Silly Monsters

[Glyfair]

MMII had the Boggle, which I've also always detested, and the Wolf-In-Sheep's-Clothing.
For those who don't know, the Wolf-In-Sheep's-Clothing was a creature that looked like a tree stump with a rabbit sitting on it. The rabbit (actually part of the creature) was just bait, the stump was actually a monster with a gaping maw and eyestalks.

Note that both of these were from modules, originally, and just transplanted to the Monster Manual II. The Wolf-In-Sheep's-Clothing certainly was only intended to be a one-off monster. It was plainly created to make use of the "picture encounter" that was one of the gimmicks of S3.

Boggles, on the other hand, were part of the Slave Lords series and were probably created just to suprise the players with a new monster that wasn't part of the lore, yet. After all, the series was the originally a tournament module.

 

[DonaldRumsfeldsTofu]

The Boggle is adorable, actually.

And keep in mind that dragons can polymorph into anything.

 

[Orius]

The Wolf-In-Sheep's-Clothing certainly was only intended to be a one-off monster. It was plainly created to make use of the "picture encounter" that was one of the gimmicks of S3.

That might be the case with some silly monsters: intorduced as a silly one-shot encounter in an early module, and then later included in a large compilation of monsters (prehaps as filler). Then there's the flumph, the FF's token lawful good monster. Finally, silly 3e monsters were designed with specific purposes in mind: either to provide caters with stuff to summon, to prepare players (especially novice ones) for later encounters, or to provide an opportunity for PCs to use specific abilities.

Still, with the occasional monster that is either a total metagame trap for PCs, or something that appeared in an April issue of Dragon, I think how silly a monster is really depends on how a DM uses it. If a DM uses a monster effectively, it can make a difference. I put a darkmantle to very good use after reading and Ecology article on it in Dragon. I made fairly effective use out of a phantom fungus. There was the mimic with an attitude in one of my dungeons, I always thought these things were just stupid monsters that sat around, until I read the MM description that gave it a 10 Int, and said it could speak Common. And I really irritated my players with the territorial ethereal filcher that kept nabbing their magic, and who's treasure hoard consisted entirely of nice, shiny cursed items.

However, some monsters, like the digester, seem way to strange for me to ever consider using.

 

[sledged]

Sometimes the silliest monsters are the ones DMs create to challenge the PCs. Like a Troll Kensai with the Detach feat (Savage Species) whose empowered his claw attacks with the Throwing and Returning abilities.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

And keep in mind that dragons can polymorph into anything.

I'm positive you can't polymorph into an ooze. And why would you want to... just to do an ooze?

Well, you know how it--you're in human form, you get drunk, everyone's doing silly dares, and someone knows of a cave where there's this ooze....

That's going to take a lot of alcohol and/or other mind-affecting substances. I mean really, the only humans I know of who would do something like that involved an overdose of steroids or cocaine and inanimate objects.

 

[Hypersmurf]

I'm positive you can't polymorph into an ooze.

This spell functions like alter self, except that you change the willing subject into another form of living creature. The new form may be of the same type as the subject or any of the following types: aberration, animal, dragon, fey, giant, humanoid, magical beast, monstrous humanoid, ooze, plant, or vermin.

And I really irritated my players with the territorial ethereal filcher that kept nabbing their magic, and who's treasure hoard consisted entirely of nice, shiny cursed items.

Ethereal filchers are awesome!

My favourite 3E monster.

-Hyp.

 

[Taneel BrightBlade]

silly monster: the half red dragon/half red dragon/half red dragon/ red dragon
CR35

or the half gold dragon/half gold dragon/half gold dragon/gold dragon

so every geration of dragon gains +3 CR and loads of stat boosts

is that not insain?

 

[DarkSoldier]

I started a thread on "Least Likely Additions to a Monstrous Compendium" on the old Malodorous Goat board, and by the time the topic dried up, I'd collected some 186 monsters, including a lot of shapechangers (this was pre-3.5). It even got into the Undead Sea Scrolls.

 

[demiurge1138]

Ah, yes. The umblepy. I forgot about that one. I'm pretty sure that they were based off of the big orange hair monster from the old Bugs Bunny cartoons. Which is still really, really silly.

I like boggles, though. And I'll defend digesters to the death. I ran a very effective digester ambush (I basically made them hideously mutated raptors), which got some good suspense for something that looks fairly ridiculous.

What about the krenshar? I always thought that a hyena that could pull off its face seemed a little, well, goofy. But I've heard nothing against them so far, while the ythrak (very weird, but handy) and the ethereals get blasted.

Demiurge out

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

I'm positive you can't polymorph into an ooze. And why would you want to... just to do an ooze?

Well, having played a shifter: (In Character: ) Just for the experience of it - how does it feel to be an ooze?
(Out of Character: ) For the fun of it. Polymorphing into all the different creatures is a fun experience (- well, it can also be mathematical headache if you want to use it in combat)

Mustrum Ridcully