Trick Playing Monsters

[ShriekingDrake]

I'm looking for suggestions for trick playing creatures for my players to face. Any sources--including 3rd party, magazine web, or homebrew too--are fine. Any level, CR, campaign/world is fine. Creatures that use deception, clever trickses, magical misdirection, etc. are what I seek to provoke my creativity.

Thanks.

[Coidzor]

Probably the biggest key to this is effective use of illusions and successfully presenting them to your players.

[Red_Dog]

I think you need to be more specific. There is a metric load of things that can be played smart.

Are you looking to build a main villain? A squad of tricky creatures as random encounter? A not-to-threatening snake oil distributor that is just after the parties cash-money? An assassin(s) send by ze main villain?

A SIMPLEST answer is => Master Specialist/Nightmare Spinner Illusionist.
Oh so much better if he "owns" the property that he is being confronted in [like a house of mirrors, a maze, a dungeon, a cave system].

The party will spend hours chasing down ONE dude. Of course he can have a sizable loot stash[wizards tend to] to make it all worth-while in the end.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Shadow Mastiffs (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/shadowMastiff.htm), especially if someone has cast Darkness on some rocks/trees around where they're encountered. A Shadurakul from Fiend Folio, listed under the Canomorph entry, would be a great beastmaster for them. Give him levels of Warlock and maybe Assassin to spam the Darkness invocation around, and have Deeper Darkness cast at least once. A single Daylight will be canceled out equally by the Deeper Darkness, and so the lower level Darkness invocations will still function unless a second light effect of the appropriate level is also used.

Opponents that Spring Attack from somewhere the PCs can't reach are extremely frustrating. A Greater Shadow (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/shadow.htm) can pop out of the wall, hit, and retreat back into the safety of a solid object. It can take a round to reposition itself underneath the floor to strike again, then move to an opposite wall and do it again. They'll never know which way it's coming from or even when it will strike next. If they come up with a trick of their own it can just wait them out, and strike again as they try to walk away. Note that it can't see through the walls, but it can position its face behind a crack to peek out unnoticed.

A room full of murky, shallow water is extremely dangerous, because there's no telling what could be hiding under the surface. They could be fighting flying foes who swoop down from the ceiling, and not even notice when someone falls into a pit that was concealed by the water. There could be a strong current in the pit that carries them deep into a tunnel, or there could be an aquatic predator waiting to grab anything unlucky enough to fall in.

A Hydra with Snatch (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsterFeats.htm#snatch), as well as Improved Snatch and Multisnatch from the Draconomicon, is extremely dangerous to a party not prepared for grappling. One of its bites grabs an opponent and the rest of it's heads aren't considered grappled, so they can bite that foe as though from outside the grapple. It can grab an entire party, and still have plenty heads left over to bite with as often as it wants. It could retreat into the depths of a pool after it's grabbed everyone, to add on the threat of drowning as well.

[ShriekingDrake]

What I'm looking for is not creatures that necessarily cast illusions, though that's fine. I think, for instance of the sprites that, with their spell-like abilities, can lead parties astray. I am thinking of creatures that use trickery more innately. I wasn't thinking necessarily of the BBEG but rather what they would run into along the way. I want, rather than having them monumentally tricked by some massive illusion, to be led astray throughout the adventure, here and there, by the creatures that they run into. I'm more inclined to subtlety than overwhelming illusion.

[Telonius]

Rakshasas, Doppelgangers, Hags, Succubi, basically anything with any kind of shape-changing abilities would work, if you're trying to fool them socially.

For "things that look like other things," gargoyles, mimics, stone golems carved to look like statues. (A friend of mine has come across the "statue comes to life and attacks you!" so often that he will basically attack any statue we see before it gets the jump on us).

Traps can work here, as well. A massively impressive box that radiates magic is heavily guarded, and appears to radiate strong magic. Unfortunately that's due to judicious use of Magic Aura; the box is empty, or contains some useless items.

If you want to distract the players and send them on a chase, Ethereal Filchers are terrific.

[ShriekingDrake]

Rakshasas, Doppelgangers, Hags, Succubi, basically anything with any kind of shape-changing abilities would work, if you're trying to fool them socially.

For "things that look like other things," gargoyles, mimics, stone golems carved to look like statues. (A friend of mine has come across the "statue comes to life and attacks you!" so often that he will basically attack any statue we see before it gets the jump on us).

Traps can work here, as well. A massively impressive box that radiates magic is heavily guarded, and appears to radiate strong magic. Unfortunately that's due to judicious use of Magic Aura; the box is empty, or contains some useless items.

If you want to distract the players and send them on a chase, Ethereal Filchers are terrific.

I had forgotten all about Etherial Filchers. They are very flavorful.

[ShriekingDrake]

For give the bump and double post but I'm still hoping to cull more ideas from the community.

I do realize that any creature can be trick-playing if DM'd that way. But I'm really hoping to use creatures with special abilities that mislead, surprise, confuse, befuddle the players. For instance, I like the taunt ability of one of the Haunts. Anyway, my hope is that the collective wisdom can keep goading me in interesting directions.

[nedz]

I had great fun with a Trap Haunt, thats a template from Dragon 321, but you could do a similar trick with a Fiend of Possession(FF).
Basically you have a haunted trap - it doesn't have to be a terric trap, I just used a weight on a chain over a door.
They try to look for traps and it goes off as they approach.
They disarm it, and it resets itself - quite obviously.
Hours of fun until they work out that they need a cleric for this one :smallbiggrin:

[Wyntonian]

Maybe throw some Will O' the Wisp and Swamplight Lynx in there as well.

[Legendairy]

Some of the more Evil Fey?

[Alabenson]

I think the Taunting Haunt from MM5 might be exactly what you're looking for. Its essentially a ghost whose entire purpose is to mock and annoy adventurers.