Dungeons and Dragons

Dungeons and Dragons is multimedia franchise created by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson and published by TSR. While starting as a roleplaying game, it has greatly expanded into just about every possible media, and a myriad of alternate universes too, such as Forgotten Realms, Dark Sun, and Ravenloft. The core rules have few ties to any particular story or setting, but they do introduce the monsters and magic that are common among most settings.

3rd Party Supplements

 * See article: 3rd Party Supplements

Abiel
Commonly known as Bee People for predictable reasons, the Abiel are a private though not entirely hostile people. Each hive is ruled without question by its queen, although the queen does have a council of advisors. When a juvenile queen reaches the point where she wishes to start her own hive she will set out with a small contingent of soldiers and scouts. She is not above driving out current residents if her ideal hive location is already populated, but her scouts will still act cordially if they run into civilized races.

Banshee
Banshees are ghosts, primarily of evil elven women, who dwell on their deaths. Like most ghosts they can cause level drains and fairly extreme stat drains.

Bast
Bast is an Egyptian god of chaos and justice.

Blackstone Gigant
Blackstone Gigants are golems constructed for security by powerful spellcasters. Powerful opponents in their own right, they also possess the ability to animate other stone statues.

Demonic Transformation
The 3.5 suppliment Fiendish Codex includes rules for demonic transformation.

Drider
The Dark Elf society prizes strength above all alse. Drow must complete a trial in order to prove their worthyness to the Spider Queen Lolth. Those who succeed, or fail, become Driders (it kind of flops back and forth depending on the canon). Driders are either the most renowned of Lolth's children, or her most reviled. Either way they're nasty and mean.

Dryad
Dryads are fey creatures who seldom venture outside their home forest. They have short tempers and will attack any foreigners, usually by disguising themselves as an elf first to lure the intruder into a trap.

Erinyes
Erinyes are mid level denizens of the Abyss, filling many positions in the forces of the various Princes. Legend has it they are descendants of celestials who fell when the Abyss was first created. Because of their apperance they are also often used as delegates with humanoid races.

Faun
The Faun are a peaceful race of beast-men that live in the land of the greek pantheon. They occasionally deal with mortal men, and will dress for the occasion, but in their own lands they wear only body paints.

Hag
Hags exist on the opposite end of the fey spectrum as Nymphs. While a Nymph represents the beauty and serenity of nature, a Hag is its uglyness and fury. Hags can make themselves appear as beautiful maidens, and while their target is off guard they murder them with wicked claws and spells.

Harpy
The Harpy is a solitary animal, prefering to live far from any civilized areas. When tracking prey they first sing an alluring song, then close in to fight hand-to-claw. Some Harpies are able to create magical effects with their songs, boiling blood or spewing a cloud of ash.

Lamia(AD&D 2e)
Lamia are carnivorous hunters that dwell in desert regions. They will cast the illusion of a damsel on themselves to lure in unwarry travelers and then attack. Just by touching a target they can drain a person's wisdom, eventually to the point where their target is totally unable to deny the Lamia's commands.

The standard Lamia are exclusively female, but Lamia Nobles, who have the lower body of a snake, can be either sex. Lamia Nobles are also able to shapechange into a humanoid form that will fool most low level sentient creatures.

Lamia(4e)
The Lamia is a swarm of telepathically connected scarabs in the guise of an elf. It lures sentient beings into secluded places then kills and devours them. Every meal adds another scarab to its body, and when the mass becomes too large it "reproduces" by disgourging its excess scarabs onto an unlucky elf which will be turned into the body of a new Lamia.

Lillend
Lillend are benevolent celestials that travel to the mortal realm to partake in our arts. They are rarely hostile, fighting only to defend themselves or possibly to protect a favored artist.

Marilith
Mariliths are high level demons found in the Abyssal plane. They are adept at swordplay, and take an interest in collecting weapons. Yuan-Ti will sometimes worship them.

Medusa
The Medusa are a race of reptilian humanoids. The females can turn flesh to stone with their gaze, while the males can induce sickness and poison though the same method.

Merfolk
Merfolk are the fey of the waves, sunning themselves on rocks and playing tricks on any surfacers who they see. Their favored class is bard.

Oublivae
Oublivae is a powerful demon that resides in the Abyss. According to legend she as an aspect of the pure Evil force that created the Abyss. Her purpose is to destroy all civilization, no matter its source or purpose, and to that end she will ally herself with smaller forces for the purpose of splintering powerful kingdoms. Her followers gather in barren wastelands, and in the slums of cities where they conspire to topple all order.

In combat Oublivae fights as a wild animal, running on all fours and slicing at opponents with her claws and tail.

Sand Bride
Trapped on the barren planet of Athas, most Dryads grow mad and mean. Without any forests to call their own, they create mirages and then murder anyone who is unlucky enough to be fooled by it.

Sathia
Sathia is a celestial paragon, and patron of painting and sculpture. She fights, if she has to, with her claws and razor sharp feathers.

Selkie
Selkie are creatures of the sea that are drawn to land by their curiosity. In the waters they take the form of a seal, while on land she appears a normal human. Aside from that ability to shapeshift a Selkie has no powers.

Spell Effects
Shapechanging abilities are a favorite of many spell casters, offering both tactical advantages and temporary stat changes.

Succubus
Succubi are low level demons, though are favored as servants by most rulers of the Abyss. Their ability to shapechange and seduce make them useful diplomats for negotiations between Abyssal Princes or with surface dwellers.

In the early years of the Abyss a group of Succubi betrayed the demon Graz'zt and were cast into a lake of molten iron for their insurrection. Those that were able to pull themselves free became Ferrolith. They lost their beauty but more than made up for it with their ferocity and strength.

Tabaxi
Tabaxi are seclusive tribal hunters. They live in small communities, and use weapons and tools as often as they use their own fangs and claws. They typically worship their own unique nature spirits.

Tiefling
Tieflings in 3e are the offspring of fiend and mortal races, or of other Tieflings. Their Good counterparts, the offspring of mortals and celestials, are Aasimar, and both are collectively known as Planetouched. Tieflings often have unmistakable features of their bloodline, such as horns, discolored skin, or the scent of sulfur. They also have innate Evil magic, such as Darkness, Contagion, or Horrid Wilting.

In 4e Tieflings are specifically the decendants of a bloodline cursed by the gods for conspiring with demons, while the half-blood offspring of demons are known as Cambion.

One Tiefling shows up as a primary character in IDW's Dungeons and Dragons comic. Tisha is a mercenary and warlock but is generally a more nobel sort than her background or profession would suggest. She joins Fell's mercenary unit in order to pay her way while trying to track down her sister.

Were Creature
The Lycanthropy disease comes in many forms, all of it contageous and many of its sufferers evil. Those evil sorts typically dwell in and around large population centers so that they have victims close at hand when they transform, while the good sort are loners who remove themselves from society. A Were Creature is able to transform at will between its humanoid, animal, and animal-hybrid forms. The longer a humanoid has had the affliction the more their animal side's features will bleed over into their humanoid form.

Yochlol
Yochlol are loyal servants of the Queen of Spiders. They infiltrate Drow societies to act as the eyes and ears of Lolth, sometimes staying hidden for several decades and taking prominent positions in the community as well as mates. While they can maintain a disguise of a Drow female their true from is of an amorphous tentacled blob.

Zuggtmoy
The Lady of Decay is a demon of death and atrophy. Her minions infiltrate cults and churches, corrupting the teachings over time until the followers become her own. Ironically she has been the victim of her own decay, as she is one of the weakest demons in the Abyss. Most of her lands have been lost, and she doesn't have enough of an army to pose a threat to any other rulers of Abyss. This is one reason why she is the most willing to send her minions to the mortal realms.