What is too silly for D&D?

[Dragonbait]

What's too silly? Whatever clashes with the atmosphere of the game. For instance, I like giff (the gun loving giant hippo men) but I would not put them in a setting like Ravenloft (a very humanocentric setting). Can Giff be silly? Absolutely. They also have the potential to be just as cool/interesting as a drunken midget with a beard, a self-loathing kewl dark elf, or an efeeminate man with pointed ears.

And the yak-men (yikari)? I fail to see whats silly about creatures that can possess people, manipulate empires, and summon earth spirits.

Okay.. Okay.. Giant space hamsters ARE silly.. But they're so cute!

 

[haakon1]

What's too silly? Whatever clashes with the atmosphere of the game.

Exactly. For the campaigns I run, which I try to keep Tolkienesque.

Modrons make no sense to me -- I don't get into Planescape stuff.

Owlbears -- with a backstory of being produced by some wizard long ago -- are fine. Like Mongrelmen, it kinda almost makes sense, and it's fun.

Gelatinous cubes are fine too -- serves an ecological niche. Plus, most "classic" monsters from the Gygax era just fit, by grandfathering if nothing else.

As for flumphs, I've always liked them, as the most pathetic monster, but I haven't used them yet.

 

[Crazy Jerome]

Too silly for D&D? In the immortal words of Bugs Bunny, "Nawhh, there ain't no such animal."

Silly (and potentially serious) in certain ways, such that I would probably never use that creature in any campaign I would care to run? Modrons fit that profile. Warforged do too. But then, that's because of the campaign, not the creature. I can easily envision a campaign where such creatures are credible. It just wouldn't be my first choice.

Consider, too, that this is from a person who routinely, in any particular campaign, uses 20% or less (usually far less) of the monsters available. There are whole subsets of campaigns, to pick just one popular example, where gnomes are exceedingly silly.

 

[Hussar]

Put me in the "Nothing's too silly" column.

Is it too silly/doesn't fit the current adventure I'm building? Oh sure. But, that's a whole 'nother issue. Just because I can't use them NOW doesn't mean I won't use them later.

And a bit of reflavoring goes a long way. Someone has a sig that talks about a vampiric ninja black pudding and then makes it very, very cool. That's just groovy.

 

[TwinBahamut]

Sillyness as it relates to monsters is a pretty complicated thing...

Without a doubt, humor and fun are extremely important parts of D&D, and should be encouraged as much as possible. People play D&D to have a good time, and laughing at something ridiculous is part of that. However, that does not inherently justify the existence of monsters that have no purpose except to be humorous, or try to be humorous in addition to being something else.

Honestly, I think a large part of it is that the good humor in D&D comes from the players and DM making jokes and doing unusual things at the table, while most of the "silly" monsters in D&D come across as more of being a cheap gag or lame pun. Many of the silly monsters are not even meant to be silly, they just tried to be cool and failed, and those are the really painful ones. This has some crossover with the huge list of creatures that are just boring or badly designed.

Most "silly" creatures could probably be modified to be more widely appealing while still preserving what redeeming features they already have.

 

[Oni]

Very little is too silly for dnd. One of the things I like about it is its offbeat nature and general weirdness.

The worst thing is probably taking something blatently out of place and putting it in, like say Klingons or the ghost of Elvis, yet with only a minor change in window dressing I'm sure that'd be fine too.

 

[Fifth Element]

What do you consider too silly for D&D? Owlbears? Green slimes? Dinosaurs running around in a medieval era? The old school pig-headed orcs? Trappers and lurkers above?

I don't think these are silly.

I rather like owlbears. Green slime is fine. I don't use dinosaurs in my games, but I can see where they can be fit in. I don't use trappers and lurkers above, not because they're silly really, just because I don't like "gotcha" monsters.

I'll just go with hong's line if you find some monsters "silly" in D&D.

 

[justanobody]

Dragonborn and tieflings.

DM: Lets play a Dragonlance campaign!
Player A: I want to play a Draconian!

DM: Lets play a Planescape campaign!
Player A: I want to play a devil/demon!

 

[Silver Moon]

Well, let me put it this way.....


.....our current module has a giant Penguin Pooka who took the adventuring team to the Pookaverse, where the characters have been transformed into humanoid animals (a duck, a moose, a horse, a rabbit and two penguins). We are now looking for the rogue leader of the Pookaverse who is attempting to impose Order on this Chaos. Thus far the biggest combat encounter was a pie fight. And this isn't just a one-nighter either, on Sunday we'll be play the sixth game of this module.

So you can put our gaming group down into the 'Nothing is too silly for D&D' category.

 

[Evilhalfling]

wow many of your campaigns make me look restrained.
I mean yes in the first 4e adventure I ran the PCs were sent to retrieve holy (green feathered) chickens.(see sig)

The starting village has a comic relief idiot so far he has been stuck on a gazebo, trampled by horses, shot himself with x-bow, and tried to sell homemade healing potions. (which would have made decent grenades)
warning: Do not expose to air .... sunlight, jostling, heat, cold, or halflings. Don't taunt the healing potion.

Oh and the PCs named a Shadow-template psudodragon "Sunshine" with the following comment.
"He said there was death below, so lets go up. I'm sure there will be sunshine, and puppies."

But mostly I play the monsters straight and the PCs have to be regular races. Spelljammer monsters have stayed in the spelljammer setting. Except for a former giant space hamster/monk/henchman.