Make Your Own Malevolent Monsters

Its fun to be a mad scientist...

When I was younger, I would sit for hours looking through the books, and always trying to come up with weird and wild creatures from the depths of my mind. the Fiend Folio was an example of weird and warped creatures build on strange ideas

When I skim through the old tome that TSR gave us, I see many weird monsters. They aren’t polished or perfect, some are clumsy and make no sense. Some are even down right silly, but they do feel alive. Why? Because someone cared enough to design it up, give it a name, a quick and a reason to be there.

This approach can still work at your table. If you’re running an OSR game, try this method to create “malevolent and benign” creatures of your own:

1. Start with a simple image. Maybe it’s a hunched shadow with too many arms, or a crab that laughs when the tide goes out. Don’t overthink it.

2. Pick one odd behavior. Does it freeze when spotted? Does it steal only shiny copper coins? Does it whisper advice to sleeping adventurers?

3. Add a twist to its danger. A bite that drains heat instead of blood. A scream that deafens but doesn’t harm. Details like this stick in your players’ minds.

4. Make it slightly flawed. My favorite old monsters had weaknesses that made them feel fair. Maybe fire makes it panic, or it can only attack at night.

I went through this last week and I came up with a weird “Candle Leech”, a creature that looks like a slug and feeds on torchlight. If the party doesn’t notice it clinging to their lantern, the darkness creeps in behind them. They never saw the thing until it was too late.

If you write down three or four of these creatures, you’ll have your own Fiend Factory—ready to surprise even the most jaded adventurers.

Just something to chew on.