D&D 5E Your Personal Favorite "Old School" Monsters

[LordEntrails]

rot grubs
hell hounds
displacer beasts
thoqqua (spelling!)
purple worms
knight of Kyrss (spelling!)

 

[Mistwell]

rot grubs
hell hounds
displacer beasts
thoqqua (spelling!)
purple worms
knight of Kyrss (spelling!)

rot grubs give me nightmares

 

[R_J_K75]

Executioners Hood combined with a Cloaker and a PC has a new wardrobe.

 

[Lidgar]

Leocrotta. I love how the use their mimic ability to ambush their prey, which resulted in a TPK the first time we encountered them (circa 1980).

 

[LordEntrails]

rot grubs give me nightmares

Then they did their job!

 

[Omand]

So many good memories evoked by this thread.

No particular order, but creatures from 1E that I love using and have fond memories of, and that are not as common these days:

Owlbears
Ropers
Displacer Beasts
Carrion Crawlers
Ghouls
Ghasts
Mummies
Stirges
Rust Monsters (goofy I know, but I had some fun experiences with them chasing PCs)
Otyughs

I am sure there are more.

Cheers

 

[Omand]

Oooh, how could I miss:

Manticores
Wyverns
Shambling Mounds
Grells (again, goofy like the Rust Monster, and yet so fun to work with as a DM)

and one last one, not super uncommon these days, but a favourite:

Wraiths

Cheers

 

[Maxperson]

We've been playing through Tales From the Yawning Portal (which I argue remains THE best adventure book WOTC have published, particularly for online play). Right now we're playing through Dead In Thay, which is all-new to me despite being a conversion of an older adventure (like everything in the book).

Dead in Thay has a LOT of good, old fashioned traditional monsters. We've see some of each of these: Shambling Mound, Otyugh, Gibbering Mouther, Barhest, Hook Horror, Cockatrice, Displacer Beast, Behir, Owlbear, Ochre Jelly, Choker, Gray Ooze, Black Pudding, Dragon Turtle, Merrow, Naga, Sahugin, Golem, Giant, Efreeti, Helmed Horror, Yuan-ti, and on and on of classic 1e-style monsters. It's a blast!

So I was curious to ask others here: What is your favorite "old school" type monster? Something which would have been found in the 1e AD&D Monster Manual or Fiend Folio. Something which, perhaps, isn't seen as often these days in 5e games?

I've always been partial to the Crypt Thing and the Eye of Fear and Flame.

 

[Lanefan]

I DMed a Trapper last Sunday for the first time in maybe 15 years. I'd forgotten how much they and Lurkers Above just plain rock!

And count me as another vote for Gelatinous Cubes - a pit trap just ain't a pit trap unless there's a G-Cube at the bottom...or that falls in the top once someone is down there. And G-Cubes that hang from the ceiling are even better!

 

[R_J_K75]

I DMed a Trapper last Sunday for the first time in maybe 15 years. I'd forgotten how much they and Lurkers Above just plain rock!

And count me as another vote for Gelatinous Cubes - a pit trap just ain't a pit trap unless there's a G-Cube at the bottom...or that falls in the top once someone is down there. And G-Cubes that hang from the ceiling are even better!

Lurkers above and Trappers immediately came to mind when I read the tread. Piercers are always fun too.