Quote Originally Posted by Schroeswald View Post
To this day the only argument against the protean that has actually been convincing to me is that getting that teleport ability is awkward and it’s not a perfect fit. However every other possibility has a a stronger argument against it than that.
Right. I mean, I'm fine with it because an explanation exists that fits into the rules as written, but the bolded is really important. So much more has to be stretched or even outright discarded for every other candidate to fit. (And that's before we get to the thematic resonance to the story, where the Protean is really the only monster I've found that actually carries any such resonance with the Monster's character arc.)

Quote Originally Posted by Grey_Wolf_c View Post
We are not "focusing" on D&D creatures at all. You are free to propose any creature you want. We have a non-D&D creature in the FBS list, for Heaven't sake.

GW
And that's the other thing. People are free to propose and suggest whatever they want. It's hard to find good fits, but no one is stopping anyone from trying. It's certainly easier to say what you think it can't be than what you think it can, though. And there's probably a reason, at this point, why it's so hard to find good fits that haven't already been proposed.

My position is pretty simple. I've found the Protean to be by a significant margin the best fit for the MitD, and I've explained why at length. I'm open to hearing new ideas if someone finds a genuinely good fit. I'm open to responding to arguments or evidence against the Protean or against the ideas I've laid out as to why I think that's the answer.

But I don't put too much stock in people simply asserting it's a bad fit without argument or evidence. Or people declaring it doesn't "feel right" to them for some reason that has nothing to do with the criteria we know ("it's too powerful," "it's not iconic / instantly recognizable enough," "it will be obvious when we figure it out so we must not have figured it out yet," etc.). Or people outright misrepresenting what it can do (the repeated cases of people insisting it's a complete shapeshifter that can do anything, for example).