D&D General One Piece of Art II (Monsters)- What D&D Art Inspired You to Love a Monster?

[Eltab]

The 4e MM's Lamia, which was actually a swarm of beetles disguised as a humanoid (not a pseudo-sphinx hanging out in abandoned desert ruins).

I created a DMPC, a "buggy Wizard" whose spells all somehow had insects involved in the fluff. His goal was to transmogrify himself into a Lamia, or a Worm That Walks (but made out of bugs instead).

 

[jmartkdr2]

The 4e MM's Lamia, which was actually a swarm of beetles disguised as a humanoid (not a pseudo-sphinx hanging out in abandoned desert ruins).

I created a DMPC, a "buggy Wizard" whose spells all somehow had insects involved in the fluff. His goal was to transmogrify himself into a Lamia, or a Worm That Walks (but made out of bugs instead).

The Worm That Walks is one of the creepiest dang things they’ve ever come up with.

 

[Voadam]

The 4e MM's Lamia, which was actually a swarm of beetles disguised as a humanoid (not a pseudo-sphinx hanging out in abandoned desert ruins).

I created a DMPC, a "buggy Wizard" whose spells all somehow had insects involved in the fluff. His goal was to transmogrify himself into a Lamia, or a Worm That Walks (but made out of bugs instead).

This one by Dave Allsop?

 

[Eltab]

This one by Dave Allsop?
View attachment 259316

I think so but I remember it as viewpoint off to the right a bit - trying to hide the true nature (bugs) behind a viewblock of "normal" body.

Maybe there were two pictures in that MM entry? Or modified art used in subsequent reprints?

 

[Emirikol]

Mind Flayers have lost their mojo, but they are terrifying to me.
0D&D Blackmoor suppl and GDQ Drow adv.

 

[Mind of tempest]

Mind Flayers have lost their mojo, but they are terrifying to me.
0D&D Blackmoor suppl and GDQ Drow adv.View attachment 260163View attachment 260162

they are less horrifying for the same reason xenomorphs are less scary over exposer plus knowledge of how they work makes things less scary and more punchable.

 

[Radaceus]

Upon laying eyes on them for the first time in MMII/Monster Cards, I created a whole world in which the Wemics were lords over a great plains and the outlying regions subjugated to their might included Hybsils and other types of 'taurs'

 

[EzekielRaiden]

Ironically, my main answer here is a monster new to 5e. The Oblex.

I included an "elder oblex" in my DW game. It had found (or, more likely, been given) a psi-tech means of extending its lifespan past the point at which a normal oblex would have to divide or else die from containing too many memories. This allowed it to control a significant number of people remotely, without needing a direct slime connection, and it had one specific person who had (by all indications willingly) given herself over as a vessel for the elder oblex to use so it could interact with the outside world while it's actual body was stuck inside the machine.

The players defeated it by using a combination of a portable (but single use) antimagic field device and a "thermite spike" that could pierce through the armored shell of its life-support machine. Of course, they had to fight through some of its nastier servants to get close enough to deploy the spike, and had had to do some reconnaissance in order to know what the hell they were up against in the first place, but it was definitely a fun challenge, a nice simple conflict after some previous heady stuff.

 

[Mad_Jack]

There's a ton of great monster pictures across all the editions that I absolutely adore and/or loathe (the infamous "OMG, I've got rot grubs in my arm!!" one springs to mind). But the one that is probably most significant to me is this one:

Artist: Larry Elmore
Source: Endless Quest #1: Dungeon of Dread, by Rose Estes.
Monster: water weird
Rationale: This particular image of a water weird isn't the "best" imagining, imo, but it's the first one I encountered and the one that has inspired me to use some variant of the critter in pretty much every campaign I've run since. Perhaps more significantly, though, this pic is the one that sucked me into D&D as a little kid, before I really even grokked "D&D" as a game thing.

That was the first of the Endless Quest books that I got hold of as a kid... I always thought of water weirds as one of the best "jump-out" monsters in the game. One of my longest-running "someday" projects has been to do a miniature diorama of that scene.

Brings to mind the phantom fungus picture* in 3.5e MM. "It's completely invisible! You can't even see it with invisibility purge. Oh, and here's a full color picture of it!"

One of my favorite old-school minis is from grenadier's Comedy Lords set - the Invisible Stalker...

It's just a base with two footprints on it.

All kidding aside: Taja Deeplunder, who made me realize Frost Giants can actually be quite attractive.

Another one of my favorite minis (and, also relevant to this thread, the box art as well) is the female frost giant from Grenadier's 3503 Frost Giants box set...

Mind Flayers have lost their mojo, but they are terrifying to me.
0D&D Blackmoor suppl and GDQ Drow adv.View attachment 260163

I've always loved that picture... It totally matched my 10-yr-old self's mental image of "OH &$^#! It's eating his BRAIN!", lol

Also, it makes for a great meme...

 

[Richards]

If we're bringing up our favorite "mind flayer about to feast" imagery, this one was always a particular favorite:

Todd Lockwood providing an illithid with a delicious meal and a captured slave with not a whole lot of hope, given evidence of the dozens of previous victims that didn't make it out alive. Also, it sucks to be one of the "future meals" hanging around in the background, just waiting for it to be their turn....

Johnathan