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

[Voadam]

Lebontod. An undead from a 2e Ravenloft module. They are basically template undead so people with undead traits and class levels who look like normal people. Their cool undead power? Their limbs are detachable and function while detached. They can reattach severed limbs like regenerators in 3e.

How does the module use their special powers? It is suggested that if a party member goes up to their house and spies on them they are shocked by seeing one take off its head to get better access to brush its hair.

I had the necromancer darklord who made them and used them as his minions in the mortal world take two of them and set up a communication system. Detach the head of both and have one in his lair and one in the minion's mansion. Have the headless ones sitting at a writing desk. They take dictation from the detached head in the other place and write messages.

So the party after raiding the house came to the basement where they saw a headless body sitting at a desk writing messages and a detached head that did not match sitting near it looking on in horror as they approached, both guarded by a super buffed zombie. After they slew the guardian, the body, and the head, they read the papers and figured out the detachable nature of the undead, the communication system, and that the darklord knew about them. It worked out well and the party was freaked about both the detachable heads and the darklord's use of them.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

If I may pat myself on the back, I'm pretty proud on how I'm using scrag(s) in my current Midwood adventure. Always just an also-ran element of trolls, one a list of "we just made aquatic variants of these core monsters instead of creating new creatures," I got inspired by the Spiderwick Field Guide (a serious competitor to Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials as the best rules-free "monster manual") and DeTerlizzi's "water troll."

My scrag is as much a giant frog with a crocodile mouth as it is any sort of troll, including talking like a bulldog croaks and having rubbery skin and a head and shoulders designed to look like water plants when the scrag is floating just below the water, waiting for prey. If Grendel started off life as a tadpole, he'd be my scrag.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Lebontod. An undead from a 2e Ravenloft module. They are basically template undead so people with undead traits and class levels who look like normal people. Their cool undead power? Their limbs are detachable and function while detached. They can reattach severed limbs like regenerators in 3e.

How does the module use their special powers? It is suggested that if a party member goes up to their house and spies on them they are shocked by seeing one take off its head to get better access to brush its hair.

I remember that module. That was all sorts of lame.

I had the necromancer darklord who made them and used them as his minions in the mortal world take two of them and set up a communication system. Detach the head of both and have one in his lair and one in the minion's mansion. Have the headless ones sitting at a writing desk. They take dictation from the detached head in the other place and write messages.

So the party after raiding the house came to the basement where they saw a headless body sitting at a desk writing messages and a detached head that did not match sitting near it looking on in horror as they approached, both guarded by a super buffed zombie. After they slew the guardian, the body, and the head, they read the papers and figured out the detachable nature of the undead, the communication system, and that the darklord knew about them. It worked out well and the party was freaked about both the detachable heads and the darklord's use of them.

Perfect!

 

[JVisgaitis]

What's lost for a lot of D&D is the sense of wonder and horror at the strange and bizarre.

That is always going to be a problem when your audience is used to the same antagonists. In Star Trek: Next Generation I remember thinking that the Borg were the baddest dudes ever. After a dozen or so episodes they're lost on you. Same thing goes with orcs, kobolds, and everything else.

First time I fought a gelatinous cube I was like WTF is that? Now its no big deal. Same thing can be said of the drow. That's one thing that always surprised me about the longevity of D&D through the various editions. Every game and situation is different, but the monsters are often the same. I always thought a reboot of fantasy with new races and such would work well for the genre and invoke that same sense of wonder. Who knows?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

That's one thing that always surprised me about the longevity of D&D through the various editions. Every game and situation is different, but the monsters are often the same. I always thought a reboot of fantasy with new races and such would work well for the genre and invoke that same sense of wonder. Who knows?

I think this would be a great idea, but you'd have a lot of people wanting compatability with older editions (a TON of people, in other words), screaming bloody murder. Even leaving out stuff that I think of as pretty minor (troglodytes, for instance) I suspect would turn out to be pretty major in existing games with a lot of folks.

If you could get around the compatibility issue, I think this is a solid idea. Ryan Dancey suggested something similar yesterday in another thread.

 

[Voadam]

That is always going to be a problem when your audience is used to the same antagonists. In Star Trek: Next Generation I remember thinking that the Borg were the baddest dudes ever. After a dozen or so episodes they're lost on you. Same thing goes with orcs, kobolds, and everything else.

First time I fought a gelatinous cube I was like WTF is that? Now its no big deal. Same thing can be said of the drow. That's one thing that always surprised me about the longevity of D&D through the various editions. Every game and situation is different, but the monsters are often the same. I always thought a reboot of fantasy with new races and such would work well for the genre and invoke that same sense of wonder. Who knows?

That seems the role of different campaign settings.

1e OA did that with ditching elves, gnomes, and halflings and throwing in Spirit folk, Hengeyokai, and Korobokori.

Many want the familiar so they can use their modules with goblins and such easily as well as have a known reference to work with, but it is easy for an individual DM to create a setting without standard core races or monsters and find analogue substitutes for the modules and stuff he uses.

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

I always thought a reboot of fantasy with new races and such would work well for the genre and invoke that same sense of wonder. Who knows?

I should think the constant remaking of movies, TV shows, and even prior edition D&D modules would indicate just how off-base that idea is. People don't generally want new and innovative - they want something that is familiar. That's not necessarily an indictment in terms of originality - sometimes certain things hit a cultural/psychological chord, and there's a real strong reason behind that.

What psychological chord an owlbear hits, I don't wanna know, but .....

 

[JVisgaitis]

Ryan Dancey suggested something similar yesterday in another thread.

Can you point me to that? Also, I'm really sorry I'm jacking your thread...

That seems the role of different campaign settings.

To a very small degree. I'm sorry but saying our elves only live for 30 years and we have half-dwarves just doesn't do it for me. Dark Sun is awesome and probably my favorite setting, but I still remember saying okay elves are tall and run fast. Check. Halfings are now cannibals. Check. If you go through all of that trouble why call them elves?

I thought Eberron was going to be the coolest thing since, I don't know, the lightsaber. But the marketing overlords decided that they didn't want to split up their brand and everything must be represented. There isn't a more intelligent community with more imagination then roleplayers. Why do big companies always feel the need to coddle them? I'll never forget the old Talislanta ads. We have No Elves! OMG, I so have to play this game with no elves. Yawn...

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Can you point me to that?

You were in a medicated haze at the time.

 

[JVisgaitis]

You were in a medicated haze at the time.

Indeed. I still am unfortunately....