D&D General Why do good monsters exist, from a game design standpoint?

I was just going through some 4E stats earlier today and it just occurred to me how few good monsters there were. Bahamut (and his human form) are two of the only Lawful Good statblocks I found among higher level foes, and even Elminister's alignment was listed as Unaligned (though Drizzt still got to be good).

It does have an effect of making things feel more bleak and PCs versus the world. Coautls, djinni, metallic dragons, and the new stardust angels even. (4E never gave stat blocks to aasimon, archons, guardinals, and the like), and while some famous evil powers like Llolth and the Prince of Frost got statblocs, their good counterparts like Elistraee and the Summer Queen didn't.

Obviously you can just grab an Angel of Battle and call it a Planetar, but in terms of tone it's a strange fit for D&D.
 

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I was just going through some 4E stats earlier today and it just occurred to me how few good monsters there were. Bahamut (and his human form) are two of the only Lawful Good statblocks I found among higher level foes, and even Elminister's alignment was listed as Unaligned (though Drizzt still got to be good).

It does have an effect of making things feel more bleak and PCs versus the world. Coautls, djinni, metallic dragons, and the new stardust angels even. (4E never gave stat blocks to aasimon, archons, guardinals, and the like), and while some famous evil powers like Llolth and the Prince of Frost got statblocs, their good counterparts like Elistraee and the Summer Queen didn't.

Obviously you can just grab an Angel of Battle and call it a Planetar, but in terms of tone it's a strange fit for D&D.
I can't say for sure on all of those, but at the very least, there were couatl (two in MM2, two in Draconomicon 2: Metallic Dragons, and an undead one in Open Grave), various djinn were published in both MM2 and Dungeon, metallic dragons were of course published in Draconomicon 2, Angels of Battle were published in both MM1 and Monster Vault.

Note, though, that "angel" ceased to mean exclusively good beings in 4e; they were simply divine servants, regardless of which deity they served. It does look like archons in the sense of "lantern archon", "hound archon" etc. were not published for 4e (as the term had been repurposed for a different category of creature).
 

I can't say for sure on all of those, but at the very least, there were couatl (two in MM2, two in Draconomicon 2: Metallic Dragons, and an undead one in Open Grave), various djinn were published in both MM2 and Dungeon, metallic dragons were of course published in Draconomicon 2, Angels of Battle were published in both MM1 and Monster Vault.
Yeah I mentioned them in the post you quoted. They were there, but they were Unaligned like the 4E angels
 



Because good is dumb!!!!
Wait...that's something else....
If not all of the pre-supposed evil races are evil anymore (orcs/drow/goblins), then its safe to say that not all pre-supposed good races are good anymore.
Why can't there be cannibalistic halflings that pillage and burn? Maybe the ancient red dragon has a agreement to keep the valley safe so that the people will stop...for the love of go...trying to steal his stuff!!!
 



I know this is an unpopular opinion, but I really don't feel that good creatures should have a full stat block in the Monster Manual. It takes up a lot of space and is used rarely, if at all, in most D&D campaigns.

I would very much prefer if there was a sidebar with information on Good Variations. Like put a side bar next to Red Dragon with the changes you should make for Gold Dragons. A sidebar next to Displacer Beasts on variations for Blink Dogs. And so on.

I also never use the lore in the Monster Manuals (I almost always make up my own), so the lore of the good creatures isn't that attractive to me either.
 

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