The needed monster that's never appeared in the MM1 -- or at all, in some editions

[I'm A Banana]

Publishers take note!

...and hire me to write it!

 

[Riley]

I'd buy that in a second.

Publishers take note!

Maybe you could publish it in Drag... err, nope. Offer it to the DDI people, maybe.

 

[frankthedm]

I am probably getting to this bandwagon a little late, but...

This was a great post. Right along with Villain Classes, your Encounter Monster is a great thing. Using a monster as a scene or a monster as terrain are two ideas that D&D could stand to use a lot more.

Forget putting it in as a footnote in a Monster Manual, or a DMG, this kind of thing deserves its own book, full of nothing but detailed scenes of this kind. It would be a very useful resorce for DMs, especially those with little prep time.

I agree, but this requires a rule set that accepts the notion of damaging specific areas and one that is willing to tell a PC "No, you cant cut through the scales at these points."

 

[MoogleEmpMog]

...and hire me to write it!

In all seriousness, complex 'scene encounters' like this are one of the main concepts I want to push in my game line, and I would consider doing exactly this once it gets off the ground.

If you're interested, email me.

 

[I'm A Banana]

Since I don't want to de-rail the thread from the SHAMEFUL exclusion of the Sea Serpent too much, I've created another thread for discussing the "encounter monster" idea.

 

[Frostmarrow]

Not just a cover but there is an encounter in there as well. Strangely you fight it from the ground with the snake attacking from the loch just inches away.

 

[Pinotage]

Apart from being in d20 Modern as mentioned (Menace Manual), the Tome of Horrors 3 actually have about 5 or 6 different varieties of sea serpent, one of them called a shipbreaker.

Pinotage

 

[skinnydwarf]

I'd buy that in a second.

Publishers take note!

Seconded.

I read KM's post and realized, as I often do on ENWorld, that I have a lot to learn as a DM.

Not that that's a bad thing.

 

[Beckett]

Check out the bestiary in Pathfinder 3: there's a creature called the Mother of Oblivion. It's a gargantuan outsider that looks like a sea serpent mixed with an octopus. Bite, four tentacle, improved grab and constrict.

There is some spell-like stuff that goes with it's outsider nature, but most of that can be stripped off.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Check out the bestiary in Pathfinder 3: there's a creature called the Mother of Oblivion. It's a gargantuan outsider that looks like a sea serpent mixed with an octopus. Bite, four tentacle, improved grab and constrict.

There is some spell-like stuff that goes with it's outsider nature, but most of that can be stripped off.

That's a very cool beastie, and I'm likely to use it as a lesser form of Galchutt, but again, it goes to the problem of playing off expectations that are never actually addressed in D&D properly: the lack of a sea serpent in the core rules.