Suggestions for monsters with an "insane combination of traits" theme

[PhoenixPhyre]

KorvinStarmast, stay out...although I'm going to mutate (pun intended) anything I use from this thread, so yeah.

I'm looking for suggestions for base monsters that generally fit the "fleshy abomination/body horror/amalgam of existing creatures, but...wrong" theme. I don't care one bit about existing lore for them, as they'll all be retrofit. Just looking for base stat blocks to ease the pain of making a bunch of varied stuff myself. Any CR < 15 is good, although I'd like mostly monsters in the CR 3-10 range (mostly minions, not solos).

Monster books I own:
* MM, Volos, Mordenkainen's
* Kobold Press's Creature Codex, Tome of Beasts 1 & 2.
* Necromancer Games (I think?) 5th Edition Foes

If there are other good-quality 3rd party I can get cheap enough, those'd be welcome as well.

[sithlordnergal]

Won't lie, I've always been a fan of the Star Spawn Mangler, Seer, and Hulk when it comes to fun and potentially creepy things. Though make sure you use Volo's versions, they nerfed the Star Spawn a bit, especially the Manglers.

The Oblex is also pretty fun

[Unoriginal]

KorvinStarmast, stay out...although I'm going to mutate (pun intended) anything I use from this thread, so yeah.

I'm looking for suggestions for base monsters that generally fit the "fleshy abomination/body horror/amalgam of existing creatures, but...wrong" theme. I don't care one bit about existing lore for them, as they'll all be retrofit. Just looking for base stat blocks to ease the pain of making a bunch of varied stuff myself. Any CR < 15 is good, although I'd like mostly monsters in the CR 3-10 range (mostly minions, not solos).

Monster books I own:
* MM, Volos, Mordenkainen's
* Kobold Press's Creature Codex, Tome of Beasts 1 & 2.
* Necromancer Games (I think?) 5th Edition Foes

If there are other good-quality 3rd party I can get cheap enough, those'd be welcome as well.

"Fleshy abomination/body horror/amalgam of existing creatures, but...wrong" screams "Gibbering Mouther" to me.

[Dualight]

Since you are not averse to a little bit of refluffing, I'll suggest the Shambling Mound, its ability to engulf medium or smaller creatures(so all official PC options) into itself (for free in terms of action economy if it focuses its attacks) makes for a neat explanation why you could still recognise parts of its previous victims. Just replace the plant parts of the description with a tide of autonomously moving flesh and you're set.

This is all off the top of my head (don't have time to look through my books right now), but a Corpse Flower might be a good source of inspiration for unusual effects, if nothing else.

[Grim Portent]

The Sorrowsworn from Mordenkainen's sping to mind, in particular the Lonely, the Lost and the Wretched. They all have the sort of vibe where they would fit into something like Dead Space and could easily enough be refluffed into more or less any manner of flesh horror.

[Kurt Kurageous]

"Fleshy abomination/body horror/amalgam of existing creatures, but...wrong" screams "Gibbering Mouther" to me.
Ditto. It was the first thing that came to mind. Nothing to say you can't "dire template" the heck out of it. This "elder gossip" is bigger, louder, and has demonic resistance. Give it higher DC and multiple spits of blinding. Imagine gigantic size.

Now it's freaking me out writing about it.

[Zhorn]

Ropers!

They've been my go-to base monster when making amalgamations this campaign.
Decent STR
Respectable CON
Solid AC

A multiattack and range that is good for pulling those further away characters into melee where they don't want to be.

Fix them on the ceiling +20 ft above ground, so even if a PC breaks free of a tendril, that's a bit of fall damage to deal with.
Have some tight corners to force range to have to be inside 50 ft for line of sight
Destroying tendrils doesn't harm the main body, and they grow back 1 per round up to their maximum of 4, gives a suitable damage sponge.
These things make for some cruel bruisers when you need to reliably soften a party up a little.

I've fluffed them as;
fleshy nightmare fuel
animated trees
the innards of a golem
psychic manifestations

good fun

[Oramac]

Ropers!

Hell yea. Come to think of it, I don't use ropers enough myself. Woe to my players in the next session!

==================

I was also going to suggest Dragonflesh Grafters and Abominations from Fizban's. They're more amalgamations of dragon parts than just random stuff, but should be easy enough to refluff.

[Segev]

Flesh golems and mongrelfolk both tend to have mismatched body parts.

Fomorian Giants are also deformed by nature.

A cyclops with ten extra eyes scattered around its body that work like beholder eyes, its main eye serving as the central one, could be scary.