Show me common monsters in your world?

Show me common monsters in your world?

The Crows Nest dragonet is a common sight all along the dragon empire coasts. They are basically draconic seagulls in temperament, behavior, and range.

>Naol-crab
The naol-crab is common everywhere, specially around the northern part of Caelineia, much to the displeasure of the anglo-elves, who see long nails as a beautiful asset. It resembles a crab, but is actually closer to spiders. It has eight legs and two chelicerae on the shape of fine and sharp pincers, which it uses to feed on fingernails. Its shell can come in many colours, but the most common are black, brown, red, green, blue and yellow. They are the size of a human hand.
Due to its unusual feeding habits, it "hunts" for fingernails while its prey is asleep, so most of them are nocturnal. They nimbly crawl inside houses at the same time as their inhabitants and wait under furniture until they are sleeping.
Their cheliceraen are so sharp many people like to use them as arrow-heads.

Second from the left with meat and skin over it is the most common.

Nice teenage edgelord setting loser

If your setting has humans as a new race and the predominant race are elves or dwarves, that makes sense.

>Stone Crab
A distant offshoot of their aquatic cousins, stone crabs are a common sight in subterranean caverns and mountain passes alike. The unimaginative name comes from their rock-hard shells and the craggy accretions of minerals that fuse to them over their deceptively long lifetimes - depending on the local geological makeup, it's not uncommon for mature specimens to have protective layers that feature ore samples or crystalline formations. Some philosophers claim that these deposits play a role in the creatures' mating rituals and that the accumulation of such material is actually intentional. The fact that their salivary excretions are acidic enough to eat through many types of stone despite the creatures' carnivorous diet seems to support this theory. Stone crabs feed primarily on cave fish and small reptiles or mammals, rarely paying much attention to larger creatures unless actively provoked - their craggy shell, vitriolic ducts and natural camouflage mean that few other beasts can reliably call them prey. They are, however, naturally inquisitive creatures and many a mountain traveler has woken at night to find a rocky crustacean rifling through their belongings, attracted by food or possibly precious stones. Stone crabs are tiny when born, about the size of a thumbnail, but vary greatly in their upper limit depending on their environs - from about as large as a human hand up to comparable with a large dog.

>Yama monkey
A peculiar species of monkey that dwells on the Heaven and Earth's Embrace mountain range. They have golden, white, silver or brown fur and are little more than half the size of a human.
They have learnt many things observing sentient races, mainly humans. They regularly patrol their territories at the mountains' feet using scavenged equipment from corpses killed by monsters or by themselves. Many accounts of spear-wielding monkeys that assault people passing on roads between their territories exist. Some of them even know short phrases with meaning, such as "We want all your goods" or "Leave this place".
Unbeknownst to most, they are absolutely crazy about edible and allucinogen mushrooms and will trade almost anything they possess if you bring one on your pocket or purse.

The most common monsters in my world are beetles, which make up 25% of all known monster species.

I call them Spanners. They're these tiny elemental creatures made of earth and metal, and they're very good at adapting to their environments. They're about the size of a housecat at the lower end, though they're quite clever, known for getting into places they really shouldn't and figuring out how to open locks and doors. They're also fairly social creatures, and they're more than willing to team up and work together to solve complex problems.

This is made more dangerous by the fact that spanners can not only grow larger over time, but are also highly capable of shape-shifting their bodies around to form rudimentary tools.

Fortunately, they aren't outright hostile, but the fact that they're so damn curious about everything means they often become a problem for people. They're known to collect and consume a wide variety of objects, either as trinkets, energy, or material to repair themselves.

I see them as being a mix of gremlins and crows with an inorganic makeup.

She is kinda common, but don't call your mother a monster

IF a setting has humans as new race and features elves and dwarves, the elves would be truly the most common monsters, regardless their numbers, lad.

What can I say, I like to be a tough DM to my players.

FILTHY HUMANS

OH WAIT, I THOUGHT YOU SAID PESTS

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>Steam snake
Little reptiles common everywhere, even on cold environments. They are white and short, almost 20-25cm long and are plumper than most snakes their size. Their scales are of a pure white colour, their eyes are red or brown and the inside of their mouths is grey.
As their name implies, the steam snakes can emit hot steam from many tiny pores throughout their bodies, which has various uses for themselves and for other animals or sentient beings. The steam can be released at varying temperatures and quantities. Often, the steam snake makes short and quick puffs to alert their would-be predators. They can easily boil water to kill surrounding fish in order to ease their search for food. They also use hot steam to melt snow and dig holes to make wells or temporary shelter.
Humans living in colder regions oftem use them to cook food. The steam snake happily helps whoever brings it live small game, such as rats or frogs.

Desert Furies
Setting is heavily Middle Eastern. Kind of like daemonettes, women with mouths like new Mileena and sharpened bone forming blades that grow on their forearms and the fronts and backs of their shins. They wear no clothing and adorn themselves only in jewelry, from armbands to nipple tassels. They are nomadic in nature, following the great sandstorms that sweep across the deserts, ambushing any who may be unfortunate enough to get caught in them. They leap through the storm, striking as they hurl themselves through the air. Furies constantly shriek in combat, louder than the howling gales of the sandstorms they hide in.
Being created by demons, they are demonic in nature, but not truly demons. As they age, they grow more scorpion-like features, from their arms mutating into pincers, a hard black chitin developing over their bodies, to even growing scorpion tails. The are perfectly adapted to fighting in sandstorms and move twice as fast within, easily leaping 60 feet and cleaving a foe with their blades before they land and dart off again back into the sands.
>massive caravan of 120 people traveling to the city of Hah'Zim
>full of armed and well-trained guards as well as the adventuring party
>accompanied by a priest(necromancer) under service of the Pharaoh
>2 fuckhuge elephants, 2 fuckhuge 8 wheeler wagons pulled by teams of oxen
>sandstorm hits, everyone dons their masks and such
>trudging through the gale of sand
>people start hearing a feint noise in the distance, similar to the storm but different enough to stand out
>it gets louder
>and louder
>a guard steps out several paces after catching a glimpse of a vague shadow in the sands
>then another
>and several more dancing and darting in every direction around them, circling the caravan
>suddenly one of the furies hurdles out of the sandy winds, shrieking like a banshee
>leaps right past the guard who stands there frozen
>his head slowly slides off his neck and he collapses
>players roll initiative

>Death World

When an entire inhabited planet is destroyed by some cataclysmic event, its shards drifting in space eventually turn into vicious undead creatures known as a Death Worlds. As time goes by, these shards slowly assume a spherical shape and turn into miniature planets. Oceans of toxic sludge appear of their surfaces, and their continents assume the macabre shape of a grinning skull. Once the transformation is complete, a Death World embarks on its universe-spanning crusade against all forms of life. They travel the space on the lookout for inhabited planets. What happens next depends on the size of a Death World. The largest of them use their gravity to destabilise their target and make it fall apart. Those smaller make a landfall and use their necromantic abilities to create devastating undead hordes.

Death Worlds collect space debris and turn it into weaponised satellites. Most of them attack with combat moons, which they smash into their enemies like a heavy mace. Some prefer to accumulate rings and use them as a buzzsaw that can saw even through the hardest materials. When left with no satellites to attack with, they can resort to shooting directed gravity beams at their foes or even simply ramming them.

It's possible to shrink yourself down to a size small enough to actually land onto a Death World. Anyone brazen enough to go through with it would discover an entire planet populated solely by skeletons organized into bizarre undead ecosystems that appear to be a cruel mockery of life. Everything on a Death World is toxic, from the water to the atmosphere, and anyone who dies there quickly rises up as a skeleton. Unfortunately, it can only be destroyed by landing on it and sanctifying its core, as a Death World destroyed in any other way would simply reform.

these two are really fucking neat. props

>Granite Lions

Lion like creatures that have an elemental affinity to Earth. As cubs they form a sticky like substance from their bodies and will roll around in dirt and gravel often made from their parents smashing rocks with their paws.

As they grow older the sticky substance coats and creates layers of dirt that begin to bond to their skin creating rock like plates of flesh giving them their signature name. In rare cases, having been exposed to rare metals and minerals can alter the composition of a Grante Lion's body with the rarest in existence being the Marble Lion where it was able to roll in crushed marble as a cub and grew to immense size

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Uh, no, sorry, I don't dare enter your magical realm.

Came here to post that.

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>Avidya Tree

A carnivourous tree that has somehow awakened to psychic powers. It uses it's pollen to create an illusion trapping those who have inhaled it in a sort of psychic maze that has a creature moving in circles within close proximity of the tree while also inspiring emotions of panic.

By doing this it causes the affected creature to panic until it eventually dies of exhaustion and exposure where it will then drag the body to it's roots and devour the body over time.

Guides make sure to watch for warn down paths and the lack of animals/insects around a given area for tell tale signs of an Avidya's presence.

Gorecrows. They're just regular crows, but they can sense hostilities. People will keep gorecrow pets on their persons to alert themselves of danger, flocks gather at the on-set of a battle and their appearance pretty much end all negotiations, and they often follow around powerful warriors in anticipation of regular meals.

idk if all of these are the same user or not but i just wanna tell you/you guys that you're good at coming up with neat things and i'd play with you

All mine, except the stone crab. Oh, I feel SO loved right now. Here, have another.

>Eagle butterfly
A predatorial species of butterfly adapted to hunt bigger animals. They are dark blue with orange markings on the wings and have bright green/blue eyes. Their wings are peculiar, for they have an aerodynamic shape. Many people don't think of them as insects because it seems they have only four legs. In fact, two of their legs, the hindmost ones, are modified and function more like a third pair of wings, which they use to regulate speed and do almost impossible midair maneuvers.
Each of their legs has a sharp claw to rip the skin of their prey and to anchor themselves to wood, stone and other surfaces. Their proboscis is not as long as it should be, but it has many little spikes, giving it a long saw appearance. They always attack on packs of 5 to 20, depending on their target and communicate through pheromones.
They are common everywhere except on colder climates. People residing near the eagle butterflies' territory often leave carrion or live prey so they don't attack them.

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Also, the eagle butterflies' length is something like 50cm with a wingspan of 90cm to 1m.

And another

>Land squid
A species of squid that is completely adapted to life outside of the water. Their natural colour is a soft purple or pink, but they can camouflage according to their surroundings. Excluding the tentacles, which are 40cm long, they are 30-35cm long. Their "heads", that are actually their bodies, are disproportionately thick to house organs AND lungs, which is their greatest evolutionary achievement.
Each of their muscular arms possess short, slightly curved spikes so they can easily move along the ground or climb various places, such as trees. Their two tentacles have two finger-like appendages, allowing them to better manipulate items or hold things. They have slim shells covering most of their bodies to prevent dehydration.
They can spit sticky ink to prodigious lenghts for various uses, such as blinding predators/prey or to hinder the flight of birds and bugs. To attack larger prey, they wait atop trees and such and when a suitable target passes below, they drop down and try to choke them, continuously seeping ink.
Its ink is known to be appreciated as a sauce for meat, soup and vegetables.

Darkmantle, basicly a fusion of a bat and a octopus, lurking in caves, waiting, to headfuck adventurers. I have heard, they are quite annoying in Groups, maybe I use them in the next session.

Reminds me of pic related, which now makes me want to adapt more of the creatures to a fantasy setting. Toratons, Megasquid, Ocean Phantoms, Lurkfish, Snowstallers, Shagrats, Carakillers and Deathgleaners would all be cool monsters to encounter in the wilds, maybe a new world type continent with various biomes.

>I feel SO loved right now
Then how about some criticism: your creatures feel much more suited for a book than they're for a campaign, where their lore basically wouldn't come into play.

Adapted animals are a neat source for unique/peculiar creatures. When I'm all out of ideas, I like to think of a concept, such as digging, and an animal, like an eel. Then, the rest of the thinking revolves around those two things and it can result on nice creatures.
Your pic related is relly great, as well. I always encourage my friends (who also write some RPG material) to do this exercise.
Modification by another beings is also neat, such as in Man After Man and All Tomorrows. When you specifically use and adapt/modify humans, it creates a kind of uneasiness. And I kinda like the feeling.

>People residing near the eagle butterflies' territory often leave carrion or live prey so they don't attack them.
This one makes no sense to me. If they're rich enough that they can afford to leave meat uneaten, how are they not rich enough to exterminate these animals?

Do you not ever make Knowledge rolls or describe the appearance of monsters in your campaigns?

When fighting a crab? No, I don't.

I think it depends on the tone of the campaign and the experience (in-character) of the party. I have played a short campaign (about two months, weekly) where everyone was basically survivors of a ransacked farm town trying to sneak into a dungeon to get an artifact that will summon a ghost army to help free their enslaved townsfolk, and the DM didnt use any exact nouns the first time we encountered something -- just descriptions of what we were meeting/fighting -- so everyone was rolling knowledge checks to try to find out what we were seeing. I've also of course played the bigger games as veteran players and veteran characters who realistically know at least by reputation the basic gist of nearby monster/demihuman species and therefore knowledge checks and flowery descriptions of beasts were kept to a bare minimum.

Not that user, but while i agree you usually dont need a whole ecosystem charted and planned out, I think theres pretty easy ways to work most of those ideas in. Plotting ecology lets you come up with reactions to the PCs doing things, so that their actions have consequences felt later on.

Obviously a regular animal on its own wont make much of a plot, but a swarm of those butterflies plaguing a settlement could serve as an interesting and unique hook. A swarm of killer butterflies? Never seen that done outside of cartoons. Maybe the party killed a roc or other large bird that preyed on them, and now the ecosystem is unchecked.

Meanwhile, a knowledge check in a cold area could save the PCs by having them find and tame a few steam snakes to keep them warm and cook food. Opens up a bunch of posibilities for an adventure in tundra or mountain areas.

Think like this:
Leave some food for them or you get killed.

I didn't even write it, but I recently checked my notes and they say the eagle butterflies territories constantly change according to the seasons. In the summer, it's one place, autumn, another and so on. Sorry.

It's a post-zombie apocalypse setting, what can I say?

Though they're seen mostly as pests than legitimate threats at this point and any adventurer that dies to a regular old zombie is considered a joke. It's the undead non-humanoids that are the bigger threat.

And yes, post-zombies are a thing in the setting. Why risk making deliveries when you can just capture a zombie, load it with mail etc. and magically command it to go to where you need the stuff to be delivered to. It's not like they're going to get attacked by other zombies on the way.

>small, weak and above all resilient

hang on a second

I'm not sure what kind setting that is if the most common encounter is a fucking evil planet

Stealing all this shit, it's great

>Toughness is Strength and Size

hoo boy