SUB-MAN
% in Lair: 25%
Dungeon Enc: Party (1d8) / Lair (1 hunt)
Wilderness Enc: Hunt (2d8) / Tribe (1d10 parties)
Alignment: Chaotic
Movement: 120’ (40’)
Armor Class: 1
Hit Dice: 1+1
Attacks: 1 (weapon)
Damage: weapon
Save: F1
Morale: +1
Treasure Type: B (per hunt)
XP: 15
Degenerate, once-human inhabitants of ancient ruins and polluted wastelands, the sub-men are hideous and bestial, with stooped posture, sloped brows, small eyes, and jutting fangs. They live in tribes led by the strongest individual. They fight with great clubs of stone and bone, or with spears and javelins.
SWINE-THING
% in Lair: 15%
Dungeon Enc: Gang (1d6) / Lair (2d6)
Wilderness Enc: Horde (3d6) / Lair (3d6)
Alignment: Chaotic
Movement: 120’ (40’)
Armor Class: 1
Hit Dice: 3+1
Attacks: 2 (claws)
Damage: 1d4/1d4
Save: F3
Morale: 0
Treasure Type: F
XP: 65
These hideous creatures look somewhat like men, but have scarcely any chin or forehead, and their noses are snoutish. Their skin is a dead pallid color, except on their four-fingered, webbed hands, which are brown, and terminate in talon-like claws. Their feet sport cloven hooves. They jabber and shriek, grunt and squeal among each other — speaking in their own, grotesque language — but move quite stealthily when stealth is called for. The swine-things fight with their taloned hands, grabbing and raking with their nails. They are clever enough to understand doors and other basic tools, though they do not make anything.
Tentacled worms are horrible underground monsters, 12’–16’ long with pebbly black and grey hides and a round, lamprey-like mouth full of sharp teeth, surrounded by seven tentacles with awful suckers. Seven black eyes surround this mouth.
Tentacled worms attack by wrapping their suckered tentacles around a victim, gripping the inexorably. The tentacles constrict victims for 1d4 damage each per successive round. The tentacles can be cut off if 6 hit points or more of damage is dealth with one blow.
Once three tentacles are attached to a single victim of up to half-giant size, the tentacled worm can swallow it on an attack throw at least 4 higher than the target value. A swallowed creature takes 2d8 damage per round. The damage stops when either the creature dies or the tentacled worm is killed. If a creature that has been swallowed has a sharp weapon, it may attack the tentacled worm from inside with an attack penalty of -4. Should the swallowed creature die and remain inside the tentacled worm for 6 turns, it is irrevocably digested.
Tentacled worms regenerate 3 hit points per round until reduced to 0 hit points. Severed tentacles re-grow in one turn. Finally, a tentacled worm can ignore any spell or spell-like effect with a Magic Resistance throw of 16+.
(I think this was based on a picture that was part of the Weirdlands of Xhuul inspirational DM screen.)
VAT-MAN
% in Lair: 20%
Dungeon Enc: Gang (1d6) / Lair (2d6)
Wilderness Enc: None
Alignment: Chaotic
Movement: 90’ (30’)
Armor Class: 1
Hit Dice: 4**
Attacks: 2 (hands)
Damage: 1d6/1d6
Save: F4
Morale: +4
Treasure Type: K
XP: 190
Vat-men are horrible half-living creations of vile sorcery and ancient technology. Bodies given new, soulless life and unholy vigor, they do their master’s bidding or else stalk all living things in dark places. Vat-men fight with their bare hands, grasping, strangling, and clawing with frightful strength. They are immune to all mind-affecting spells and effects, including fear, charm, hold, and sleep. Unless reduced to 0 hit points or less, they regenerate all damage dealt to them each round.
(A conversion of Vat Men from Douglas Easterly’s Savage Swords of Athanor material.)
WINGED APE
% in Lair: 10%
Dungeon Enc: Band (1d4) / Lair (1 troop)
Wilderness Enc: Troop (2d4) / Colony (1d6 troops)
Alignment: Chaotic
Movement: 60’ (20’)
Fly: 180’ (60’)
Armor Class: 5
Hit Dice: 8*
Attacks: 2 (claws)
Damage: 1d12/1d12
Save: F4
Morale: +4
Treasure Type: P
XP: 1,100
These grotesque winged apes, 8’ tall, have leathery wings and maws full of sharp fangs. They live in mountain caves, often leading into deep underworlds of massive caverns, and hunt both belowground and aboveground at night. The winged apes are fearless and alert, never surprised in the darkness. They fly quietly, and when dropping down on their prey from above, they impose a -1 penalty to surprise checks. They can ignore any spell or spell-like effect with a Magic Resistance throw of 16+.
(Klakar from Michael Moorcock’s Elric novels and the Stormbringer RPG.)
VULTURE-LION
% in Lair: 10%
Dungeon Enc: Pride (1d4) / Lair (1d6)
Wilderness Enc: Pride (2d4) / Den (3d4)
Alignment: Neutral
Movement: 150’ (50’)
Armor Class: 6
Hit Dice: 8
Attacks: 3 (claw/claw/beak)
Damage: 1d6/1d6/2d8
Save: F4
Morale: +4
Treasure Type: None
XP: 600
Vulture-lions were created by ancient wizards to fight and kill the beak-dogs. They look like great black cats, 5’ at the shoulder, with the heads of vultures and manes of black feathers. They are immune to fear and similar spells.
(Also from Stormbringer and Moorcock’s Elric novels.)
Thanks, y’all! I enjoy both coming up with and borrowing monsters, and I think they are a big part of characterizing a setting. A world with freaks and mutant ghouls and man-apes instead of goblins and orcs just comes across very different, I think…
I also think unique monsters are a big part of the tradition - looking at old modules, most of them introduced one or more new monsters, which always feel “better” to me when they’re a part of a specific sub-setting, rather than generalized into the entire setting, if that makes sense… like, “there are norkers in this place” rather than “there are norkers just everywhere!”