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On Monster Creation

While the standard character-building system can be used to make most challenges, not everyone wants a campaign filled only with sapient humanoids as combat obstacles. Below are the details for creating monsters, dragons, animals, constructs, and similar creatures.

Before assigning a final Difficulty Level, use How to Determine Difficulty Level to compare the creature's offense, defenses, special abilities, and action economy against the generic NPC benchmarks.

All creatures are created with these base stats: 18, 16, 16, 14, 14, and 12, distributed wherever they best suit the creature. These can be upgraded to match player growth. Instead of using magical items, most creatures should have their base stats modified to match or exceed the average player's stats at that point.

Unless an example monster says otherwise, any Threat Definition based on the number of player characters assumes a group of five PCs. Recalculate these values before the encounter if a different number of PCs will be fighting the creature.

Terms

Bonded Armor: Bonded armor is armor that simulates the stats of the kind of armor a character would wear, but is fused with the creature. This is most common in constructs, elementals, and attendants. Bonded armor cannot be looted, as it is either fused to, part of, or otherwise bonded to the creature.

Natural Attack: Natural attacks are things like claws, fangs, wings, tails, etc. Typically a monster has a primary, often claws or a bite, that has the highest bonus. All other natural attacks are at a -5 bonus during a full round attack. On any full-round attack, a monster uses ALL of its natural attacks. If they cannot full-attack they will typically opt for their primary natural weapon. Weapon focus (Unarmed), and its counterpart feats, apply to all natural weapons.

Definitions

Monster definitions come in two types: Creature Definitions and Threat Definitions.

Creature Definitions describe what the monster is. Every monster has a Primary Creature Definition such as Animal, Construct, or Dragon. A creature can also have Secondary Creature Definitions such as Saline or Flaming. These describe what the creature is made from, where it comes from, or how it has been changed. Together these definitions give us the rules needed to build that kind of creature.

Threat Definitions describe what the monster does during an encounter. These are used to make one or two monsters a challenge for an entire group. They can give a creature additional turns, make it harder to kill, or give it defenses the characters have to break apart during the fight. Threat Definitions adjust the creature's DL where listed and can be stacked when appropriate.

Much like making a character, the first thing we need to do is pick a Primary Creature Definition for the monster. These are not to be taken by players without a great deal of consideration by the Definition Master first, as most of them are intended to make challenging foes for characters of the same level. Primary Creature Definitions sometimes modify the creature's Hit Die or limit the kinds of magical progressions it can have.

Primary Creature Definitions

Aberration

Weird, impossible, or eldritch creatures are considered aberrations. A creature made up of eyed tentacles, for example.
Armor: Natural or Bonded
Limitations: None
HD Modifier: d8 always
Effect: Aberrations always have at least 2 extra abilities unique to them. These abilities are always fear- or compulsion-based. All aberrations gain +2 Constitution, +2 Wisdom, and +4 Charisma to their base.

Animal

Animals are natural creatures that live in the prime Reflection of the world. They are typically non-magical Armor: Natural or barding
Limitations: Int has to be 3 or lower, cannot take any magical progressions or abilities, are restricted to the use of natural weapons only, and have reduced skill options: see effect. An exception to the non-magical abilities would be if they have an elemental secondary definition. In this case they can take related matching elemental abilities.
HD Modifier: d8 always
Effect: Animals can only select the following skills: Acrobatics, Balance, Bushcraft, Escape Artist, Intimidate, Move Silently, Discern Intent, and Swim. They gain skill points as if their intelligence is 10. The skills Spot and Listen always have maximum skill points in them.

Attendant

Attendants are non-ordinary beings defined more by their origin, purpose, and metaphysical pressure than their anatomy. Angels, demons, clockworks, and true fairies often serve gods, concepts, moral forces, or ordered patterns. Stranger Attendants associated with the Shade and the Blind may act with intent even when no one understands their causes or rules. Some are summoned or sent, while others appear where reality, thought, death, dreams, or self-deception have worn thin. Attendant is a practical category rather than a species or bloodline.
Armor: Any
Limitations: Uses player-type progressions
HD Modifier: Based on progression
Effect: All Attendants gain Unnatural Sustenance. An Attendant does not necessarily need ordinary food or water. Each Attendant's entry must state what sustains it. This can be ordinary food and water, but it might instead be emotions, thoughts, dreams, prayers, acts of virtue, sins, promises, secrets, attention, repeated routines, or something stranger. Regular access to that source meets the Attendant's normal food and water needs. Without it, the Attendant uses the standard food and water rules unless its entry says otherwise.

Some Attendants are created by their source rather than merely feeding on it. They may congeal wherever enough of a thought, emotion, behavior, or metaphysical pressure has accumulated. Zhìbào, for example, congeal in areas of extreme paranoia where lies have become dangerous. They feed off of the secrets of others. This act does not erase their secrets but creates a sense of light paranoia in the creatures they feed on.

Unnatural Sustenance does not harm, drain, or change the thing feeding the Attendant on its own. An Attendant that steals memories, consumes emotions, eats sin, or otherwise changes creatures to feed itself needs a separate ability that explains how it does so.

Construct

An artificial creature of any kind. These are capable of anything so long as it was built to do whatever it does. Constructs cannot grow on their own and must be modified or updated by an intelligent creature.
Armor: Bonded
Limitations: Constructs cannot gain skill points; they must be built to receive bonuses to specific skills. They have no Intelligence or Constitution scores.
HD Modifier: d12
Effect: Intelligence and Constitution are n/a. Constructs are immune to all critical hits, opportunist strikes, compulsions, glamour, and health related effects. Constructs above medium size gain +2 hp per hit dice per size category larger. For example a 4 HD huge construct would gain a +16 to its HP.

Dragon

Highly intelligent quadrupedal winged lizards that command aspects of nature. There are other things in the dragon family as well such as drakes, wyverns, and so on.
Armor: Any
Limitations: None
HD Modifier: d12
Effect: Dragons gain all dragon definitions from the player lists. They also gain access to the monster dragon secondary definitions.

Elemental

Denizens of the elemental Reflections, these creatures can be intelligent or animalistic. They always carry some kind of elemental flair.

Armor: Bonded
Limitations: If an elemental is animalistic they cannot have an intelligence over 3.
HD Modifier: Based on progression
Effect: Immediately gain a secondary definition that gives them an energy type. Elementals are all vulnerable to banishing spells and similar effects.

Mythical

Gorgons, ogres and trolls, oh my! Most creatures that stories can be written about that don't fit into the other categories fit here.
Armor: Any
Limitations: None
HD Modifier: d10
Effect: Mythical creatures gain +2 Str, +2 Con, +2 Cha. Mythical creatures always have supernatural abilities. Mythical creatures often have resistances and vulnerabilities.

Plant

Fungal and plant creatures that thrive in the sun and wither when dry.
Armor: None
Limitations: Cannot gain skill points and they have no intelligence scores.
HD Modifier: d8
Effect: All plant creatures gain regeneration in the sun of at least 1 hp on its turn. Plants are vulnerable to desiccation and resistance to any light based damage. Plants do not need to eat, so long as they receive sunlight. As a result of having no intelligence score they are immune to compulsions.

Undead

Zombies, skeletons, vampires, and other clichés involving mobile, nonliving things.
Armor: Any
Limitations: No Constitution score
HD Modifier: d12
Effect: All undead gain the following traits:

  • Immune to most poisons and all diseases.
  • Immune to cold and desiccation damage, but vulnerable to heat damage.
  • Take damage from positive energy instead of healing from it.
  • Heal from negative energy instead of taking damage from it.
  • Immune to bleed damage, attribute damage, and similar effects that harm a living body.
  • Immune to vital or health effects that require a Constitution save.
  • Immune to critical hits, opportunist attacks, and injuries.
  • Immune to charm, command, and some compulsion effects. This includes effects that dictate behavior, but not religious effects or effects with a positive, negative, holy, or unholy aspect.
  • Gain damage reduction 5/silver. This increases to 10/silver at 10 HD and 15/silver at 20 HD.

Secondary Creature Definitions

Caustic

A creature from a wet, humid, or aquatic environment that has become elementally aligned with water.
Prerequisite: None
Effect: Immunity to corrosive damage and vulnerability to desiccation damage. All natural attacks gain at least +1d6 corrosive damage. Some creatures may also gain Energy Charge, or abilities with Energy Charge as a prerequisite, for free.
Special: No animal can have more than one elemental alignment.

Entropic

A creature touched by nothingness that has become elementally aligned with the void.
Prerequisite: None
Effect: Immunity to entropic damage and vulnerability to force damage. All natural attacks gain at least +1d6 entropic damage. Some creatures may also gain Energy Charge, or abilities with Energy Charge as a prerequisite, for free.
Special: No animal can have more than one elemental alignment.

Galvanic

A creature from stormy, windswept climates that has become elementally aligned with air.
Prerequisite: None
Effect: Immunity to electric damage and vulnerability to cold damage. All natural attacks gain at least +1d6 electric damage. Some creatures may also gain Energy Charge, or abilities with Energy Charge as a prerequisite, for free.
Special: No animal can have more than one elemental alignment.

Glacial

A creature from frozen climates that has become elementally aligned with ice.
Prerequisite: None
Effect: Immunity to cold damage and vulnerability to heat damage. All natural attacks gain at least +1d6 cold damage. Some creatures may also gain Energy Charge, or abilities with Energy Charge as a prerequisite, for free.
Special: No animal can have more than one elemental alignment.

Incandescent

A creature from fiery and molten climates that has become elementally aligned with fire.
Prerequisite: None
Effect: Immunity to heat damage and vulnerability to corrosive damage. All natural attacks gain at least +1d6 heat damage. Some creatures may also gain Energy Charge, or abilities with Energy Charge as a prerequisite, for free.
Special: No animal can have more than one elemental alignment.

Kinetic

A creature formed from, altered by, or infused with raw magic that has become elementally aligned with force.
Prerequisite: None
Effect: Immunity to force damage and vulnerability to entropic damage. All natural attacks gain at least +1d6 force damage. Some creatures may also gain Energy Charge, or abilities with Energy Charge as a prerequisite, for free.
Special: No animal can have more than one elemental alignment.

Necrotic

A creature from dying lands or places saturated with death that has become elementally aligned with death.
Prerequisite: None
Effect: Immunity to negative energy damage and vulnerability to positive energy damage. All natural attacks gain at least +1d6 negative energy damage. Some creatures may also gain Energy Charge, or abilities with Energy Charge as a prerequisite, for free.
Special: No animal can have more than one elemental alignment.

Saline

A creature from dry, arid climates that has become elementally aligned with salt.
Prerequisite: None
Effect: Immunity to desiccation damage and vulnerability to sonic damage. All natural attacks gain at least +1d6 desiccation damage. Some creatures may also gain Energy Charge, or abilities with Energy Charge as a prerequisite, for free.
Special: No animal can have more than one elemental alignment.

Vital

A creature from verdant lands or places overflowing with life that has become elementally aligned with life.
Prerequisite: None
Effect: Immunity to positive energy damage and vulnerability to negative energy damage. All natural attacks gain at least +1d6 positive energy damage. Some creatures may also gain Energy Charge, or abilities with Energy Charge as a prerequisite, for free.
Special: No animal can have more than one elemental alignment.

Sonic does not have an elemental Secondary Creature Definition because it is an energy type without an attached element.

Threat Definitions

Threat Definitions change how a monster works during an encounter rather than what kind of creature it is. These are primarily used when one or two monsters need to challenge an entire group. A creature can have more than one Threat Definition when appropriate.

Action Economy

Relentless

The creature receives two turns per round.

Both of these are full turns, but they should have a one-two cadence where the first turn sets up the second. For example, the creature might claw and bite a target to make it bleed during its first turn, then use an ability that affects bleeding opponents during its second.

Dominant

The creature receives three turns per round.

A Dominant creature gets one normal turn where it uses its attacks, spells, or other abilities. Its second turn should set up and telegraph something that will make the third turn worse for characters who do not resist, move, mitigate, or counter it. The third turn should be a big attack that deals significant damage, controls the battlefield, inflicts injuries, or causes some other powerful effect.

Durability

Sturdy

DL Adjustment: +1

The creature gains additional HP based on how many player characters are fighting it.

Additional HP:

HD × Constitution Modifier × (0.25 × Number of PCs)

Add this after calculating the creature's normal HP.

For example, against six player characters:

0.25 × 6 = 1.5

The creature gains:

HD × Constitution Modifier × 1.5 HP

Sturdy requires a Constitution score.

Ablative I

DL Adjustment: None with a usable Break condition; see text

An Ablative defense is a source of breakable damage reduction. This DR reduces the physical damage from every hit, except bleed and crush damage as normal. It is not a pool of HP and it is not applied only once per round. If the creature is hit four times, apply the DR separately against all four hits.

The amount of DR is based on the creature's HD and the number of player characters fighting it. Determine the DR when the encounter begins and do not recalculate it during the fight. Round down to a minimum of DR 1/-.

An Ablative defense does not increase the creature's DL as long as it has a Tell and a Break condition the characters can reasonably discover and use during the encounter. If there is no way to break, disable, or bypass the defense, include the full DR when determining the creature's Defensive DL. This may increase its final DL.

Damage Reduction: HD × (0.25 × Number of PCs)

Ablative I normally comes from one thing the characters can see and damage, disable, bypass, or destroy. Breaking it removes the DR.

Ablative II

Damage Reduction: HD × (0.5 × Number of PCs)

This works like Ablative I, but the damage reduction is much stronger or split between multiple parts. If it comes from one source, breaking that source removes the DR. If it is split between several parts, disabling a meaningful portion will normally reduce it to Ablative I. Breaking the remaining portion removes the DR.

Ablative III

Damage Reduction: HD × Number of PCs

The creature has extremely powerful breakable damage reduction. This is primarily intended for a major creature fighting on its own. If it comes from one source, breaking that source removes the DR. If it is split between several parts, each meaningful portion the characters disable should reduce it by one Ablative tier until the DR is gone.

The creature should be extraordinarily difficult to injure until the characters start breaking apart the source of its protection.

For example, a 10 HD creature fighting six player characters would have DR 15/- from Ablative I, DR 30/- from Ablative II, or DR 60/- from Ablative III.

Renewable Defenses

Renewing Aegis

DL Adjustment: None with a usable Break condition; see text

The creature begins the encounter protected by a large pool of Warding. At the beginning of the creature's first turn each round, the Warding returns to its maximum. This only happens once per round. A Relentless or Dominant creature does not refresh the Warding again during its additional turns.

Maximum Warding: 2 × HD × Number of PCs

Determine the maximum Warding when the encounter begins and do not recalculate it during the fight. Against five player characters, a 1 HD creature has 10 Warding, a 5 HD creature has 50, a 10 HD creature has 100, a 15 HD creature has 150, and a 20 HD creature has 200.

Renewing Aegis has to come from an obvious external source the characters can destroy or disable. The source might be a floating crystal, a pulsing rune, an arcane generator, a protective attendant, or something similar. It cannot be protected by the Warding it creates. The monster's Break entry needs to give the source's HP, defenses, or whatever action the characters have to take to disable it.

Destroying or disabling the source prevents the Warding from returning. Any Warding the creature still has remains until damage removes it. If the source cannot reasonably be discovered and disabled during the encounter, include the renewing Warding when determining the creature's Defensive DL. This may increase its final DL.

Regenerator

DL Adjustment: None with a usable Break condition; see text

The creature recovers a very large amount of actual HP at the beginning of each of its turns, up to its normal maximum HP. This is actual healing rather than Warding or temporary HP.

Regeneration per Turn: HD × Number of PCs

Determine the regeneration when the encounter begins and do not recalculate it during the fight. Against five player characters, a 1 HD creature regenerates 5 HP per turn, a 5 HD creature regenerates 25, a 10 HD creature regenerates 50, a 15 HD creature regenerates 75, and a 20 HD creature regenerates 100.

Regenerator triggers at the beginning of every one of the creature's turns. A Relentless creature regenerates twice per round, while a Dominant creature regenerates three times per round. For example, a 10 HD Dominant creature fighting six player characters regenerates 60 HP at the beginning of each turn, for as much as 180 HP across the round.

The regeneration has to come from one or more obvious body parts, organs, or implants the characters can destroy or disable. These might be swollen hearts, fluid-filled organs, mechanical pumps, clusters of healing runes, embedded canisters, or something similar. The monster's Break entry needs to give each source's HP, defenses, or whatever action the characters have to take to disable it. These sources do not benefit from the creature's regeneration, and destroyed sources cannot be regrown by it.

If the regeneration comes from several sources, divide the regeneration between them as evenly as possible. Each source the characters destroy removes its portion of the regeneration. Destroying every source stops it completely.

If the sources cannot reasonably be discovered and disabled during the encounter, include the full regeneration when determining the creature's Defensive DL. This may increase its final DL.

Breakable Defense Rule

Any Threat Definition that can be disabled should have two additional entries in the monster's statistics:

  • Tell: What the characters can see that shows them the creature's unusual durability has a source.

  • Break: What the characters have to do to weaken, suppress, bypass, or destroy the defense.

The Tell does not have to explain exactly how the mechanic works. It only needs to tell the characters that something is making the creature unusually difficult to hurt.

Examples include cracking external plates, pulsing runes, floating crystals, a constantly reforming shell, visible streams of energy, attached machinery, protective attendants, or wounds visibly closing around a particular object.

A successful Knowledge, Spot, Investigate, or similar check can reveal exactly how the Break condition works.