Design a monster.

[BruceVC]

Here is my idea.

 

A skinless humanoid creature that kills people and wears their skin in order to impersonate them. It has a photographic memory and is incredibly good at impersonation, allowing it effectively pass as a person that it has killed. It is not supernaturally adept physically, but does have advanced mental abilities. It would be likely to be adept at magic or have Cipher like skills.

 

It would be included in a quest where the party has to find out who in a tavern/town is the creature it attempts to kill them in their sleep. If the party discovers the creatures identity, it offers them something if they spare it. If the party does not discover its identity, it attempts to kill them in their sleep. If the party accuses the wrong person, the creature does not attack them, but will kill one person in the area every 7-30 days.

 

Interesting monster, it reminds of  a Doppelganger from D&D. And you are right there is huge potential for quests. Nice one

[BruceVC]

 

 

 

Indiras post about Deathtrap Dungeon got me thinking about another monster in that book (the one on the cover)

 

 

Yeah, classic cover and monster. I think that Deathtrap Dungeon as my favorite book. Later on you get a chance to return to Deathtrap dungeon in "Trial of the Champions" which was also excellent. I also enjoyed " Creature of Havoc " where you awake as a monster and need to defeat Zharradan Marr( its amazing I still remember his name). This book was unique as you need to use a code to understand what people are saying, as initially you  can't speak common tongue as you are a monster. I remember how hard it was.

 

Do you guys remember the 4 part book series called  Sorcery by Steve Jackson? That was my ultimate gaming book experience at the time , book 3 rocked!! The Seven Serpents was brilliant

 

Pn lzb tr vfnf rdcb nrfbdt hj s!

 

I used to collect the FF series and I have them all, including the Sorcery books - very unique flavor to them and not forgiving at all!

 

 

Guys, what a trip down Memorylane!

 

I've read dozens of those FF-books. My own copy of "Deathtrap Dungeon" is so worn out. Also my NWN 2 module "Trial and Terror" was loosely inspired by that fantastic book.

 

Here are two of my other favorites in me bookshelf, especially the first one - so deadly:

 

 

 

They were often extremely well written , the suspense was real, and your choices sure did matter.

I want to tell you guys  an interesting story that I'm sure you will appreciate being fans of Fighting Fantasy books

 

I lived and do live in South Africa and during the 1980's due to Apartheid and sanctions it was very difficult to get fantasy books and games. We did use to get the Fighting Fantasy books and they became my first love of the fantasy genre before I became aware of D&D. It was probably 1985 and I read an advert in a local paper that "Steve Jackson was doing a tour of South Africa to promote this range of books". He was going to be at a university just up the road from me and  you can imagine my absolute excitement. I was going to meet my idol and my mom agreed to take me.

 

We went to the university and were taken to this huge auditorium that could probably seat about 400 people. But obviously someone had messed up the advertising because it was just me and my mom waiting for Steve to arrive, there was no one else in the room. I'll never forget when he walked into the room and probably expected this cacophonous applause, but  instead it was just us waving and smiling profusely. The person who was looking after him quickly surveyed the empty room and said " why don't we go to the coffee room, it will be more personal"

 

So I ended up having 2 hours one on one with Steve Jackson. He was such a nice guys, he was friendly, sincere and very down to earth. He told me his history and at the time he was writing the Sorcery books. He shared with me the maps and told me the Sorcery series was suppose to be 7 books. The next week I went to see him again but this time he was at a prominent bookstore and thankfully there were other fans. I walked up to him to say hello and he smiled at me, chuckled and said " hey its you, my greatest fan". What a nice thing to say to a kid.

 

I'll  never forget meeting him, it left an indelible mpression

Edited February 13, 2013 by BruceVC

[maggotheart]

I'll  never forget meeting him, it left an indelible mpression

 

Well I'm totally jealous, but I'd say you probably deserved it more if you grew up with Apartheid

[BruceVC]

 

I'll  never forget meeting him, it left an indelible mpression

 

Well I'm totally jealous, but I'd say you probably deserved it more if you grew up with Apartheid

 

Exactly, for us to see someone like Steve Jackson was very rare because we had no celebrities who ever visited, and it was understandable considering the politics. I was too young to realize what we were denied or really know what apartheid meant but I could still appreciate Steve's visit.

[IndiraLightfoot]

BruceVC: What a fantastic story! And lucky you! Thanks for sharing.

[JFSOCC]

There's a site which could serve as horror inspiration. some of these are quite scary.

http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-series

Edited February 14, 2013 by JFSOCC

[JFSOCC]

Cornerstalker

 

A Cornerstalker is one of those creatures which will bother you even long after you've defeated them.

 

The Cornerstalker is only found indoors, and, as the name implies, in the corner.

It is a cloaked creature, hard but not impossible to see, which will attack the weakest member of your party, or the one with the lowest defence (that it can observe)

striking unexpected (except when you pass a difficult spot check) with cold attacks. The moment it is stricken with damage by any of your party members, it disappears. You never know if you've defeated the Cornerstalker, you never know how much health it has left.

 

After it disappears, it will focus on the member which has first damaged it, forever or until it dies.

Every time your party is indoors, every time it's in a dark hallway, every time it opens a door and doesn't look around well, there's a chance the Cornerstalker might be there, carrying its grudge. And it will continue to strike ad infinitum until it dies. How it follows the party is unknown, it is presumed it stalks them (hence the other part of the name.)

A party may not have encountered the Cornerstalker for weeks out in the wild, and then all of a sudden, is beset by it again.

A Cornerstalker may also attack the party whenever it is resting indoors.

 

Normally an unpleasant nuisance, when your party has a weak member and doesn't pay attention, or when your party finds itself in combat indoors, the addition of the Cornerstalker might just be ruinous enough to fill a party with dread.

 

Especially since the party will never, ever ever find out if they're finally rid of the creature. (although not being attacked by it for a long time might be a clue)

When it dies, it vanishes, as if it was never there.

Whenever it vanishes, whether it's dead or not, it leaves behind a stone, it's suspected that it teleports by dropping the stone. The stone can be considered loot. (precious)

 

For the player (not character) who pays attention, there's a slight auditory sign signalling the presence of the Cornerstalker, sort of like a rush of wind combined with a drop of water. It's very faint and easily missed, but might just warn you enough to prepare.

 

The player encounters the Cornerstalker sometime early in the game, during the exploration of a dungeon or dark building. The Creature is likely to keep bothering the party till the latter part of the mid-game. It doest regenerate health between encounters, but it has fairly low health and almost no defence, meaning that eventually the party will have weapons powerful enough to defeat it. so it can be killed.

[JFSOCC]

Moonblooms

 

Moonblooms are large plants, slightly bioluminescent, and generally harmless.

They're long-lived slow growing, plants which are slightly poisonous to touch. They're completely stationary.

When it's night, they open their flowers and bloom

 

When it's full moon, they start growing rapidly, only to shrink back to normal size during day.

 

Should a party be nearby during a full moon night, they might see their path closed off as the plants grow to cover most of the terrain. This draws the attention of some of their pollinators, a certain type of fly.

 

The Hazard for the party comes when it wishes to proceed through the plants. Easily damaged and killed, whenever the plant is damaged, it releases a mixture of various poisons into the air. (depending on the type of flower) Red blooms induce hallucinations and the party might find itself fighting imaginary monsters and sidestepping into more blooms, damaging them and releasing more poison. Blue blooms release a contact poison which slowly drains health and slows and paralyses the muscles. The Green blooms release a toxin which stings the eyes and makes them water, blurring vision (maybe the screen) making avoiding the plants even harder, and making it nearly impossible to hit anything targeted, these also cause minor attribute damage. The orange blooms smear those who touch it with a marker which insects dependent on the flower would attack. Yellow and Purple blooms are and are fairly harmless, but are tough and and will block the way until they are destroyed. and are prickly, doing slight damage to anyone in contact with them.

Rare Brown Blooms entangle and strangle animals in contact of them, but these are not natural flowers.

 

Killing these plants is fairly easy but that's not the point. If your party doesn't pay attention it will find itself laid low by the most harmless of plants.

Vast expanses of forest are filled with these blooms, and provide a serious delay to travel, unless you would risk brushing and bruising the delicate monsters

Edited February 16, 2013 by JFSOCC

[Mr. Magniloquent]

Name: Emberling

 

Description: When a Dryad is slain and its tree is cut down, not always is the soul successfully parted from its beloved roots. Rarely, when a fire is burning from such a tree, the smoldering ashes become alive, inflamed with vengence!

 

Abilities:

• Stoke: The emberling will readily burn brighter and hotter, increasing its size, speed, potentcy, and all other attributes by 50%. This ability sacrifices half of the emberlings remaining stamina.
• Cinder: The emberling may spew burning hot smoke, ash, and flames at an opponent causing X damage with Y% chance to blind for Z rounds.
• Furnace: At all times, all opponents within X meters of the emberling take Y fire damage every Z seconds, with Q% chance to catch on fire.
• Spellcasting: Retains spellcasting abilites of the departed Dryad.

Attributes:

• Immune to fire, vulnerable to water.
• Low: Health, Durability
• Med: Stamina, Strength
• High: Speed, Agility

[TRX850]

^ That gave me an idea for a Fire Treant.

 

 

[maggotheart]

I don't know if any of you here have read the Thomas Covenant series by Stephen R. Donaldson, in those books there was a creature called a croyel that was a parasitic being who infested magic users, providing them with increased powers and longevity but stealing away their will.

 

It would be cool to have such a creature in PE, a monster that threatens magic users with Domination in combat, which could turn their formidable powers against the party. A subplot concerning a mage whose strange behavior triggers an investigation by the party and culminating in the discovery of the beast and a battle against it would be awesome.

[BruceVC]

^ That gave me an idea for a Fire Treant.

 

 

 

Cool picture

[BruceVC]

I don't know if any of you here have read the Thomas Covenant series by Stephen R. Donaldson, in those books there was a creature called a croyel that was a parasitic being who infested magic users, providing them with increased powers and longevity but stealing away their will.

 

It would be cool to have such a creature in PE, a monster that threatens magic users with Domination in combat, which could turn their formidable powers against the party. A subplot concerning a mage whose strange behavior triggers an investigation by the party and culminating in the discovery of the beast and a battle against it would be awesome.

 

I have read the books, " The Unbeliever". My memory about the series isn't that good.

 

Good monster though, loads of narrative idea's. Imagine having to give up the additional powers or realizing the parasite is actually stealing your life force and then as you mentioned you may end up fighting your own party member.

[IndiraLightfoot]

Didn't D&D have a creature called Memory Moss? That kind of soul-messing mosses would fit right in with the ciphers and their powers. Not very exciting graphically, but it could be hell to pay to pass woods like Great Bear Rainforest and not watching where you walk and touch things. ANd the mossses could grow on treants, enhancing them with new soul-twisting powers.

[BruceVC]

Didn't D&D have a creature called Memory Moss? That kind of soul-messing mosses would fit right in with the ciphers and their powers. Not very exciting graphically, but it could be hell to pay to pass woods like Great Bear Rainforest and not watching where you walk and touch things. ANd the mossses could grow on treants, enhancing them with new soul-twisting powers.

 

 

Another good usage of this type of monster, and yes I believe there was a monster called that

 

Also, going back to Fighting Fantasy, remember the Gongchong (spelling) from Island of the Lizard King. It was a parasite that enhanced the Lizard Kings powers but ultimately controlled him. It looked like a spider and attached itself to the hosts head like some kind of deformed crown

[IndiraLightfoot]

Another neat example! 

 

I think the idea of inert monsters attached to others is pretty cool. Instead of having critters being diseased or what not, they actually are in symbiosis with interesting creatures with their own stories and agendas.

[Tsuga C]

Not a monster, as such, but a few things I found memorable (loved to hate) as a player and loved to inflict upon players as a DM when they grew too full of themselves. As I was usually the DM (90%), these are near and dear to my foul heart.

 

Bebilith: ability to destroy armor. NWN1 series had the armor de-equipped and placed in the player's inventory.

 

Adding suffocating bites to the throat by great cats (Reflex save to avoid; bonus from metal/magically tough armor to avoid; each + of Con. bonus lets player stay conscious for one round and attempt to break free [str.]; significant damage to great cat causes it to release hold). Nice kitty, nice kitty! *backs away*

 

Substituting paralytic bites for blood (Con.) drain with giant weasels. Weasels seek to wrestle themselves into position to bite at the base of the skull (occipital condyle & just below) to sever the spinal cord (same rules as great cats; failure equals paralyzed player, immediate reduction to -1 hit point and countdown to death at -10 hit points). *points to elf* Elves are tastier and have thinner necks. *points again*

 

Giant mantids, should both spikey tibia hit the targeted player, engage the weasel rules above. *considers imperiled and impaled orlan party member, vorpal bite of mantid, and own lack of bevor* Keep squirming, little orlan! *backs off and engages mantid with missle weapons*

 

You get the idea. With lower level creatures a bite can be just a generic bite, but at higher levels they should pack more of a punch.

Edited February 17, 2013 by Tsuga C

[Prosper]

http://i.imgur.com/06pcYRD.png

 

IT has a special ability. To control vines. The vines grab it's limbs and tosses it where it wants to go.

[BruceVC]

http://i.imgur.com/06pcYRD.png

 

IT has a special ability. To control vines. The vines grab it's limbs and tosses it where it wants to go.

 

I have to honest I am missing this one?

 

Whats its purpose, whats its name, how does it attack etc

 

Or is this some joke that is clearly over my head?

[Prosper]

 

http://i.imgur.com/06pcYRD.png

 

IT has a special ability. To control vines. The vines grab it's limbs and tosses it where it wants to go.

 

I have to honest I am missing this one?

 

Whats its purpose, whats its name, how does it attack etc

 

Or is this some joke that is clearly over my head?

 

We aren't roleplaying that we are creating monsters. We really are creating monsters. Fantasy games are LALA land anyway.

 

 

NEW C REATURE DESIGNB

http://i.imgur.com/FCGf0ND.png

 

It lurks the swamps and was born a lost species.

Edited February 18, 2013 by Prosper

[BruceVC]

 

 

http://i.imgur.com/06pcYRD.png

 

IT has a special ability. To control vines. The vines grab it's limbs and tosses it where it wants to go.

 

I have to honest I am missing this one?

 

Whats its purpose, whats its name, how does it attack etc

 

Or is this some joke that is clearly over my head?

 

We aren't roleplaying that we are creating monsters. We really are creating monsters. Fantasy games are LALA land anyway.

 

 

NEW C REATURE DESIGNB

http://i.imgur.com/FCGf0ND.png

 

It lurks the swamps and was born a lost species.

 

 

Okay I see, makes sense now

[Dream]

That looks like the stuff I made with a 3d modeling program while bored in shop class.

[JFSOCC]

Steelback boar.

 

This animal, due to living near suicide flies has over time developed a strong metallic shell on most of his body, shedding it every winter when suicide flies are less prevalent and aggressive.

A physically strong animal, the boar attacks his prey by rushing at it and knocking it down, usually from behind since most prey knows to run.

After knocking prey down it will gore it on it's horns. This is a special attack, and automatic on any knocked down opponent.

 

Because of his metallic hide, the Steelback boar hardly takes any damage, save from piercing weapons, and his rear is practically impenetrable. With only his face relatively exposed.

 

A simpler opponent, a steelback boar tackles the weakest member of your party, and mostly attacks by charging in(bull rush) and out of the party, bowling a member over every time he does.

He's considered heavily armoured and can't be attacked from the rear, where the plate is thickest.

[JFSOCC]

The summoner

 

The summoner is an ancient looking man, he's usually out of range. On an elevated position, behind a wall. Safe from you.

When the Summoner is encountered, he summons an animal for you to fight, if you are close to defeating the animal, he'll summon two more, and then three, and then two and a monster, and then two monsters and an animal, and then three monsters.

 

He will continue to summon ever greater hordes of ever greater enemies, until you start tracking him down and attacking him. If you do manage to corner him, he has a limited amount of short range teleport spells, of traps which cripple and slow set around him. and engaging him will be fairly difficult to achieve.

Once the mage is defeated all his summons vanish.

 

A party which focuses on the summons will eventually always be defeated, as their number will be infinite. Fighting the mage involves closing the distance, cornering him and then interrupting or disabling his mobility. As long as he is alive he will keep summoning creatures. Speed is of the essence.

[TRX850]

^ I'm also picturing a Swamp Hag.....in the swamp.....summoning swampy things.