Populating a dream world with monsters

[Albions_Angel]

Hi all

Dropping my players into a dream world at some point, and while I have some bits ready to go, filled with "mostly" regular stuff, there are sections, nightmare sections, that need to be filled with the weird and the wonderful... and the <CR 3...

Outsiders spring to mind, and things that suck mental stats (which replace physical ones!) are obvious choices, so I am dusting off Lords of Madness.

But do any things spring to mind for you guys? 3.5e game.

[Particle_Man]

The fey tend to have a dream-like quality and are often under-used. In a dream world you could switch their alignments to CE and go to town.

[unseenmage]

The below assumes as the OP stated a dreamworld.
For nightmare fuel, well that's a whole nother thing.
Edit: Oh wait, you DID ask for nightmare fuel...

Simulacrum of the PCs themselves.

Animated Objects are kooky and a dream world staple.

Through the Looking Glass style big things turned teeny and teeny things turned big. I recommend the Gargantean and Miniature templates from Advanced Bestiary.

Mimics. Lots and lots of friendly helpful mimics. At least one set of rooms where it's mimics all the way down.

Minor Servitor is a spell that makes sentient Animated Objects.

A single dog that talks. For seemingly no reason.

A cheshire cat would seem ideal.

Figments or ghosts of beloved NPCs the PCs know in the waking world.


*cracks knuckles*

Spiders.

Crawling Claws, reanimayed severed left hands. MC:MoF or LEoF

Again animated objects, but more sinister. Animated coffins with the Swallow Whole ability. Animated Chains with Constrict. Animated paintings that repaint themselves to depict the PCs in various states of decay or suffering hotrible fates.

A series of bits of grim prose. Real Edgar Allen Poe stuff. Scattered all over the dungeo. Then BOOM right at the good part Explosive Runes. The ending left to imagination.

One Imp or Quasit that just taunts the party invisibly, mocking their ineffectualness.

Black Tentacles spell. A living spell of it even. Living Spell CR might be too high, reduce threat level while increasing gross factor. Have the ooze be diseased and its stats are drained.

The Migrus Locker. *shudders* its PF but still super creepy

A table filled with delicious sweets and pastries. All of which are really Tomb Motes from LM.

Juxtapositions that break the established rules of reality.
Clockwork Oozes made from individually molded gelatin gears.
Undead that glow with seemingly divine inner light, the light is revealed to be cages souls suffering in torment.

Room whose ankle deep fetid water is swarming with tiny Mind Flayer larvae, they use the stats for frogs. LoM should have the onfo you need. Individually theyre almost harmless, as a group still not a threat. Add some tripwires though and suddenly everyone's making Ref saves to get brain eating abberation tadpoles out of their mouths, ears, nose, and even their eyes!

An Intelligent Magic Item oversize guantlet whose purpose is to sneak up and grab a PC from.above them swiftly fly them to the entrance. Uses the Flying weapon enhancement from Magic of Faerun.

A room full of rotting, seemingly zombified giant corpses. Enough that wandering through them is.like walking through a woodlot of fleshy trees.
But they're not undead, just the home.to maggot swarms and giant flies and giant maggots.

[Arutema]

Hi all

Dropping my players into a dream world at some point, and while I have some bits ready to go, filled with "mostly" regular stuff, there are sections, nightmare sections, that need to be filled with the weird and the wonderful... and the <CR 3...

Outsiders spring to mind, and things that suck mental stats (which replace physical ones!) are obvious choices, so I am dusting off Lords of Madness.

But do any things spring to mind for you guys? 3.5e game.

An allip comes to mind immediately. Only, due to the nature of the dream world, you don't see its true form. Each PC sees and hears something different. An animal they have a phobia of loudly hissing, a former lover ranting about why they left, the spirit of a dead NPC they wanted to save but couldn't reminding them of it. Let each PC see it as something symbolic of what might drive that PC to madness. They probably won't have magic weapons yet, so instead let them bypass incorporeality by using or presenting something symbolic of their confidence or trust.

[Afgncaap5]

I've always thought that Darkmantles had a sort of dreamlike quality. Nightmarish, sure, but dreamlike even apart from that. And... hmm... some of the monsters from Oriental Adventures could have both dream-like and nightmare-like properties if presented properly.

A really, really big tortoise. Not as an enemy, just... there.

A farmer who keeps showing up and saying "That's MY weapon!" and manages to always win the save to steal a weapon from a party member, who gets their weapon replaced by a worse (albeit mechanically identical) one, except for those times where thank goodness he finally made a mistake and replaced it with an even *better* weapon, but oh wait here he comes again... for a final confrontation I'd give the farmer qualities of giants, even if he's only an NPC.

Maybe an old NPC from earlier on in the campaign that hasn't been seen in a while but who's got wings and a monkey's tail now, and naturally he or she says it's all the party's fault.

A basic Lantern Archon or other small flying, glowing creature (angelic, fey, etc) could be used either as-is, or reskinned into something else.

I was gonna mention the Quori because it feels like they should come up, but I don't think any of them are CR 3. They're literally "dream monsters", but I think the weakest one I know about is CR 5. There's also a few "quorbred" creatures that are basically just templates that add a +2 or +1, but as far as the dream demons themselves go, the're a bit too tough.

[DrMotives]

The Nerra are mirror-people from Fiend Folio. The 3 types are CR 1, 3 & 6 without adding class levels, so doable at your level.

[Albions_Angel]

Thanks all.

Some good ideas to work with. I remember something similar in a campaign I played in once. We ended up being chased by a swarm of shadowy creatures that were sort of torsos and head with arms that crawled along. Individually they wernt too difficult but together they were a nightmare and we had to run from them. Any idea what they might have been?

[ShurikVch]

Dreamstealer Spawn template (Dungeon #106): kinda like Allip - incorporeal and Wis-draining; may be applied to any living corporeal creature; only +2 CR - so, if base creature is weak enough, Dreamstealer Spawn will be CR 2

If you OK with 3rd-party stuff:
Dreamweaver (Denizens of Dread): Diminutive spider-like Outsider; ¼ HD and CR ½
Dreamshadow template (Towers of High Sorcery): deals "illusionary damage" and Wis damage; have Undead-like traits (but not Undead); can be applied to any corporeal creature; CR is only +1
Nightmare Creature template (Book of Broken Dreams): can be applied to any creature; type change to Outsider, gets Aura of Fear (20' radius, DC 12+Cha mod.), a bit of speed and saves boost, some electricity and sonic resist., fast healing 1, SR=2x(HD), and maybe some DR; CR is same up to 3 HD, +1 for 4-7 HD, or +2 for 8+ HD