Shack Chat: What's your favorite DnD creature?

Earlier this week Baldur’s Gate 3 launched into its Early Access phase much to the delight of fantasy-RPG gaming fans everywhere. And we here at Shacknews are not immune to the hype. While not everyone in the crew is necessarily a tabletop role-player, we’ve all experienced at least one or two games in a similar realm. With that being said, we thought we’d do a bit of a creature feature this week and find out what DnD monsters are our staff’s number ones. And if you happen to have a favorite of your own, be sure to share it in the Chatty thread.

Question: What’s your favorite DnD creature?

The Mind Flayer - Ozzie Mejia, Senior Editor

Ooh! Look at this Cthulhu-looking dude. I'm a sucker for these kinds of tentacle monsters and I'm not even a hentai guy or anything. They're like a horrifying Borg, where if you get assimilated, you become a squid man. Resistance is futile. And that Baldur's Gate 3's first announcement trailer led with this guy is pretty neat.

The Gelatinous Cube - Donovan Erskine, Never Dungeoned or Dragoned

I’ve never played D&D, but I really want to. From what I’ve seen in watching others play, or in other forms of pop culture, is that the Gelatinous Cube is a force to be reckoned with. In a universe filled with terrifying and menacing monsters, I love that there is a literal cube that can pose just as much of a threat as a fire-breathing dragon.

A friggin’ Dragon - Blake Morse, Level 5 Half-Elf Wizard

I feel like maybe this one is a tidbit obvious. There are plenty of awesome creatures in the DnD world, but there’s only beast who appears in the game’s title. Dragons are huge and extremely difficult to kill. They spend most of their time sleeping and hoarding gold when they’re not roaming the countryside burninating villagers and what have you. It sounds like a pretty sweet life, even if you do have to deal with the occasional campaign party trying to kill you and take your heart or some other BS. I’m honestly not sure why everyone else didn’t go with dragons too.

Bone Devil - Chris Jarrard, What is this nerd crap?

Assuming this is a safe space, I’m going to admit something that could ruin my credibility with hip internet types — I’ve never played Dungeons and Dragons and don’t really know anything about it. As I need to select my favorite creature as per this week’s discussion, I found a compendium of beasts from which to make my selection.

As I scrolled down through the list, my eyes stopped on the obvious choice: Bone Devil. Hell yeah, man. This is what they used to call me in high school. No, they didn’t.

Doppelganger - Sam Chandler, The Good Twin

Doppelgangers are delightfully creepy. A creature that can morph into a humanoid that it has seen? What better way to infiltrate organizations and otherwise create a bit of chaos among the party.

Then there’s the fact it can read minds. Like, what? Not only can it look like someone in power, but it can understand the thoughts of someone it’s talking to. That’s a super powerful monster, to be sure. When reading thoughts, it gets an advantage over its target, which certainly makes it rather formidable.

Owlbear - Bill Lavoy, Faithful Cartographer

Look, I don’t know anything about D&D, so my answer comes from a Google search, but that’s all I needed. Owls and bears are cool on their own. In fact, bears are one of my favorite animals. The minute that I saw this creature, I was sold. The Owlbear is far and away my favorite creature in D&D, and I don’t even need to see the full roster to say that with confidence.

Owlbear - TJ Denzer, Newsbear

There are so many cool things in Dungeons & Dragons. So many dungeons… so many dragons… But the one creature that always springs up first in my mind when it comes to my favorites is the Owlbear. Quite simply half-owl and half-bear, these 8 to 12-foot-tall critters are chock-full of musclefluff and beaky bearhugs. And you’re probably in trouble if you end up on the wrong side of that bearhug situation because besides squeezing the life out of you, they can rapidly peck with their big owl face. So why the heck do I find them so endearing? Listen, I’m a fan of bears. I love them. I tune in every year to Fat Bear Week (incidentally last week), and despite knowing that they are hundreds of pounds of deadly muscle, claws, and teeth, I will not be told that I also can’t like and respect these snuggly-looking killing machines.

The same goes for the Owlbear with the sidenote that I’m also all about birds and their quirky habits. In the case of a lot of avians, the Owlbear included, they are fiercely loyal to one other that they care about as their companion. SO! The way I see it, a terrifying Owlbear COULD be a best friend. You’d just have to catch it early… and probably couldn’t have any other friends if you’re not a fan of friends being eaten by Owlbears. But… sometimes you just gotta make sacrifices in life if you really want something.

Mind Flayer - David L. Craddock, long reads editor

The mind flayer--illithid to its friends--is one of the coolest-looking and coolest characters in terms of concept in D&D lore. With the body of a man and the head of an octopus, mind flayers seem right at home among eldritch horrors from the likes of H. P. Lovecraft. My favorite incarnation comes from Demon’s Souls, where the flayers guarding the Tower of Latria alert you to their presence by ringing handbells. Far from boosting my confidence, the jingle of those bells makes my hands break out in a cold sweat.

Giant Spiders - Greg Burke, Head of Video

There are a ton of monsters, minions and creatures in the D&D universe, but I have to go with the classic Giant Spiders. Spiders, whether the size of a nickel, or big like the size of a dinner plate look terrifying. They move slow, but can dart extremely fast. So there's nothing more terrifying than one that's the same size as you or even bigger. I think they make great enemies to face off against. They are gross, scary, and poinsious; a perfect combo.

Death Dog-Steve Tyminski, Contributing Editor

What is my favorite Dungeons and Dragons creature? I think I’ll have to pick the Death Dog as my favorite. It’s a two-headed dog that looks like a wolf; how cool is that? If I don’t want to mess around with one of the heads, I’ll move onto the other. It also acts similarly to a real canine by wanting to eat meat as well as its spit being something you don’t want to get in contact with. Having two heads allows for multi-attacks and that’s always a good thing, if it's on your side.