What Supplement Monsters Deserve a Promotion to Core?

[LightPhoenix]

Phoenix.

...

What?

 

[Li Shenron]

I could think of half of those in Monsters of Faerun...

 

[Wormwood]

The living spell...I find it to be one of the most versatile templates given the sheer volume of spells you can apply it to. Plus, I love oozes and this makes for some very interesting oozes.

+1 for living spell. Strikes a perfect balance between 'easy to run' and 'challenging encounter'.

 

[TroyXavier]

My top two picks have been mentioned..Brain in a Jar and Living Spells.

 

[victorysaber]

Modrons! And Primus. Well, if Primus could transform into a giant metallic planet and was the deity of all sentient constructs, I'd be even more pleased.

Please please please someone get that reference please please please

I'd like to see deities get stats, actually. Real, usable stats.

 

[Simia Saturnalia]

While I agree with Living Spells (possibly the most quintessential D&D monster since 2e), I'm afraid I cannot find the 'pseudo-medieval' in Brain In A Jar. It's a little too late 1800's for me.

 

[Szatany]

Modrons! And Primus. Well, if Primus could transform into a giant metallic planet and was the deity of all sentient constructs, I'd be even more pleased.

Please please please someone get that reference please please please

I get it, and it doesn't fit D&D at all (ok, maybe pretenders)

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

While I agree with Living Spells (possibly the most quintessential D&D monster since 2e), I'm afraid I cannot find the 'pseudo-medieval' in Brain In A Jar. It's a little too late 1800's for me.

If you expunge everything not pseudo-medieval, you're going to be trimming a LOT out of D&D. I'd say leave all that stuff in and get the next version of Green Ronin's Medieval Players Manual if you want that vibe in your game.

 

[Simia Saturnalia]

If you expunge everything not pseudo-medieval, you're going to be trimming a LOT out of D&D. I'd say leave all that stuff in and get the next version of Green Ronin's Medieval Players Manual if you want that vibe in your game.

You misread me, sir, though it's entirely my own fault for being pretty unclear about it all. Weird is great, but there comes a point in "technological background" that a monster doesn't feel "core" to me. They may be welcome in Eberron or a homebrew or something you're just using D&D rules for, but in much the same way psionics aren't core (yet) I don't think the manufacturing processes for a transparent bell jar that big should be assumed, nor should the assumed mood of the setting (because there's no D&D setting book as important as the Monster Manual) include the decidedly "mad science" image of a living brain in a bell jar any more than it should include Klingons or Radioactive Mutants. It worked for Ravenloft, which was fairly Victorian for the most part anyhow, but I just don't see it in core D&D at the expense of more appropriate monsters, like demons and savage humanoids and undead.

Maybe a later Monster Manual, but not the first or second.

 

[renevq]

Banshrae, Dragons of the Game, Force and Magmacore Golems, Mockery Monarch and Drones, Ruin Chanter and Elemental, Spirrax, Vivisector and Wild Hunt from MMV
Briarvex from MMIV
Cadaver Collectors, Poison Dusk and Blackscale Lizardfolk, Astral Stalkers, Runehounds, Battlebriar, Ambush Drake, Arrow Demon, Fleshraker and Battletitan Dinosaurs, Siege Crab, Living Spell, Natharzune Rakshasa, War Troll, Woodling, Nycaloth and Ultroloth from MMIII
Legendary Animals, Neogi and Nimblewright from MMII