What's Your Favorite Monster?

[Humabout]

What the title asks: What is your favorite monster? As a GM, as a player, as a worldbuilder.  Name them, discuss them!

I love otyughs and ettins, myself.

[Steerpike]

Aboleths and illithids are probably my all-time faves; I think both represent a great take on the typical Lovecraftian monstrosity, but contextualized for D&D very well.  They're super non-Tolkienian, weird creatures that work beautifully as utterly alien antagonists.  I find them a lot more compelling than a lot of typically "Evil" villains like Demons or Devils that tend to conform to the cruder moral schema fostered by Alignment.

Beholders are also great, in part because they're totally bizarre and original, yet they still feel incredibly archetypal at the same time - and not just because they're iconic D&D monsters, but because I think the idea of a giant floating eye-monster taps is intrinsically compelling.  Cloakers are also pretty horrifying and fun.

For undead, I've always been partial to the more corporeal creatures, especially Ghouls/Ghasts and Vampires; Mohrgs, though, take the maggot-infested cake, in part because they're so blatantly psychosexual and disturbing.

[LordVreeg]

My games are very, very undead heavy, so the spookiness and terror of the dead and the damned is my favorite

[SA]

Dragons. I love dragons and I'll never get tired of dragons.

Dragons dragons dragons!

Them and manticores and also chimeras. I am not an original thinker.

[limetom]

The owlbear.

As with a lot of people, I'm fond of the undead. When played right, especially intelligent undead offer a very real sense of history to a world. Non-corporeal undead as well are also particularly frightening, as you could at least pretend like you could defend yourself against a zombie (or a vampire), but unless you're Ash Williams, you're not going to punch a ghost.

I also like shape-changing creatures. I know a lot of people are attached to lycanthropes due to their attraction to the relevant animals, but for me, again, it's the potential for manipulation--and the rooting in many of the world's cultures' mythologies--that is the attraction. That con-man trickster bastard that your players hate? What if he was really a raven? Or what about that foxy lady? She's literally a fox.

[Ghostman]

Unique monsters are the most interesting to me. The only ones of their kind in the world.

[sparkletwist]

In Asura, the main "monsters" are Asuras who have gone too far-- who have been consumed by the primordial energies that being an Asura entails and completely lost their humanity. Thus, the main threat involved with anything monstrous in Asura is, "be careful or this could be you." There are other creatures that are dangerous, but the monstrous aspect lurking under the surface of every Asura is my favorite; I like other settings that handle that topic, too.

[Humabout]

Wow, this is a wide spectrum, except for the recurring "Undead" mention.  I didn't give my reasoning for what i profered.  I like Otyughs because they are so bizarre and terrifying, but also because they are so useable.  You can always justify working in a walking, thinking garbage disposal.  And their mental image is beautifully Lovecraftian, even if their motivation is more animalistic (which itself can tap into some fun fears).  As for ettins, they don't pretend to be anything that they're not.  They are massive cruel two-headed giants. No pretenses of misunderstood cultures or shallow allegories or allusions to RL cultures.  Just hulking mean, evil brutish thugs.  And they do it well.

[Gamer Printshop]

I'm with Vreeg, but my preference is ghosts.

[Steerpike]

IMO, ghosts can either be completely awesome or totally lame depending on their interpretation.  Much as aliens can be great monsters or lazy and boring.  Both are so varied it's almost too big a category to speak about too generally.

[Weave]

I prefer the fey. And the less Tinkerbell, the better.

I think a well-played fairy articulates a certain subtle power overshadowed by a whimsy that dances a bit too closely to cold aloofness. It's even better when they're spiced with a bit of madness to convey an alien, uncaring mindset. It's like peanut butter and chocolate mixed together for me. A demon or dragon already commands a certain presence, but something like a fairy takes a degree more effort to make them into something a player actually respects or fears.

Oh, and if they have plentiful powers that equate to total mindfuckery, the better.

[Gamer Printshop]

IMO, ghosts can either be completely awesome or totally lame depending on their interpretation.  Much as aliens can be great monsters or lazy and boring.  Both are so varied it's almost too big a category to speak about too generally.

With ghosts, I try to err to the side of completely awesome. I know how to run ghosts effectively and really enjoy using them.

[SA]

I prefer the fey. And the less Tinkerbell, the better.

I like fey that are glorified monsters wearing people skins. From season to season and as mood or fashion strikes them, a given fairy might look like Eva Green or Leatherface or that tree from Evil Dead.

[Rhamnousia]

I love the calcium out of the corporeal undead, especially liches and skeletons. Not zombies though; too overplayed. I have a tendency to give them far too much personality though, which kind of ruins their usual role as the faceless cannon-fodder for evil necromancers.

[Lmns Crn]

Been thinking this over for a couple of days, and I really think my favorite "monster" is the Demiurge, or Demiurge-type figures. The Demiurge is well worth a wikipedia trip, if you're not already familiar, but I'll do my best to do it justice-- oversimplified, it's a god of great power, but of equally great ignorance and selfishness. It's a spoiled child with Phenomenal Cosmic Power; it's force wielded without morality or restraint.

This is all to say, I do love amoral characters with enormous power, whether they're mad sorcerers or timeless spirits or whatever. And that I love high-powered games such that players have the opportunity and the temptation to be a little bit Demiurge-like, themselves. You know, just flirt with that a li'l bit.