Your least favourite/favourite monster in D&D?

[Zenos]

So, what monsters/hostile NPC's do you love using as a DM, and which monsters do you hate fighting as a PC?

Personaly, I like using aquatic grapplers and low-level NPC warlocks as opponent for my PC's. I am not really sure that I hate any creatures in the MM.

[Fan]

Devourer's as a DM.
HATE Chul's as a PC.
too much HD for a CR 6!

[UserClone]

Probably the Squark is my least favorite, as it is simply a squid-shark combination, and is utterly uninspired and downright silly. My favorite is probably the Rust Monster (though woe be unto the meleer who has to deal with them), because they took a weird, ugly little miniature and made a devastating creature out of it.

[XiaoTie]

I'd have to say Dragons are my favorite monsters. No, seriously.
And as far as least favvorite goes... well, I can't think of one monster I don't like.

[trehek]

Favorite as DM:
Cornugon. It gained a warm place in my heart after one held back a group of 5 lvl 13 players single-handedly. They barely escaped with their lives. It wasn't a really disadvantageous situation, and the monster isn't really imbalanced. He just succeeded doing what he does really well.

Most hated as player:
Us in a campaign running around in a dungeon. We enter a room with a bridge over a murky pool. Suddenly we're all making Will Saves without knowing what's hitting us, and the ones who fail start jumping into the pool where they start to drown, or worse. Of course, it was a pair of damnable Aboleth!

[AslanCross]

I love running dragons. There's just no single way to pin them down if the party isn't prepared for them. (And yes, all my dragons have scintillating scales.)
My party has taken out an adult black dragon with a lot of luck (Paladin readied an action to attack it when it entered his range, and he scored a crit when it divebombed him), but the players know they're going to go up against an adult blue within the next few sessions. Let's see how well they fare.

I've never been on the other side of the DM screen myself, but I know my players have hated grapplers the most. One time a bluespawn burrower grabbed the cleric and pulled her underground. She had almost no way of getting out until she thought of casting bestow curse on it (by RAW this is not possible as it has Somatic components, but the party was about to be TPKed at a crucial moment, so I let her). She managed to make it stop and was later dug out by the surviving PCs.

[Optimystik]

Bebiliths annoy me, but they can create hilariously inappropriate situations with your female tank. I've also walked into a Gelatinous Cube or 3...

[BobVosh]

Gelatinous Cube/Gelatinous Cube

It is the perfect what, wut?

[Asbestos]

Bebiliths annoy me, but they can create hilariously inappropriate situations with your female tank. I've also walked into a Gelatinous Cube or 3...

Do your female tanks just wear bikinis under that heavy metal armor? That has to be uncomfortable. :smalltongue:

[arguskos]

Favorite as a DM is the Voor (MM4). It's rather... yeaaaaaaaah. The whole "bombard the players with massive numbers of tentacle attacks at range" thing is really powerful. He's fun to play, thanks to being tough to kill (good defenses), dealing good damage (though, it CAN be too much sometimes), and having fun with climbing.

Least favorite as a DM is probably... something boring, like a goodly number of low CR monsters. I like flashy attacks, cool abilities, and custom stuff, so mobs of anything are boring as dirt.

Favorite as a player would be the Beholder. They are greatly entertaining fights, always keeping you on your toes for that next disintegrate or flesh to stone ray. Tough to kill, lethal to fight, just great fun. It's always a battle where you feel you EARNED your XP.

Least favorite as a player would be anything with a blanket immunity to magic or damage. I dislike being told I am useless except to soak damage for someone else, especially as someone who likes playing blaster mages. :smallannoyed:

[Optimystik]

Do your female tanks just wear bikinis under that heavy metal armor? That has to be uncomfortable. :smalltongue:

Let's just say relying on the padding underneath one's armor can present problems when said padding is ATTACHED to said armor. :smallwink:

As for the Cube(s), I can only blame my abysmal Spot check. The third time though, I did the "pineapple chunk" (http://www.giantitp.com/Images/fanart/ootsfill1.gif) joke.

[LurkerInPlayground]

Dopplegangers:
They're alien and mysterious but they manage that while also being a social challenge.

[Toliudar]

As a DM, I love Mind Flayers as villains. They're unredeemably creepy, manipulative and powerful, but they have relatively few HP, so if the players are smart about it, they can beat them.

Least favourite monster? Skeletons and zombies. I hate having to NOT do fun tactics because there's no reasonable way to justify the monsters "thinking" of them.

[Kurald Galain]

Least fave? Ogre magi. Because it's a silly concept with a bunch of random abilities haphazardly thrown together.

[Zer Kaizer]

I only played NWN 1 and 2. but I love and hate the undead at the same time. Love using them with My necromancer, hate fighting them.

[Satyr]

I really don't like dragons, especially good dragons. I think that the term 'good dragon' is comparable to "benevolent tyrant", "friendly neighbourhood genocidal maniac" or similar tautologies.

I hate the color code system of D&D dragons. One of the first thing I do normally, when i start creating a setting, is killing of all metallic dragons and reducing the number of the chromatic dragons to one or two.

I also hate the idea of the scheming, secret ruler dragons, that rule the world in secret or similar nonsense developed by dracophiles; they will not appear in my campaigns, where Dragon Slayer is among the highest titles anyone can earn.

[AslanCross]

Least fave? Ogre magi. Because it's a silly concept with a bunch of random abilities haphazardly thrown together.

Well, at least Wizards admits to that. I think it was due to conversion holdovers from 2E, where it had a distinctly "Japanese oni" flavor. Other problems with the Ogre Mage include its high CR being incompatible with some of its spell-like abilities. Some are utterly useless (sleep and charm person) while others are extremely annoying (at-will invisibility). I think the updated ogre mage (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/dd/20060721a) makes sense a bit more as a magic-using giant. I'm using a half-fiend ogre mage warlock as the BBEG in my soon-to-end campaign.

[potatocubed]

Well, at least Wizards admits to that. I think it was due to conversion holdovers from 2E, where it had a distinctly "Japanese oni" flavor.

This is true. In 2e the ogre-mage's bizarre clutch of abilities was excellent, since the power curve was flatter. The 3.0 version just had the same abilities as the 2e one without anyone bothering to think 'does this still work?' The 3.5 one was lightly tweaked but not really fixed. I haven't used the 4e one yet, so the jury's still out.

My favourite monster is always lizardfolk. Not some cheesy poisonscale blackdust wtfever lizardfolk either, but plain ol' swamp-dwelling reptilian humanoids. I also have a soft spot for ogre magi and winter wolves. And goblins. Yay goblins.

My least favourite? If we include PC races then kender and warforged top the list. Otherwise... I suspect it would be the tojanida. Even the five-legged unicycle lion is less silly than the tojanida.

[Starscream]

I love Illithids. They make awesome villains, and are fun from both a DM and player perspective.

Hate Aboleths. If Mind Flayers are the right way to make a mind controlling monster, Aboleths are the wrong way. Player's hate facing them, and I've never even tried running one as a DM because I find them totally uninteresting.

From a more general perspective, I really like devils in general, but demons annoy me. Well, Babau are alright, and maybe the occasional Vrock, but the rest can bug off. Horned Devils, Erinyes and Bearded devils by comparison are awesome. Yugoloth's are under appreciated.

Fey always end up more cool than you expect. Giants usually end up less cool than you expect.

[Eldariel]

"benevolent tyrant"

This actually isn't a farfetched term at all. I've heard it used on e.g. Alexander the Great, who was, by the history books at any rate, one of the better rulers of the time. Draws from the original meaning of the word "tyrant" I think.


To go with the actual question, my favourite monster has to be a Kraken. I mean, c'mon, it's a spellcasting squid!

Least favourite monster to play against...Shadow Demon [Book of Vile Darkness]. Our party once got ambushed by one of those - a number of ad hoc rulings finally lead to a rhinoceros bullrushing me out of the thing's grapple. Otherwise the damn thing would've been a TPK. And of course, all the damage was Vile to boot! The fight went something like "Moves silently, no listen check, spot-check with DC around 40 [Level 8], fails, surprise round - Damning Darkness, it wins Initiative with its +11 and high roll, Pounces & hits with Touch Attacks, Rakes, Grapples (4d6+16 + 2d6 damage).

[toasty]

I've only just started playing DnD so I haven't encountered lots of powerful creatures but reading the 4E MM.

Hate:
Purple Worm. Its a big... purple... worm. Why is this exiciting?

Like:
Lots of stuff... the Skeleton Lord sounds like a fun guy to run... a pair of these combined with a bunch of weak skeleton guys could be real fun.

[Samakain]

as a DM?
lower levels? Hobgoblins and Kobolds, gotta love em

high levels? Dragons or Demons as boring as that sounds, although Colossal or larger insects are fun to :D through a 100ft tall scorpion at your players sometime i guarantee amusement.

epic levels? no entirely sure whats its name is now? abomination or something, but its the offspring of a god and a deamon prince =o the thing is crazy. or that "still borne god" one which is so screwed up on so many levels before we even get to the point he can screw with your very molecules :smalleek:

What do i hate?

lower levels? Giants >< i dislike being killed by something as common as a thrown rock

high levels? Freaking Dragons

epic levels? mentioned above, mithril golems and freaking death slaad :smallconfused:

[Glyde]

Least: Anything that WotC thinks should cast Cloud Kill as a spell-like ability on a 5th level party.

Yeah, that's really fair. (Needless to say, we aren't liking this premade adventure very much.)


Most: Dragons are cool, but I've always been fond of Glabrezu.

[Zenos]

Wow so many posts while I've been at school. I just remembered another monster I like, the Horned Devil. I like the bleeding wound thing and it is on of the outsiders I think looks esthetically good.

[evisiron]

Favourite as a DM - Has to be the Angel of Decay from the L. Mortis. One of the few monsters to really give the players a reason to flee (aura of making people vomit) and ending with a "I'll hold it back, all of you, flee!" "Not a chance *readies blade* " moment.

It killed most of the party, and the druid who fled was caught by the never-tiring and flying undead. Sort of TPK, but had a backup plan of the necromancer having these 'fresh materials' brought to him to experiment on. He added some undead stuff, but when he tried to raise them, the scrolls they had on them from earlier kicked in and brought them back.

They loved it after they had levelled and got to fight the Angel on the way out. They fought smart this time, and kicked his rotting ass. :smallbiggrin:

Least: Tarrasque - So...boring...

[Sinfire Titan]

DMing fav: Duskblades. Built right, they are never the same thing twice. Oh, and Arcane Channeling Bestow Curse is mean.

Least: Underwater encounters. Stormwrack isn't much use when your party can't understand the basics of underwater combat.


Player: Will-o-Wisps. At the right advancement, they can be a downright nightmare, but they always pose a threat.

Least: Dragons. But only when the DM has no clue how to make one work. If they are done right, I'm happy.

[Zenos]

A lot of these make me want to try those tactics out.

[Tacoma]

I absolutely cannot stand elephants. Hiding out there in the grass, staring at you with their beady little eyes. Plotting your death.

[Zenos]

I absolutely cannot stand elephants. Hiding out there in the grass, staring at you with their beady little eyes. Plotting your death.

Oh, you are a refugee from Boatmurdered, I presume? :P

[Immutep]

As a DM, i like to use well organised monsters in groups (such as orcs and hobgoblins), with afew big enemies thrown in for good measure

As a PC i really dislike oozes, and Succubi. I'm reliant on the rest of the party for dealing with them due to some choices with my character.

[Primal Fury]

Oh! I love these threads!

My favorite monster as a player would have to be... the Phoenix. An effectively immortal being of primal fire and might. Yes. Very nice. Of course, that only goes so far as concept, mechanics-wise, I'd have to say... the whole group of savage humanoids, bugbears, orcs, goblins and the like. Like I said earlier, I love primal, earthy things.

My least favorite moster. Bodak. GOD! I freaking HATE those things!:smallfurious: I once played a very good character with a very high will save. A bodak popped up. I rolled a 1. You could imagine my frustration.

[Darwin]

My all-time favorite monster as a DM would be the Arrowhawk from MM. God have my PCs hated me for these little fellas. At early levels spellcasters lack the firepower to take these beauties down. And they melees still haven't learned to carry some sort of ranged weapon other than javelins.

My least favorite monster is the common Orc. Not only do we have to butcher oceans of these greenskins when starting a new campaign. At level 1 they are perfectly capable of one-shotting anything but the party tank at a very consistent rate.

[AslanCross]

From a more general perspective, I really like devils in general, but demons annoy me. Well, Babau are alright, and maybe the occasional Vrock, but the rest can bug off. Horned Devils, Erinyes and Bearded devils by comparison are awesome. Yugoloth's are under appreciated.


+1. I really want to run a Cornugon in my current campaign, but my players are too low-leveled for it. I'm going to end up throwing Kytons, Erinyes and Excruciarchs at them, though. :smallamused: