The Monster.
Below you’ll see an example of a Monster template pulled from Drognia’s Tome of Monsters. The following is the template for the NPC Monster, the Barbarian.
Breakdown.
The template above is not only carefully crafted, but to a standard described in detail in the last section of Drognia’s Tome of Monsters, “The Makings of a Monster”.
Let’s review some of that section and see how we produced the Barbarian.
The Concept
Most Monsters in Drognia’s Tome are thought of first at the conceptual level. What type of monster is this? What is at good at? What role does it play in the Spellswords setting? If the monster has roots in real world mythology, an important step is to figure out if we’ll be using that mythology closely or distantly. Will the monster’s origins be like that of its real-world counterpart, or will they have new origins in the Spellswords setting? A great example of this can be seen in the origins of the Oni.
The Oni’s real-world counterpart is a Yokai, a malevolent creature of Japanese mythology. The Oni is said to be the soul of a human that was wicked in life turned monster. These creatures were towering goliaths that would eat humans. Some gathered in tribes, the largest of which had kings. In Spellswords, the origins changed to require a human consuming the flesh of a devil. The general descriptions of the Oni stay the same, with some sporting horns or extra facial features on the heads, as well as tusks, and sharp teeth. The skin color of the Oni was kept to tradition, but we would have no trouble changing this in the future.
Now you might have noticed some keen differences between the two Monsters. Besides the lack of a description for the Barbarian, the notable differences are as follows: Size, Type, Difficulty, and Speed.
Size, Type, and Difficulty are the three most important aspects statistic wise when making a monster. You can see statistics to the right on the Barbarian. In order, these are Health, Magic, Stamina, Power, Repertoire, Wit, and Luck. Next, we should review what these stats are and what they do.
HEALTH
Health is an important factor when creating your monster. Health determines how much damage your monster can soak in before getting knocked down. In some cases, you might even use Health against a Talent or Poison effect. It's important to consider how hardy you want your monster to be when assigning its Health. Below in the Sizes chart, you can find how much Health should be added depending on your monster’s Difficulty per Level.
MAGIC
Some monsters are particularly astute with magic, whether it be natural to them, or a learned skill. In any case, when making your monster, consider whether or not you want them to be resistant or susceptible to magic. High Magic, high resistance. Low Magic, high susceptibility. You should also consider that monsters with high Magic might not have any Talents that use Magic. Just because they have a high stat, doesn’t mean they use it. However, monsters should still try to not sustain heavy magic damage. A monster with 0 Magic takes a -5 dice penalty on all Magic skill checks!
STAMINA
When considering your monster’s movement speed, refer to your Stamina. Like a character, your monster gains 5 feet of movement speed (walking) for every 5 points in their Stamina, from 15 feet up to a maximum of 60 feet (a monster with less than 5 Stamina has 15-foot movement speed). If your monster has a natural movement speed like floating, flying, swimming, climbing, or burrowing, you can treat that type of movement as equal to or greater than your monster’s walking speed. The same rules apply for your monster as they would a character. Hitting 0 Stamina renders you Immobile (see Conditions) and a monster uses their Stamina to make Initiative roles, rolling Stamina + Intuition.
POWER
Power is what we use for determining your “to hit” with a melee or spell attack. Power is prowess, and we often use it for combative reasons, though it may also be used for skill checks like Catch. It is important to consider how much Power you give your monster. Does your monster cast powerful spells? Does it strike with brutal ferocity? Perhaps your monster is rather meek and non-combative? Nevertheless, your monster's power functions the same as a character, and if you reach 0 Power, you only add 1d6 to your Attack rolls.
REPERTOIRE
Repertoire is a stat reserved for the intellectual monster in most cases. Any monster that has the gift of the gab will likely boast a high Repertoire and may even have the Talents to prove it. Perhaps your monster is a seductress, who will lure you into their home for dinner. Or maybe they’re a trickster, who wants nothing more than to rob you blind? Whatever your monster’s ulterior motive, a monster with a high Repertoire can be truly fun, especially against a party of schmucks who take everything to word. Just remember, hitting 0 Repertoire ends any Talents that rely on Repertoire, such as Hypnotic (see Saboteur), and the monster will take a 5 dice penalty on all Repertoire skill checks!
WIT
Where Repertoire is your ability to tell a lie, Wit is your ability to notice one, among other things. A monster with a high Wit is a resourceful creature, better equipped for skills like Craft, Heal, Intuition, and Spot, but also quite capable of resisting mind affecting Magic. If your monster has a high Wit, they’re that much more likely to spot the Thief as it creeps around for a Sneak Attack (see Thief). On the other hand, if your monster has a low Wit, they’re likely more uncaring to the world around them. Perhaps your monster is peaceful and uncaring to its surroundings? Perhaps it is ignorant of the many dangers of the world? Maybe your monster is skittish and fearful, constantly watching out for its surroundings? Whatever the case may be, it is important to note that hitting 0 Wit renders you unable to see further than 100 feet, and unable to benefit from Talents that enhance the senses, such as Magic Eye (see Saboteur) or Night Eye (see Thief).
LUCK
Luck is ultimately less common than other stats. It can affect chance itself, changing the outcome to be more or less in your favor. A creature with a high Luck may utilize this stat in some way. Perhaps they have the ability to change the outcome or a roll, or have a better chance at finding hidden treasure? It is important to note that most character classes don’t use Luck, and that Commoners are the only class to utilize Luck as their main stat, so if you want to throw a difficult encounter at your Commoner player, try creating a monster with a high luck. Make it fun and challenging. Perhaps it likes to play games, or maybe it can twist fate in the favor of your players? Just remember that like other stats, Talents that use Luck (ex: Four Leaf Clover) end if you reach 0 Luck. If you want to try and save your monsters with Bleed Out, you should also remember that a monster with 0 Luck cannot spend Stamina to Stabilize itself.
Now that we’re all caught up on stats, let’s talk about Difficulty.
Difficulty measures how challenging a monster should be in comparison to the Players. Players should typically be fighting monsters whose Difficulty is equal to their level, so it might be wise to pit only a level 8 party or higher against the aforementioned Oni. Any lower, and you might experience what most players call a TPK (Total Party Kill). Difficulty, most importantly, measures the experience gained from defeating a monster, as well as what stats that monster should have.
Now you might be thinking,
“Wait a minute, those stats don’t line up with the Barbarian’s stats?”
And you would be right, because Difficulty is not the only thing that affects your stats!
Size is a very important factor when it comes to calculating your stats!
For one thing, every size category has its own Health per Difficulty modifier, which adds a number of Health points to the monster for every level of Difficulty is has based on its size. For the Oni, at Difficulty 8, it would add (15 * 8) 120 Health to its overall Health. The Barbarian, who we can tell had 12 Health, is a Difficulty 1, Medium sized Humanoid. With the numbers provided, the Barbarian gets to add another 9 Health to its stat, giving it a grand total of 21 Health.
As you can see to the bottom right, size also naturally effects your Health, Stamina, and Power. For a Medium sized creature like the Barbarian, there would be no noticeable difference to its stats. However, for the Oni, a Huge sized creature, it would have an additional +10 to its Health Stat, as well as -10 Stamina, and +10 Power!
One last thing to note is that Size and Difficulty can both alter the damage output of a creature. When determining a creature’s damage output, always go with the higher number. If you made a Difficulty 15 Tiny sized creature, their damage output would be 5d6, instead of 1d6 - 1.
Type
I said that a Monster’s Type is important, but the type doesn’t affect a creature in terms of its stats. So why is it important? For one thing, it helps us identify what a creature might be like. Some demons come from the god Perculious, while others, like the Oni, exist for other reasons. However, most demons are described as being evil and animalistic in some way. Does that mean that all things evil or animalistic are demons? No! Some spirits are evil and animalistic. So, what’s the difference then?
How Players can kill them.
Priest Talents
To the right are three Talents the Priest can pick up. Each of these are designed for your Ghost Busters, your Van Helsings, and your Leon Kennedy’s … or for the uncultured, your Players who want to hunt zombies, ghosts, and vampires. These Talents target the creature type, Undead.
The Cherubim’s Greatsword
To the left, is the Cherubim’s Great Sword, a magic weapon Players can buy. This sword is used by the Monster the Cherubim, which can be found in Drognia’s Tome of Monsters. The sword deals bonus damage to demons, devils, and undead creature types.
The Monster Hunter
Last, but not least, is a weapon inspired by a test runner of Spellswords, whose character came from a family of gunsmiths. The Monster Hunter is a firearm designed specifically for targeting the creature type Monstrosity. What’s most special about this weapon is that it has sentience, a rare trait held by few magic items, which allows the item to impart some will upon those that wield it. In this case, the Monster Hunter gives a disadvantage to anyone trying to use it against non-monstrosities.
