What Monsters Are Commonly Used In Your Game?

[Voadam]

What supposedly "common" monsters do you rarely or never use?

Don't use?

Halflings, gnomes, half-elves, half-orcs, half-dragons, giant eagles or owls.

 

[Voadam]

One recent campaign has seen: goblins, dover (from Complete Minions), tieflings, dwarves, humans, worgs, shriekers, faust (CM), Illonis (Mythic Races), green dragons, dire boar, bears, lizardfolk, lions, fiendish monstrous spiders, oozombies (from www.rollinitiative.com), warforged (from dragon magazine), Elan (psionics srd), Monstrous spiders, gnolls, brass dragons, badgers, giant beetles, dire bears, and a few celestial/angel things that I forget.

Another one has seen: Rakshasa, aboleth, tiefling, naga, mindeater (from Mindcraft), asherake (CM), Forlorn (CM) gray dragon (Book of Beasts), hobgoblins, azer, fire giants, hell hounds, Zenzogin (Penumbra Fantasy Bestiary), Frostbiter (CM), Faust (CM), wererat, ash rats (MMII), Blade Golem (modified iron golem), bladeling (MMII), Steel Predator (Lord of the Iron Fortress), Efreeti, duergar, orcs, bariaur (www.planewalker.com) the chaos ooze thing from MMII, moonbeast (MMII), Zenrithi (MMII), Kyton, ash mephit, elves, drow, half-fiend, retriever, glabrezu, succubus, vrock, chemical toxiderm (one of the modern srds), fiendish constrictor snake, animen (Mythic Races), Rune Golem (MMII), Fiendish Dire Boar, Fiendish giant bees, Fiendish dire bat, Ulatra (CM), Hezrou, Pit Fiend, Horned Devil, A draconic race from Monsters of Norrath, Djinn, Jann, The guard dog with true sight from (BoB), Red Dragons, Gold Dragons, Silver Dragons, Marilith, a bunch of demons from Slayers Guide to Demons and the modern SRDs, Planetar, devas, dwarves, snailfolk (Into the Black), drau (fiendish drow variants from Complete Guide to Drow), Black Dragons, Celestial Brown Bear, Frost Giant, Salt Demon (CM), blink dogs, quasit, Elemental Water Creature (Book of Templates), water touched (using stuff from Aasimar and Tiefling), anarchic template (Strange Tribes of the Scarred Lands), Hydra, Dire Tigers, Were dire wolf, Night Hag, those failed Balors in MMII, Bebilith, demonic creatures (Book of Fiends web enhancement), chimera, (Iron creature from Book of Eldritch Might I), ghost, plague wraiths (a freeport web enhancement from Green Ronin), aatze the bull demon (Encyclopediat of Demons and Devils), Vorn the Unspeakable (Demon God's Fane), barrow wight template (PFB), fiendish fire giants, fiendish trolls, Vyrlakos vampire template (Denizens of Darkness) and probably some others.

 

[Pants]

COMMON:
Classed Humanoids (mostly humans, those damn dirty humans!)
Demons (I generally use whichever type is appropriate for the current game as demons can be pretty varied)
Undead (mostly zombfies, skeletons, ghouls, ghasts, and mummies interspersed with wraiths, wights, real vampires (vampire spawn are teh suck), and allips (love these guys))
Devils (occasionally whichever fits the circumstance, though barbazu see a lot of use)
Elementals (usually as summoned creatures)
Giants (usually ogres and ogre mages)

UNCOMMON:
Dragons (Gotta use at least one a campaign!)
Animals/Vermin
Constructs (I rarely use golems as the magic immunity thing is stupid, I rely on other constructs like dread guards, shield guardians, runic guardians, and brain golems (not immune to magic!) instead)
Daemons/Yugoloths (I tend to focus more on the extreme Law and Chaos spectrum of the fiends)
Dopplegangers (I use these guys at least once a campaign just to mess with the players, anymore and they get kinda boring)

RARE:
Fey (of any stripe)
Plants (rarely find a use for them)
Demodands/Gehreleths (Used one once. Unless I plan on using one fore very specific flavor reasons, a regular demon would probably work out the same, if not better, without the name confusion)
Owlbears

 

[Retreater]

These are the most common in my campaigns. The categories are listed in frequency of type; then each category lists the individual creatures by their frequencies.

Evil Humanoids
Humans
Orcs
Goblins
Hobgoblins
Ratmen (from Creature Collection I)
Bugbears
Gnolls

Undead
Zombies
Skeletons
Ghouls
Shadows
Vampire Spawn
Wights
Wraiths
Mummies
Allips
Vampire

Animals
Dire Rat
Rat Swarm
Horses
Wolf
Bat Swarms
Snakes, Vipers and Constrictors
Crocodiles
Bears

Evil Outsiders
Demons
Devils
Daemons (Yuguloths)

Vermin
Spiders
Centipedes
Giant Beetles

Constructs
Flesh Golem
Clay Golem
Stone Golem

Plant
Assassin Vine
Shambling Mound
Tendriculous

Abberations [very uncommon since WotC closed all the good ones]
Mind Flayer
Beholder
Carrion Crawler
Grick

Elementals
Water
Fire
Air
Earth

Lycanthropes
Wererat
Werewolf

Dragons
Black
Green
Dracolich

Good Outsiders
Never Use

Fey
Never Use

 

[Voadam]

Last time I used a stirge was in the early 80's. I sent a drow cleric-MU into a cave to recover components for his mentor as a solo mission, and he had to fight off a couple of them, coming close to death.

 

[Arashi Ravenblade]

Humans, Elves, Halflings, orcs, Anything Lovecraftian, Lots of Undead and constructs. Occasionally something else but the above at least appears once a campaign.

 

[KB9JMQ]

Common:
Undead - lots of low level undead
Insects & Vermin - singles and swarms
Kobolds, Goblins, Hobgoblins, Orcs, Troglodytes, Bugbears
Basically the normal monsters of the Red Box D&D era.

Uncommon:
Undead - Higher level undead
Lycanthropes
Constructs
Classed Humans

Very Rare:
Dragons
Fey
Outsiders, Demons
Aquatic anything

 

[Olaf the Stout]

How are they any more odd than anything else? The "Frankenstein" feel of the monster - having been created by some mad wizard never gets old - whether it be the main monster of a lower level adventure, or one of many guarding a tower in a high level adventure.

I think they are odd in that they look like they are unique, created beings. In other words, each of them would be created and wouldn't have the ability to procreate. Unless there are a lot of mad wizards making them it just seemed odd to me that so many of them would have appeared in your campaign to consider them a common creature. Of course, that is all just my opinion.

Olaf the Stout

 

[Qwillion]

common
-shapeshifters of everykind ( have a real bad habit of this)
-every huminoid or monstrous huminoid race
-constucts for me they are the created by man rahter than god aspect of Fank's mosnters, and they can pass in a large urban city, as objects of the wealthy.
-undead from the graveyard of the city specificly those that can pass for human and like, vamps, lichs, ghouls and ghosts.
-there is always single dragon and it's family tree in everyone of my games just like there is a dungeon.
-Oozes there is always room for jello
-any magical beast that has a intelligence or 3 or less is a legal pet in my hombrew city (one family has a dominated tarrasque).