Library Baddies

[Daoron]

Hey everyone at GitP!
I don't post here often as I tend to mostly lurk on forums but while prepping for my next session I hit a bit of a roadblock.

The players will be visiting a castle owned by a vampire in the near future which will be mostly populated by Undead and Demons, This castle is also gonna have a library but I'm having trouble on deciding what kinds of monsters should be in there.
Any suggestions would be very welcome. feel free to be creative since the players don't even know about the castle yet so nothing is set in stone.

The party is currently level 12 and has 5 members.
(1 Psion, 1 Cleric, 1 Unchained Monk, 1 Unchained Rogue & 1 Weretouched Master/Master of Many Forms.)

[DrMotives]

Hey everyone at GitP!
I don't post here often as I tend to mostly lurk on forums but while prepping for my next session I hit a bit of a roadblock.

The players will be visiting a castle owned by a vampire in the near future which will be mostly populated by Undead and Demons, This castle is also gonna have a library but I'm having trouble on deciding what kinds of monsters should be in there.
Any suggestions would be very welcome. feel free to be creative since the players don't even know about the castle yet so nothing is set in stone.

The party is currently level 12 and has 5 members.
(1 Psion, 1 Cleric, 1 Unchained Monk, 1 Unchained Rogue & 1 Weretouched Master/Master of Many Forms.)

Obviously, a very frustrated banshee.

[Darth Ultron]

Ancient, lost librarians? Seriously, the spirits of the dead guardians of the books wandering the aisles. Like the one in the library at the start of Ghostbusters, but even scarier.

Using ethereal undead here is for me a must, banshee and poltergeists. It allows you to give the pcs insight into the history of the library and its previous inhabitants.

If you have acces to the tome of beasts from kobold press i would suggest looking at the paper dragon, living wick, empty cloak and the mimic map.

[Jiece18]

In one of the Dragon Magazines, there were stats for paper golems. They could hide as old maps or similar items and surprise the party.

[Doctor Awkward]

A group of mimics, with the spellwarped template (MM3), disguised to look like lecterns, bookshelves, tables, and the odd treasure chest (can't argue with the classic).

Accompanied by a pair of Quells (Libris Mortis), with class levels in wizard (say, I dunno, 7 to make them CR 10s). Quells have an ability called intercession that basically lets them make a turning attempt to shut off a divine spellcaster for 1 minute (they can't cast spells or turn undead). Kind of fits with the library theme: "Shhhh.... noooo ta---lking..."
Maybe specialist conjurers...

[Castilonium]

A wild thesaurus, or a pack of them. They're like velociraptors, but instead of making dinosaur noises, they speak in synonyms.
"Roar! Bellow! Screech!"
When attacking, "Rend! Disembowel! Eviscerate!"
When damaged, "Pain! Anguish! Agony! Country music!"

Also, have the library books manifest some of the characters in them. Remember when you were a teen and wrote about edgy katana-wielding, trenchcoat-wearing original characters who can teleport behind people and block bullets with their swords? Now the players get to fight them. Or maybe you wrote about rainbow wolf princesses who have a mastery of magic. Let the players fight those too.

[Vizzerdrix]

And orangutan. Will only attack if the party damages the books, calls him a monkey, or offers him a banana.

Animated books, paper golems, maze spell traps, mimics and ghosts pretending to be characters, something with silence at will. You can throw ruin elementals at them made of books and shelves.

[mabriss lethe]

Random zones of Silence, either as a feature, or caused by some of the creatures there.

[ShurikVch]

Well, Grisgol (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ex/20040905a&page=4) may be rather fitting for a library

To steal some ideas from the Elder Scrolls: Apocrypha (http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Apocrypha) have Seekers (http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Seeker) and Lurkers (http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Lurker); Seekers are resembling Illithids, and Lurkers - ... Kuo-toa?..

Paper Dragon (http://www.enworld.org/creaturecatalog/Conversions/Dragon,%20Paper.htm):
https://image.ibb.co/f4RJay/Paper_Dragon.jpg

Overall, the idea of "bookwyrm" is pretty popular (see that joke (https://www.reddit.com/r/DMDadJokes/comments/513py3/longi_once_spent_two_and_a_half_months_setting_up/) for example)
http://pm1.narvii.com/6798/0085c3659e7a3011a88643f377c78db9e6f6e56fv2_00.jpg

Also, there may be some pests - such as rats

Swarm of flying books is rather classical for magical libraries

The most important person for the library is librarian
Urag gro-Shub (http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Urag_gro-Shub) is rather unusual, being an Orc mage
An old module for the Neverwinter Nights - The Four Planes (plotless, but humorous hack & slash), have among it's various enemies the Enraged Library Attendant - looks like an old lady with a shortsword; in truth - this old lady have no physical stat below 16, is a Bard of 32th level, and in addition to spellcasting got Doom and Dismissal 1/day at CL 15; her outfit gives +8 to Perform and Cha, and her sword is +5 and grants Improved Evasion
In the old gamebook Dungeons of the Black Castle, encounter with a librarian is completely non-combat, we wouldn't know neither his name, nor stats (technically, he have no stats); but if he will suspect something, he will summon so many guards you will insta-lose, no rolls involved

[frogglesmash]

A Spellweaver makes a great librarian imo, or a dragon in disguise, one who hoards books.

Edit: Also, incorporeal undead are great library guardians, not only for atmosphere, but because it is less likely that they will damage now while fighting than it would be for other more corporeal creatures.

[SecondCid]

One upvote for swarm of flying books. Ink scrolls that summon mobs also seems like it has potential. Another upvote for mimics, but the SRD creature form of it leaves much to be desired in my opinion.

Haven't seen any mentions of Dark Souls yet, so I'll be that guy. There are undead scholars from the Grand Archives in Dark Souls 3 who covered their heads in wax; according to lore it's to be able to read the contents of the books without going insane (yeah, I don't know how that works). They wielded candles, splashed you with wax, and wielded fire magic. In the same game, the walls of the library cursed you if you stood next to them, so there's that.

Sentient book that is enchanted with a mind affecting effect and fascinates the target (drawing them towards it) and then suggests them to open it and trigger something when they get close enough. Call it "The Monster Manual" and have it try to rip off the victim's face when opened.

[Esquire]

.303-caliber bookworms.