Nebulous
Legend
We had a fun roper encounter in Forge of Fury. It was positioned across from a fast moving stream, and its dang reach was so long it could drag PCs into the water. That fight scared the crap out of them.
D&D General Monsters you love to hate, and monsters you hate to love.
Bitbrain
Lost in Dark Sun
Yeah, pretty much. Unlike Pathfinder linnorms however they don’t unleash a death curse when they die.
Vaalingrade
Legend
D&D's absolute terror at making fantastic but non-magical creatures just plain animals is one of it's more annoying foibles.
Levistus's_Leviathan
5e Freelancer
Yeah, the definition of Undead has been wildly confusing and inconsistent throughout D&D. The difference between Flesh Golems and Zombies is pretty arbitrary and confusing. Especially when some corporeal undead used to be people while others are animated by some spirits that happen to come from the Negative Energy Plane . . . somehow.
Sword of Spirit
Legend
My PC died* in that encounter when my group played it. I still love ropers.
*He got better
I'd actually forgotten that encounter. It wasn't that bad for the group I ran the adventure for, because as I recall, the Roper was all by it's lonesome. Now the dragon fight, hoo boy, was that a hot mess...
This does bring up a big pet peeve, monsters I truly despise. "Gotcha" monsters. Things that are either perfect at pretending to be other things, or things that have special abilities that there is no way to avoid without knowing what you're up against in advance.
Oh look, it's a little bunny rabbit on a tree stump...nope, sorry, it's a horrible monster! These things are so prevalent in D&D that any experienced player is suspicious of everything. I still remember a few months in a row, where Dungeon magazine had adventures featuring beautiful maidens who weren't as innocent as they appeared. I didn't think much of it until I ran an adventure and I said "a lovely nymph, a triumph of nature, steps out into the path ahead of you, and pleads with you for help", and a player said "I shoot her with an arrow."
"Why would you do that?!"
"She's probably a succubus or something."
I was flabbergasted (she was a Hag who had been polymorphed into a Nymph) and struck speechless. "You don't know that!"
"Are you telling me she's not evil?"
I walked away from that session having learned a good lesson. Fool me once, shame on me, fool me twice, shame on you...
This does bring up a big pet peeve, monsters I truly despise. "Gotcha" monsters. Things that are either perfect at pretending to be other things, or things that have special abilities that there is no way to avoid without knowing what you're up against in advance.
Oh look, it's a little bunny rabbit on a tree stump...nope, sorry, it's a horrible monster! These things are so prevalent in D&D that any experienced player is suspicious of everything. I still remember a few months in a row, where Dungeon magazine had adventures featuring beautiful maidens who weren't as innocent as they appeared. I didn't think much of it until I ran an adventure and I said "a lovely nymph, a triumph of nature, steps out into the path ahead of you, and pleads with you for help", and a player said "I shoot her with an arrow."
"Why would you do that?!"
"She's probably a succubus or something."
I was flabbergasted (she was a Hag who had been polymorphed into a Nymph) and struck speechless. "You don't know that!"
"Are you telling me she's not evil?"
I walked away from that session having learned a good lesson. Fool me once, shame on me, fool me twice, shame on you...
Vaalingrade
Legend
The only gotcha monsters I like are mimics... who are bad at what they're doing.
The party will sometimes wake up to noises in camp and find their left boot trying to cram their apparent other left boot into a cleft in the rocks, the room they enter has a chest hurriedly pushed to the side and covered in a rug while there's a clearly newer, more blinged out chest with a clearly open lock sitting in a prominent space, or they come upon an inn in the middle of the woods with a sign on the door that says 'FRI BOOZ' on it.
I use them as less a trap and more a piece of fun world building. If you feed a mimic and treat it nice, it will turn into useful things for you if asked politely.
The party will sometimes wake up to noises in camp and find their left boot trying to cram their apparent other left boot into a cleft in the rocks, the room they enter has a chest hurriedly pushed to the side and covered in a rug while there's a clearly newer, more blinged out chest with a clearly open lock sitting in a prominent space, or they come upon an inn in the middle of the woods with a sign on the door that says 'FRI BOOZ' on it.
I use them as less a trap and more a piece of fun world building. If you feed a mimic and treat it nice, it will turn into useful things for you if asked politely.
GMMichael
Guide of Modos
"Despite being only the size of a large badger. . . the aurumvorax is an incredibly dangerous creature." Um, the honey badger is also incredibly dangerous. See the Youtube...documentary.
I love to hate: bards and kender. I keep one poisoned arrow in my quiver at all times for these.
I hate loving: dragons.
But the problem is, artistically, if you throw a dragon at your PCs, then you're basically saying "I can't be bothered to come up with something non-cliche." You're the GM who provides vendors of healing potions. You're the GM who starts the campaign in a tavern, no backstories required - just greed and alcoholism. And you're the GM who probably has an arch-lich all drawn up, ready for combat with 3 uses of Wish all planned out for the campaign's grand finale, when the PCs have barely reached level 2.
But there's something to be said for a walking flamethrower that will smack you down with its tail without caring if you were back there in the first place.
BookTenTiger
He / Him
I love to throw really big monsters against the characters. I think it's just fun and cinematic. Giant animals, giants, big constructs, awakened trees... Sometimes I'll even take a medium or large creature and just make it huge or gargantuan for fun.
I hate using Mind Flayers. The reason is that they are so frightening to the players that their characters unload absolutely everything they have, holding nothing back, and so the Mind Flayers gets destroyed without doing anything cool.
I hate using Mind Flayers. The reason is that they are so frightening to the players that their characters unload absolutely everything they have, holding nothing back, and so the Mind Flayers gets destroyed without doing anything cool.
Vaalingrade
Legend
Please do not disparage the fine names of greed and alcoholism.
Also, my use of dragons is nothing cliche at all. My players are currently just skirting the realm of Iron Kin Halyus. He's a white dragon... who specializes in elemental metal. And recently acquired a new toy by commission: a shotgun sized to be mounted on his tail. Which is to say a repeater cannon loaded with grapeshot.
You know that scene in X-men 2 with Magneto and the three metal balls?
Also, my use of dragons is nothing cliche at all. My players are currently just skirting the realm of Iron Kin Halyus. He's a white dragon... who specializes in elemental metal. And recently acquired a new toy by commission: a shotgun sized to be mounted on his tail. Which is to say a repeater cannon loaded with grapeshot.
You know that scene in X-men 2 with Magneto and the three metal balls?
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