Official D&D Monsters You're Pretty Sure No One Has Ever Used in Play?

MonsterSlayer · May 31, 2017, 10:56:51 PM

We had a thread similar to this a long time ago and I stated my belief that the Perryton was rediculous and couldn't imagine using it. I was quickly rebuked by the semi-official Perryton fan club that lurks here.

So I will make my answer, "there are none". There are no monsters in any official monster volume for any edition of D&D that have not been used by someone. Someone has used flail snails and flumphs for the funnies of it all, if for no other reason.

And a lot t of the odd monsters such as Vampiric Mist from some of the modules were collected in Creature Crucible making them "official" for this exercise.

Ratman_tf · May 31, 2017, 11:15:01 PM

Catoblepas.

GameDaddy · May 31, 2017, 11:15:17 PM

As a GM, I have never actually used, or played a game, that included a Cyclops or a Juggernaut from 0D&D. Nor have I ran or played in a game that featured a Coatl, Brain Mole, or Thought Eater from Eldritch Wizardry. Masher, haven't used a masher from Blackmoor. That's it from all the 0D&D monsters.

Never used or played in a campaign featuring ...from AD&D
Axebeak
Baluchitherium
Eye of the Deep
Groaning Spirit
Intellect Devourer
Quasit
Strangle Weed

From Fiend Folio:
Blindheim
Booka
Clubnek
Dire Corby
Flail Snail
Gambado
Ogrillon
Pernicon
Protein Polymorph
Sheet Ghoul

There's a bunch of stupid critters I leave out of 3e.

WanderingMonster · May 31, 2017, 11:22:34 PM

How about the Wolf-in-Sheep's-Clothing. It's like a tentacle tree stump monster with a rabbit sitting on the stump. Only the rabbit is part of the monster, a decoy. According to Wikipedia, it first appeared in Expedition to the Barrier Peaks and then later reprinted in Monster Manual II. I didn't know that until just now when I looked it up. Seems like a fairly ridiculous creature that likely never got used outside of the module it initially appeared in.

hedgehobbit · May 31, 2017, 11:53:19 PM

Quote from: Voros;965381I remember playing with Flumphs and blink dogs. Blink dogs are pretty cool actually.

I put blink dogs in the very first dungeons I ever made back in jr. high. Blink dogs and giant ants.

Opaopajr · May 31, 2017, 11:55:49 PM

Quote from: BoxCrayonTales;965665The Peryton from 5e MM? It was originally a joke from a 1950s bestiary book but D&D took the idea and hired artists to make it look terrifying. I think they made it look even sillier. You can make a deer-headed bird look believable with the right anatomy, but never terrifying.

Anyone actually used it? Without laughing?

It's in my 5e RAW Play by Post random encounter table, here on this forum. Never rolled it up (thank god! it's brutal for low PCs). The coolest and perhaps scariest part of it is that its shadow is that of a human. Makes for a spooky shadow flying across on the ground after an eagle cry in a Wild West game.

Natty Bodak · June 01, 2017, 12:04:30 AM

Quote from: Opaopajr;965686It's in my 5e RAW Play by Post random encounter table, here on this forum. Never rolled it up (thank god! it's brutal for low PCs). The coolest and perhaps scariest part of it is that its shadow is that of a human. Makes for a spooky shadow flying across on the ground after an eagle cry in a Wild West game.

Yeah, and to counter what BcT said unthread, the entry was not a joke in the Borges original. I find that if you've been in the presence of a large antlered beast then you will typically adjust your impression of the danger level.

And if it flies and has immunity to normal weapons? Out of all the things that could plague a village, it trumps the demihuman posse hard, in my experience.

Opaopajr · June 01, 2017, 12:10:27 AM

It comes from a long line of classic demonological aesthetics where demonic spirits often materialized as perverse mixes of known animals. So I give an appreciative nod to it recognizing precedent. That and the Jersey Devil description gives credence that some large mutant thingy still has the power to scare.

Christopher Brady · June 01, 2017, 01:25:35 AM

Quote from: Ratman_tf;965680Catoblepas.

Used them. Caused a near TPK with two.

Quote from: Opaopajr;965686It's in my 5e RAW Play by Post random encounter table, here on this forum. Never rolled it up (thank god! it's brutal for low PCs). The coolest and perhaps scariest part of it is that its shadow is that of a human. Makes for a spooky shadow flying across on the ground after an eagle cry in a Wild West game.

Before I put my 5e game on hiatus, I used one of those too.

Voros · June 01, 2017, 05:44:34 AM

Quote from: WanderingMonster;965683How about the Wolf-in-Sheep's-Clothing. It's like a tentacle tree stump monster with a rabbit sitting on the stump. Only the rabbit is part of the monster, a decoy. According to Wikipedia, it first appeared in Expedition to the Barrier Peaks and then later reprinted in Monster Manual II. I didn't know that until just now when I looked it up. Seems like a fairly ridiculous creature that likely never got used outside of the module it initially appeared in.

Dude those things are awesome. You need to play Expedition to the Barrier Peaks.

Spike · June 01, 2017, 05:57:37 AM

Jesus, some of these comments take me back. I absolutely used the Catoblepas and the Peryton... I have fond memories of both, and when I was a wee laddie roping random friends and family members into games I couldn't WAIT to use the Catoblepas... and any flying monster was good to ambush players with... I used them all.

Of course now... more than twenty odd years later I couldn't begin to tell you why I loved the Catoblepas so damn much. Something to do with the artwork, maybe?. I do remember loving the Catoblepas Cheese that appeared in an adventuring catalog a few years later.

Opaopajr · June 01, 2017, 07:09:41 AM

This reminds me to place a catoblepas in one of my fetid forest ponds nearby a now-established enormous boar family (something like 12 adult boar members; I kept rolling max on number appearing they've become their own regional feature). I could use its ugly warthog-head like a dangerous feint to expectations. Perhaps in a deeper, darker part of the forest... nearer the large cannibal toads and scolopendra?

Skarg · June 01, 2017, 01:56:16 PM

I've summoned catoblepas in Dominions...
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It's an actual Ethiopian legend brought to Europe by Pliny the Elder. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catoblepas

RPGPundit · June 03, 2017, 04:21:38 AM

Quote from: Ratman_tf;965680Catoblepas.

I've used it. More than once.

RPGPundit · June 03, 2017, 04:22:26 AM

Quote from: GameDaddy;965681As a GM, I have never actually used, or played a game, that included a Cyclops or a Juggernaut from 0D&D. Nor have I ran or played in a game that featured a Coatl, Brain Mole, or Thought Eater from Eldritch Wizardry. Masher, haven't used a masher from Blackmoor. That's it from all the 0D&D monsters.

Never used or played in a campaign featuring ...from AD&D
Axebeak
Baluchitherium
Eye of the Deep
Groaning Spirit
Intellect Devourer
Quasit
Strangle Weedp

Used all of these.

Quote[/I]
From Fiend Folio:
Blindheim
Booka
Clubnek
Dire Corby
Flail Snail
Gambado
Ogrillon
Pernicon
Protein Polymorph
Sheet Ghoul

There's a bunch of stupid critters I leave out of 3e.

Never used any of these.

Also, never used a Masher.