Interesting Monsters for a D&D campaign?

[Terror Birdist]

I was thinking of running a mhw themed campaign in dnd and I was curious which areas and monsters would work best, I don't plan on using rat5hian,rathalos, kushala, or kirin since they all have close counterparts in dungeons like unicorns for kirin and rathalos is literally a copy and pasted wyvern from dungeons and dragons if you read its abilities. I was thinking about odo for a boss fight and maybe girros or either of the ya-kus for mini bosses.

[Umbreon™]

How about monsters from the older games? Zinogre, Nargacuga, Gore Magala and maybe Barioth could be good ones.

[McFuzz]

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ I would PLAY THE ♥♥♥♥ out of Monster Hunter DND.

Use Gobul and Nibelsnarf if you wanna ambush your low level hunters >:D

[Mhblis]

I've actually done this and on the 5e DnD reddit there is a post of someone who has actually posted stats for them an continued updating the document.

Honestly I wouldnt use too many of the ones that have couter parts already. Go for the ones that don't have counterparts. It makes them stand out.

Also don't make them just Meatsacks you are far better off making them fights that require the party to manage mechanics while also attacking. The Elder Dragons like Kushala and Teostra's Arena is a great example of this.

So in effect you would be designing encounters similair to the Zorah fight. But add in environmental hazards or small monsters that need to be managed as well.

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So my campaign started at level 1. The players just lived in the world and learned some MH lore. At level 3 they got to go out and "join the guild".
It wasn't really until level 5 where they got their first taste of a Monster. Good old Barroth.

I'm not ashamed to admit that from this point I heavily ripped off the storyline from MH3U. I left it to the players to track, research and plan the encounters with the monsters. This is where most of the exploration and social aspects were.

Then when they felt they were ready and had crafted their arena and lured the target in the fight would start. Casting spells to manage blights or firing harpoon cannons to bind them to the ground.

They would also have missions where they would need to do this on the fly due to a monster being spotted and they being sent to chase it off.

Also DevilJho messed up many a hunt. He became a terror and was an ongoing BBEG for the campaign.

I used the Tarrasque stats from 5e for Jhen Morahn with added mounting mechanics and then something more in line with the 3e Tarrasque for DevilJho. I mean he eats Elder Dragons he should be just mean.

[Mhblis]

@Frank

Bullets are basically Nibblesrafs in every aspects. And man do I love using them Land Sharks. No need to even restat them

[McFuzz]

Good Low Level fights from older games:

Yian Garuga or any dumb bird (Yian Kut-Ku, Qurupeco) or Malfestio the hilarious owl that sleeps and confuses people.
Any of the Drome dinosaurs (velicidrome, gendrome, etc) or Great Jaggi
Arzuros or Volvidon
Any small monsters or gajalakas even, lol.

Good High Level fights:
LAGIACRUS
Nargacuga or Tigrex
Zinogre
Diablos
That one giant goat mountain that helicopters itself into the sky.
Najarala
And obviously the Pickle Himself

[Aunel]

We've fought a Styigan Zinogre, a Silverwind Nargacuga and a Nakarkos.

You can template up/generate just about anything and they are all pretty good. Though stuff like Steve and Astalos would be a titanic pain in the ass because they inherently fly a hell of a lot better than most PCs. Though this was pathfinder which is 3.5 derived and for the most part, abhor 5e. Was a Fatalis in 5e though for the short time that DM ran that system. So. Doable still. I just personally...wouldn't.

[Terror Birdist]

Just looked up the stat blocks on reddit and they are amazing

[Goose]

give them a Rajang and call it a day.

[Terror Birdist]

that might be a dead party

[Sovereigndrake]

If you have a cat that likes to walk on tables and totally get in the way, keep it in the room. It can be Bazel.

[The Masquerade]

GOD TIER TROLL: rhenoplos

ELDERS: chameleos, yama tsukami, narkarkos, dalamadur, akantor, dire miralis

APEX MONSTER: rajang, devil jho

LEVIATHANS: agnaktor and his sub species, lagiacrus and sup species

INSECTOIDS: shen gaoren/ diamyo hermitaur/ shogun ceanataur, queen vespoid, seltas and seltas queen

HONORABLE MENTIONS: kezu, giganox, niblesnarf, gypceros, nerscylla, monoblos, duramboros, qurupeco, shakalaka and shakalaka king, plesioth, malfestio

[Orrin]

I started planning one of these earlier this week, using the super cool MH monster manual another person mentioned.
I think it's going to go well, but I also felt like I had to make a lot of conceptual restrictions on races and classes in order to keep the theme, which led to me just making a handful of pre-made character sheets with a few essential details left blank for customization, so that players can pick one that fits their preferred style of play.
I've got a few human character options (mostly fighters), and one each for wyverian (ranger), troverian (forge cleric with a hunting horn for spells), and lynian (rogue). I came up with race changes myself for the non-human characters which I don't trust would work well outside of the sheets I made, and might prove to be unbalanced.

I don't think I'd do it with players who either aren't MH fans or haven't played some vanilla D&D.

[Mhblis]

I wont restrict it that much.

You are fine to carve out a number of the races and classes for lore reasons but honestly I'd find space for as many of them as possible.

Making your own character is most of the fun.

[Orrin]

Originally posted by Mhblis:

I wont restrict it that much.

You are fine to carve out a number of the races and classes for lore reasons but honestly I'd find space for as many of them as possible.

Making your own character is most of the fun.

Yeah, you do whatever would be the most fun for you and your group.
I just wanted some fidelity since it's taking place in the world of MH, so one of the major issues is how magic works. There aren't wizards and the like, but we have tools and concoctions that imitate some spells, but definitely not all of them. You'd think at first that a bard would be a good hunting horn user, but all the crazy stuff they can do would either be useless or would break the theming. I went with pre-made characters because it's going to be less work than micro-managing every player's process just to make sure it feels like Monster Hunter when we play it, and not just a cross-over. Mechanically that means adding and removing a cumbersome amount of content from the base-game. It'll also save a lot of time trying to figure out how to compromise certain mechanics that I consider essential to the experience of both franchises.
And there is a lot of stuff I left blank, mostly stuff having to do with the character's appearance, personality, and history. The rest is all negotiable.
I wouldn't dig my heels in if a player made their own character and it fits the theme. I would love if they would do that, actually.

On the other hand, you've kind of opened my eyes to the fact that I should be making these decisions with some player feedback, because not everything that looks good to me is guaranteed to be fun for them.

[Lord Serath Darklands]

If you want to punish your players for their insolence (and they don't have ways to prevent poison, only cure it), throw a Pukei-Pukei at them.