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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Rechan" data-source="post: 4214734" data-attributes="member: 54846">Let's compare something: A plant creature possesses the following traits (unless otherwise noted in a creature’s entry).    * Low-light vision.    * Immunity to all mind-affecting effects (charms, compulsions, phantasms, patterns, and morale effects).    * Immunity to poison, sleep effects, paralysis, polymorph, and stunning.    * Not subject to critical hits.    * Proficient with its natural weapons only.    * Proficient with no armor.    * Plants breathe and eat, but do not sleep. An elemental possesses the following traits (unless otherwise noted in a creature’s entry).    * Darkvision out to 60 feet.    * Immunity to poison, sleep effects, paralysis, and stunning.    * Not subject to critical hits or flanking.    * Unlike most other living creatures, an elemental does not have a dual nature—its soul and body form one unit. When an elemental is slain, no soul is set loose. Spells that restore souls to their bodies, such as raise dead, reincarnate, and resurrection, don’t work on an elemental. It takes a different magical effect, such as limited wish, wish, miracle, or true resurrection, to restore it to life.    * Proficient with natural weapons only, unless generally humanoid in form, in which case proficient with all simple weapons and any weapons mentioned in its entry.    * Proficient with whatever type of armor (light, medium, or heavy) that it is described as wearing, as well as all lighter types. Elementals not indicated as wearing armor are not proficient with armor. Elementals are proficient with shields if they are proficient with any form of armor.    * Elementals do not eat, sleep, or breathe.A phantom fungus and an <a href="http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/invisibleStalker.htm" target="_blank">Invisible Stalker</a>, then, are very very similar from an encounter perspective. But Invisible Stalkers are more interesting; they're assassins that are summoned, stalk people. When was the last time you used an Invisible Stalker in an adventure? <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> But really, the thing that has made me ignore Phantom Fungus the most is because I thought the art of them looked utterly stupid. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> Not very inspiring. On the flip side, I did like the LOOK of an Ethereal Marauder, but not the stats (I rarely ever touched planes, dealt with games that were high enough to deal with the Ethereal planes).Compare that to the Ethereal Filcher, which I thought was both dumb looking and with unattractive stats.I think "Where it goes, what it likes to do, how it acts" is nice several pages of fluff, the stuff that really get my juices flowing is the stuff you rarely see outside of either mythology texts or stuff out of Ravenloft. Little factoids like "The sight of a widow's tears paralyze this monster" "Only stalks left handed men" "Is held at bay by burying spoiled cabbage" "is summoned by burying a bag of chicken bones and personal keepsakes at the center of a crossroads". That stuff makes the monster unique in a non-ecological nature. It's not something you can get from a statblock. It's purely folklore, and part superstition, and very much "What a layman can do". I think the most interesting of monsters are the ones that are one-of-a-kind or unique in their behavior origin, like Rumplestiltskin. I mean, you can't look at a number of statblocks, and decide "Okay, this one likes to punish children by dragging them down a drainpipe and drowning them, then turning them into junk and leaving them to be thrown away by their parents (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloody_Bones" target="_blank">Rawhead and Bloody Bones</a>), and "This creature stands at the edge of the woods, waiting to hear men int he fields say their names, and thus it beckons them to come in closer, and closer, deeper into the woods, until they are alone and it eats them" (<a href="http://www.supernaturalscoop.com/2008/04/16/supernatural-synopsis-314-long-distance-call/" target="_blank">Crocotta</a>).If I was playing a more mystery-based game (or something set in modern times), this stuff would be essential. Forget the stats, I need stuff to make the story.</blockquote>

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