As the title says.
What monsters from the vast d&d back-catalog do you want to see in print at some point?
If you're really eager, maybe you can even have a bash at presenting your version in this thread!
Oh, I've got quite the list, though I bet I'll forget a bunch:
Barghest. It just seems like a classical monster to me and one I've not used yet.
Archons, Guardinal, Eladrin and Rilmani. I've got some ideas to make celestials useful. Besides, all the other primary alignment outsiders are presented, even Modrons and Yugloths, who I don't think have graced the pages of a MM1 before.
Frogemoth. Utterly ridiculous, utterly D&D. Besides, I have a use for it.
Spellweaver. I think this is one of the more interesting monster from the muster of obscure 3rd edition beasties. Four armed aliens with unique spellcasting and an obscure agenda. Useful.
Cadver Collector. A fun and evocative construct. A must have in Eberron, but good for every campaign with use for a construct carrying impaled corpses on its back. So all of them.
Elder Brain. I don't have to explain this one, do I? Would make an awesome legendary encounter.
Neogi. Planewalking slaver spiderbug things with a fondness for Umber Hulks. Old ones bloat and go insane as little ones breed in them. How can this be wrong?
Leucrotta. Another one that feels like an classic to me. Often forgotten and ignored, but I find them more interesting than displacer beasts.
4e style archons. Basically soldier elementals. Very useful fodder, fit in almost everywhere. Please rename, though.
Howler. As things stand now, Pandemonium has no unique inhabitants. Not surprising, considering Howlers are pretty much all it ever got. Besides, they are fun beasties.
Gereleth/Demondands. See Howler, but replace Pandemonium with Carceri. Also, a rather unique string of fiends.
Girallon. Four armed apes. Great for random encounters.
Marut. Creatures of law specifically out to punish those that seek to cheat death. Good Monster, good hook.
Dark Naga. Because I prefer spellcasting Eelsnakes to spellcasting Peoplesnakes.
Ixitxachitl. Extra Evil spellcasting Manta Rays. Also, vampiric.
Meenlock. Creepy, creepy, creepy. Lots of potential. Did I mention creepy?
Mooncalf. Got tentakles and bat wings, also, from the dark side of the moon. When other abberrations have become stale.
Yak Folk. I'm usually not a fan of adding even more anthropomorphic animal people and there is very little they can do, that Ogre Mages or Rakshasa couldn't. Thing is, Ogre Mages and Rakshasa are way awesome and by extension are Yak Folk. Also have some nice unique shticks (in one case sticks), being control of genies, use of staves and body melding.
Cave Fisher. Classic dungeon and underdark dweller. Gimme.
Giant Crayfish. I really expected this when I read all those giant animal entries. I think this might make it the only ToEE monster not in the Monster Manual.
Huecuva. A monster with a great hook. One of the few things to tackle heresy and blasphemy by priests in D&D.
Worm that Walks. When you want a Lich, but creepier.
Ulgustasta. Gigantic Nekromantic Maggot. Let me just repeat that. Gigantic Necromantic Maggot. It is a two-for-one "holy shit!" and "what the fuck?".
Last, but defenitely not least, stat up those archfiends. None of this "demon lords shouldn't be killable for precious story reasons" crap, and not this third edition "Buy our unusable epic level supportbook or never even dream of using this unwieldable huge statblock" crap either. Give me some good stable rules I can actualy use at high level.
I won't get into conversion until I have some experience adjusting statblocks and creating stuff from scratch. I suppose that will be way after the DMG release.
Inevitables, there's something about them that cries out to be used in a planar campaign of some kind, probably slot into the celestials side of things though so hopefully we get them at some point down the line when we get a planar handbook.
I tend to create/reskin my own one-off weirdies, but here's my "nice to have" list:
Aberrations- foulspawn, plus rules for mutation/degeneration
- the other "gibbering" creatures - gibbering orbs, etc. (though honestly you could just bump a gibbering mouther to a bigger size/HD and call it a day)
Beasts- giant slug, ideally with "love darts" and radula scrape in addition to acid spit
Constructs- automata/robots (everything from the early-playtest steampunk version to Kirby/saucer-tech ala Planet Algol or Carcosa)
Fey- annis hag (though honestly you could just bump a green hag to Large size and call it a day)
Humanoids- Get licensing rights to properties that are out of print (e.g., Zothique), easily acquired (e.g., Dying Earth), and/or written by sympathetic authors (e.g., Bas-Lag), then publish races and monsters from those settings. "A deodand, an anophelius, and a Formless Spawn of Tsathoggua go into a bar..."
Monstrosities- Second the leucrotta and froghemoth votes above.
- CIFAL, because I want something I can reskin as an alchemical nanoswarm
Oozes- some (semi-)sentient ones, including shoggoths and the much-neglected slithering tracker
Plants- yellow musk creeper, or just get the Zothique license and get your black lotus-y Garden of Adompha on
Undead- devourer
- mohrg
- nightshade/walker/etc.
- spawn of Kyuss
The stuff on my 'needed monsters' list for the setting I am working on.
Humanoids- Abiel
- Aldani
- Ghostwise Halflings
- Koalinth
- Rakasta
- Shadar-Kai
- Thanoi
- Thouls
- Xvarts
- Yak Folk
Aberrations- Monastic Flumphs (These are really just Flumphs with Cleric spells, should be easy)
- Scorpionfolk
Beasts- Dire Mammoth (Mastodon)
- Dire Rhino (brontotherium)
- Giant Beetles
- Giant Dragonflies
- Giant Leeches
- Giant Sea Anemones
- Giant Sea Slugs
- Giant Slugs
- Giant Snapping Turtles
Constructs- Autognomes
- Bone Golems
- Crystal Golems
- Ice Golems
ElementalsFeyFiendsGiants- Scrags
- Forest Giants
- Mountain Giants
- Sand Giants
Undead- Apparitions
- Boneclaws
- Crypt Things
- Bullywug Ghouls
- Gnoll Zombies
- Zombie Apes
Flail snail!
Ok, maybe not. But I would like to see some of the classics from some of the more popular AD&D adventures show up, like the aspis drones, cave fishers, gremlins, tasloi (sp), etc.
Boneclaws, Cave Fishers, lots more Dinosaurs*, Gem Dragons, Elder Brains, Ixitxachitl, Quicklings
*I want at least the rest of the stock classics: Apatosaurus or Brachiosaurus, Parasaurolophus or another hadrosaur, Stegosaurus, and Velociraptor or Deinonychus (I think the Allosaur stats look more like they were meant to be Utahraptor, though, so it'd be easy to scale it down for other raptors.)
Only one I was really hoping for were Thouls
I don't know what monsters are missing but what I'd like to see, someday, is a version with alternate illustrations... all Zak S. and Scrap Princess and Logan Knight and etc. All in glorious black & white on non-glossy paper. Call it the 'lo-fi edition'.
The current illustrations are very well done but don't inspire me much... most of them look a too cute, too colorful... unambiguous, like villains on a Saturday morning cartoon.
The monsters from A Princess of Mars (The novel itself is public domain).
You know what I want to see? How Pathfinder did to chain devil. Instead of making it a devil of torment it became monster breed of a entire new group of monsters. Seriously you get to see the other chain monsters in third beastiary and it does go full Hellraiser with all its cenobite goodness.
I want to see something like that done to some of the missing monsters for 5th edition DnD.
I'd like to see meenlocks, penanggala, derro, and witherlings.
Speaking of Mieville, wasn't there an issue of Dragon that did writeups for Grindylow, Slake Moths, et al? That's fertile ground.
Barghest
Blaspheme
Catoblepas
Direhelm
Doomsept
Draegloth
Dragon (Mercury, Steel)
Froghemoth
Ghaele
Golem (Alchemical, Bone, Mud)
Hydra (Pyro)
Necromental (template)
Nightshade (Crawler, Flyer, Walker)
Nymph
Phaerimm
Pooka
Quickling
Rakasta
Shade (template)
Sharn
Skin Kite
Spectral Panther
Sylph
Unicorn (Black)
Venus Flytrap
Veserab
Are there Red Caps in 5e? If not, them.
(Faerie seem underutilized in a lot of D&D)
Quote from: Will;788370Are there Red Caps in 5e? If not, them.
(Faerie seem underutilized in a lot of D&D)
I second this. D&D was perfectly suited for the vile little bastards, and yet you never really saw them in the game. I wrote up stats for them way back in the 80s for my D&D game.
Faerie make great enemies because they have weird formulaic elements, and even the good ones are potential enemies.
Red Caps -- at least one source has them having to keep their cap moist with the blood of victims or they die.
That just writes itself.