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My turn now: Chatty’s top 10 D&D monsters

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It started with Noism and then James did it too and it soon became a meme.

Since I purposely ignored anything about A&D 2e’s 20th anniversary, I thought I’d jump on the next echo chamber bandwagon passing through.  So here’s my personal top 10 D&D monster (from all editions) in no particular order.

You’ll see I’m a sucker for the iconics.

troll1) Trolls

I love these guys.  They hit hard, they regenerate and they can rip a character to pieces.  They’re ugly and come in a ton of flavours (I like Ice and Crystal trolls best).  I’m looking forward to trying them in D&D 4e.

2) Kobolds

A fellow blogger surmised that I had a fetish for these dog-faced/mini-dragonmen creeps.  He’s right, I do Love them! I have served them every possible flavour in all editions of the game that I have played.  I love the concept of downtrodden yet crafty humanoids that have mastered the art of trap making.  The American Gladiator-inspired encounter of Kobold Hall in the 4e DMG is exactly what i love about them!

3) The Rust Monster

Before I changed my mind about the whole “it’s cool to destroy PC gear”, I would love to drop a rust monster on PCs for the sheer joy of seeing players scramble out of their way of that bane of everything metal.  One of my favorite evil DM stories revolves around a troll guardian having a rust monster living at the bottom of a covered pit.  You should have seen the face of my friend when his full-plated Dwarven Defender  fell in the pit (because said friend always, always charged into monsters first).

kenku14) Kenku

I mean, ninja/samurai birds?  Where do I sign?  I remembered them from way back when but I got to play some in my last D&D 3.5 campaign.

5) Black Dragon

I like all chromatic dragon, but the black one remains one of my favorite.  I didn’t play one all that often but I’m really inspired by the thought of DMing a swamp lair, a troupe of fanatical lizardfolk and kobolds worshiping a megalomaniac acid breathing death’s head dragon.

6) The Gelatinous Cube

Another of my often used Dirty DM Tricks, my favorite encounter featuring cubes was a combo with a harpy.  PCs would be pulled toward the harpy because of its song and then a Cube would plop down from a ceiling trapdoor on the charmed PCs… what fun! (And what a bastard DM I used to be… I’ve grown soft since).

I can’t say I really like the 4e incarnation of the monster, but I used it once so I’m covered.

7) Umber Hulk

It digs, it confuses people and it looks like a bipedal dung beetle.  What’s not to like?  Put it on a Bulette and you’ve got an unstoppable force, or a trademark! Plus it makes great pictures.

spider8 Monstrous Spiders

Whatever the edition, whatever the type, I absolutely love spiders as monsters.  They are quite possibly the monsters I used the most.  I don’t suffer from any form of arachnophobia (I’m the house’s spider slayer) so I love to sprinkle these critters all over a dungeon.  It’s big, it’s poisonous and it has webs that make PCs lives a nightmare.  In 4e, spiders can be quite hard to kill (when made as brutes) and makes them even more attractive to me.

9) Gibbering Mouther

It makes no sense, it’s a mix of distilled insanity and  nightmares.  It’s only teeth, eyes and acidic drool.  It makes people crazy by gibbering.  I got to try it recently (hint hint) and I would only have liked for it to stick around a bit longer.

10) Wight

I love many of D&D’s undead, but the wight retains a special place in my heart.  While it is no longer the level draining player scarer it once was, the 4e wights ‘steal your healing surges’ ability is a clever mechanic that retain some of the original monster’s flavour while still posing a threat to PCs.  I had the pleasure of playing some in last year’s Drunken D&D game at Gen Con and I loved roleplaying a six-pack of wights all named after beers. True story!

In fact, I loved that creature so much that once had one playing a recurring NPC called Barry…

Rimshot!

What about your list?  Feel free to link to yours if you did it on your own website.gibbering

Images: Wizards of the Coast.  Gibbering Mouther poster from motivated photos.

Comments

  4. Yeesh, I just got ahold of 2ed books to play with my daughter’s Suday afternoon game group. My youngest has taken to reading blogs over my shoulder. He’s been pestering me to DM a 2e game at home.

    Now he’s pestering me to use these monsters in the game he *thinks* I’ve promised.

    At least I’m doing my part to ensure the future of gaming. My kids are hooked. Anybody got a spare 2e Monster Manual?

    Vulcan Stevs last blog post..Day 44 of being a cancer survivor

  5. I forget which D&D 3.X monster manual they were in, but I played some in one of the last Dungeon magazine adventure. That one featured a cult of Pazuzu stealing pearls from a nearby fishing village.

  6. @Stev: Lol! I don’t have any 2e books, sorry. I do have a full set of 1e books, but I keep those for Nostalgia reasons and for filling up on Gygaxian prose.

  7. Count me in! Love your list, Phil. I’d forgotten about Kenku, and Spiders (of any kind) came close to being in mine too. Paring it down to just 10 was tricky.

    Best use of a Gelatinuous Cube: place it in a large square pit, add diving board. Wait for the players to turn up.

    greywulfs last blog post..Top Ten Monsters

  8. I could have guess that list with the exception of the Kenku…

    I also thought that the dracolich was your favourite dragon instead of the black dragon though. I think we never encountered a black dragon in all the year we’ve played together (iirc: 2 whites, 1 blue, 1 green, 1 red and 2 dracolichs).

  9. This list is not in order of preference. And there’s some entries which are not ”real monsters”, but they are in my heart nevertheless.

    1. Werewolf: Normal form to monster form. Always fun to scare a player.

    2. Vampire: I played Ravenloft back in the days, Vampires were THE thing I was scared the most as a player.

    3. Zombie: They are the first creature of the night I discovered when I was young. Listening quietly to ”Dawn of the dead” in my aunt living room at the young age of 6 years old… When my mother entered the room to take me home (they were both talking in the kitchen), she was like ”AAARRRRRRRRRRHHHHGGG!!!! WHAT ARE YOU WATCHING????” I was plagued with nightmares since. Even today I’m still dreaming of zombies.

    4. Goblin: They’re the first enemy I fought in my first game of D&D DMed by my best friend older brother. I was only 7 years old. There was also a giant bee but its not the same thing… hehe

    5. All types of Giants: I’m facinated by them.

    6. Orc: Tolkien did a great job with them in his books. When I think of an army of Orcs, I always have goosebumps.

    7. Wolf: I got bitten 3 times by 3 different dogs when I was young (Damn newspaper run). Wolf let me exorcise those experiences by traumatising my PCs.

    8. White Dragon: They are the less intelligent Dragon there is, but I love them for that.

    9. Evil (any race) fighter: An evil fighter is always a frighting sight in my mind. Because you know he specs to kill. And you’re his target.

    10. A sibbling: For those who read my campaigns log in the forum. You will eventually find what a monster a sibbling can become. That player would wish I gave him the plague instead… hehe

  10. @Greywulf: Why does your example remind me of the original Pink Panther movies?

    @Yan: Yeah, the Dragon was a fence case. In terms of Dragon fights, nothing beats the Green dragon you guys fought in the Crater Ridge Mines of Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil. The first “true” Dragon I DMed was a black one (Onyx) in the Dragonlance Chronicles I played when I was 13. It left a mark… 🙂

    The Purple Worm, the Ogre Mage (Microwave edition) and the Mind Flayer were also not far down the list.

    @D_List: Yup we do remember all the monsters we fought when we were younger… Imagine what’s going to happen to Vulcan_Stev’s son when his father prepares the game he’s been asking for… 🙂

  12. Yes, seriously 2e. That’s the system that my daughter’s gaming group has been playing. I was invited to join. I’ve been frantically trying to find as many 2e source books as possible.

    The few books that I had were vicitims of the “It’s the Devil’s Game” scare of the late 80’s.

    If anyone has a spare 23 MOnster manual lying around, I’m interested.

    Vulcan Stevs last blog post..Day 44 of being a cancer survivor

  13. Great list, Phil! I’ve got mine ready to go tomorrow–looks like we have a little crossover. 🙂

    @Greywulf: You went with Air Shark, I’m going with Landshark (Bulette). Either way, Sharks in water are bad enough. In any other element, it just gets worse. 🙂

    Zacharys last blog post..Weird Notes From Old Campaigns

  14. Sorry Stev, I don’t have a Monstrous Compendium on hand… maybe you could scrounge a PDF one.

    @Zach: Looking forward to seeing your list friend… I must say that I have a soft spot for Rich Burlew’s Acid Shark!

  16. @jeffx: I was so happy to actually get to DM one for the first time at Gen Con’s 120 player Drow extravaganza! That was such a great finish for a great game (D&D 3,X)

  17. I ran a terrasque and I killed a terrasque, The one I ran was a clumsy plot device. The one I killed was an exercise in applied overkill that the dm decided couldn’t fail to kill the wee beasty. (It involved some artifact level work with a staff of power’s final strike ability from the inside of said terrasque. That character died in the campaign, but more than one gm in my group has used him (I failed the 50% planar displacement roll for the retubutive strike, but several of us decided that he didn’t)

    Michael Phillipss last blog post..words words words

  18. This is an awesome top ten list, descriptions are great, the picutres/illustrations are even better. You can post this to our site http://www.toptentopten.com/ and then link back to your site. We are looking for content and in return our users will track back to your site. The coolest feature is you can let other people vote on the rankings of your list.

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