Neglected Monsters

[Voadam]

I had a grey render show up as a random encounter once. It kept looking all hungry at the PCs' horses (they had several extras) and drooling. Instead of giving it a horse, it attacked.

They defeated it, but not before it bit the dwarven fighter in half.

Then there was this one time with a wyvern that snatched one of the PCs, killed her with its' poison sting and returned to its' lair where it ate her. The party eventually..er..uhm..recovered parts of her..

But the chuul and the ythrak, now THEY get no love!

There is a gray render in Demon God's Fane.

Now the Yrthrak deserves no love.

With over a dozen monster books most don't get much if any screen time.

Back in the day I worked hard for a while to include one different monster from the MMII (1e) into every game so that I could get good use out of it and to spur me into some creative adventure creation (Hmm how can I work in a Xeg-Yi into greyhawk tonight?). I worked reverse alphabetically and nobody ever caught on to my knowledge.

 

[buzzard]

Actually, I don't believe there are shocker lizards in the AD&D 1st Edition Fiend Folio. There are "shockers," but they're humanoid in build. There are "volts," but they're flying spheres with long tails. Maybe you were thinking of one of them?

Johnathan

I could well be wrong. I don't think my 1st Ed. FF is available to me (back at the parent's house I think) to check. Anyone have one handy to check?

Damn, CRS gets me again.

buzzard

 

[MoogleEmpMog]

Every monster in the Monster Manual II?

Of the major monsters, I'd say beholders. It seems like the spheres of many eyes were the kings of 2e, and now I rarely see them get any screen time. There's the one in the Shackled City adventure path, but he spends basically the whole thing disguised as a human.

If this were most overused monster (type), it would have to be fiends of all stripes.

 

[The Lemon Merchant]

Anyone used Grey Renders?

We encountered a Grey Render, that was eyeing our Dire Boar mounts (party of dwarves). Turns out the Render had adopted an elven village that we were travelling near and didn't want us to harm them. The encounter was diplomatically resolved when we met up with the elves, but we have seen one.

 

[Mr. Kaze]

In terms of deserving more table time than they get, I'd have to go for the Yuan-Ti. They're supposed to be genius-level dungeoncrafters that take sadistic glee in capturing, enslaving, torturing, and experimenting on lesser sentient creatures (like humans). But with the exception of Serpent Kingdoms -- which included the annoyingly inferior Lizardfolk -- I can't name any product that really goes into detail about how nifty the Yuan-Ti are as villians. Similarly, I can't name any major 3e adventure that highlights the Yuan-Ti's diabolical culture. We've got City of the Spider Queen and Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil and Black Sails Over Freeport, not City of the Serpent Queen, Return to the Temple of Slithering Evil and Black Scales Over Freeport.

I wonder if this is because the Yuan-Ti are non-SRD so anybody who isn't certain that WotC won't be publishing their adventure doesn't want to risk the publication of their adventure by putting the Yuan-Ti in...

::Kaze (notes that Yuan-Ti show up in Icewind Dale a couple of times, but more as hack-and-slash fodder than diabolical overlords well into their highly refined agenda.)

 

[Aaron2]

What monsters do you feel have been overlooked? Creatures that you never seem to find a good excuse to use, or critters that just strike you as underappreciated.

Bullywugs: These guys were in the D&D Cartoon. You'd think that would make them "classics". Instead they don't even make the cut to 3.5.


Aaron

 

[BOZ]

One that's new to 3e (as far as I know) is the skum.

nay. these were 2E FR creatures originally.

 

[BOZ]

Flumphs. Poor little fellas. If it weren't for Hellhound, they'd get no love at all.

don't forget CC/ToH.

 

[Nightchilde-2]

Every monster in the Monster Manual II?

Of the major monsters, I'd say beholders. It seems like the spheres of many eyes were the kings of 2e, and now I rarely see them get any screen time. There's the one in the Shackled City adventure path, but he spends basically the whole thing disguised as a human.

That's because now everyone knows you can distract them easily just by throwing a rock. Where's the challenge in that?

(Yes, that was a reference to the Dungeons and Dragons movie..your mind is not playing tricks on you)

 

[BOZ]

Well considering the shocker lizard was in the 1st Ed. Fiend Folio

eh?? nope, i think Richards is right, i don't remember seeing such a thing.