Neutral Monsters

in Old-School Essentials Classic Fantasy

• Air Elemental - Huge vortexes of whirling air
• Ape, White - Albino, herbivorous, gorilla-like apes that live in caves and emerge at night to forage
• Arachnid, Giant Tarantella - Huge, hairy, nocturnal arachnid carnivores with large heads and mandibles and 10 legs
• Baluchitherium - Giant (12' at the shoulder), ancient relatives of the rhinoceros, with massive, blunt horns
• Bandit - NPC thieves who live by robbery
• Basilisk - 10' long, serpentine lizards. Unintelligent, but highly magical
• Berserker - Fighters who enter a rage in battle. They never take prisoners.
• Black Bear - 6' tall; favour eating berries and roots
• Black Pudding - Amorphous creature that lives only to eat, scouring underground areas for organic matter
• Black Widow - 6' long, black spiders with a red hourglass pattern on their abdomens
• Blue Dragon - Favour open plains and deserts
• Boar - Bad-tempered wild swine covered in coarse, grayish-black fur
• Buccaneer - Sailors who make a living by raiding coastal settlements and robbing other ships
• Caecilia - Gigantic (30' long), grey, worm-like amphibians, with huge, toothed maws
• Camel - Irascible animals that are adapted to life in dry climates
• Carrion Crawler - 9' long, 3' high, many-legged, segmented worms with a ring of 2' long tentacles around their mouths
• Cave Bear - Ferocious, 15' tall grizzly bears found in caves and Lost World settings
• Centaur - Half man, half horse creatures that are haughty, aloof, but very honorable
• Centipede, Giant - Larger versions of normal centipedes, 2 to 3 feet long, fast-moving predatory venomous arthropods
• Cloud Giant - Aggressive, 20' tall humanoids with skin and hair ranging from grey to white
• Cockatrice - A strange creature appearing to be a chicken with a long serpentine neck and tail
• Crab Spider - 5' long hunting spiders that can change their colour to match their surroundings
• Dire Wolf - Efficient pack hunters that will kill anything they can catch
• Displacer Beast - Large, black, six-legged, semi-intelligent monsters. Look similar to panthers with a tentacle growing from each front shoulder
• Djinni - Humanoid creatures from the Elemental Plane of Air
• Doppelganger - Intelligent, human-sized shape-shifters of wicked character and highly magical nature
• Draco - 6' long, carnivorous lizards with skin flaps between legs that enable gliding
• Draft Horse - Bred for great strength and endurance. Used to pull vehicles and ploughs or as beasts of burden
• Dragon Turtle - Massive aquatic creatures up to 200 feet long, occasionally mistaken for rocky outcroppings or small islands
• Dryad - Female nature spirits mystically bound to enormous oak trees
• Dwarf - Short, stocky, bearded demihumans who dwell in mountains and subterranean realms
• Earth Elemental - Huge, humanoid figures of earth or stone
• Elephant - Massive herbivores with valuable ivory tusks
• Elf - Slender, fey demihumans with pointed ears. Live in harmony with nature, in beautiful natural settings.
• Fire Beetle - 2½' long. Commonly found underground
• Fire Elemental - Whirling columns of fire
• Gecko - 5' long, carnivorous, nocturnal lizards with light blue scales and orange spots
• Gelatinous Cube - Nearly transparent cube that travels dungeon corridors absorbing carrion, creatures, and trash
• Giant Ant - Giant (6' long), omnivorous, black ants
• Giant Aquatic Termite - Giant (1'–5' long), wood-eating, aquatic insects with a sack to take in and jet out water
• Giant Bass - Shy fish that only attack when seeing a bite-size morsel
• Giant Catfish - 15' long, pale white fish with four feelers that lurk in mud
• Giant Crab - Unintelligent crustaceans that lurk in coastal waters and creep along beaches
• Giant Crocodile - More than 50' long crocodile that will attack small ships
• Giant Ferret - 3' long ferrets that hunt giant rats in their burrows
• Giant Octopus - Giant, eight-armed cephalopods. Lurk in coastal waters, close to settlements.
• Giant Piranha - 5' long piranhas with black and green scales that attack anything in water
• Giant Rattler - 10' long snakes with brown and white diamond patterns on their scales, and a rattle of rasping scales on their tails
• Giant Rockfish - Spiny fish with lumpy, rock-like skin that live in saltwater shallows
• Giant Shrew - Brown-furred, mole-like, insectivores with long snouts. Dwell underground; skilled burrowers.
• Giant Squid - Giant, ten-armed cephalopods. Two of the ten arms are larger, and may be used to attack ships
• Giant Sturgeon - Huge aggressive fish with armour plating, nearly 30' long
• Giant Toad - Warty amphibians with long, sticky tongues. As large as a great hound, weighing 150 to 250 pounds.
• Giant Weasel - 8' to 9' long, vicious, predatory mammals with rich fur of brown, gold, or white
• Gnome - Small humanoids standing 3 to 3½ feet tall with tan to woody brown skin
• Golem, Amber - Amber golems are generally built to resemble lions or other great cats
• Golem, Bone* - Huge four-armed monsters created from the skeletons of at least two dead humanoids
• Golem, Bronze* - Ten-foot-tall bronze statue golem with molten metal interior
• Golem, Wood* - Small constructs not more than 4' in height, crudely made of wood
• Gorgon - Magical monsters resembling cattle made of iron
• Green Slime - Dripping, green slime that clings to walls and ceilings
• Grey Ooze - Slimy horrors that lurk on stone surfaces or among boulders
• Griffon - Large carnivorous creatures resembling lions with the head, foreclaws and wings of eagles
• Grizzly Bear - Aggressive, 9' tall. Silver-tipped fur, brown or reddish brown in colour
• Hawk - Raptors that prey on small creatures
• Hippogriff - Large flying horses with the forefront of a bird of prey
• Horned Chameleon - 7' long lizards whose scales change colour as camouflage
• Hydra - Reptile-like monsters with multiple heads, gray-brown to dark brown with light yellow or tan underbelly
• Insect Swarm - A large group of ordinary flying or crawling insects moving as a unit
• Invisible Stalker - Creatures native to the Elemental Plane of Air that serve wizards and sorcerers
• Killer Bee - Giant (1' long) bees of aggressive temperament. Build hives underground.
• Killer Whale - 25' long, carnivorous whales. Dwell in cold waters and hunt sea creatures (including other whales)
• Large Crocodile - 20' or more long crocodile that may attack small watercraft
• Large Herd Animal - Wild animals that live in large, grazing herds
• Leech, Giant - Slimy, segmented wormlike creatures which live in water
• Lion - Large cat found in grasslands and savannas with muscular bodies and prominent manes on males
• Lizardman - Semi-intelligent, tribal, aquatic humanoids with reptilian heads and tails
• Mastodon - Intelligent, aggressive prehistoric relatives of the elephant
• Medium Herd Animal - Wild animals that live in large, grazing herds
• Merchant - Organized traders who travel between settlements in well-armed caravans, buying and selling trade goods
• Merfolk - Aquatic humanoids with fish tails in place of legs. Live in coastal waters, farming seaweed and hunting fish
• Mountain Lion - Great cats about 7 feet long and 140 pounds that hunt day or night
• Mule - Stubborn horse/donkey cross-breeds used as beasts of burden
• Nixie - Small water fairies with pale green skin and dark green hair
• Nomad - Superstitious tribes who wander steppes and desert regions, living in tents or temporary huts
• Normal Crocodile - Large reptiles that are ungainly on land and live primarily in water
• Normal Wolf - Carnivorous relatives of dogs that hunt in packs
• Ochre Jelly - Giant, ochre amoeboids
• Oil Beetle - 3' long, burrowing beetles sometimes encountered below ground
• Owl Bear - Huge (8' tall, 1,500 pounds), ill-tempered, carnivorous bear-like creature with the face of an owl
• Panther - High-speed hunters that live in plains and forests
• Pit Viper - 5' long snakes with grey/green scales
• Polar Bear - Aggressive, white-furred bears that stand 11' tall and live in cold regions
• Pteranodon - Giant-sized pterodactyls with wingspans of 25 feet or more
• Pterodactyl - Prehistoric winged reptilian creatures with a wingspan of around 25 to 30 inches
• Purple Worm - Gigantic subterranean monsters with poisonous stingers
• Rat - Multitudinous, disease-ridden rodents that will eat anything
• Rhinoceros - Dim, armoured, herbivorous mammals
• Riding Horse - Lightly built horses adapted to run at high speed
• Robber Fly - 3' long, carnivorous flies with yellow and black stripes that hunt killer bees
• Roc - Giant eagle-like birds with dark brown or golden plumage
• Rock Baboon - Large, particularly intelligent variety of baboon that is omnivorous but prefers meat
• Rock Cricket - 2–3' long, herbivorous, giant crickets that dwell in caverns
• Rock Python - 20' long snakes with spiralling brown and yellow patterns on their scales
• Rust Monster - Strange monster built like a huge turtle with insectoid head and feather-like antennae
• Sabre-Toothed Tiger - Huge, aggressive cats with foot-long fangs. Normally only found in Lost World regions
• Salamander, Flame - Giant flaming serpent from the Elemental Plane of Fire with dragon-like head and lizard forelimbs
• Sea Dragon - Intelligent, aquatic dragons with green scales, fin-like wings, and a yellowish crest
• Sea Serpent - Serpentine monsters which live in the sea, ranging from 20' to 40' long
• Sea Snake - 6' long snakes that live underwater, coming up for breath only once per hour
• Shark - Aggressive, predatory fish of low intelligence and unpredictable behaviour
• Shrieker - Large, semi-mobile fungus that wails loudly when approached or threatened
• Skeleton - Mindless undead created to guard tombs or serve their creator
• Small Herd Animal - Wild animals that live in large, grazing herds
• Sperm Whale - Gargantuan whales up to 60' long. Dwell in open oceans and hunt deep sea monsters (e.g. giant squids)
• Spitting Cobra - 3' long snakes with grey/white scales
• Sprite - Reclusive fey creatures, looking like tiny elves just a foot tall with dragonfly-like wings
• Stegosaurus - Stocky, herbivorous dinosaurs with a ridge of plates along their backs, and a tail studded with spikes
• Stirge - Weird winged creatures resembling hairless bats with tubular proboscis
• Stone Giant - 14' tall humanoids with stone-like, grey skin
• Tarantella - 7' long, hairy hunting spiders that resemble tarantulas. Magical in nature
• Tiger - Large striped great cat with orange fur and dark vertical stripes
• Tiger Beetle - Carnivorous, 4' long, tiger-striped beetles with powerful, crushing mandibles
• Triceratops - Massive (12' to the shoulder, almost 40' long), aggressive, herbivorous dinosaurs with a protective crest behind the head, and three long horns
• Tuatara - 8' long, iguana-like, carnivorous lizards with olive scales and a ridge of white spikes along the back
• Tyrannosaurus Rex - Great (over 20' tall), two-legged, predatory dinosaurs with huge jaws
• War Horse - Bred for strength and courage in battle
• Water Elemental - Huge waves of water
• Werebear - Highly intelligent, also in bear form
• Wereboar - Semi-intelligent and irascible
• Weretiger - Exhibit feline behaviour
• White Dragon - Found in cold regions
• Wild Horse - Lightly built horses adapted to run at high speed
• Yellow Mould - Deadly fungus that covers walls, ceilings, and other surfaces
• Zombie - Undead corpses of humanoid creatures that are deathly slow but move silently and are very strong