Hypersmurf
Moderatarrrrh...
BOZ said:subtle... but good.
Um... I'm not sure which point you think I just made
-Hyp.
Neglected Monsters
- Thread starter demiurge1138
- Start date
Um... I'm not sure which point you think I just made
-Hyp.
Steel_Wind
Legend
For Your Consideration
Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you the most under-appreciated monster in all of myth. Transcending every culture, spanning all times and epochs, he is universally our nightmare incarnate. We fear him most - as from time to time we DO see the things which it eats - and from which it rises - and see what each of us will become no matter how much we try to avoid it.
And that central truth is why we fear it.
Ladies and Gentlemen, I present: The Ghoul .
The ghoul is one of us. He is no slave other than to his hunger and own needs. A free-willed undead, the ghoul is limited only by the DMs imagination.
You can endlessly mod these things just by letting it keep some of its powers and equipment it had in life. In other instances, by letting it use a ruse to appear temporarily more "normal".
The Ghoul has awesome potential to be the final form of evolution. Immortal if a touch runny ("bit runnier than you like it sir"). But immortal nonetheless. Not sexy - just very dead and very, very hungry.
The Ghoul plays on most of our own fears of undeath, cannibalism, monsters under the bed and "Freddie lives down there" that we have ever had. The Ghoul is the basis for every good bump in the night horror story that there ever was.
And if you were ever to meet one in real life, there isn't a person reading this who wouldn't be wiping the poop out of their respective pants in abject terror.
A real undead, mind you. Not this nouveau riche trendy new age Vampire crap. The LARPERS don't fight over who gets to be the Ghoul. There are no Ghoul Superheroes. You don't want to call a Ghoul "Mistress".
The Ghoul is a primal implaccable villain, through-and-through.
Sure - Mongoose does a book and gives it a lil stage time. But Ghoul King aside, these things get nowhere near the respect they deserve.
They should be the *bees knees* of undead. El Capitan. But nooooo. 4th level in life and suddenly they can't even BE a ghoul anymore. No - now they gotta be smelly ghasts!
Says who? I don't >>want<< to smell if I'm an 8th level undead!
Love a Ghoul today. Give it a name and a past. Give it a present. Ascribe to it motives and thoughts - overlayed with a primal insatiable accept-no-substitutes hunger.
Most of all - give it a potential meal.
Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you the most under-appreciated monster in all of myth. Transcending every culture, spanning all times and epochs, he is universally our nightmare incarnate. We fear him most - as from time to time we DO see the things which it eats - and from which it rises - and see what each of us will become no matter how much we try to avoid it.
And that central truth is why we fear it.
Ladies and Gentlemen, I present: The Ghoul .
The ghoul is one of us. He is no slave other than to his hunger and own needs. A free-willed undead, the ghoul is limited only by the DMs imagination.
You can endlessly mod these things just by letting it keep some of its powers and equipment it had in life. In other instances, by letting it use a ruse to appear temporarily more "normal".
The Ghoul has awesome potential to be the final form of evolution. Immortal if a touch runny ("bit runnier than you like it sir"). But immortal nonetheless. Not sexy - just very dead and very, very hungry.
The Ghoul plays on most of our own fears of undeath, cannibalism, monsters under the bed and "Freddie lives down there" that we have ever had. The Ghoul is the basis for every good bump in the night horror story that there ever was.
And if you were ever to meet one in real life, there isn't a person reading this who wouldn't be wiping the poop out of their respective pants in abject terror.
A real undead, mind you. Not this nouveau riche trendy new age Vampire crap. The LARPERS don't fight over who gets to be the Ghoul. There are no Ghoul Superheroes. You don't want to call a Ghoul "Mistress".
The Ghoul is a primal implaccable villain, through-and-through.
Sure - Mongoose does a book and gives it a lil stage time. But Ghoul King aside, these things get nowhere near the respect they deserve.
They should be the *bees knees* of undead. El Capitan. But nooooo. 4th level in life and suddenly they can't even BE a ghoul anymore. No - now they gotta be smelly ghasts!
Says who? I don't >>want<< to smell if I'm an 8th level undead!
Love a Ghoul today. Give it a name and a past. Give it a present. Ascribe to it motives and thoughts - overlayed with a primal insatiable accept-no-substitutes hunger.
Most of all - give it a potential meal.
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Storminator
First Post
I love ghouls. My stock encounter, that I try to use as often as possible, is 3 ghouls against 4 st level PCs.Steel_Wind said:
PS
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Will
First Post
I ran some very credible ghouls... Ghoul + Clr6. Nasty buggers, particularly if they have time to prep (these did... Divine favor + Bless + Prayer + Desecrate with altars + owl's wisdom + bull strength)
not a lot of HP, granted. These had 52, 60 with bonuses, for a CR 7 threat (but 8 HD). Still, the group was in danger after some Blind. One very lucky dwarf managed to shrug off a Blind and Bestow curse. Lucky bastage.
not a lot of HP, granted. These had 52, 60 with bonuses, for a CR 7 threat (but 8 HD). Still, the group was in danger after some Blind. One very lucky dwarf managed to shrug off a Blind and Bestow curse. Lucky bastage.
Voadam
Legend
Steel_Wind said:
Ghouls in sourcebooks.
Kingdom of Kalamar, Harvest of Darkness module ghoul template and NPC
Librum of Gar Udock ghoul template by Ambient Inc.
Penumbra Fantasy Bestiary ghoul template and ghast prestige class (written by me).
Denizens of Dread Ravenloft Monster Book has a ghoul lord template.
Monte Cook had a ghoul template on his website at one point and included them or a variation in the Banewarrens.
d20 Menace Manual has a ghoul template
Book of Templates Deluxe has a ghoul template.
I believe dragon magazine did a 3e ghoul template as did the Slayer's Guide to Undead.
So there is plenty out there for them.
Rel
Liquid Awesome
For what it's worth, I used Skum, Stirges and Shocker Lizards as encounters in my last campaign. The Stirges and Shocker Lizards both inhabited portions of a tunnel dug by an insane Delver. Later in the same campaign I used my first Beholder ever.
The Skum were posed as a prelude encounter to a possible Aboleth but the party took another direction. For the most party the party took it to the Skum pretty hard though one guy got netted and nearly drowned. The Stirges were a nuisance that was exterminated very quickly thanks to the fact that the party Wizard Lightning Balled the whole party to kill them before they could enact any Con drain. The Shocker Lizards were very nearly fatal to almost half the party (I used a group of about 15 or so against a group of 9-10th level PC's).
I messed things up when running the Beholder and was only having him fire off one eye-beam a round for the first couple of rounds. After that he got his act together and became more deadly but by then they party had inflicted heavy damage on him and took him down. He did manage to Flesh to Stone the Rogue/Royal Explorer though (he got returned to flesh pretty quickly after that). The party fled the scene as other bad guys appeared. When they returned to the adventure area later, they were upset to find that the evil clerics had Raised the Beholder.
The party didn't know whether to tremble in fear or laugh when the Beholder with an eye-patch over his scarred main eye floated down out of a hole in the ceiling.
The Skum were posed as a prelude encounter to a possible Aboleth but the party took another direction. For the most party the party took it to the Skum pretty hard though one guy got netted and nearly drowned. The Stirges were a nuisance that was exterminated very quickly thanks to the fact that the party Wizard Lightning Balled the whole party to kill them before they could enact any Con drain. The Shocker Lizards were very nearly fatal to almost half the party (I used a group of about 15 or so against a group of 9-10th level PC's).
I messed things up when running the Beholder and was only having him fire off one eye-beam a round for the first couple of rounds. After that he got his act together and became more deadly but by then they party had inflicted heavy damage on him and took him down. He did manage to Flesh to Stone the Rogue/Royal Explorer though (he got returned to flesh pretty quickly after that). The party fled the scene as other bad guys appeared. When they returned to the adventure area later, they were upset to find that the evil clerics had Raised the Beholder.
The party didn't know whether to tremble in fear or laugh when the Beholder with an eye-patch over his scarred main eye floated down out of a hole in the ceiling.
Bran Blackbyrd
Explorer
Destrachan, Stirges, Grey Renders, chuul and ghouls have all appeared in the last two campaigns I was in. Not to mention a Mohrg.
Actually, my PC animated the last grey render we killed and named it Jeeves.
In my campaign I'm using a mix of monsters that don't get used much like say, the needleman, and very common monsters I've reinvented.
Reading the thread's title, most people will immediately think about creatures that aren't often used. The way I see it, there are creatures like orcs, kobolds, gnolls, etc. that are used all the time, but also qualify as neglected; treated as throw-away creatures.
In my campaign world these races each have their own specific cultures, behaviors and *gasp* some aren't even evil.
I'm guessing the Tojanida doesn't get much play because of its unrelenting lameness.
Actually, my PC animated the last grey render we killed and named it Jeeves.
In my campaign I'm using a mix of monsters that don't get used much like say, the needleman, and very common monsters I've reinvented.
Reading the thread's title, most people will immediately think about creatures that aren't often used. The way I see it, there are creatures like orcs, kobolds, gnolls, etc. that are used all the time, but also qualify as neglected; treated as throw-away creatures.
In my campaign world these races each have their own specific cultures, behaviors and *gasp* some aren't even evil.
I'm guessing the Tojanida doesn't get much play because of its unrelenting lameness.
Paragon Kobold
First Post
I am GMing Secret of Bone Hill these days; it has some very nice ghoulstirges. I would recommend them to anyone.
For under-used monsters I would like to mention the Carrion Crawler. This thing has been around since forever, it has a cool name, but I hardy ever see any in the published adventures I have.
For under-used monsters I would like to mention the Carrion Crawler. This thing has been around since forever, it has a cool name, but I hardy ever see any in the published adventures I have.
Nightchilde-2
First Post
The antwerp gets no love. 
(500 Nightchilde Points if you get the reference)
More on-topic...
Anyone ever run into an Astral Dreadnaught? I haven't ever used one of these suckers in any of my games. And I don't think I've ever seen a behir used (though it does have a pretty cool mini). Or a rast.
(500 Nightchilde Points if you get the reference)
More on-topic...
Anyone ever run into an Astral Dreadnaught? I haven't ever used one of these suckers in any of my games. And I don't think I've ever seen a behir used (though it does have a pretty cool mini). Or a rast.
