Behind the Screen: Monster Making Madness II - Themed Creatures

Last time I talked about some quick and dirty ways to have new creatures to vex your players. This time I'll be taking a different approach. I won't being going into mechanics very much but I will provide stat blocks of the creatures that I use for examples.

Say that you're building a new homebrew world and you want to populate it with creatures besides what you find in the Bestiary or Monster Manual. Unless you have a particular campaign feel in mind, I wouldn't completely throw them out, but you can recapture the wonder that we all felt when we first read or saw Lord of the Rings by doing this.

While you could create each creature individually, this will drive you to madness rather quickly. Alternatively, you can come up with a unifying theme, location, or niche and build around that.

For a new dark fantasy setting, Dale decides that he wants to have his players face off against demon cults with horrifying abominations. Thinking about what he has seen done in the past, he has the sudden idea to have the abominations be the still living sacrificial victims of the cults. Thus he has his starting point: humanoid abominations that were once ordinary people.

Now you have something to unite your focus on this slew of creature building. You still need to create the first creature. While the mechanics will vary depending on the system you are designing monsters for, if there is already something that suits your purposes just use the mechanics from that.

Dale decides that the first monster that he makes will be a stealthy scout. Something that avoids combat but rather keeps an eye out for trouble and reports back. Smaller is better, and Dale recently read about the Blood Eagle so he figures that this scout is nothing but head, spine, and ribcage. Wanting it to have more than eyes and ears, Dale figures a low-level, passive magic detection would finish it off nicely. Last up is the name, and because the mental image reminds him of cloakers, Dale settles on the name bloodcloaks.

You now have your first creature, and from here ideas should start percolating up. Each creature should tie back to that unifying concept, while expanding and building upon what came before it. Rise and repeat until you have enough creatures that you are happy with.

Dale wants a total of four monsters. He has a scout, but cultists aren't known for having much in the way of martial capabilities. That, along with watching 300, gives Dale the idea for the next beastie: a frontline, phalanx-type combat oriented monster. Additionally, he wants a ranged combatant and a heavy hitting tank. Taking a look around online, he stumbles across images of the early stages of the video game Dead Space. The zombies with blades coming out of their palms are an almost perfect fit for the weapons of the phalanx monsters. The various husks from Mass Effect 3 give Dale the last inspiration that he needs for the other two: the ranged combatant has a second person grafted to their arm and can spit teeth and other small bones while the tank is composed of four people grafted together forming a tall, lean monster with massive cudgels for arms. Deciding that of the four monsters, the phalanx one is the oldest while the remaining three are new creations. Thus he gives the phalanx monster the name skark while the ranged and tank ones are bonespitters and lumbering brutes respectively.

Bloodcloak             CR 1/2
XP 200
NE Tiny aberration (demonwraught)
Init +3; Senses Perception +10, darkvision 60 feet, passive detect magic
Defense
AC 15, touch 15, flat-footed 12 (+2 size, +3 Dexterity)
hp 3 (1d8-1)
Fort -1, Ref +3, Will +1
Offense
Speed 5 ft.; 50 ft. fly
Melee grapple 1d4-1
Tactics
During Combat When at all possible, the bloodcloak avoids combat. It watches, observes, and slinks away to report back to its masters. When combat is unavoidable, it tries to escape so that it can make its report. The sole exception is when it spots a lone intruder, at which point it will try to strangle it with its spine/tail.
StatisticsStr 8, Dex 16, Con 8, Int 6, Wis 8, Cha 4
Base Attack +0; CMB -3 (+5 grapple); CMD 10 (15 grapple)
Feats Skill Focus (Perception)
Skills Perception +10, Stealth +15
Languages Common
SQ darkvision 60 ft., passive detect magic (does not gain more than round 1 information), Innate Grappler (gain a +8 racial bonus to grapple checks)

Skark             CR 2

XP 600

NE Medium aberration (demonwraught)

Init +3; Senses Perception -2, darkvision 60 feet

Defense

AC 14, touch 12, flat-footed 12 (+2 shield, +2 Dexterity)

hp 22 (3d8+9)

Fort +4, Ref +3, Will +1

Offense

Speed 30 ft.

Melee bone blade +6 melee 1d8+4 (19-20 critical)

Tactics

During Combat When more than one is present, skarks will form a phalanx with their bone shields interlocking and the blades sprouting for their opposing hand in position to thrust into their targets. Additionally, they will attempt to demoralize their targets by shrieking and screaming (Intimidate) as their jaws open far too wide.

Statistics

Str 18, Dex 14, Con 16, Int 10, Wis 6, Cha 4

Base Attack +2; CMB +6; CMD 18

Feats Shield Wall, Intimidating Prowess

Skills Acrobatics +8, Climb +10, Intimidate +7, Swim +10

Languages Common

SQ darkvision 60 ft.

Bonespitter             CR 3

XP 800

NE Medium aberration (demonwraught)

Init +4; Senses Perception -2, darkvision 60 feet

Defense

AC 16, touch 14, flat-footed 12 (+4 Dexterity, +2 natural)

hp 22 (3d8+9)

Fort +4, Ref +3, Will +2

Offense

Speed 30 ft.

Ranged bone dart +5 ranged 2d6 piercing 80 ft.

Tactics

During Combat Bonespitters tend to hand in the back, avoiding melee while shooting at the enemies that look to be the most dangerous.

Statistics

Str 12, Dex 18, Con 16, Int 6, Wis 6, Cha 4

Base Attack +2; CMB +4; CMD 18

Feats Point-Blank Shot, Precise Shot

Skills Intimidate +4, Survival +5

Languages Common

SQ darkvision 60 ft.

Lumbering Brute             CR 4

XP 1,200

NE Large aberration (demonwraught)

Init -1; Senses Perception -2, darkvision 60 feet

Defense

AC 18, touch 8, flat-footed 18 (-1 Dexterity, -1 size, +10 natural)

hp 42 (5d8+20)

Fort +5, Ref +0, Will +5

Offense

Speed 30 ft.

Melee slam +6 ranged 2d6+12

Tactics

During Combat Lumbering brutes are simple combatants: they go towards the nearest adversary and try to smash it into paste.

Statistics

Str 18, Dex 8, Con 18, Int 4, Wis 6, Cha 8

Base Attack +3; CMB +8 (+12 bull rush, overrun); CMD 17 (21 bull rush, overrun)

Feats Power Attack, Improved Bull-Rush, Improved Overrun

Skills Intimidate +7

Languages Common

SQ darkvision 60 ft.

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Announcement

Happy New Year to all!

I'm not sure how to say this more eloquently so I'm just going to be blunt: I am going to take a break from blog posting for the month of January. I will be back to posting weekly posts once February starts, possibly changing when the posts go up, but I have fallen behind on my writing (as I'm sure the quality of the last few posts show) so I'm going to use this month to restore the backlog of posts and recharge.

See you all in February and keep on gaming!

Brief Essay on Djnosa Antjom - by Gabron Lyeshield at the Gnomish University of Ephemeral and Supernatural Studies

Discovered by Octevio Mescus Cresius during the archaeological rush early in Chor Kolav's history, the Djnosa Antjom is a seven foot obelisk with intricate carvings on each face. Unique among artifacts from the site, each of the faces appears to be written in a different language. Of the four languages, the only one known to scholars is unfortunately the most damaged with only the very top preserved.

The small surviving text was translated by Rinivor Swiftquill, the royal scribe of Chor Kolav at the time. Based on the translation, which according to later translators cut out much of the flowery language for a more simplified format, Scribe Swiftquill stated that the complete text was in part, if not entirely, a religious prophecy. Specifically, a prophecy about the end of the world.

Behind the Screen: Divining Divinities III - Plentiful Pantheons

So we've talked about randomly rolling to create gods, and we've talked about how demigods can fit into your campaign world. Today we're going to talk about pantheons and how they can be incorporated.

Something that a great many people seem to forget when dealing with fantasy pantheons is that the people in the fictional world don't look at the pantheon, pick a single god or goddess and say, "That's the god I worship!" They make offerings to all of the gods when appropriate. A traveling merchant would make offerings to a god of roads or of the sea before setting out on a venture regardless of whether that god was good or evil.