Monsters you just never know what to do with

TheHistorian · April 11, 2013, 06:46:46 PM

Quote from: daniel_ream;644184I don't really have the OP's problem per se, because any time I run a D&D-like campaign the first thing I do is page through the Monster Manuals and select at most a double handful of monsters that will show up in the campaign. Given that, just about any monster will work if placed in context with other monsters with a similar theme or some common element.

I think this is particularly good advice. It's not so much coming up with an interesting use for a reasonable selection of monsters, but of feeling that you have to use ALL the available monsters, and that is ecosystem defying. We have many different species on earth; most of them live nowhere near you.

jibbajibba · April 11, 2013, 10:47:59 PM

Quote from: TheHistorian;645073I think this is particularly good advice. It's not so much coming up with an interesting use for a reasonable selection of monsters, but of feeling that you have to use ALL the available monsters, and that is ecosystem defying. We have many different species on earth; most of them live nowhere near you.

I would go one step futher.
Just make up your own monsters. Really I haven't opened a monster manual for years.
I see a movie and think hey that dragon was cool and just stat it up.
Most of my monsters are humans If I have monsters I want them to be pretty unique (ie they might be unique or there may be a small population of them).
In my last game the monsters were a big tentacled sea monster that lived in an underground cave, brass and crystal golems that came in Humanoid 7 feet tall, and hound, 3 feet tall 6 feet long.
Seemed to work perfectly well.

talysman · April 11, 2013, 11:50:51 PM

Quote from: Mistwell;644190What I mean is, we could just never find a good reason to justify why this smart, powerful creature would be lurking around in a smelly old dungeon with trolls and such. Nor could I see them getting away with, say, manipulating an entire village without the villagers just fleeing. I suppose that later scenario has some potential though, a beholder as the power behind the throne, or behind the head of a gang, or something like that.

They hover and they shoot rays out of their eyes. Run them like the Martians from War of the Worlds. Or daleks.

RPGPundit · April 13, 2013, 10:57:25 AM

Weren't beholders as originally conceived of an artificial race created by really super-powerful wizards to guard super-important treasure?? Like, what happens when you're too high level and you're guarding stuff too important to be handled by living statues or gargoyles?

RPGPundit

talysman · April 13, 2013, 12:01:35 PM

Quote from: RPGPundit;645537Weren't beholders as originally conceived of an artificial race created by really super-powerful wizards to guard super-important treasure?? Like, what happens when you're too high level and you're guarding stuff too important to be handled by living statues or gargoyles?

There's nothing in Greyhawk that suggests that, although there's not much in Greyhawk that suggests anything about their origin, intent, or personality, other than "These monsters are avaricious. They are neutral in nature, although they tend to be chaotic."

What you may be thinking of is the later AD&D monster called the Spectator (I think.) It's not artificial, but it's summoned to act as a guardian for treasure. It's so devoted to that task that, as long as no one tries to take the treasure, it really doesn't care what else people do and will chat with passers-by.

RPGPundit · April 14, 2013, 05:28:50 PM

I don't have my RPG books onhand right now, but I believe this was in the description of Beholders in either the 1e MM or in the Rules Cyclopedia (probably copied from one of the BECMI books).

RPGPundit

LibraryLass · April 14, 2013, 11:24:36 PM

Quote from: RPGPundit;645851I don't have my RPG books onhand right now, but I believe this was in the description of Beholders in either the 1e MM or in the Rules Cyclopedia (probably copied from one of the BECMI books).

RPGPundit

Companion set, originally. I believe I recall it from the RC also.

RPGPundit · April 16, 2013, 02:30:29 AM

Quote from: LibraryLass;645976Companion set, originally. I believe I recall it from the RC also.

Ah hah! Thank you! I knew I hadn't just dreamed this up out of nowhere.

Exploderwizard · April 16, 2013, 10:03:20 AM

This has never really come up as a problem because I have never felt compelled to use a particular monster just because stats exist for it.

The monster manuals have always been akin to a salad bar of creatures.

RPGPundit · April 17, 2013, 03:04:56 AM

Quote from: Exploderwizard;646354This has never really come up as a problem because I have never felt compelled to use a particular monster just because stats exist for it.

The monster manuals have always been akin to a salad bar of creatures.

I think its that way for most people. Its just that there are certain monsters that are considered D&D "Classics" and its those (or rather, the few of those that are sometimes complicated to put cohesively into a campaign) that we're talking about here.

RPGPundit