DMR2 Creature Catalog - A

Recently, I've started listening to the Monster Man podcast, which is about monsters, because monsters are great. 

He's right and that reminds me to try and break out of my blog-based doldrums with a long-postponed look at the Creature Catalog from 1993.

DMR2 Creature Catalog updates the 1986 AC9 Creature Catalogue, to complement the Rules Cyclopedia with all the bits of BECMI they wanted to keep. 

Both CCs cover a lot of monsters from existing modules and accessories. I had a passing familiarity with a fair slice already from their inclusion in the stats-only monster jam in the BECMI Master DM's book, and I realise retrospectively that CC has a lot in common with the 1e AD&D MM2 (which I went over back at the start of 2021): it brings together monsters from various scattered sources (inc. modules) and fills in a few gaps; both also expand on the encounter tables. 

AC9 was arranged by monster type, DMR2 alphabetically - making it an easier read. 

The CCs, especially DMR2, are effectively Mystara bestiaries, although they also provide some of the classic/generic AD&D monsters missing from BECMI. Some of the monsters survive into 2e AD&D, updated in the Mystara and Savage Coast supplements, but rarely expanded significantly.

These are personal takes, reflecting personal taste, and I tend downplay/outright ignore features such as Alignment, Intelligence, Number Appearing and Treasure Type - if they catch my eye this time round, I'll comment.

If you've read the MM2 posts, you'll have some idea about how I'll approach certain monsters, and that I'm an advocate of reskinning and transplanting mechanics.

* indicates the monster wasn't in the original AC9.

Amber Lotus Flower.

Lovely flowers that spray you with sleep pollen. Often in symbiosis with other plant monsters so they can all share in the decomposing adventurers.

An environmental hazard that can be cultivated by intelligent creatures for their own purposes. That you can attack and kill with weapons.

I'd make them as something that grows on some Undead - principally, Mummies and Zombies, or just replace with save vs. poison sleep spells that can beat the HD/hp limit through concentration/numbers,

Amoeba, Giant.

A 10 to 15 HD fried egg-looking ooze monster with an acidic touch. Implied auto-surprise without going into mechanical details. Attacks by enveloping victims, also no mechanics.

Just use the abilities of other oozes, slimes and jellies, or any other suitable mechanics.

Animal, Prehistoric.

Baluchitherium, Giant Elk, Grangeri, Hyenodon, Megatherium, Phororachos and Titanothere.

None of them even have any special abilities, and the Phororachos is yet another 3 HD flightless bird. The vernacular name of sword beak so maybe that there's something to play with as a pun-monster along with the Axe Beak and Club Nek.

Giant Elks could be Fomorian mounts/ beasts of burden, because I like the image.

1e MM versions:

• Baluchitherium has more HD, scores more damage, and has better AC, but only just and that because of the 9 vs. 10 base AC difference between systems.
• Hyena, Giant (Hyaenodon) is statistically the same.
• Titanothere has worse AC and slightly more detailed and harder-hitting attacks.

Annelid, Great.*

25-50 HD and up to 2000' of segmented worm monster (compare with Leviathan, Desert & Marine). Eats the rock it burrows through. Being immune to heat and pressure damage also gives them a little bit of a sci-fi/alien fauna gloss. Of course it can swallow you whole.

It's apparently native to the Prime Plane, but it attracts Earth Elementals (and presumably similar extra-planars) by deception, paralyses them and then lays eggs in them.

Weird. 

Updated for 2e, there's more detail on what happens when it swallows you and acknowledgement of the wider range of prey-elementals.

Aranea.

Intelligent spell-casting spiders able to use tools with their handible-mandibles

Sparse description. Only details of their habits/society is that they spend most of their time in magical research.

Instantly likeable. They're updated to something like a Neutral Werespider Spidertaur in 2e, which is also pretty cool.

Archer Bush.

Basically a special ability that I'd use to make a Needleman if there wasn't already a Needleman. Or as an alternative for Porcupine and Manticore spines.

They're very slow moving and have a toothy maw. Presumably they shuffle over to your still-twitching corpse and gobble it up, or maybe you can try and satisfy them by throwing dead monster bits into their eating-holes - if you don't decide to reskin them as a variation on Shriekers and Violet Fungi.

Ash Crawler.

A kind of hog/rat that lives near fire (which it is protective of) and burrows cheerfully in the build-up of ash, mostly eating small animals. Basically, an almost-fire elemental badger or capybara. Has flaky grey shedding skin and natural fire resistance.

If provoked or otherwise on the attack, it locks its jaws after biting and make auto-hits with its claws until you inflict at least 5 hp damage against it. 

In its ashy lair, it gets a decent cover bonus to its AC and saves (something you should consider giving to aquatics vs. land-lubbers, if they don't already get it). The ash layer is described as being particularly deep, so adventurers would need to make a special effort to expose it (and I suppose you could also penalise them for kicking up hot dusty clouds along the way).

It's also got a prehensile tail for dragging you into/under the ash. Penalties to attack and AC, but no hit point loss or threat of suffocation.

One that I overlooked first time round, but really like now. 

Taking the elemental route, this is a supernatural/spirit being that dwells in the generational ashpits of Stone Age cultures - an ancestor of the cosy hearth spirits to come. Reskinned, you've got the thing out of the Death Star trash compactor if you prefer. Would also transplant well to Athas, with or without psionics. Or in a quasi-realistic fantasy ecology, it would probably be found in dragon lairs.

It's got Bugbear equivalent stats, but is basically a Giant Rat so you could stat it downwards, particularly for inclusion in lower level games. Use the inimitable Giant Shrew for a more horrific challenge, leaping screeching at your throat from beneath the shifting ash and clinker.

Survives into 2e, but its bite goes from 2d4 to 1d2 and we get some details about making its hide into fire-resistant leather armour. 

Or we could meet myth and science in the middle and declare the Ash Crawler's hide to be a form of asbestos, with the hazards that go along with that.

What Was Left Out - Agarat.

Non-paralysing Ghoul with a scream attack that temporarily drains your levels.

Can't think of any particular reason why this was dropped, unless it was that howling/screaming Ghouls was thought to be distinctively a Glorantha/RQ thing. 

However, it is given another chance in 2e, gaining a double-strength Greater variant as leader types.

The temporary energy drain is an interesting idea, as you don't know that it is at first.