Assuming D&D (or similar High Fantasy) as a baseline, what are your top 100 monsters that must appear in a bestiary?

I'm doing a whole series! Welcome to the Sci Fi version: What do you think should be the aliens in a "classic" SF game as playable races?



By classic I mean something along the lines of Traveller, Star Frontiers, Alternity, Star Trek, Babylon 5 style SF. Not super hard like many technothrillers , or far end space fantasy like Star Wars

Any D&D campaign I run must at some point include a Dragon (and, less connected to this thread, it must at some point include a dungeon).

top 100 seems like a pretty long list.  My MUST HAVEs isn't that long.

Goblinoids (orcs, bugbears, gnolls, etc)
ogre
owlbear
demons
devils
dragons
rocs
giants
basilisk
iconic undead
griffon
manticore
sphinx
oozes/slimes
lycanthropes
minotaur
medusa
giant animal versions (snake, spider, wolf, etc)

Kobolds
Gnolls
Wererats
Lizard Men
Skeletons
Clay Golems
Minotaurs
Classic AD&D Orcs
Spectres
Mummies
Ghouls
Wemics
Bullywugs
Shambling Mounds
Owlbear
Rust Monster
Displacer Beast
Giant Spiders
Intellect Devourer

etc.

Penisaurus.

Quote from: Old Geezer;725427Penisaurus.

Distant relatives to the C-snakes.:eek:

100 is probably more than I need.  But basically, any 100 monsters from the AD&D 1e Monster Manual.

RPGPundit

Humans are by far the most useful.  With various types, light foot, heavy foot, archer, knight, etc.

Id be tempted to favour one body of myth specifically to give the game a unified feel. Maybe not exclusively, including specific mainstays (dragons, hydras, griffons, lycanthropes, etc), but keeping to a running theme (fairfolk , Germanic myth, Celtic myth, etc). If a game is meant to be generic high-fantasy this still maintains that Pseudo-European feel that D&D plays upon, but enriches the game's flavour.

Id also stay away from any D&D specific creatures that, regardless of origin, are now highly identified with D&D.

Either was, however, my favourite monster is the Scottish Nuckelavee, a horrifying beast I first encountered not-quite-shown in Froud and Lee's Faeries as a kid. A skinless waterhorse with the likewise skinned torso of a man jutting up the middle of its back, the head bloated and lolling from side to side, and the arms extending ridiculously long in front of the Horse to grab victims and drag them into nearby water to do who knows what to them.