What's Your Monster Palette?

[mmadsen]

With a nearly endless supply of monsters (and races) to choose from, which ones do you use in your world? Have you chosen a specific theme for your campaign (or some part of it)?

Some sample monster palettes:

• Mythic Greece -- Centaurs, Minotaurs, Pegasi, Nymphs, Satyrs, Medusas, Cyclops, Titans
• Fairy Tale -- talking animals (Awakened Dire Animals), Pixies, Gnomes, Unicorns
• Middle Earth -- Goblins (Orcs), Hobgoblins (Uruk-Hai), Ogres (Trolls)
• Lost World -- Dinosaurs, Dire Animals, Mammoths
• Starship Troopers -- Xill invading from another dimension
• Center of the Earth -- Efreet, Salamanders, Fire Elementals
• Shadow World -- Shadows, Shadow Fiends, Shadow Mastiffs, Shades
• Demons -- no nonhumans and no monsters except for Outsiders summoned by evil sorcerers
• Night of the Living Dead -- Zombies rising from every grave
• Planet of the Orcs -- after a spell gone awry, the PCs find themselves in a world ruled by Orcs (and where Elves are extinct)
• Norse -- Fire & Frost Giants/Jotun, Dire Animals (belonging to Giants), Dwarf/Svartalf (more like D&D Gnomes), Elves/Alfr; Midgard Serpent, Fenris Wolf.
• Polynesian -- No large land mammals (mundane or monstrous!), but lots of aquatic creatures (including aquatic mammals), reptiles, birds, giant insects, oozes and things with tentacles.
• Conan -- degenerate subhumans, ape-men, and man-apes (all Orcs with no armor and simple weapons); Dire Apes, Snakes, Tigers, etc.; an occasional Fiend/Demon.
• Narnia -- much like the Fairy Tale example above; Fauns (Satyrs), Dwarfs (Gnome stats), Awakened Dire Animals (all sorts), Dryads, Unicorns, Giants, etc.
• Lovecraft -- Ghouls, decadent and hideous abominations of nature.
• Arabian Nights -- Efreet and Djinn, evil sorcerers, monstrous Scorpions, Serpents and Spiders, and scimitar-wielding Mmariliths.
• Gothic -- Vampires, Ghosts, Flesh Golems, and Werecreatures.
• Post-apocolyptic: "mutant" humanoids (e.g. Orcs), "mutant" Dire Animals, Constructs (remnants of the Golden Age).
• King Arthur -- knights at bridges, knights at tournaments, knights everywhere; fey knights (magically "buffed" knights); fey sorceresses (evil Clerics?), damsels in distress (who are really evil sorceresses); unicorns, lions, griffons; giants (ogres).
• Pulp and Steam-Pulp -- Grimlocks (Morlocks), Derro (Dero), Dire Apes, Awakened Apes (with their own city), Mummies, Iron Golems, etc.
• Proto-Gith -- Illithid vs. Githyanki

What's your campaign's monster palette?

 

[Numion]

I use pretty much all of them. Really no palette as such. Besides I've DMed through RttToEE, so players are hardly surprised by any combination.

In short I just try to find a suitable monster from any of three monster books I own, MM, MM2 and MooF.

 

[NoOneofConsequence]

I guess I fall into your proto-gith category, but the way we play it, it ends up with a sort of X-files/X-Com feel. Lots of secret societies, visitors from space (spelljamming) etc.

 

[maddman75]

I'm running a ravenloft campaign, so I go for an equal mix of night of the living dead, shapechangers, and demons. In this setting, monsters are only interesting in that they reflect humanity in some way. I couldn't ever see using an orc in this game.

Monster palette is very important. The templates are very useful as well. My group had a rough time, but beat, some wererats at first level. Commoners are pretty tough with a template on them

 

[bwgwl]

the last campaign world i worked on used Mythic Greece/Arabian Nights as the pallette. a surprisingly effective combination.

my next campaign world will probably be Arthurian/Celtic Myth.

 

[Deadguy]

For my Shattered World campaign I laid out at the start that the primary focus of the 'monsters' would be classed beings. The two main shades in the Palette are Orcs and Goblins. The Orcs come in several flavours according to the mix of other blood in their veins (e.g. Grey Orcs are actually a race born out of half-orcs). The Goblins have been reworked to have more magic innately in their blood, and they too come in several shades, from the weak Goblins, through the sorcerous Hobgoblins to the strange varieties like the Shadow Goblins and the Goblin Knights.

I have used other monsters, but they are mostly of the non- or low intelligence variety, like chimeras, carrion crawlers and wyverns. The PCs know that Mindflayers and Formorians exist, but they don't know where they dwell now.

By deliberately limiting myself, the design has been less easy (and I tend to use a lot of Undead - but I get the impression I am not alone in that). At the same time, the PCs seem to enjoy the verisimilitude that avoiding the menagerie of 'classic' D&D. As one commented "Do we need gnolls and flinds and skum and... they're all really just badder versions of orcs."

 

[Desdichado]

I like to use lots of demons and devils -- evil and twisted outsiders meddling in the affairs of mortals makes for a weird fantasy X-files or Cthulhu feel. I like a few humanoids (although not as many as standard D&D most of the time) and a few undead, and a handful of interesting non-intelligent monsters.

Lately, I've also been impressed by the Privateer monster book -- I'll pick it up before I run a fantasy campaign again for sure.

Really, I'd rather use more classed humanoids as antagonists with evil outsiders pulling the strings, or otherwise causing havoc in the campaign setting. But I have lots of monster books to choose from when I just want to throw something at the PCs. Like some of the folks here, though, I like to try and go for something a little different than the standard D&D menagerie, for the most part.

 

[mmadsen]

"Do we need gnolls and flinds and skum and... they're all really just badder versions of orcs."

That's especially true in 3E, where you don't need a new species just because you want a 2HD humanoid or a 3HD humanoid. You can just use 1st-, 2nd-, and 3rd-level Goblin Warriors (or Rogues).

 

[Celebrim]

I use a variaty of palettes. The main categories are:

1) Archetypal Sentient Beings: This class is the most restricted but also the most common and diverse. I have seven. They are: Fey, Trolls, Elves, Humans, Orine, Dwarves, and Idreth. Each (except Idreth) comes in several racial variaties, with fey and trolls having the most diverse phenotypes.

1a) Servitor Beings: This class consists of all the humanoid beings not listed above. I seldom use them except as 'invading thugs'. I never use them were one of the above would serve the same purpose. I leave open the question of whether they are sentient or just complex puppets animated by some deity. Lizardmen and Gnolls fall into this class.

2) Embodied Ideas: This class consists of the outsiders, spirits, elementals, and so forth.

3) Grimm Fairy Tales: Talking animals, boogey men, hags, nature spirits, giants, the occassional dragon, and of course the already mentioned fey and dwarves.

4) HP Lovecraft: Horror that should not be. These are considered the progeny of a particularly vile (and powerful) goddess.

5) Undead: Classic D&D undead suit me fine, though I'm prone to use them in the style of Ravenloft.

6) Animals: Both living, extinct, and conjectural. Most animals that went extinct in our last ice age (Mammoths for instance) are common in my campaign. You can walk down the street of a major temperate trading city and expect to see domesticated mastadons.

7) Heraldic Beasts: These are familiar to D&D, but I tend to preserve thier meaning as well as thier form.

Overall, I consider my palette 'Dark Fairy Tale'. I try to keep the number of monsters at a minimum and achieve diversity by variation of existing themes, not by introducing hordes of new forms. I hesitate to introduce a creature whose role in the ecology and mythology is not well defined.

 

[roytheodd]

That's quite an extensive list. My monster palette is somewhat muddled, but the campaign world is very feudal, gritty and real. I have monsters, but they are mainly demons, undead, and magic-users. I have some fantastic creatures like talking owls and shapeshifters and I have giants, ogres and the like. Finally, I have one big mishmash race of all things goblinoid.
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I will run this game one day, but now is not the time: Mythic Greece -- Centaurs, Minotaurs, Pegasi, Nymphs, Satyrs, Medusas, Cyclops, Titans

Not really: Fairy Tale -- talking animals (Awakened Dire Animals), Pixies, Gnomes, Unicorns

None of these (I gots me a hybrid, all-in-one race): Middle Earth -- Goblins (Orcs), Hobgoblins (Uruk-Hai), Ogres (Trolls)

Nope: Lost World -- Dinosaurs, Dire Animals, Mammoths

Blarg! None of these: Starship Troopers -- Xill invading from another dimension

Nope: Center of the Earth -- Efreet, Salamanders, Fire Elementals

I've left the door open for these, but I'm not using them as of yet: Shadow World -- Shadows, Shadow Fiends, Shadow Mastiffs, Shades

Yes, yes, yes: Demons -- no nonhumans and no monsters except for Outsiders summoned by evil sorcerers

Not really: Night of the Living Dead -- Zombies rising from every grave

Never even crossed my mind: Planet of the Orcs -- after a spell gone awry, the PCs find themselves in a world ruled by Orcs (and where Elves are extinct)

Yes: Norse -- Fire & Frost Giants/Jotun, Dire Animals (belonging to Giants), Dwarf/Svartalf (more like D&D Gnomes), Elves/Alfr; Midgard Serpent, Fenris Wolf.

Nope: Polynesian -- No large land mammals (mundane or monstrous!), but lots of aquatic creatures (including aquatic mammals), reptiles, birds, giant insects, oozes and things with tentacles.

Nope: Conan -- degenerate subhumans, ape-men, and man-apes (all Orcs with no armor and simple weapons); Dire Apes, Snakes, Tigers, etc.; an occasional Fiend/Demon.

Nope: Narnia -- much like the Fairy Tale example above; Fauns (Satyrs), Dwarfs (Gnome stats), Awakened Dire Animals (all sorts), Dryads, Unicorns, Giants, etc.

Nope: Lovecraft -- Ghouls, decadent and hideous abominations of nature.

Nope, but I will run a game like this one day: Arabian Nights -- Efreet and Djinn, evil sorcerers, monstrous Scorpions, Serpents and Spiders, and scimitar-wielding Mmariliths.

Nope: Gothic -- Vampires, Ghosts, Flesh Golems, and Werecreatures.

Not for me: Post-apocolyptic: "mutant" humanoids (e.g. Orcs), "mutant" Dire Animals, Constructs (remnants of the Golden Age).

Yes: King Arthur -- knights at bridges, knights at tournaments, knights everywhere; fey knights (magically "buffed" knights); fey sorceresses (evil Clerics?), damsels in distress (who are really evil sorceresses); unicorns, lions, griffons; giants (ogres).

I'm so not even close to running this: Pulp and Steam-Pulp -- Grimlocks (Morlocks), Derro (Dero), Dire Apes, Awakened Apes (with their own city), Mummies, Iron Golems, etc.

Nah: Proto-Gith -- Illithid vs. Githyanki