Gelatinous Icosahedron

 When I think back to my earliest days playing D&D, the monster I think of most isn't the dragon. It isn't the orc, the gelatinous cube, or the ogre. It's the goblin, from the Basic Set, naturally. Goblins are stated to be small, incredibly ugly human-like creatures. How small, exactly, isn't specified; they could be dwarf-size, halfling-size, or smaller, depending on how you like your goblins. The entry does tell us that they have red eyes that glow in low light, and pale earth-colored skin, "chalky tan" and "livid gray" being given as examples. They're identified as avowed underground-dwellers, with infravision to a 90' range. Full daylight hurts their eyes, and they fight at a -1 penalty. They hate dwarves so fiercely that they will always attack them on sight, so no negotiating with goblins if there's a dwarf in the party! There's also a 20% chance that one in four goblins encountered will be riding dire wolves, which substant...

 It's been said that gnomes never really found their niche as a player-character race in AD&D, but as an NPC/monster type in Classic D&D I've always had a soft spot for these guys. To be sure, there is some overlap with dwarves, and to distinguish the two some sources have taken gnomes in a more comedic direction than I would like, but done well they've fit quite nicely into my own campaign settings.  Regarding gnomes, the Basic Set says that they are related to dwarves but are smaller. Whether this means shorter, more slender, or both is not stated, but I generally picture them as being both shorter and less stocky of build than the typical dwarf. Like dwarves, they sport full beards (at least the males do; nothing is said of gnome-women, so indulge your own preference there) but are also stated to have long noses. While dwarves are typically dwellers in rugged mountains and deep caverns, gnomes are explicitly stated to prefer burrows in the lowlands. In theory, at...

 Some D&D monsters are adapted from myth, legend, and folklore, some are taken from literature and fiction, and some seem to be wholly original to the game. The gnoll belongs mostly to this last category, having no direct mythological analog that I'm aware, and seemingly bearing only a passing phonetic resemblance to Lord Dunsany's gnoles. Gnolls are rumored to be the hybrid creations of an evil wizard (a well-worn fantasy cliche, but also a timeless classic) combining gnomes and trolls. The truth of this is left to the DM and his or her particular campaign setting, but where it is true, the gnolls really got the shaft, having neither the gnome's industrious intelligence nor the troll's regenerative powers. They're basically big dumb brutes, higher up the humanoid food chain from orcs and goblins but beneath bugbears and ogres. Even so, it's a niche that needed filling, and the gnoll is a pretty good fit.  With an AC equal to mail armor, a stout 2 Hit Dice, ...

 Oops. Once again, I'm posting a monster out of alphabetical order, this time because I just plain overlooked it. It's a good one, too, a staple of many a low-level dungeon-delve: the ghoul from the Basic Set. And finally, our first undead creature! Ghouls are described as hideous, bestial undead humans who will attack any living creature they see. I generally imagine them being dressed in rags, with filthy, cracked grey skin, wild hair caked in dirt and offal, drooling mouths full of jagged, broken teeth, eyes somehow  at once lifeless and filled with hatred, moving with a hunched, shambling gait. They are the third rung on the undead ladder, just above skeletons and zombies and beneath wights, and can be turned by clerics, though 1st level holy folk need an 11 on 2d6 to manage the feat, and might make better use of a round swinging a mace at a skull. With a middling (for beginning parties) AC of 6, a sturdy 2 Hit Dice, and a slashing frenzy of three attacks per round for 1-3...

 In the D&D Basic Set, we got an iconic monster of six distinct flavors, the dragon. In the Expert Set, we have giants, also iconic monsters of six distinct flavors.  For the most part, I've just never gotten excited about giants as I have about dragons. Sure, they're a fantasy staple, but I always struggled to imagine how they really fit into the D&D world, as well as how a fight between giants and human and demihuman characters would look. More on that later, though. The six major species of giants, in ascending order of Hit Dice, are Hill (8 HD), Stone (9), Frost (10+1), Fire (11+2), Cloud (12+3), and Storm (15). Armor Class is a 4 almost straight across the board, except the storm giant, which has AC 2. Obviously, these guys are no mean feat to take down, even the (relatively) lowly hill giant. Except for the hill giant (2-16 damage), the damage for each type escalates in multiples of d6, from 3-18 for the stone giant up to 8-48 for the storm giant. Working from th...

 And now, the most iconic monster in D&D history, the Captain of Team Ooze and Slime, the inspiration for the title of this very blog... the wonderful, wobbly, and weird gelatinous cube! I've always had a bit of a soft spot (pun intended) for the slimes and oozes of D&D, and the gelatinous cube particularly captured my interest from the first moment I thumbed over its entry in the monsters chapter of the Basic Set. (I have a deep fascination with both transparent substances and polyhedral solids. Maybe it's an autistic thing.) I'm sure the gelatinous cube is one of, if not THE, first monsters to arise from the conventions of the game itself, specifically that of the 10'x10'x10' corridors seen on almost all dungeon maps. What better size and shape to roam those corridors scouring them clean of delicious organic detritus? So the head janitor of ruins and catacombs came into being. As one would expect, gelatinous cubes are pretty squishy, with an Armor Clas...

 In medieval times, they were architectural flourishes, placed on pillars and rooftops as silent guardians against evil spirits. In D&D, they tend to be evil themselves, or at least Chaotic and hostile. They're gargoyles, from the Basic Set. Protect your outdoor statue-monsters with Garg-Oil! From the makers of Min-Wax minotaur conditioner. Gargoyles are immediately stated to be magical monsters which save as Fighter:8. While that's a significant bit of information, it's far from the most interesting thing about them and the saving throw is readily evident in the stat block. It really seems as if Tom Moldvay struggled a lot in coming up with opening sentences for monster descriptions. Anyway... Gargoyles can be harmed only by magic or magical weapons, which right away makes them a serious threat to Basic-level characters. Like their real-world inspiration, they are described as horned, clawed, fanged, winged, and hideous, with skin that often looks exactly like stone, s...