Your Favorite Monsters, And Why

[Theo R Cwithin]

Plant monsters, because vegetarians ought to fear their food.
Kobolds, when played as slithery, cunning, malevolent subdragons.
Black dragons, because they look scary.
Fiends, because they'll breed with anything and their bloodlines can be anywhere.
Chaos beasts, et al, because corporeal stability is for wusses.

The best, imho, are the GM-created variants on normal by-the-book monsters, because they keep players guessing.

 

[Piratecat]

Doppelgangers. Master infiltrators and manipulators.

 

[Wik]

Doppelgangers. Master infiltrators and manipulators.

YES. I've had a doppleganger present in my 4e game since the very first session. And the PCs have no idea s/he's there....

 

[Gothmog]

I have to echo the Skaven-love. They show up in almost any fantasy game I run, Warhammer or not.

I LOVE Devils too, especially what 4e has done with them. Demons don't grab me the same way- they tend to be destructive for the sake of destruction and evil. Devils are manipulators and corruptors with complex Machiavellian plotting and infighting that really get my creative juices flowing. I especially love using devils in a game where they are trying to accomplish something "good" because in the long term it has a high likelihood of making people complacent, and allowing them to corrupt more souls. I have more than a few WTF moments by players when they realize a "benevolent" secret patron is a devil in disguise.

Speaking of disguises, dopplegangers get lots of love from me too. I enjoy running mystery/intrigue types of adventures, so these critters often make some sort of appearance. Plus, its all kinds of fun to see the players try to figure out if there is an imposter in the group!

Though I'm not crazy about demons, I LOVE gnolls, and have ever since the old AD&D 1e MM. I'm not sure why, but I just think they are cool.

I use a decent amount of undead in my games, but my favorite by far are ghouls. I use them as a sort of degenerate secret underground society, much like the ghouls in Pickman's Model (yay Lovecraftian influences!)

And of course, any Far Realms/Lovecraftian beastie has a special place in my heart. I especially like balhannoths, aboleths, the various starspawn, mindflayers, and foulspawn.

 

[Lord Zardoz]

Draconians

As a DM, I like the idea of a monster that can create a problem resulting from killing it.

Baaz: Turn to stone and capture weapon for a few rounds
Kapak: Turn to pool of acid
Bozak: Explode and harm anything nearby
Sivak: Take form of person who killed it, also able to take form of creature recently killed.
Aurak: Upon death, catch fire and become and go on a rampage for a few rounds, exploding occasionally while chasing the guy that killed it.

Fluff wise there is also a great deal to work with as well as long as you like using dragons in your campaign.

END COMMUNICATION

 

[Herobizkit]

I like some of the dragons... Blue (because they're Lawful Evil and shoots lightning), Steel (because they prefer to be in Human form and be all artsy), and Gold (because they look like Oriental dragons, which are awesome).

I really, really like the Kyton "Chain Devil". Humanoid wrapped in chains, slinging two chains from his wrists, making chains around you dance, and climbing up and down chains like a spider... the guy reeks of awesome. I've used two as a pair of villains in a d20 Modern game, and I'm currently playing an offbeat one in a PbP here on EnWorld.

Crysmals. Sentient animal-like crystals that run around, go through walls and drive PC's bananas with their psyyyyychic powerrrrrrrs.

Displacer beasts. Pumas, with tentacles and two extra legs. They're dated, but still cool.

Ogre Mage. Yeah, its powers don't make sense, but it can change shape to any humanoid (and giant!) it wants to, or turn invisible, at will.

Goblins. Come on... they're GOBLINS! I hate kobolds now.

 

[Ghostwind]

Doppelgangers. Master infiltrators and manipulators.

I've always wanted to run/write an adventure where the PCs come across a small town or village where nearly everyone there is a doppelganger.

 

[unan oranis]

Vampires. They've got all the tools to survive combats, sew plot seeds and have a personality, all while enjoying the players built in fear of vampires.

Plus their "victory" can be a lot of different things other than character death. Even character death presents a twist as the players may now confront their old character as a villain.




edit: (kobolds 2nd place)

 

[Daern]

Kenku show up in my campaigns. Gnolls are a great beastman race. I like carrion crawlers alot. And Otyughs. Monsters I like but rarely if ever use are beholders and purple worms and giants. I just looked through the MM3 today at the store. Looks like some great stuff in there!

 

[Pig Champion]

I like goblinoids. I guess it all stems from my first forays into DnD, I chose to play a half-orc because being rejected for being "half" a race but accepted by none was something I identified with pretty strongly.

Ever since then, Orcs and Goblins have been my favourite monster(s). Although they are usually misunderstood rejects in my campaigns.

Mind-Flayers because of the cthulhu connection and I'm a sucker for campaigns featuring ancient civilized evils.

Otyughs because they make great civil servants. Ever since my first campaign I've tried to add monsters to my big city's payroll (the first was minotaurs running a rickshaw company). Otyughs make a great fit.