PDA

View Full Version : Favorite Monsters?



TheLogman
2007-12-16, 10:53 AM
What is everyone's favorite monsters? It could be anything from the lowly standby Kobold to the mighty Lich, or anything in between, counting any book from any version. Be sure to consider fluff, flavor, power, ect.

Personally, I like the Grisgol (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ex/20040905a&page=4) from MM 3. It's a horrid combination of old used-up magic items and a lich. It's what you send after players after they start using up a ton of scrolls, potions, and wands. When some stranger offers to buy them all up, you know a Grisgol's coming. He gets 1 spells from each level that he knew, and the best part is a player examining its remains goes Insane, thinking there's actually something to find in the mess of used up scrolls.

The Vorpal Tribble
2007-12-16, 11:08 AM
Just some off the top of my head...

Gloom
Epic Level Handbook
This thing is just pure creepy. Ultimate assassin who could manage to hide in an empty, brightly lit room without magic.

Phthisic
Expanded Psionics Handbook
It is a psychosis given flesh, and it does intelligence damage as an (Ex) attack! What more do you want?

Splinterwaif
Monster Manual III
I've used this fellow in nearly every campaign. Any place you have dead wood you can have this fellow, from bridges to brush piles, to old collapsed buildings. He's also a pretty decent challenge, and can spit splinters into your face.

Unbodied
Expanded Psionics Handbook
These are beings that so many strive to be. Creatures who have divorced themselves so full from the physical realm that they have become beings of pure thought and enlightenment.
They are as ghosts, but with psionic powers and can take the form of pretty much anything yet are not bothered by clerics because they are still alive. Vibrantly so in fact.

Tsochar
Lords of Madness
These fellows should scare the bejeebus out of anyone, as any creature that can slither up inside and take you over should. And even if you try to kill yourself or die from the tsochar, it can still animate you and even use your spells and powers as you rot.
Not only that but it has some of the most wicked grapple abilities for its CR I've ever seen. A small-sized creature with a 15 foot reach... with each tentacle. And each one does ability damage.

....
2007-12-16, 11:10 AM
Can't beat the illithids. Creepy creepy bastards.

Aboleths don't get nearly enough use, either. I mean, their touch turns you into goo.

Leicontis
2007-12-16, 11:41 AM
Astral Stalker from MMIII - Set one hunting one or more of your PCs. I sent one against a party that was consistently crushing stuff 5 CRs higher, and it was one of the best fights of the campaign. High AC, high attack bonus, ranged attack with paralysis poison, ability to see invisible, climb speed, camouflage, and really smart - the ultimate one-creature ambush. It's the kind of beastie that fights on its terms, not the PCs'. Draw them into a situation that's lousy, paralyze the mage with a dart, then go toe-to-toe with almost any melee build (he was tough against a melee C-zilla).

Morty
2007-12-16, 11:44 AM
Gricks. Seriously.
Now really seriously this time, my vote goes for goblinoids.

SoD
2007-12-16, 11:56 AM
Darkmantles!

As one poster (can't remember who) put it ''There's nothing they can't solve by spewing darkness dropping on peoples heads and mangulating their faces''.

Oh, and goblinoids are people too. Not monsters.

:smalltongue:

Snadgeros
2007-12-16, 12:22 PM
Mindflayers scare the bajeebus out of me. Maybe because they remind me of Cthulhu.....

I just had a campaign filled with amorphous, gelatinous monsters with the consistency of crap, ranging from oozes to gibbering mouthers. After having several of our party members nearly devoured (myself included) I'm terrified of these things too.

Lastly, I love the purple worm. We have a purple worm miniature and we'd have a blast randomly putting it on the board and going "RAWRBLEBLABBLERGARLBLE!" It was funny because one of those times, the DM did this, and it really was there, not a joke. It was part of a challenge where I had to run through his intestines and plug up his anus. Yeah........gross, but still hilarious.

AmberVael
2007-12-16, 12:29 PM
I personally want to put out my opinion that Illithids and Beholders are the property of Wizards, and they can keep them. I think they're the stupidest monsters that I've seen (that aren't parodies, and that actually qualify as monsters).
That said, my favorites... hmmm...
Probably one of the dragons.

Lady Tialait
2007-12-16, 12:38 PM
Illithids remind me of Zoidberg..so can't scare me...

As for my fave monster would be the Verdant Prince, they tend toward LE, personal Fave and can give you stuff to screw you over. Love It

DraPrime
2007-12-16, 12:55 PM
Chaos beasts have always been fun. What's more cool than a constantly changing mass that can make you dissolve?

Zenos
2007-12-16, 01:28 PM
Rust monsters, they're funny to send at the PC's if they're behaving like jerks.

dr awesome phd
2007-12-16, 01:31 PM
I'm going to have to go with Orcs. They're really addictive, you can't kill just 1.

Spiryt
2007-12-16, 01:41 PM
Chaos beasts have always been fun. What's more cool than a constantly changing mass that can make you dissolve?

Yup, plus they are one of the few reasons for most characters to have reasonable Charisma score.

Your fellow min-maxers dumped their Charisma scores immodestely?

Send Chaos beasts against them!

Pronounceable
2007-12-16, 01:45 PM
All kinds of golems and constructs. Followed by illithids and beholders.

Icewalker
2007-12-16, 01:48 PM
Well, I've only just started DMing and don't have any MMs, but in an old campaign I've played in, the DM came up with some pretty unique stuff.

Like Ettin-Trolls! (ew...)


I'd say that one pretty awesome thing though is the Ulgurstasta, from the Fiend Folio. Seems like it'd make an awesome BBEG.

Gargantuan yellow slimy worm thing, with gigantic mouth filled with teeth. It eats people, they turn into skeletons in it's stomach, then it vomits them up again as skeletal minions under it's control.

Then, for every 1000 people it eats and skeletonifies, it retains enough scraps of memories and intelligence that it's int goes up by 1. :smallbiggrin:

Nasty!

Xefas
2007-12-16, 02:17 PM
Liches and Dracoliches

They wake up every morning with a smile on their face and the phrase "**** you, gods and life!" perched on their lips.

Y'know...if they slept.

DraPrime
2007-12-16, 02:22 PM
Yup, plus they are one of the few reasons for most characters to have reasonable Charisma score.

Your fellow min-maxers dumped their Charisma scores immodestely?

Send Chaos beasts against them!

Shhhhhhh! Don't give away my secret plans.

bugsysservant
2007-12-16, 02:49 PM
Illithids remind me of Zoidberg..so can't scare me...

Are you kidding? I have nightmares about me being in his way to sardines...:smalleek:

Deepblue706
2007-12-16, 03:00 PM
Giant Crabs, Krakens, Dragons, Beholders, Doppelgangers, Hags, Harpies, Hydras, Lizardfolk, Minotaurs, Rust Monsters, Gelatinous Cubes, Gibbering Mouthers, Ogres, Goblins, Skeletons and Zombies.

dyslexicfaser
2007-12-16, 03:04 PM
Myconids.

To quote FrankTrollman:

"The Myconids don't need anybody, have no enemies, and don't care what you do.

The Myconids have a pretty good world conquest strategy. They don't need anything at all to reproduce themselves and they don't really have to interact with the economies that the other races have bought into. They have an army of the dead and huge piles of crazy potions that they make free of course, but they aren't even interested in fighting the other races. The extent of the Myconid empire and population is limited by the farthest reaches of their mushroom fields, which simply grow a little every year. Eventually the Myconids might push the limits of their fields into areas other races intended to use, and then the Myconids will go ape and start throwing armies of zombies and themselves (every Myconid is completely replaceable) at whatever is in their way – but for now they just hang out and groove on the telepathy spores and share their dreams."

SoD
2007-12-16, 03:12 PM
Beholders. But my campaigns party isn't a high enough level to even manage a Gaur. I think that's the baby Beholder...

Worira
2007-12-16, 03:19 PM
That damn crab. (http://wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/fw/20040221a)

Seriously though, Illithids.

Woot Spitum
2007-12-16, 03:21 PM
Nightwalker. A host of nasty abilities, can destroy magic items, fear gaze with a charisma-based save (DC 24), and a desecrating aura so strong that it counts as a shrine of evil power. All this in a core, non-epic (CR 16) monster.

NEO|Phyte
2007-12-16, 03:26 PM
Hmm, my absolute most favoritest monster ever...

I'm gonna have to go with Thri-Kreen, everyone's favorite 4-armed insect thing.

dr awesome phd
2007-12-16, 04:16 PM
In all seriousness, I'll say a giant crab. I say this because one of the guys in my gaming group loves to use Stormwrack as a primary source for his campaigns. There is some giant crab in there (not sure on the exact creature name) that basically attacks and has some rule where it literally just rips the target in half. The reason I love this monster is because a different guy in that same group has been ripped in half on 3 seperate occasions. He hasn't learned yet.

Prometheus
2007-12-16, 09:20 PM
Manticores, Minotaurs, and Nagas.

I guess I'm a sucker for the classics

Nebo_
2007-12-16, 09:25 PM
Chokers are awesome.

Azerian Kelimon
2007-12-16, 09:30 PM
Lesse...

For "The coolness factor", I'd have to say Rainbow dragons. No, they're not Prismatics, they're a more powerful dragon that has access to all the chromatic dragon abilities, yet is good. Or Anaxim, closest thing to supermechs evah.

For the scares...hmm....Worm that walks. "Suddenly, you feel the worms crawling around your neck. Then, they swarm you, entering your body and desecrating it, attacking your brain through your ears, falling to your stomach and eating it form the inside out. You try to scream, but you can't, as the worms have eaten your vocal chords. And suddenly, you wake with a horrific scream. It was all just a dream...or was it?"

And for tactical effectiveness, I'd have to say Hydras. Scary buggers.

CASTLEMIKE
2007-12-16, 09:56 PM
Spellstiched undead, Efreeti and mid level devils with a plan.

Armads
2007-12-16, 10:00 PM
Dread Wraiths and Shadows. Incorporeal creatures are fun to use.

TheLogman
2007-12-16, 10:07 PM
I also love Mind Flayers. I have a soft spot for both the fact they are brain-eaters, and the fact they are psionic, intelligent, evil masterminds who also eat brains.

Callos_DeTerran
2007-12-16, 10:55 PM
Hmmmm....


Well quite obviously Tsochari. Their a given.

Chuuls.

Oh, oh! Yrthaks!

Idea Man
2007-12-16, 10:59 PM
My favorite monster to use is an ice devil. My players always try to cast fire spells at them. :smallamused:

My favorite monster, generally, would be dragons. Even if the rules never do them justice, even if WotC makes spell that make a mockery of them, they're still my favorite.

Titanium Dragon
2007-12-17, 06:21 AM
Dragons, because they're so versatile and can always present a challenging encounter, plus they're intelligent and interesting enough that they are fun as foes that aren't just combat encounters - battles of wits with dragons are always fun, for instance.

Other than them:

Gnolls. I just love the cannibalistic hyenas for whatever reason; they're fun to me for some reason, and they're interesting foes for relatively low-level parties.

Stirge. Mmm, delicious, delicious constitution drain.

Swarmers. These are something someone made up for Abyss 404, a NWN server; they're tiny bird-like creatures covered with barklike skin and full of acidic blood which are super-fast and cluster around adventurers to tear them to bits.

Gargoyles. Just because statues that come to life are fun.

leperkhaun
2007-12-17, 07:10 AM
I like alot of new stuff, but for my favorites i like the classics.

Dragons - its a freaking dragon.

Beholder - Like the second time i played DnD my party ran into one of these. Got it stuck in my brain.

Balor - While i was still kinda new to DnD, my DM set up a mini level 20 adventure. We were kind sceptical about it. He promised no dragons.....

Talic
2007-12-17, 07:13 AM
Shocker Lizards. (MM)

In large groups, in a pack setting.

In a dense foliage along a riverbank.

Heh.