When you get bored of goblins and kobolds...

[Gilladian]

Genuine wilderness encounters. Without an overarching plot- no need, have some variety.

Oh, yeah, I will have plenty of random wilderness encounters. This is a small barony, on the edge of a small kingdom almost surrounded by wilderness. Coast, swamps, bayous etc... on one side, rolling hills and deep dark forest on the other, with civilization clinging to the lifeline of the rivers. I've already generated 3 separate random tables for the river, the valley regions with farms, and the unpopulated forest/hills.

But I wanted one nest of humanoids, living not too far into the hills, raiding farms. An easy "first enemy". Maybe an evil druid behind them.

There's also a ruined evil temple nearby, that is being "explored" by some "archaeologists" (halfling were-rats, of course, searching for a book on how to make demonic pacts for their master!). There's a slightly paranoid priestess in town, who is terrified of the "new" snake-worshipping religion that has become popular in the last 50 years (yes, the snake religion has an evil "Nag-worshipping" faction!). And for politics, the last Baron of this barony actually died several generations back, and the barony has been in abeyance. The folk have become quite independent-minded over time, and now the Queen is thinking of appointing a new Baron. Should make for lots of fun.

After reading some other older threads, I think I may also have a colony of mites living in the old salt mines. Should the PCs decide to investigate the old missing hermit who sneaks into the abandoned mine to harvest chunks of salt, they could run into them, too.

 

[Kinak]

I was actually going to suggest mites for the forest. They're a good low-level fae enemy that helps convey the idea of a faerie-haunted wilderness without the light and zany aspects of including sprites or the like.

As an added bonus, mites can give you a lot of added mileage out of giant vermin. You get both an excuse to use the vermin for more than the occasional random encounter and also a way to scale up the mites.

They also fit well with your evil druid idea. As fae (and friends of animals... of a sort) it's natural that they'd have druids among their ranks or druidic allies.

Races from the swamp might also be moving in, which is a great source for conflict. It's possible they're just expanding or they might be driven out by a bigger threat, laying a plot thread for mid-level stuff.

I've also had a lot of luck with gnolls. I started out a recent campaign in media res with the players chasing after a pack of gnolls that had captured two children from their village to use as slave stock. Then kicked into a mystery of why they had good new weapons.

Cheers!
Kinak

 

[steeldragons]

1. Another vote for Lizardfolk. With your communities along river water-ways, a riverbank-accessible den of Lizardfolk is just beggign to be used.

2. Another vote (though the initial suggestion might not have been serious) for Gnomes. Maybe there's a particularly abundant gemstone mine nearby and the, admittedly non-evil gnomes are really not happy about the encroaching human settlements.

3. My initial thought, even before reading about the rolling wooded hills, put a tribe/pack of gnolls somewhere. Gnolls on their own, I personally think, are a bit too difficult for a level 1 party...so, halve their stats and have a band of overeager gnoll-pups/adolescents come raiding into the party's village/region...ya know, starting to stretch their claws, as it were. Working/figuring out how to be/emulate their great gnoll pack-warriors (which the party can then go seek out/hunt down when they have a few levels under their belt).
3a. I really like the idea of reskinning "coyote-gnolls" as a smaller/weaker gnoll variant. Consider that yoinked.

4. Assorted faye-critters. Maybe there's some Quicklings or Spriggans about. A couple of leprechauns can cause a great deal of havoc...whether because they are guarding/misdirecting from their pots of gold or simply bored/having/making their own "fun."

5. Norkers? Xvarts? Derro? There's any number of "smaller" humanoid races from the underdark that you could easily have raiding above ground at night for...whatever reason.

 

[Jan van Leyden]

There's a slightly paranoid priestess in town, who is terrified of the "new" snake-worshipping religion that has become popular in the last 50 years (yes, the snake religion has an evil "Nag-worshipping" faction!).

Anyone else getting an N1-vibe here? And I told you about troglodytes, didn't I?

You could just change Orlane's temple from being taken over by the naga cult to your paranoid preistess and leave the rest of the module pretty much unchanged.

 

[Dungeoneer]

Show that other thread what Gnomes are really good for.

Cannon fodder? Why yes, they are!

 

[Dungeoneer]

I'm starting a new campaign, and I would like to use a humanoid race or something similar as the initial foe. But I've used kobolds and goblins (and orcs) so often I'm sick of them. So what do you use when you want something new but not TOO different? I'm mixing some new players together, and I don't really want to get too weird or far fetched here, just avoid the same old-same old.

The climate and terrain are warm temperate (think northern Louisiana or Arkansas - no long, harsh winter, but not jungly. And no swamps, here; they're further south). Rolling hills and deep forests where it isn't cleared for crops; mostly cotton, cattle, pigs and mixed vegetables. There is a salt-dome mine in the area, too.

The campaign will be 3.5 edition, starting at 1st level, but I don't care what game source the creatures come from; they don't have to be EVIL either; a neutral foe with generous room for miscommunication would work just as well.

Any ideas?

Bullywugs! Evil frog people that live in swamps. I was first introduced to them in the second 4e Monster Manual. I think they are a cool enemy and something different for low level characters to fight.

 

[NewJeffCT]

Humans are always a good enemy, and I like the xenophobic elf idea above, too.

Gnolls with 2 HD might be tough on a party just starting out.

You could also re-skin goblins or kobolds by giving them a climb speed and have them moving through the trees of the forest, avoiding the ground whenever possible. Call them something different to throw the PCs off (Forblins - Forest Goblins)

 

[ExploderWizard]

Some good suggestions so far.

If you need some generic cave dwelling sword fodder perhaps grimlocks, morlocks, or primitive humans such as neanderthals or picts could do the trick. As a bonus they have a great S&S feel.

 

[Desdichado]

Curiously, I've been developing a setting based on the premise that lizardmen and yuan-ti are the main antagonists of the entire setting, so I'm on the same page with a lot of folks here. The entire theme of that setting was vs. the reptiles. I gave them a culture a bit more like lizardmen from Warhammer, but that mostly means high level mages, and dinosaur-riding villains, which allows for them to last as useful antagonists at practically any level I would seriously consider playing. The yuan-ti were more sneaky. And the yuan-ti and lizardmen were the big rivals for power on the continent, while the demihuman communities lingered in the shadows. Maybe subconsciously, I was mimicking the view of mammals of the Mesozoic, living in the shadow of the dinosaurs or something.

I also have, as rivals but possible allies to the deminhuman communities, a Planet of the Apes style civilization lurking in the corners of the setting somewhere too.

Here's a couple of posts from my blog, in case you're interested... although this is probably much more dramatic of a shake-up of basic D&D tropes and conventions than you're looking for.

http://darkheritage.blogspot.com/2013/10/odd-d-part-vi-lizardmen-kingdoms.html

http://darkheritage.blogspot.com/2013/10/oddd-part-vii-yuan-ti-kingdoms.html

 

[I'm A Banana]

Xvarts.