Soooooooo Many Monsters... How do you use them all?

[VirgilCaine]

Having been a faithful attendant of the Creature Catalog for a few years, I have a LOT of monsters, the majority of which are unknown to current players [evil DM grin].

I could see finding ways to use all the MM monsters...

...but maybe not all of the ones I have--which is a lot of the Creature catalog.
But I'd hate to let some of them go to waste, after printing them out...

Anyone else find ways to get a use out of your many monsters?

 

[Crothian]

For me it isn't about quantity, its about quality. I have tons of monsters books and while I'm never going to use everything in them (I'm not even trying) I know that I can find the monster that I need for ther right situation. It might take a while, but I can find it.

 

[Pants]

I don't.
I pick and choose the best ones most appropriate for a given situation/encounter... or I plan one around a particularly cool monster.

 

[Hjorimir]

I suggest taking the time to think about the ecology of your world and place monsters in a manner that makes sense. Unless the characters do a LOT of traveling, I can't see using anywhere near all the monsters in even just the Monster Manual (much less all of the other monster books).

 

[Telperion]

...disregard please...

 

[wormwort]

Monsters are like colors for a painter... it's great to have all the options you can but, depending on the effect you want to create, its sometimes wise to limit what hits the canvas. But it's a personal choice of how outrageous or subtle you want your variety of encounters to be.

 

[Kodam]

Hi!

Use a group of powerful Conjurers as main enemy...

Kodam

 

[dren]

Monsters are one of the things I love most about being a DM in a fantasy millieu...the choices even when you only have 2-3 books is amazing. I know I have more than six monster books, plus the 100+ monsters of my own design!

When I create a new dungeon, I usually go through all of the books making notes about what should be in a given location...often I'll choose too many creatures with the same "theme" (such as stand alone beasties, hunting predators, etc) and then break a group of monsters up into two or three dungeons, and write it up on a piece of paper with editors notes about the rooms, treasure and magic items. It usually takes about two-three hours, but often I have 2,3 or even 4 dungeons at the end of the process.

In every environment (desert, warm dungeon, etc) I have at least one wandering monster table, so that if the players break from their given strategy or quest, I can throw in some monsters without effort. This also works for being a fair DM, a planned monster in a dungeon is one thing, but, it really is nasty for a PC to be killed by a wandering creature you happened to chose on the fly because your players deviated from their supposed plan of action.

 

[Umbran]

I want a large monster selection so I can always find the perfect match for each and every encounter. I have no intention of trying to use all of them.

 

[DragonLancer]

I go with everything everyone else has said. The way I look at it, variety is the spice of life and more so with monsters. After a while players learn the in's and out's of the standard MM fare.

Plus, a monster may or may exist, until I use it and its confirmed.