Quote Originally Posted by Talakeal View Post
Is this not normal?

I personally have (almost) never played under a DM in any system that didnt make heavy use of homebrew monsters and / or templates, and most modules I have read have atleast one unique monster with some sort of gimmick.
The thing is, your group really dislikes those gimmicks. And they might have a reason to : Puzzle monsters may be fun to figure out, but it's very difficult to make an informed choice about what is at stake (what is the risk, do we have any reason to go against that thing, how can we avoid it, etc...) if you're going against an unknown value.
And roleplaying is all about making informed choice.

So maybe run them against pretty known monsters for a time? An orc warlord and its goons are less funky than magical beasties, but it can be pretty satisfying if you "build up" his ingame reputation enough and have the players anticipate the fight.
And if they go against things they don't know, drop enough hints so that they have a pretty clear idea of the danger it poses and the kind of fight they're heading into, or what kind of "out" they have if the thing tears them apart.

Give them more information, even if you have to drop them OOC. Your players don't trust you enough for you to rely on the usual "trust me, it'll be awesome" social contract that most GMs use. Do not use "gotcha" monsters or events, unless you telegraphed them miles ahead.