Neglected Monsters

[Aaron2]

...but I'd like to add another aberration to the pile- the athach. I have never even heard of these non-giants getting played.

There was one in a Necromancer Games module I ran. I think it was Hall of the Rainbow Mage. I don't think he made much of an impression. Of course, this module also had a T-Rex which the party managed (barely) to scare away. Then the barbarian chased after it (by himself), ran out of rage and got eaten.


Aaron

 

[Gez]

We've met a chuul in our first D&D3 campaign -- and the best part was that, as our party felt a bit underpowered to fight this aberration, the party's bard tried to mesmerize it with fascinating music... And it worked! That way, we've been able to move past the monster without a fight, and the DM had fun describing how the chuul's tentacle were waving rythmically in harmony with the tune...

As for stirges, everyone who played the Wizard's Amulet has met his fellows in a tavern called the Thirsty Stirge; and had stirges for his first combat ever!

 

[Nareth]

I believe there is an Athach encounter that is fairly important in the Necromancer Games adventure called Aberrations. A fairly disturbing, fit for Halloween running, adventure

 

[Warrior Poet]

Great thread.

Recently in my campaign I've been trying to fit in more of the lesser known/utilized monsters, and trying to shy away from the more common ones (though the classic undead never go out of style as far as I'm concerned. I suspect the party would insist that level drain does go out of style, but . . . ).

So . . .

the skum

Such a great name!
DM: "Up ahead stands a group of skum!"
Players: "You bet they are."

I think Yuan-Ti don't get used enough - big fan of those snakey mutants. But they always seem to get edged out in the evil race stakes.

I've finally worked them into my current campaign. Great alien-herpetological sinister genius villains! Nasty in a fight (though the party seems to be doing well). My only complaint is I wish I were smart enough to provide "genius level" play to illustrate Yuan-Ti intelligence. I try and plan tactics, escape routes, etc., but my players are all really smart, too (smarter than I am, frankly), and, well, so far, the genius snake men haven't really maintained the upper hand (though it's been 50/50 sometimes).

Also - shock lizards. Who uses these pikachu ripoffs?

An excellent dungeon master I know, who's running the game I play in. Our party ran into a bunch of the cute little guys in a forest, seemed harmless enough, then they got wind of the guy in the chain shirt, and suddenly the air smelled like ozone, and we never knew what hit us. One of those great "They're such cute little guys," moments. It was nice work. Try an encounter with 20 or so sometime: they're not the toughest creatures, but catching a party off guard, they can really get in a couple of good shots.

Stirges. The little suckers are totally dissed.

Same DM, same campaign, much earlier on, gave our fighter a run for his money with a few of these once. Again, nice job. Some of the best DM work I've ever seen turns relatively (relatively) low level threats into serious eyeing-your-character-sheet-nervously challenges.

Some of my nominations would include Perytons (Classic D&D; are these even in D&D anymore?), Catoblepas (Catoblepi?), alot of the various elemental-based types (Xorn, et al.), Locathah, Needlefolk, Otyugh and kin (plural???), most dinosaurs, and I'll probably think of ten others after I post this.

Thanks for this thread! It's great.

Warrior Poet

 

[Mr. Kaze]

Return to Elemental Evil has a wide variety of less-used creatures in it --

Spoiler

Athatch, Ettin, Rust Monster, Basilisk, Medusa, Barghest, Chimera, Hydra, Beholder, Grey Render, Purple Worm, Aboleth, Chuul, Half-Dragon T-Rex, Shocker Lizards (powering lightning towers if I remember right) and even a freakin' Sentient Door

.

Spoiler

Personally, I hated the variety and thought that it did bad things to the coherency of the storytelling... so I replaced an entire segment of the adventure with a Yuan-Ti and Naga centric dungeon that went over exceptionally well with the PCs. Though they were a might bit freaked out by the Yuan-Ti's experiments with some trolls that they'd captured earlier...

Forge of Fury from the original adventure path also features

Spoiler

Stirges and Gricks

.

::Kaze (doesn't really think creatures with Charisma of less than 8 can be under-represented. It's not the writers' fault; they're just shy.)

 

[Hypersmurf]

Based on a cool/used ratio I'd say Chull and choker are high.

Well, Chokers saw a sudden resurgence when 3.5 came out.

But most of them are Shapechanged Wizards or Sorcerers who miss 3E Haste...

-Hyp.

 

[Kalendraf]

The module "Aberrations" by Necromancer Games features an Athach. Turns out that this monster got a serious buff-job in the transition from 3e to 3.5. There's also a Chuul there, but I've used that monster multiple times now. Those fit well in swampy submerged cave-type environments.

In that same adventure there is a wand of monster summoning that only summons aberrations, however it does not detail what the exact choices those include. So I made up a list that included things like Fiendish Skum, Chokers, Otyughs, Carrion Crawlers, Ettercaps & Rust Monsters. All of them managed to get summoned against the party at one point or another.

Regarding some of the other ones folks have mentioned:
- I've tossed Perytons against characters as random on-the-road encounters
- Yuan-Ti have worked behind the scenes in some older adventures
- Stirges have appeared as random attack-the-camp-at-night encounters and sometimes in caves or ruins

However, I have never used a Shocker Lizard, and might never use them.

Scanning thru the 3.5 SRD, here's my list of critters I've never ever used or encountered in any edition of the game:
- Destrachan
- Devourer
- Dinosaur (any)
- Nightshade
- Phantom Fungus
- Phasm
- Rast
- Ravid
- Spider Eater
- Tarrasque
- Yrthak

 

[Tav_Behemoth]

As for stirges, everyone who played the Wizard's Amulet has met his fellows in a tavern called the Thirsty Stirge; and had stirges for his first combat ever!

Stirges are lots of characters' first encounter (and sometimes their last); in creating the directory of every published appearance of the stirge, minotaur, and remorhaz, I was surprised how many modules they pop up in. The directory's still incomplete, as proven by the fact that Wizard's Amulet isn't listed!

 

[Gez]

You've got no excuse -- it was the very first free d20 adventure PDF!

 

[BOZ]

Well, Chokers saw a sudden resurgence when 3.5 came out.

But most of them are Shapechanged Wizards or Sorcerers who miss 3E Haste...

subtle... but good.