion minor things about him, but the MitD appears to suffer from amnesia or perhaps was abandoned as a kid and does not even know what species he is so the accuracy of his statements is at best questionable.  He gets hungry and loves stew, he's willing to eat people but doesn't want to eat kids, he needs to sleep and he gets tired.  He's at least 30 years old and appears to be intelligent and knowledgable about spellcraft but acts very naive and childlike.  He's male.  He likes tacos and has teeth.  He can stomp hard enough to cause earthquakes (suggesting he has limbs) and shout loud enough to, possibly, daze people.  He seems to be familiar with the Astral Plane.  He has a dad who is bigger than he is, he's a member of a species and not unique.  That species isn't normally found in rainforests nor does it typically speak common.  He can't create undead.  Probably Large or Medium sized, but might possibly be Huge.  He can be mind controlled or suggested.  Appears to have one head and two eyes.~140 monsters have been guessed.  Some simply can't work (because of intellectual property reasons or other reasons.  Snorlax would be awesome, but any Pokemon would have legal problems.  Its also not really a Dread Gazebo) others just aren't very good guesses.  He's probably not a centaur or a displacer beast or Godzilla.  The 7 monsters which fit these scenes the best are:1. Aboleth mage - Powerful spellcaster, almost strong enough, lives underwater and doesn't speak common, weird looking.  Defenses are probably too weak and its actually slightly too weak across the board.2. Dread Linnorm - Very Ugly while also having a high charisma and a high enough level Sorcerer to cast Wish.  Extremely strong and tough, but is too large and would have needed to lose a head somewhere along the way.3. Hagunemon (Protean) - Very strong and can teleport.  Constant shapeshifting looks weird but has 34 CHR.  Powers are all psionic and its not clear psionics are in that world (one character has in fact pondered in the strip whether or not psionics rules are in force)4. Neothelid - Strong and can teleport, and is a weird looking giant worm.  Defenses are a little shakey and no arms or eyes. Way too big.5. Uvuudaum - Strong and a powerful caster and weird looking.  However, unclear if it has eyes or mouth (doesn't appear to have a head).  Also has a constant confusion aura which would have caused all sorts of problems along the way.6. White or Black Slaad - Defenses and spell-like abilities are good fit, but weird reproduction cycle makes it hard to imagine one having a "father" and its quite a journey for them to reach those stages, so its hard to think of one being so naive and childlike.  Might be too recognizeable.7. Carbosilicate Amorph from Schlock Mercenary.  He's actually a pretty good fit but he's someone else's intellectual property and its really hard to imagine a character from another webcomic as MitD.Tarrasque doesn't really work at all but people guess it almost constantly.  My personal favorite is Pit Fiend which would be an excellent fit except that it looks pretty much like a stereotypical demon and its hard to reconcile the audiences' reaction in the "Circus Scene" with a Pit Fiend.</blockquote>

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