Talk:Bestiary

Everything in the 3.5 Monster Manual is open content, except the following:

• Beholder (and gauth)
• Carrion Crawler
• Displacer Beast
• Umber Hulk
• Githyanki
• Githzerai
• Slaad (all types)
• Mind Flayer
• Kuo-Toa
• Yuan-ti (all types)

New Subtypes

Addressing the 'Legendary Monster' thing: Can we add a new subtype 'Monstrosity' which is applied to all high level (epic?) animals, magical beasts, vermin, and swarms? This cleanly separates them, can have fluff text about how they arise, give them a base 'goodie'. So I can have my high-level wolverines, and we have an in-game reason why such high-level critters exist. :)

For that matter, how about a sub-type 'Abomination' which does the same thing for aberrations, outsiders, oozes, plants, and undead.

And while we're at it, a sub-type 'Prodigy' for constructs, fey, humanoids, monstrous humanoids, and proteans?

would this be in addition to the existing subtype (i.e. it would be both 'animal' and 'monstrosity')?

ATB-I thought about this a lot, and I think it could be both?  IE, we could have a Roc tagged as an animal and a monstrosity, if its a 'made' beast, or it could be just an animal.  Likewise, a high-powered chimera (looking at owlbear, bullete, etc) could be a pure monstrosity.

in my opinion, subtypes only exist to help you find a monster, or to find a category of monsters. They can be anything you want, as long as we feel it's a useful way to categorize or keyword the monster.  However, if we get too wild-west with it, and there are too many distinct names to remember, it becomes fairly useless as a searching mechanism.

ATB-I don't think I can agree, because lots of dm's want to run 'theme' campaigns, like where the whole thing has you fighting 'aberrations'.  So there should be some thematic similarities?

as a note, I think we need to go back through all the existing monster templates and replace the 'subtype notes' field with something I can pull forward to the bestiary tables page.  This would let us actually search on types we include in the notes, in addition to type and subtype.  It would also make me more comfortable removing the broader category names from the actual name of the monsters (e.g. "elemental, small air" would change to "air elemental, small", and since 'elemental' is a subtype, you can still easily find all the elementals in the table with ctrl-F.  The same is true for giants, dinosaurs, and legendary monsters, etc.  This sort of thing could go into a subtype field, and come out of their name, making the page titles more naturally readable.

Of course, if you want any of these new subtypes to actually /do/ something in the template , like add new 'strong against' or 'weak against' elements (beyond the first subtype, that is), then we should get rid of 'subtype notes' and replace it with 'Subtype-2,' 'Subtype-3,' etc. (through maybe 5?) Each of these fields would need to be pull-forward-able like the current type and subtype fields.  The issue being that you can't have more than one value per field (i.e., a comma-separated list) if you want that field to actually do something automatically in the template.

I'm also thinking we should remove roles from monster page titles (e.g. "Dragon, Common Red (Villain Role)" would become "Red Dragon, Common").  The role is already being pulled forward in the tables, so there's no need for it to be in the monster's page title as well.

Just FYI, any time we change the title of a page, you can use the "Move" command under the "More" dropdown (near the edit button).  This lets you rename the page, and even leave a redirect behind from the old page name, if you want. (I usually don't.)

ATB- I like all of these ideas.  Let's discuss, make sure of ourselves, then implement.

Legendary monsters parsed

• Legendary Monster: Great Cat Plains-Ghost 21
• Legendary Monster: Ursus Mighty Black Bear (Heavy Role) 22
• Legendary Monster: Great Cat Ridge-Leaper 23
• Legendary Monster: Saw-Backed Thunder Lizard 23
• Legendary Monster: Brachyurus 24
• Legendary Monster: Great Ape Terrible Mandrill 25
• Legendary Monster: Great Cat Jungle-Strider 25
• Legendary Monster: Ursus Northern Bruin (Heavy Role) 25
• Legendary Monster: Vorpal Boar 25
• Legendary Monster: Deep-Reach Crocodilian 26
• Legendary Monster: Sirrush Smoke-Eater 26
• Legendary Monster: Bludgeon-Tailed Thunder Lizard 27
• Legendary Monster: Cerberus Sentinel 27
• Legendary Monster: Great Cat Death-Shadow 27
• Legendary Monster: Karkaradon Hammerhead 28
• Legendary Monster: Salt-Maw Crocodilian 28
• Legendary Monster: Tearing Devilsaur (Threat Role) 28 Threat
• Legendary Monster: Ursus Long-Faced Bear (Heavy Role) 28 Heavy
• Legendary Monster: Great Ape White Gorilla 29
• Legendary Monster: Brine-Gullet Crocodilian 30
• Legendary Monster: Great Ophidian Javelin Viper 30
• Legendary Monster: Karkaradon Pikejaw 30
• Legendary Monster: Sirrush Fire-Eye 30
• Legendary Monster: Sky Tyrant Great Hawk (Heavy Role) 30 Heavy
• Legendary Monster: Swollen Great Toad 30
• Legendary Monster: Brachyurus Fenris-Kin 31
• Legendary Monster: Cerberus Legion-Head 31
• Legendary Monster: Spear-Faced Thunder Lizard 31
• Legendary Monster: Gorge-Belly Crocodilian 32
• Legendary Monster: Karkaradon Great White 32
• Legendary Monster: Buboed Great Toad 33
• Legendary Monster: Great Eel Thunder-Lance 33
• Legendary Monster: Great Ophidian Dune-Span Sidewinder 33
• Legendary Monster: Lunging Devilsaur (Threat Role) 33 Threat
• Legendary Monster: Sky Tyrant Gaze Owl (Heavy Role) 33 Heavy
• Legendary Monster: Great Ape Sapient Baboon 34
• Legendary Monster: Karkaradon Megalodon 34
• Legendary Monster: Sirrush Silvercrown 34
• Legendary Monster: Cerberus Curse-Maw 35
• Legendary Monster: Great Ophidian Avalanche Rattler 35
• Legendary Monster: Great Eel Ship-Breaker 36
• Legendary Monster: Prismasaurus 36
• Legendary Monster: Sky Tyrant Whale-Fisher (Heavy Role) 36 Heavy
• Legendary Monster: Mountain Turtle (Threat Role) 37 Threat
• Legendary Monster: Mountaintop Great Toad 37
• Legendary Monster: Sprinting Devilsaur (Threat Role) 37 Threat
• Legendary Monster: Great Ape King Silverback 38
• Legendary Monster: Great Ophidian Juggernaught Python 38
• Legendary Monster: Sirrush Stone-Ripper 38
• Legendary Monster: Cerberus Wall-Crusher 39
• Legendary Monster: Great Eel Tide-Bringer 39
• Legendary Monster: Leviathan (Threat Role) 39 Threat
• Legendary Monster: Sky Tyrant Wyrm-Killer (Heavy Role) 39 Heavy
• Legendary Monster: Three Crowned Beast (Threat Role) 39 Threat
• Legendary Monster: Great Ophidian Sun-Shade Cobra 40
• Legendary Monster: Tarrasque (Threat Role) 40 Threat

Add more Remoraz's

• Glacial
• Wintry
• Piercing
• Bitter
• Chilled
• Arctic
• Frosted
• Bleak
• Severe
• Blasting
• Siberian
• Stinging

Formian's

Blend together formians and giant ants, blend in army ants

add stinging ant, army ant, formian troops, ant swarms, we got a whole ant ecology, baby!

Fuernoch

• because it's just a cool word
• fire-associated things from the First World

Chitterlings

• moar BUGS!
• chitterlings: garrulous, horrid, grating, detestable, invidious, abhorrent, piercer, splitter, rupturer

Snakes

unscramble low-level snakes and acculturate all into a smooth-ish curve

add new snakes: deadly poison, hoop, spring, sidewinder, rasping

Frogs and Toads

unscramble and add

toads: clammy, horned, massive, gulper, caustic, warty, plague, deadly

frogs: jewel, gleaming, tree, rain, poison, hunting, riding

Rats

• Dire cr1
• Mire cr3
• Moor cr5
• Bog cr7
• Sewer cf9
• Swamp cr11
• Sire (Leader)cr11
• Septic cr13
• Scarred cr15
• Marred cr17

Varmints

• Scuttling cr19
• Mangy cr21
• Vicious cr23
• Splattering cr25
• Carrion cr27
• Slimy cr29
• Scabrous cr31
• Plasma cr33
• Darkened cr35
• Starburned cr37
• Voidscarred cr39

Plus swarm versions of all these

Swarm cr even, one higher

Dogs

unscramble dogs,

wolves? also, epic levels should be called 'hounds'

but let's not have 'dogs', since normal people don't want to play a game where they butcher dogs.

acculturate: wild, feral, war, hunting, guard, mastiff (heavy), hunting (sneak), bull(heavy)

troops for wild, feral, war, hunting, guard, called packs

Boars

add wild, riding, racing, war pig, heavy war pig

Tattered

• Cloth Moppet cr2
• Baggerman 6
• Tatterdemalion 10
• Sinstitch 14
• Soulspliced 18
• Lady o'Rags 28
• Skintailor 23
• Seamstress 31

• Remnant: minion version of all above

NOTES:

• Souterraine = Ropers

• add Solarians, all as Proteans

• add Sombre Crool, Umbral Crool and Verdant Crool, all as Humanoids

• add Dracoliches

Zombie, Putrid, Corrupted, Void, Starlight, Starburned, Salt, Cavernous, Twitching, Darkened, Leaping, Frostburned, Wretched, Vile, Tenebrous, Drowned, Sodden, Zombie types

Troll, Cave Troll, Mountain Troll, Stone Troll, Star-Blinded Troll, Giant troll, Jagged Troll, Swamp Troll,

Ogre Mountain Ogre

Giant Beast Giant

Dragon Notes

All dragons have fear auras (Terrible Majesty, Will saves), see drakes for prototype (must playtest drakes!)

All dragons have a sonic PBAOE attack (Terrible Roar, Fort saves) with a large aoe.

All dragons have breath weapons (Reflex saves) that have an immediate effect and change terrain (except Blacks, which use illusion/conjuration).

All dragons can do claw/claw/bite/wing/wing/tail on full melee.

Claw/claw/bite = standard attack routine Wing/Wing/Tail = Standard attack routine against an area of effect (2x2 adjacent squares up to 4x4 AOE)

• White Dragons - (betrayal) cold cone, creates (and ignores) rough terrain (ice), Melee attacks do forced movement only on rough terrain, chance to slow and even freeze-solid those in blast (torpid - entangled - petrified), rez effect is white out blizzard
• Black Dragons - (deception) negative energy cone. Use illusions, conjuration (create pit, spiked pit, etc), confusion and compulsion, rez effect is Swarm of Darkness
• Green Dragons - (corrosion) acid cone, provides lingering concealment as fog cloud, dragon ignores it, stealth and regen within cloud, sneak attack damage, realllly long tail (tail attack is ranged attack) rez effect is gas blowout
• Blue Dragons - (storm) lightning line, creates a 'wall of static' which does damage if you walk through it, teleport (ride the lightning) with pbaoe thunderclaps (sonic) at destination, rez effect is tornado
• Red Dragons - (destruction) fire cone, sets area on fire and lays down a wall of fire with each breath, PBAOE melee, regular melee deals extra fire damage, claws and bite do siege damage and free sunders. Rez effect is volcanic eruption

• Make all red dragons villains!!! - they spawn 'living breath weapon' as minions.

Mid level bad guys

• Stone Giant Mapper CR13 Weaker, younger, out looking for treasure
• Stone Giant CR14 Solid citizen
• Stone Giant Herder CR15 Animates stones and makes caves
• Stone Giant Warrior CR17 TOUGH FIGHTER
• Stone Giant Defender CR18 Very tough, defensive attacks and counterattacks
• Stone Giant Sorceror CR19 Ranged debuff/damage
• Stone Giant Ordinate CR20 Best fighter, also buffer

• Forest Giant Gatherer CR14 Weaker, younger, out looking for food/money
• Forest Giant CR15 Solid citizen
• Forest Giant Raider CR16 Fast sneaky scout, ranged attacks
• Forest Giant Savage CR18 Fast, strong fighter
• Forest Giant Artisan CR19 Ranged attacks with debuffs, throws nets and stick-traps
• Forest Giant Tree Tamer CR20 Animates trees as pets
• Forest Giant Matriarch CR21 Strongest debuffer and buffer/healer

Issue challenges

• Frost Giant Scout CR15 Sneaky, looking for victims/plunder
• Frost Giant CR16 Solid citizen
• Frost Giant Reaver CR17 Fast, high damage melee attacker
• Frost Giant Berserker CR19 Fast, very tough, melee attacker/tank
• Frost Giant Scald CR20 Ranged buffer/debuffer(bard)
• Frost Giant Glacierborn CR21 Animates ice (as pets)
• Frost Giant Despot CR22 Best fighter, best buffer.

Issue challenges

• Fire Giant Picker CR17 Out looking for coal and metal
• Fire Giant CR18 Solid citizen
• Fire Giant Soldier CR19 Tough fighter, melee and ranged
• Fire Giant Champion CR21 Really tough, high damage
• Fire Giant Firebringer CR22 Animates fires as pets
• Fire Giant Vulcanist CR23 Throws lava, fire aura, tough fighter
• Fire Giant Thane CR24 Best fighter, best debuffer

Issue Smites

• Cloud Giant Scudder CR19 Younger, weaker, random wanderer
• Cloud Giant CR20 Misty citizen
• Cloud Giant Tornado CR21 Very fast, high damage, aura
• Cloud Giant Thunderhead CR23 Throws lightning, peals of thunder
• Cloud Giant Lightstruck CR24 Aura of lightning, good melee
• Cloud Giant Aerialist CR25 VERY fast, good damage, forced movement
• Cloud Giant Parhelion CR26 Insubstantial, does light damage, best melee and buffer

Issue Smites

• Storm Giant Squall CR21 Younger, weaker, random wanderer
• Storm Giant CR22 Misty citizen
• Storm Giant Hurricane CR23 proning aura, windwall, melee attacks have aoe wind, lots of pushes
• Storm Giant Wracker CR25 Strong melee, creates floods(aura), causes avalanches
• Storm Giant Destroyer CR26 Ranged AOE blasts of wind, very high damage, does siege damage
• Storm Giant Stormcaller CR27 Has storms as pets
• Storm Giant Kahn CR28 Most powerful, huge melee and ranged attacks

Issue Judgements

• Death Giant Precursor CR24 Goes around trying to find dying people
• Death Giant CR25 Solid citizen
• Death Giant Measurer CR26 Cuts lives to 'proper length'. Very strong melee
• Death Giant Quieter CR28 Drainer/debuffer, strong ranged attacks(needles of darkness)
• Death Giant Peacegiver CR29 AOE drainer/debuffer, strong melee
• Death Giant Gravedigger CR30 Attacks from underground, entombs, very strong melee
• Death Giant Noble CR31 Strong ranged and melee

Issue Judgements

• Fomaorian CR27 The worst of the worst
• Fomaorian Slaver CR28 Ranged debuffs/captures, subdual damage
• Fomaorian Skindancer CR29 Stealth, disguise, sneak attacks. Ridiculously sneaky for their size. Shapeshifter
• Fomaorian Whisperer CR31 Invisible, ranged debuffs, backstabs, flanks, buffs allies
• Fomaorian Jailer CR32 Very tough, forced movement (pulls), high damage, lots of subdual
• Fomaorian Headman CR34 massive melee with beheading axe. massive
• Fomaorian Sightless CR35 The Boss.

High level bad guys:

• Helleskrieg Worldshadow 38
• Helleskrieg Superior Worldshadow 39
• Helleskrieg True Worldshadow 40
• Helleskrieg Majestic Worldshadow 41

• Helleskrieg Lord 39
• Helleskrieg Superior Lord 40
• Helleskrieg True Lord 41
• Helleskrieg Majestic Lord 42

• Helleskrieg Tyrant 40
• Helleskrieg Tyrant Dominus 41
• Helleskrieg Tyrant Imperious 42
• Helleskrieg Tyrant Ceasarius 43

Demons

Special Defenses: DR 5/cold iron or good, ER 10/acid, ER 10/cold, ER 10/fire, ER 10/negative energy

Immunities: electricity, poison

Deal Fire + Negative energy damage

Summon SPAWN other demons

attacks never harm other demons

Demonic Possession: Sp, make Will save. If fail, remove Demon from play and the character is Possessed. While Possessed, the player is Confused. IE, the player becomes a chaotic attacker, targeting friend and foe, and the Demon is off the field of play and cannot be harmed until the possession ends. There are various ways to remove Possesion, but one of the 'basic' ways to do it is the application of any Positive Energy healing to the victim. In such case, the healing effect of the positive energy is negated, and instead the Demon is forced out. The Demon's body will reappear on the battlefield within thirty feet of the space of the possessed character. If there is no safe space within thirty feet, it will appear in the closest open space that can safely contain it, which may be off the battlefield completely. The referee gets to choose where the demon will reappear, and it is almost always going to be in a remarkably inconvenient place.

Devils

Special Defenses: DR 5/silver or good, ER 10/acid, ER 10/cold, ER 10/electricity, ER 10/negative energy

Immunities: fire, poison, disease

deal Fire damage that does extra to Good aligned creatures

Teleport as move

aura that either improves devil offense/defense or reduces enemy offense/defense

attacks never harm other devils

• The Vig: Devils have to pay tithes to their entire management chain — a big ponzi scheme that keeps the strongest even stronger. Tithes can be paid in the form of souls (the best currency), but also blood (preferrably "of the innocent"), mana, or treasure.

Devilish Impulses: Sp, character makes a Will save. If failed, the Devil may make the player character take a full round of actions, up to and including expending an action point, and the referee gets to chose the targets of those actions. On its own initiative tick, the Devil may then take its own actions as normal. On the player character's initiative, they may then take their own full round of actions. Yes, this will use up a player characters spells, potions, etc, and if on their turn those resources are gone, they must choose a different action.

There are various ways to remove Devilish Impulses, but one of the 'basic' ways to do it is the application of any Positive Energy healing to the victim. In such case, the healing effect of the positive energy is negated, and instead the Devil's compulsion on the afflicted victim is ended. Note that often the effects of Devilish Impulses can be quite subtle, such as the player "forgetting" to use Selective Spell on a fireball, etc.

Devilish Impulses can be used out of combat, often to devastating results for an afflicted community.

Undead

• Ghosts, incorporeal, do psychic damage and have a fear aura

"Intolerable, Heinous, Freakish, Hideous, Horrible, Obscene, Vicious Ghost"

Feed on fear and death

• Shadows, incorporeal, do Str drain and negative energy damage

"Onyx, Sable, Ebon, Murky, Stygian, Starless, Void Walker"

Feed on light and death

• Spectres, incorporeal, lay fear statuses on each attack, does negative AND cold damage

"Chill, Frigid, Icy, Numbed, Gelid, Polar, Heimal Spectre"

Feed on warmth and death

• Atropals

• Atropal Annihilator 31 Add physical damage to claws, bite, azoic aura

  Atropal Enervator 32 Mass Harm

  Atropal Ravenous 33 Add pull to aura

  Atropal Malcontent 34 Teleport movement

  Atropal Drifter 35 LOTS of Stealth skill, able to use teleport with stealth

  Atropal Stygian 36 Miss Chance added to Aura

  Atropal Dominator 38 Add Dominate Person to Baleful Glare

  Atropal Mentor 40 All the above

high level animals

add elephants "bull, huge, circus, dire, mad, rogue, pink?"

add rhinoceros "goliath, dire, maddened, black, forest, bush"

add mammoths "wooly, savage, primitive, tundra, arctic, great white, cave, dire"

add turtles 'snapping, lurking, great, dire, cannibal, swamp, marsh, cave, prairie, burrowing, ripping, tearing'

add stags and harts 'eerie, white, leaping, fey, mythic, otherworldly, primal, lightning, golden, fawn, sable, lambent, shimmering, ghostly'

treants

higher level treants should have henchmen, like the pets of giants, such as flocks of birds that keep watch for them, swarms of vermin that defend them, squirrels that act as sneaks and scouts, etc