What other games / properties have you borrowed monster designs from?

[Trustypeaches]

Sometimes the monster manual isn't enough: what are some examples of universes, mythologies, or specific pieces of fiction that you tend to borrow monster concepts or designs from?

For me, I've utilized plenty of monsters from the Witcher series: in particular I love their take on ghosts, vampires, and forest monstrosities (Leshen and Fiends).

[Yora]

Witcher comes to mind first. That series has a huge amount of monaters compared to anything that isn't D&D. And most of them have some decent background information what they are doing.
I made sirens by adding the harpy song ability and flight to a merrow.

And I got minecralwers, swampsharks, lurkers, and bloodflies from Gothic, though the last ones are just giant wasps.

The Predator makes a great fey hunter, with truesight and invisibility.

[Hears You]

WoW is the obvious one, I really like stealing the telegraphed environmental effects from boss fights.

Thogar's fight in the train depot is one I go back to a lot, where it's a sort of cramped arena with obvious areas where you shouldn't be that change from round to round. Like let the players see the "train" before the fight starts and the signals, at the end of each initiative count a bunch of damage happens to the marked area, and the warning for the next lights up. Sometimes it's a pattern so they know how to position to be optimal for a few rounds, other times its random, then I ham up rolling for which area is next.

A lot of other games have this as well, but it's also where I get a lot of my ideas for "ticking" timebomb sort of encounters, where if you can't stop something fast enough they get buffs/legendary actions/ start throwing AOE effects. The enrage time ports to non-bosses well too. Through some annoyingly tough barbarians among a pack of bandits. You'd probably want to hit the CR 1/4 thugs because action economy but telegraph that on say round three the brutes will enter a rage (control effects will delay this obviously).

I'm about to steal the Rezan fight as well. My players didn't get to it tonight, but they're gunning for it. The original fight is an arena with a T-rex in the middle, and bone piles, if the players move through a bone pile it animates into a skeleton. The t-rex can roar for a dissonant whispers effect causing players to set off bone piles.

The fight becomes about finding ways to negate the roar, or just positioning in a way so that you won't animate any skeletons.

Mobas like League are a pretty good one for stealing stuff too. Those characters often have simple one-two punch combos that become easy to read.

[Imbalance]

There is no shortage of inspiration.

Greek and Roman mythology have already heavily influenced D&D, and there is still plenty of untapped lore to borrow. The Aztec Quetzlcoatl, the Lambton Wyrm, the Mothman, the Zoraostrian Aeshma. Legend and myth from around the world provide a wealth of opportunity to add to your monster manual.

If you're already drawing ideas from video games, you can't ignore the SNES era. Final Fantasy, Ogre Battle, The Secret of Mana, The Illusion of Gaia, on and on. The first three installments of The Elder Scrolls are homebrew d20 modules.

Countless books, movies, comics, all ripe for the picking. Grab a Dr. Strange or Swamp Thing issue and there's bound to be something easily convertible. Any given episode of Grimm or Supernatural is practically a self-contained one shot with an ample setting. A long time ago I heard about someone running a campaign based on Misfits of Science.

Just because a Sarlacc encounter is cliché doesn't mean it's not fun to play out. Tribbles are trouble in any universe. A flying carpet stuck in a Whomping Willow is a bad time, but not soon forgotten.

[manyslayer]

I put my party up against puppy-monkey-babies in an Xcrawl once. Does that count?

https://thebigmamablog.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/puppy-monkey-babyjpg-d1cde07fec572842.jpg

[Trustypeaches]

Witcher comes to mind first. That series has a huge amount of monaters compared to anything that isn't D&D. And most of them have some decent background information what they are doing.Yeah I particuarly like their variants of "ghosts": Noonwraiths, Nightwraiths, Plague Maidens, Spectres, Ethereals, Hyms.

I think they all have a lot of flavor and serve as a great example for creating your own custom ghosts with unique traits and origins.

[Jophiel]

From Everquest, I have their version of kobolds (straight-up little dog men instead of any draconic trace), the Burynai (badger guys who get into ancient crypts, wizard towers, etc and plunder their dark secrets) and the Chetari (rat guys who consume the corpses of dragons and gnaw their bones to gain magical power).

[awa]

WoW is the obvious one, I really like stealing the telegraphed environmental effects from boss fights.

Thogar's fight in the train depot is one I go back to a lot, where it's a sort of cramped arena with obvious areas where you shouldn't be that change from round to round. Like let the players see the "train" before the fight starts and the signals, at the end of each initiative count a bunch of damage happens to the marked area, and the warning for the next lights up. Sometimes it's a pattern so they know how to position to be optimal for a few rounds, other times its random, then I ham up rolling for which area is next.

A lot of other games have this as well, but it's also where I get a lot of my ideas for "ticking" timebomb sort of encounters, where if you can't stop something fast enough they get buffs/legendary actions/ start throwing AOE effects. The enrage time ports to non-bosses well too. Through some annoyingly tough barbarians among a pack of bandits. You'd probably want to hit the CR 1/4 thugs because action economy but telegraph that on say round three the brutes will enter a rage (control effects will delay this obviously).

I'm about to steal the Rezan fight as well. My players didn't get to it tonight, but they're gunning for it. The original fight is an arena with a T-rex in the middle, and bone piles, if the players move through a bone pile it animates into a skeleton. The t-rex can roar for a dissonant whispers effect causing players to set off bone piles.

The fight becomes about finding ways to negate the roar, or just positioning in a way so that you won't animate any skeletons.

Mobas like League are a pretty good one for stealing stuff too. Those characters often have simple one-two punch combos that become easy to read.

Those intrigue me, if you dont mind i would enjoy some more examples of this in wow or other games.

[Trustypeaches]

Those intrigue me, if you dont mind i would enjoy some more examples of this in wow or other games.
Some examples of interesting boss mechanics from WoW:

While in Line of Sight of the Boss, the player builds up [DEBUFF] stacks. If [DEBUFF] hits [X] stacks, [HORRIBLE OUTCOME]. If no one is in Line of Sight of the Boss, it uses [NUKE MOVE] dealing enormous damage. Party must manage keeping someone in Line of Sight at all times to prevent [NUKE MOVE] while not letting any single players [DEBUFF] stacks get too high.

The Boss is healed every turn by four [MINIONS], making it nearly impossible to kill through damage. The [MINION] can be destroyed with enough damage, but will resurrect after [TIME] if any other [MINION] is still alive. Players must time the destruction of all four [MINIONs] at roughly the same time or defeating the boss is impossible. Once all 4 [MINIONS] are destroyed, the boss changes behavior.

Boss summons a [MINION] at intervals throughout the fight. Boss will either chase the minion, or kill it after a certain time. If the Boss kills the [MINION], they receive a large [BUFF]. Players must kill the [MINION] quickly.

Three bosses each take turns holding a [MACGUFFIN]. Each boss has distinct behavior and abilities. While holding the [MACGUFFIN] a boss gains access powerful attacks and pose a major threat, but is vulnerable to taking damage. While not holding the [MACGUFFIN], a boss posse little threat with minor passive effects and weak attacks, but is highly resistant to damage. Only one boss can hold the [MACGUFFIN] at a time. The bosses rotate possession of the [MACGUFFIN] randomly unless players intervene. However, if a player holds the [MACGUFFIN] they take heavy damage each turn. Players must manage the [MACGUFFIN] to disrupt the Boss's strategies.

Boss banishes players to a different realm, where they take heavy damage each turn until they accomplish a specific task: kill an enemy, interact with an object, find a portal, etc. Alternatively, a Boss banishes a single player to a different realm, and the other players take heavy damage each turn until the banished player accomplishes a specific task.

I sort of abstracted the mechanics so it's clear you could apply this to a wide variety of monsters and enemy encounters, thematically.

[Amdy_vill]

Sometimes the monster manual isn't enough: what are some examples of universes, mythologies, or specific pieces of fiction that you tend to borrow monster concepts or designs from?

For me, I've utilized plenty of monsters from the Witcher series: in particular I love their take on ghosts, vampires, and forest monstrosities (Leshen and Fiends).

SG1, GoT, Fallout, Witcher, Buffy, Hellsing, DC comics, and some stuff from devil may cry. mostly undead and devils.

[Man_Over_Game]

Those intrigue me, if you dont mind i would enjoy some more examples of this in wow or other games.

Take a look at some of the DnD 4e mechanics. Pretty much the entire game revolved around these kinds of concepts that focused on an interactive combat scenario.

[Trustypeaches]

Take a look at some of the DnD 4e mechanics. Pretty much the entire game revolved around these kinds of concepts that focused on an interactive combat scenario.oooh I might check it out too.

[Mr_Fixler]

I don't think I will ever stop cribbing material from Thief:The Dark Project and Theif II The Metal Age.

Technology vs Nature. The "Law" faction is oppressive zealots, the "Freedom" faction is dangerous as heck, and the Neutral faction is actively keeping the truth hidden from the world.

Shades of grey with no obvious answers? I'm in!

[Jinxed_K]

JRPGs are definitely a source I always looked to when I needed a little something extra beyond the monster manual.

I’ve also drawn inspiration from fantasy strategy games like Fire Emblem, Feda, Langrisser, or Shining Force for custom class options as well.

[Trustypeaches]

I've definitely taken a lot of inspiration from other titles when it comes to Angels and the Fey.

I particularly like Bayonetta's take on angels as monstrous statuesque creature with unnervingly organic insides.

[Laserlight]

My first 5e campaign was set in AD1600 Belize, with monsters from Mayan and Aztec mythology, plus a Navajo skinwalker who had come down from the north. Plus a little cthulhoid stuff when they looked through the holes in the sky left by falling stars.

[DarkKnightJin]

I may or may not have been thinking about the Ghost Rider when I made a Minotaur Skeleton and Flaming Skull combo..

[Ninja_Prawn]

JRPGs are definitely a source I always looked to

Me too. I actually keep a log of where I get my monster ideas from, and so far the scores on the doors look like:

Previous versions of D&D: 31
Strategy games: 20
Real life & real-world mythology: 18
JRPGs: 15
Cartoons: 11
Original ideas not stolen from anywhere else: 11
Anime: 9
Other video games: 5
Webcomics: 2
Songs: 2
Warhammer 40k: 1
Pathfinder: 1
That's not every monster I've ever written, but it's a good enough cross section to be representative.

[Deadfire182]

Something I thought would be pretty cool is adding monsters from Monster Hunter or Evolve into the game. I can draw a couple neat concepts already for a party vs Nergigante vs Goliath

[Pex]

My intro adventure to my campaign is Night of the Living Dead. The party starts at the graveyard visiting the grave of one PC's grandfather and eventually reach The House. Of course there's an uncooperative jerk NPC in the basement with a wife and sick daughter.

Another adventure they fight the Children of the Corn. First they have to fight a Scarecrow, Tin Man (Helmed Horror) and a Dire Lion in the cornfield. Later they engage the children, bards named Greg, Marcia, Peter, Jan, Bobby, and Cindy led by a cleric named Oliver.

[Particle_Man]

I once had the pcs run around a maze that had floating lights, being chased by a giant yellow monster that ate the lights as it travelled after them. PAC-MAN!