Monsters I Will Use Until I Die (Pt. 2)

Okay readers, I'm just going to dive right in and get to the fun monster mash!  I will only preface this with the statement that next week I will be posting my top three favorite monsters.  Then we will be going into the Bestiary series of monsters from the Pathfinder series.

Ogre

Ogres...man, where to begin.  Big, brutish and completely stupid; Ogres are great fun.  They work really well as either a big boss for the next monster, or as the brute force for higher level monsters.  And adding undead templates to them can get you even more fun with these monsters.

Orc

 Oh the Orc.  Now I know I said I wasn't going to use low level monsters, but damn it orcs are just too awesome.  At low levels, you can use them sparingly for flavor.  And at higher levels, you can add character levels and templates to make them even more powerful and dangerous.  Plus, I'm a huge Tolkien fan and I will always love to have Orcs as base baddies.

Otyugh

 These things are just garbage disposals with teeth and legs.  And I love that about them.  I really enjoy that in the manual they mention that towns will purposefully put these things in sewers to act as waste disposal and keep the tunnels clear.  These are one of my favorite things to throw into dungeons because they will always have a place to belong because everything poops and these things eat poop.  Which is gross, but also makes them easy to use. 

Owlbear

 Owlbears are great monsters.  They are just powerful beasts that work great as monsters.  Plus, the thought of a bear coming at you with a giant beak to tear into my soft, player character flesh.  I actually prefer this picture over the one in the Pathfinder Bestiary, because look at his eyes.  Those are the eyes of a soulless killing machine.  That's all he wants to do; find you and kill you.  And eat your succulent player character flesh.

Purple Worm

 Heh...heh heh...hah hah hah...mwahahahahahahahahahahaha!  I love these things.  I've been waiting to use them against my party for a while now and soon...soon my pretties.  They are giant machines of death and I love it.  They burst out of the ground and try to eat one party member, then go back underground and try it again.  Just the sheer size of these things is impressive and fun. 

Rakshasas

 Okay, I know, I know.  I did pour a lot of hatred out towards manimals earlier in the other reviews, but come on!  Rakshasas are just bad ass.  Seriously, evil masterminds, cunning plotters, and powerful spell-casters.  They are just a bundle of awesome that keep giving.  They can disguise themselves as humans, which also helps the misdirect.  And that is part of my favorite thing about these guys.  You can throw them into a campaign and unless the party kills it or fully investigates things, they may never know that they just fought a Rakshasa.  If any of my players are reading this, here is a secret.  You've gone up against a Rakshasa a couple of times.  Same one both times too.

Slaad

 Oh Slaad.  Oh I enjoy these things for no reason other then the abilities of the Blue and Red Slaad.  These are one of the bigger disappointments of the transition to Pathfinder is licensed monsters like the Mindflayer, Beholder and these guys haven't shown up yet in the Bestiaries.

But back to the Slaad!  Blue Slaad bite you and if you fail the save, you turn into a Red Slaad.  If a Red Slaad hits you with a claw attack, it injects you with an egg that will burst out of you as a Blue Slaad.  It is a self-sustaining and self-creating army.  Plus, anything that injects and bursts out is fun as well.

"Hey, don't steal our shtick!"

Sphinx

 I enjoy putting Sphinxes in because I really enjoy monsters that can be defeated without combat.  I love riddles and puzzles and putting these monsters in a dungeon as inscrutable guardians of ancient knowledge that requires your players to really think to get out alive or get out with the information you need. 

Troll

 This is another one of those monsters that are great brutes.  Plus the regeneration helps put them a step up on ogres, but putting them together is even more fun.  I have a memory of someone using a troll that ripped its own arm off and beat us with it.  I just enjoy the thought that they are super rubbery, evil monsters that don't care what you do to them cause they can always just heal it back up.

Vampire

 Vampires are horror monsters.  Plain and simple, they are undead monsters that drink the blood of the living to sustain their evil unlife.  I enjoy the vampire because as a template, it has versatility.  You can attach it to a brute monster and just use it as the more feral and monstrous vampire.  Conversely, you can attach it to a normally frailer or weaker creature or even PC race and get a more cunning and devious enemy who will use minions and plans to try to defeat the party.

Wraith

 I really love Wraiths.  And again, I like this picture more then the one in Pathfinder mostly because this is how I always picture a wraith.  In Pathfinder, they look like monsters with features and claws.  I prefer the thought of a loose gathering of robes that float and ethereally attack you.  Seems more creepy that way.  And man these things are awesome monsters.  They work well as a boss monster or a lesser servant monster.

Alright folks, that is it for today.  Next week we will look at my top three favorite monsters that I will always use at least once in my campaigns.