Monster Types

Philosophy of Monsterhood

Now, despite the name, this page is not an explanation of Monster Patterns and Roles, even though it would seem like those would be 'monster types'. But in Epic Path we have defined the 'nuts and bolts' of monsterhood in great detail in the Bestiary entries, and in the various Patterns and Roles that can be applied to the base monsters to fit them to each GM's exact needs.

Instead, this page is GM-facing discussion of how monsters can be combined, and their behavior changed, to make your game world feel much more 'alive'.

To try and simplify this 'philosphical' approach to running monsters, we're going to drastically simplify this whole process, to give GM's something to work with, and sort our monsters into four categories of behavior, or, Monster Types.

Boss Monster Type

A 'boss' monster is the one that more important, based on your story. The Orc Chief, the Fire Giant Mayor, the Goblin Mufti, the 'boss' of a group of monsters is the one that drives the rest of monsters, and how they behave, through the story. For story purposes, enemy warlords, the Evil Sheriff, the White Wizard of the Midden Tower, the boss of a given encounter line, that is always the boss monster. Note that this type of monster frequently has a role, but not always! The 'Golden Child' of an Aranea nest might be just like any other monster, without any Role or Pattern, but in the STORY, that one monster is the boss, the one the rest of the monsters listen to.

Henchman Monster Type

Boss monsters almost always have at least one henchman. A henchman monster is one that is absolutely, utterly loyal to the boss, both in person and for their goals. Certain Roles even have the ability to summon minion-class Henchmen, which serves as a mechanic to ensure that the players are always fighting a properly difficult fight. Those henchman rules are very simple: All fights in Epic Path should average out to one monster per player character. If you have a party of nine players, even a Legend, by themselves