What's the lamest monster you've seen made cool, and how?

[thedungeondelver]

Hmm, can't recall the name offhand but there's an undead severed head that walks around on it's hair.
How is it possible that make that cool?

...but seriously I think you're thinking of the penanggalan.

 

[Aus_Snow]

Beholders: Lords of Madness.

 

[Ry]

The flumph is cool in my campaign. They're a cluster intelligence (like cranium rats) that protects the world from the Far Realm. They're known as the "stitchers of worlds" due to the way they close up bad portals (and occasionally stitch demiplanes into the Material World).

 

[CRGreathouse]

Hmm, can't recall the name offhand but there's an undead severed head that walks around on it's hair.
How is it possible that make that cool?

Deathshead, Tome of Magic p. 81? Good luck!

 

[lukelightning]

Hmm, can't recall the name offhand but there's an undead severed head that walks around on it's hair.
How is it possible that make that cool?

Have a PC see it for the first time when he wakes up in the middle of the night and sees it on his chest...

 

[DreadPirateMurphy]

I think it all depends on the description. Take a look at the D20 Call of Cthulu monsters. You'll be like, "What? A polar bear with too many legs?" Then go read some Lovecraft and see how amazingly scary those otherworldly things can be.

What's lost for a lot of D&D is the sense of wonder and horror at the strange and bizarre. Mongoose's Conan RPG and any version of Call of Cthulu do a better job at evoking that perspective.

 

[lukelightning]

Kobolds are an example of a lame monster turned cool and then jumping the shark back to lame again.

 

[frankthedm]

Change the appearance of the snot green pterodactyl with a sonic-shooting horn

to that of a giant bat that focuses it’s echolocation for the sonic lance attack.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I think it all depends on the description. Take a look at the D20 Call of Cthulu monsters. You'll be like, "What? A polar bear with too many legs?" Then go read some Lovecraft and see how amazingly scary those otherworldly things can be.

Which is also how oozes can be made to work, to use a monster cited earlier.

What's lost for a lot of D&D is the sense of wonder and horror at the strange and bizarre. Mongoose's Conan RPG and any version of Call of Cthulu do a better job at evoking that perspective.

CoC does it with mechanics and overall game tone. How does the Conan game do it?

 

[JVisgaitis]

You're asking us? After Legends of Avadnu and Denizens of Avadnu, I thought you could make *anything* cool.

Heh, thanks. I wasn't actually asking. I just thought that would be a better direction to take this thread. If anyone cares, our design philosophy has always been try and bring something unique to the table by adding a new mechanic or something else you hadn't seen before. As anal as I was, there are still a handful of creatures that I'd love to rip out of those books.