Annoying monsters and how to deal with them

[Curelomosaurus]

Is there a list of monsters that appear to be normal environmental/dungeon features (mimic, gray ooze, possessed items, hoard scarabs, gargoyles, corpse full of rot grubs...), that specifically destroy treasure and gear (rust monsters), or that are otherwise designed to be unexpected or annoying to face (ethereal filchers, incorporeal stuff, anything that comes back to life when killed)?

Also, what are effective ways of detecting or dealing with said monsters, beyond a ghost touch weapon or a 10-foot pole?

[Quertus]

Also, what are effective ways of detecting or dealing with said monsters, beyond a ghost touch weapon or a 10-foot pole?

Undead, summoned elementals, minions, hirelings, and fellow party members all make good test subjects for locating such hazards. Just get them to wear red shirts.

[Delta_tea]

Zombie minions are you friend! Seriously, anything that can wall them up so ranged can deal with them. The threats you mentioned are all fairly weak to long distance attacks. You could also keep running away while pelting it with arrows.

[JeminiZero]

Summon Elemental [Complete Mage]Reserve Feat. As long as you keep a 4th level summon spell available, you can repeatedly summon a small elemental to poke things which you don't want to touch. A similar trick which Warlocks can pull off is the Dead Walk invocation along with a bag of holding full of corpses.

Against living creatures that hide, Lifesense [Libris Mortis] would be useful, but requires you to be Construct or Undead. Living things appear to glow to you. That immediately alerts you to things like gargoyles pretending to be statues.

Rust Monsters and dissolving Oozes can be countered to a limited degree by the Durable [Dungeonscape] or Blueshine [MiC] armor properties. Or by making your stuff out of Stone & Crystal instead of metal/wood.

[Vizzerdrix]

To get unstuck from a mimic, use wine.

[Dmitriy]

In Pathfinder, one of the methods to do it is using Handle Animal and a bunch of tiny, cheap animals. I guess, it should also work in D&D 3.5e. All you lose is a bunch of skill points and a tiny bit of your wealth.

[Batcathat]

In Pathfinder, one of the methods to do it is using Handle Animal and a bunch of tiny, cheap animals. I guess, it should also work in D&D 3.5e. All you lose is a bunch of skill points and a tiny bit of your wealth.

There's also the added downside of getting really strange looks when you go to the pet store and ask for a hundred hamsters the third time in a week.

[Curelomosaurus]

Besides Lifesense, what are good ways to detect disguised/ethereal/incorporeal monsters before they attack?

[Quertus]

Besides Lifesense, what are good ways to detect disguised/ethereal/incorporeal monsters before they attack?

Warlock / reserve feats / muggle muscle power: blast/crush a swath of devastation as you go.

[Dmitriy]

There's also the added downside of getting really strange looks when you go to the pet store and ask for a hundred hamsters the third time in a week.
True to this. But, well, you can go to different stores! And buy 99 hamsters the next time.

[Toliudar]

Besides Lifesense, what are good ways to detect disguised/ethereal/incorporeal monsters before they attack?

Mindsight gives you the creature type of intelligent creatures all around you.

[Vizzerdrix]

There's also the added downside of getting really strange looks when you go to the pet store and ask for a hundred hamsters the third time in a week.

Nevermind hamsters. Weasels are what you want. Latch ability is just too good. Animal Friend feat can get you 2 hd of weasels each time you take it. I'm currently working on a build based around weasels and a bard.

[daremetoidareyo]

Nevermind hamsters. Weasels are what you want. Latch ability is just too good. Animal Friend feat can get you 2 hd of weasels each time you take it. I'm currently working on a build based around weasels and a bard.

Halfling whistler?

[rel]

Try Prestidigitation. Your GM probably won't let you change the colour of creatures, just objects. Thus, if you try to change the suspect objects colour and nothing happens then it might be a monster in disguise. Or an illusion. Or an area of anti-magic. Either way, it's suspect.

The advantage of this method is that it bypasses a lot of the common ways monsters use to hide (immune to mundane detection, immune to divination, immune to magic, etc).

[Curelomosaurus]

Try Prestidigitation. Your GM probably won't let you change the colour of creatures, just objects. Thus, if you try to change the suspect objects colour and nothing happens then it might be a monster in disguise. Or an illusion. Or an area of anti-magic. Either way, it's suspect.

The advantage of this method is that it bypasses a lot of the common ways monsters use to hide (immune to mundane detection, immune to divination, immune to magic, etc).

Another use for my favorite spell. Excellent.