My Top 10 Favorite D&D Monsters (Part II)

Part I is here. 

5. Shambling Mound

According to Gary Gygax, the shambling mound was inspired by the 1940s comic book monster, the Heap, which seems plausible, given that the Monster Manual states that it "appear[s] as a heap of rotting vegetation." My own fondness for the shambler stems from my love of all manner of swamp monsters, most especially Père Malfait from the Kolchak episode, "The Spanish Moss Murders." There's no denying that there's something positively primal about the idea of a monster rising out of the muck of a dismal marsh to attack unsuspecting travelers through its domain. As a referee, I've made good use of these creeps over the decades.

4. Green Slime

In a sense, I owe my playing of D&D to green slime. As you may recall, my earliest experience of fantasy gaming came through the boardgame Dungeon! One of my favorite aspects of that game were the monster cards that you flipped over whenever your token entered a space on the map. Mixed in with goblins, giant rats, and skeletons were a number of weirder enemies that captivated my youthful self. Chief among these was green slime, which was a truly nasty opponent, being immune to fireballs and requiring double digit rolls to kill for all attacks except lightning bolts. The D&D version of green slime isn't quite as hard to destroy, but it's still plenty dangerous, turning living beings it touches into more green slime – no resurrection possible. Yikes!

3. Beholder

The beholder has to be a strong candidate for the most iconic D&D monster ever. That said, they've rarely appeared in my own games over the years, partly because they possess a wide array of dangerous abilities. Yet, there's no denying beholders are an imaginative and compelling monster – among the best in the game – which is why I've ranked them so highly on this list.

2. Lich

Arguably this monster is a violation of my own rules, since the idea of an undead sorcerer is hardly unique to Dungeons & Dragons. I readily admit my hypocrisy on this point, but I don't care. Moreso than almost any other "standard" D&D monster I can think of, the lich draws deeply from the game's pulp fantasy roots and that's a big part of why I love it. I also have lots of great memories of liches from adventures I ran in years past, like Asberdies from Descent into the Depths of the Earth (and Acererak from Tomb of Horrors – yes, I know he's a demi-lich, but, since we've already established I'm a hypocrite, why not include him too?).

1. Mind Flayer

This was an easy one for me. The Cthulhoid stylings of the mind flayer held instant appeal the first time I gazed upon Dave Sutherland's illustration in the Monster Manual.  The fact that these monsters used psionics was another point in their favor, since I was strangely fascinated with AD&D's convoluted (and largely unworkable) system for handling psychic powers. Like the lich, the mind flayer is highly intelligent, but its intelligence is of an inscrutable, alien sort that gives the monster a little extra oomph, hence its place in the top spot of this list.