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

[megamania]

Darksun's Z'tal.

Imagine chickens with razor sharp feathers.

What the heck can one do with those to make it neat?

Place PCs within a narrow canyon and have a flock of them being chased by Tembos.
Little to no cover, all PCs take minor damage then are attacked by the main threat- a psionic terror known as a tembo (four of them).

Bloody but a good battle.


Cocktrice

Not really a lame creature but the way I used it bolstered it some.

It was a watch dog for a sea captains loot. He would have a spell to protect himself any time he entered the room. Anyone else, may become a nice stone statue er...anchor...

Now have a rogue enter the room, see his friend turn to stone and flees. Now there is a petrifying magical stupid bird walking the deck of a ship during a storm. Memoriable combat.


Black Pudding in Darksun

Once my group learned Obsideon orbs were used by dragon-kings to empower themselves they began a new campaign long tactic. Find an obsideon black glass ball and destroy it.

What happens if it is a clear glass ball with a Black Pudding stuffed into it? PC smashes it at his feet and the splash removes one leg and bones only for the other. BAD DM! BAD!

 

[lukelightning]

For me, Eberron made all the standard races cool again. Even humans!

 

[theemrys]

Ok... i've got a couple...

Sheet Phantom. Yes... a haunted sheet... When kenzerco put out Dangerous Denzien's (their monster book) I was very suprised to see it there... but when I read about it... WOW. They did the history up where it was a sheet or bedclothes of a lover who commited suicide after being cheated upon (IIRC), and their spirit was tied to the sheet/bedclothes. It turned it into something that I could make a whole city adventure around...

Also, Hobgoblins... for the longest time, they were just variant orcs when you needed a change of flavour... but when you focus on the Lawful part of their alignment.. you end up with a rather formidable foe. Again, mostly playing Kalamar, there are nations of hobgoblins that war and trade with others... they're kind of like Klingons to draw a parallel. Anyway, they've turned into pretty awesome encounters when they were a "second line orc" in past games for me.

 

[Man in the Funny Hat]

Never trust a lame monster. Especially if it's a Kobold, as it's probably a trap and there's another 300 of the critters hiding just waiting to slingshot you to oblivion the minute you kick away his crutch.

"Didn't any of you people ever WATCH the show?" Guy Fleegman, Galaxy Quest

 

[Man in the Funny Hat]

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?

Watch John Carpenter's The Thing and say that again.

 

[Quartz]

The undead hands are Crawling Claws, IIRC.

But I mean to post about Bodaks. Consider an adventure where the PCs go to rescue someone who's been turned into a bodak.

 

[VirgilCaine]

That's a good one, even more flavorful than my own homebrewed elf-squash. I just dropped them down to human lifespans, and made them militaristic racial supremacists with a society built around disturbing magical/biological technology and icky living weapons. In my homebrews elves get more hate than d20 at Diaglo's house.

You might like this then.
A (very stupid) bugbear got hold of a wish and wished for all elves to die...so the normal elves that were left (not shadar-kai, drow, etc.) instantly turned into the straight undead I mentioned, which then caused all kinds of havoc and publicizing bugbears bugbears as stupid creatures.
Hruggek, the bugbear god, sacrificed himself and gave bugbears +4 Int and +4 Cha ("Hruggek's Boon") in addition to their other stat adjustments, so no one could say a bugbear was stupid again.

 

[VirgilCaine]

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.

"You're having a nightmare. Go back to sleep."

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.

Awesome!

 

[Tuzenbach]

Two words: Exploding Flumphs

 

[Crust]

Githyanki : Dungeon #100's "Lich-Queen's Beloved" module/Dragon #309's "Incursion" campaign data.