Creature Catalog

Creature Catalog was an article series in Dragon Magazine that served as its alternative to the Fiend Factory from White Dwarf - which started earlier and was still running as of 1984 although nobody outside London gave a shit by then. As its name implies, Creature Catalog featured fan-submitted monsters, presenting them for the enjoyment of the D&D community.

Only six Creature Catalogs were ever published: the first three for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st edition (comprising that edition's "Monster Manual III", but - given the quality - more like a "Fiend Folio For Yankees"), and a short-lived revival trinity for Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition (3.5). Sadly the D&D community didn't care about most of these critters either. Only a tiny handful of the monsters from the original trinity went on to become official monsters in subsequent editions, whilst the "revival" articles tended to feature fan updates of forgotten monsters from AD&D mainline.

AC9: Creature Catalogue and DMR2: Creature Catalog also exist. AC9's 1986 trade-paperback is the grab-bag for most BXCM stuff, mostly from the modules, which didn't make the Sets; so Basic Dungeons & Dragons stats. DMR2 expanded and updated this in 1993.

Creature Catalog I

Featured in Dragon Magazine #89 (September 1984), this served Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st Edition. It raised the following post-Monster Manual II monsters:

• Amitok: A savage Cryonax-worshipping subrace of goblinoids native to the artic.
• Killer Beetle: A giant beetle with psionic abilities and tentacles that favors sapient victims.
• Birchir: A giant lungfish-like marsh fish big enough to swallow humanoids whole, with a particular taste for lizardfolk.
• Bohun Tree: A killer tree with toxic fruit that attacks by flinging needle-like thorns or lashing out with tentacle-like roots.
• Calygraunt: A magic item-hunting fey creature that esentially resembles a 4ft tall humanoid jackalope.
• Cantobele: A six-legged sabertoothed cat that uses an imitation of a woman's voice to lure humanoid prey.
• Corkie: A giant rodent most distintive for its horns and its poisonous bite.
• Duleep: Deadly electricity-producing amorphous creatrues that resemble thick gray sheets of dusty cobwebs capable of crawling along.
• Explodestool: A mushroom that blows up when touched. What did you think it was?
• Fachan: A bizarre humanoid monster resembling an ogre with one eye, one arm, and one leg. This is an actual folklore beastie, and even made it into Pathfinder, but that doesn't make it any less stupid.
• Flailtail: A freshwater ray with a club-like tail it uses to stun prey whilst it disguises itself as a giant bed of lilypads or pond scum.
• Ghuuna: A gnoll therianthrope with the ability to transform into a hyaenodon.
• Glasspane Horror: A strange elemental that normally disguises itself as an iron-hard sheet of glass, but can transform into a glassy humanoid warrior or a sheet of sparkling glass dust, often enticed to serve as a guardian by mages in exchange for the crushed gemstones it feeds upon.
• Giant Horseshoe Crab: Exactly what it says on the tin. An odd relative of the common Giant Crab.
• Ihagnim: A weird and predatory slime native to the Astral Plane.
• Millikan: A bizarre tentacled abomination oft-mistaken for a tree stump... until it starts spewing fire at you!
• Dark Naga: A new naga strain, classified here as a malicious fey with the head of a human and the body of a snake. This got into the 2e Monstrous Manual.
• Peltast: A strange symbiotic slime that disguises itself as a leather clothing or accoutrement; it feeds on the "wearer's" blood, but takes only a small amount (1HP per day), and in return it will purify any poison they suffer, grant them slight magic resistance, and can even give them emergency resuccitation once per day.
• Giant Pitcher Plant: You really need the explanation for what this is?
• Seastar: It's a starfish, just using a slightly more obscure name. Except because it's in D&D, it's capable of preying on human flesh and even being trained into a deadly aquatic guardian.
• Scallion: A predatory oceanic fish of gargantuan proportion. Most iconic for the female, whose young live inside her stomach-womb and do the attacking for her when she hunts food.
• Giant Shrike: A sized up version of what is commonly known as the Butcherbird. It's a real thing. Look it up.
• Sind: Also known as "marshwiggles", a swamp-dwelling humanoid race with subtle frog-like features and a halfling like disposition. Obvious C.S. Lewis expy was obvious and, further, the Fiend Factory had done this too.
• Star Leviathan: A massive whale-like creature native to the Astral Plane.
• Utukku: Fiends native to Tarterus (what later became Carceri in Planescape), resembling a scaly-skinned, reptilian humanoid with the head of a lion that has porcupine quilles for a mane.
• Giant Venus Flytrap: Again, you need this spelled out?
• Vurgen: A gigantic version of the famous gulper eel.
• Killer Whale: An orca. That's it.
• Wind Steed: A species of wind-walking flying wingless horses, also known as Asperii. This also made it to 2e, associated with the Forgotten Realms.

Creature Catalog II

Featured in Dragon Magazine #94, still Gygaxian AD&D. There are only eighteen of these:

• Belabra: A strange land-dwelling octopus-like hunting creature, vaguely akin to a wickedly-jawed, feral-minded flumph.
• Giant Betta: A giant version of the betta fish, more famously called the Siamese Fighting Fish.
• Bhaergala: Also known as the "Gunniwolf", a vaguely lupine-yet-feline predator that specializes in hunting humanoid prey with its power of speech and its ability to reflect enemy magic. They find their niche in Forgotten Realms.
• Phase Dragon: A forgotten dragonet species that is able to partially shift into the Ethereal Plane, similar to the more famous Phase Spider.
• Ekrat: An annoying species of wingless fairy that feeds on paper and ink - especially those used to create magical grimoires, enchanted books, and spell scrolls.
• Fireball Fly: A giant fly that explodes in a burst of fire when slain.
• Firestar: A Strange elemental being, similar to a Will-o-Wisp, but benign in nature.
• Flamewing: A species of predatory bat that can cover itself in a fiery aura to protect itself.
• Hurgeon: A reclusive species of peaceful humanoid hedgehogs.
• Giant Lightning Bug: A giant firefly with the ability to launch electrical sparks at creatures that irritate them.
• Lillend: A celestial that resembles an angel-winged lamia. They'll become a big deal in Planescape a decade later.
• Orgautha: A gargantuan land-dwelling leech with a mouth at either end of its body.
• Rekeihs: A bizarre, vaguely octopus-like wandering carnivorous plant.
• Rummele: A celestial dog native to the Chaotic Good/Chaotic Neutral corner of the Great Wheel. It has the power to transform into a humanoid shape.
• Urisk: A race of humanoid goats.
• Viltch: A fiendish race from Pandemonium that exists only to destroy things, looking a dirty baboon with two arms and one leg.
• Great Wyrm: A flightless, six-legged but intelligent branch of the dragon family tree.
• Xaver: A Gotcha Monster that disguises itself as a sword so it can eat all your metal.

Creature Catalog III

Featured in Dragon Magazine #101:

• Alcor: A strain of lizardfolk adapted to frigid climates, which uses its long, flat tail as a snowboard.
• Avari: Fiends native to the, quote, "Middle Lower Planes" that resemble humanoid bats.
• Automaton: A variant golem distinguished by being specifically built to be mobile without needing magic to make it flex.
• Bogeyman: A malicious fey that feeds on the fear and terror of children.
• Burbur: An inoffensive wormlike critter that eats all manner of deadly species of slime, mold and moss, including the legendarily deadly Green Slime.
• Creeping Pit: An Astral Plane monster that manifests in the Material Plane as a cartoon-style hole that moves about, trying to suck creatures into the Astral Plane.
• Dracones: A giant snake that has become the host for a spirit of a dead master warrior by inhabiting its tomb.
• Forchoreae: A celestial deer native to the Happy Hunting Grounds, which later became the Beastlands.
• Gargorian: A four-armed gargoyle with a flailing tail.
• Gu'armori: A powerful suit of animated armor that requires the combined efforts of a wizard and a cleric to create.
• Hamadryad: A more powerful version of the dryad.
• Hawkdragon: A dragonet with hawk-like features and a stinking breath weapon.
• Lhiannan Shee: A female vampire fey with a penchant for preying on bards. Actually a real mythical monsters.
• Mantimere: A crossbreed between a manticore and a chimera.
• Metal Mimic: A more powerful mimic that can mimic metal.
• Orpsu: A blood-sucking gliding nocturnal predator.
• Pilfer Vine: Semi-sentient plants that love bright shiny items, and so they'll knick yours if you get too close.
• Righteous Clay: A malicious earth elemental consisting of a mass of animate clay that steals souls.
• Sea Giant: Not to be confused with the Mystaran monster from PC3: The Sea People, this is basically a giant merfolk.
• Tener: A giant, bipedal, humanoid spider native to Pandemonium, Limbo and the Abyss.
• Thendar: Strange humanoid sages of great magical power who inhabit the Astral Plane.
• Tundra Beast: Essentially a polar bear that inhabits subarctic and northern temperate plains, disguising itself as part of the vegetation.
• Wind Thrower: A strange dwarf subrace with the ability to manipulate the wind to their defense.
• Yale: A stag-sized boar with long, curling, cow-like horns.

Much much much later in time and editions . . .

Creature Catalog IV

Featured in Dragon Magazine #339, this Creature Catalog was for Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition. Uniquely, this article was devoted entirely to 3.5 conversions of forgotten or obscure AD&D monsters from the Greyhawk, Mystara and Ravenloft settings. It featured the following monsters:

• Animus: A powerful, lich-like undead being created by the church of Hextor. Native to Greyhawk.
• Blindheim: A vaguely humanoid frog with large eyes that can produce potent beam attacks. Native to Greyhawk.
• Carrionette: A murderously self-aware marionette puppet that wants to become a real person - and is willing to swap bodies with a living victim to get it. Native to Ravenloft.
• Death's Head Tree: A blood-drinking tree that bears "fruit" in the shape of severed humanoid heads that wail, groan, and bite. Native to Ravenloft.
• Greyhawk Dragon: A unique species of steel-colored, shapeshifting dragon native to Greyhawk with a particular fascination for the humanoid life.
• Dusanu: David Cook's necrotic fungus that colonizes corpses and animates them to spread, causing it to be mistaken for a skeleton. Seen first in X5: Temple of Death. So marked as a Mystara native.
• Goblyn: Monstrous, goblin-like warped humans best known for their love of chewing faces off. Native to Ravenloft.
• Maggot Golem: A golem made up of an enormous mass of mobile maggots. Yes, this is real, and it's just as gross as it sounds. Native to Ravenloft.
• Suel Lich: A lich-like undead creature that normally exists as a wraith, but can possess humanoid bodies to interact with the physical world. Said bodies rapidly become useless. Native to Greyhawk.
• Nagpa: More Cook, here a fallen wizard cursed to spend eternity in the form of a hideous, foul-smelling, flightless humanoid vulture. This started in X5's predecessor Master of the Desert Nomads as a probable end-run around the BXCM-before-I No-Demon policy (the vrock, here); later gaining cult classic status as its own thing. Anyway, Mystara now.
• Phanaton: Tom Moldvay's pet flying lemurs. Weirdly adorable, became a Mystara mainstay.
• Xvart: Blue-skinned, pathetic little humanoids too wimpy even to be accepted as goblinoids. White Dwarf readers loved them, most Americans thought they were smurfs done wrong. Gary Gygax sided with the Brits and kept plugging them for Greyhawk, so here they are.

Creature Catalog V

Featured in Dragon Magazine #343, this Creature Catalog was for Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition. It featured the following monsters:

• Chupacabra: A fuzzy, ape-like, blood-sucking humanoid monster.
• Arcane Dragons: Two dragon species particularly renowned for their mastery of magic; the Hex Dragon and the Tome Dragon.
• Rune Golem: A weak but quick golem found in Nordic or similarly druidic regions, made of hardwood, ivory and bone engraved with magical sigils.
• Gray Shiver: A spider that has gained sapience, a small array of magical power, and a huge ego as a result of taking up residence inside the deserted skull of a destroyed lich.
• Hellchain Weaver: A fiend of uncertain connection to both Kytons and Lolth that resembles a giant spider made from woven chains, with metal spikes for toes and fangs.
• Living Wall: A nightmarish undead comprised of a mass of undead corpses mashed together into a solid wall. A classic monster from the Ravenloft setting.
• Malfera: A hideous fiend from the Demiplane of Nightmares. From X5 like the Dusanu which, unlike the Dusanu, Mentzer raised to the Companion Set.
• Norker: A tough-skinned, savage goblinoid subspecies. Can't exactly call this boring redundant asshole a "classic" although Greyhawk material did off-and-on try to make this thing happen.
• Nuckalavee: A repulsive monster from Irish folklore that resembles a mutated, aquatic centaur whose translucent skin makes it look like it's been flayed.
• Warturtle: A giant and aggressive turtle often trained as a beast of war by amphibious or aquatic races, such as lizardfolk and sahuagin.
• White Hart: A magical white-furred deer native to fey-touched forests that is capable of traveling between planes.

Creature Catalog VI

Featured in Dragon Magazine #355, this Creature Catalog was for Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition. It featured the following monsters:

• Black Beast of Bedlam: A shifting, chaotic, amorphous monster spawned from the madness of deities.
• Cave Fisher: A classic dungeon and Underdark-dwelling predatory insect.
• Giant Dragonfly: ...You really need this explained?
• Dungeon Phantom: A unique strain of ghost created when a thrill-seeking veteran adventurer gets careless and dies in a dungeon.
• Rot Giant: A strain of giants afflicted with a horrible disfiguring plague by Incabulos.
• Cannon Golem: A golem with an integrated cannon. What more do you want?
• Maedar: The rare male counterpart to the Medusa, another classic monster.
• Obliviax: A strange species of moss that steals memories. Another classic monster.
• Scarecrow: A variant golem based on an animated scarecrow. Actually goes back quite a ways in D&D, and is particularly associated with Ravenloft.
• Seedroach: A magically engineered plant that produces mobile seeds that look vaguely like cockroaches; these bite humanoids and turn them into adult seedroach trees. Kill them with fire.
• Giant Slug: A classic D&D monster stemming from pulp fantasy; an enormous slug that spits acid.
• Spring-Heeled Jack: A murderous urban fey with a vaguely devilish mien.