Veeky Forums, I require your great minds for some brainstorming.
For a while I've been wanting to put together a sort of bestiary as a pet project. I'm a (mediocre) artist and I think it'd be a really fun way to practice. So, can we have a thread for monsters? Whether from actual myths, favorite made up fantasy monsters, monsters you've invented yourself, anything that might look good in a bestiary. You're welcome to dump pictures, write descriptions, tell stories about stuff that happened in your games, we can consider it a general inspiration thread.
For my own goals, I'm going to be aiming to emulate a style evocative of pic related, written in a quasi scholarly way. Once I get the project off the ground I'll be sure to report back.
I have a few. I tend to only save something if it's unusual (I'm afraid that I rarely get a thrill from a pic of a minotaur or goblin, since I've been playing fantasy games for 20 years or so).
Mason Myers
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Ryan Martinez
One of my favorites that really stuck with me is the giant spider who's camouflage is that of a city beggar or stabbing victim. There is a picture of it floating around somewhere but I didn't save it when I saw it.
Also love the project and it is one that I have thought of doing myself as well, really adds something to the world.
David Moore
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Anthony Barnes
mankind was the real monsters all along
Joshua Smith
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Connor Gutierrez
Bump.
Xavier Clark
is that thing a fourth leg or a dick?
Justin Peterson
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Jackson Bell
For some reason an idea that keeps sticking in my head lately is the "balloon frog". It would be an exaggeration of how frogs will swell themselves up with air to intimidate predators. The younger ones would be able to float that way, get from pond to pond when migrating or something. But as they aged they'd get huge, adopt a more sedentary lifestyle, but be able to use their now enormous throat sacks to exhale gale force winds to defend themselves with.
Brandon Davis
Use your imagination.
Joshua Kelly
Radon Elementals.
Ethan Hill
I got you.
Tyler Peterson
Many thanks kind wanderer
Robert Perez
One useful thing for you might be running through different subspecies throughout the world. Not just an entry for Dragons but also for Celestial or Aquatic species
Or maybe some different entries for Mountainous vs Plains Minotaurs
Lucas Cooper
Capelobo >Means "broken bone wolf" >big, strong claws to crack your skull >anteater head that slurps your brain out of it >or it cuts your throat and sucks your blood >round hooves that difficult tracking >it also eats recently born cats and dogs >can only be killed if you shoot his bellybutton >some xingu indians from Brazil could become one
I also like this idea of doing variants of certain species, it could be an interesting approach compared to the usual grab bag of monsters.
William Murphy
My favorite one I made was a frog with large porous holes on its back. The holes emitted an odor that was dependent on its diet. Naturally, the frogs eat a myriad of disgusting things to emit a vile and toxic smell to ward away predators, but people have found that you can feed these frogs various other things to make much sweeter smells.
lots of people own them as pets, and crush up flowers to mix in with the frogs diet to make their homes smell nicer.
David Gutierrez
Shafter: Tall and thin, they look as though they were made from wheat shafts.
Resistant to piercing and bludgeoning damage, vulnerable to ice, extra vulnerable to slashing and fire
Landon Robinson
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Gavin Ortiz
Anything is a dildo if you are brave enough
Carson Williams
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Nathan Young
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Ryan Harris
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William Thomas
>a herd of these creatures is lead by a matriarch >the mother phooka