Monster Manual: Formian to Giant

This time around, I'm going to get through the 'F' monsters and as many of the 'G's as I can. The first one on our list is the Formians. These are another refugee monster group from Planescape (they are Outsiders), and there are five varieties of them listed here: Workers (Small, 1 HD, CR 1/2), Warriors (Medium, 4 HD, CR 3), Taskmasters (Medium, 6 HD, CR 7), Myrmarchs (Large, 12 HD, CR 10), and the Queen (Large, 20 HD, CR 18). So...the queen is tougher than a pit fiend? She doesn't even have any attacks! All formians are immune to poison, petrification, and cold, and they all have 20 resistance to fire, electricity, and sonic attacks. The workers also have the ability to fix things...and people. That's handy. Warriors have a poison sting; taskmasters can use dominate person, and always have at least one dominated creature accompanying them. The myrmarchs are the elites, and have the same poison sting as the warriors while also having several spell-like abilities. Finally, there's the queen, who casts spells as a 17th-level sorcerer (giving her access to 9th-level spells), as well as several law-based spell-like abilities. She's also telepathic, and like all her subordinates, is always lawful neutral. All formians can advance, with the queen getting all the way up to 40 HD and Gargantuan size. Have fun with that.

Frost worms appear to be new to 3rd edition. They are Huge Magical Beasts with the Cold subtype, and are obviously found anywhere cold. They have 14 HD and a CR of 12, as well as a nasty bite that does 2d6+12 damage. They have the ability to emit a sonic attack that forces its prey to stand motionless, making it easy to eat. They also generate extreme cold from their bodies, giving their attacks an additional 1d8 cold damage each time they hit. As if that wasn't enough, they have a breath weapon, a 30-foot cone of cold that does 15d6 damage, and if you're busy being hypnotized by its sonic trill attack, guess what? You don't get a saving throw. And even killing them is dangerous, since they turn to ice and explode for 12d6 cold and 8d6 piercing damage to everyone within 100 feet, requiring a DC 22 Reflex save for half damage. And they can advance to Gargantuan size and 42 HD.

Finally, we have two types of fungi: Shriekers and violet fungi. Shriekers originally appeared in The Strategic Review #3 all the way back in 1975. Violet fungi appeared in the original Monster Manual. Shriekers are Medium-sized Plants with 2 HD and a CR of 1 despite having no attacks and no abilities other than their shriek, which goes off whenever there's movement or light within 10 feet of them. It doesn't hurt, but it does attract attention from any wandering monsters. Some monsters use shriekers as a warning system. Why not? Shriekers can advance to 3 HD, but what would be the point? Violet fungi look like shriekers now, but in fact they have additional tentacles that do poison damage in addition to their normal damage. And they can advance to 6 HD.

And that's it for the 'F' monsters. Moving into the 'G' section, we start with the classic Gargoyle. A 1974 original, this is a Medium-size Magical Beast with the Earth subtype. They have 4 HD and a CR of 4, thanks to their impressive damage reduction and their speed in the air. You aren't outrunning a flying gargoyle. They can also hold themselves so still as to appear to be statues, requiring a DC 20 Spot check to notice that they are alive. They can advance to 12 HD as Large creatures. They can be found anywhere, including underwater and underground.

Next we have the Genies. These are Outsiders with subtypes corresponding to their elemental plane of origin and their alignment. Two of these, the Djinni (Air, Large, chaotic good, 7 HD, CR 5) and the Efreeti (Fire, Large, lawful evil, 10 HD, CR 8), are 1974 originals. The other, the Janni (Medium, 6 HD, CR 4), has no subtype, although they are still outsiders. The janni originally appeared in Dragon magazine before being officially added in the Monster Manual II. The janni are the weaklings of the genies, usually found on the Prime Material Plane. They do have some spell-like abilities and can survive on any of the elemental planes for up to 48 hours before taking damage. They fight with weapons (usually scimitars and longbows), and wear armor. They can advance up to 18 HD, growing to Large size.

Djinni are...well, they aren't quite Robin Williams in Aladdin. But they do have some nice spell-like abilities which work at 20th level, and they are immune to acid. They can also transform into a whirlwind, which will catch up smaller creatures and hurt quite a bit. Djinni can advance to 21 HD (Huge size), and some of them (1% chance) are "noble" djinni and can indeed grant three wishes...if you can capture one. Good luck with that.

The efreeti, meanwhile, are pretty much like Jafar in the Aladdin sequel. Don't pretend you never watched it. These lawful evil outsiders consider the fabled City of Brass as their homeland, and they have even more spell-like abilities than the djinni, although theirs are only cast at the 18th level. They constantly generate enough heat to do an additional 1d6 points of fire damage whenever they hit in melee or grapple. They also have the fire subtype, of course. In general, efreeti are tougher than djinni, but they don't fly as fast and aren't quite as intelligent. They can, however, advance to Huge size with up to 30 HD.

The ghoul is next; they are part of the original 1974 game. Ghasts came later, debuting in the Monster Manual. However, this one also appeared in the 2000 Survival Kit, and nothing has really changed; there are ghouls, there are ghasts, they are undead, they paralyze you, they eat you, they live in graveyards and the like. What more do you really need to know, other than ghouls have 2 HD and a CR of 1, while ghasts have 4 HD and a CR of 3? Oh, and they can advance a little bit. Ghouls can go all the way up to 3 HD, while ghasts can reach the dizzying heights of 6 HD. Yay.

Ah, giants. And yes, it is the classic six types, five of which are originals while the sixth, the storm giant, first appeared in Greyhawk. So, we have hill giants (Large, 12 HD, CR 7), stone giants (Large, 14 HD, CR 8), frost giants (Large, 14 HD, CR 9), fire giants (Large, 14 HD, CR 10), cloud giants (Huge, 17 HD, CR 11), and storm giants (Huge, 19 HD, CR 13). These haven't changed all that much from their original appearance. They're a bit tougher, sure, but so is everything else in this edition. And for advancement, they all advance by character class. So you can have a hill giant barbarian, or a cloud giant wizard raining down destruction and despair from its cloud castle. Fun stuff, isn't it? We also get a brief writeup on giant society, as well as a random table (pleasant sigh...) detailing what is in the bags these giants are always carrying.

And that will do it for tonight; I'll finish off the 'G' section next time. But that's another 20 monsters, bringing our running total to 155. In the meantime, sleep well and good gaming!