D&D General What creature did you introduce against type that turned out great?

[Reynard]

Maybe it was the red dragon that had a heart of gold, or the planetar that decided it wanted to be a God. In any case, what is a time that you, as DM, introduced a well known creature but played it against type: Importantly, to good effect.

 

[payn]

There was a fallen paladin turned vampire in one of the adventures I was running. The character didnt have much flavor and was really just a foot soldier to toss at the PCs. I rewrote it as the anti-paladin hated what he had become, but fell victim to the hunger everytime they tried to resist it. The PC Pally offered to help the fallen pally vamp end it.

Was a really cool scene about them on the city street just before dawn. The fallen started to lose his will, as he always did, and wanted to retreat to safety. The pally ended up getting into a duel to stop them. The PC won the battle and the fallen was finally able to get peace. The whole table loved it.

 

[Voadam]

Party in a one shot goes to their friend old lady oracle to ask about the suspected dragon attack at a farm. She says I am goin to tell you young lady but you hear but don’t listen. You just hear what you want to hear. You could prepare and it would help but you’re not going to. No I will says the young Dragonborn. You won’t she says but it will still be fine. It’s a white dragon up in the mountain.

So they go to the alchemist’s shop and load up on potions of resist cold and head to the mountain. They find a small entrance deal with traps and kobolds and make it to the servants entrance for the dragon’s cave and down their cold resistance.

They enter the cave where they find the dragon with dull bronze scales and dead eyes. It breathes fire at the party and the fight is on. The red Dragonborn resists fire and the two rogues evasion so not terrible and it is a tough but survivable fight. Every claw and bite hits with necrotic damage that drains life. They realize the oracle did not say white dragon, but wight dragon.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I had a friendly vegetarian mimic a few weeks ago.

Other than that, do evil gnomes and eladrin count?

 

[aco175]

I have had a couple NPC followers tag along with the party and the players kept asking if this is where they betray us. There was the goblin riverboat ferryman that they used to flee the orcs. They bribed the goblin to not tell the orcs where they went. He came back to follow them after the orcs took his boat. The players kept thinking he was working for the orcs and were going to betray them at any turn.

There was the halfling fighter who wanted to be a paladin, but was poor and wore leather armor and used a shortsword. Back in 2e days there was a running joke in my group about any halfling in leather having to be a thief. The players kept thinking that he was going to steal from them.

There was the necromancer road crew repairing the washout in the King's Road. The necromancer was napping while his skeleton minions did the work. The PCs attacked thinking they were destroying the road. The crew was half dead before the necromancer woke up and started coming down the road to intervene. He nearly died as well before things calmed down. The PCs were accused of interfering with royal business and told they needed to pay for his losses, but the players figured out he was underbidding the competition to get the contract and the threat of exposing him patched things up. The players kept thinking he was going to came back at them though.

 

[el-remmen]

I had a friendly vegetarian mimic a few weeks ago.

I had one too! I was using the 1E rules that some small percentage of mimics are intelligent and decided this one - Mimi the Mimic - was intelligent enough to make a deal of being fed regularly in return for guarding the treasure within and around it!

Other than that, do evil gnomes and eladrin count?

I don't even know what an eladrin is, but evil gnomes? YES!

A major villainous faction in my "Out of the Frying Pan" campaign (see the story hour) were half-fiend gnomes!

And my setting has a cultural idea called "Sinister Gnomes" - regarding gnomes whose love of pranks and tricks turns sadistic and they find humor in causing pain.

 

[TwoSix]

I'm sure I'm not the only one who does this, but I definitely do the "powerful monster (dragon, efreeti, lich) is quirky and endearing, maybe an ally, right up until they do something casually horrific" trope pretty often.

 

[Minigiant]

Two of the kingdoms in Council of Dwarves is the Wood and Leaf loving, tree hugging Valley Dwarves who are the opposite of Mountain Dwarves and the positive and swift (for a dwarf) Bright Dwarves who were the opposite of Dark Dwarves.

The party listening to 6 types of dwarves argue made them lose Sanity points.

 

[RoughCoronet0]

I greatly enjoy using Chromatic Dragons as npcs in my word. A Young White Dragon tavern keeper in a gnome village, an ancient Green Dragon that act a as a wise Arch Druid that will give council and teach those who enter his forest with respect and an appetite for learning, an Adult Red Dragon blacksmith who enjoys crafting weapons and armor from the strangest and rarest of materials.

 

[jdrakeh]

I have, historically, portrayed dragons as bestial forces of nature who are not easily defeated, even by a party of heroes (in many cases, a sizable compliment of soldiers and siege weapons are required to defeat dragons in my campaigns).