Help me make monsters.

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Amara
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Help me make monsters.

Post by Amara » Fri Jan 23, 2015 10:21 am

So, while I was in the middle of making abominations to send after my players for the current arc in my Pathfinder game, I discovered this fun little template.
Well, it's less of a template and more of a creation guideline.
So far I have... thanks to a few crazy friends, a barracuda-squirrel. The end result was more or less an extremely angry crocodile that can climb trees.
Which is terrifying. I'll link that in a bit. It still needs a name.

What creatures should I mash up? As a bonus, I'll link the resulting PDFs here.
Please don't link/suggest base creatures that are already higher than CR7. I'm trying to scare my party, not cause a TPK.

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Last edited by Amara on Sun Jan 25, 2015 12:27 am, edited 1 time in total.

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spiderwrangler
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Re: Help me make monsters.

Post by spiderwrangler » Fri Jan 23, 2015 11:33 am

Almost all my suggestions are based on names that can be mashed up well.

Fricken - Hindlegs of a frog, wings and head of a chicken.
Pigupine - Snout and tusks of a boar, covered in quills.
Ant Lion Lion - Powerful feline body with head and mandibles of an antlion.
Skunkurtle - When threatened, it retreats within its shell and releases a putrid musk.
Hedgehawk - A raptor sporting short spines, bombards it's prey and grapples it to death.
Walverine - Powerful mustelid body with a furry mustache and descending tusks in addition to it's sharp teeth.
Spider Wolf - Hunts in packs, spider-like body, canine jaws with spider eyes and fangs.
Gobear - Squat body of a goblin, powerful forelimbs tipped in curving claws, head is goblin-like, but with more powerful jaws and snout-like mouth.
Orcroc - Scaled amalgam of orc and crocodile (similar to Killer Croc, but more brutish, with lower tusks).
Scorbold - Small armored reptile with a venomous tail.
Droat - Similar to a satyr (goat legs, horns), but with darker proclivities arising from it's Drow heritage.
Last edited by spiderwrangler on Fri Jan 23, 2015 11:50 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Theis2
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Re: Help me make monsters.

Post by Theis2 » Fri Jan 23, 2015 11:44 am

If it's combinations like those Spiderwrangler came with, you might want to check out an old game called impossible creatures. RTS game where you create your units by mixing two animals together and they have an army builder with everything unlocked :p
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Amara
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Re: Help me make monsters.

Post by Amara » Fri Jan 23, 2015 12:25 pm

I will stat the Fricken just because that name is making me giggle. (I was actually already working on a spider wolf! It started from an old joke about wolf spiders in a past game.)
But.
That "Ant Lion" has potential to be terrifying. Hm.
There is a giant ant lion statted already, and it is CR5. Normal lions are CR3.
So the resulting creature would be CR6. Not bad at all.

I could definitely stand to have a few more monstrous humanoids running around, too.



Haha, mayhaps. Of course this is to make critters to throw at my Pathfinder party. I've hit the point where I'm making things up more than I use pre-statted things, just because then no one knows what the hell it is in OR out of character.
So much more fun.

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Re: Help me make monsters.

Post by spiderwrangler » Fri Jan 23, 2015 12:35 pm

Amara wrote: (I was actually already working on a spider wolf! It started from an old joke about wolf spiders in a past game.).
I do research on wolf spiders, my undergrad adviser made this cartoon years ago.

[thumbnail]http://www.susqu.edu/facstaff/p/persons/wolf.jpg[/thumbnail]
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Re: Help me make monsters.

Post by gamecreator » Fri Jan 23, 2015 12:39 pm

I'm no expert in DnD, but are you sure CR7 isn't too much? Consider Hypnotoad (Toad/Brain Ooze).
If you want some humanoids, what about Sandman/Bookworm or Kech/Yeth Hound?

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Amara
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Re: Help me make monsters.

Post by Amara » Fri Jan 23, 2015 12:49 pm

Well, the template creates a creature that is equal in CR to the higher parent creature +1. I'm trying to avoid creating creatures that are above CR8, and I'm wary of the CR8s produced, at that. Reason being is I have a level 6 party at present who, though soon to be level 7, have rather weird balance overall. They're a pretty squishy bunch.

Hmm may look at that yeth hound /kech idea, though. It'll result in something pretty similar to the "terror wolves" they've been chasing down recently. (The party's name for them, not mine.)

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Re: Help me make monsters.

Post by Arch Lich Burns » Fri Jan 23, 2015 12:59 pm

Scorven- Tail of a scorpion and flight of a crow makes this creature a nucence in the skies. They are smarter than most scorpians, and will flock in large groups.

Gobitor- this is a much smaller but more vicious species of the manitar. They fal auicker than breatheren but have camps like normal goblins. The leader of the clan have dendency to be barbarians or fighters, but can be other classes as well.

Fractaling-this creature is half human, half elf, half orc, half halfling. Fractaling have partial organs like 3/4 of a heart. Somehow they function. Maybe they are hold by inate magic?

Lion Shark- this creature has jaws of a shark, but feet of a lion. It has a mane wiether male or female. This guy can swim and fast thanks to it's shark tail. Land or sea you do not want to see this creature. Generally solitary but you can see them in packs.

Chawt- This flying feline is something to fear. With it's amazing perception in the light of day or shadows of night, this abomination can catch small prey. These creatures have wings and head ofa hawk and body of a cat. This creature is very playful with humans, but even though small it can still cause damage with it's mischief

Hyditio- You know what is worse than a mosquito? A larger mosquito with multiple heads and long necks. These beasts are the size of a small dog, and when they bit they drain blood (which in battle will heal them a bit) unlike the hydra, chopping the heads do not regenerate.

Psuedo Chimera- this little guy is the size of a housecat. It is part pseudodragon, part cat, and part pigmy goat.

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Re: Help me make monsters.

Post by Aegis J Hyena » Sat Jan 24, 2015 1:53 pm

I've always enjoyed the idea of "sabre tooth" (your creature here).

All of the good ideas I can think of have been mentioned so far, though.

Burns, your Pseudo Chimera idea scares me. I know how much Pseudodragons are prone to mischief, giving it the god complex of a cat and the cuteness of a baby goat will hide a lethal combination. and I may steal it for something for the Katha to deal with...
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Re: Help me make monsters.

Post by Arch Lich Burns » Sat Jan 24, 2015 2:33 pm

Really it does? But it is so adorable!

It was basedoff of a familiar I made for a character but never got to play my character.

It's not really strong physically but it makes up for it with cunning and agility. It will use any advantage it can, including it's adorableness to either lull into false security or to make it's 'owners' take care of it.


If you make one i call dibs.

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Amara
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Re: Help me make monsters.

Post by Amara » Sat Jan 24, 2015 2:57 pm

I once actually played a pseudodragon in a game, as a sorcerer. The game was short lived (He was taking a rogue tip to prestige in to arcane trickster, since it's actually a nice prestige in pathfinder! Got buffed from 3.5) but the character was a lot of fun, and I hope to use him again.

He was paired up with a half-dragon barbarian a friend was playing. The pseudodragon knew the barb was half-dragon. The barbarian didn't, and thought he was turning in to a demon.
We reflavored his "rage" as the barbarian panicking and flailing everything to death.
(And then the pseudodragon would stab the barb with his venom to calm him back down. :b )


Well, still statting creatures. I do have the squirrel-fish to post soon. It's uh...
horrifying.
Imagine an alligator gar with legs, and the ability to climb really well, and you get pretty close.

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Re: Help me make monsters.

Post by spiderwrangler » Sat Jan 24, 2015 6:03 pm

Amara wrote:Well, still statting creatures. I do have the squirrel-fish to post soon. It's uh...
horrifying.
Imagine an alligator gar with legs, and the ability to climb really well, and you get pretty close.
And the nuts it collects don't come from trees. :shock:
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Amara
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Re: Help me make monsters.

Post by Amara » Sun Jan 25, 2015 12:19 am

Pfff somehow I decided statting this was a better idea than sleeping.
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Re: Help me make monsters.

Post by Arch Lich Burns » Sun Jan 25, 2015 4:22 am

Frickens should give bonuses to jump checks, or give them 5 ft of clumsy fly, that does not stack with other fly. Just because it would be funny to see party members failing to fly and flapping wings like a Friken. Which is mandatory in order to fly.

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Re: Help me make monsters.

Post by Patdragon » Sun Jan 25, 2015 4:47 am

Add wings to anything is a good way of making interesting monster, the classic. Horse + wings= Pegasus, Lion +eagle (wings) = griffin.

My favorites creations have included winged leeches, winged ooze (odd one but worked quite funnily) and vampire bat + dingo (this ended up as an animal companion called Bingo :roll: for a player , but my personal favorite was Hawk + Hawk it had four wings and became a mythical beast in my campaign called a double hawk, or an Awkward by players (I send credit to the comedian Dmitri martin for that one)
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Re: Help me make monsters.

Post by spiderwrangler » Sun Jan 25, 2015 9:23 am

The D&D Arrowhawk sounds similar. :)

Arachnipede - multi segmented spider.

I always thought that amblypygids ("tailless whip scorpion") would make for a good real world to D&D monster. Their first pair of legs are antennae-like, allowing them to feel about in the caves they live in. Very sit and wait ambush predator, often hanging with their antennaeform legs extended to detect prey that brushes against them.
[thumbnail]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/c ... _-_001.jpg[/thumbnail]

Something similar exists for a related group, the "whip scorpion", as a "False Spider, Pedipalp", though they should have an acid attack rather than creating a poison cloud.
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