D&D 3.x The 4E Monster Manual -- what 3.5 monsters need the axe?

[Aloïsius]

Remove most of the silly-looking monsters, or at least most of them :
* tojanida, xorn, arrow-hawk...
* etheral flicher and marauder
* phantom fungus and shrieker
* destrachan and digester
* delver
* belker
* formians
* mimic
* chaos beast/gibering mouth/phasm : to many monsters are on the "big bunch of goo" thing
* spider eater
* gray render
* ravid
* rast



I disagree with some of the suggestion made above :
* Titans are not giants, thay are more god-like than this
* hippogrifs are not griffons
* shield gardians should not disapear
* nightshades are a good kind of high level monsters. They need some work however.
* azer are one of the rare cool LN outsider : keep them !
* ogre mage are different than ogre. They can be called Oni if need be, however.



Note that many monsters will be far more popular with good drawing :
* hell hound
* morgh
* allip
* achaierai (if not able to draw something not ridiculous, remove it ! )
* tarrasque (the MM 3 tarrasque looks bovine)
* satyr (the MM3 picture was better than WAR's one in MM3.5)



Humanoids : we still need a lot of choice, so that homebrewing DM can take what fit their world. However, some things should be re-focused
* Orcs VS hobgobelins : the CE vs LE aspect should be lessened, in place of a "savage" VS totalitarian" aspect. Not quite the same.
* Why are tritons outsiders ?
* Remove the "an elf for each ability" thing. Aquatic elves and drow elves, no problems, but no need to gives them different ability scores (why should drow be more intelligent than standard elves ?)
* giths should have the same stats, only different flavor
* locatah, kuo-toa, sahuagin : one of them should be removed, and the remaining fishy guys should be made really different

 

[Doug McCrae]

I think nightshades are one of the best monsters in the MM, 3e was right to nick 'em from RC D&D. Gricks are very cool visually but the stats are totally wonky. DR 10/magic doesn't fit conceptually with a rubbery, otherwise non-magical predator animal.

Much of what's been mentioned is guff though, yeah, but otoh D&D needs an endless supply of bizarro monsters to stop everyone getting bored.

 

[Doug McCrae]

Tojanida - No.

Well said. I agree 100% with your analysis of this monster.

 

[RPG_Tweaker]

Roper: Somoene please tell me which episode of "Space 1999" these guys originally appeared in. When I was a kid they scared the crap out of me.

Ohhhhhh yeah. I remember that one: "Dragon's Domain". That thing was so freaking creepy when I first saw it ('76)... definitely the best creature from the series. Here's a YouTube clip... for a bit of nostalgia.

I must declare, the paltry Roper hardly does this thing justice.


The space monster apparently made an impression on David Hargrave as well. It was featured on the cover of The Arduin Grimoire vol. III, The Runes of Doom; art courtesy of the awesome Greg Espinoza.


Stats from the book:

Star Spyder
HD:20
AC: 2+4 (arms), 2+2 (body), 7 (eye)
Speed: Teleports only
DEX: 17 to 20
Special Attack: 1 psychic charm person
Regular Attacks: 4-24 arms for 1d12 (impact), then 2d8 (constriction)/turn thereafter with continuous suction (reverse cyclone—all under 3+1 HD cannot resist it) each turn. Those seized are dragged under its mouth, where victim's body is consumed by radiation and heat in 2 melee turns. Those killed in this manner are 100% irrecoverable.
Immunities: Fear, confusion, poison, sonics, sleep, cold, charm.

Looks: Bright light [of cental eye] makes observation difficult.

Notes: It absorbs energy from mass conversion which regenerates it at a 2 for 1 rate. When in danger of being killed, it teleports away. This creature is so rare as to be only a dim legend.

 

[STARP_Social_Officer]

We're all thinking it, so I'll just say it.

Giant.
Space.
Hamsters.

 

[Melan]

Less spiky monsters, more amphibian and batrachian weirdness.

 

[Baby Samurai]

Remove most of the silly-looking monsters, or at least most of them :

* xorn

I just don't know if I could give up the Xorn, ever since I first got into this game in 1st edition they were always one of the cool Plane of Elemental Earth monsters. Dao using them as shock troops and what not…

 

[Baby Samurai]

We're all thinking it, so I'll just say it.

Giant.
Space.
Hamsters.

…But they're not a 3.5 monster…

 

[Thurbane]

I might be alone, but I don't mind the Acherai - it has history (FF 1st Ed), and it has "real world" mythological roots, albeit fairly loose to "4 legged smoke producing chicken".

Here's what I think needs to go: 57 varieties of ooze that all basically do the same thing...

 

[ColonelHardisson]

Mang, at this rate we're going to be struggling to fill 50 pages, let alone 280.

Yeah, no kidding.

And I like the delver. It fills a niche - where do all those caverns and tunnels come from, anyway?