Monsters of Cool

[JustKim]

Do you really believe 'drow' have anything at all in common with the Norse 'trow'? I think, that's pretty far-fetched.
And comparing drow to svartalfs is like comparing garden gnomes to redcaps. There's about zero similarity.

Edit: Just had a look at the link to the Orkney site - I am pretty amazed. There's actually really a trow 'variant' that is spelled drow?! I always assumed the word 'drow' was simply made up by Mr. G. like 'gith'.

Trow is Scottish, not Norse; the Norse ancestor is svartalf. Do I think Salvatore drow are similar to Norse svartalfs? No, of course not. I do know that the Norse had a myth about dark elves and called them svartalfs. I know that the Norse svartalf branched into several different distinct monsters when other cultures rubbed elbows with the Norse, and one of the results was the trow. And I know that trow is an awfully similar word to drow, both words used to describe subterranean pariah fey. So do I think that drow harken to the Norse svartalf? Absolutely.

Also, I get to correct you some more- Gygax did not invent the word gith! Githyanki were borrowed, in name only, from Dying of the Light.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dying_of_the_Light

 

[John Q. Mayhem]

That's the thing though, other than the dreaming/unconscious telepathy deal, I can't think of much psionic about Heavy C.

I don't doubt in the slightest that illithids as a monster started off conceptually as cthulhuoid horrors from the unknown, but the two paths quickly diverged. Elder brains, ceremorphosis and trans-planar slave empires versus dreaming matter-transcendental star god who would love to self resurrect, but can't.

Except for being psychic, there's not much psionic about Cthulhu, then?

I agree that he's not much like the mind flayers, but he's definately psionic.

 

[Sejs]

Except for being psychic, there's not much psionic about Cthulhu, then?

I agree that he's not much like the mind flayers, but he's definately psionic.

Color it as sort of a passive versus active divide. That's sort of how I see it, anyway.

Hi-C is sort of passively psionic simply by virtue of being so chock full of cosmic awesomeness. His dreams are so big that that they drift about and occasionally brush against the minds of other, lesser beings. Were he up and about, he wouldn't need to be psionic, he'd trandscend it. He wouldn't need to use powers or mind tricks, he'd just more or less grab reality by the balls and make it call him 'sir'. He wouldn't have to focus his mind powers on something, he'd just do it and it'd work because to him the rules of our reality are cute and stupid and boring and he's not particularly inclined to play by them.

Illithids, on the other hand, are actively psionic. They go out and do things with their psionics. Usually to you. In ways you really wish they wouldn't. And then they eat your brains or crush your will and make you clean their house for them. They levitate, they plane shift, they dominate and mind blast, etc, etc.

 

[Thurbane]

Yuan Ti

 

[Jhaelen]

Also, I get to correct you some more- Gygax did not invent the word gith! Githyanki were borrowed, in name only, from Dying of the Light.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dying_of_the_Light

Wow, interesting. Looks, like I'm not the only one who enjoys borrowing stuff from novels, movies, etc.

Thanks for the pointer

 

[Kobold Avenger]

My list of monster that I think are cool are...

Yuan-Ti (In any variety)
Dark Ones
Shadar-Kai
Keepers (yes, they are the MIB's of D&D)
Kaorti (As they are a way of having the Far Realms at any level)
Daelkyr (I think they're really freaky)
Eladrin (I know they're the CG paragons, but they're seelie faeries the way the way faeries should be)
Rilmani (As neutrality needs it's representatives)
Skulks
Devourers
Asuras (vicious Persian Angels (or Hindu Demons) that you should be afraid of)
Obyriths (I like the idea of ancient and somewhat alien demons)
Nightstalkers (because I really like these spirits of hungry darkness)
Pseudonatural creatures (either template)
Glaistigs (Bloodsucking Scottish faeries without the vampire baggage attached)
Quori (I really like they're evil methods)

And if there would be a specific template creature that I think would be cool, it would be:
Tauric Drow Elf-Displacer Beast