During the last D&D session, I used a few custom monsters that I put together with WotC’s Monster Builder. They worked out so well that I thought I’d post them here for your perusal and potential use.

Shadow Ghoul
This is really just a modification to the base ghoul in the Monster Manual; I wanted a lurker rather than a soldier, so I gave it a couple of extra abilities: death from above and fade to shadow. To complete the concept, I gave it the shadow origin, and you can play it up even more by describing how the shadows seem to cling to it, and how a cold numbness creeps into the PCs’ veins when it strikes. At any rate, this beastie works really well for harassing defenders and getting to back-rank strikers. The fact that it can leap 8 squares and knock someone prone and grab them means that it effectively monopolizes one PC’s attention for a round or two (assuming it hits), and once they shake it off, it can teleport away and do it again. Make sure you use it in a place with lots of shadows and darkness to make best use of its abilities.

Corpse Mound
This guy is a pretty effective soldier. The final battle in Keep on the Shadowfell, for my group, consisted of Kalarel, the main bad guy, and this thing, as well as some traps that manifested later on. The corpse mound (and the ravenous corpses it spawned) did an admirable job of keeping the heat off of Kalarel so that he could focus on completing his dark ritual. Basically, you’ll want to keep it close to as many PCs as possible so that it can get free attacks from its aura, and use corpse missile and corpse burst whenever you get the chance. As with the shadow ghoul above, we see that the combination of being knocked prone and grabbed is extremely effective at getting a PC’s undivided attention.

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