D&D General Quaint and curious monsters of forgotten core

[Burnside]

CR 4-8 undead that do something legitimately frightening and long-lasting to PCs? (Beyond ghosts, anyway)

Banshee (CR 4) is legit frightening in that they can drop multiple characters to zero hp with one failed saving throw vs area of effect attack.

 

[David Howery]

did the doombat from the 1E FF ever appear anywhere after that? I always liked this monstrous powerful bat that could bite, whip you with it's tail, and emit a godawful sonic shriek. Plus, it was big enough to be ridden. I put doombats in quite a few places in my campaign worlds....

 

[the Jester]

That I haven't seen mentioned:

Tarantellas, thouls, destrachans, thought eaters, ear seekers, and some of the weirder Planescape monsters that made it into the 3e MM, like rasts, ravids, and belkers, come to mind.

 

[the Jester]

did the doombat from the 1E FF ever appear anywhere after that? I always liked this monstrous powerful bat that could bite, whip you with it's tail, and emit a godawful sonic shriek. Plus, it was big enough to be ridden. I put doombats in quite a few places in my campaign worlds....

They appear in my homebrew conversions.

 

[Yora]

I think they might be in the 3rd ed. FF.

 

[dave2008]

(Which is not one of the core books.)

Yes, but the OP said monsters that have not returned in 5e yet, not just core 5e. See below, emphasis mine.

What are some of your favorite monsters that used to be part of the core rules, but aren't in 5E? What did you like about them? Have you ever used them? And would you like to see them return (core or otherwise)?

 

[RoughCoronet0]

I miss the Dragonspawn, the first batch of which were released in 4e’s Monster Manual. They were neat creatures to throw at players during dragon heavy campaigns.

 

[dave2008]

I miss the Dragonspawn, the first batch of which were released in 4e’s Monster Manual. They were neat creatures to throw at players during dragon heavy campaigns.

I think they appeared in 3/3.5e too, just not the original MM. But yes those would be nice to have again.

 

[JEB]

Yes, but the OP said monsters that have not returned in 5e yet, not just core 5e. See below, emphasis mine.

On a re-read I was less than clear, so I fixed the OP. Sorry to anyone who was confused!

 

[Hussar]

Is there a Chaos Spawn in 5e? A monster that creates monsters? Fantastic.

And Formians. Borg Ants from Beyond? Very fun.