What's your single favorite D&D creature?
- Thread starter haiiro
- Start date
Hypersmurf
Moderatarrrrh...
haiiro said:I've had some time to think about it, and I'm with you, Crothian: I've always had a major soft spot for these guys, and they show up in every game I run at some point. Such a silly monster, yet so enjoyable.
Especially the Half-Celestial ones
-Hyp.
BronzeDragon
Explorer
The Bronze Dragon, naturally... 
And I am really happy for the fact that the Bronzey is the best-looking dragon in the MM too (the other good dragons look weird, and I really hate that crest extension thing they did with the silver)...
And I am really happy for the fact that the Bronzey is the best-looking dragon in the MM too (the other good dragons look weird, and I really hate that crest extension thing they did with the silver)...
Celebrim
Legend
Ahhh... so many to chose from. So many different ways to ki.. err I mean challenge the players.
My personal favorite in terms of style points is Dark Creepers - the old Fiend Folio type, not the sucky 3rd edition types. Real Dark Creepers are creepy little guys lead by even creepier leaders that blow up when you kill them. Drow are overdone. Everybody has Drow.
In terms of the most common monster in my campaign, honestly its probably wolves of some sort. You start off early in your career facing wolves. Then you meet wolves with the 'rabid' template. Then latter you meet awakened wolves with a couple class levels of ranger. Then you meet worgs. Then you meet dire wolves. Then you meet goblins mounted on worgs. Then you meet worgs with the spirit template. Then you meet advanced dire wolves with the half-fiend template. Then you are like to meet winter wolves with the multi-headed template. Somewhere in there you are likely to run into werewolves of various sorts. I just seem to find lots of reasons to put wolves in the game.
Rats are pretty good too. Especially huge swarms of them. Ditto bats.
Goblins show up alot too. Kobolds are great. I don't do orcs. Ever. Ogres. Trolls. Giants. Lots and lots of bugbears. Never Orcs. There is only room for one ugly stock humanoid in my campaign, and its goblins and thier goblinkind kin. They've just got more class.
And I got to agree with Teflon Billy - gargoyles (and margoyles) rock. Heck, if there is a gargoyle template out there, I'm interested. A dungeon just isn't well dressed until it has some gargoyles in it. It's not like going to a business meeting without a tie; it's like going to a business meeting without your pants.
Skeletons and creatures with the skeletal template (and creatures with the skeletal and fiendish templates) have the wonderful advantage of fitting into every ecological niche. They are the go anywhere monster. Shadows terrify my players. Incorporal creatures are nasty.
I believe that every group should have to face yellow mold and green slime a couple of times in thier career or else they aren't well rounded dungeon explorers.
Monstrous spiders are pretty common in my campaigns too. I'm thinking that the whole wolves+goblins+spiders thing is probably from reading the Hobbit too much as a kid.
I love Griffins and hate that they are reduced to mere horse thieves in standard D&D lore. So much more can be done with them. In fact, I'm pretty much infatuated with all the heraldic type beasts. I'm much more likely to go nuts with an advanced Wyvern or Manticore than I am to have a dragon be the local monstrous tyrant of the area. I tend to be sparse with my dragons because when I do want the characters to face a dragon, I want it to be a _DRAGON_!
In the plant category, I think I'd have to go Yellow Musk Creeper. It turns you into a zombie. How wicked cool is that?
As far as fey's go, I like Buckawns. Fey with attitude. Let's dispense with this namby pamby pull thier hair for laughs fey. This is the spit you and roast you over a fire for laughs sort of fey, but with just enough nice to give the players a shot at talking thier way out of it. Any sort of fey like that will do. Quicklings are cool, but they are so seriously brutal that its hardly fun to use them except on parties getting big heads.
Mostly though, I'm a fan of making my monsters unique. I LOVE TEMPLATES. It seems like after a while, just about everything gets a template of some sort. If it doesn't have templates and class levels, its almost certainly a mere minion of something that does.
My personal favorite in terms of style points is Dark Creepers - the old Fiend Folio type, not the sucky 3rd edition types. Real Dark Creepers are creepy little guys lead by even creepier leaders that blow up when you kill them. Drow are overdone. Everybody has Drow.
In terms of the most common monster in my campaign, honestly its probably wolves of some sort. You start off early in your career facing wolves. Then you meet wolves with the 'rabid' template. Then latter you meet awakened wolves with a couple class levels of ranger. Then you meet worgs. Then you meet dire wolves. Then you meet goblins mounted on worgs. Then you meet worgs with the spirit template. Then you meet advanced dire wolves with the half-fiend template. Then you are like to meet winter wolves with the multi-headed template. Somewhere in there you are likely to run into werewolves of various sorts. I just seem to find lots of reasons to put wolves in the game.
Rats are pretty good too. Especially huge swarms of them. Ditto bats.
Goblins show up alot too. Kobolds are great. I don't do orcs. Ever. Ogres. Trolls. Giants. Lots and lots of bugbears. Never Orcs. There is only room for one ugly stock humanoid in my campaign, and its goblins and thier goblinkind kin. They've just got more class.
And I got to agree with Teflon Billy - gargoyles (and margoyles) rock. Heck, if there is a gargoyle template out there, I'm interested. A dungeon just isn't well dressed until it has some gargoyles in it. It's not like going to a business meeting without a tie; it's like going to a business meeting without your pants.
Skeletons and creatures with the skeletal template (and creatures with the skeletal and fiendish templates) have the wonderful advantage of fitting into every ecological niche. They are the go anywhere monster. Shadows terrify my players. Incorporal creatures are nasty.
I believe that every group should have to face yellow mold and green slime a couple of times in thier career or else they aren't well rounded dungeon explorers.
Monstrous spiders are pretty common in my campaigns too. I'm thinking that the whole wolves+goblins+spiders thing is probably from reading the Hobbit too much as a kid.
I love Griffins and hate that they are reduced to mere horse thieves in standard D&D lore. So much more can be done with them. In fact, I'm pretty much infatuated with all the heraldic type beasts. I'm much more likely to go nuts with an advanced Wyvern or Manticore than I am to have a dragon be the local monstrous tyrant of the area. I tend to be sparse with my dragons because when I do want the characters to face a dragon, I want it to be a _DRAGON_!
In the plant category, I think I'd have to go Yellow Musk Creeper. It turns you into a zombie. How wicked cool is that?
As far as fey's go, I like Buckawns. Fey with attitude. Let's dispense with this namby pamby pull thier hair for laughs fey. This is the spit you and roast you over a fire for laughs sort of fey, but with just enough nice to give the players a shot at talking thier way out of it. Any sort of fey like that will do. Quicklings are cool, but they are so seriously brutal that its hardly fun to use them except on parties getting big heads.
Mostly though, I'm a fan of making my monsters unique. I LOVE TEMPLATES. It seems like after a while, just about everything gets a template of some sort. If it doesn't have templates and class levels, its almost certainly a mere minion of something that does.
Angel Tarragon
Dawn Dragon
Terrorantulas (Monsters of Norrath), for pure fear factor.
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Terwox
First Post
The Caller in the Darkness, from the PsiHB. Goood stuff. I guess I've got a soft spot for Machin Shin.
I've also got some soft spots for the Tarrasque, illithids, vampires, succubi, and angels. And gnomes... oh!!
Can't go wrong with a cult of fiendish frogs that lead you into their swampy lair, where you're confronted by the gargantuan-sized frog king. That's an encounter close to my heart. ahhh, kobold campaigns, I miss thee.
I've also got some soft spots for the Tarrasque, illithids, vampires, succubi, and angels. And gnomes... oh!!
Can't go wrong with a cult of fiendish frogs that lead you into their swampy lair, where you're confronted by the gargantuan-sized frog king. That's an encounter close to my heart.
ahhh, kobold campaigns, I miss thee.
demiurge1138
Inventor of Super-Toast
Wait! We can post multiples?!
My top spot is still occupied by illithids, but there are so many others I love. Like kobolds. I love these little bastards, although that's probably because I ran a campaign in which they were the dominant species for ten months or so. They're cunning and tricksy, with lots of traps and all sorts of intrigues.
I also love slaadi. Because they're ultimate, unreasoning chaos. Because they're big humanoid toads. Because they're Alien ripoffs. My other favorite extraplanars are vrocks (pronounced v'ruk in order to reduce confusion in my games) and bebiliths. It's not one of my games if no vrocks or bebiliths show up. It's the suite of crazy-cool abilities, as well as the appearance. Balrog-offshoots are a dime a dozen. Spore-shooting vulturemen and giant spider-scorpions are where it's at.
And, of course, I love ghouls. They're my low level equivalent of vrocks and bebiliths - they'll always show up sooner or later in any game I run. Give 'em class levels, use ghoul templates, or just throw them at PCs in hordes. It's all good.
Demiurge out.
My top spot is still occupied by illithids, but there are so many others I love. Like kobolds. I love these little bastards, although that's probably because I ran a campaign in which they were the dominant species for ten months or so. They're cunning and tricksy, with lots of traps and all sorts of intrigues.
I also love slaadi. Because they're ultimate, unreasoning chaos. Because they're big humanoid toads. Because they're Alien ripoffs. My other favorite extraplanars are vrocks (pronounced v'ruk in order to reduce confusion in my games) and bebiliths. It's not one of my games if no vrocks or bebiliths show up. It's the suite of crazy-cool abilities, as well as the appearance. Balrog-offshoots are a dime a dozen. Spore-shooting vulturemen and giant spider-scorpions are where it's at.
And, of course, I love ghouls. They're my low level equivalent of vrocks and bebiliths - they'll always show up sooner or later in any game I run. Give 'em class levels, use ghoul templates, or just throw them at PCs in hordes. It's all good.
Demiurge out.
Telas
Explorer
Kobolds. Cuz they never fight unless they want to fight... which means you're on their territory, and you better have a backup rogue.
Drow. Yeah, I know.... But mine are the kind of evil that leaves the players staring at you in shock after you read the room description, not the cutesy little anime-wannabes.
Mind Flayers. Aliens don't think like we do. Nor do they care. And they can eat your 150 HP barbarian's brain in one round for a light snack (remember that 8 Int you gave him?).
Humans. They look just like us, but they're the only non-monstrous race that regularly goes to war. Half-Orcs don't count, and all the other races seem to have that "peaceful, but defends their land aggressively" clause.
Spiders. Because Web is kinda overpowered in 3.5.
Telas
Drow. Yeah, I know.... But mine are the kind of evil that leaves the players staring at you in shock after you read the room description, not the cutesy little anime-wannabes.
Mind Flayers. Aliens don't think like we do. Nor do they care. And they can eat your 150 HP barbarian's brain in one round for a light snack (remember that 8 Int you gave him?).
Humans. They look just like us, but they're the only non-monstrous race that regularly goes to war. Half-Orcs don't count, and all the other races seem to have that "peaceful, but defends their land aggressively" clause.
Spiders. Because Web is kinda overpowered in 3.5.
Telas
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