What's the quintessential D&D monster?

[MarauderX]

The infamous Doppleganger Player - the veteran player cleverly disguised as a newbie who always does something retardly stupid, going off on his/her own and making the rest of the party follow to their collective doom. Also known as the 'Scopio-path', where the player thinks the DM would never throw monsters at the party that they couldn't beat (hence, within their CR 'scope'), and thus charges into every battle, around every corner, and starts fights with everyone. Mental disorder symptoms can be found here.

Doppleganger Players are probably responsible for more PC deaths, resurections, and awkward new PC introductions than any other creature in the D&D cosmology... combined. You can usually spot a new one mysteriously showing up after a recent friend's death, and can be spotted in locals such as in a dungeon tied up & awaiting rescue, brooding alone in a tavern, or 'accidently' meeting the group on a journey. Do not be afraid to approach them, as they will long for acceptance, however in dangerous or unfriendly situations careful judgement should be used, and paranoia about how crazy/idiotic the character is usually justified.

 

[woodelf]

Don't get me wrong; I have no doubt they could pull off obtaining a copyright. They just have no right to a copyright, unless I am sorely mistaken (and this is possible, I am no lawyer).

Point of order: you mean trademark. You can't copyright a single word.

And i've heard a lot of people put forth that the USPTO is pretty much approving everything that comes there way and isn't challenged, these days, as evidenced by the numerous patents on encryption algorithyms, despite an explicit prohibition on patenting mathematical formulae. The theory is that they've given up trying to follow the letter of the law, because it's so far behind current technologies and social/economic situations as to be ridiculous, and in order toforce the congress to do something about it, they're no longer worrying about the spirit of the law either. I don't think it's working ('cause too much of congress is in the pocket of the patenters, rather than the challengers).

Anyway, i'm convinced that the only way WotC got a trademark on "D20 System" was through ignorance of RPGs on the part of the USPTO, since both common terms and descriptives are normally off-limits for trademarks.

 

[woodelf]

if you want only uniquely-D&D monsters, i'll go with (in no particular order):

green slime
gelatinous cube
carrion crawler
illithid
beholder
githyanki
trapper
lurker above
otyugh
bullywugs (i think the only unique critter besides beholders to appear in the cartoon)

If you'll accept creatures that are significantly altered from their non-D&D roots:

kobold
dragon
maybe orc
maybe drow

 

[Hypersmurf]

It's all about the Ethereal Filchers, baby!

With Tojanidas coming in a close second.

-Hyp.

 

[Jolly Giant]

I still fail to see how D&D drow are 'derived from legend'. As I understend the extent of the borrowing is the word drow and dark elf, nothing more.

There are no legends to my knowledge of subterranean-dwelling spiderworshipping drow who flight with hand crossbows and are ambidextrous, who are matriarchal, build giant underground cities, warred with surface elves ages past, and create adaminite weapons that are spoiled under sunlight

The drow as they appear in D&D appear to be pretty original to me, besides the fact that they are a dark side of Tolkien's elves.

Like so much of Tolkiens work, the dark elves are taken directly from the norse mythology. The "Svartalfar" (="black elves") lived beneath the subartic mountains far to the north of Asgard and Valhalla, where they were constantly fighting over dungeon-territorities with the only slightly friendlier dwarves. They were utterly evil, resistant to magic, had black skin and white or silver hair... Any of this sound familiar???

The dwarves live inside mountains, either in small dungeons or in vast underground cities. They were known as the worlds greatest miners, blacksmiths and stoneworkers. Norse dwarf names include Gandalf, Gimli, Gloin, Torin... Maybe this sounds a bit familiar too, eh? Yes, every single dwarven name mentioned by Tolkien is also mentioned in the ole norse sagas.

Obviously, the truely iconic, quintessential, original D&D monster has to be the Kobold!

 

[Rel]

if you want only uniquely-D&D monsters, i'll go with (in no particular order):

green slime...

You know what's a travesty though? These days, Green Slime isn't even a monster! It's been relegated to a "hazard". It's just listed in the DMG under "Dungeon Ecology". How far the mighty have fallen.

Back in my day, Green Slime was in the Monster Manual! It was a creature! Confortably snugged in there between its good buddy the Grey Ooze and the trusty Griffon. It had two bloody hit dice!

Hell, if you go back to the Basic rules, it was still in the book, still had two hit dice and if you wanted to get rid of it (short of burning yourself to death that is), you needed Cure Disease. That's right! A spell that wasn't even in the rules set that contained the monster!! If you got hit by Green Slime before the Expert rules came out, you were well and truly screwed!! HA! HA HA!!

But you try and tell kids these days that and they just shrug their shoulders...

One thing is obvious: I need to calm down.

 

[woodelf]

Obviously, the truely iconic, quintessential, original D&D monster has to be the Kobold!

Original? Maybe--they're reasonably far removed from the mine-dwelling little hobgoblins [in the non-D&D sense] that chewed on miners' feet. But they're still derived from real-world mythology.

 

[tetsujin28]

Iconic of D&D? Only the Beholder seems to actually be unique.

Dude, otyugh and neo-otyugh! Even cooler than the roper! Find those in myhtology, and I owe you a doughnut.

 

[takyris]

Like so much of Tolkiens work, the dark elves are taken directly from the norse mythology. The "Svartalfar" (="black elves") lived beneath the subartic mountains far to the north of Asgard and Valhalla, where they were constantly fighting over dungeon-territorities with the only slightly friendlier dwarves. They were utterly evil, resistant to magic, had black skin and white or silver hair... Any of this sound familiar???

Man, I'm glad that Gygax at least changed the name. Hearing some 14-year-old kid prance around the room chanting about "Droznit Do'Arden, the scimitar-wielding svartalfar ranger" would have given me migraines.

Also, as noted, Kobolds are historical -- that's how the element Cobalt got its name -- when they discovered that it was toxic mining dust and not evil pixies making the miners sick, they named the toxic mining dust after the evil pixies. (And somebody feel free, please, to correct me on that -- that's what I remember from high-school chemistry.)

 

[jrients]

It's all about the Ethereal Filchers, baby!

With Tojanidas coming in a close second.

A Toja-what?