CULLED MONSTERS of BX: A ~30 min of effort response to a Twitter post

The below are 40 monsters I think are the most interesting monsters in BX straight from the list. I think oftentimes the best monsters are those you make up yourself, but sometimes I enjoy the exercise of working with specific constraints. For comparison, here is False Machine's Top 10 Emblematic Monsters of D&D

  1. Ape, White - four-armed scary bear
  2. Basilisk- Tomb of the Serpent King & Mork Borg make them cool again
  3. Giant Vampire Bat- maybe tackles PCs like a linebacker; sucks blood
  4. Oil Beetle- acid; minus HP and AC
  5. Tiger Beetle- underground predator
  6. Berserker- a better “orc”
  7. Caecilia- just feels kinda weird and maybe intelligent
  8. Cave Locust- more bizarre “alarm creature”
  9. Chimera- always feels fun; just put anything together
  10. Giant crocodile- better than a lazy dragon; weirdly will feel more fresh than one
  11. Cyclops- a classic and more interesting than giants; bigger too at 13 HD!
  12. Doppelgänger- always fun
  13. Dragon Turtle- better than a dragon really
  14. Driver Ant- weird cave insect
  15. Giant Rockfish- fun to put in shallows dungeon lakes
  16. Cloud Giant- live in cloud castle, maybe harries earth-bound cyclops for fun
  17. Amber Golem- maybe the “armor” of insect sorcerers inside
  18. Bronze Golem- molten fire for blood is fun
  19. Griffon- don’t see enough, eats horses and hirelings
  20. Harpy- also fun
  21. Hydra- DRAGON TERATOMA
  22. Invisible Stalker- whoever rolled that “sack of flour” as a starting item will be the hero
  23. Killer Bee- put them in a temple farmed by monks
  24. Crystal Living Statue- something I don’t see a lot; monster AND treasure
  25. Devil Swine- these are actually really good; capable shapeshifting, satanic, hypnotizing Ganons
  26. Wererats- only “armed” were-creature; better goblins
  27. Manticore- talky monster; also flys
  28. Medusa- talky monster; threatens the players
  29. Minotaur- better as a true cursed human
  30. Mummy- not often used undead; hurt by normal flame but did you bring enough
  31. Ochre Jelly- divides into smaller jellies, latch onto players
  32. Octopus, Giant- awesome since childhood
  33. Purple Worm- better dragon
  34. Rhagodessa- like the Caecillia; weird cave thing; intelligent; maybe trade hirelings for magic weapons
  35. Robber Fly- sounds fun
  36. Rust Monster- should be used more, bear sized, destroy weapons
  37. Salamander- better than fire elementals
  38. Crab Spider- spider things are fun
  39. Thoul- 2 for 1 troll and ghoul
  40. Wraith- alternative to litch or vampire; AND killed PCs come back!

Special mention: I like all the oozes, puddings, and jellies

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