Favorite Old-School Monster(s)

[RTGoodman]

For a little project I'm thinking about taking up, I was wondering what folks' favorite old-school D&D monsters are, especially the ones that've been "left behind," I guess. Not necessarily the ones from a certain series of articles, but all kinds of cool but, for some reason or another, abandoned critters.

For instance, the Zorbo (AD&D MM2). It's a carnivorous bear/wombat-lookin' thing whose armor changes depending on what it's touching - one standing on earth/dirt is relatively easy to hit and not as dangerous, but when it comes in contact with stone or a magic shield or whatever, it toughens up and gets stronger. Or what about the Froghemoth? I mean, with a name like that, it HAS to be cool. Or Hordelings? I haven't heard from those guys in 3.x/4E.

So, Playgrounders, what sorts of early-edition critters were/are you fond of? Why didn't they make it?

[bosssmiley]

Webbirds. They're weird little carnivorous flying bird/frog things that attack en masse and slather you in gooey, restrictive webs they secrete from tumours in their chests. Horrible creepy things.

Froghemoth was cool. Weird tentacular ambush predator.

Valistraks(sp?): Giant bipedal boxing shrimp.

Time Elementals!

Heck the whole Monster Manual 2 was nothing but wall-to-wall weird s**t.

[Yrcrazypa]

Flumph

That's all I can think of off the top of my head.

[Callos_DeTerran]

Webbirds. They're weird little carnivorous flying bird/frog things that attack en masse and slather you in gooey, restrictive webs they secrete from tumours in their chests. Horrible creepy things.

Actually the webbird was updated in Dragon (or was it Dungeon?) magazine. Does it still count?

[Glyde]

Can't go wrong with Beholders

[RTGoodman]

Heck the whole Monster Manual 2 was nothing but wall-to-wall weird s**t.

Heh, yeah, I realized that last night - after I posted the thread I went and actually read through the whole thing, and there is some crazy stuff in there.

Anyone else got some favorite (forgotten) monsters?

[FoE]

The pennangalann from the old Fiend Folio. I thought about statting it for 4E a few times ...

[Stormthorn]

Can't go wrong with Beholders

Although to be fair they still exist (at least as of 3.5 Not sure about 4e)

[hamishspence]

2 types in MM, 4 or so in MM2.

[Mongoose87]

Gibberlings!

[Stormthorn]

Gibberlings!

Yea!

[chiasaur11]

Ixitxachitl.

Evil manta ray priests.

And also some of them are vampires.

[Korivan]

I still miss fremlins...sniff...sniff... Also, is the agali in 3rd or 4th?... its a big, fuzzy, evil-looking, children eating, nomadic, arm tearing, friendly, cuddly big-foot.

[FoE]

I also miss the Kraken. Giant intellegient squid FTW!

[Froogleyboy]

I've always wanted to see Wolf-in-sheeps-clothing come back. A mini would be awesome too

[Thane of Fife]

You might have some of these in the newer editions, but these are the less common monsters which I like:

Auromvorax
Deepspawn
Feyrs
Gargantua
Gibberlings
Living Walls
Werefoxes
Mudmen
Zaratan

[Alejandro]

Ixitxachitl.

Evil manta ray priests.

And also some of them are vampires.

I once offered a huge combat bonus against an ixitxachitl if the player could successfully spell it in one try. Failed.

[AslanCross]

I never played the older editions, but I did see some stats while looking through my classmate's books. When I first got the 3.5 Monster Manual, I immediately started looking for the three dragon rulers (Pearl, Opal and Diamond). They sounded pretty awesome.

[Ninetail]

Modrons. Silly-looking things that they were.

Eyes of Fear and Flame, aka Bargain Basement Liches.

Vampiric Frogs. These things would latch onto the back of your head, start sucking your blood, and if you tried to attack them you had a decent chance of hitting your buddy in the head instead. Classic.

Actually, Giant Frogs in general. They were surprisingly deadly back in the day. More than one Temple of Elemental Evil run ended in the gatehouse...

Adherer. Looks like a mummy, but no, it's actually a flypaper golem! Loads of fun.

Thoul. A crossbreed of a troll, a gnoll, and a ghoul, IIRC. Try not to think about it too hard.

Lurker Above, Trapper, and Stunjelly. Encountered together, this group means that the floor, walls, and ceiling are all trying to eat the party. Classic. Toss in a mimic in the middle of the floor of the 'room' for extra points.

Gazebo. Never yet has an adventurer fairly defeated the dread gazebo.

[Starscream]

Not sure if anyone but me remembers this one, but the Kamadan. I used to want one as a pet.

It's basically a jaguar with snakes growing out of its shoulders, like a Displacer Beast's tentacles. And I think it had Sleep Breath.

[RTGoodman]

Wow, some cool stuff here that I'd missed before looking through the old Monster Manuals. And I'm definitely gonna have to get my hands on the Fiend Folio.

Basically what I'm looking at doing is, in fact, updating some of these creatures to 4E. I know a lot of old-school gamer type folks at the college where I'm heading to grad school in the Fall, and I was thinking about running a short dungeoncrawl-type campaign when I get back that uses a lot of "classic" monsters. While I'm at it, though, I'm thinkin' of submitting the idea to WotC as a 'zine article, and even if they don't take it, I'll probably either post the stats here and maybe put together a nice little "Tome of Forgotten Beasts" PDF or something.

So yeah, if anyone's got anything else they'd like to see updated for a 4E adventure, tell me! I first got into D&D right as 3E was getting started and didn't REALLY play until into 3.5, so I don't really know much about the old-school stuff.

(As an aside, fans of the Al-Mi'rij, brain mole, campestri, carbunkle, flail snail, flumph, stench kow, and a few other older monsters can check out WotC's from back in April. )

[erikun]

I thought the Ethergaunts (3E Fiend Folio) were a pretty neat concept, when I first read about them.

Blood Apes: big, angry monkeys which become bigger, angrier monkeys when you annoy them.

The transparent, intelligent ooze from the 2E MM. Can't remember it's name, though.

[Thane of Fife]

The transparent, intelligent ooze from the 2E MM. Can't remember it's name, though.

Slithering Trackers. They'll suck the giblets out of ya!

[goken04]

Heh, yeah, I realized that last night - after I posted the thread I went and actually read through the whole thing, and there is some crazy stuff in there.

Anyone else got some favorite (forgotten) monsters?

What book is this exactly?

[RTGoodman]

What book is this exactly?

The old 1st Edition AD&D Monster Manual 2, from 1983. Looks like THIS. The original AD&D Monster Manual has some weird stuff too, but not as much as the second one.

[FoE]

Actually, my favourite monster that never really caught on was the death dog. In the original Fiend Folio, death dogs were said to be descended from Cerberus (no, not the aardvark) and had an infectious bite. I liked them as low-level monsters.

[Zen Master]

I've always had a soft spot for kenku and aarackocra. I've built so much fluff for them - but never gotten to use any of it :(

[PairO'Dice Lost]

I've always had a soft spot for kenku and aarackocra. I've built so much fluff for them - but never gotten to use any of it :(

While the aarackocra has gone the way of the flumph to my knowledge, Kenku is in Monster Manual...3? 4? One of the later ones, anyway; you can put the fluff to use if you want to, now.

[Cyrion]

One of my favorites was the huntsman from an early dragon. You always encountered them in groups, and every time one was killed it's HP got distributed out to the rest of the group.

The whole of the daemon clan, though I think those have seen some updates.