New Monster and a tip! Creating new monsters from old ones...

This is going to be a quick tip and an easy one.

There are many ways to make a monster completely original but here's a quick one:

Mix things up.

Some combinations might just create a new thing that might surprise your PCs.

For example, a griffon is known creature, but when you throw a zombie griffon against the low level PCs, it's a whole new menacing monster with new weaknesses and strengths.

Here is an example of this recipe: a Saber-tooth Tiger with the Half-Dragon Template.