Monsters that are a Waste of Pages

[malraux]

Berbalangs suck. Annoying and not fun are they.

I'll second this. I've encountered or run them a few times. It always feels like there's a bit too much complexity relative to the fun they give off.

 

[MatthewJHanson]

I remember a designer (Mearls, I think) mentioning that kruthiks were/are a monster that they are pushing... the designers want kruthiks to gain traction and become an iconic D&D monster. I think it's met with reasonable success.

I'm not a fan of designers trying to engineer "traction." It seems too forced to me, like their are focused on the marketing rather than just making cool monsters.

Also it does not help that I'm not a Krthiks (or shadar-kai, which I think was another they were trying to build traction for).

 

[Gort]

I'll second this. I've encountered or run them a few times. It always feels like there's a bit too much complexity relative to the fun they give off.

I'm a really experienced GM and have run basically every monster under the sun, and halfway through re-reading the Berbalang and still not having the faintest clue how it's meant to be run (is it basically four goblins who share hitpoints or something? I haven't read the bugger since 4e was first released) I gave up and made a goblin encounter or something instead.

 

[Shin Okada]

Although... why in God's name was the kruthik a MM1 pick?

Because, DDM collectors have tons of them. And plentiful of those minis are available at e-bay or online-shops selling DDM singles.

 

[TheClone]

The Kestrekel in the Dark Sun Creature Catalog is a waste. It's a monster that actually doesn't fight.

 

[the Jester]

I remember a designer (Mearls, I think) mentioning that kruthiks were/are a monster that they are pushing... the designers want kruthiks to gain traction and become an iconic D&D monster. I think it's met with reasonable success.

REALLY????

Reasonable success, eh? So what makes kruthiks special? I just don't get it- I could just as soon use some giant centipede swarm type thing, or cave fishers for the bug-lizard thing... I dunno, I just don't feel the kruthik thing. I've thrown them in a dungeon to fill it out a little, and I was all like, "Huh, these guys aren't going to be very exciting..." Fortunately the pcs skipped past that area of that level!

To gain 'traction' a monster needs something- a cool story hook, a good connection to another campaign element, a new and different look, dramatic powers or weird behavior. I just don't get any of that from kruthiks.

(tojanidas were a summon, forex).

I know. They were still ultra-lame. If we needed a few more aquatic monsters for summoning purposes, actual giant turtles would have been a better choice. They were a classic of 1e and could cover a great range of CRs. Or giant crabs. Or tako. Or sea serpents. Or... a dozen other classic D&D monsters that are, imho, far cooler than outer-planar-turtle-that-spits-at-you.

Edit: With an arm.

 

[Stumblewyk]

The Kestrekel in the Dark Sun Creature Catalog is a waste. It's a monster that actually doesn't fight.

I had more trouble getting my players to not laugh at (and alter) their name than I did running them in combat. Of course, I was using the Kestrekel Swarm...

 

[Mengu]

I often comb resources to find creatures that fit my campaign. One such creature is rockscythes. They are these burrowing insectoid creatures with scythe-like front appendages. They make their home on the sides of plateaus and mountains (I have weird geography with civilizations atop high plateaus). Every time my players have to do a long term climb, they keep an eye out for rockscythes (since they encountered them at first level). Appendages from a rockscythe showed up in a ritual component list at one point (level 6ish). And at another time when their flying ship crashed in a desolate area where they didn't know if there would be any life at all, they found some rockscythe tracks which gave them the first hope (level 9ish).

Once you fit a creature into your world ecology they're not so strange or lame.

Look at Dementors, and Thestrals, and Boggarts. Without context they are all pretty strange (and some would say pointless) creatures. But placed in context, they help tell a story. Every creature has that potential. Of course no one is going to use every single one of the 4,000 or so creatures in the compendium (nor should they!).

Oh yeah, rockscythes are kruthiks.

 

[Plane Sailing]

I felt that swordwings were a waste of pages in 4e. Epic monsters that live in big hives and... what? Collect some stuff? Why should these be epic creatures? They have nothing about them that speaks 'epic' other than their attacks and defences are set at the 'appropriate' numbers!

 

[Aegeri]

For me it's not what is there, it's what is actually lacking in terms of epic creatures. Epic tier was miserably supported until the last few books looked to be changing that. Disappointing MV has gone back to the good old days by forgetting epic is even a tier in 4E again. Sigh.

Other than that I can't say there is anything that is a true waste of pages, except some old solos and similar. Most of the most broken solos are updated now in 4E so I won't criticize them any further. Personally I am overall happy with monsters in 4E. I just want more epic monsters, particularly STANDARD monsters.

And not stupid things like the swordwing. It just sucks.