Favorite underrated monster

[Necomancer]

Hi! I'm new here and was curious about something. Whats your favorite monster that you would consider underrated? For me it would be the chain devil.

Theres just something about a human like devil wearing plate mail or studd leather as chains travel around his body that seems so classy. I still need to send a chain devil assasin after my players someday, or maby someday play one myself if I ever can.

I also someday want to have my players fight a boss who was the original chain devil. A very powerful version of the normal kind who can control a unlimited amount of chains and lives in a hallway covered in them. So anyways let us forget mind flayers, drow, beholders and dragons and think about the krytons, delvers, girallon and locathah!

[hyenahyena]

howlers, i think, are just awesome.

http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/MM...MM35_PG155.jpg

thats a picture of them. So not enough love for these lil critters. They're cute in a horrifying kind of way.

[Dhavaer]

I've always had something of a soft spot for gricks.

[starwoof]

I think that the locathah dosnt get enough love.

How can you not love a mutant fishman (That isnt a skum)?

[Thistle]

I'm not sure how often they're encountered by anyone else but I love the gray render. Particularly their maternal nature. Combine them with a tribe of halfling, orphans, or rabbits and they're adorable. I especially like when it comes to protecting the charges against low level PCs. ;D

[SlyJohnny]

Mohrgs.

A campaign plothook in and of themselves.

[The Prince of Cats]

Kobolds...

CR: 1/6... You cannot get much more under-rated without going into swarms or NPCs.

A kobold is not scary. Even 10 kobolds are not very scary (especially if you haver colour-spray) but they don't fight fair. You could wade into a gang of kobolds and walk right back out again unscathed but with a nice new hat.

Of course, that isn't how it goes...

The fighter charges, the cleric follows and then the earth opens up to swallow them both because they didn't spot the pit-trap. Spikes, poison, scorpions or snakes can make the pit even more fun. Suddenly, you have a rogue and a mage under attack from spear-throwing dog-dragon-things and the DM is wishing he had put some oil into the pit so the kobold could just throw a torch in...

Once they survive, they realise that the whole encounter was worth about 5xp each.

[Blade-Bearer_Ian]

Personally, I like Hobgoblins and Gnolls...

[Dhavaer]

I don't think kobolds, hobgoblins or gnolls are especially underrated...
I'm going to put in a vote for gibbering mouthers. Those things are just freaky.

[Altair_the_Vexed]

The PC races make the best monsters.

My players are more scared of the NPCs than they are of any of the dragons and beholders and whatnot.

[John_D]

Hi! I'm new here and was curious about something. Whats your favorite monster that you would consider underrated? For me it would be the chain devil.

Hear hear! I love the kyton and pitting the PCs against one in a room festooned with chains has long been a dream of mine, no matter how much like a video game boss it would seem.

I've always liked rust monsters (insofar as it's possible to like anything that snacks on your equipment) and loved the idea of having a sect of metal-loathing druids use oversized ones as mounts. I thought I was incredibly clever coming up with that idea, but within the next week I heard three other people suggest it, so I guess I'm not that original after all.

What else? I really like the thoqqua, in no small part because the MM describes it as having "a choleric mood and a foul temper". A tiny, angry worm just tickles me for some reason, especially when its primary form of attack is to fling itself at an enemy's face.

Oh, I've just recently gotten the XPH, and I really like half-giants (they're in the monsters section too!). A big, brawny race that isn't as thick as two short planks? Fantastic.

[potatocubed]

I was once in a game where the GM made darkmantles into a horror to be feared.

Personally, I favour gnomes as underrated antagonists - for some reason, if you show players a kobold they go 'Aiee! It must be a kobold with a cunning plan!' but if you show them a gnome they just fall about laughing. That's just asking to be taught a lesson, really. ;)

In terms of more monstery monsters, I like using normal animals, often in combination with awaken, advancement, templates and/or class levels. Way back in the early days of 3.0, I had great fun with a stalking tiger with ranger levels. He tended to pop up whenever the party where in the middle of fighting something else and try to maul whoever was standing at the back. ;D

[OzymandiasVolt]

Hmmmm...

Bulette. ;D

[The_Pyre]

Goblins. The Kobolds have been getting too much love from WotC. ;)

[stainboy]

Thouls.

Anybody else remember those? I believe the last time they appeared was the old D&D Rules Cyclopedia. Part hobgoblin, part ghoul, part troll, all cheese.

I used em in a campaign a couple years back. I had a hobgoblin lord who kept them around as his elite alchemically-treated brainwashed myrmidons.

[Scorpina]

Barghests. They can scare the bejeezus out of PCs if they're just told that they're 'huge demonic dog like creature' rather than a Barghest..

[Dhavaer]

Barghests always confused me. It was like the non-corporeal undead thing. Why didn't they just go around killing and eating commoners to gain HD? Why isn't every barghest in the world epic?

[Leon]

Gelatinous Cube

[Reiver]

Always had a soft spot for Blink Dogs, m'self.

Because they drive PCs insane. especially with readied actions... Heh heh heh.

[John_D]

Barghests always confused me. It was like the non-corporeal undead thing. Why didn't they just go around killing and eating commoners to gain HD? Why isn't every barghest in the world epic?

Because a barghest needs to eat three corpses with an equal or greater number of levels / hit dice than itself to advance. Eating commoners wouldn't do a great deal, no matter how tasty they are.

[reorith]

a bunch of mundane creatures is always cool. applying swarm traits to small or larger things is awesome. think a school of baracudas or sharks. or a mob of people rioting from some a couple of bards' mass suggestion. this isn't seen enough

[Umael]

I don't recall if they were updated into 3rd edition, but rot grubs still freak me out... and I'm not too fond of stirges either (who I know were updated).

My brother introduced me to the idea that rot grubs were really just the larva form of stirges. Hence, the party could be walking along one moment in an old, abandoned tower with wood flooring and they hear the sound like a swarm of giant mosquitoes comes their way... they look up and see a LOT of stirges making a dive run for them... they turn and flees... the wooden floor gives way under them... they fall and there is the clatter of wood and dust and mildew hang in the air, obscuring sight... and then one of the PCs gives a shriek as he sees they've landed in the stirges' nest, full of rot grubs... and one of the has just burrowed into his skin... *shudder*

[bosssmiley]

Ankhegs, gotta love those chitinous baby-eating beetle things when they erupt from the ground and drag the softest, least-armoured party member into a tunnel. 'hegs are especially funny if you use them as the vanguard of a humanoid attack force. ;D

[Sulecrist]

I love gnolls and wights, but they aren't all that underrated.

Salamanders, they're awesome. I'll say Salamanders. Or Urskans.

[Scorpina]

Barghests always confused me. It was like the non-corporeal undead thing. Why didn't they just go around killing and eating commoners to gain HD? Why isn't every barghest in the world epic?

Well, when I'm DMing Barghests tend to be found around loney moores and the like - not really that many people, commoners or otherwise, around to eat - and most humanoids (the only creatures it can use it's feed ability on) hang around in civilized groups with at least a few high level types around to see a barghest off...

[Sacrath]

Bah, gimmie a choker anyday. Besides the coolness of snatching party members into the air with bungie-cord arms and then running down the tunnel with them in tow, they come free with a constant, unmodified from 3.0 (mostly), haste effect.

[RedMage]

gotta say goblins, my players used to think they were week but i learned them eh eh eh

[Magnus_Samma]

Protean Scourges are the best things in the MMIII. The combination of a shape-shifting creature that looks like some kind of demon is just PC paranoia city. Early in my latest game the PCs were meeting up to go on a mission, and another volunteer happens to show up, a simple farm boy who wants to beat on some bad guys with his farming tool. One of the PCs even tried to teach him how to use it better. XD And then, of course, just when everyone's starting to get to like the new NPC- bam, towering demonic creature taking a swing at 'em. The best part is that since he looks like a demon, everyone assumes he is one, and the first thing they do is hit it with a sword... and then they have two to deal with...

[Aaya]

Murlocs ;D

In all seriousness, though, Chaos Beasts have always creeped me out.

The MM pic did nothing to help, either...

[axraelshelm]

Undead that is done well resident evil well. give me mutant undead that has been morthed give me ghosts that sail seven seas, the vampire generals of hong kong movies that feast on chi and the blood of women, give me those that has escaped the grey lands and seek revenge against the living out of jealosy, the ones that can not move on, the ones that can die again.