D&D General The D&D Monster I have never used (or faced) and probably never will.

[Voadam]

I was in a group that hunted a catoblepas once. Turned out to be an apatosaurus.

 

[Raith5]

I cant imagine fighting Flumphs. But I have fought a Tarrasque and lived to tell the story

 

[R_J_K75]

GIANT SPACE HAMSTER!! I cant believe it hasnt been mentioned yet.

 

[Shiroiken]

The only creature I can think of is the Astral Juggernaut, mostly because I've seldom used the astral plane. I've (sadly) used the flumph and the Terrasque, and most monsters in between over the decades.

 

[el-remmen]

That would be a long list as D&D had a ridiculous amount of monsters I never used back in the way back when machine when I played Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd Edition, and I think they have even more now.

Yep, this.

Sure, but can't you name even some of the creatures you feel that way about? Or why?

 

[Echohawk]

Of the monsters I've covered in the Monster ENCyclopedia series, I don't recall ever using a catoblepas, a flumph, an ixitxachitl, or a peryton.

As far as other creatures go, the tarrasque I've used but only once, as a side encounter leading up to the climax of a campaign, where the goal wasn't to kill it, but simply to avoid getting killed by it on the way to the real villain of the story.

I really like strange creatures, and have used many of them over the years. Still, my best estimate is that there are currently between 9000 and 10000 unique D&D creatures, so even if you are a voracious consumer of unusual creatures, you'd need to run a lot of games to make any kind of dent in the total.

 

[el-remmen]

I would much rather use barbarian humans, lizardmen, or even xenophobic wild elves before I employed the Bullywug (MM, p 35). Frogmen???? Really? Run for your life! The frogmen are coming! Give me a break. The artwork in the MM makes it worst.

Look at my avatar - it is a bullywug with a guitar that another ENworld user made for me back in like 2001! This was because my very first "successful" post on ENworld was entitled 'BULLYWUGS GOT THE SHAFT' complaining about how they had nerfed one of my favorite D&D creatues in 3E by taking away his spring attack (which I promptly gave back to them in 3E and now 5E).

 

[el-remmen]

Lots of mentions of the tarrasque, which sure. . . but also it a unique and legendary monster - so I doubt most people get to a place where it'd make sense even if they wanted to use it. I did once run a one-off based on an IRON DM entry, where the PCs were stuck in a "tarrasque nest" beneath a mountain under the sea. The idea being that a tarrasque lays a clutch of eggs in this maze and then leaves to do whatever tarrasques do every 1000 years. Meanwhile, over the next however many centuries the babies grow and fight and eat each other until the last one falls asleep to grow full size and then emerge. So the PCs had to deal with the babies to keep the actual tarrasque from terrorizing the world in a century or two. Great fun!

 

[Laurefindel]

This guy.

Ok, now i want to see below!

It has good AC though...

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Ok, now i want to see below!

It has good AC though...

There was just nothing right about that monster.

From the basic concept ("It's an armadillo, see, but with a ruby stuck in its forehead), to the advanced concept (it just kinda, lets itself be captured and either wills itself to die, or summons monsters to attack the party so it can watch the combat with a "morbid fascination").

Plus the name. "You've encountered a carbuncle." Ewwwwwww.

The Fiend Folio was both the best, and the very very worst of D&D monsters.