One of a Kinds or Uniques

[Rechan]

Since in D&D, practically all monsters in the MM typically exist as a Species, one thing I enjoy is to occasionally either take a specific type of monster (let's say, a displacer beast or a bulette) and do one of two things:

1) Make this monster the only one of its type in the entire campaign setting. So it is truly a one of a kind entity with its own mythology and lore. Similar to the Greek Medusa or Minotaur, how there was only one in existence.

Or,

2) This monster type exists (i.e. there are displacer beasts), but this one is unique because it's old, powerful, or in some way different and special. So it becomes a specific one with a name and local legends attached to it. Like a displacer beast that is smarter and capable of creating minor illusions along with the typical powers, has a particular mannerism or behavior and known territory.

This can even be done with PCs, where the PC is the only member of its race in the world (but not more powerful etc).

I like doing this because it lets you make the monster a little more important, making it almost like a monstrous NPC of some other type. For instance, there are many hags, but each has a personality and a history, and this way this displacer beast is different from all the others, like the way one hag is different from the next. It also makes the PCs feel special because they slew Shadowstalker, the Scourge Displacer of the Cartuga Wilds. This is even moreso if the entity is a One-of-a-Kind, the knowledge this sucker is the only one of its kind, therefore it's even more important, more monumental, more dangerous (it must be!) and more awesome when they have the bragging rights of slaying the Mythical Monster.

It also allows you just to have a unique quality about your campaign, or campaign world, a visible way that you set up an opponent that's different from any other game the players will take part in. So it's memorable all on its own.

What's your point Rechan?

So, would anyone like to share any of these they have used in the past?

 

[pawsplay]

For the four guardians in my FFI-inspired 3.5 campaign, I used a lich, an ancient blue wyrm, a marilith, and a kraken. I named the lich and dragon and gave them an appropriate history. The dragon, Draniel, was considered the matriarch of most living blue dragons, but had gone insane. The lich was a thousand years old, a follower of the power of evil from the last time he tried to wipe out humanity. In my campaign, Marilith and Kraken were proper names.

 

[Celebrim]

Way back in 1e, the baddest monster on the homebrew map was a triple HD manticore with enchanced damage and the roar of a Dragonne: Bariceal, the Lord of the Eastern Manticores. Sadly, I never got a chance to run the campaign long enough to use him, he was more of a 'This Way Lies Death' terrain feature that NPC's occasionally complained about because he effectively barred one of the main passes over the mountains.

I shall be a truly happy DM if I get a chance to use him in a campaign one day. He's one of my oldest original creations and he's been languishing in the back of my imagination for something like 25 years. He's only like CR 12 or so under the 3rd edition rules, I just can't think of a good reason to send players that way.

Above a certain level, practically every undead creature ends up being semi-unique, because I can't resist the temptation to uniquely modify them or to throw a template on some exotic creature.

 

[Lancelot]

Yep, I've done this a couple times (not recently, though... hmmm... thanks for the reminder, Rechan...).

Other than the obvious one-of-a-kinds (the Tarrasque, the Froghemoth, etc), I've used some very rare creatures as singulars (e.g. the abominations from 3e Epic Level Handbook; there was only one chichimec, one phane, one infernal, etc).

...and, more in line with the original post, I've also used a couple of "mundane" (3e) creatures as uniques. Mechanically, they were both advanced using either the standard 3e advancement rules or by applying the ELH "paragon" template. Storywise, the creature was the first of it's kind; the grand-daddy of all other examples of the species. One of the two creatures I used was the manticore (the very first manticore! ...grown huge, and misshapen, and eternally ravenous)... and I forget the other. Something with tentacles, which makes me think it was either a displacer beast, a kamadan, a malfera, or similar.

I think it works best when you're dealing with classical or iconic monsters. My players, at the time, seemed to get a buzz out of dealing with the original manticore. I don't think it would have been quite such a deal if it they had been fighting the Original Choker or the Granddaddy of all Balhannoths or the First Witherling.

 

[Wik]

I do this all the time. Especially the first option. The dracolich the party slew in an abandoned temple beneath the ruins of Spellgard is a good example - no one had ANY idea what that thing was.

Then there was the "beast of the black hills" that the PCs slew (after the first group of PCs were TPK'd, I might add). And there are a bunch more, but my brain is fried after being up for far too long...

 

[Goblyn]

Anytime I've had a party encounter any Unicorns, there was exactly one. Ever. His name was Eridanis

 

[Doug McCrae]

I'm a big fan of this approach. One reason superhero is my favourite genre is that all the characters are unique. Unique powers, and, to a lesser extent, origins. It makes the world more interesting and the opposition less knowable. It makes fights more interesting when everyone's slinging different crazy powers around.

RuneQuest does this better than D&D. So does Warhammer. Both due to their heavy emphasis on Chaos, which is a great source of unique monsters.

 

[SkidAce]

Birthright campaign setting did this with it's main monsters/villians. Such as The Gorgon.

 

[Marx420]

My favorite creation is the terrifying bearowl, a giant owl with a bears head that would fly in and savage a player character with it's ferocious bite at least once a campaign and always managed to get away somehow. I made it to combat a certain metagamer I know, whose preparations against owlbears availed him not when he was slain by the legendary beast.

 

[Theo R Cwithin]

I love doing that kind of stuff! Actually, both of these approaches are pretty standard IMCs, especially as I tend to keep settings low-level. Above a certain level/CR, monsters are almost always uniques or nearly so. Sometimes the base monster is sufficient, but usually I'll tinker with it with levels, template, advancement or depowering, ability swaps and so on.

This is especially true for aberrations and outsiders, as well as for more "mythic" creatures like hags, dragons or great giants. They typically have backstories involving mutation/corruption, the last/first of its kind, an avatar, a leader among lessers, extraplanar explorer/visiter/slaver/etc, a remnant from the Creation or a past conflict, or the like.

a few (less mythology-inspired) examples:

- A handful of stone and clay golems all built by the only person (now long dead) to ever learn the art of golem-building.
- A greatly feared ex-tax collector, the only wight in the world (except for his much weaker minions), who in life was a very corrupt & brutal revenuer for the crown.
- A chaos beast that fell from the sky and then proceeded to corrupt everything around it.
- A small lake of undead flesh, which is the oldest of the ghouls, and their queen.
- A cleric of some status who also happens to be a dark cult highpriest, as well as the last doppelganger, incognito.