What are your fav monsters to pit against players in DnD?

[RevTurkey]

Big spiders!

 

[pemerton]

I really like 4e's gnolls - there's a good variety of them in both mechanical and story terms, and they have a good backstory that opens the door to a range of other options (demons, ghouls, wild beasts, etc).

 

[The Human Target]

There are so many great kobolds you can easily fill an entire dungeon. My highest recommendation.

The low level undead (skeletons/zombies/ghouls/etc) come in a lot of great varieties too.

The lower level elementals are fun.

Beholders and drow are must fights.

4e really made the human/elf/dwarf/etc racial monsters a great deal of fun. The River Rats should be in your game. Put em in Daggerdale.

Penanggalans and Perytons are awesome.

Absolutely use twig blights.

Carrion Crawlers and Displacer Beasts.

Lizardfolk, wererats, and gelatinous cubes.

Orcs, ogres, trolls, rust monsters, and owlbears.

The classics, done very well in 4e.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Most lurkers have powers that either put them in concealment at the beginning of combat, or put them back into concealment.

Invisibility, increased move to put them in darkness, ability to create darkness, burrow, etc. Let's see...

*Cracks open MM3*

Ghoul Flesh Seeker: can use a stealth check become hidden with concealment/cover, instead of needing superior concealment/total cover. (Same for Shadow lurker)
The Gnoll Skulk can do the above, but once hidden, it can move out of cover/concealment and remain hidden.
Air Elemental: becomes invisible when it starts its turn without an adjacent enemy

Nentir Vale:
Blackfang Gravedigger can burrow beneath someone and attack from below.
Wild Coldscale drakes gain partial concealment if on snowy/icy terrain, and have a standard at-will to become invisible if on said cold terrain.

That's just with a little looking through the low levels of two books. Some lurkers don't really have anything (Like the Ogre cave hunter), others just have things that work in combat (like Joplin the Spy, Daggerburg Reaper and the Iron Circle Spy).

However, I do hate sunrods. In my games, sunrods stay put when activated, so you can light up a whole area, but you can't drag them around.

I believe Gargoyle Lurkers "lurk" by becoming temporarily highly resistant to damage (turning to stone). They lurk in a less figurative sense only at the begininng when they look like "harmless" statues, afterwards you can probably easily track them, but it doesn't matter, since they have resist 10 or 20 at heroic tier. Their combat tactics are somewhat similar to other Lurkers (wait, wait, strike for massive damage; Repeat)

 

[Rechan]

when they look like "harmless" statues

Are statues EVER harmless? If you see a statue in an adventure, there's like an 80% chance it's either a monster or a trap.

 

[TarionzCousin]

Are statues EVER harmless? If you see a statue in an adventure, there's like an 80% chance it's either a monster or a trap.

Only 80%?

Having experienced my players' tendencies to destroy every statue in every dungeon they ever encountered, I put a bunch of humanoid (non-monster) statues in a lair.

The new-to-the-group PC wouldn't let the others destroy the statues. And, in fact, she was right. Because they did face a medusa. Once the monster was dead, they turned those statues back into people and collected rewards and favors.

But my older players still grumbled about it being "too risky" to not demolish every statue.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Only 80%?

Having experienced my players' tendencies to destroy every statue in every dungeon they ever encountered, I put a bunch of humanoid (non-monster) statues in a lair.

The new-to-the-group PC wouldn't let the others destroy the statues. And, in fact, she was right. Because they did face a medusa. Once the monster was dead, they turned those statues back into people and collected rewards and favors.

But my older players still grumbled about it being "too risky" to not demolish every statue.

Still, again, not harmless statues. They warned the players of a Medusa. And they definitely weren't ordinary, either.

 

[Ruxpin_exe]

There are so many great kobolds you can easily fill an entire dungeon. My highest recommendation.

The low level undead (skeletons/zombies/ghouls/etc) come in a lot of great varieties too.

The lower level elementals are fun.

Beholders and drow are must fights.

4e really made the human/elf/dwarf/etc racial monsters a great deal of fun. The River Rats should be in your game. Put em in Daggerdale.

Penanggalans and Perytons are awesome.

Absolutely use twig blights.

Carrion Crawlers and Displacer Beasts.

Lizardfolk, wererats, and gelatinous cubes.

Orcs, ogres, trolls, rust monsters, and owlbears.

The classics, done very well in 4e.

Displacer beasts, forgot about them.. I remember reading flavour text somewhere that thieves highly value their eyes, probably a quest line to be built right there..

 

[Storminator]

I stole an idea from an Eberron module, where the Radiant Idol (essentially a fallen angel) had been turned to stone. I had it on the verge of coming to life. So it used the gargoyle stat block, and shifted from statue/altar/idol to attacking with Wave of Torment from the Angel of Torment stat block.

It was fantastic in terms of story and scene, but I caution against using powerful AoE recharge attacks with lurkers. Lurk until the power recharges - blast! repeat . . .

PS

 

[GX.Sigma]

Only 80%?

Having experienced my players' tendencies to destroy every statue in every dungeon they ever encountered, I put a bunch of humanoid (non-monster) statues in a lair.

The new-to-the-group PC wouldn't let the others destroy the statues. And, in fact, she was right. Because they did face a medusa. Once the monster was dead, they turned those statues back into people and collected rewards and favors.

But my older players still grumbled about it being "too risky" to not demolish every statue.

Idea: "Statues" that are actually hollow and filled with pressurized poison gas.

Wouldn't surprise me if Gygax used that at some point.