PDA

View Full Version : Least used/obscure monsters



Kython
2007-05-26, 01:48 AM
when it comes to obscure or least used (in most gaming circles) ceatures, the first one that comes to mind for me are Kythons.
As you can tell my my username, I love to use Kythons, though they are virtually inexistant in almost all other gaming spheres I've been in!

This isn't often a bad thing, 'cause few things catch PC's off-guard than obscure monsters. Figured that there's bound to be someone else that enjoys using these nasty little sob's or some similarly obscure monster.

MellowMelon
2007-05-26, 02:25 AM
I really like Varguilles. I think that their abilities have a nice flavor, especially for the horror oriented games that I run.:smallbiggrin:

It is sad that they are only CR 2. It is a good thing that my groups love advanced monsters.

Dhavaer
2007-05-26, 02:32 AM
Gricks, belkers and achierai.

Townopolis
2007-05-26, 03:57 AM
Well, for one thing, I've never encountered an aberration that wasn't an illithid or beholder.

And I've never encountered a yrthak, or a yeth hound, or xill... Remorhaz, Ravid, dire elephant...

Then again, 95% of the monsters I've faced have been orcs, ogres, trolls, reptilians, or goblinoids.

Edo
2007-05-26, 05:02 AM
Anything that can infiltrate society is fun for me. I love tsochari and barghests - especially barghests, since they can pretty much auto-qualify for the "Fiend of" PrCs from Fiend Folio.

Belial_the_Leveler
2007-05-26, 06:15 AM
Hecatoncheires. I only ever used them once and I've never seen them used. Then again, their relatively high CR does pose some problems. :smalltongue:

martyboy74
2007-05-26, 07:55 AM
Hecatoncheires. I only ever used them once and I've never seen them used. Then again, their relatively high CR does pose some problems. :smalltongue:

Yeah, at that point, the power difference between caster and non-casters is so utterly ridiculous that there's very little point in playing a mixed party.

By least used/obscure monsters, are you counting wildshaping/polymorphing into said monster as usage?

Fat Daddy
2007-05-26, 07:59 AM
I'm not sure if they 'officially' made it into 3.x but I've always loved Disenchanters. Specifically, I liked (back in my 2e days) placing disenchanters and rust monsters together. It was always fun watching the casters and warriors both run screaming before initiative was even rolled. :smallbiggrin:

Closet_Skeleton
2007-05-26, 08:05 AM
Archerai, Blink Dogs, retrievers, Ravids, Vargouiles, all that crap that's in the back of the Monster Manual and is either lame or too hard to work with.

Hazkali
2007-05-26, 08:10 AM
Half of the monsters in the Monster Manuals 2, 3, and 4 are simply useless- devoid of style they have very little fluff as to their origins or motives. Most of the creature archtypes could easily be filled with regular, staple fantasy creatures. However, the other half of the Monsters in those books are brilliant.

However the one creature type I have never ever seen used are gnome warriors, as per MM1- WHO, for the love of Pelor, WOULD USE GNOME WARRIORS AS ENEMIES???

So the next adventure I play I'm going to use about 50 of them....:smallbiggrin:

AtomicKitKat
2007-05-26, 10:56 AM
Inspired by Shrek 3 and the Immigrant Song scream from Snow White, I think if I ever DM a game, I must find some monster to use the scream. Ahah! Destrachan. Nothing like having a horde of tamed Destrachan bringing down the walls of Jericho to the tune of Led Zeppelin.:smallbiggrin:

Anyone want to use this idea before I do and let me know how it turns out?:smallsmile:

Castaras
2007-05-26, 11:00 AM
Inspired by Shrek 3 and the Immigrant Song scream from Snow White, I think if I ever DM a game, I must find some monster to use the scream. Ahah! Destrachan. Nothing like having a horde of tamed Destrachan bringing down the walls of Jericho to the tune of Led Zeppelin.:smallbiggrin:

Anyone want to use this idea before I do and let me know how it turns out?:smallsmile:

Ahhh!

TOWN IDEA!

*Runs off to Town to try it out.*

ocato
2007-05-26, 11:27 AM
I used a bunch of gnome fighters once. They used those hook-hammers. The party was trying to investigate this gnome civilization that was super high-tech and also was excavating this giant lake in the middle of a city after an invasion of local savage humanoids (led by a group of giants). When the biggest giant died he collapsed on the city, smashing, amoung other things, a powerful Sorcerer enemy of the party's who was fighting with them for the purpose of saving the city he wanted to control. So the party stowed away on their airship headed back for the mysterious gnome lands, found they'd recovered the body of the Sorcerer for 'some weird reason', then gnome fighters broke out and fought them.

They actually were whooped hard by the gnome fighters, I intervened with an NPC that had been following them as per an oath to protect them.

Kython
2007-05-26, 11:36 AM
However the one creature type I have never ever seen used are gnome warriors, as per MM1- WHO, for the love of Pelor, WOULD USE GNOME WARRIORS AS ENEMIES???


Yeah... one of the characters I DM for is a gnomicidal Dragonwrought Kobold Sorcerer/Warlock that liberally uses Fireball to solve any problem. So far in my games, he's annihilated 5 gnome towns and has gained the title amongst certain NPC's as "The Great Destroyer".

Closet_Skeleton
2007-05-26, 12:11 PM
However the one creature type I have never ever seen used are gnome warriors, as per MM1- WHO, for the love of Pelor, WOULD USE GNOME WARRIORS AS ENEMIES???

In an all drow campaign you fight lots of gnomes. Then you play football with their heads.

PsyBlade
2007-05-26, 12:25 PM
Say, Kython, I can't find anything useful about Kythons. What are they capable of?

I_Got_This_Name
2007-05-26, 12:36 PM
Off the top of my head, the Destrachan.

I mean, sure, it exists entirely so that the boss can point behind the PCs "Behind you! A destrachan!" and make them think he's bluffing to get away, but, still, it needs to see more play.

Belteshazzar
2007-05-26, 01:44 PM
I always wanted to either play or send a party against an aranea-rogue-shadowdancer whose profession was bounty hunting. They cast low level spells as a sorcerer and he would use a banjo and ghost sound to confuse or frighten enemies ("I hear dueling banjos all around us RUNNNNNN!"). His tactic would be limited to damaging strength with poisonous bites and ray of weakness but after that he has webs and some ranks in use magic device.

Kython
2007-05-26, 02:09 PM
Say, Kython, I can't find anything useful about Kythons. What are they capable of?

I feel almost insulted there... for starters they're capable of ripping apart adventurers with ease!

lets see...
1) Blindsight 60', acid and cold immunity, fire and electricity resistance 20, poison in their bite and tail attacks...
2) Their weaponry: aside from biting and clawing opponents, they have the chance to have special Kython Weaponry: Acid Spitter, Bone Shard Crossbow, Boneblade, Extra Armor, Mouth Launcher, Mucus Pod, and my personal fovorite, the Phase Organ.
3) Extra HD as though they were small creatures.
4) reletively high armor class (considering their CR).

the above are simply traits they all have. The more powerful the variant, the better abilities they get.

PsyBlade
2007-05-26, 02:21 PM
What I meant was that what I found on them didn't state what they had. They only gave short descriptions.

Kython
2007-05-26, 03:02 PM
they're in Book of Vile Darkness pages 178-181

PsyBlade
2007-05-26, 03:15 PM
Which, sadly I don't have access to.

Jimp
2007-05-26, 05:21 PM
You're missing out on the really cool picture of Kythons ripping apart some humans.

PsyBlade
2007-05-26, 06:03 PM
Wwwwwhaaaaaaaaat?

ClericofPhwarrr
2007-05-26, 06:15 PM
Just looked them up. I so have to use them at some point.

SilverClawShift
2007-05-26, 06:16 PM
Spell Weavers

Monster Manual II, and come on, they're awesome monsters to be up against. Six arms, bird/insect like appearance, Utterly refuse to communicate with anything that isn't another spellweaver, covet specific magical items for compeltely unknown reasons and plan and organize raids to snatch em. Have complete secrecy about their society, NOTHINg is known about em, and they can cast multiple spells at once (to a max of 6(!) 1st level spells as one action. And the spells don't have to be the same. Talk about dangerous.

My DM has thrown us into the mix with them on occasion, but I've never seen them used, discussed, or even mentioned ANYWHERE else.

*EDIT*

Not to mention that any writing you come across of theirs is in a decipherable language (apparently), but is otherwise rambling psychotic incoherant babble. Something's UP with those things.

I wanna see a group of dopplegangers and illusionists trying to crack some of their mysteries :smallconfused:

Dryad
2007-05-26, 11:41 PM
Hmm.. Well, we never see much aberrations. Simply because they're too weird. In all the years I've played dnd, and that's quite a while, now, I've never encountered a beholder. I mean: "It's a big floating eyeball! Oh the noes!" Gibbering Mouther: Once, but that was a player in DnD fantasy Deathmatch. (Which was loads of fun for long nights of boredom, and completely random, aswell. You didn't get to choose you race; you rolled for it. I got lucky; centaur. A friend of mine not so. Gibbering Mouther...)
Also: Never encountered zombies, either. Skeletons, yes, ghouls, yes, mummies, once, but zombies? No. I once asked a DM why, and he said: They're just so... Disgusting. What can ever be subtle about zombies? And I concur. A dangerous encounter has to be one where you're not sure what can happen. Zombies are dead sure. Normal zombie: You smack em. Very big zombie: You run-x4. They're slow, and all they can do is shuffle and roll too low on their to hit rolls.
Come to think of it: The only creatures we use are those that can be used in a cunning way. Loads of animals with HD-advancement, vermin, and a lót of humanoids. Mostly humanoids, actually.

Dhavaer
2007-05-26, 11:54 PM
Spell Weavers

Monster Manual II, and come on, they're awesome monsters to be up against. Six arms, bird/insect like appearance, Utterly refuse to communicate with anything that isn't another spellweaver, covet specific magical items for compeltely unknown reasons and plan and organize raids to snatch em. Have complete secrecy about their society, NOTHINg is known about em, and they can cast multiple spells at once (to a max of 6(!) 1st level spells as one action. And the spells don't have to be the same. Talk about dangerous.

My DM has thrown us into the mix with them on occasion, but I've never seen them used, discussed, or even mentioned ANYWHERE else.

*EDIT*

Not to mention that any writing you come across of theirs is in a decipherable language (apparently), but is otherwise rambling psychotic incoherant babble. Something's UP with those things.

I wanna see a group of dopplegangers and illusionists trying to crack some of their mysteries :smallconfused:

Dragon did an 'ecology of the spell weaver' a while ago.

Attilargh
2007-05-27, 01:26 AM
Zombies are dead sure. Normal zombie: You smack em. Very big zombie: You run-x4. They're slow, and all they can do is shuffle and roll too low on their to hit rolls.
You really need to pick up Libris Mortis, if only for the variant zombies. Undying? Check. Fast? Check. Tracking zombies? There's nothing predictable about zombies any more. (Well, except that they are smelly undead, but anyway.)

Starsinger
2007-05-27, 01:51 AM
And I've never encountered a yrthak...

This is sorta bad because I DM once in a while, and is very telling of my DMing habits, D&D Heroes (for those of you who don't know, a top down dungeon crawling action/rpg) was the first time I've ever heard of, seen, or thought of the Yrthak. And I'm convinced that it's in the games because the developers picked the least popular monster ever.

Personally, I don't think I've ever encountered demons or devils beyond Imps, Quasits, and Succubi.. But then it's not D&D without some floozy in a tavern turning out to be a Succubus.

Diggorian
2007-05-27, 02:16 AM
Thank you Kython for introducing me to your name sake. Just cracked open my new BoVD and ... man ... I can flavor these bad boys to give my female players nightmares ... again :smallamused: Six horrific flavors with nicely scaled CR, nice.

Obscure monsters? I've never fought fey, in 2nd Ed nor 3.X. Dryads and Nymphs show up to drop plot hooks or grant rewards for saving the forest from threat, but never fought them or their Sprite cosuins.

I did once have a Swashbuckler PC face a Pixie rogue out for his bounty. It was an epic fight, with the PC fighting Combat expertising while the fey faded in and out of invisibility, both exchanging witty one liners.

Only ended when the Swashbuckler gave the pixie as much gold as his bounty would pay, both were nearing Exhaustion from the number of rounds they'd battled (almost two dozen rounds).