30 Day Challenge - The Monsters

I always intended to combine some of the favorite monster posts. They are kind of repetitive so putting them together made sense from the outset. It is, therefore, just happy coincidence that combining all of them into one post will, mostly, get me current with the 30 day challenge.

Favorite Undead?

The original ghoul, a perfect blend of scary as hell to face and always beatable by even a low level party. Love them.

Favorite Aberration?

This is a category I've always dipped into sparingly. A bit of weird and exotic spice to mix in with the humanoids and dungeon vermin. My favorite is the Aboleth and his minions but the lead is slight.

Favorite Animal/Vermin?

I'm going to answer this as a two-parter. I like bears because they are big, scary and random in their actions in real life and they have always made for interesting encounters in my experience. As serious threats but not automatically belligerent my players tend to be divided in their preferred approach making for some fun gaming sessions. 

My favorite vermin is the creepy and scary Carrion Crawler. Climbs walls, move quietly, paralyses you with nasty poison tentacles, whats not to love?

Favorite Immortal/Outsider?

First, I hate the term outsider but then I'm not really a fan of the great wheel cosmology from AD&D and I despise the iterations that came later for Planescape and the abortion that was the 3.x Manual of the Planes. 

Rant aside, give me the Balor/Balrog/Type VI demon. I like demons in general but the professor was right on with the being of shadow and flame. 

Favorite Elemental/Plant?

Another twofer, I'm going to call this a tie between the Salamander and the Treant (since I'm not publishing this I call fair use on Prof. Tolkien's copyright). Classics of myth and literature both and scary in battle.

Favorite Humanoid et al?

Excluding the playable races since they were covered in a previous challenge day, I will go with Ogres. Like the ghoul they have a good balance of scary through many levels of play and yet beatable by a low level party. They are a walking gut check and encourager of non-combat solutions.

Favorite Dragon?

I've used them all, but tip of the blog pen to the Red Dragon. Nothing says classic dragon like breathing fire.

Favorite Monster Overall?

Far and away with no real competition, Humans. Smart, unpredictable and capable of the most brutal acts imaginable. Nothing inspires fear like a high level human opponent.

If you lasted this far thanks for reading the omnibus monster post. Tomorrow I will start down the home stretch of the challenge. Ta for now.