What Monster(s) are Overexposed?

[doctorhook]

Probably boring for you to draw, too.

While the 'old guard,' orcs, goblins, hobgoblins, bugbears, kobolds, gnolls & lizardfolk, have pretty much crept into useful niches, every time I see a *new* humanoid race, like tasloi, flind, nycter, witchknives or whatever, I wonder if they are really necessary, or could just be replaced with those already present. Do I need an Urd when I can just have a dragontouched kobold with wings?

I completely agree with your premise. However, I have to point out that, IIRC, Tasloi and Flind go all the way back to at least 1st Edition AD&D.

Also, I'm pretty certain that Flinds were just an excuse to have Lawful Evil Gnolls. IMHO, alignment is a poor philosophy to design game elements by, as much as I actually happen to like Flinds. (Generally, I liked LE monsters.)

 

[blargney the second]

Lantern archons are way overexposed. I can't get a picture of them that isn't blown to hell.

 

[Leatherhead]

It's surprising there isn't something more evil than the Far Realm now, but the Mythos seem quite resistant to colonisation. Despite Cthulhutech and Plush Cthulhu.

The reason the far realm hasn't fallen to the same fate as other monstrosities is that most people don't fantasize about playing squid-heads or floating eyeballs. Really, the monsters are constructed in a non-superficially monstrous way that is very hard to soften the impact of (I'm looking at you, vampires, and your blood as a sexual metaphor non-killing ways).

Myself, I've never been fond of fay. I already have one-dimensional superpowered evil beings who want to trick, torture, and harass humans; they are called devils, and they actually have a reason for what they do.

But over all, I would say humans are overexposed. They are in nearly every adventure ever.

 

[doctorhook]

Lantern archons are way overexposed. I can't get a picture of them that isn't blown to hell.

Funny!

 

[doctorhook]

Myself, I've never been fond of fay. I already have one-dimensional superpowered evil beings who want to trick, torture, and harass humans; they are called devils, and they actually have a reason for what they do.

...Do they? Don't devils trick people out of their souls just because it's the Lawful Evil thing to do?

 

[karlindel]

I think a lot of the question depends on which categories a person likes. It is rare that someone will consider something they like to be overexposed.

I think the evil humanoid category is a bit too broad. I think kobolds are might be overexposed (although I do love them), while orcs, goblins, and hobgoblins are fine. If you consider lizardfolk and yuan-ti being underrepresented, you end up with the category overall being fine. Personally, I am a big fan of humanoid opponents, although I would like to see more variety in lowe level adventures.

Drow are overexposed. Just the fact that they merit a category of their own next to groups as broad as Fey, Elementals, and Aberrations indicates this.

I voted that I think Demons, Devils, Drow, and Undead are overexposed.

I use demons and devils in many of my games, demons as agents of destruction and devils as tempters/masterminds. That said, they are somewhat ubiquitous, and I would like to see more done with some of the other monsters.

Undead are a ubiquitous enemy. Although I generally enjoy them, I think that they come up much more often than many of the other categories. Personally, I would like to see more dangerous natural creatures or monsters that appear more natural.

 

[TarionzCousin]

Scanning down the list of threads, I read this thread's title as "Which monsters are oversexed?"

 

[Diamond Cross]

What, no mosters that are overhexed?

 

[Haltherrion]

I picked Drow. Frankly, all of the the others can be used well, even if it is rare, but I haven't seen a drow in years that doesn't make me want to roll my eyes.

I picked them along with gpblins. In many ways, I don't really have any trouble with drow. Like the aesthetic, reasonably well fleshed out, distinct personality. The trouble I have with them is that they feel like a nicely described race for a specific setting plucked out of their home campaign world and tossed too willy-nilly into other settings.

 

[clip]

Dragons and Beholders for sure. I can't believe all the pages in virtually every monster book from 1e until now on Dragons, and the countless magazine ones too. Yeah, I know the game is Dungeons & Dragons, but they're a minority creature - most campaigns don't see them for a long while - so is the amount of space justified?

And the Beholder. Someone needs to tell the MM editors to just stop. At first, there was only one of the damn things (if you don't include the gas spore), then there was the Spectator. Now? Too many.