D&D 5E Overused monsters currently

[Blue Orange]

Cultists. Every plot seems to come down to cultists.

The influence of Call of Cthulhu?

 

[Micah Sweet]

The influence of Call of Cthulhu?

No, sadly I think it's just because they're still acceptable targets as enemies. For everyone else, you have to specify why it's ok to kill them.

 

[Older Beholder]

I think cultists are just the most obvious starting point that leads to demons, devils and other greater evils further done the track.

I agree they're a bit overdone though.

 

[Horwath]

No, sadly I think it's just because they're still acceptable targets as enemies. For everyone else, you have to specify why it's ok to kill them.

they exists and you're an adventurer. what more of a justification you need?

 

[ECMO3]

What monsters do you feel are being overused in current D&D official materials (adventures, video games, etc)? Goblins and orcs always make a big appearance because of the history behind them, but what others? Maybe it's just me, but it seems like you can't find an official D&D product in the past couple years that doesn't have you fighting duergar. They seem to be everywhere. And hags. Always popping up.

I'm almost getting to the point where if I see another duergar, I'm gonna skip it lol.

Right now my vote is Vrocks (in DIA) .... they stun my bladesinger by screaming every time we fight them. Ironically, they still can't hit her worth a flip even while she is stunned. At 14th level I am considering blindness/deafness so I can cast deafness on myself next time we face them.

Other than that maybe Dwarves, Elves and Tieflings from ROFM and TOD but those are distant.

Honorable mention: Wererats. The last character I had killed to death was killed by wererats .... they have turned up in 3 adventures I have played or am playing (ROFM, CKM, DIA).

 

[ECMO3]

I was going to mention hags, but forgot about them. They were in Tomb of Annihilation, Dungeon of the Mad Mage, Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden, Candlekeep Mysteries, Curse of Strahd, Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft, and most recently in The Wild Beyond the Witchlight. I might have even missed a few, as they're so common in D&D 5e.

They are in DIA too.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Official? Hags.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

The hags in Rime of the Frostmaiden are odd. The one you can encounter early in a low-level mission is nicely thematic, you can make a deal with her, and the outcome can have a lot of effect on at least one of the locales.

But the bonus late-game coven is pretty much a throwaway encounter tucked awkwardly away, with no build-up, precious little personality and not a great deal of threat to characters at that level.

There is a bunch of very random stuff in the last chapter of RotFM. It feels very old school in that regard. "you kick down the door and see a..."

My players have developed the habit of killing hags on sight, before they can say anything, so deals tend not to happen.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

There is a bunch of very random stuff in the last chapter of RotFM. It feels very old school in that regard. "you kick down the door and see a..."

My players have developed the habit of killing hags on sight, before they can say anything, so deals tend not to happen.

When my party encountered the hag in Rime of the Frostmaiden, they actually didn't try to murder her and take her stuff (surprisingly, granted that my party is filled with semi-murderhobos, and hags are known for being evil), and instead tasted the soup she was making (which had human bits floating in it), complimented her on it, gave her some gifts, and got what they wanted without having to do combat. It was a pretty interesting encounter for my group.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

When my party encountered the hag in Rime of the Frostmaiden, they actually didn't try to murder her and take her stuff (surprisingly, granted that my party is filled with semi-murderhobos, and hags are known for being evil), and instead tasted the soup she was making (which had human bits floating in it), complimented her on it, gave her some gifts, and got what they wanted without having to do combat. It was a pretty interesting encounter for my group.

My players might have done that if they hadn't already done hags to death! Partially my fault, I used a hag coven (with reason) in the previous campaign, written by me, so they where already suffering from hag-fatigue. Most of the time they will try negotiating with pretty much anything.

There are inferred connections between that hag and the white lady ghost in Easthaven, that I would have liked to make more use of, having introduced the adventure with the séance scene, but having slaughtered the hag that plot thread was left unpulled.