Dark Sun Monsters
Survivors of a sun-scorched, magic-blighted desert world, where even the insects are psionic and most things want your water. 205 monsters, grouped by the book they come from.
- Dark Sun Appendix II - Terrors Beyond Tyr (72)
- MC12 Dark Sun Appendix I - Terrors of the Desert (66)
- City by the Silt Sea (11)
- Dark Sun Campaign Setting (original) (10)
- Monstrous Compendium, 1997 Annual, Volume 4 (7)
- Monstrous Compendium, 1996 Annual, Volume 3 (5)
- DSR4 Valley of Dust and Fire (4)
- Monstrous Compendium, 1995 Annual, Volume 2 (4)
- Monstrous Manual (4)
- The Ivory Triangle (4)
- Dragon Kings (hardback) (3)
- DSM1 Black Flames (2)
- Dark Sun Campaign Setting (revised) (2)
- Other sources (2)
- Planescape III (2)
- Thri-Kreen of Athas (2)
- DSQ3 Asticlian Gambit (1)
- Dragon185 (1)
- Mind Lords of the Last Sea (1)
- Monstrous Compendium, 1994 Annual, Volume 1 (1)
- Ravenloft Appendix III (1)
Dark Sun Appendix II - Terrors Beyond Tyr
- Aarakocra [Dark Sun] Vulture-like bird-folk of the deep desert, these aarakocra extort tolls from caravans, drop weighted nets on their prey, and prove their young in the ritual hunt of a silt drake.
- Air Elemental Beast [Dark Sun] A colossal winged head of howling wind with jaws full of razor teeth, the air elemental beast snatches prey into the sky to drop it, and goes berserk when desert grit fouls its body.
- Aviarag A goat-horned, blue-winged lion that reads minds before it strikes, the aviarag dives from behind with a paralyzing roar and rakes its prey with its hind claws.
- Baazrag Shy little armored scavengers of the desert badlands, baazrags carry water on their backs and a healing-blocking venom in their teeth, and a lingering fight brings the whole pack.
- Black Silt Horror The smallest silt horror hunts in matriarch-led packs, herding prey into hidden clutch-mates, then pinning it with barbed tentacles and a paralyzing bite.
- Bloodgrass Innocent-looking green turf that snares whatever walks on it, paralyzes the prey with poisoned tendrils, and slowly bores toward the brain while drinking its blood.
- Boneclaw Baazrag The giant, sterile freak born from a lone baazrag pup, a boneclaw is an 8-foot armored eating machine that charges through groups slicing so cleanly victims never feel the cut.
- Brain Seed A psionic, carnivorous plant that drifts its seeds onto passersby, roots into their skin, dominates their minds and marches them home to be drained.
- Claw-Runner Ostrich-like desert reptiles with clawed forearms that carry riders and cargo across the wastes, and a heavier war breed that rams foes at full sprint.
- Dagorran Golden-skinned psionic frog-beasts that track minds across the desert, blast prey with shrapnel and wrestle control of its body, and nurse an ancient grudge against mantis warriors.
- Dhaot The weary ghost of someone who died far from home, a dhaot wanders the wastes weaving illusions, begging travelers to carry its bones back and punishing those who refuse.
- Drik A five-ton armored herd lizard with a snake-quick head, the drik is a living battering ram prized by desert warlords, and its sorcerously twisted cousin, the high drik, is far worse.
- Dune Reaper Ten-foot hive predators with scythe arms and glowing red eyes, dune reapers leap from the dunes onto caravans, impaling travelers and dragging the bodies home to a matriarch's pride.
- Dwarf [Dark Sun] Bald, sun-scorched and immensely strong, the dwarves of the desert world pour their whole lives into a single obsessive task, and those who die before finishing it rise as restless banshees.
- Dwarf-Human Crossbreed Bred by sorcerer tyrants for their arenas and labor gangs, these bald, sterile, tireless dwarf-human crossbreeds hit harder than either parent and are worth a dozen human slaves.
- Earth Elemental Beast [Dark Sun] A stone-toothed, spike-backed reptilian brute that swims through rock and erupts beneath its prey, the earth elemental beast crushes victims in its jaws and smashes walls like a catapult.
- Elf [Dark Sun] Towering, sun-scarred desert raiders who outrun horses, strike from ambush out of the dunes, and trust no one beyond the borders of their own tribe.
- Feylaar A hulking four-armed ape of the desert world's forests that hides with psionics, crushes heads between its fists, and kills its would-be captors with a death field.
- Fire Elemental Beast [Dark Sun] A broad-shouldered panther of living flame with a burning mane and empty black eyes, the fire elemental beast streaks like a fireball, breathes searing cones and resents every moment it is summoned.
- Fordorran A stinking, three-horned armadillo beast of the city-state heartlands whose reek drops foes retching, whose mind powers turn friends against each other, and whose attention wanders with no warning.
- Gorak Small desert reptiles with flaring rainbow fins, goraks swarm a target in a dazzling, hypnotic blur of color while their massive alpha bull watches and directs the attack.
- Halfling [Dark Sun] Child-faced jungle hunters of the desert world, these halflings eat only meat, see every other creature as prey, and fight with poison, beetle sling-bullets and no notion of fair play.
- Human [Dark Sun] Escaped slaves, beast-scented herd clans, poison-blade merchants, arena veterans, idle nobles and corrupt templars: the people who survive the desert world's brutal city-states and wastes.
- Hunting Cactus A pale, eyeless cactus that senses prey with its mind, the hunting cactus rains paralytic spines on a group, then shuffles over to drink from whoever falls.
- Kes'trekel Scrawny, red-headed carrion birds of the desert, kes'trekel are cowards alone, but a big flock strafes prey like a storm and drives intruders off with a shared psionic dread.
- Klar A shell-backed, sandy-furred mountain bear of the desert world that crushes victims in a toying hug and assaults minds with psionic terror.
- Lesser Drake Overview [Dark Sun] Exiles from the paraelemental planes, weaker in mind than the great drakes but just as deadly in a brawl, that swallow foes whole and wage endless war on their elemental rivals.
- Lesser Magma Drake [Dark Sun] A red-scaled, clawed worm that swims through molten lava, leaps out to swallow prey whole and hunts earth drakes with a cunning that outweighs their stronger psionics.
- Lesser Rain Drake [Dark Sun] A silver, eel-tailed lizard that swims through falling rain as easily as through a pool, crushing and swallowing prey and hating water drakes beyond all reason.
- Lesser Silt Drake [Dark Sun] A horned, sand-colored serpent that cruises beneath the silt sea and erupts from the dust to swallow or crush anything that moves.
- Lesser Sun Drake [Dark Sun] The mightiest lesser drake, a phoenix-like flier with sunset-colored wings that soars the thermals by day, swallows foes whole and is utterly immune to heat.
- Lirr A sleek, lion-sized desert reptile whose roar can freeze prey in place, the lirr hunts in signaling packs that turn a single stunning bellow into a deadly chorus.
- Magma Golem [Dark Sun] A walking mass of living lava, the magma golem sets anything it touches ablaze, scorches all who stand near, and can hurl its whole molten body at a foe.
- Magma Paraelemental Beast [Dark Sun] A winged, fiend-shaped hulk of living lava that hurls molten blasts, launches itself out of magma pits to crash onto foes, and melts the weapons that strike it.
- Magma Silt Horror A blood-red, eyeless horror lurking in lava pools and geysers that telepathically coaxes prey closer, then drags it down into boiling water or molten rock.
- Mantis Noble II The black-shelled ebon mantis and red-shelled crimson mantis, warlike psionic builders of far northern cities who send scouts south into the city-state lands.
- Mantis Noble III The green-shelled verdant mantis laborers and the flower-like blossom mantises, peaceable northern kin of the mantis nobles who fight only when cornered.
- Mastyrial A giant, sand-sleeping scorpion of the desert world that hunts by echo, bursts from the dunes with a venomous tail, and shrugs off clubs and maces entirely.
- Meorty A mummified psionic guardian from the desert world's long-lost green age, rising from its hidden crypt to execute anyone who breaks laws no living person remembers.
- Obsidian Retriever [Dark Sun] A spider-shaped golem of black volcanic glass that guards ancient treasures, hurls elemental spells from its eyes, and tirelessly tracks down any thief who escapes it.
- Pakubrazi Blood-drinking tick-fly parasites that reshape their bodies into convincing humanoid disguises, feeding on city folk and leaving some victims tainted with their own bloodlust.
- Paraelemental Beast Overview [Dark Sun] Summoned shards of the four mixed planes of magma, rain, silt and sun, paraelemental beasts grow angrier and madder every day they spend away from home, until their fury finally breaks loose.
- Psionocus A small, winged lizard grown from a gem and its maker's blood, a psionic spy whose sleep venom drains a victim's mental strength for its master.
- Psurlon Eyeless, worm-headed astral scholars whose race destroyed its own world with a failed psychic union, now plotting to try again and devouring summoners who cheat them.
- Raaig Ghostly warrior-priests, thousands of years dead, who keep watch over shrines of forgotten gods and strike disease into intruders who ignore their warning.
- Racked Spirit Tormented undead who betrayed their own nature in life and now quiet their guilt by ruining the happy, then offering a corrupting bargain or draining their life away.
- Rain Paraelemental Beast [Dark Sun] A hovering, endlessly cycling waterfall that knocks foes flat with rain blasts, churns the blood of anyone inside it, and can drink the moisture from a whole crowd.
- Red Silt Horror A mobile, scarlet silt horror that walks on four tentacles, reads its victims' deepest desires, and conjures illusions of them to lure prey into its venomous grip.
- Rock Cactus Disguised as a round brown stone beside game trails, the rock cactus snaps out spines to hook passing creatures and sip their moisture, and one in 500 is a relentless bloodsucker.
- Ruktoi A gray, paddle-limbed silt swimmer that floats by levitation, lurks with only its eyes exposed, and drags prey beneath the silt to smother.
- Ruvoka [Dark Sun] Elemental warrior-druids bound to particular places in the desert world, each type armed with magical weapons and spells of a 20th-level druid.
- Salt Golem [Dark Sun] Slow, silent and tireless, the salt golem plods after its prey until it can grab it, then leaves wounds so packed with salt that victims writhe helplessly in agony.
- Sand Howler [Dark Sun] An eight-eyed, dog-shaped desert lizard that hunts in packs, calling its kin with eerie howls and freezing prey in place with a single paralyzing stare.
- Scorpion [Dark Sun] From barb-studded giants that shred anyone who closes to melee to tiny golden stingers carrying the deadliest venom in the desert, these scorpions are nothing to step on lightly.
- Shadow Giant Halfling servants of an ancient war-sorcerer, sacrificed and fused with a lightless dimension, shadow giants freeze and drain the strength of anything they grip and grow huge in bright light.
- Silt Paraelemental Beast [Dark Sun] A kraken sculpted from dust, this serpent-necked tentacled horror lurks unseen in silt basins, drags victims under to suffocate, and spins whirlpools that swallow whole parties.
- Slig Grinning, red-haired desert brutes who hunt in telepathically linked war bands, fighting in flawless five-warrior formations and luring travelers into ambushes with bait caches and stolen valuables.
- Spider [Dark Sun] Three deadly spiders of the desert world: psionic, spell-wielding dark spider tribes, cliff-dwelling mountain spiders that bait prey with glinting metal, and swarms hidden in the silt.
- Spinewyrm A wingless, spike-plated flying serpent of the desert world that hides with psionic camouflage, dives from the dusk sky and crushes prey on its spines before carrying it off.
- Ssurran Desert lizard men who hunt through the blistering midday heat, with gut-ripping claws, a taste for halfling flesh, and shamans who feed surplus captives to strange gods.
- Stalking Horror An invisible, many-eyed tentacled horror that wakes only when the moons align, devours the bones of whole towns, and hunts down whoever holds the cursed item tied to its summoning.
- Sun Paraelemental Beast [Dark Sun] A blazing two-headed firebird born of desert sunlight, it rakes foes with burning talons, bakes them with killing heat, and bursts into blinding light that sears the undead.
- T'liz An undying life-draining wizard who outlived its own body, walking among the living as a pale scholar while its touch tears away life levels and its minions fill its laboratories.
- Tarek Hulking, hairless mountain raiders who fight as one deadly unit, keep swinging long after a killing blow, and hate wizards with religious fervor.
- Tari Small rat-faced scavengers that loot cities by night and stalk the desert in packs, carrying a fever-bite that can permanently wither a victim's health.
- Thinking Zombie A dead giant or half-giant bound to its body by an unfinished geas, as smart as it was in life, giant-strong, and willing to kill anyone between it and its rest.
- Trin Primitive, sleepless cousins of the mantis warriors, trin hunt the desert in pheromone-linked packs, leaping 50 feet onto prey and crushing it in hinged claws.
- Tul'k Gaunt, bone-crowned mountain primitives descended from a cursed elf tribe, tul'ks ambush from shadow form, club with huge bony hands, and head-butt foes senseless.
- Undead Overview [Dark Sun] On the desert world no two undead are quite alike: each rises driven by its own obsession, keeps its living skills and carries a random mix of dread powers and odd weaknesses.
- Water Elemental Beast [Dark Sun] A school of winged, needle-toothed piranhas formed of pure water that hunts as a single mind, water elemental beasts strike unseen beneath the surface and lodge in the throats of air-breathers.
- Wraith [Dark Sun] A faith-bound spirit of the desert world that slips between the realm of the dead and the living to possess corpses, armor or beasts, the wraith rots enchanted weapons at a touch.
- Xerichou Shrieking flocks of six-legged desert fliers that slash with razor-edged wings while teleporting and blinking around their victims with psionic tricks.
MC12 Dark Sun Appendix I - Terrors of the Desert
- Agony Beetle A small, eyeless black scarab that creeps unnoticed onto a victim's back, taps the spine with a numbing tendril, and feeds psionically on the screaming pain until death.
- Air Drake [Dark Sun] The leanest and most capricious drake of the desert world, a gliding giant that turns invisible, seizes prey from the ground and tenderizes it with a long fall onto the rocks.
- B'rohg Fifteen-foot, four-armed desert giants of stone-age simplicity, b'rohg swing spears and clubs all at once, which makes them the prize catch of every gladiator pit.
- Bog Wader A pain-maddened, bone-spiked swamp ambusher that hides beneath a false mud crust over its water hole, impales whoever falls through, and pins them at the bottom to drown.
- Brambleweed A fast-spreading thorn vine whose dead, hardened growth becomes a near-impassable wall of razor spines, cultivated by desert settlements as both barrier and weapon.
- Burnflower A patch of mirror-petaled desert vines that track the sun and focus it into searing heat rays, burnflowers can set a traveler's gear ablaze from 50 yards away.
- Carnivorous Plant [Dark Sun] The desert world's green places hide quill-firing blossomkillers, blood-drinking dew fronds, sleep-dust poisonweed and strangling vines that hang travelers from the trees.
- Cha'thrang A tortoise-like desert ambusher whose reed-spined shell looks like dead bamboo, until it blasts poison-tipped tethers into the sky and reels flying prey down to its jaws.
- Cistern Fiend A nearly invisible, tentacled water worm that guards and purifies a town's precious water, and drinks dry anyone who comes to steal it.
- Cloud Ray A colossal psionic manta drifting through desert skies, able to swallow a rider and mount in one gulp or flatten a village with the wind of its wings.
- Crystal Spider A glittering spider of living crystal that strings razor-glass webs across desert trails and focuses sunlight through them into searing, blinding beams.
- Desert Antloid Giant ants of the desert world's sand-mound warrens, antloids field iron-strong workers, venom-spitting soldiers, psionic overseers, and queens whose scent drives intruders mad.
- Dune Runner The undead ghost of an elf who died mid-errand, the dune runner sprints across the desert every night, psionically dragging travelers along until they drop dead of exhaustion.
- Dune Trapper A plant-animal the size of a field that disguises itself as a desert oasis, the dune trapper swallows thirsty travelers whole and dissolves them in acid.
- Dwarf Banshee A rotting dwarf who died with its life's work unfinished, now guarding that task forever with a curse that drives intruders into berserk rage against their own companions.
- Earth Drake [Dark Sun] The strongest of all drakes, a boulder-like digger that buries intruders under gated rubble, fights to the death and goes out of its way to smash human settlements.
- Erdland A towering, scaled, flightless bird hauling caravans across the desert world, harmless until its egg wells are threatened, and briefly psionic when it gorges on esperweed.
- Esperweed A rare scarlet-flowered desert plant whose freshly picked root briefly floods a mind with psionic power, and whose overuse can burn that power out forever.
- Fire Drake [Dark Sun] The cruelest of the desert drakes, a spiny red-and-black reptile that calls up raw elemental fire and toys with its prey for sport.
- Flailer A rock-colored, six-legged tortoise of the desert world's badlands that ambushes passersby from behind with claws, bite, and a formidable arsenal of psionic powers.
- Floater Translucent, gas-filled jellyfish that drift along the fringes of the silt sea, harmless grazers until provoked, when their stinging tentacles paralyze and their hydrogen bodies can explode.
- Giant [Dark Sun] Island-dwelling titans of the silt sea, these short-tempered giants hurl boulders and tree-trunk spears at intruders, and the rare beast-headed kind adds formidable psionic defenses.
- Golem I [Dark Sun] Two desert-world constructs: the ash golem, which burns what it grabs and leaves corrosive dust in its wake, and the faceless chitin golem, whose poisoned claws sap strength.
- Golem II [Dark Sun] Two stone guardians of the desert world: the towering obsidian golem, whose thunderclap fists spray razor glass, and the armored rock golem, which hammers intruders off their feet.
- Golem III [Dark Sun] Two more desert-world guardians: the shifting sand golem that swallows and smothers its prey, and the leafy wood golem, a spell-casting forest warden that can melt into the trees.
- Golem Overview [Dark Sun] On the desert world, golems are vessels for captive elemental spirits that hate their makers and all living things, built in secret by sorcerer tyrants, templars and master wizards.
- Greater Air Elemental [Dark Sun] A shrieking column of desert wind that hides inside ordinary gusts, the greater air elemental can become a killing tornado that, near the silt sea, raises suffocating clouds of dust.
- Greater Earth Elemental [Dark Sun] A towering, gold-eyed figure of stone or ore that hides within walls and open ground, the greater earth elemental tears down fortifications and shakes the land with rolling earthquakes.
- Greater Fire Elemental [Dark Sun] A furious, red-eyed sheet of living flame that can hide in a single torch and leap from fire to fire, the greater fire elemental engulfs and roasts its enemies.
- Greater Water Elemental [Dark Sun] A towering crested wave with glassy eyes, the greater water elemental capsizes boats, batters ships and drags swimmers into itself to drown, but on a parched world it is extraordinarily rare.
- Hej-kin Leathery, earth-worshipping cave dwellers who phase through solid rock, the hej-kin defend the sacred stone with claws, psionics, and a deep grudge against outsiders.
- Herd Animals [Dark Sun] Not every herd on the desert world is gentle: plated rooters breathe apathy, scream-hoppers shriek foes to the ground, and golden-furred burrowers wither flesh with poisoned spurs.
- Household Animals [Dark Sun] No pet on the desert world is cuddly, but a few earn their keep: humming beetles that soothe, psionic lizards that warn of danger, water-filled slugs, and snails that ooze stone-hard resin.
- Id Fiend A stocky desert lizard that hunts with its victims' own nightmares, the id fiend floods prey with crippling terror before closing in with claws, fangs, tail and a deep well of psionics.
- Insect Swarm [Dark Sun] Once every few years the desert sky darkens with flesh-stripping locusts or blood-drinking miniature pack insects, swarms that can pick a herd to the bone in minutes.
- Mantis Noble I A towering, cultured cousin of the mantis warriors, a bookish wanderer with a ruinous bite and returning spined boomerangs who will never say where it comes from.
- Megapede A furred centipede up to 150 feet long that tunnels beneath the desert dunes, rising to devour caravans with venomous jaws and a formidable arsenal of psionic powers.
- Nightmare Beast A twenty-foot engine of claws, horns and life-draining sorcery that flattens city walls, hunts its prey through their dreams, and is feared on the desert world second only to the dragon-tyrant.
- Psionic Cat The desert world's great cats add mind powers to fang and claw, using psionic senses to track prey across vast territories before closing in for a silent kill.
- Pterran Pteranodon-faced reptile folk of the jungle fringe who ride flying pterrax into battle, wield poison-toothed saw blades, and worship the world itself as their Earth Mother.
- Pterrax A swift, psionic flying reptile of the desert barrens, prized by pterran warriors as a mount and feared for its diving claw-and-fang strikes.
- Pulp Bee Two-foot, red-and-black flying wasps of the desert fringes whose paralytic sting can fell a traveler, and whose wood-like hive paste and sweet food are prized trade goods.
- Pyreen Ancient, shapechanging druid-psionicists who wander the ruined desert world in disguise, quietly healing the land and hunting the life-draining wizards who destroyed it.
- Rasclinn A silver-skinned desert scavenger that strips metal out of the plants it eats, the rasclinn wears a hide tough enough to become armor, and hunters chase it relentlessly for that prize.
- Razorwing A pack hunter of the silt sea with bone-edged wings, the razorwing bursts from the dust on psionic flight to slice at anything flying overhead, then glides for miles.
- Renegade Halfling Brutal, bone-armed jungle tribes with formidable psionic gifts, renegade halflings hunt anyone, other halflings included, and boost their mental powers with a rare cultivated root.
- Roc [Dark Sun] The desert world's giant raptor snatches pack beasts from caravans, and those bold enough to capture, hatch or break one gain a flying mount like no other.
- Sand Bride A cunning creature of living sand that conjures a false oasis and a lovely face to lure the thirsty close, then drains their life with every blow.
- Sand Cactus A buried, blood-drinking plant whose sand-colored barbed needles hook into careless feet, then drain the victim or leave a festering wound that sprouts a new cactus.
- Sand Vortex [Dark Sun] A colossal pancake-shaped psionic predator buried in the silt sea, it summons whirlwinds that drag walkers and even fliers down into its waiting central maw.
- Scrab Pale, many-legged, three-shelled insect folk who ambush desert travelers with psionics and sorcery, and who reserve a special, patient cruelty for elves.
- Silt Horror Tentacled ambushers of the silt sea that feel footsteps from miles away, drag waders under the choking dust to suffocate, and in some kinds dominate or lure prey with psionics.
- Silt Runner Small, fast lizard raiders who sprint across loose silt, hunt in overwhelming swarms, and will abandon a rich caravan to run down a single elf.
- Sink Worm A fifty-foot white maggot that ghosts beneath sand and silt, betrayed only by a sinking trail, before erupting to swallow travelers whole.
- Sloth [Dark Sun] A fast, silent, tree-leaping predator of a forested ridge whose family packs use their young as decoys and have a famous appetite for halflings.
- So-ut A six-legged, red-eyed rampager of the desert world that lives only to destroy the works of people, tearing apart armor, weapons and buildings with acidic claws.
- Spider Cactus A patch of ordinary-looking desert cacti that fires barbed, paralyzing needles on tethers, reels its victims in, and drains them dry on its feeding spines.
- Spirit of the Land Nearly invulnerable spirits dwelling in the mountains, springs, winds and skies of the desert world, which work through guardian druids and rise as vast elementals only when their home faces destruction.
- T'Chowb A tiny, big-headed psionic parasite that creeps into sleeping camps and drinks its victims' intelligence until they are left drooling, growing briefly brilliant on the stolen wits.
- Thrax A gaunt, cursed hunter that slips up as a shadow, rots away its victim's armor, then latches on with sucker-tipped fingers to drink every drop of water from the body.
- Villichi Tall, sun-shy psionic women born at random to ordinary human parents, the villichi live in a hidden mountain convent and repay any harm to their own with organized vengeance.
- Water Drake [Dark Sun] The most elusive drake of the desert world, a slim, blowhole-crowned hunter that guards hidden water, banishes the strongest intruder and shows humanoids no mercy at all.
- Wild Dwarf-Human Crossbreed Escaped arena slaves living in small, paranoid clans on the desert's rocky margins, these psionic dwarf-human crossbreeds trust no one and are feared as hunters of people.
- Wild Pack Insect Untamed herds of the desert's great pack insects roam free in hives of soldiers, honey makers and queens, and a soldier's pincers can paralyze and crush a careless traveler.
- Zhackal Silent little psionic scavengers that shadow the dying, link their minds into one, and whisper victims out of their last grip on life so they can feast on the fading emotions.
- Zombie Plant A cheerful berry bush whose sweet, healing fruit enslaves whoever eats it, turning travelers into mindless gardeners who will kill and die to protect it.
City by the Silt Sea
- Caller in Darkness A howling ethereal storm of thousands of trapped spirits, the Caller in Darkness hunts psionic minds near a ruined city, luring them in with sweet visions and then breaking them with terror.
- Cursed Dead Dwarf Hanged and cursed by the undead dragon king for defending their sanctuary, these moaning dwarf corpses still dangle from charred trees, ready to lash out with constricting cords of sinew.
- Krag The bitter undead remains of an elemental cleric killed by the very element he opposed, now enslaved to it and turning victims' blood into fire, silt or stone.
- Kragling Skeletal undead raised by a krag's poisoned bite, bound body and mind to their creator and carrying a lesser version of its elemental curse.
- Pit Snatcher A tortured earth spirit made of boiling tar, the pit snatcher rises from its smoking pool to drag passersby down into the scalding black muck with it.
- Sharg A tentacled shark-squid brought from another world by an undead dragon king, the sharg haunts an underground black river, smashing barges and dragging their crews into its jaws.
- Silt Serpent A small, dust-colored viper of the silt shoals that feels its prey through vibrations, strikes from below with deadly venom, and waits patiently for the victim to fall.
- Silt Spawn The eel-quick, gaudily colored offspring of the silt horror, hunting in hungry clutches that bite as one and haul their prey down into the choking silt.
- Vashadar [Unique Morg] High priest of an undead dragon king, Vashadar is a mummified dragon-man who preaches his master's godhood by day and quietly works to save the outcasts his master would sacrifice.
- Venger A wronged soul's corpse driven by pure rage, the venger tramples past the innocent on its way to the one who wronged it, and nothing short of that confrontation can lay it to rest.
- Wyrmkin [Dark Sun] Dragon-headed humanoids reshaped from humans by the undead dragon king, split between his rejected, half-made first generation and the proud, flawless second generation he means to lead against the surface.
Dark Sun Campaign Setting (original)
- Belgoi Clawed, toothless desert raiders who ring cursed bone bells to crack a sleeper's mind, lure him into the dark, and drain his vitality with a touch before the feast begins.
- Braxat A towering, shell-backed hunter of the desert wastes that savors its victims' terror, battering minds with psionics before wading in with a spiked club and acid breath.
- Domestic Animals I [Dark Sun] The desert world's caravans run on four hardy beasts: egg-laying scale-runners, tireless shellback lizards, honey-bearing pack insects, and the colossal, man-eating dune hulks that drag wagon trains.
- Dune Freak Sand-swimming humanoids that feel footsteps from miles away, dune freaks erupt from beneath their prey, paralyze it with a venomous bite and drag it down to smother.
- Gaj A beetle-shelled desert horror that cripples minds from afar, then pins its victim in its mandibles and eats his thoughts one point at a time.
- Jozhal A small, color-shifting desert reptile of keen intellect and priestly magic that stalks travelers' camps at night to steal their enchanted gear.
- Kluzd A ten-foot mud serpent that seizes anything crossing its sludge pool by the leg and holds it under until it drowns in the muck.
- Silk Wyrm A 50-foot shelled serpent that slips into camps as a shadow at dusk, paralyzes sleepers, and keeps them cocooned in silk for weeks while it slowly drinks their blood.
- The Great Dragon [Dark Sun] The only true dragon known in the region, a gaunt, half-humanoid horror that fights with claws, psionics and defiler magic all at once and breathes a cone of superheated sand.
- Wezer Giant desert wasps that hive beneath the sand, wezers paralyze living prey so their brood queen can plant eggs that hatch and devour the host from inside.
Monstrous Compendium, 1997 Annual, Volume 4
- Crag Giant Exiled lightning-dancers penned on a lonely jungle mesa, the crag giants are a proud, dying race whose last fire is the hunger for revenge.
- Crimson Shark-Squid A blood-red, psionic monster that is half great shark and half giant squid, seventy-five feet of teeth and tentacles that drags whole ships into the abyss.
- Dolphin [Dark Sun] Silver-white, telepathic dolphins of a ruined world's last sea, hardened by an endless feud with sharks and keepers of their people's memories.
- Kreel Placid, color-shifting eels raised in herds by lizard men of a hidden inland sea, helpless without their reptilian shepherds.
- Puddingfish A boat-sized, nearly invisible jellyfish of a hidden inland sea whose stinging tendrils numb swimmers so they drown before it hauls them up to digest.
- Shark [Dark Sun] The lone surviving shark species of a hidden inland sea, a cunning pack hunter that smells blood a mile off and keeps losing its ancient war with psionic dolphins.
- Skyfish A winged, silver-scaled fish that leaps from the waves to snatch smaller fish into the air, prized by lakeside fishers as a fighting catch and a delicacy.
Monstrous Compendium, 1996 Annual, Volume 3
- Bvanen Clawed, turret-eyed amphibians of the steaming swamps, bvanen are kindly at heart but so wary of outsiders that they glue intruders in place first and ask questions later.
- Guardian Life-Shaped Creation Living tools grown by cliff-dwelling halflings, these guardian beasts climb, lurk, scream alarms and swarm to shield their masters, obeying every command without question.
- Reggelid Flat-faced, six-fingered wizards of unknown origin who live only for magic, reggelids squeeze extra power from every item they wield and hunt the halflings of the cliffs.
- Tembo A hairless, scaly desert predator that drains life with its bite and its mind, fights to the death, and is hated everywhere for stealing children.
- Transport Life-Shaped Creation Grown rather than tamed, these living mounts of the cliff halflings range from darting insect flyers to hawk-beaked war birds and floating cargo whales.
DSR4 Valley of Dust and Fire
- Ashland Exile [Dark Sun] Hardened outcasts and runaways who scrape a living in a volcanic wasteland, ambushing prey with bone weapons and poisons their haughty city-born masters scorn.
- Doomwarden [Dark Sun] Cruel, paranoid nobles of a walled city of doom deep in a volcanic valley, raised from birth as warriors, mind-masters, templars or life-draining wizards.
- Jhakar A scaly, bulldog-jawed desert predator that clamps on, never lets go, and drags its prey to the ground for the rest of the pack, prized in cities as a slave-catcher.
- Sorcerous Lich Mortals who clawed their way past death for power, sorcerous liches of the desert world wield a freezing, paralyzing touch, a fear aura and fearsome psionics.
Monstrous Compendium, 1995 Annual, Volume 2
- Dragon Beetle Foot-long crimson beetles that nest in buried ruins, swarm intruders in packs, and carry a sting that is a mere itch to humans but burning poison to dragons and their kin.
- Half-Giant Massive, mild-mannered hybrids of human and giant, half-giants hire out as guards across the desert world, borrow whatever culture surrounds them, and shift their very alignment with circumstance.
- Vault-Crawler Spider-ant horrors that stalk cavern ceilings, vault-crawlers pin prey in crushing jaws and carve it with bladed forelimbs, and the undead dragon king rides them to war.
- Wall Walker A scaled, eight-legged ambusher of the desert world's deep caverns that clings to walls, takes on the color of stone and shadow, and paralyzes prey with its stinger so it can torment it.
Monstrous Manual
- Elemental Overview [Dark Sun] On the desert world, elementals are worshiped as the raw forces of survival, coming in lesser, standard and greater strengths and reacting violently to the life-draining magic of defilers.
- Gethrak Hunched, three-fingered reptilian raiders of the desert world who leap 20 feet into battle with obsidian spears and consider humans and demihumans the finest meat.
- Kirre An eight-legged, horned jungle tiger of the desert world that rakes prey seven times a round or lashes out with raw psionic force.
- Mantis Warrior Tireless, sleepless insect hunters of the desert world who strike in coordinated packs, hurl returning crystal wedges, paralyze with their bite, and pluck arrows out of the air.
The Ivory Triangle
- Bloodvine A slow, warmth-seeking parasite vine that coils around ironbark trees and creeps up on sleepers at night, numbing its bite while it drinks blood and saps Strength.
- Cilops A tireless, psionic giant centipede that can follow a trail for weeks from a single touched object, making it the favorite manhunter of desert city-state templars.
- Salt Zombie Shriveled husks of travelers who died of thirst on a cursed salt flat, they sense the living from miles away and latch onto bleeding wounds to drink them dry.
- Treant [Dark Sun] A water spirit of the land bound by druidic magic into a living tree, an undying guardian of the desert world's last wild places that conjures water and crushes intruders.
Dragon Kings (hardback)
- Avangion The serene, silver-winged final form of a master preserver, the avangion is a nearly immortal being of light and life, and the sworn enemy of the dragon-defilers who ravage the desert world.
- Clerical Elemental [Dark Sun] A supremely devoted elemental priest who has begun an irreversible transformation, the clerical elemental shifts daily between human and elemental shapes until it finally becomes a living force of its element.
- Dragon [Dark Sun] Not a beast but a destination: a mighty defiler-psionicist who tortures itself through ten stages of agony into an immortal, sand-breathing, world-ruining dragon.
DSM1 Black Flames
- Cursed Dead and Hungry Body Thirst-tormented undead bound to a cursed desert oasis: pitiful skeletons who beg travelers to flee, and bloated, black-eyed zombies who ambush them in hope of power.
- Kharvesk the Dragon A cruel, calculating would-be dragon of the desert world who walks among men in an unbreakable human disguise and wields a vast arsenal of psionics and sorcery.
Dark Sun Campaign Setting (revised)
- Domestic Animals II [Dark Sun] Farm stock of the desert world: armored shell-pigs, water-humped oxen, ill-tempered horn-nags, and silk caterpillars whose venom can kill a drake that dares to eat one.
- The Undead Dragon King Murdered by his fellow sorcerer tyrants and risen as a rotting half-dragon lich, the undead dragon king rules a buried city in disguise while hunting the planes for a path to true godhood.
Other sources
- Drake Overview [Dark Sun] Gargantuan, psionic reptiles that crossed from the elemental planes to hunt the desert world, feared as second only to the dragon-tyrant and hunted for parts worth a fortune or a death sentence.
- Elemental Beast Overview [Dark Sun] Dim-witted predators made of a single pure element, elemental beasts are prized by genies as hunters, but called to the desert world they suffer constant pain that can turn them on their summoners.
Planescape III
- Lesser Air/Earth Elemental [Dark Sun] Two minor elementals any modest conjurer can call: a nearly invisible wisp of desert wind that bowls foes over, and a squat, hollow-eyed mound of sand that simply pounds them flat.
- Lesser Fire/Water Elemental [Dark Sun] Two minor elementals of the desert world: a mischievous, color-shifting pillar of flame that burns anything left unforbidden, and a revered, flowing teardrop of water that wilts under the desert sun.
Thri-Kreen of Athas
- Giant Bloodwing A 13-foot, blood-drinking desert insect that pins prey under six dagger-tipped legs and drains it dry, the curse of every herder on the open plains.
- Mantis Warbreed A towering mantis soldier remade for war, the warbreed hurls war-boomerangs, leaps 90 feet into battle, and strikes with four bladed limbs and a paralyzing bite.
DSQ3 Asticlian Gambit
- Sitak A bright-crested forest parrot that mimics speech with its mind rather than its voice, makes a fine if fussy pet, and can pass on a lingering fever.
Dragon185
- Watroach A thirty-foot desert beetle that is literally a walking hive, carrying millions of drones and its own successor, and that sorcerer tyrants hollow out and raise as undead war platforms.
Mind Lords of the Last Sea
- Lizard Man [Dark Sun] Chameleon-skinned herders of a hidden inland sea, these unusually civilized lizard men fight with cunning, outlaw the killing of thinking beings, and dread the behemoth that batters their city.
Monstrous Compendium, 1994 Annual, Volume 1
- Psionic Lich A master of the mind who willed itself past death, the psionic lich clouds foes with a draining aura, wields unknown mental powers and stores its very self in a psionically empowered phylactery.
Ravenloft Appendix III
- Defiler Lich A lich that powers its spells by devouring life itself, the defiler lich leaves rings of gray ash wherever it casts and rots everything it walks beside.