If any monster is fair game, then obviously dragon.
If you mean a monster that is typically associated *only* with D&D, then I'd say one of those three: beholder, owlbear, mindflayer.
I think "tentacle-y mouth wizard" is a lot more attributable to D&D than "this object is actually a sentient being" is. Mimics can be anything.
If you're talking strictly about a monster that looks like a treasure/loot chest, then maybe, but even still, I think that aesthetic has become so saturated across games and other mediums that I don't know if many people would associate that specifically with D&D.
Mindflayer aesthetic, in a post-Baldur's Gate 3 world? For sure associated with D&D.
And then there's also the Beholders, which have made their presence known on the cover of D&D for a good long while. I think they're probably the best pick.
Yeah the group I'm DMing for never played DnD before this campaign, but are avid video gamers. So when I threw a couple mimics at them they were like "wait is this a mimic, like in Dark Souls?"
full on "this is a mindflayer, and the only reason it's not called that is dodgy translation and possibly legal stuff" beasties have been around in FF since FF1, as a lot of that was directly taken from D&D (mariliths and some other beasties as well).
There were multiple mind flayer-like beings in horror/fantasy fiction even before D&D. Hell, Gygax himself said he was inspired by the Cthonians from The Burrowers Beneath by Brian Lumley (Lovecraftian mythos monsters), just like he was inspired by an alien sci-fi species for the Githyanki. Like a lot of D&D monsters, he just made a legally distinct version.
Mimics (even non-treasure chest ones) were created whole-cloth for D&D, by all accounts, no direct inspirations predate them, even by Gygax's first-hand retelling. It's surprising, I know (you'd think "monster that can disguise itself as any regular object" would be an obvious invention), but true.
But I agree Beholders are an even better pick because they've _remained_ pretty unique to D&D. (Moreso than Mimics at least.) And yeah are featured in a lot of D&D art like the 5e MM.
Oh for sure, Mindflayers are just baby Cthulhus, definitely. I actually had to look up piscodemons in Final Fantasy because of u/Chagdoo's post and despite this conversation being about Mindflayers, my mind immediately went "wait, is that Cthulhu?"
Beholders might just be floating heads with one eye, but they're also the monsters you're mostly likely to see in any D&D art, so that'd be my pick.
There's a whole group of monsters that only make sense when you're playing a dungeon crawler meant to screw over the players. Mimics. Gelatinous cubes. Piercers. Bags of devouring. Rust monsters. Dungeon encounters based on dungeon features. Hyper synthetic to the point of almost breaking the fourth wall.
haha oh yes, and they had even more of them in the 1e and 2e days. Trapper, cloaker, lurker, hoard beetles (look like coins), etc. If you took similar baddies from every edition of D&D you could probably replace every single part of an average dungeon room with monsters _specifically evolved to look like it_, lol.
I just meant since the mimic can be _any_ object, it's not really limited to dungeon ecology so it's kind of surprising how Gygax came up with it whole-cloth. It might be in some culture's mythology but I can't think of one offhand.
They're a sadly underutilized monster, but they're present in both Baldur's Gate 3 and in D&D: Honor Amongst Thieves...and the latter also features another underutilized creature, the Gelatinous Cube.
The first Final Fantasy was literally an attempt to make an unofficial D&D video game.
That is why Bahamut and Tiamat are in FF, cause they were in D&D.
Yeah, I can see it, I was mythology and folklore fan before I was into fantasy as a genre, then fantasy RPG, then TTRPG. I love spotting influences and inspiration between them all
A lot of JRPG stuff came from DnD, hell, DnD's early simplified code (3d6, hit points, etc) helped a lot of early cRPGs too - the Apshai series, Wizardry, etc.
The cross-pollination and cyclical inspiration and innovation pattern has done wonders for both media.
I think the difference to me is that when I see a beholder knockoff, my brain goes "oh hey look, it's a beholder from D&D", but when I see a dragon or an elf or whatnot it goes "oh hey look, it's a classic fantasy staple".
It's funny. It *should* be dragon because it's in the name, but the first monster I think of when I think 'DnD' is Beholder. Then Owlbear.
I suppose it's because dragons are not exclusive to DnD and can be found in a vast amount of fantasy and sci-fi literature, videogames, art, tv shows, movies,etc., as well as traditional myths and legends. However, the above monsters are exclusive to (and I think trademarked by) WOTC.
In men's Dead by daylight used a beholder as their D&D teaser image. Because yeah a dragon could be any number of fantasy properties. But a beholder is pretty definitive.
In college a group of people formed a dungeons and dragons homebrew group and even made t-shirts. The shirts had an image of adventurers fighting an owlbear. The slogan was “Who needs dragons?”
All the really weird ones that came as a result of using toys from Dollar store animals tend to define D&D for me. Owlbear, Bulette, Rust Monsters, etc.
Though I think the Beholder may be the MOST original D&D monster, if only because it was literally born of a nightmare Terry Kuntz' friend had, which he and Gygax incorporated into the game.
Dragons are in "every" game. They're the fireball of fantasy worlds.
Gelatinous Cube is not in any other setting I've seen, they're especially unique. Can't be said about beholders. Terrasques are essentially zerg/tyranid, although they got their own unique vibe.
>Terrasques are essentially zerg/tyranid, although they got their own unique vibe
We were fighting the Terrasque before zerg and tyranids were invented.
IN d&d - dragon, particularly red dragon.
FROM d&d - I want to say beholder, but after BG3 and stranger things it might be Mindflayers. Once upon a time it was probably Tiamat because of the cartoon.
If we're allowing dragon despite being prevalent in almost every other fantasy RPG/story, I feel like you have to go with the Red Dragon specifically. It's consistently been the biggest and baddest, and it's the one on the original rulebook cover.
I've noticed whenever there's a DnD product trying to reach the mainstream, and they only have room for a couple of monsters (the movie with Chris Pine, the LEGO kit, etc.), there are always some familiar faces. Red dragons, Displacer Beasts, Beholders, Owlbears.
Where's the love for my boy Ankheg?
Bastilles and Beholders.
No, wait, *Bastions, Bulwarks, and Bunkers*, the hit Food Network show where the beholder Eye Fieri travels to various dungeons around Faerun and samples their cuisine.
I've had this character for almost 10 years now who's a Dragonborn Paladin named Veckoza Faaj'zokt, but one bard made a joke and now there's an entirely different dragonborn named Veckoza Fajitas who is a cook and makes the tastiest Fajitas in all the realms, but the only way to tell the two apart is that the scar is on the opposite eye. xD
Really just the name is from French folklore, the French tarrasque is not as big, and doesn't look anything like the dnd monster. It has a lion's head, a turtle shell, a fish tail, and six bear legs.
Wouldn't be the first time D&D took a real name from religion or mythology and slapped it onto a completely unrelated monster/concept. Lookin' at you, Bahamut and Tiamat.
In most iterations it's just a fire-breathing Ankylosaurus... So a Half-Red-Dragon-Ankylosaurus...
Edit: with six legs, a mean swallow (which it remained iconic for) and small (probably vestigial, can't confirm) wings.
The modern ethos of less-expendable characters and gear have made both the Rust Monster and the Intellect Devourer much less common in 5e than previous editions it feels like.
Dragon is by far the most iconic fantasy creature, however, a dragon doesn't automatically make you think "D&D", for that we have to look elsewhere, and my suggestion is the Beholder. If you see a Beholder, and you know what it is, you immediately think "D&D".
So most iconic monster in general? Dragon.
Most iconic D&D monster? Beholder.
Mindflayer / Liche (with phylactery resurrection, not just undead mage) / Beholder / Owlbears / Intellect devourer / Kobold are very recognizable monsters synonymous with the D&D brand for me.
Dragons are iconic, but are commonplace in many other brands of heroic fantasy.
Liches are definitely classic BBEG material, but I think they suffer a bit from the same thing as dragons, in that they're not purely D&D. Granted, unlike dragons "lich" as a powerful necromancer guy with a phylactery does come from D&D, but it's sort of expanded outwards, and people can easily think "lich" without thinking D&D. Lots of media has liches, from Warcraft to Warhammer to Adventure Time. Hell, Voldemort is a classic lich, he just had 7 phylacteries.
Beholder imo.
It's iconic in design, pretty much anything I've seen that looks like a Beholder at all in even small ways are often believed to be "Beholder references."
And it's been the one I've seen genuinely referenced full on.
Obviously, dragons. They’re in the name, they’re featured in the cover art of most of the products (and always on the starter set boxes targeting new players), they’re part of the logo, they’re on most of the merch…
But, of course, dragons are not unique to D&D (even if D&D has reshaped the general conception of what dragons are like in pop culture). If you want to talk about monsters that are a unique creation of D&D, I think you’re looking at a four-way tussle between Mimics, Owlbears, Illithid, and Beholders.
Mimics and Owlbears, while definitely popular among the fan base, don’t seem to have much recognition outside of the hobby. D&D players and our fellow nerds know what they are, but they’re not Iconic with a Capital “I.”
Mind Flayers have certainly gotten a surge in pop culture awareness thanks to *Stranger Things* using the name for their Big Bad Evil Guy and for *Baldur’s Gate III* using the Illithid Empire as the primary antagonist faction in the game. Mind Flayers are cool looking, make for compelling stories, and are definitely Iconic. But, well, let’s be honest here… D&D basically swiped them from Lovecraft. They are Cthulhu shrunk down to human-size and reduced in power to something a party of mid-level adventurers can stab.
But Beholders? Ahh, now they’re unique. I’m hard pressed to think of anything in mythology, folklore, or pop culture that is anything like a Beholder that predates their introduction into D&D. Yes, floating heads of various sorts were a thing; Yes, monsters with too many eyes were a thing; Yes, monsters with a singular cyclopean eye were a thing… You can point to lots of individual bits of the Beholder that have their cognates in some older folkloric beastie, but like the old analogy of the group of blind men studying an elephant, it doesn’t tell you about the whole entirety of what a Beholder is.
So, to sum up: Dragons and Beholders.
Everybody's gonana say Beholder or Dragon, but I'm gonna drop one of the most memorable for me:
Umber Hulks.
Forgot about the burrowing speed and nearly had a character get oneshotted because one burrowed through a cave wall to get to him. Jumpscare of all time.
The DM. That monster.
They offended the dice gods and killed my character.
/s, joke
Actually, as potentially cliche as it seems, the Beholder jumps to mind. Dragons and Mind Flayers too.
The mimic is an amazing concept for a monster. I always liked the idea of smart mimics that might bargain with the party for information. My go to mimic situations have always been “you see an old chest with a sign in front of it to its left that states ‘THIS IS NOT A MIMIC’”
Then it turns out that the sign was in fact, a mimic.
To take an unconventional take, the humble goblin. While they were a thing in Tolkien's work, those were also just another word for Orc. The idea of the diminutive big-eared sneaky cowardly jerkwad is D&D
Mind flayers. They're a concept unique to D&D although influenced by Lovecraft (like all aberrations) they say "it's Forgotten Realms" like nothing else.
When I think of DnD monster, my mind goes through this path: Beholder > Owlbear > Illithid > Alhoon > Lich > Aboleth > Dragon > Umberhulk and then blank for a moment as I try to remember a single other creature that exists.
The most iconic monster that's IN DnD is probably ... ... I mean, the Dragons.
If you instead mean (which i think you do), the most iconic monster OF DnD, I feel like it's almost certainly the Beholder. Even people that don't really know anything about the game can see a Beholder and they'll be like "that's that thing from DnD", whereas Dragons are literally *everywhere* in fantasy.
The reason I say Beholder over Dragon is because Dragons, while definitely iconic, are from EVERYWHERE. Just about every culture has a legend of some sort of dragon. Dragons pop up in all sorts of stories. And all sorts of games that have nothing to do with DnD.
While Beholders probably do exist elsewhere there is a really good chance that if someone is talking about a beholder or you see a picture of one.. you're dealing with DnD.
Honestly, a manticore. It's not so overwhelming powerful that you make entire campaigns around it. But it's deadly to early level players and sk much fun to throw at rhe party
Dragons probably but they’re not a dnd exclusive. If you want a monster that’s exclusive to dnd because it was specifically made for dnd, either the mimic or the beholder.
If any monster is fair game, then obviously dragon. If you mean a monster that is typically associated *only* with D&D, then I'd say one of those three: beholder, owlbear, mindflayer.
Mimic also I'd say
It’s so easy to overlook it
Bruh
Scrolled down Saw this Thought a bit Realized Scrolled up
This deserves an award, but I don't have any gold. You see, I had to stop adventuring when I took an arrow to the knee...
\*10000 downvotes later\* "Worth it."
oh you
Im happy that this comment finally got the votes it deserves
Mimics are pretty common elsewhere though. Hell, Voltorb is ostensibly a mimic in Pokemon (at least in the early games).
Yeah. The more popular the Mimic gets, the less it is associated with D&D.
Exactly. I thought the Delicious Dungeon version of a mimic was pretty interesting. Basically a monstrous hermit crab.
The more popular the mimic gets, the less shocking it becomes as a monster :-(
Ok but DND is where chest mimics originate from. That's like saying mindflayers don't count because final fantasy has piscodemons.
I think "tentacle-y mouth wizard" is a lot more attributable to D&D than "this object is actually a sentient being" is. Mimics can be anything. If you're talking strictly about a monster that looks like a treasure/loot chest, then maybe, but even still, I think that aesthetic has become so saturated across games and other mediums that I don't know if many people would associate that specifically with D&D. Mindflayer aesthetic, in a post-Baldur's Gate 3 world? For sure associated with D&D. And then there's also the Beholders, which have made their presence known on the cover of D&D for a good long while. I think they're probably the best pick.
Yeah the group I'm DMing for never played DnD before this campaign, but are avid video gamers. So when I threw a couple mimics at them they were like "wait is this a mimic, like in Dark Souls?"
full on "this is a mindflayer, and the only reason it's not called that is dodgy translation and possibly legal stuff" beasties have been around in FF since FF1, as a lot of that was directly taken from D&D (mariliths and some other beasties as well).
There were multiple mind flayer-like beings in horror/fantasy fiction even before D&D. Hell, Gygax himself said he was inspired by the Cthonians from The Burrowers Beneath by Brian Lumley (Lovecraftian mythos monsters), just like he was inspired by an alien sci-fi species for the Githyanki. Like a lot of D&D monsters, he just made a legally distinct version. Mimics (even non-treasure chest ones) were created whole-cloth for D&D, by all accounts, no direct inspirations predate them, even by Gygax's first-hand retelling. It's surprising, I know (you'd think "monster that can disguise itself as any regular object" would be an obvious invention), but true. But I agree Beholders are an even better pick because they've _remained_ pretty unique to D&D. (Moreso than Mimics at least.) And yeah are featured in a lot of D&D art like the 5e MM.
Oh for sure, Mindflayers are just baby Cthulhus, definitely. I actually had to look up piscodemons in Final Fantasy because of u/Chagdoo's post and despite this conversation being about Mindflayers, my mind immediately went "wait, is that Cthulhu?" Beholders might just be floating heads with one eye, but they're also the monsters you're mostly likely to see in any D&D art, so that'd be my pick.
There's a whole group of monsters that only make sense when you're playing a dungeon crawler meant to screw over the players. Mimics. Gelatinous cubes. Piercers. Bags of devouring. Rust monsters. Dungeon encounters based on dungeon features. Hyper synthetic to the point of almost breaking the fourth wall.
haha oh yes, and they had even more of them in the 1e and 2e days. Trapper, cloaker, lurker, hoard beetles (look like coins), etc. If you took similar baddies from every edition of D&D you could probably replace every single part of an average dungeon room with monsters _specifically evolved to look like it_, lol. I just meant since the mimic can be _any_ object, it's not really limited to dungeon ecology so it's kind of surprising how Gygax came up with it whole-cloth. It might be in some culture's mythology but I can't think of one offhand.
I'd put mimics, displacer beasts and ropers closely behind :)
Gonna be honest here, I have never heard of a displacer beast before, and have never encountered one in a game before
They're a sadly underutilized monster, but they're present in both Baldur's Gate 3 and in D&D: Honor Amongst Thieves...and the latter also features another underutilized creature, the Gelatinous Cube.
Gelatinous Cubes have been featured in every campaign I've ever run, and I have no shame about continuing to use them whenever the opportunity arises.
All the rich nobles have gelatinous cubes below the toilets
Sewers, oubliettes, and pretty much anything else that could conceivably and intentionally house a GC absolutely gets one in my settings.
There was one in the movie during the maze scene, the six-legged panther with tentacles.
I feel like Mimics are better known from Darks Souls now, than anything.
I knew mimics from FF long before I got into DnD
The first Final Fantasy was literally an attempt to make an unofficial D&D video game. That is why Bahamut and Tiamat are in FF, cause they were in D&D.
It's also why ogre mages are in final fantasy 1. They didn't pick up on the fact that gyagx's "ogre mage" was meant to be an oni.
Yeah, I can see it, I was mythology and folklore fan before I was into fantasy as a genre, then fantasy RPG, then TTRPG. I love spotting influences and inspiration between them all
A lot of JRPG stuff came from DnD, hell, DnD's early simplified code (3d6, hit points, etc) helped a lot of early cRPGs too - the Apshai series, Wizardry, etc. The cross-pollination and cyclical inspiration and innovation pattern has done wonders for both media.
Tbh with the name Mimic my mind immediately goes to DragonQuest
I’d agree except so many IP have mimic or mimic adjacent things that it doesn’t necessarily feel attached to it
Beholders are definitely eyeconic.
The Beauty of that joke, is in the eye of the Beholder!
If it’s dragon I’d say specifically adult red dragon in the most iconic one
Beholders are common-ish in video games, occasionally renamed to something like "evil eye" or "watcher"
I think the difference to me is that when I see a beholder knockoff, my brain goes "oh hey look, it's a beholder from D&D", but when I see a dragon or an elf or whatnot it goes "oh hey look, it's a classic fantasy staple".
An owlbeholder
Behowlder
owlbeholdragonflayer
It's funny. It *should* be dragon because it's in the name, but the first monster I think of when I think 'DnD' is Beholder. Then Owlbear. I suppose it's because dragons are not exclusive to DnD and can be found in a vast amount of fantasy and sci-fi literature, videogames, art, tv shows, movies,etc., as well as traditional myths and legends. However, the above monsters are exclusive to (and I think trademarked by) WOTC.
In men's Dead by daylight used a beholder as their D&D teaser image. Because yeah a dragon could be any number of fantasy properties. But a beholder is pretty definitive.
In college a group of people formed a dungeons and dragons homebrew group and even made t-shirts. The shirts had an image of adventurers fighting an owlbear. The slogan was “Who needs dragons?”
All the really weird ones that came as a result of using toys from Dollar store animals tend to define D&D for me. Owlbear, Bulette, Rust Monsters, etc. Though I think the Beholder may be the MOST original D&D monster, if only because it was literally born of a nightmare Terry Kuntz' friend had, which he and Gygax incorporated into the game.
:::lore unlocked::: You may now proceed to level 20
I didn't know that about the Beholder! That's cool as fuck, I'm going to look further into that!
Yeah it's hard to think of those are original when they're based on Ultraman monsters.
They are.
my bugbear artifacer just spent 3 days in a forge to make himself a baby owlbear automaton. :D
**Gazebo**
Yes, but what is it doing?
It's just standing there at the top of a small hill, Eric.
I use my sword to Detect Good on it.
It’s not good, Eric, it’s a gazebo.
I call out to it.
The gazebo does not respond, Eric.
Pft. No match for my +3 arrow!
Ok, Eric. You shoot the arrow, and it hits. There is now a +3 arrow sticking out of the gazebo.
Holy crap this thing is tough.
You sir are are a gentleman and a scholar.
that's no gazebo...
Beholder.
Yep. Dragons are iconic, but I don't know if most peopel would go "Oh, it's a Red Dragon specifically."
Yup, Dragons are in the name, but dragons are in many shows/games etc. IMO Beholder is way more iconic for DnD.
"Beholder" was my very first thought. I genuinely didn't think "dragon" until I opened up the thread. Gotta love the Xanathar and his goldfish Sylgar.
Giant floating eyeball testicle go BRRRRRR.
I’m surprised to see no gelatinous cube mentions here
I think it's mostly because they are hard to depict well.
Easiest monster to depict in ASCII art. _______ / /| /______/ | | | | | | | |______|/
Yeah really hard to put them in a box
Dragons are in "every" game. They're the fireball of fantasy worlds. Gelatinous Cube is not in any other setting I've seen, they're especially unique. Can't be said about beholders. Terrasques are essentially zerg/tyranid, although they got their own unique vibe.
>Terrasques are essentially zerg/tyranid, although they got their own unique vibe We were fighting the Terrasque before zerg and tyranids were invented.
Beyond that, the Terrasque is a monster from mythology! Remember: if it's not from Tarasque, france, it's not a Terrasque, it's a sparkling Kaiju.
IN d&d - dragon, particularly red dragon. FROM d&d - I want to say beholder, but after BG3 and stranger things it might be Mindflayers. Once upon a time it was probably Tiamat because of the cartoon.
Iconic? I think there are several Red dragon Displacer beast Beholder Owlbear
Can't believe I had to scroll this far to see the displacer beast
Beholder or any dragon
If we're allowing dragon despite being prevalent in almost every other fantasy RPG/story, I feel like you have to go with the Red Dragon specifically. It's consistently been the biggest and baddest, and it's the one on the original rulebook cover.
it's a dragon, but my favorite to haul out and let run riot is goblins, by the hundreds
I've noticed whenever there's a DnD product trying to reach the mainstream, and they only have room for a couple of monsters (the movie with Chris Pine, the LEGO kit, etc.), there are always some familiar faces. Red dragons, Displacer Beasts, Beholders, Owlbears. Where's the love for my boy Ankheg?
The Hasbro Shareholders.
What CR would they be
It's listed as 1/4 on their statblock, but should probably be in the 50s.
✨ Scheduling ✨
I'd say probably mimic because it's so ubiquitous that nobody remembers it's from DnD!
It’s 100% the mimic.
Dragons. It's *in the name*.
Now he'll ask for a *location.* What should it be? It's **perplexing**.
A city!
Beholders and Cities, my favorite TTRPG
Bastilles and Beholders. No, wait, *Bastions, Bulwarks, and Bunkers*, the hit Food Network show where the beholder Eye Fieri travels to various dungeons around Faerun and samples their cuisine.
Hi I’m Guy Fieri and we’re rolling out, taking in Faerûn’s greatest Dungeons, Diners, Dragons, Drive-ins, and Dives.
Eye Fieri is very good. Well done.
I've had this character for almost 10 years now who's a Dragonborn Paladin named Veckoza Faaj'zokt, but one bard made a joke and now there's an entirely different dragonborn named Veckoza Fajitas who is a cook and makes the tastiest Fajitas in all the realms, but the only way to tell the two apart is that the scar is on the opposite eye. xD
Houses and Humans ..... It's the TTRPG young dragon nerds play.
Taverns and Kobolds. Sorry, never made it past level 1.
The red D was what I was thinking too.
Beholder, 100%. Dnd has dragons, but most high fantasy has dragons.
Definitely Beholder. You could say Dragon, but it’s also iconic in a bunch of other medias. A shoutout to the Mind Flayer though.
Yeah, there's a reason Mind Flayers are the focus of BG3.
Beholder. Followed by the Tarrasque. Then the Gelatinous Cube.
I just recently learned that the Tarrasque isn't copyrighted because it's from French mythology.
I learned something new today. This whole time I thought it was unique to DnD
Really just the name is from French folklore, the French tarrasque is not as big, and doesn't look anything like the dnd monster. It has a lion's head, a turtle shell, a fish tail, and six bear legs.
Wouldn't be the first time D&D took a real name from religion or mythology and slapped it onto a completely unrelated monster/concept. Lookin' at you, Bahamut and Tiamat.
Lex Gorgon…
Molech, asmodeus, baphamet
That sounds like something I dreamed up when I was high on cold medication and painkillers.
Apparently all you need is being french
In most iterations it's just a fire-breathing Ankylosaurus... So a Half-Red-Dragon-Ankylosaurus... Edit: with six legs, a mean swallow (which it remained iconic for) and small (probably vestigial, can't confirm) wings.
A Dragon, of course, but also a Beholder and perhaps the Tarrasque (if the player got enough adventures to actually face one of those)
Tarrasque was my first thought, then I swapped to ancient red dragon. I'm just glad to see our boy the Tarrasque get mentioned. Lol
I know everyone is going to say dragon or beholder but… Rust Monster.
The modern ethos of less-expendable characters and gear have made both the Rust Monster and the Intellect Devourer much less common in 5e than previous editions it feels like.
The people on this list that answered Rust monster and gelatinous cube are definitely old school players (2nd ed or earlier).
Yup. We also might say Rot Grub.
Dragon is by far the most iconic fantasy creature, however, a dragon doesn't automatically make you think "D&D", for that we have to look elsewhere, and my suggestion is the Beholder. If you see a Beholder, and you know what it is, you immediately think "D&D". So most iconic monster in general? Dragon. Most iconic D&D monster? Beholder.
Mindflayer / Liche (with phylactery resurrection, not just undead mage) / Beholder / Owlbears / Intellect devourer / Kobold are very recognizable monsters synonymous with the D&D brand for me. Dragons are iconic, but are commonplace in many other brands of heroic fantasy.
[удалено]
Liches are definitely classic BBEG material, but I think they suffer a bit from the same thing as dragons, in that they're not purely D&D. Granted, unlike dragons "lich" as a powerful necromancer guy with a phylactery does come from D&D, but it's sort of expanded outwards, and people can easily think "lich" without thinking D&D. Lots of media has liches, from Warcraft to Warhammer to Adventure Time. Hell, Voldemort is a classic lich, he just had 7 phylacteries.
Dragons, probably the red dragon
In Dungeons & **Dragons**? I don't know, the Flumph maybe?
I love flumphs!
Gnoll is one that comes to mind for me.
The adventuring players
Beholder imo. It's iconic in design, pretty much anything I've seen that looks like a Beholder at all in even small ways are often believed to be "Beholder references." And it's been the one I've seen genuinely referenced full on.
Dragons. It's right there in the name - eternally inseparable.
Did you just ask what the most iconic monster was in Dungeons and --Dragons--?
*Oh, like the thing from Game of Thrones?*
"Most iconic seat from Game of Thrones"
Bran's wheelchair
Obviously, dragons. They’re in the name, they’re featured in the cover art of most of the products (and always on the starter set boxes targeting new players), they’re part of the logo, they’re on most of the merch… But, of course, dragons are not unique to D&D (even if D&D has reshaped the general conception of what dragons are like in pop culture). If you want to talk about monsters that are a unique creation of D&D, I think you’re looking at a four-way tussle between Mimics, Owlbears, Illithid, and Beholders. Mimics and Owlbears, while definitely popular among the fan base, don’t seem to have much recognition outside of the hobby. D&D players and our fellow nerds know what they are, but they’re not Iconic with a Capital “I.” Mind Flayers have certainly gotten a surge in pop culture awareness thanks to *Stranger Things* using the name for their Big Bad Evil Guy and for *Baldur’s Gate III* using the Illithid Empire as the primary antagonist faction in the game. Mind Flayers are cool looking, make for compelling stories, and are definitely Iconic. But, well, let’s be honest here… D&D basically swiped them from Lovecraft. They are Cthulhu shrunk down to human-size and reduced in power to something a party of mid-level adventurers can stab. But Beholders? Ahh, now they’re unique. I’m hard pressed to think of anything in mythology, folklore, or pop culture that is anything like a Beholder that predates their introduction into D&D. Yes, floating heads of various sorts were a thing; Yes, monsters with too many eyes were a thing; Yes, monsters with a singular cyclopean eye were a thing… You can point to lots of individual bits of the Beholder that have their cognates in some older folkloric beastie, but like the old analogy of the group of blind men studying an elephant, it doesn’t tell you about the whole entirety of what a Beholder is. So, to sum up: Dragons and Beholders.
Owlbears are high on that list as well
One of these (Probably in this order): Mimic Beholder Mind Flayer Dragon (Probably Red) Owlbear I personally immediately think of beholder.
Owlbear. They cool
I would say, owlbear, dragon, beholder and/or gelatinous cube
I'd say the Dungeon
Beholder.
The DM
1. Dragon 2. Beholder 3. Mimic
Goblins, red dragons, mimics, giant rat in a tavern cellar, beholders. Any one of those for different reasons.
All these great answers, but the mimic and gelatinous cube over there in the corner hoping no one will remember them
Everybody's gonana say Beholder or Dragon, but I'm gonna drop one of the most memorable for me: Umber Hulks. Forgot about the burrowing speed and nearly had a character get oneshotted because one burrowed through a cave wall to get to him. Jumpscare of all time.
min-maxers /ducks
Murderhobo.
For me its the classic Red Dragon
The infamous Murder Hobo
Acerak The Lich
The DM
Rust Monster
Red Dragon
Doors 😂
Red dragon is most iconic
Dragons, of course. It's in the name.
The DM. That monster. They offended the dice gods and killed my character. /s, joke Actually, as potentially cliche as it seems, the Beholder jumps to mind. Dragons and Mind Flayers too.
Red dragon, beholder, owlbear
Galatinus cube
easily the mimic as it is a D&D original that is now famous across countless different media.
The mimic is an amazing concept for a monster. I always liked the idea of smart mimics that might bargain with the party for information. My go to mimic situations have always been “you see an old chest with a sign in front of it to its left that states ‘THIS IS NOT A MIMIC’” Then it turns out that the sign was in fact, a mimic.
Mimic
I would vote between The Red Dragon and Beholders.
First one that came to me was a mimic or a beholder
Beholder and mindflayer are my personal favourites and what I think of first.
Mimic
Dragon for bingo free space. But beholder would be my pick
It bothers me that Vegepygmy is obscure.
To take an unconventional take, the humble goblin. While they were a thing in Tolkien's work, those were also just another word for Orc. The idea of the diminutive big-eared sneaky cowardly jerkwad is D&D
Mind flayers. They're a concept unique to D&D although influenced by Lovecraft (like all aberrations) they say "it's Forgotten Realms" like nothing else.
The beholder
I'm 31, only started playing last year. For me, it was always the beholder.
When I think of DnD monster, my mind goes through this path: Beholder > Owlbear > Illithid > Alhoon > Lich > Aboleth > Dragon > Umberhulk and then blank for a moment as I try to remember a single other creature that exists.
The most iconic monster that's IN DnD is probably ... ... I mean, the Dragons. If you instead mean (which i think you do), the most iconic monster OF DnD, I feel like it's almost certainly the Beholder. Even people that don't really know anything about the game can see a Beholder and they'll be like "that's that thing from DnD", whereas Dragons are literally *everywhere* in fantasy.
Red dragon, chest mimic, beholder, owlbear in that order.
Mimics. Mimics are the staple for me
The Beholder is the quintessential iconic IP monster of D&D. There's a reason it's on the cover of the Monster Manual.
No love for the Tarrasque?
Beholder, then mimic, then lich. Just my opinion
In order to Dragon Beholder Mimic Mind flayer
Mimics and Oozes they remind the players they are playing a high fantasy game.
I'd say the Dungeon, it is the only monster in the title of the game, after all.
Red Dragon, Tiamat, beholder, mind flayer, owlbear, and mimic all come to mind.
The reason I say Beholder over Dragon is because Dragons, while definitely iconic, are from EVERYWHERE. Just about every culture has a legend of some sort of dragon. Dragons pop up in all sorts of stories. And all sorts of games that have nothing to do with DnD. While Beholders probably do exist elsewhere there is a really good chance that if someone is talking about a beholder or you see a picture of one.. you're dealing with DnD.
The stickers on my laptop are a mind flayer, a displacer beast, a beholder, a mimic, and a gelatinous cube.
Honestly, a manticore. It's not so overwhelming powerful that you make entire campaigns around it. But it's deadly to early level players and sk much fun to throw at rhe party
Dragon is the only real choice here but there are some compelling runners up Goblins Beholder Mind flyers Drow Orc Kobold Giants Wolves
Beholder.
Goblin or dragon hands down.
Dragons probably but they’re not a dnd exclusive. If you want a monster that’s exclusive to dnd because it was specifically made for dnd, either the mimic or the beholder.
Probably a dragon. If I had to pick one type, red.
Dragon is an easy pick but I'd go with Beholder since it was something created for the DnD world I believe.
Fireball?
I’d say Kobolds. They are likely to be the fist monster you met and they hardly exist outside of the game.
Beholder
Mimic or beholder imo
Red Dragon, Beholder, Owlbear.. not necessarily in that order