What is your favorite D&D monster?

[mythusmage]

Basilisks

Trouble is, I don't use them as written. My basilisks are small dromaeosauroids with the ability to paralyze at a glance. They use it much as venomous snakes use their poison while hunting. Though their sickle claws can also do a lot of damage.

I'll be putting my basilisks back up on the web soon.

 

[Gez]

One type of monster that I like, but only found a few examples of is the social parasite of humanity. The doppelganger, phasm, seeder from Minions and cuckoo from Fantasy Bestiary live among humans and yet are unseen by the populace. Is there any others (no undead or constructs please)? Are there are others that are not shapechangers?

Vampires are known for this, as the only undead that can look living enough to spend time with unsuspecting humans.

Medusa, if you use the Guiser prestige class from the Slayer's Guide to Medusa. This class, in itself, is nearly a good enough reason to buy that book, if you want to use medusaes.

Elans (XPH), kalashtars (and their enemies the Inspired) (ECS), and illumians (RoD). Although they're meant as player character races, they can be used as social parasites, too. There's also the Qin from Mindscapes and Hyperconscious.

Ghaunadans (MC:MoF) are ooze-like servitors of the drow god Ghaunador. (Am I the only one who's bothered by names like Gonadan and Gonador?) They can adopt human-like shape. Same thing with the Yochtol (MC:MoF), demonish handmaidens of Lolth.

Elves and half-elves.

 

[Jolly Giant]

Red dragons for me. A monster just can't get any more classic than those ancient big, evil, flying, fire breathing reptiles!

 

[Ravellion]

Advanced wraiths. With flyby attack. Or use the wraith template from dragon magazine on a high level cleric . Wraiths have definitely been some of my best encounters.

My best and most exciting encounter ever was probably a vampire cleric of Erythnul.

Funny things is though, I don't use that many undead. I really like Kobolds too.

Rav

 

[Testament]

As a GM, I adore seeing my players frightened. That and my love of horror movies and writings means that for me, there's two main categories of monster, the classically horrific and the paranoia inducing.

In the category of horrific sit the Undead and Fiends. I absolutely love the undead, and came within a micron of introducing the horror save from 3rd Ed Ravenloft into my game. Sure, other monsters can claim to be unnatural, but the undead simply scream "this should not be". The fact that they're fearless, hard to hurt and relentless just tops it off. Even the humble zombie, when done properly (thank you Libris Mortis) can scare players.

Fiends are just big nasty, utterly evil horrors from another plane, how can you go wrong? Devils, with their tight organisation and hierarchy are even more fun.

Paranoia monsters are even better, and can overlap with the horrific too. Vampires, and Things Man Was Not Meant to Know are great for this. I use Mind Flayers, Kaorti and their spawn, and Ethergaunts (or the Vhujunka as they're known in my game, and they come from the Far Realm ) for this role. The PCs have no idea what they're facing, and when they do face it, its an alien and evil horror of great power and intellect, with unique abilities and powers. Perfect.

 

[Ranes]

Kobolds have always been among my favourite means of tormenting players. One of their greatest strengths is the frequency with which they're underestimated (at least, by players unaccustomed to my brand of rat-bastardness). 3e kobolds are better than ever, thanks to the ease with which they can be customised. Or optimised, if you prefer.

Other than that, aberrations are fun. If I have to pick one, it's got to be my old pal the gelatinous cube, for all the reasons that have already been mentioned.

 

[Elemental]

The Xixical (sp?) from the ELH also deserves some love, as a planet-busterish titan of terror. Anything that routinely has adult white dragons roosting on its shoulders just screams awesome. Pity its vaguely Aztec-sounding name makes it about impossible to pronounce.

It always tickled me that the Colossal Xixecal has the Dodge feat. I get this vision of a walking glacier doing moves out the Matrix.


My own nominations--

Yuan-Ti: They've got a wonderful Howardian vibe, being decadent, superintelligent degenerates close enough to humanity to be really disturbing.

Vampires: Because they're so easy to customise. Vampires have been through so many image changes that you can have knightly vampires, bestial vampires, spellcasting vampires, or alien vampires and none of them seem out of place.

Dinosaurs: For when you really want to convey to the players that they're not in Kansas anymore.

Araneas: It's a giant, smart spellcasting spider! What's not to like?

 

[Brakkart]

No doubt about it, my favourite D&D monster is the Lich. At some point or another, one turns up in pretty much every D&D campaign I run. My other favourites (in no particular order) are:

Mind Flayers
Aboleths
Yuan-ti
Kobolds
Lizardfolk
Dracotaurs

 

[DM_Fiery_Fist]

Yeah, it was definitely an exotic encounter. My elven rogue with a very low wisdom went right after the coins and was caught by the aballin - the party barely managed to get it off of him by use of a spell called "corruption". I've used them a few times since then and they've always been interesting for me. Most players have absolutely no idea what to do when they're suddenly enveloped by acidic fluid.

 

[snarfoogle]

For me it's a toss up between Vampires and Phase Spiders. On the one hand, you have the fiercesome, intelligent creature who wants your blood. On the other hand, you have a spider the size of a horse who can materialize out of nowhere and poison you. The only problem is the illustrations on the Phase Spiders. Looking at the 3.5 MM, he's a ridiculous shade of blue and white. If it looked like a giant tarantula, now that would be scary. Plus whoever had the idea of an intelligent Phase Spider rogue. Scary.

EDIT: Ooh, and lizardfolk. Especially when they have class levels and poison -- and especially when they have camouflage scales and are Small.