30 DODND Day 21: Favourite Dragon Colour/Type

          

  That would be the Dracolich.  First you have dragons.  Then you have bigger dragons.  These are tougher, older and scarier.  Elder dragons are about the most pants-wetting things to appear for any party.  I talked about the Godforged Colossus last week, but quite frankly, it hardly inspires the same level of fear as it isn’t as well known.  So when you take an elder dragon, and bind its soul to a phylactery, suddenly life becomes much, much more terrifying.

There’s one in Hordes of the Underdark, the excellent expansion to the original Neverwinter Nights, and it is an incredible challenge.  Not only is it incredibly tough, immune to all undead immunities, like critical hits and sneak attacks, and in possession of a few spells, this particular dracolich has a special ability.  You fight it in a room with several dragon corpses.  When you finally bring the massive creature down, the phylactery immediately transfers the soul from the corpse, or something, and the dracolich GETS BACK UP!  You have to fight it three or four times!

So yeah, you can keep your adorable little metallic or coloured dragons.  I'll go with the one that won't die every time.

30 DODND Day 20: Favourite Monster (Humanoid/Natural/Fey)

[Insert obligatory joke about how these are clearly the same annoying creatures which cause you to dance irresistibly, like my friend Otto]

           

          A room full of Pixies is my choice for today, to round out this week of favourite monsters.  Pixies can do next to no damage (in 3.5 its 1d4-2), but my GOODNESS they can screw a party over so hard.  Greater invisibility plus damage reduction 10/cold iron makes them nearly impossible to kill, even with only 1d6 hp.  Entangle as a spell and arrows of Sleep and Memory Loss make for a vicious combination.  They will almost never kill a party, but after half an hour of confusion and chaos, any player will be reduced nearly to tears.

            Nasty creatures.  Which is why they’re so much fun to play!  Also, letting the party get tangled up and messed around by a group of pixies for a little while is a great prelude to unleashing an Owlbear on them.  Muahahahahaa.

30 DODND Day 19: Favourite Monster (Elemental/Plant)

Remember these guys from Heroes IV?  Water Elementals were more useful, but these guys packed a hell of a punch!

          

  I’ve always been partial to water as an element, but Earth Elementals have always proven my solid favourite.  Hah, I totally didn’t mean to do that!

The ability of Earth Elementals to walk through stone makes them incredible castle defenders (or attackers!  Why aren’t there more Earth Elemental assassins?), and they present such a tough challenge that they always make a good encounter.  I want to look through the 4^th edition Monster Manuals II and III, because they’ve introduced a variety of mixed elementals.  For now though, I prefer Earth Elementals over any of the other.  Fire are just a little too common, and Air are too…. wishy-washy.  Water Elementals are good, but you really need a body of water around to make them a really interesting challenge.  Earth Elementals are almost always in their natural element, and with a pair of Bullettes the party will find themselves attacked from below with terrifying force.

I had a player once who was terrified of things attacking from below… shame Earth Elementals weren’t available then.

30 DODND Day 18: Favourite Monster (Immortal/Outsider)

         

            The Godforged Colossus

            4^th edition Monster Manual page 44.  Look it up.

           

            If you are within 5 squares of the Godforged Colossus at the start of your turn, you take 20 psychic damage.  This immortal construct is a BEAST!  Ok, he’s a Level 29 encounter, but my goodness it is so sexy.  I have never fought one, but I really really want to.  I want to see if a high-level party would be amused, challenged, or thrashed by this monster of a monster.  Its abilities mean that it can dominate in close combat, and Voice of the Demiurge can handle all ranged attacks.

Just read it.  And weep.  Ok, the Tarrasque is tougher, but you could have SEVERAL Godforged Colossi in a single encounter.  Terrifying.

30 DODND Day 17: Favourite Monster (Animal/Vermin)

The party first suspected that something was wrong when they realized that the innkeeper was hiring 4 trained warriors to deal with his "little pest control" problem...

            Well this just has to be the common rat.  The staple diet of every 1^st level adventurer and always a slightly bigger challenge than they expect.  They form the main enemy in the first level of Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance, and countless other adventures.

            Rats swarm all over the sewers and breed themselves faster than a horny tribble.  And they have to.  They breed infinitely because without them, 1^st level adventurers would have to try and fight other monsters, and they would inevitably lose.  With adventurers appearing as fast as we can write up character sheets, we need those endless rat supplies.

            Rats of the many RPG worlds, I salute you.  Your noble sacrifice has brought so many up and coming heroes to that vital second level, marking their first step on the road to glory.  I salute you.

30 Days of DND Day 16: Favourite Monster (Abberation)

No, not that one.

            True, they are more commonly seen as a player race, but even then they’re hardly ever seen, largely due to the broken nature of Psionics.  However, my favourite aberration has to be the Elan, a mysterious race of near-immortal humanoids, not born but made in secret ceremonies known to none.  They are humans which have been imbued with psionic energy which means that their bodies are largely sustained by the power of their minds, which means they can live almost indefinitely, can sustain themselves on psionic energy, and can fortify their bodies in the same way.  This race from the Expanded Psionics Handbook is great to play, as they have all the appearances of being human, but can have hundreds of years of experience to draw upon.

            I have never seen them used as a monster, but I really think they should be.  They are almost indistinguishable from humans, as that’s what they were once, but an Elan that looks 21 can really be over 400, and this creates great potential for intrigue.  On top of all of this, Elans are abberations.  This means that Charm/Dominate Person, Hold Person, etc. will not work on them, which could be a great surprise for the party if you happen to have an enchanter around.

30 DODND Day 15: Favourite Monster (Undead)

            

          3.5 edition had some great supplementary books.  There were loads of them.  One of the most interesting books though, was the Book of Vile Darkness, containing the rules for all things evil – cursed items, poisons, and truly evil organizations and monsters.  Actually, in fairness it was a 3^rd edition supplement, but whatever.  In the monster section there was a new template for undead which I felt made for far more interesting undead encounters than the standard skeleton/zombie combination: the Bone template.

            The Bone template (if I remember which one it was, I may have the name wrong) was the way to create skeletons and zombies which were more potent than an animated pile of dead parts.  A Bone skeleton had been infused with its old soul, and while still under the control of the necromancer, retained its skills and abilities of its previous life.  At last, there are skeleton mages, skeleton rogues, and skeleton druids.  I never got the opportunity to use them in a campaign, and I no longer have the book, but they suddenly mean that an undead encounter can involve things the party would never expect.  A quick and nimble skeletal assassin which leaves no trace of blood or flesh because there are none to leave; a barbarian zombie which uses flails made of corpses; a powerful lich with a cabal of skeletal mages to support it; all these things are now possible.  Bone undead make by far the most interesting challenge for any party, and I wish they were used more often.