One interesting set of features Dragon published in 1984 and 1985 were the three Creature Catalogs: each a mini-Monster
Manual (with 29, 18, and 24 entries, respectively), full of monsters that were
largely forgotten thereafter. Many were created by master monster makers Ed
Greenwood and Roger Moore, and they present the single largest untapped
resource for monster ideas even today. This is the second entry in my look at Creature Catalog #1.
GHUUNA – 6+6HD
Gnoll Lycanthrope
Print Status: Only in Dragon.
Comments: By Tomas Willis. Gnoll lycanthropes. There’s a great spin on their nature here: https://pocgamer.com/2018/08/22/backgrounder-001-gnolls/. They need a spin like that (where they become one of three tribes of Gnollkind, taught shapeshifting by a predecessor to Yeenoghu), because otherwise they’re just a fun reskinning. That said, reskinning is no bad thing, and having another gribbly to put in your Gnoll lairs and encounters is only good.
Marks: 2/5
GLASSPANE HORROR
– 8HD...something? Aberration or Construct or even Elemental
Print Status: Only in Dragon.
Comments: By Rosemary and Don Webb. A polymorphing creature which can be iron-strength glass, a glass-man with magic powers, or a storm of glass like an air elemental. Pretty atmospheric. The assumption is that it will be a “protective” creature in a dungeon or lair, looking after valuables. There are good behavioural notes – e.g. it’s loyal but not willing to die for its master, so will eventually flee to warn them. Genuinely very good, even if limited in application as it stands.
Marks: 4.5/5
HORSESHOE CRAB, GIANT
– 6+6HD Giant Animal
Print Status: Only in Dragon.
Comments: By Ed Greenwood. This seems a fairly ordinary giant animal, until you get to the end of the entry: they’re immune to mind-control, reflect back psionic powers on the use, and can cast shocking grasp and lightning bolt! I am confused about their assumed behaviour: they’re both predatory and placid, apparently. But that can be reconciled. There’s a good hook – an undamaged giant horseshoe crab brain can be used in the inks used to write the spells it can cast. It also has a fun nickname, from the noise it makes when eating: “chont”. Dudda chuk?
Marks: 3/5
IHAGNIM – 8-16HD
Astral Amoeba
Print Status: Only in Dragon.
Comments: By Roger E. Moore. Uh. So it’s an amoeba which lives on the Astral Plane and planeshifts its stomach bag into the Prime Material where suckers think it’s a Bag of Holding, but it’s actually a Bag of Devouring. That’s where they come from. Weird and a bit screwed up and undoubtedly cool, though very, very specific. This is really a one-use-per-campaign monster.
Marks: 2.5/5
MILLIKAN – 5+1HD
Invertebrate
Print Status: Only in Dragon.
Comments: By Mark Nuiver. A carnivore that looks like a tree stump with gnaled roots. It has an oil projector and a flamethrowers (!). There’re some decent behavioural notes, and it likes both flesh and certain metals, which influences treasure finds. Its “battery” organ is a useful magical find, thereby adding a potential hook. This is odd – it’s really a bit overblown, and its suite of attacks can do a *lot* of damage, covering opposition with oil which blinds and is then set on fire by the flamethrower. Nonetheless, it’s likely to be memorable.
Marks: 3/5
NAGA, DARK –
7-9HD Naga
Print Status: Also Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting 2nd Edition, Monster Manual 3.5 Edition, Monster Manual 4th Edition.
Comments: By Ed Greenwood. One of the most durable Dragon Magazine monsters. Here they are Lawful Evil “fey creatures”. The entry isn’t actually very detailed, though it includes a rare definition of a creature able to cast a spell and attack in the same round (this seems implicit elsewhere, but I can’t think of many entries which actually say so!). They’re 6th-Level Magic-Users for purposes of spell slots and casting, as well as having ESP and a poison stinger. Their lore develops over time; here, they’re just an intelligent monster with a cool picture and powerful action economy.
Marks: 3/5
PELTAST – 1+6HD
Amorphous
Print Status: Also FA1 Halls of the High King, Monstrous Compendium Annual Volume Two, Menzoberranzan Boxed Set, Ruins of Undermountain Boxed Set.
Comments: By Ed Greenwood. A staple in Greenwood’s adventures. Symbiotic with parasitic tendencies, this creature morphs into leather equipment or clothing and latches on to a host, feeding very slightly on its nutriment (1hp a day, which heals automatically at night). It lends Magic Resistance (7%) to its host. I don’t know quite what to make of this fellow – it does seem like a fun “prank” monster (and any good DM likes those), and you can see further uses. For instance, what if a valuable item is hidden in one, and its “latch” seems locked? What if their MR actually registers as magical, and so they end up being worn as a magical piece of equipment? And so forth. It’s interesting, but in this entry seems almost incomplete – what’s the hook? What environments might be best? Nonetheless, not bad.
Marks: 2.5/5
PITCHER PLANT, GIANT
– 100hp Carnivorous Plant
Print Status: Only in Dragon (I think).
Comments: By Roger E. Moore. More carnivorous plants! Actually there is one of these on our Prime Material, with a genus named after Sir David Attenborough. But this one...kills! I think one thing that makes me like plant monsters is that they can bridge environmental hazard and monster threat. They aid in building naturalistic environments, they’re repeatable, and their effects are often interesting (here, grabbing people with a long tentacle and then trapping them in the plant’s “vase”). In a fantastic Lost World environment, this is a great hazard – just another normal crazy big plant, until it grabs your Halfling!
Marks: 4/5
SEASTAR – 1HD
Aquatic Beast
Print Status: Also 5e Homebrew.
Comments: By Ed Greenwood. Aquatic creatures are underrated because aquatic adventures usually suck. Aquatic creatures, in reality, rock – because the sea is terrifying. It is a much more dangerous environment than the average dungeon. Utterly inhospitable to landdwellers. And in D&D, you can make it even more dangerous! Seastars hitch rides on the bottom of ships and feed on carrion, sometimes even helping the process along by dragging people off ships. There are some useful notes on how they end up making food alliances with telepathic creatures (so a bunch of Aberrant intelligent monsters, basically). Given the HD involved, and the likely behaviour, the Seastar is perhaps more of an aquatic hazard than an existential menace, but it’s worth getting on the encounter table.
Marks: 3/5
SCALLION – 5+5 to
6+6HD Fish
Print Status: As "ascallion" in 2e Monstrous Compendium 3 - Forgotten Realms Appendix 1.
Comments: By Ed Greenwood. Giant aquatic predators (up to 12’+ long), impervious to pain, paralysis, and mental attack, which spawn by the young eating their way out. Nasty big fish. The male gets their own creepy behaviour note, too: “a silent, solitary ghost who glides through uncrowded waters. Black and sharklike, the male is nicknamed ‘the shadow’ by the aquatic races, for this is all they normally see of him if they survive an encounter.” Okay so that gets to go in any adventure where your potential allies are Tritons or Locathah or whatever. There’s something impressive about Greenwood being able to take a giant predator fish, and without even fully spinning its abilities (only Special Defences), make it rich with atmosphere. This guy hunting your Water-Breathing wreck searchers...that’s memorable terror.
Marks: 4/5
Conclusion
Nothing bad, though plenty of middling. We do come closest to a cast-iron all-time classic, though, with the Glasspane Horror (the Scallion comes close, partly because it seems so humdrum but is in fact terrifying). I’d say the hitrate so far on CC1 is as good as any of the official 1e monster books.
Print Status: Only in Dragon.
Comments: By Tomas Willis. Gnoll lycanthropes. There’s a great spin on their nature here: https://pocgamer.com/2018/08/22/backgrounder-001-gnolls/. They need a spin like that (where they become one of three tribes of Gnollkind, taught shapeshifting by a predecessor to Yeenoghu), because otherwise they’re just a fun reskinning. That said, reskinning is no bad thing, and having another gribbly to put in your Gnoll lairs and encounters is only good.
Marks: 2/5
Print Status: Only in Dragon.
Comments: By Rosemary and Don Webb. A polymorphing creature which can be iron-strength glass, a glass-man with magic powers, or a storm of glass like an air elemental. Pretty atmospheric. The assumption is that it will be a “protective” creature in a dungeon or lair, looking after valuables. There are good behavioural notes – e.g. it’s loyal but not willing to die for its master, so will eventually flee to warn them. Genuinely very good, even if limited in application as it stands.
Marks: 4.5/5
Print Status: Only in Dragon.
Comments: By Ed Greenwood. This seems a fairly ordinary giant animal, until you get to the end of the entry: they’re immune to mind-control, reflect back psionic powers on the use, and can cast shocking grasp and lightning bolt! I am confused about their assumed behaviour: they’re both predatory and placid, apparently. But that can be reconciled. There’s a good hook – an undamaged giant horseshoe crab brain can be used in the inks used to write the spells it can cast. It also has a fun nickname, from the noise it makes when eating: “chont”. Dudda chuk?
Marks: 3/5
Print Status: Only in Dragon.
Comments: By Roger E. Moore. Uh. So it’s an amoeba which lives on the Astral Plane and planeshifts its stomach bag into the Prime Material where suckers think it’s a Bag of Holding, but it’s actually a Bag of Devouring. That’s where they come from. Weird and a bit screwed up and undoubtedly cool, though very, very specific. This is really a one-use-per-campaign monster.
Marks: 2.5/5
Print Status: Only in Dragon.
Comments: By Mark Nuiver. A carnivore that looks like a tree stump with gnaled roots. It has an oil projector and a flamethrowers (!). There’re some decent behavioural notes, and it likes both flesh and certain metals, which influences treasure finds. Its “battery” organ is a useful magical find, thereby adding a potential hook. This is odd – it’s really a bit overblown, and its suite of attacks can do a *lot* of damage, covering opposition with oil which blinds and is then set on fire by the flamethrower. Nonetheless, it’s likely to be memorable.
Marks: 3/5
Print Status: Also Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting 2nd Edition, Monster Manual 3.5 Edition, Monster Manual 4th Edition.
Comments: By Ed Greenwood. One of the most durable Dragon Magazine monsters. Here they are Lawful Evil “fey creatures”. The entry isn’t actually very detailed, though it includes a rare definition of a creature able to cast a spell and attack in the same round (this seems implicit elsewhere, but I can’t think of many entries which actually say so!). They’re 6th-Level Magic-Users for purposes of spell slots and casting, as well as having ESP and a poison stinger. Their lore develops over time; here, they’re just an intelligent monster with a cool picture and powerful action economy.
Marks: 3/5
Print Status: Also FA1 Halls of the High King, Monstrous Compendium Annual Volume Two, Menzoberranzan Boxed Set, Ruins of Undermountain Boxed Set.
Comments: By Ed Greenwood. A staple in Greenwood’s adventures. Symbiotic with parasitic tendencies, this creature morphs into leather equipment or clothing and latches on to a host, feeding very slightly on its nutriment (1hp a day, which heals automatically at night). It lends Magic Resistance (7%) to its host. I don’t know quite what to make of this fellow – it does seem like a fun “prank” monster (and any good DM likes those), and you can see further uses. For instance, what if a valuable item is hidden in one, and its “latch” seems locked? What if their MR actually registers as magical, and so they end up being worn as a magical piece of equipment? And so forth. It’s interesting, but in this entry seems almost incomplete – what’s the hook? What environments might be best? Nonetheless, not bad.
Marks: 2.5/5
Print Status: Only in Dragon (I think).
Comments: By Roger E. Moore. More carnivorous plants! Actually there is one of these on our Prime Material, with a genus named after Sir David Attenborough. But this one...kills! I think one thing that makes me like plant monsters is that they can bridge environmental hazard and monster threat. They aid in building naturalistic environments, they’re repeatable, and their effects are often interesting (here, grabbing people with a long tentacle and then trapping them in the plant’s “vase”). In a fantastic Lost World environment, this is a great hazard – just another normal crazy big plant, until it grabs your Halfling!
Marks: 4/5
Print Status: Also 5e Homebrew.
Comments: By Ed Greenwood. Aquatic creatures are underrated because aquatic adventures usually suck. Aquatic creatures, in reality, rock – because the sea is terrifying. It is a much more dangerous environment than the average dungeon. Utterly inhospitable to landdwellers. And in D&D, you can make it even more dangerous! Seastars hitch rides on the bottom of ships and feed on carrion, sometimes even helping the process along by dragging people off ships. There are some useful notes on how they end up making food alliances with telepathic creatures (so a bunch of Aberrant intelligent monsters, basically). Given the HD involved, and the likely behaviour, the Seastar is perhaps more of an aquatic hazard than an existential menace, but it’s worth getting on the encounter table.
Marks: 3/5
Print Status: As "ascallion" in 2e Monstrous Compendium 3 - Forgotten Realms Appendix 1.
Comments: By Ed Greenwood. Giant aquatic predators (up to 12’+ long), impervious to pain, paralysis, and mental attack, which spawn by the young eating their way out. Nasty big fish. The male gets their own creepy behaviour note, too: “a silent, solitary ghost who glides through uncrowded waters. Black and sharklike, the male is nicknamed ‘the shadow’ by the aquatic races, for this is all they normally see of him if they survive an encounter.” Okay so that gets to go in any adventure where your potential allies are Tritons or Locathah or whatever. There’s something impressive about Greenwood being able to take a giant predator fish, and without even fully spinning its abilities (only Special Defences), make it rich with atmosphere. This guy hunting your Water-Breathing wreck searchers...that’s memorable terror.
Marks: 4/5
Nothing bad, though plenty of middling. We do come closest to a cast-iron all-time classic, though, with the Glasspane Horror (the Scallion comes close, partly because it seems so humdrum but is in fact terrifying). I’d say the hitrate so far on CC1 is as good as any of the official 1e monster books.
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