Monsters Survey [Poll/Opinion]

[Legacy_Karvon]

               When I create an area, be it dungeon, wilderness or city, I think of inhabitants in terms of a ecosystem or food chain. Thus, some will view adventurers as prey, and stalk or attack them, others will view them as predators, and flee or take defensive measures, while some may simple pay them no heed, like the attention a human might normally pay to a single normal ant - though these might be very dangerous should their attention be drawn by the adventurers undue activities.  In short, some encounters would be initially hostile, some neutral and a few even friendly. Some encounters should be very easy, a few impossible, for the party to overcome thru force of arms.



Let's consider a couple of examples.



A crypt might have a variety of undead, some sealed away, some wandering the halls and chambers.  A variety of oozes, slimes or molds might find nourishment from the remains and tomb furnishings. Rats and beetles of various sizes might be found living off remains, and possibly the slimes and molds. A few spiders, stirges and/or snakes might live off those - and the occasional tomb robber. A necromancer or an evil priest, may have set up a temporary or permanent base of operation in the crypt - possibly with a few guards, minions and wards.  One, or more, of the tombs might have constructs serving as guardians.  A few tombs might have some sort of magical creature bound as a guardian. Wandering encounters might include the odd tomb robber(s), adventurer(s), pilgrim(s), or plundering humanoids.



A slum section of a larger town might have some locals who fear and avoid strangers, some who ignore them, some who interact with them for info or reward, beggers, peddlers, prostitutes and the like. There might be several gangs operating in the area, in addition to independent criminals, who might interact with strangers in any number of ways. The local watch might have some level of presence and attention to strangers.   At night, rats, wild dogs, a few undead, the odd werecreature, a lone snake or hunting spider might be found looking for food, once most of the human elements are behind locked doors.



Setting up such sorts of ecosystems, takes a bit of thought and planning, initially, but it creates a more believable and interesting experience, and force players to make more intelligent choices on how to interact with the world as they simply can't always rely on brute force.



Karvon
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_TSMDude]

               

HipMaestro wrote...

Any critter that can burrow underground and pop up without warning.  Those formians can burrow... though I've never been attacked by one that way, but the animation has been designed already.  Add some ability to heal while underground and it could be a nasty foe even with low-end defenses and attack capabilities.  The PC would be forced to stun it somehow (via KD, Stunning Fists, Paralyze, Sleep, etc.) to control it.  Of course, the AI would be the key to making it work.  Also, I've never encountered a snake-strike from under a rock or around a blind corner (I guess NWN may have difficulty animating snakes???).  Or maybe a trapdoor spider... same deal. This type wouldn't need any magic capabilities, would be interesting to strategize and would be a naturally-occuring lifeform for any environment.  The actual shape of the subterranean is up to the designer but mthere are many possibilities. 

Actually we have a large system thatw e use for soem unique monster builds like burrowing complete with dust plumes and such as well as some that jump out of trees or fall out of the cieling then jump back in. We also applied some other effects to dragons and flying creatures using the same methodology that seems to work. It is in our Varibale Language System if anyone is intrested and wants it. I can erf it out and you can load it into something and give it a whirl. Just email me at tsm.builder@gmail.com and over the weekend I will send it to you.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Genisys]

               Variety is the spice of life... Of course your question is which monsters besides the drone of usual uglies..

Naturally, creating a good variety in an encounter will ensure that:

A) The same thing doesn't always spawn..
The Lands change (Maybe the goblins were bullied away by the ocrs)
C) The PC continues to be challenge when they come back later..

As long as you don't SET an area to have only one encounter type (and the next encounter monster should be 4 levels higher than the last, this way they are more challenged) and you have a lot of areas, I'm sure your module will be far from boring..

Of course, the magic of a DM really makes a module better to me, for when DM's spawn & RP monsters, NO MONSTER IN THE GAME COMPARES (If it's RPed correctly and not Over Challenging)

That is my sage advice, often people focus too much on the module & not the player, the player is your main focus, the module is not so important, but the DM's Interraction with the players is...

Without reading and learning more about your setting, I'd have to say, it's hard to make a suggestion, common monsters are sometimes realistic / believable... then as some suggested Animals / Humans are always realistic / beliebable to a setting

Then of course there are Animal Mutated Hybrids, like the Hypogriff, (horse / eagle?) the nefarious Owl Bear...
(I like these mutated hybrids, they are the after math of magic or cross mating, nonetheless, they are cool!)

If your not playing in a magical world then you definitely should use the above suggested, if it's a magical world, then you can use whatever you want, in fact, it's a nice thing to encounter monsters who do not conform to the D&D rules per say, therefore, if you feel like the cursed monk should do a special power on hit, that's cool, it makes the PCs step back and go woe...  (Always impressive and you gain repsect for being different & original)
               
               

               

                     Modifié par Genisys, 27 juillet 2010 - 04:05 .