Looking for Hotpot-Edible Monsters

[yonah]

I am designing a 5e dungeon around making hotpot! I need some beef, pork, and fish monsters for this as well as some good veggies. Homebrew ok, any CR. I have myconids for the mushrooms and I was thinking about making a noodle vine thrasher type monster? Any ideas?

Specifically: what monsters would be good in hotpot?

[Duff]

All monsters are edible.
Some are only edible once. (Paraphrasing the Terry Pratchett quote about fungi)

But more seriously, most living corporeal monsters native to the prime material plane should probably be assumed to be edible.
From that starting position, make exceptions where the description makes edibility unlikely (Eg, a walking tree is probably too woody to be food for most humanoids).
Add special preparation processes for a few, especially those with dangerous "exotic" properties like breath weapons
Sprinkle a few surprises in as well (Beholders taste like chicken, Troll pickled in vinegar forms a delicious but visually unappealing jelly, Owlbear is less edible than owl or bear).

Also note, Your D&D shreiker mushrooms are clearly edible. Why else would they have such an energy intensive defensive adaptation?

Edit - And remember to look at international ideas about what counts as "food" and how it gets prepared.. EG Hákarl (Icelandic fermented shark), Cambodian fried spider, Italian "Maggot Cheese"

[LibraryOgre]

You might take a look at Hackmaster... all the Hacklopedia (https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/101108/Hacklopedia-of-Beasts?affiliate_id=315505) entries mention whether or not they're edible.

[Sigreid]

1e orcs were basically humanoid boars. I'm just say'n...

[Wintermoot]

1e orcs were basically humanoid boars. I'm just say'n...

Indeed, D&D orcs were once extremely porcine, similar, as I always imagined them, to Jabba the Hut's Gamorrean guards. So they would pass muster for your pork element. Then you have Minotaurs for your cow element. Or Rothe if you want one non-humanoid monster in the pack. and any one of a dozen fish monsters for the seafood element. Kuo-Toa, Sahauguin, Locathah, Illithid (for squid), or a combination of all of them for a combo hotpot.

[KorvinStarmast]

1e orcs were basically humanoid boars. I'm just say'n... Orc bacon.
Borcan?

[Sigreid]

Orc bacon.
Borcan?

Funnily enough, it's kind of a trope in isakai manga that orcs are hunted for meat.

[RogueJK]

It's a bit lacking in creativity, but a quick perusal of DnDBeyond shows that there are CR2 Giant Boars (which are overtly made of pork), and CR2 Aurochs or CR4 Winged Bulls (which are overtly made of beef).

And there are tons of options for fish/aquatic monsters, especially if you don't mind straying into quasi-cannibalism with some of the more humanoid ones like Sahuagin, Locathah, or Kua-Toa.

As for vegetables, it could be as simple as reskinning any of the suitable Plant monsters. For example, a Shambling Mound becomes a Dire Cabbage, or a Treant becomes a Giant Mutated Yam.

[Sigreid]

It's a bit lacking in creativity, but a quick perusal of DnDBeyond shows that there are CR2 Giant Boars (which are overtly made of pork), and CR2 Aurochs or CR4 Winged Bulls (which are overtly made of beef).

And there are tons of options for fish/aquatic monsters, especially if you don't mind straying into quasi-cannibalism with some of the more humanoid ones like Sahuagin, Locathah, or Kua-Toa.

As for vegetables, it could be as simple as reskinning any of the suitable Plant monsters. For example, a Shambling Mound becomes a Dire Cabbage, or a Treant becomes a Giant Mutated Yam.

Awaken Salad Bar!

[Mastikator]

A Shambling mound might contain edible parts.
A Blight might be dried up and used as a spice.

[Amnestic]

https://www.gameindustry.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/dungeon_meshi_wp-e1456628070533.png

There's an entire manga (with an upcoming Studio Trigger anime adaptation in 2024) about this - Dungeon Meshi.

Some of their ingredients include: basilisk, walking mushrooms, mandrake, giant scorpions, cockatrice, dragon (of course), harpy eggs, steamed nightmares, griffin, hippogriff, changeling spores, succubus milk, and phoenix.