What Is Your Favourite Dungeon Dwelling Monster?
September 10, 2015 by brennon
We're all really getting into dungeon crawling and role-playing again here at Beasts of War and with that in mind we thought we'd ask you folks in the community what YOUR favourite Dungeons & Dragons, Pathfinder or indeed any other fantasy dungeon dwelling creature is. To get things started here are some of the selections from the crew here...
Chimera
Dawn: "My favourite D&D monster is the Chimera. What's more frightening than dealing with a single monster? Dealing with one with three monstrous traits - a triple threat! And it looks AWESOME."
Gelatinous Cube
Warren: "At first I thought this monster had to be a joke. But, this wibbly wobbly horror has completely stole my adventuring heart. It has probably a better 'reason for existence' than almost any of our other dungeon dwelling devils. A perfectly evolved dungeon cleaning ecosystem.
The spine tingles when you hear "this part of the dungeon is unusually clean" - best get the **** out of there!"
Beholder
Gianna: "My favourite monster to face is the Beholder. Every really good dark dungeon had one of these floating nightmares in it. It's such a mean and nasty monster that had so many variable attacks. It always proved a challenge for our party to defeat it."
Darkmantle
Sam: "In Dungeons & Dragons, even the stalactites are out to get you! This is quite possibly the strangest creature ever conceived as it is one that has perfectly adapted to living off unfortunate dungeon delvers.
Essentially a big squid, the Darkmantle disguises itself as a stalactite, then drops on your head and tries to strangle you with its tentacles. I think it will take more than protective headgear to deal with that."
Mindflayer
Justin: "You can never escape from these fiendish brain-sucking foes. Deep down there in the Underdark they not only want to control your mind but also then eat it for dinner!"
Skeletons
Romain: "I don't really have a favourite D&D monster, because variety is the spice of life in scenarios. However, I do love the many variations of skeletons one can have. Simple, reanimating, monstrous, giant, armoured, flaming, Lich, smart, spectral, zombie-like or fast, naga. Cannon fodder? Possibly, but they can also be the main event.
There's one for every level, they have special properties to surprise PCs with, and you can always have more of them if need be. Oh, and they're immune to piercing damage. Use skeletons and your players will never look at a pile of bones the same way again! Once, I had my players encounter a skeleton chicken, which was an experiment in a necromancer's lab.
It gleefully pecked at them until it was easily crushed, but it surprised the hell out of them! Same thing about the guardian skeletons that kept on reanimating until reduced to powder, or until the PCs replaced the relic they were keeping. The creep factor is high, and the possibilities endless!"
Rock Troll
Lloyd: "I love all things covered in rock and troll and/or golem like. I suppose it gives me two different things to work on if I was looking at it from a modeling point of view. Tough skin and plenty of sharp rocks too.
This carries over into other games like Hordes with their Trollbloods and the awesome Mountain King."
Red Dragons
Ben: "It might sound like a little bit of a cop out but if there's one iconic D&D monster that you can't do without, it's a Red Dragon. They are high level creatures, a real challenge for a group of adventures, have a dangerous attitude to go along with their deadly attacks.
It also helps that the artwork for Red Dragons has always been wonderful. If I had to pick a 'type' of monster like Romain then I would have to go with Dragons as a whole. Such a compelling creature with plenty of possibility surrounding them when it comes to adventuring."
What Would You Face?
So there you have it. There are a few of our favourite monsters that you mind find useful to pop into your own campaigns. It is very fun to dive through role-playing Monster Manuals looking at all the possibilities and as someone who is currently doing just that for my own home campaign I can tell you it's fun to come up with interesting beasts to put up against your friends.
Now we turn it over to you...
What Are Your Favourite Monsters?
Drop us a comment below and we'll talk about some of the fantastical beasts we've experienced! Maybe you'll see a type of creature you've never heard of before.
Get chatting!
"What's more frightening than dealing with a single monster? Dealing with one with three monstrous traits - a triple threat!"
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"Essentially a big squid, the Darkmantle disguises itself as a stalactite, then drops on your head and tries to strangle you with its tentacles..."
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The doppleganger is my favorite. Because sometimes you just have to assume that your friend’s goody two-shoes paladin has been deviously replaced by a fiendish doppleganger, and so without warning you run your longsword through him. Turns out he wasn’t a doppleganger after all? Oh well, you can never be too careful!
It has to be the rust monster, because it thinks that is a super powerful sword you have there looks super tasty!
I think the first monster I ever came across was the mighty Kobold when I started playing a few decades ago and I still like them to this day. Needless to say it was a short encounter that ended up with me having a couple of coins and the cheapest sword imaginable for loot. Later though when we ran into a large group of angry ones and being confident in our prowess based on our earlier experience we waded in. The problem is numbers make a difference and your back will always be to someone so after taking some serious… Read more »
Why has there been no mention of the dreaded Grue? When you face the Grue you die. Instantly. Dead before you even know it.
“Dead before you even know it” – That would be why then, no one lives to talk about it 🙂
Ohh look it’s a ******* g…
I do love the Hydra, lots of heads, and lots of Deaths 😉
My favourite monster is without a doubt, The Killer Rabbit of Caerbannog!
How about the dreaded Gazebo? ;p
Haven’t played enough RPGs (unfortunately) to really have developed a favourite, but from having read the 4th ed D&D monster manual, I’d say Gelatenous Cubes, Beholders and Mind Flayers would probably be contenders for being so iconic.
Also, thinking about it, special mention should go to the flumphs solely for their reccuring appearances in Order of the Stick. 🙂
Adventurers….
Also, the Owlbear. It’s a bear with the head of… wait for it… an owl!
Have you hugged an owlbear?
Have you felt its beak and its fur feathered arms, rip your body in two. Everybody sing!
Gotta love an Ettin. So much fun can be had with a pretty stupid monster that can argue with itself!
my fav are all kind of golems animated rock monsters, ice or wood. all of them.
What is worse, the Dung Golem the DM had intended to throw at the party or the “Dong Golem” that got used instead? He thought to disgust us and thanks to poor spelling succeded beyond his wildest dreams!
PS I think Kingdom Death did a mini for this creature!
I’m guessing you were playing one of the Warhammer RPGs and it was supposed to be a Nurgle dungeon but ended up being a Slaaneshi one instead? O.o
Tendriculous or tarrasque. Not sure which.
Nick Clegg…
Not as dangerous as the Ian Duncan Smith?
The Level 1 potted plant
Or goblins. I’ve always liked lower powered campaigns, and hordes of goblins become something to run from.
Mindflayer.
The Minotaur, for sure!
The beholder for me I think even try and get you in doom.
There’s no monster I fear more than the dreaded Flumph!!
Hydra, that was a tough one, but my party beat it.
My favorite dungeon dwelling monster probably has to be the aboleth. All the fun of having an army of thralls that veteran players think is a mind flayer combined with all the excitement of having to fight an aquatic creature underground preferably on a rickety raft. Even players with decades of experience with go what @#$% is it!
A mammoth, obviously. No dungeon is complete without one.
I must say the other day I played with some friends and Orcs are my fav monster. Simple first level monster that becomes much more a threat when you have a gang of them as well as some of the specialist Orcs in with them. Now with that said, I have come to dread natural terrain challenges the party must face. Yes it’s not a monster but boy do we get a beating from it. The last session had us cross a rope bridge and if we rolled a 1 that player crossing fell to their death. Sad to say… Read more »
The ever misunderstood Drow, closely followed by the ever taking Rust Monster. Oh the memories of Drow chasing you down a tunnel only to stop as you round a bend and come face to face with a Rust Monster.
the fun of the MIMIC just for a player eating treasure chest!! also not a monster but a looked door can bring any DnD player to equal parts excitement and fear.
Yes mimics are great 🙂
Oh look a treasure chest! ooh I wonder what’s inside….errrm you go open it halfing 😛
The Rust Monster or the Mimic. The rust monster as it can really ruin a low level party’s day once it removes some swords and armour.
The mimic, especially if it disguises itself as a treasure chest. Greedy adventurers soon learn to be more careful.
I reckon it will have to be the beholder.