What are the Ten Most Important monsters for a GM to have stats for?

[Aus_Snow]

For kinda D&D-ish fantasy?

Goblin
Dragon
Skeleton
Zombie
Giant
Wolf
Big Spider / Big Bug / Big Snake (aka poisonous thingy)
Wraith / Spectre / Ghost
Dark Elf / Dark Fey
Demonic Entity

That's assuming your character building section(s) can cover any NPCs (of human[oid] variety) you might want to throw around.

There are still some pretty serious absences, however: Elementals, things that might be found in or under water, orcses (I guess), bats, rats. . . guh, too many.

 

[Bob the Destroyer]

I would probably go with:

1. Orcs
2. Human bandit types
3. Hill Giants/Ogres
4. Zombies or Skeletons
5. Giant Spiders/Scorpions
6. Dire Wolves
7. Hydras
8. Some kind of evil, aquatic Fishmen.
9. Some sort of Demon/Devil
10. Kobolds

 

[Raven Crowking]

Thank you for all the replies!

To be clear, The Big Book of Monsters will contain over 400 (perhaps over 600, the way the work is growing!) monster entries. I am trying to put together a smaller pdf to bridge the completion of the RCFG Player's Guide and the BBOM. I.e., something to get people started.

The potential title is "A Fistful of Monsters", followed by "A Few Monsters More" prior to the advent of the actual monster tome.


RC

 

[Klaus]

That just about covers the top 10 I should think - except that Vampires are not on the list and they should be, even if something else gets bumped off it.

I'd say that orcs, hobgoblins, gnolls, goblins, kobolds can all be lumped together as basic humanoids. I've never drawn a great distinction among them, although for ogres and giants I do.

Really, 10 is too small a list.

I was going to put Vampire in, then decided Ghoul already filled that niche of physical undead preying on the living.

As for the various humanoids, I tried to cover a wide level range, from Small weak humanoid (goblin/kobold) to Medium strong humanoid (orc/hobgoblin/gnoll) to Large giant-type (ogre/giant).

 

[Betote]

Oh, wait, it depends the setting and system. You won't want Dragons on Deadlands for example

That'd be freakin' awesome, if you ask me

 

[Betote]

And now, for the serious answer:

I understand that you are planning for a sort of introduction kit. If that's the case, you'd want the higher end monsters out of the frame, since for beginners a Balor is not as likely to be encountered as a kobold. That being the case, I'd choose:
* Goblin / Kobold (small humanoid monster)
* Orc / Hobgoblin / Bugbear / Gnoll (medium humanoid monster)
* Ogre / Hill Giant / Troll (large humanoid monster)
* Skeleton / Zombie (undead minion)
* Ghoul / Vampire (undead solo)
* Dragon (young) (Dungeons and DRAGONS, dude)
* Wolf / Dire Wolf / Warg (quadrupedal - wilderness encounter)
* Giant Spider / Ankheg (giant bug)
* Gelatinous Cube / Owlbear / Carrion Crawler (D&D weird monster)
* Elementals (personal choice - I love elementals)

 

[Nellisir]

I was going to put Vampire in, then decided Ghoul already filled that niche of physical undead preying on the living.

I think vampires have too many quirks and abilities to be part of a limited intro group, and they're relatively unique/solo villains also. You want something you can reuse over and over, that doesn't involve mist and shapechanging and damage reduction and regeneration or fast healing and bloodsucking and ability damage.

 

[Aberzanzorax]

I'd go with the WotC categories.

You need:

Humanoid: Orc?

Monstrous humanoid:

Animal:

Magical Beast:

Abberation:

Fey:

Outsider:

Undead:


AND SO ON.

Just use the archetype for each category, and you shoud be doing really well.

 

[Klaus]

I think vampires have too many quirks and abilities to be part of a limited intro group, and they're relatively unique/solo villains also. You want something you can reuse over and over, that doesn't involve mist and shapechanging and damage reduction and regeneration or fast healing and bloodsucking and ability damage.

Vampires *can* have quirks and traits, but don't *need* them. Vampires in, say, the Buffyverse, are pretty much Ghouls. But really, with Ghoul stats in hand it's pretty easy to add a couple of things to make a Vampire.

 

[RangerWickett]

Rules-up answer?

Scalable versions of artillery, brute, controller, lurker, minion, skirmisher, and soldier, with a few common types of abilities for each. Plus templates for common tropes like elemental, fey, leader, swarm, and undead.

Flavor-down answer?

Demons, and make sure the game has rules/guidelines for summoning them.
Dragons, and make sure the game has rules/guidelines for climbing on them.
Beastmen (covers goblinoids, minotaurs, man-apes, gnolls, etc.)
Wolves (works as a template for any pack hunter)
Bears (template for the big scary simple monster)
Undead (the shambling kind that you hew to pieces easily)
Damned undead (the near invincible, unstoppable kind)
Ghosts, and make sure the game has rules/guidelines for possession.
Faeries (the tricky, hide in the woods and lure you to your doom kind)
Horrors (the kind of monster that has tentacles, or dozens of scorpion tails for arms, and probably can control your mind or drive you insane)