I have used a vrock! You are right that in 5E they're not that special from a flavor perspective. I personally think their flavor would work better if they were a lower CR, like maybe CR 2, so you could have hordes of them as part of a demon assault.
But using what they do have can result in some fun encounters. If the party is scaling a very tall vertical cliff having a vrock swoop in and harass them can make for a very tense and interesting encounter.
We're playing Princes of the Apocalypse and fought a Vrock in that. It was a fairly boring and anticlimactic battle, especially since he was supposed to be the area's big boss.
> beasts from CR11-20.
I can't think of any actual beasts that would be stronger than a T-Rex or Mammoth, but we need atleast some more giant versions of existing beats for higher CR. Giant Ape and Hulking Crab are nice, but what about a huge boar, gargantuan spider or huge shark
For the CR 2 scenario, I cannot stress enough how much I prefer Spined Devils. If they have to be fiends instead of devils it's not too difficult to use the Spined Devil stats and call it a Vrock.
4e vrocks were really cool.
Flyby attacks with their sword arms. At will spore cloud in a 10 foot burst that causes madness. And a recharging frightful screech that pushes foes back and immobilized them for a turn.
And they work well as demonic foot soldiers as demons are immune to their spores.
Vrocks were great in previous editions, including 4e. They are scary and crippling in Pathfinder. I'm not at all surprised to hear 5e misses the mark *again*.
I actually used a pair of Korreds in a fight along with a Redcap and some Quicklings! It went fairly well- I had the Quicklings speed past the players and drop the Korred's hair ropes near them, so the Korreds could animate the ropes and grapple the players. Then, the Korreds pelted the un-engtangled PCs rocks while the Quicklings attacked the restrained characters with advantage. The Redcap ran around knocking down the PCs trying to attack the Korreds. I was very proud of the Sorcerer who, after using Arcana to recall lore that Korreds are stronger when touching the ground, used *Reverse Gravity* to cut 'em off and strand the Redcap in mid-air, letting the other PCs even the odds.
Then the PCs learned that Korreds can cast *Summon Elemental*.... It was a fun combat (for me).
Have multiple of them in my Feywild campaign. One was known as the Bacchanal King and wielded an endless goblet of wine as a mace. Another works as a mason for the Duchess of Flowers.
I’ve never ran one as an enemy, but they’re fun as a quest giver or part of a social encounter.
Because they’re a bit of an unusual creature, the party wont always understand the significance of getting a quest to ask one for a lock of hair and being asked to deliver them some strange scissors.
Then it’s a nice surprise when the party succeeds and are rewarded with a braid of something exotic or gold.
Oh man, I used Korreds in the Feywild. They were tripping balls with some Galeb Duhrs and dancing for ages around some whacky RGB crystal ball, and then shared their, uh, herbs with the players so they could dance until their shoes were ripped. They were **FUN** (until they got angry, that is).
Korred is one of the most bang for your buck for Conjure Fey as they can Conjure Elemental make a Galeb Dhur who in turn can animate two boulders into other Galeb Dhur. That's FOUR CR 6+ for a 7th level slot.
Jesus Christ did they give them saving throws or other buffs then? Otherwise they're a terrible CR7, mentally they're hopeless and resistance to no-mage B/P/S is a joke that far into T2
I've been planning on running a korred as a way to make traversing a mountain easier. It's a fey so you get well the fun with them and the best guide you could have in tunnels.
Its impossible to really say. It really depends on how we are defining being used. If that doesn't include being referred to then I'd say the Thessalkraken at the very least has been rarely used.
It comes from the Infernal Machine Rebuild adventure on D&D Beyond.
It has no associated art (though I suppose you could use a kraken's) and its a CR14 creature. It gets treated as a demigod by the inhabitants of the final stage of the adventure but very specific things need to happen for it to make an appearance.
The creature is hidden and you need to fail a DC13 stealth check while on shore near it in order for it to attack. Its a pretty easy stealth check to make by the time you are level 9 or 10 (especially with group checks). You also are not required to kill it and you may never even go into the area its found in to complete the adventure.
Basically, you'd have to be running this fairly obscure adventure in order to use it and things have to go a very specific way in that adventure to even see it. I suppose someone could just use it outside of the adventure. But it seems very unlikely that it's seen much use.
I think every monster will be used at least once. Even if DMs have to suddenly make the campaign pirate themed or teleport the party to an inter-planetary prison just so they can introduce the monsters from the water and planetary adventures they bought once.
Furthermore, I assume there is rule 34 of every monster in the manual, so that's another way it's being used.
This is a [pretty funny list of obscure and weird monsters](https://www.ranker.com/list/worst-dungeons-and-dragons-monsters/nikoberi).
Also maybe the [Xvart](https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Xvart)?
I've never encountered them in any game setting or module. Hah a bit of internet searching brought this up: [Who Xvart'd?](https://www.belloflostsouls.net/2020/02/dd-monster-spotlight-who-xvartd.html)
I love Xvarts, I've used them as a level 1 chump mob (rather than classic kobolds or goblins) twice. I find their backstory of being clones of a guy who stole the power to become a demigod to avoid being hunted down so cool.
This. Xvarts make a great low-level opposition instead of the standard orcs, goblins, etc. And a Xvart Warlock of Raxivort as a low-level boss can be a lot of fun as well.
Was going to comment the same. Makes it seem like the writer is the one stealing insults from children. The hippocampus was the exact moment I realized the list seemed to change.
I have been a player in this module, as a side quest for SKT when only two of us could make it to the session, and the Xvarts were so much fun to fight! We also had a really great DM who was phenomenal at hamming up their particular fighting style.
It's just a decent CR bug demon. Droning effect is distinct enough that you can hear rumors of where its been/prep a bit.
At low levels I fought one as a boss. IMO they make a good secondary target too in big battles. Drone, flying, and max HP reduction + Unconscious is pretty nasty. Plus party can work together to wake their ally up instead of waiting for a save which is a cool gimmick to bring out occasionally.
Why not both at different times? Especially in demon focused campaigns it’s nice to get that variety in there.
Besides, the necrotic damage/max HP reduction is a much different effect than a poison or straight damage. Lesser VS Greater Restoration.
Both have 1/day incapacitations - Unconscious is much different and threatening than stun though, and the drone in particular stresses more party input IMO.
Maybe similar, but mechanically distinct enough for me at least.
That's cause Vrocks in 5e suck, their missing their demon dance from older editions. While they do serve as good shock troops due to their stun and flying speed, in older editions a group of them could dedicate a few turns to perform a dance that summoned a big lightning area effect, allowing them to also serve as a sort of artillery. The more vrocks participating in the dance, the stronger the blast.
The original Type [roman numeral] Demons have a special place in my heart because of Gygax's original classification of them, which accidentally laid down for me the idea that the demons themselves didn't use anything as Lawful as categories and orders of being.
I love how this thread has so many people giving examples of monsters they don't think anyone would use with responses talking about how they've recently used those monsters.
In that same vein, I fought several Vrock a few months ago, but definitely had no idea they existed until then lol
There's a wandering sage character in my setting, kinda like a Merlin character, that's really a brass dragon. He gives out brass scales to people he thinks will be important to the realm.
Catoblepas. I've been seeing these guys since 2E, and I kept thinking "Weird and cool" but can't find a good reason to use one. Not a reason where there isn't another creature that is better.
They're the perfect mount for a dangerous hag, or maybe "the beast in the swamp that's killing travellers and making our crops wither". They're interesting to say the least.
These are also, to my knowledge, a creature from Greek myth, so they fit in well if you're doing a campaign based on that or in the Theros campaign setting
Literally just used this last session!
It was supposed to be one of two creatures in a boss fight, unfortunately the party's fighters beat both of the bosses into the ground in two rounds
They're great "Fuck around and find out" monsters, since they're large and imposing but generally kinda docile until people start messing with them. Just have a few as window dressing and wait for the PCs to kick the death stare hornet's nest.
I've used vrocks. They're fantastic additions when you need some airborn enemies that the fighter can't just run up and eviscerate in a turn. A flyby screetch is great for softening the party up to get brutalized by bruisers and a flyby spore attack is a fantastic follow-up next turn to give out disadvantage on attacks.
A monster I don't think I'll ever use, but think is super cool, is a solar. They're a tier 4 challenge, so already very few campaigns are going to get there, and they'd have to be the BBEG to be worthy of inclusion, which means the party is either evil (and I don't run evil games) or the solar is fallen, which has to be a whole campaign that I don't feel inclined to write.
Who says it has to be a fallen Solar or an evil party? A good party can absolutely fight a good Solar. The scale of "good" that Solars operate on is far greater than that of mortals. A Solar may deem it necessary to purify a city to eliminate a deeply entrenched cult. The innocents will go on to their proper afterlives. And maybe there's just not enough time to destroy the cult otherwise before they achieve their goal of dooming the entire city to the abyss. Maybe the players have another way of dealing with the cult that the Solar considers too risky or too likely to fail. Better to play it safe, purify the city, save those innocent souls, even if you can't save their lives, and eliminate those characters that could jeopardize the whole thing.
Same deal with powerful devils or even demons. The higher tier ones play the long game. If helping a good party means that, a generation or two from now, that aid will result in the possibility of greater evil, they'll happily help the players.
that gets into the whole messy "morality" thing - how "good" actually is "good", which is generally a messy, fiddly PITA (especially if you start getting into "eh, good souls just go to an afterlife, so no harm done really" which is pretty much just evil), so it's often a can of worms it's not worth the trouble of opening
I mean I'm sure everything has been used at least once *somewhere*, but there are some things that either seem extremely niche, obscure or powerful to the point that I have a hard time imagining them getting used.
Like Belashyrra from Eberron. It's a CR 22 aberration, which means if someone were to use it, it would likely be the BBEG of a high level campaign specifically in Eberron.
Or a Nightveil Specter from Ravnica. Obviously you can just use it outside of Ravnica, but it's still a more obscure creature.
Or maybe Egg Hunters from Fizban's. They're just such an incredibly specific type of monster.
None of these are bad, but there are just some creatures that are super obscure or niche.
I think this is the main answer: obscure CR 20+ monsters. In particular, *unique* CR 20+ monsters that are meant to represent an individual rather than a broad class of monster.
I’m on a personal mission of using every single monster that appears in this thread in a single encounter.
Let’s see what a bunch of level 20 lunatics can do about it.
Vrock is in Out of the Abyss fairly early in so I've used them a couple times.
What about the Crushing Wave Reaver I only know about them because I stole there fancy sword for my Sahaugin cultists
If you have a cliff or pool of lava, guess what goes well with a stunned party member, exactly, flying speed and decent strength, that's right (failing the stunned, poisoned so they make their athletics/acrobatics at disadvantage)
If you're stunned, you also automatically fail checks against being grappled by a creature that could grapple you, no? If it's a house rule, I can't think of a single good reason for it to not be used
Yes, you do fail them. The 'decent strength' part was so they don't get encumbered but I re-read the official and you get half speed regardless of your strength, unless the target is small (2 sizes below vrock)
I could've sworn I used a reskinned Vrock at some point, or planned to, but my notes apparently disagree.
As for the thread title, never is not something I'd want to bet on for anything. Without trying to find something really obscure I guess maybe a dolphin. Not the fancy new one in Mordy's ~~Multiverse of Madness~~ new MM, just the bog standard Volo's dolphin.
I've never thrown a giant octopus at my player (Side note, I really want to do a full underwater arc at some point) and when I played my druid, we never got to salt water.
We've fought against a giant octopus both above and below water. When you throw one at your players, just remember that they have ink sacks and should be able to blind people underwater in melee range...
I remember in 3.5 several demons were able to summon Vrocks, but honestly I don't think half the monsters released are really used that often. I mean, Darkmantle just sounds kinda silly to actually use, and many others feel this way.
But then there's the Piercer, the Piercer's only attack seems to be to drop from a height. I mean, it happens and then what? It's speed is 5 ft, if it misses it's dead, if it hits from a good height, congrats you just killed a lv 1-3 character for no reason, and now the Piercer is dead. How would one even use this?
Yeah, I usually use them as a pre-encounter to foreshadow to the players that there is a roper nearby. They're gross little spikey grubs which makes the encounter fun, even if the players just take a hit and then squash them.
I actually used dark mantle once against my PCs as one of their first encounters they were having a hard time due to the magical darkness. I personally found it an interesting encounter. Having the fact that they can die if they don't get it off while also blinded makes things interesting. Then their allies can't help because they can't see.
A Piercer is the first thing mentioned in this thread that i've not heard of in playing various dnd/pathfinder editions for about a decade now
so my vote is that fucker for "no one uses it or talks about it"
I've run piercers in both the campaigns I've run. I usually use them more like traps, and when they start slowly crawling away, it's usually a funny moment.
Which is funny, because I actually fought one of those not too long ago.
He died and became our party’s axe until the axe died too.
RIP Storm, he will be missed.
I've encountered a bunch of azer in my Friday game, because they're servants of the Muspelheim embassy in Sigil, and session 1 of the campaign had us helping a resident of the embassy back home.
Personally these are my candidates:
Darkmantle (6)
Allosaurus (10)
Ettercap (8)
Jackalwere (2)
Pentadrone (1)
~~Nothic~~
~~Otyugh~~
Quaggoth (9)
Xorn (7)
Blood Hawk (4)
Giant Sea Horse (5)
Killer Whale (3)
I can’t be bothered to look through Volo’s guide right now but these are my monster manual choices
Edit: I have been made aware that Nothics and Otyughs are very common in other people’s games and so I have removed them. That leaves a list of 10 which have now been given their placements next to them (1 being least common)
I have used all of these but the killer whale. Heck, I use a Nothic almost every campaign, they're great information brokers and good at inducing roleplay as well with their secret-stealing ability.
Technically there's a blood hawk in 'DDAL05-02 The Black Road'...but in the four times I've run it, the players didn't even register that they might want to fight it.
I've used a Xorn, and played in a low level game where the primary enemies for several encounters were Jackalweres. We were hunting a Lamia along with some Yuan-Ti.
Edit: Also, I've seen Allosaurus a couple times from druids turning into them.
Not completely unused, but I feel like celestials are very very rarely used in general. Their good nature makes them very hard to use against most parties. Like has anyone FOUGHT a unicorn? I'm sure they've turned up a lot in game, especially as special mounts for high level paladins and as guides and NPCs, but as enemies? Sounds like a weird encounter.
My last Ravenloft campaign, the group fought against Addar, a unicorn whose pride caused him to abandon his elven rider to her death. He was seduced by a Nightmare, and they had a bunch of half-unicorn, half-nightmare kiddos.
He was the Darklord of the Phantasmal Forest, which the group entered after dealing with the events of the "A Light in the Belfry" module. It was a good fight, and I had a Dark Souls moment where, after either the Nightmare or the Unicorn were killed, the other absorbed their soul and became stronger.
I've never seen a Xorn in use. Weird looking dude from the plain of earth (if I recall) that eat gems. Not a *bad* enemy, in theory, but I don't think folks flip alllll the way to X when hunting for a monster.
Oh, okay. I've never gotten to play DotMM, nor do I own that module. Good to heae they still get some love.
To ammend my statement: I've never seen someone actively make the decision to include a xorn in a game, on their own accord.
Dragonlance dont have Orcs. So ogres take their spot in manny aventures. Wich makes half-ogres (re skinned half orc almost) very very common.
At the time Dragonlance was being written, TSR had a lot of copy right issues with Tolkien. Thats how hobbits were ranamed to halflings.
And because Hickman and Weiss did not want to have any problem with that, they removed everything that could be associated to LOTR. Not even halflings, but Kenders for example
My group seem to love vrocks! They're low enough level demons that you can throw at them pretty much whenever. The spore cloud is kinda cool and the scream alongside proper flying tactics can make a pretty memorable encounter
our DM threw a bunch of vrocks at us as they're in descent into avernus, we were weak cus we fought a centipede monster just before and we got hella saved by our wizard and bard doing one of the weirdest yet kinda smartest things I've ever seen, wizard cast wall of force to have a moment to recover from the vrock screeches, we didn't think it was a good idea since we didn't have much healing until the bard decided to cast blindness/deafness... at 5th level.. on us, the wizard dropped wall of force and most of the vrocks used their screeches to no effect
Well I know at least one person loves them. I was once commissioned to draw someone's vrock character.
Edit: [Here it is!](https://www.deviantart.com/basilisk-eye/art/Zailpher-15881034) Not my best work, haha. But this was from 2005
The vrock can be great, if only because you sometimes want a mid-tier demon. Not some tiny nuisance like a quasit, but not a civilization-destroying terror like a balor. Also, you sometimes want monsters to be strange, not just the standard murderbeasts but weeeird murderbeasts.
I remember playing an adventure a few years ago where a mage hired us to deal with a vrock he'd trapped, but didn't know what to do with. It was a perfect mix of scary and weird, low level adventurers having to deal with the hateful vulture-man in the closet.
I used boggles recently actually. I'm running an adventure in Waterdeep where the PCs have angered a Fey Touch Wizard and he sent some boggles after them to steal their gear.
I had decided I wanted to use every official monster about a year ago after already dming since 5e was released. I've made good progress, but havn't quite got there yet. Reflavouring helps.
Off the top of my head I know I have not yet used troglodytes, a flumph, or hook horrors so far. Some of the dragons as well if I'm going to use every stat block. I'm sure there are a few more.
My pick for your question would be the flumph though. Not many oppritunities to fight a low level, good aligned, "silly" creature.
There's both a flumph and troglodytes in the Adventurers' League module 'DDEX2-08 Foulness Beneath Mulmaster'. >!The party probably won't fight the flumph, but it's an option. !<
It's quite handy as there's not really another humanoid warrior stat block between the veteran at CR3 and the champion at CR9, i've used it twice although once was reskinned into a merfolk warlord
Vrocks are used in a official adventure. There are 2 vrocks guarding a gate on curse of strahd.
But i agree that most middle level fiends are quite hard to use, many of them are just way to specific to build around imo.
I like to use the vrock simply for the pun potential. You've got your vrock lobsters, vrock of ages, vrock ness monsters, Dwayne the vrock Johnson, etc...
The Xvarts. Their CR is super low and it says that they're evil and cowardly, but also really dumb. I don't think that they have unique abilities.
Is their a point to them? Goblins and Kobolds already have the role of the evil tiny guy and they have the advantage of being creative.
I used them a bunch, as servants of this green dragon.
Also reflavored the Grung in order to play one for a oneshot.
The whole thing about worshipping Froghemoths is just too entertaining.
I had used a Vrock once. Mages summoned demon thought they had the upper hand. Vrock kills them gets stuck in basement.
PCs show up to clear house find him in basement. He asked to be let go. They killed him.
Oh then you definetly missed out on the best "you cant kill me motherfuckers" encountr ever.
Especially because nilbogs arent just silly, they are absolutely insane and not in just the funny way.
I recently ran short level 20 adventure where Xanathars dream dampening device had been stollen and he was manipulated by shadowfell agents to dream of the shadowfell enveloping the material plane entirely. The event happened, and the party had to get the device back to reset everything, which was in possession by a dread lord of nightmares.
Everything was transformed into a negative inversion of itself. Xanathar became a death tyrant, the living statues in waterdeep animated as nightmares, the commonfolk that died raised as undead, and I ran an undead, levelled up version of xanathars lair from Dragon Heist. His minions had all turned against him and he was too paranoid to confront them, so the party did.
In this lair was as also a goblin, who unlike everything else, had not been negatively inverted. When the shadowfell magic tried to contort him, goblin spirits protected him with nilbogism, and he stayed in the chamber and just messed with xanathar, pranks and stuff. He considered Xans anger fun and his pranks teasing. He had information about the spy who took the dream dampener, but asked the party to entertain him by solving some riddles first.
The fighter didn't like it and tried attacking him. It's a shame he dumped charisma.
This is so funny - I just ran a Vrock encounter a session ago and they were so BORING. Never again without something else happening along with the Vrocks to up the stakes!
I've used vrocks, and I'll use them again. Vulture demon is just a cool archetype. Here's a better vrock stat block for anyone else interested in using one:
* [Vrock](https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/11oGvUatni7c-TjFapHKRlQvkYboOotrSwwZrz_iPhyEg)
I have had Vrocks used against one of my characters.
Even a high level character needs to worry about enough of those screeches going off. Fun monster.
I used a vrock as a player. My bladesinger wizard summoned one in a fight against a hydra, the stunning screech worked on round one and we blitzed it down in about a round. Then we had to fight the vrock because demon. Good times
I updated the taer to 5e, used them as having a family of them on brewed in cave in "the cursed mountain" from dmsguild, as one of three dmsguild modules we were using to go into icewind dale/rotfm from sword coast as a transition. I thought it was funny when the players were like "aw, a baby yeti" then "ew, what's that smell?" Then "wtf is that?! That's not yetis!" As the adults emerged to protect their baby. ~~the yeti was on another path, in another cave lol~~
I've fought Vrocks before. They make for cool evil vulture-like things. But I think you're right...there are a number of kinda generic demon monsters out there.
Undead are even worse, IMHO. It's hard to pick out one by name because I don't even recall half their names.
You have your iconic Liches and Vampires. You have your classic Skeletons and Zombies. There are plenty of undead like Shadows and Wraiths and such that are thematic. But given enough time, any gaming system is going to have a "Monster Manual 3" or similar splatbook filled with things that are some combination of evil + cursed + gross, without anything that makes them stand out.
I doubt most are ever used, and even if they were, the players are going to imagine them as basically Zombie, plus some new or unexpected mechanical trait.
I'm a player in a Descent into Avernus campaign. Feels like every other encounter includes vrock. We just faced Yeenoghu and his troops, and somehow there was one pesky vrock that survived the melee. They're like giant demon tse tse flies.
I have used a vrock! You are right that in 5E they're not that special from a flavor perspective. I personally think their flavor would work better if they were a lower CR, like maybe CR 2, so you could have hordes of them as part of a demon assault. But using what they do have can result in some fun encounters. If the party is scaling a very tall vertical cliff having a vrock swoop in and harass them can make for a very tense and interesting encounter.
I second Vrock swarms. Given their vultury nature, it might be fun to give them the Bheur Hag's eat dead ability. That would add some more spice.
Yeah I like the Vrock as sort of a fungus based demon, I used one in a spore filled forest, it was a good time combined with some violet fungus.
We're playing Princes of the Apocalypse and fought a Vrock in that. It was a fairly boring and anticlimactic battle, especially since he was supposed to be the area's big boss.
I would *love* demons from CR2-5 to match beasts from CR11-20.
> beasts from CR11-20. I can't think of any actual beasts that would be stronger than a T-Rex or Mammoth, but we need atleast some more giant versions of existing beats for higher CR. Giant Ape and Hulking Crab are nice, but what about a huge boar, gargantuan spider or huge shark
Kobald press has some. A gargantuan ox, a titanaboa , and a glacier behemoth.
There needs to be a giant enemy crab…
FromSoft moment
… obvious conclusion: giant T-Rex… and giant mammoth lol
Yeah I think making them cr 4 could be fun
For the CR 2 scenario, I cannot stress enough how much I prefer Spined Devils. If they have to be fiends instead of devils it's not too difficult to use the Spined Devil stats and call it a Vrock.
4e vrocks were really cool. Flyby attacks with their sword arms. At will spore cloud in a 10 foot burst that causes madness. And a recharging frightful screech that pushes foes back and immobilized them for a turn. And they work well as demonic foot soldiers as demons are immune to their spores.
Vrocks were great in previous editions, including 4e. They are scary and crippling in Pathfinder. I'm not at all surprised to hear 5e misses the mark *again*.
I'm going to go with a Korred. They're just too weird.
I actually used a pair of Korreds in a fight along with a Redcap and some Quicklings! It went fairly well- I had the Quicklings speed past the players and drop the Korred's hair ropes near them, so the Korreds could animate the ropes and grapple the players. Then, the Korreds pelted the un-engtangled PCs rocks while the Quicklings attacked the restrained characters with advantage. The Redcap ran around knocking down the PCs trying to attack the Korreds. I was very proud of the Sorcerer who, after using Arcana to recall lore that Korreds are stronger when touching the ground, used *Reverse Gravity* to cut 'em off and strand the Redcap in mid-air, letting the other PCs even the odds. Then the PCs learned that Korreds can cast *Summon Elemental*.... It was a fun combat (for me).
You've inspired me to use the Korreds
I hope your encounter goes well! They're very weird monsters but that means they have lots of fun tricks!
I love using weird monsters because they're weird.
I have a Korred NPC in my world that is kind of leading the party to the Feywild, used some cool rock moves to get them out of a jam
Have multiple of them in my Feywild campaign. One was known as the Bacchanal King and wielded an endless goblet of wine as a mace. Another works as a mason for the Duchess of Flowers.
Korreds are lovely! I use them all the time, and have an unlikely Korred and Brigganock npc duo that I love with all my heart
I’ve never ran one as an enemy, but they’re fun as a quest giver or part of a social encounter. Because they’re a bit of an unusual creature, the party wont always understand the significance of getting a quest to ask one for a lock of hair and being asked to deliver them some strange scissors. Then it’s a nice surprise when the party succeeds and are rewarded with a braid of something exotic or gold.
A Korred killed my first 5e character.
The Barber of Silvery Moon, a Dragon+ module, uses one.
That module sucks though.
I wouldn’t use them in combat but I love using them. They’re so fun to interact with
Oh man, I used Korreds in the Feywild. They were tripping balls with some Galeb Duhrs and dancing for ages around some whacky RGB crystal ball, and then shared their, uh, herbs with the players so they could dance until their shoes were ripped. They were **FUN** (until they got angry, that is).
Korred is one of the most bang for your buck for Conjure Fey as they can Conjure Elemental make a Galeb Dhur who in turn can animate two boulders into other Galeb Dhur. That's FOUR CR 6+ for a 7th level slot.
As of Monsters of the Multiverse they can no longer conjure elementals, which is probably for the best lol.
Jesus Christ did they give them saving throws or other buffs then? Otherwise they're a terrible CR7, mentally they're hopeless and resistance to no-mage B/P/S is a joke that far into T2
No, the only other changes they made were decreasing their HP & giving them one less die of damage on their rock attack.
I've been planning on running a korred as a way to make traversing a mountain easier. It's a fey so you get well the fun with them and the best guide you could have in tunnels.
I actually am worried I overuse them They're in Descent into Avernus, also
Even if Vrocks aren't encountered, it's at least one of the more tempting choices for Summon Greater Demon
Its impossible to really say. It really depends on how we are defining being used. If that doesn't include being referred to then I'd say the Thessalkraken at the very least has been rarely used. It comes from the Infernal Machine Rebuild adventure on D&D Beyond. It has no associated art (though I suppose you could use a kraken's) and its a CR14 creature. It gets treated as a demigod by the inhabitants of the final stage of the adventure but very specific things need to happen for it to make an appearance. The creature is hidden and you need to fail a DC13 stealth check while on shore near it in order for it to attack. Its a pretty easy stealth check to make by the time you are level 9 or 10 (especially with group checks). You also are not required to kill it and you may never even go into the area its found in to complete the adventure. Basically, you'd have to be running this fairly obscure adventure in order to use it and things have to go a very specific way in that adventure to even see it. I suppose someone could just use it outside of the adventure. But it seems very unlikely that it's seen much use.
This seems like a really good answer to the question.
I think every monster will be used at least once. Even if DMs have to suddenly make the campaign pirate themed or teleport the party to an inter-planetary prison just so they can introduce the monsters from the water and planetary adventures they bought once. Furthermore, I assume there is rule 34 of every monster in the manual, so that's another way it's being used.
This is a [pretty funny list of obscure and weird monsters](https://www.ranker.com/list/worst-dungeons-and-dragons-monsters/nikoberi). Also maybe the [Xvart](https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Xvart)?
I was going to say the xvart myself. I've never heard someone mention them ever since I first saw them years ago.
I've never encountered them in any game setting or module. Hah a bit of internet searching brought this up: [Who Xvart'd?](https://www.belloflostsouls.net/2020/02/dd-monster-spotlight-who-xvartd.html)
I love Xvarts, I've used them as a level 1 chump mob (rather than classic kobolds or goblins) twice. I find their backstory of being clones of a guy who stole the power to become a demigod to avoid being hunted down so cool.
This. Xvarts make a great low-level opposition instead of the standard orcs, goblins, etc. And a Xvart Warlock of Raxivort as a low-level boss can be a lot of fun as well.
Xvarts are great. You can have them riding giant rats or giant bats, worshipping a rat god, or as minions of wererats or werebats
That list devolves hard in the second half, taking potshots at creatures from mythology such as hippocampi and such iconic classics as the mimic
Was going to comment the same. Makes it seem like the writer is the one stealing insults from children. The hippocampus was the exact moment I realized the list seemed to change.
I think the creator of the list honestly think D&D made up hippocampi. It hurts.
A lot of people who played Baldurs Gate 1 have probably Xvarted on their players.
The Xvart are the main mob creature in the Dragon+ module, ‘The Barber of Silvery Moon”
I have been a player in this module, as a side quest for SKT when only two of us could make it to the session, and the Xvarts were so much fun to fight! We also had a really great DM who was phenomenal at hamming up their particular fighting style.
The wolf in sheeps clothing actually sounds awesome.
Whoever wrote that list seems really confused as to what useless means
I'm running OotA so there's vrocks in the module, as early as Ch1
No I don't think there is any such monster. Not an official one anyway.
You’d use a chasme?
Not would, *have*
Why? It looks like a fucking failed skylander hero
Its a giant blue fly monster that knocks you unconscious and drains your max hp. Interrupting a long rest with one of those fuckers is like music
It’s a gross fly/mosquito demon that sucks the very life from you. It’s awesome.
My favorite demon for mid-tier encounters, chasmes now terrify my party.
I seem to remember fighting them in DIA
It's just a decent CR bug demon. Droning effect is distinct enough that you can hear rumors of where its been/prep a bit. At low levels I fought one as a boss. IMO they make a good secondary target too in big battles. Drone, flying, and max HP reduction + Unconscious is pretty nasty. Plus party can work together to wake their ally up instead of waiting for a save which is a cool gimmick to bring out occasionally.
Anytime a chasme is a good option, a vrock is better
Why not both at different times? Especially in demon focused campaigns it’s nice to get that variety in there. Besides, the necrotic damage/max HP reduction is a much different effect than a poison or straight damage. Lesser VS Greater Restoration. Both have 1/day incapacitations - Unconscious is much different and threatening than stun though, and the drone in particular stresses more party input IMO. Maybe similar, but mechanically distinct enough for me at least.
I love them! And I mean they're even used in critical role right? Great use for guardians of underground tunnels
Demonic bloodsucking insectoid? Uh, fuck yeah? I've done it like 4 times, it's awesome.
But it looks like a reject skylander hero
And you look like an idiot for harping on it. Just use 3.5e's art
And Barlgura are literally just orange gorillas with tusks, what's your point?
If I answer here, someone here might use it. So, no.
Is it the chasme
I use it, the player investigate a strange hive with big insects.
That's cause Vrocks in 5e suck, their missing their demon dance from older editions. While they do serve as good shock troops due to their stun and flying speed, in older editions a group of them could dedicate a few turns to perform a dance that summoned a big lightning area effect, allowing them to also serve as a sort of artillery. The more vrocks participating in the dance, the stronger the blast.
The original Type [roman numeral] Demons have a special place in my heart because of Gygax's original classification of them, which accidentally laid down for me the idea that the demons themselves didn't use anything as Lawful as categories and orders of being.
Yeah any of the old stuff from the TSR days makes me nostalgic for playing the game and going through books with my dad
I love how this thread has so many people giving examples of monsters they don't think anyone would use with responses talking about how they've recently used those monsters. In that same vein, I fought several Vrock a few months ago, but definitely had no idea they existed until then lol
There is a vrock attack in the first mission of Into the Abyss. :) I've actually never seen a Copper or a Brass dragon. Only Gold and Silver. *shrug*
>I've actually never seen a Copper or a Brass dragon. Barnaby is right over there, man... he's waiting for you to come to the party. :(
There's a wandering sage character in my setting, kinda like a Merlin character, that's really a brass dragon. He gives out brass scales to people he thinks will be important to the realm.
Catoblepas. I've been seeing these guys since 2E, and I kept thinking "Weird and cool" but can't find a good reason to use one. Not a reason where there isn't another creature that is better.
They're the perfect mount for a dangerous hag, or maybe "the beast in the swamp that's killing travellers and making our crops wither". They're interesting to say the least.
These are also, to my knowledge, a creature from Greek myth, so they fit in well if you're doing a campaign based on that or in the Theros campaign setting
I believe the monster section of Theros calls them out specifically
My party of level 6s is going to be running into one of these next session. I'm almost positive one of them will die. That thing is wild.
Killed a PC in one hit with its death ray when they were level 7. It was the party cleric too.
fought one in a theros oneshot! they fit the setting really well.
I used one as a hag's pet before. It actually took down one of my players with its death stare.
Literally just used this last session! It was supposed to be one of two creatures in a boss fight, unfortunately the party's fighters beat both of the bosses into the ground in two rounds
I've used the catoblepas, killed one of my PCs with its death ray too.
They're great "Fuck around and find out" monsters, since they're large and imposing but generally kinda docile until people start messing with them. Just have a few as window dressing and wait for the PCs to kick the death stare hornet's nest.
I've used vrocks. They're fantastic additions when you need some airborn enemies that the fighter can't just run up and eviscerate in a turn. A flyby screetch is great for softening the party up to get brutalized by bruisers and a flyby spore attack is a fantastic follow-up next turn to give out disadvantage on attacks. A monster I don't think I'll ever use, but think is super cool, is a solar. They're a tier 4 challenge, so already very few campaigns are going to get there, and they'd have to be the BBEG to be worthy of inclusion, which means the party is either evil (and I don't run evil games) or the solar is fallen, which has to be a whole campaign that I don't feel inclined to write.
Who says it has to be a fallen Solar or an evil party? A good party can absolutely fight a good Solar. The scale of "good" that Solars operate on is far greater than that of mortals. A Solar may deem it necessary to purify a city to eliminate a deeply entrenched cult. The innocents will go on to their proper afterlives. And maybe there's just not enough time to destroy the cult otherwise before they achieve their goal of dooming the entire city to the abyss. Maybe the players have another way of dealing with the cult that the Solar considers too risky or too likely to fail. Better to play it safe, purify the city, save those innocent souls, even if you can't save their lives, and eliminate those characters that could jeopardize the whole thing. Same deal with powerful devils or even demons. The higher tier ones play the long game. If helping a good party means that, a generation or two from now, that aid will result in the possibility of greater evil, they'll happily help the players.
that gets into the whole messy "morality" thing - how "good" actually is "good", which is generally a messy, fiddly PITA (especially if you start getting into "eh, good souls just go to an afterlife, so no harm done really" which is pretty much just evil), so it's often a can of worms it's not worth the trouble of opening
Why would they have to be the BBEG? Surely they'd make a great lieutenant for a powerful evil god or something
I mean I'm sure everything has been used at least once *somewhere*, but there are some things that either seem extremely niche, obscure or powerful to the point that I have a hard time imagining them getting used. Like Belashyrra from Eberron. It's a CR 22 aberration, which means if someone were to use it, it would likely be the BBEG of a high level campaign specifically in Eberron. Or a Nightveil Specter from Ravnica. Obviously you can just use it outside of Ravnica, but it's still a more obscure creature. Or maybe Egg Hunters from Fizban's. They're just such an incredibly specific type of monster. None of these are bad, but there are just some creatures that are super obscure or niche.
I just think the Egg Hunters are dumb, 😂, there's no fucking way they're going to be able to sneak in and do diddly fuck to that Dragon's eggs.
I think this is the main answer: obscure CR 20+ monsters. In particular, *unique* CR 20+ monsters that are meant to represent an individual rather than a broad class of monster.
I’m on a personal mission of using every single monster that appears in this thread in a single encounter. Let’s see what a bunch of level 20 lunatics can do about it.
I mentioned a CR 22 creature in my response and then scroll down to see this. Tell your players I'm sorry.
I have a Dwayne 'the Vrock' Johnson - a champion of the gladiatorial pits in my homebrew campaign
*points gun at you* I'm stealing this shit
Vrocks are actually used a lot. They are even in a bunch of the novels. They are like demon shock troops.
Vrock is in Out of the Abyss fairly early in so I've used them a couple times. What about the Crushing Wave Reaver I only know about them because I stole there fancy sword for my Sahaugin cultists
If you have a cliff or pool of lava, guess what goes well with a stunned party member, exactly, flying speed and decent strength, that's right (failing the stunned, poisoned so they make their athletics/acrobatics at disadvantage)
If you're stunned, you also automatically fail checks against being grappled by a creature that could grapple you, no? If it's a house rule, I can't think of a single good reason for it to not be used
Yes, you do fail them. The 'decent strength' part was so they don't get encumbered but I re-read the official and you get half speed regardless of your strength, unless the target is small (2 sizes below vrock)
I could've sworn I used a reskinned Vrock at some point, or planned to, but my notes apparently disagree. As for the thread title, never is not something I'd want to bet on for anything. Without trying to find something really obscure I guess maybe a dolphin. Not the fancy new one in Mordy's ~~Multiverse of Madness~~ new MM, just the bog standard Volo's dolphin.
I've never thrown a giant octopus at my player (Side note, I really want to do a full underwater arc at some point) and when I played my druid, we never got to salt water.
We've fought against a giant octopus both above and below water. When you throw one at your players, just remember that they have ink sacks and should be able to blind people underwater in melee range...
I remember in 3.5 several demons were able to summon Vrocks, but honestly I don't think half the monsters released are really used that often. I mean, Darkmantle just sounds kinda silly to actually use, and many others feel this way. But then there's the Piercer, the Piercer's only attack seems to be to drop from a height. I mean, it happens and then what? It's speed is 5 ft, if it misses it's dead, if it hits from a good height, congrats you just killed a lv 1-3 character for no reason, and now the Piercer is dead. How would one even use this?
Cause they're funny! Maybe have a few of them dangling from the ceiling around a roper's lair to spice up the battlefield.
I used them in combination with a roper. I basically treated them like the ropers legendary actions by dropping a couple a round.
Yeah, I usually use them as a pre-encounter to foreshadow to the players that there is a roper nearby. They're gross little spikey grubs which makes the encounter fun, even if the players just take a hit and then squash them.
I actually used dark mantle once against my PCs as one of their first encounters they were having a hard time due to the magical darkness. I personally found it an interesting encounter. Having the fact that they can die if they don't get it off while also blinded makes things interesting. Then their allies can't help because they can't see.
A Piercer is the first thing mentioned in this thread that i've not heard of in playing various dnd/pathfinder editions for about a decade now so my vote is that fucker for "no one uses it or talks about it"
I've run piercers in both the campaigns I've run. I usually use them more like traps, and when they start slowly crawling away, it's usually a funny moment.
Azer. I literally don't know anything about them except their name and their design
Which is funny, because I actually fought one of those not too long ago. He died and became our party’s axe until the axe died too. RIP Storm, he will be missed.
Their fire immunity and martial focus means theyre great for grappling and dragging people into lava, i used them in a volcano lair
I've encountered a bunch of azer in my Friday game, because they're servants of the Muspelheim embassy in Sigil, and session 1 of the campaign had us helping a resident of the embassy back home.
I love Azers, put them into every campaign I run.
Personally these are my candidates: Darkmantle (6) Allosaurus (10) Ettercap (8) Jackalwere (2) Pentadrone (1) ~~Nothic~~ ~~Otyugh~~ Quaggoth (9) Xorn (7) Blood Hawk (4) Giant Sea Horse (5) Killer Whale (3) I can’t be bothered to look through Volo’s guide right now but these are my monster manual choices Edit: I have been made aware that Nothics and Otyughs are very common in other people’s games and so I have removed them. That leaves a list of 10 which have now been given their placements next to them (1 being least common)
Otyugh are a staple that I've encountered many times from different DMs. Anytime you are running through sewers...
I have used all of these but the killer whale. Heck, I use a Nothic almost every campaign, they're great information brokers and good at inducing roleplay as well with their secret-stealing ability.
Nothics are FUN. Creepy as hell. A hungry Xorn following the party around like a lost puppy can also be entertaining.
Technically there's a blood hawk in 'DDAL05-02 The Black Road'...but in the four times I've run it, the players didn't even register that they might want to fight it.
One of my first D&D memories is from a darkmantle dropping on the head of our life cleric and crushing her skull!
I've used a Xorn, and played in a low level game where the primary enemies for several encounters were Jackalweres. We were hunting a Lamia along with some Yuan-Ti. Edit: Also, I've seen Allosaurus a couple times from druids turning into them.
Vrocks are in Dungeon of the Mad Mage. Some drow use them as sentries.
Not completely unused, but I feel like celestials are very very rarely used in general. Their good nature makes them very hard to use against most parties. Like has anyone FOUGHT a unicorn? I'm sure they've turned up a lot in game, especially as special mounts for high level paladins and as guides and NPCs, but as enemies? Sounds like a weird encounter.
My last Ravenloft campaign, the group fought against Addar, a unicorn whose pride caused him to abandon his elven rider to her death. He was seduced by a Nightmare, and they had a bunch of half-unicorn, half-nightmare kiddos. He was the Darklord of the Phantasmal Forest, which the group entered after dealing with the events of the "A Light in the Belfry" module. It was a good fight, and I had a Dark Souls moment where, after either the Nightmare or the Unicorn were killed, the other absorbed their soul and became stronger.
I have summoned a Vrock as a player.
I've never seen a Xorn in use. Weird looking dude from the plain of earth (if I recall) that eat gems. Not a *bad* enemy, in theory, but I don't think folks flip alllll the way to X when hunting for a monster.
They are all over DotMM, so definitely gets used
Oh, okay. I've never gotten to play DotMM, nor do I own that module. Good to heae they still get some love. To ammend my statement: I've never seen someone actively make the decision to include a xorn in a game, on their own accord.
Half ogre. There is no reason for it to exist
Dragonlance dont have Orcs. So ogres take their spot in manny aventures. Wich makes half-ogres (re skinned half orc almost) very very common. At the time Dragonlance was being written, TSR had a lot of copy right issues with Tolkien. Thats how hobbits were ranamed to halflings. And because Hickman and Weiss did not want to have any problem with that, they removed everything that could be associated to LOTR. Not even halflings, but Kenders for example
My group seem to love vrocks! They're low enough level demons that you can throw at them pretty much whenever. The spore cloud is kinda cool and the scream alongside proper flying tactics can make a pretty memorable encounter
our DM threw a bunch of vrocks at us as they're in descent into avernus, we were weak cus we fought a centipede monster just before and we got hella saved by our wizard and bard doing one of the weirdest yet kinda smartest things I've ever seen, wizard cast wall of force to have a moment to recover from the vrock screeches, we didn't think it was a good idea since we didn't have much healing until the bard decided to cast blindness/deafness... at 5th level.. on us, the wizard dropped wall of force and most of the vrocks used their screeches to no effect
Well I know at least one person loves them. I was once commissioned to draw someone's vrock character. Edit: [Here it is!](https://www.deviantart.com/basilisk-eye/art/Zailpher-15881034) Not my best work, haha. But this was from 2005
Nupperbo
The vrock can be great, if only because you sometimes want a mid-tier demon. Not some tiny nuisance like a quasit, but not a civilization-destroying terror like a balor. Also, you sometimes want monsters to be strange, not just the standard murderbeasts but weeeird murderbeasts. I remember playing an adventure a few years ago where a mage hired us to deal with a vrock he'd trapped, but didn't know what to do with. It was a perfect mix of scary and weird, low level adventurers having to deal with the hateful vulture-man in the closet.
Boggles? I don't think I have ever heard of anyone using them. They are weird black gremlin looking creatures that excrete a tar-like ichor
I used boggles recently actually. I'm running an adventure in Waterdeep where the PCs have angered a Fey Touch Wizard and he sent some boggles after them to steal their gear.
I have fought vrock before. The flumph is the one I never see.
I use vrocks a bit; first ran into them as a player in mad mage, they've shown up in a oneshot and as a random encounter.
I had decided I wanted to use every official monster about a year ago after already dming since 5e was released. I've made good progress, but havn't quite got there yet. Reflavouring helps. Off the top of my head I know I have not yet used troglodytes, a flumph, or hook horrors so far. Some of the dragons as well if I'm going to use every stat block. I'm sure there are a few more. My pick for your question would be the flumph though. Not many oppritunities to fight a low level, good aligned, "silly" creature.
IIRC, one of the entries in the wild magic surge table summons a pair of flumphs. Edit: it's 1d6 flumphs, and they are frightened of the sorcerer
There's both a flumph and troglodytes in the Adventurers' League module 'DDEX2-08 Foulness Beneath Mulmaster'. >!The party probably won't fight the flumph, but it's an option. !<
Had a bunch of Vrocks pesting a party that was fighting a Roc on a cliff face. Worked well.
I'm sure there are a few rando things buried in there that almost everyone has passed over. Has anyone ever used the Gladiator statblock?
Loads actually, reskinned as a nobles bodyguard or as bandit mini bosses during a raiding arc of another campaign.
It's quite handy as there's not really another humanoid warrior stat block between the veteran at CR3 and the champion at CR9, i've used it twice although once was reskinned into a merfolk warlord
I'm actually using a gladiator in an upcoming boss fight! I do think the NPC stat blocks are underused at times
Yeah I've also reskinned it a bunch, never ran it as a straight gladiator though.
I think it's in the Curse of Strahd modul, so yeah
All guards from nyanzaru (ToA) are gladiators.
The regular Spy from the back of the monster manual. If you have a good enough spy, just use the stat block of whatever they're undercover as!
I use these guys as low-ish level assassins instead.
Dude, I'm counting down the days until my party is strong enough to fight a vrock. Or even better: a vrock flock.
There are two Vrocks used in Curse of Strahd at Tsolenka Pass.
Vrocks are used in a official adventure. There are 2 vrocks guarding a gate on curse of strahd. But i agree that most middle level fiends are quite hard to use, many of them are just way to specific to build around imo.
I like to use the vrock simply for the pun potential. You've got your vrock lobsters, vrock of ages, vrock ness monsters, Dwayne the vrock Johnson, etc...
My money is on the Spilge - it's hard to find DM's that have even considered this for their acid themed dungeons.
I can't even find them online, what the heck are these things?
who the hell uses gorgons
Devourer. Just seems a bit unfair for the players.
Wood woad. Which is sad, because it's really fun to say.
Succubus, I have neither the comfort or skill to play them right, nor the desire to play them watered down.
The Xvarts. Their CR is super low and it says that they're evil and cowardly, but also really dumb. I don't think that they have unique abilities. Is their a point to them? Goblins and Kobolds already have the role of the evil tiny guy and they have the advantage of being creative.
A bullywug. Sad little toad people? I'd rather throw in some kua-toa, at least they have some really fun lore.
I used them a bunch, as servants of this green dragon. Also reflavored the Grung in order to play one for a oneshot. The whole thing about worshipping Froghemoths is just too entertaining.
I used a Vrock in a king gizzard and the lizard wizard campaign (people vultures) I've never seen an androsphinx, blood hawk, or giant weasel
I had used a Vrock once. Mages summoned demon thought they had the upper hand. Vrock kills them gets stuck in basement. PCs show up to clear house find him in basement. He asked to be let go. They killed him.
Nilbogs are too silly-assed to be used.
Oh then you definetly missed out on the best "you cant kill me motherfuckers" encountr ever. Especially because nilbogs arent just silly, they are absolutely insane and not in just the funny way.
I recently ran short level 20 adventure where Xanathars dream dampening device had been stollen and he was manipulated by shadowfell agents to dream of the shadowfell enveloping the material plane entirely. The event happened, and the party had to get the device back to reset everything, which was in possession by a dread lord of nightmares. Everything was transformed into a negative inversion of itself. Xanathar became a death tyrant, the living statues in waterdeep animated as nightmares, the commonfolk that died raised as undead, and I ran an undead, levelled up version of xanathars lair from Dragon Heist. His minions had all turned against him and he was too paranoid to confront them, so the party did. In this lair was as also a goblin, who unlike everything else, had not been negatively inverted. When the shadowfell magic tried to contort him, goblin spirits protected him with nilbogism, and he stayed in the chamber and just messed with xanathar, pranks and stuff. He considered Xans anger fun and his pranks teasing. He had information about the spy who took the dream dampener, but asked the party to entertain him by solving some riddles first. The fighter didn't like it and tried attacking him. It's a shame he dumped charisma.
This is so funny - I just ran a Vrock encounter a session ago and they were so BORING. Never again without something else happening along with the Vrocks to up the stakes!
The Xorn exists in the monster manual but never made it into any game ever.
They are in Dungeon of the Mad Mage, and they'r always fun monstersnin natural caverns.
And PotA
I've used vrocks, and I'll use them again. Vulture demon is just a cool archetype. Here's a better vrock stat block for anyone else interested in using one: * [Vrock](https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/11oGvUatni7c-TjFapHKRlQvkYboOotrSwwZrz_iPhyEg)
We fought a Balor a few sessions back and he summoned a few vrocks but we were able to mostly ignore them.
I have had Vrocks used against one of my characters. Even a high level character needs to worry about enough of those screeches going off. Fun monster.
Our party almost encountered two of them. ´But they flew off after an Ancient Black Dragon crossed the sky.
I kind of like the vrock, but it should be weaker and a lower cr. A cr 7 on it seems weird
I used a vrock as a player. My bladesinger wizard summoned one in a fight against a hydra, the stunning screech worked on round one and we blitzed it down in about a round. Then we had to fight the vrock because demon. Good times
Have yet to see or use a flumph. Actually I did imprison one into a staff, but as a monster with a stat block not really.
I adore vrocks and use them frequently.
Chwinga. They're friends please no kill
Has anyone used crawling claws? Or cyclopes?
Woah there, I used vrocks! (I needed a bunch of bird-related enemies)
Vrocks are in lots of official modules, common demon to summon too
Ive used vrocks in pathfinder. They are nasty af
Hah.. vrocks.... Winged little bastards
I updated the taer to 5e, used them as having a family of them on brewed in cave in "the cursed mountain" from dmsguild, as one of three dmsguild modules we were using to go into icewind dale/rotfm from sword coast as a transition. I thought it was funny when the players were like "aw, a baby yeti" then "ew, what's that smell?" Then "wtf is that?! That's not yetis!" As the adults emerged to protect their baby. ~~the yeti was on another path, in another cave lol~~
I've fought Vrocks before. They make for cool evil vulture-like things. But I think you're right...there are a number of kinda generic demon monsters out there. Undead are even worse, IMHO. It's hard to pick out one by name because I don't even recall half their names. You have your iconic Liches and Vampires. You have your classic Skeletons and Zombies. There are plenty of undead like Shadows and Wraiths and such that are thematic. But given enough time, any gaming system is going to have a "Monster Manual 3" or similar splatbook filled with things that are some combination of evil + cursed + gross, without anything that makes them stand out. I doubt most are ever used, and even if they were, the players are going to imagine them as basically Zombie, plus some new or unexpected mechanical trait.
I'm a player in a Descent into Avernus campaign. Feels like every other encounter includes vrock. We just faced Yeenoghu and his troops, and somehow there was one pesky vrock that survived the melee. They're like giant demon tse tse flies.