*the Will o' Wisp was famously left on the cutting room floor, although not removed from the header for the section
It's been a challenge to design creatures for character levels 15-25. Some avenues were easily explored; for example, the dragons in the BASIC Set are the small ones. The 'large' and 'huge' versions are simply 1 1/2 and 2 times their size, with some extra attacks (claw/ claw/bite AND wing/kick/tail...) that a lot of gamers requested (you see, we DO listen to you!). Gargantuan monsters are just the usual ones (like carrion crawler and troll) but bigger, and have been very popular in the playtesting. In examining the Undead, I found several mythological niches that hadn't been explored, which gave rise to the Haunts (Banshee, Ghost, and Poltergeist), Phantoms(Apparition, Shade, and Vision), and Spirits (Druj, Odic, and Revenant). Beware — they're very, very nasty.
Frank Mentzer, Imagine #18 (September, 1984)
The creatures include Beholders and Blast Spores, larger versions of Dragons, a couple of brand new monsters (Drolem, Gargantua), nine powerful new Undead, several new monsters from previous modules (X2, X4, X5, X7, M1, M2) including a full description of the manscorpion appearing in X4, and a few from Cook/Marsh that didn't make it into Mentzer Expert.
Illustration by Jeff Easley
Prime Plane:
Apparition - a form of Undead (see Phantom)
Banshee - a form of Undead (see Haunt); the earlier version from B4 was designated as a "Lesser" Banshee in AC9
Beholder (from Greyhawk)
Blast Spore (from AD&D 1e Monster Manual)
Dolphin (from Blackmoor; X7)
Dragon - Large and Huge versions of those in the D&D Basic Set
Dragon Turtle - from OD&D vol. 3/AD&D 1e Monster Manual; Cook/Marsh
Drolem - a dragon-golem
Druj - a form of Undead (see Spirit)
Gargantua (Carrion Crawler, Gargoyle, Troll) - huge versions of smaller monsters, the products of research of the mad wizard Gargantua (from CM1)
Ghost - a form of Undead (see Haunt)
Golem, Mud (from X2)
Golem, Obsidian (from M2)
Grab Grass (from X2)
Gremlin (from X2)
Haunt (Banshee, Ghost, Poltergeist); the earlier version from B7 was designated as a "Lesser" Haunt in AC9
Malfera (from X5)
Manscorpion (based on appearance in X4)
Manta Ray (Normal, Giant) - from Blackmoor; X7
Mujina (from X5)
Odic - a form of Undead (see Spirit)
Phantom (Apparition, Shade, Vision)
Poltergeist - a form of Undead (see Haunt)
Revenant - a form of Undead (see Spirit)
Rock or Cave Toad (from M1)
Shade - a form of Undead (see Phantom)
Shark (Bull, Mako, Great White) - from Cook/Marsh; similar to Sharks in the AD&D 1e Monster Manual; Wereshark (from Holmes)
Snow Ape (from M1)
Spectral Hound (from X5)
Spirit (Druj, Odic, Revenant)
Vision - a form of Undead (see Phantom)
Weasel, Giant - from Greyhawk/AD&D 1e Monster Manual; Cook/Marsh
Whales (Killer, Narwhal, Sperm) - from Cook/Marsh; - similar to Whales in the AD&D 1e Monster Manual
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