Classic D&D Monsters, According to AI

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Since I’ve got a new computer, I’ve been playing with some new AI image generation software. A couple of weeks ago, I decided to see how it did with descriptions of some classic D&D monsters, so I grabbed my first edition Monster Manual and fed descriptions from the book into the AI. A few notes:

I included the phrases “monster” and “Dungeons & Dragons,” along with the names of several of my favorite fantasy artists, in the entry to kind of establish a baseline.

I tried to stick to the weirder D&D-specific creatures like Beholders and Owlbears.
A lot of monsters in the 1E Monster Manual–even weird ones like intellect devourers and rust monsters–have basically no description at all. The picture is the only indication of what the critter looks like.
Some (but not all) entries have a “description” section. I halfway wonder if this section was originally meant to be a miniatures painting guide, because they mostly focus on the colors of various parts of the monster. If there was a description, I started with it.
If there wasn’t a description, or if important things were not mentioned there but were mentioned or described in more detail elsewhere in the entry, I added those bits. However, I didn’t add any words that didn’t appear in the description. So, for example, I couldn’t add “humanoid with an octopus for a head” for the Mind Flayer, because the entry doesn’t say that anywhere–it just describes what color the parts are.
I kept running new versions of each monster until I got something that was close to the traditional look or until I got bored.

Here are the best entries, along with the descriptions I used:

Ankheg

“The ankheg has a chitinous shell which is brownish in color. Its underside is pinkish. The creature’s eyes are glistening black. ”

Beholder

“The globular body of this monster is supported by levitation, and it floats slowly about as it wills. Atop the sphere are 10 eyestalks, while in its central area are a great eleventh eye and a large mouth filled with pointed teeth. The body is protected by a hard chitinous covering. ”

Carrion Crawler

“Carrion crawlers strongly resemble a cross between a giant green cutworm and a huge cephalopod. Each of the beast’s feet are equipped with sharp claws. The head is equipped with 8 tentacles which flail at prey.”

Displacer Beast

“This vaguely puma-like creature is bluish black, its tentacles are dead black, the horney edges of the tentacles are brownish yellow and its eyes glow with a hellish green. ”

Gelatinous Cube

“Gelatinous Cubes are nearly transparent and are difficult to see.”

Mind Flayer

“The mind flayers skin glistens with slime. Its skin color is a nauseus mauve, its four tentacles being purplish black. A mind flayer’s eyes are dead white, no pupil being evident evident. The three long fingers of each hand ar reddish, but the hands are mauve.”

Owlbear

“Owlbears have brownish-black to yellow brown fur and feathers. The 1300 to 1500 pound males will be the darker colored. The beaks of these creatures are yellow and ivory. The eyes are red-rimmed and exceedingly terrible to behold.”

Roper

“These monsters can stand upright in order to resemble a pillar or stalagmite or flatten themselves at full length upon the floor so as to look like nothing more than a hump. The roper has six strands of strong, sticky, rope-like excretion. The yellowish-gray monster appears to be a mass of foul, festering corruption. The roper is cigar-shaped, about 9′ long, with a diameter of some 3′. ”

Thought Eater

“The thought eater appears to be somthing like a sickly gray, skeletal-bodied, enormous headed platypus. Its webbed paws allow it to swim through the ether.”

Umber Hulk

“Umber Hulks are black, shading to yellowish gray on the front. Their head is gray on top, and the mandibles are ivory colored. Beacause of their dark color they can easily be mistaken fro some humanoid creature at 40′ or more distance. Four eyes, iron-like claws, powerful mandibles. ”