Thematic organisation of Monsters?

[Mantriel]

I'm looking for monsters organised into themes.

I would like to create (or right now at the beginning just think about an plan out) some thematic campaign ideas. I have a few ideas, but I would be interested in a few suggestions.

Like:
The Lich Wizard, who has bone golems, hordes of zombies and hundreds of skeletons (of various types), with wraiths, wights and ghosts at his disposal.

Or the Hobgoblin king, who has several orc, goblin, bugbear, troll and hobgoblin tribes in his army.

Or the steampunkish chaos cult, who has several mutants and steampunkish cyborgs among his members.

Or the Forest Queen, who has nymphs, dryads, treants, pixies and hags under her command.

Or the Yuan-ti High priest, who has several tribes of lizardmen, Yuan-ti, "abominations", cuatl etc under his influence.

Or the blue icedragon, who is worshipped by the blue kobold tribe, protected by a bunch of blue drakonids etc.

So I'm looking for monsters organised into themes.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

One thing 4e did was give most monster types an entire "ecosystem". But you can still mix and match. I generally try to keep the number of races low because each can cover a broad array.

For instance, gnolls might tame hyenas, and their warlocks create ghouls. That's already three creature types. You don't need much more than that. Hyenas can come in swarms, or giant fiendish varieties. Gnosll can use classes in 3e and have a dizzying array of types in 4e (covering all roles, even controllers and lurkers!). Ghouls even have leaders, astonishingly enough, but that's probably covering the ground gnoll warlocks cover.

Looking at another archetype; the Unseelie. Pretty much any evil fey will do, but hags are a classic one and make good leaders (make them elites in 4e). Toss in goblinoids, trolls and ogres as well (since they all seemed to come from the same source in real-life mythology), plus evil witches or fey warlocks. Hoary hunters have an ecosystem in 4e (one that covers an oddly large array of levels).

 

[Mantriel]

Thanks, those are great ideas, I especially like your gnoll one.

 

[the Jester]

How about a cult of bullywugs who worship a titanic frog? You could have other giant frogs, mudmen, crocodiles and a few oozes all in a swamp.

Or a doppleganger masquerading as a human, leading a group of bandits with axe beaks for mounts and krenshar pet/companion/allies.

 

[Mantriel]

One of my houserules is: There are no doppelgangers, shapeshifters, werewolves, potions of polyjuice etc. What you see is what you get, except if it is an Illusion or a Mental Projection or a Psychic suggestion.

But your Bullywug idea is really nice. I have never used bullywugs before, you gave me a few ideas to work with.