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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 4156757" data-attributes="member: 4937">Heh.  Alot of people have chosen monsters I've been big fans of since 1st edition.  In particular, back in my very first homebrew campaign the biggest baddest most feared thing on the map was a triple HD manticore with a Dragonne's roar and a Dragon's fear aura.  And I love stirges, hydras, ettercap and slaad.  (see link in signature)In fact, I love stirges so much that they've shown up in several different guises in just my 3rd edition games.  I've had stirges, giant mosquitos that used strige stats, and stirges with the air elemental template and a special suffication attack (nasty).  Additionally, stirges are even tougher under my house rules because they can use the clinch manuever while feeding (think grappling for creatures smaller than the thing that they are grabbing), making them very hard to get off you.  Striges go down hard to combat reflexes + cleave though.In order to get alot of bang for the buck, the monster has to have several characteristics:a) It has to be reasonably cunning, or at least have an effective strategy.b) It has to be able to deal with PC's generally superior artillery.  That is it either has to have ranged attacks or flight or better yet, both (see manticore).c) It has to have at least one attack which is relatively level independent in effect.  That is, it has to always have a chance of overcoming party defenses no matter how strong they become.  This includes things like touch attacks (especially ranged touch attacks) and attacks which bypass AC entirely and are at worst half damage (or other reduced effect) on a failed save.  Monsters that are incorporeal or can cast magic missiles (or even stinking clouds) are likely to be good pound for pound monsters that can be useful opponents over a wide range of levels.My choice would be Shadows.  They are incorporeal which lets them largely bypass AC and gives them good resistance to most attack forms and makes them good ambushers/evaders.  Thier strength drain attack is extremely annoying regardless of PC level, and down right lethal at lower levels.  Of course, they can go down hard to clerics.Another monster I get alot of use out of is mephits.  They consitute a fairly frequent mid-to high level minion.  They've got flight, a level invariant attack, and decent resistances and spell abilities.  A swarm of them constitutes a if not a challenging encounter regardless of level, at least a resource depleting/threatening one.</blockquote>

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