Monsters that have gotten more cool/less cool over the years

[Desdichado]

In brute spellcasting power, yes, dragons are weak. As a melee damage machine that you can't practically run away from and that is REALLY hard to kill, they work.

Who said anything about spellcasting power? Have you seen the Monsternomicon dragons? They eat Great Wyrm red dragons for breakfast like the Governator eats green berets in Commando.

 

[Desdichado]

Just to rock the boat: I like drow; they were maybe a little more cool before but they can still be cool now with drow-appropriate feats and equipment. I still long to run or play in an all-drow underdark-intrigue adventure or mini-campaign some day...

I don't hate them either, and I'd like them in a campaign where they're really done right.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I think kobolds are way cooler now with their uber-trapper style and sorcerous way. They aren't in the goblinoid hierarchy but in the reptilian hierarchy due to the draconic bloodline they've discovered.

I agree. The dragon thing was the single best thing to ever happen to them, and I've always thought they were cool.

Hell, I thought the dragon thing was one of the coolest changes in 3E at all when reading the books for the first time, way back when.

 

[Voadam]

Less cool: the fiendish/half-fiend template, and the half-dragon template. We got a lot of these early on and they are wearing out their welcome.

However, I would LOVE to see some flavorful variants of the fiendish/half-fiend templates. Ones more specific (half demon, half devil, half yugoloth, half daemon/demodand/whathaveyou). Those would go over very well with me.

Green Ronin's Web Enhancement for the Book of fiends has fiendish template variants for demons, devils and daemons free on its web site.

 

[Voadam]

Kobolds: They used to be described as "dog faced" but looking at their old 2e picture in the monstrous compendium http://cite.blanche.free.fr/cite/Creatures/KOBOLD.JPG I can't for the life of me figure out what dog they were supposed to look like. They were pictured as squat, rotund, stubby-fingered, flat faced, with big round bug eyes and voices that sound like "yapping dogs". Because they had less than 1 HD, PCs could attack, and slay with a single strike, as many kobolds as they had levels.

Then came the publishing of the 2e colour monstrous compendium book with artwork by DiTerlizzi IIRC. Suddenly kobolds did have their dog-like snouts, were lithe and just seemed like tricky little SOBs. The publishing of the Dragon Mountain boxed showed them in all their glory on their home turf, with multiple tribes with devious traps and clever strategies to twart even high-level PCs.

Third edition continued this upward progression; their artwork improved even more and they suddenly gained a proud heritage as the distant descendants of mighty dragons and capable sorcerors in their own right. Now kobolds can hold their heads high (or as high as they can get them) and be proud of themselves. Check it out: http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/MM35_gallery/MM35_PG161b.jpg

ALL HAIL THE MIGHTY KOBOLD!

I seem to recall the pictures from the 1e MM being very dog like.

 

[Voadam]

The diablo monsters in 2e rocked. In the 3e version they were watered down with poor conversions, not all included, and fewer pictures. The balor type major demon can occasionally do a 3d10 fire cone breath weapon while before they were doing blasts every round equal to their HD. Sigh.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I seem to recall the pictures from the 1e MM being very dog like.

The shot of them catching a (variant, I guess) fireball in the gut in the original/real "Rogues Gallery" had them dog-like AND scaly.

 

[the Jester]

More cool with age: aboleth, cloakers, grell, many outsiders (after their Planescape facelifts), piercers/darkmantles, mind flayers.

Less cool with age/overexposure: Drow, giant spiders (they used to have Low intelligence!), npc villains with class levels (only cuz of the equipment disparity).

 

[Desdichado]

Green Ronin's Web Enhancement for the Book of fiends has fiendish template variants for demons, devils and daemons free on its web site.

I never picked up that web enhancement; thanks for the tip!

 

[S'mon]

Most have got less cool, I guess - elves, drow, kobolds (damn that Tucker!).
I really really hate 3e kobolds. Mine are still yippy 1e dogmen.

I guess Ratmen have got cooler, from their origins in obscure Fighting Fantasy gamebooks through the GW Skaven to S&S's Slitheren.

Dragons are all over the place - 1e died too easy, 2e were too large (I once attacked a green with 150 bandits simulataneously), 3e the stats are nice, no longer too large, but some of the wyrmlings are way too tough for Tiny or Small creatures. The big uncool thing about 3e dragons is that foolish designers gave them massive spellcasting ability, which totally dominates their stats - they end up as Wizards in dragon form, not primordial beasts.

Who's got cooler - halflings, of course. How could they possibly have been less cool? The only way was up.