Thoughts on Tiefling

Hellboy, the original Tiefling,
I'm not sure who the artist is,
TinEye comes up empty

My first thought was that the race was stupid but boy have things come a long way since 2E when Devils and Demons were renamed so as not to offend, instead of saying they are put in the game so they can be killed by heroes you dumbasses!.

So back to Tiefling. Some kind of Devil-spawn walking the mundane planes getting into adventure. It occurred to me that maybe this could be interesting.

Imagine a cult of Demon/Devil worshipers summons a Succubus or Incubus and everyone has a big happy hypnotic drug-crazed orgy (side note, what happened to Succubus in the 5E srd, they can't be trade dress). Now fast forward 9 months as the cultists find everyone involved in said orgy is pregnant. The young, the old, women & men. Bodies mutate as necessary, although mutations are all internal so they may not be apparent. Those involved may not even know they are pregnant, they may not even remember the event all that clearly and the men getting pregnant as well confuses the hell out of any diagnose. So most likely the men who might mutate themselves a womb but typically no birth canal will die. The elderly and most others die as well as Tiefling are born with small horns that make even an ideal scenario complicated. This usually leads to the end of such a cult although occasionally the survivors will continue, raising the hellspawn.

Hellboy, I think by u/LoN3WolF396. 

I make no copyright claims.

This same pattern happens occasionally with isolated Demon worshipers who are rarely able to pass along any info to others. Even if they do spread the word a bit the pregnancy info of Succubus and Incubus seems to never be taken seriously or isn't passed along so new, horny, chaos-worshiping knuckleheads continue to fall for the trap.

So Tiefling are super rare, typically orphans, and when they do appear they are raised in clusters. They are not accepted by most Lawful societies and often are forced to hide their true nature. They tend to gravitate towards lawless societies and multi-cultural areas were few questions are asked and they can pretend to be Satyr's or something if someone notices the horns.

So I think a dark background like that might make Tiefling interesting but I still wouldn't let them be a player race.

Thoughts on Aboleth

I've always had a love/hate relationship with Aboleth. They originally showed up in the jungle ruins of the Dwellers of the Forbidden City and then soon after they appeared in the Fiend Folio where they were relegated to subterranean lakes. Both locations seem too impossibly remote to really use them in interesting ways.

The appearance of the Aboleth has always been a big part of the creature but why? It's basically a water beast that messes with your brain so who's getting a good look at the thing anyway? I like the idea of the tentacles but arms are just as good. I like the cold bizarre eyes but can you trust what you are seeing when its messing with your mind? The known image of the Aboleth might have been implanted to screw with folks trying to identify them. Or perhaps that's what they look like but they implant images of a more 'expected' type of sea monster in their victims to throw people off the scent.

Characters will never really have an opportunity to learn about Aboleth lifespan and culture so we can forget that. Aboleth are better when they are surrounded in mystery anyway. What is important is the Scum and the mind powers.

The idea of followers that are slowly transitioning into Fishmen has a lot of Lovecraftian horror. It is as if when they made Kuo-Toa they took Deep Ones and took everything interesting out of them to avoid upsetting Chaosium who controlled the Lovecraft properties. Then later made Skum to backfill that cultish fishmen connection except it didn't work because you can't set up a dangerous cult deep down around subterranean lakes can you?

Everything about the beast seems designed as if it will beach itself on the shore to fight like any other encounter but the descriptions hint at something better, far better. Aboleth aren't so much a boss fight as they are the big bad (or one of) in an ongoing campaign. The Aboleth cries out to be the baddy of the sort that the players only slowly become aware of, and that they eventually have to figure out how to confront as it lives underwater. To do that it needs to live in surface oceans where it can contact sea ports and ships but disappear into the depths if things get too hot.

As a powerful aquatic creature the Aboleth becomes far more useful. Imagine it swimming beneath a ship where it can't be seen, and slowly using its powers to take over the crew. Perhaps it dominates entire ships and then follows them out to sea leading those seamen into a life of piracy, dining on their victims or wounded. The 'pirates' may not even know why they changed career paths, they might even return to a normal life after a few attacks.

Now ally the Aboleth with Kuo-Toa that have also been freed from their subterranean purgatory and the Aboleth has additional muscle to do its bidding. The cult provides mystery, the missing ships provide mystery, the fishmen provide mystery. But at the heart of it all is the Aboleth living beneath a ship in the bay controlling a growing army of cultists to do who knows what.

That's far more interesting, and Lovecraftian than a psionic fish living in a subterranean lake.

Thoughts on Lizardfolk

I've always loved the concept of Lizardmen as a natural sword & sorcery race but never liked TSR's implementation. The lizardmen in 1e lived in huts or mounds in the swamp and might use spears if they were lucky. They seemed based on humanoid alligators which looks really cool but isn't really interesting. I don't mind them in the swamps but if you're going to develop a humanoid shape you're probably gonna adapt beyond such a limited niche. After all reptiles are found in all but the coldest climes. They are in deserts and jungles.

So we have Swamp/Marsh lizardmen as the most primitive aspect of the species.

The pictures in this post are from Groo the Wanderer by Sergio Aragones (as if you couldn't tell from the top one). In that comic they have nomadic lizardmen with a fortification being carried by extra large dinosaurs. The lizardmen clearly do not speak a language used by any of the humans and seem to go about their business somewhat oblivious of those in their way. The lizardmen have what looks like new and well crafted lamellar armor with a vaguely asian look and occasionally have horned helmets*. These lizardmen colored my impressions since 1985, before I ran across Warhammer Armies and their Slann armies with dinosaur mounts.

Instead of having them sling a fortress between super-sized dinosaurs I imagine massive howdah ontop of pseudosaurus (domesticated sauropods of the slow reptile type before Robert Bakker and his theories made dinosaurs impossibly deadly). The lizardfolk are nomads of the beduin type, crossing the desert from settlement to settlement and then moving on. The young and old might live in the settlements and a few strategic ones might have a permanent presence but generally they move on as no settlement could feed the beasts for long.


The Lizardfolk living in the jungles aren't some kind of Aztec/Mayan culture the way they are in Warhammer. They might have built ziggurats and geometric cities out of large blocks of basalt (put in place with pseudeosaurus construction of the Fred Flintstone type) long ago but such ziggurats and the cities that surround them have been in ruins for a long time. The lizardmen still live in the city, but they are semi-savage living in the ruins and not actual city-dwellers.

Oh, and Troglodytes are particularly large Lizardmen and Kobolds are small ones. They live and work among the Lizardmen and just add variety to the culture. These two are mutations that appeared after the species took up worshiping Chaos Gods.



* Despite artistic representations of Vikings I don't believe any cultures actually used horns on their helmets as this would make it easy for an enemy to grab and twist your head. Same is true for ring armor which does not seem to have ever existed (if it did the leather base rotted long before it could find its way to a museum). Such item make nice aesthetic for non-human races (Horned helmets for Lizardmen, Ring Armor for Elves).

Thoughts on Kuo-Toa

Kuo-Toa are tepid diaper-wearing rip-offs of Deep Ones, at least the 1e version were. Presumably part of this was for legal reasons or in some way associated with the stepping on toes incident between TSR and Chaosium in the 1e Deities & Demigods. The part about the diapers in the Fiend Folio picture is harder to explain, I understand the S&M harnesses they have in the Shrine of the Kua-Toa but why would Kuo-Toa wear diapers or shorts or a loan cloth or whatever. Was TSR being coy about if the things had external genitalia or not? Further messing them up they were placed deep underground in the D series of modules. Excuse me but fish should be in the ocean or at least somewhere they can plot against people. Deep in a subterranean environment is the worst place for them.

In 4e they worshiped and were allied with Aboleth which is good, but Aboleth deserve to be in the oceans as well, but that's for another post. Both have a position in a campaign and that position is not just something to fight but instead its about secret cults and growing horror.

The Kuo-Toa are tainted with madness. This is a mildly interesting but as it leaves open the idea of an insane Kuo-Toa being the source of a clue or possibly questionable info or something. But beyond that fishmen should be so different, so alien, that a sane one and an insane one are impossible for normal humanoids to differentiate.

Two notable things about Deep Ones: First they interbreed with humans creating hybrids that live and do their work on land. This is somewhat necessary for the idea of a cult that threatens humanity. This was missing from the original Kuo-Toa but was sort of captured sort-of by the Abolith's Skum, although the rational of how they converted with slime contact didn't work for me. I find Lovecrafts interbreeding worked in a creepy way but comes off as silly in an RPG. I've been a big fan of body-horror involving chaos (that is Chaos of the Warhammer RPG sort) involving mutation through polluted food. This is scarier in my opinion as a player isn't likely to suddenly find out they are the child of a fishman, but they might freak when they find out the local food they've enjoyed has been polluted by something that causes mutations. So instead of fishrape I prefer the fishmen to feed their own eggs to cultmembers and prisoners, causing a certain percentage to become Skum who are then raised by loyal cult members (loyal and controlled by the Aboleth at the heart of the cult).

The other thing is that Deep Ones continue to grow throughout their lives, becoming Godzilla-sized if they live long enough. The Fiend Folio says "SIZE: M (higher levels L)" but that was it. I find this interesting in that you don't need to blend races into a band (like ogres and orcs) to get the variety of muscle in a lair, you just have larger and smaller Kuo-toa. Also every humanoid doesn't need to be the size of humans, give the Kua-Toa a bit of size and they become even more terrifying when they climb over the gunwales of a ship.

Anyway, my love of Kua-Toa dates directly to my discovery of Donn Kenn's artwork. He's the one who did the art in this post, the copyrights are all his. Something about his fishmen, smooth and ghostlike instead of looking like a Creature from the Black Lagoon retread appeals to me and seems more fish like. Having them be a large and terrifying in groups of raiders, seems more terrifying than any of the art I've seen of Kua-Toa (although the one in Peterson's Guide to Lovecraftian Horrors was pretty awesome).

Bestiary - Thoughts on Animals Part 2

Narrowing down what beasts to use and what not to use is important, but it is mind-numbing to say the least. I can't believe how many horribly dull and poorly thought out monsters Pathfinder has. I believe this will be the last post in the project for awhile. I've got to rethink how I handle this.

Badger
Bat

Bird

• Falcon, Giant
• Hawk/Eagle
• Ostrich/Emu
• Owl
• Parrot
• Roc
• Swan
• Vulture

Canine (Dog)

• Dog, Common
• Dog, Guard
• Dog, Ratter
• Jackal
• Fox
• Wolf

Crocodile

• Alligator
• Caiman, Dwarf
• Crocodile
• Saltwater Crocodile

Equine (Horse)

• Light
• Mule
• Riding
• War
• Pony

Feline (Cat)

• Cat
• Cheetah (Cat, Great)
• Jaguar (Cat, Great)
• Leopard (Cat, Great)
• Lion (Cat, Great)
• Lion, Mountain (Cat, Great)
• Lynx (Cat, Great)
• Tiger (Cat, Great)

Frog, Giant

Herd Animal

• Antelope
• Bison
• Camel
• Deer/Elk
• Giraffe
• Goat/Ram/Sheep
• Llama
• Moose

Hyena

Lizard

• Giant Frilled
• Giant Gecko
• Giant Rock-Horned
• Monitor
• Horned

Marsupial

• Kangaroo
• Koala

Pachyderm

• Elephant, Common
• Hippopotamus
• Rhinoceros

Porcupine

Primate

• Baboon
• Chimpanzee
• Gorilla
• Mandrill
• Monkey
• Orangutan

Raccoon

Snake

• Adder
• Anaconda
• Constrictor

Seal

• Elephant
• Sea Lion

Skunk
Sloth

Swine

• Boar
• Boar, Common
• Pig

Toad
Tortoise, Giant

Ursine (Bear)

• Bear, Black
• Bear, Grizzly
• Bear, Polar

Walrus
Wolverine

Bestiary - Thoughts on Animals Part 1

Animals fall into that weird place where they are boring and nobody wants to read about them in a bestiary but they are useful to fill out a campaign. Because of this I think they work best lumped into larger categories that contain simple explanations but multiple statblocks. This is especially true for "Summoned Creatures" and for Dire versions which are just larger versions of the same beast.

Dinosaurs

I'm still trying to figure out if it's best to list a bunch of Theropods or just have statblocks for big, medium, and little under the Theropod heading. It's not as if characters will know the latin names, or that the different theropods are all that different or lived at the same time.
I've loved dinosaurs since I was a kid, but they have changed since then and the super-quick type that are favored by modern paleontologists are probably more than most adventurers can manage, yet they seem necessary for lost worlds, and dinotopia type scenerios so they must be included.

Ankylosaurus (Armored Dino)

• Ankylosaurus

Ceratopsian (horned faces)

• Triceratops

Hadriosaurus (Duck Billed)
Ornithomiimosaurs (Bird Mimic)
Pachycephalosaurus (Bone-headed)
Plesiosaurus
Prosauropods (Small soropauds)
Pterandon

Raptors

• Deinonychus
• Megaraptor
• Utahraptor
• Velociraptor

Sauropods

• Apatosaurus (Brontosaurus)
• Brachiosaurus
• Diplodocus

Stegosaurs (Spiked)

• Stegosaurus

Theropods (excluding Tyrannosaur and Rapters)

• Ceratosaurus
• Gigantosaurus
• Spinosaurus

Tyrnanosaurs

• Allosaurus
• Tyrannosaurus Rex

Megafauna

Megafauna are the super-sized animals that lived between the time of the dinosaurs and recorded history. In many cases their ancestors survive in a smaller more recognizable form.
Auroch
Bear, Cave
Daeodon
Deinosuchus
Dire Wolf
Glyptodon
Ground Sloth
Hyaenodon
Lion, Cave
Mammoth
Mastodon
Megalania
Paraceratherium
Rhino, Wooly
Smilodon
Terror Bird

AQUATIC

Cephalopod

Octopus
Octopus, Giant
Squid
Squid, Giant

Cetacean (Whale)

• Blue Whale
• Crimson Whale
• Dolphin
• Killer Whale
• Narwhale
• Whale (Common)
• Dolphin

Eel

• Electric
• Moray

Fish

• Barracuda/Gar
• Piranha
• Quipper

Seahorse, Giant

Shark

• Bull
• Great White
• Hammerhead
• Tiger

Stingray
Turtle, Snapping

Bestiary - Thoughts on Undead Part 3

Lich

A lich is created when the spirit (or a portion of a spirit) is separated from a body by use of a Magic Jar spell. The separation allows the spirit (or portion) to remain in the mundane world after the body has died.

• Demi-Lich - An extremely old Lich whose body has decade to the point only a skull remains.
• Hag - A witch that has transformed into a type of lich with a bit of demonic aid.
• Lich - A lich is a Necromancer that has used their own body as a Magic Jar to hold their own spirit (or portion of their spirit) giving it near eternal life.
• Mummy - Similar to a lich except the Mummy was made into a lich by another and is therefore not necessarily a powerful Necromancer in their own right.
• Pharaonic Guardian - Lesser Mummies created to serve a Mummy in their undead state.
• Wight - Similar to a Mummy but created by a different process and somewhat weaker. Wights are restricted to the area around the barrow in which they were buried.

Vampires

• Berbalang - Winged Nosferatu thing that wasn't undead in Fiend Folio but was some kind of ghoul in Filipino legends.
• Manananggal - Female torso with bat wings.
• Nosferatu - An ancient vampire.
• Vampire - Vampires are well enough known to not require detail here.
• Vampire Spawn - A vampire under the control of another (the one that turned them).

Note - The art above is copyright Don Kenn who draws incredibly creepy undead that may or may not be vampires but certainly look scary enough. I make no claims to it beyond loving his work and will remove it if asked.

Bestiary - Thoughts on Undead Part 2

Flesh Constructs

Flesh constructs are a corpses that have had a spirit re-attached to provide animation. In some cases the spirit is the bodies original, in others it is not.

• Golem, Blood - An animated pool of blood, it can congeal to strike and very much acts like an ooze.
• Golem, Bone - A more powerful skeleton.
• Golem, Carrion - Flesh golem horse
• Golem, Flesh - One or more corpses sewed together to form a single humanoid. Being a golem it is covered in glyphs.
• Golem, Mummy - Dead that are animated to act as guards for an actual mummy.
• Living Wall - Bodies mortored together. The wall can talk in many voices but cannot cast spells. it may cause insanity. Often found in tombs.
• Skeleton/Zombie, Giant
• Skeleton/Zombie, Humanoid
• Skeleton/Zombie, Halfing
• Zombie, Ju Ju - A freshly animated corpse that retains some of its previous skills.

Minor Undead

Minor Undead are spirits that have possessed a body on their own, and thus have physical form and semi-free will.

• Carrion Birds - Carrion birds that have died and gone undead because of feasting upon undead.
• Daughter of the Dead - Fanatical worshiper of a deity of the dead (Hades for example), a devotion that allows them to stay behind and become the foci to cults for their deity.
• Kurobozu - Dead Chaos Priest whose dedication to their patron/deity enabled them to remain as undead to hunt Clerics and feed on their breathe.
• Mohrg - A body possessed by a demon that will kill everything possible. Mohrg do not talk, and heal 1d6 damage per turn even after death so they are nearly impossible to truly kill short of spirit combat. Jason and Michael Meyers could be considered Mohrg.
• Yellow Musk Zombie - Zombie created by the spores of the yellow musk plant.

Ghoul

In my mind ghouls are similar to zombies. Zombies that form during a Chaos Outbreak (I'll talk about that during Abominations) in which spirits are unable to move on. Just zombies is a bit dull though, so I modeled Ghouls on the Zombies from the game Left4Dead. All of the types below will be represented in a typical horde. Those killed by ghouls soon join the horde and the horde becomes something you don't stand up and fight, at least not for long.

• Cinder - A ghoul with excessive body heat that will result in an explosion when struck.
• Corpulent - Fat ghoul filled with bile that will explode when hit.
• Darakhul Ogre - A super-strong ghoul.
• Ghast - A smart ghoul that will eventually lead the horde.
• Imperial - Run of the mill, fairly quick ghoul
• Lacedon - Partially drowned, pretty slow moving ghoul.
• Rage Ghoul - A particularly violent ghoul capable of leaping long distances onto prey.

Note - The art above is copyright Russ Nicholson who draws the best skeletons and zombies ever (his Coffer Corpse, and Revenant were highlights in the old Fiend Folio). I make no claims to it beyond loving his work and will remove it if asked.

Bestiary - Thoughts on Undead Part 1

Undead in Pathfinder and D&D seem completely wrong. Strict categorization steels the mystery of the undead, at least of ghosts. And despite the strict categorization there is zero consistency behind any of it. Lastly some undead are created by such unlikely combinations events it would seem unlikely that more than one such undead would ever appear. So many undead in Pathfinders long list of Undead are entirely pointless and stupid and I'd be surprised if anybody every used them. Having said that, here are my thoughts on different Undead in the Pathfinder.

One thing Pathfinder does have is a wonderful variety of feats for the undead. In time I'll peace through them and put together tables for Ghosts to provide a nice unpredictable variety of effects that occur. I think the unpredictability is a big part of making Ghosts scary.

Undead

Undead are spirits in the mundane world. They may be free floating ghosts or animated flesh of some sort. A spirit that animates other things (statues for example) are known as constructs. As spirits they are effected by a Cleric's Banish ability. The intelligence of the undead depends upon the spirit  but the older undead should become a bit more insane as far as mortals judge such things.

The idea of undead is to create truly scarey areas in tombs, with guardians that can defend a location forever without food or even air.

Ghosts

Ghosts are spirits of the dead. They linger back and forth between the spirit world and the mundane world unable to move on to their final destination. There are two main types but these are each defined by a number of tables.

• Haunt - An incorporeal spirit.
• Remainer - A spirit given physical form (made of ectoplasm although that doesn't matter) so that the Remainer can touch and interact with things as if they were alive although they can't be killed like a normal mortal. Clint Eastwood's unnamed character in High Plains Drifter would be an example

Table 1: Cause of Death

1d6	Cause
01	Accident
02	Drowning
03	Hanging
04	Murder
05	Neglect
06	Suicide

Table 2: Can't Move On

1d6	Until
01	Forgiveness
02	Buried Properly
03	Debt Repaid
04	Expose Truth
05	Return Item
06	Vengeance

Table 3: Haunt Type

1d6	Until
01	Human, Former Identity Clear
02	Human, Former Identity Unclear
03	Humanish
04	Spirit, Ectoplasmic human form
05	Spirit, Ectoplasmic non-human form
06	Spirit, Insubstantial

Table 4: Other Details (roll twice)

1d6	Until
01	Covered in Gore/Worms
02	Floats above ground/Lacks legs/feet
03	Headless/Faceless
04	Insatiably Hungry
05	White Clothes, Hair, or skin
06	Screaming

Note - The art above is copyright Don Kenn who is one of the only people to draw truly creepy looking ghosts. I make no claims to it beyond loving his work and will remove it if asked.

Bestiary - Thoughts on Constructs Part 2

Metal Constructs

Metal statues that have been animated. Possibly a suit of animated plate armor. They typically have the construction glyphs on the inside. the statues are typically humanoid or beast but the effect is the same as they rarely use weapons and if they do it will be made of the same material as the construct itself.

• Golem, Bronze - Statue made of bronze. Common in classic age societies, often painted. Was brass but why? The Greeks actually made bronze statues and that weathered greening bronze looks really cool.

• Golem, Gold - Statue made of gold. Typically found in tombs and crypts where large amounts of gold won't draw undo attention. Gold is soft as far as metals go so its limbs can be cut off even if the thing is hard to kill. Also gold has a lower melting point that most other metals so gold golems are vulnerable to fire.
• Golem, Iron - Statue made of iron. Iron is expensive and useful for making armor and weapons so statues of iron are rare except to decorate tombs but an iron golem would be very difficult to fight and i can imagine weapons getting blunt and breaking.
• Gorgon - An iron bull is used in many chaos executions. Sacrifices are put inside and a fire is then started beneath. Occasionally this causes the spirit of the dead to possess the bull to prevent it from being dragged into the afterlife. I think the iron bull Gorgon from D&D fits as a construct better than some magical beast roaming the world.
• Serpent, Iron - Statue of a serpent made of iron. Created primarily by snake worshipers and Naga.

Plant/Wood Constructs

Naturally constructs made of wood and plants are very vulnerable to fire. Still they are popular among the Fey and nearly invisible to see in a forest when they are not moving.

• Feyward Tree - A tree occupied by the spirit of an Elf.
• Golem, Wood - A statue carved out of wood, assembled together out of wood pieces, or a dead tree with a spirit inside to animate. This is the kind of thing Druids might make to defend their groves.
• Haunted Construct Scarecrow - Hoping to avoid the afterword occasionally a spirit will possess a person or body, in this case the silly beast animated a scarecrow.
• Serpent - A spirit trapped in a stick. The stick may be carved like a serpent or not but it will act like one and quickly break off any branches that inhibit it's slithering.
• Wyrwood - Tiny wood golem used as a spy or messenger by Elves.

Stone Constructs

Stone Constructs are made of stone, and thus very difficult to damage. They can be made in humanoid or beast shape. They don't use weapons so any damage would be bashing damage. Typically they are statues but not necessarily.

• Golem, Rubble - A pile of flagstones, masonry, bricks, boulders, or even stones animated so as to act as a single golem. Because they are not truly united any piercing or slashing damage just slips between the pieces and any blunt weapon damage is doubled as pieces are knocked clear.
• Golem, Stone - An animated stone statue, usually marble but stone is not unheard of. A statue that looks/acts like a structural column is known as a caryatid column, one dedicated to protecting a city is known as a cephalophore, a gargoyle on a building so animated is known as a gargoyle. Sometimes a stone golem will just be a head animated to watch over a location.

Science Fiction/Steampunk Constructs

• Aballonian - Aballonians are intelligent, self-modifying constructs. I don't know what Aballonian means and it reminds me too much of abalone so the name has to change.
• Brain Cylinder - A brain in a jar. I love brains and/or heads in jars that can communicate to players. The undead version I call a semi-lich.
• Golem, Alchemical - Primitve clockwork.
• Golem, Clockwork Golum - Steam and/or gear powered robots animated by a spirit.
• Octopod Mechanic Drone - Octopus-like repair robot.
• Robot - Not a construct with an animating spirit so much as a robot with artificial intelligence. Robots come in a multitude of sizes and shapes as they are usually created with a specific task in mind. Many are not even humanoid as treads are often more appropriate for certain tasks.

Note - The art above is copyright Stefan Poag. I make no claims to it beyond loving his work and will remove it if asked.

Bestiary - Thoughts on Constructs Part 1

Constructs are the perfect monster as they can sit around waiting patiently for the characters to arrive yet I rarely use them in my campaigns because they are so bland. So I decided to work up how things work and go over the constructs in Pathfinder only to find nearly half were repetitions of other constructs, overly specific, or just terrible. I trimmed and trimmed and organized primarily by the material of the construct.

My idea is constructs are animated by placing/trapping a portion of spirit into an object and as such they are effected by a Cleric's Banish ability. Also this gives the thing personality. if the thing being animated has anything even remotely resembling a mouth or eyes the process of animating it will also give it site, hearing, and speech. Constructs should be more like the teapot and plates in Beauty and the Beast then some mindless automatons. The intelligence of the construct depends upon the spirit and the mobility and attack depend upon the item used to create the construct.

The idea of constructs is to create truly magical areas in tombs and Wizarding schools with mundane items that are never caught sleeping, live virtually forever, and which can move, converse, or attack. Also constructs might make a nice place to store the spirit of a dead character until their body can be brought back, giving a player or two a very unique change of pace after a defeat.

I'll figure out the details on creating Constructs later.

Animated Objects

Animated object are any object that a wizard has trapped a spirit within. If there is anything remotely resembling eyes or a mouth they will take on that function. Because of this animated objects are often used as spies or to pass along messages. The ability to attack is also highly dependent upon the object that has been animated.

• Abandoned Armory - Not just one item but a pile of armor and weapons animated as a single construct. The abandoned armory moves and attacks in a wave, like water, battering targets in a wave of weapons and mail. Typically an Abandoned Armory is found on a battlefield.
• Amalgamation - Similar to an Abandoned Armory except the pile is chairs or tools or clothes and other mundane item animated into a single construct.
• Animated Object, Colossal - An object the size of a ship.
• Animated Object, Gargantuan - An object the size of a catapult.
• Animated Object, Huge - An object the size of a wagon or rowboat.
• Animated Object, Large - An object the size of a large table.
• Animated Object, Medium - An object the size of a barrel.
• Animated Object, Small - An object the size of a chair.
• Animated Object, Tiny - An object the size of a plate, book, coin, or silverware.
• Guardian Doll - A doll turned into a Construct, generally for use as a spy.
• Tattoo Guardian - Animated tattoo, not sure what to do with this but I like the idea of moving tattoo.

Earth Constructs

Earth constructs can be sculpted by or founded by the wizard and as such come in a near infinite variety of forms. What marks them is they disintegrate when they take damage.

• Golem, Clay - Large or medium sized clay construct. It could be humanoid or beast in shape, doesn't matter as the damage will be the same bashing blows of clay. Clay absorbs most damage particularly well as piercing and slicing weapons cut it but don't really damage it unless they slice a chunk off or something. A clay golem can become 100% invisible if it lies down in a bed of clay or river bottom.
• Golem, Sand - Large or medium sized sand construct. It could be humanoid or beast in shape, doesn't matter as the damage will be the same bashing blows of sand. Cutting and stabbing weapons slice through the sand without causing damage while crushing weapons send the sand flying, reducing the golem in the process. A sand golem can become 100% invisible if it lies down in normal sand.
• Homunculus - Tiny humanoid figure created from ash and blood and then animated to serve the creator. Usually the spirit of a dead minion is used to ensure loyalty.
• Terra-cotta Warrior - Statues made of dried clay. The Warrior may be armed with normal weapons. Such golems are easily broken and shattered and are primarily used as skirmishers, to keep watch, or for cermonial reasons.
• Terra-cotta Animal - An animal statue that is otherwise the same as a terra-cotta warrior. 

Flesh Constructs

Flesh constructs are too similar to undead and will be categorized along with them.

Holy Constructs

The other constructs are divided by their material, Holy Constructs can be made of different materials but are given their own heading because of their nature. Holy Constructs use volunteer spirits to fight on behalf of Law they cannot be Banished.

• Angelic Guardian - A bronze, animated statue of an angel. The wings aren't enough to lift the heavy body but they are sharp and can serve as weapons.
• Argent Warden - Animated armor and weapon covered in Holy Writings and animated.
• Charnel God - A statue to a powerful servant of a Deity that has been possessed by that servant after death. Such statues often sit in temples for centuries with no sign of their status.
• Cryptguard - A statue with a particularly anti-undead bent often placed in crypts to keep the dead down and living out.

Fantasy Heartbreaker - Beasts

If you make a rule-set you need monsters to make it feel complete. At least that's how I feel. Folks can choose to play in a monster free world, but they should at least have the option and telling them to use other game bestiaries is kind of lame.

I love bestiaries. I don't think I'm alone in that. I buy bestiaries I know I'll never use because I love flipping through them. I think I primarily love the art. Monster Manual had a ton of useful monsters so you pretty much needed it but I never liked most of the art. I appreciate how many beasts were illustrated, but the line weights were too light for my tastes and the cover was a confused mess. The AD&D Fiend Folio gets a lot of grief but the Russ Nicholson art was perfect, it was evocative, it had me using monsters that were otherwise a bit bland or gamey.

Then there is RuneQuest. The game I went to after AD&D. In RuneQuest 2 they only had a small selection of beasts and a lot of them weren't really illustrated. RuneQuest 3 barely tried in their Bestiary. They had the line weight problem and dumped multiple beasts into a single image which was made the book design cleaner but ensured every creature was tiny. The British version had a nice Bestiary but I didn't see that for decades, long after Chaosium and Games Workshop split up.

Beyond nice illustrations I've recently fallen for useful tables that help the GM use the beasts. I fell in love with a post by Tom Fitzgerald at Middenmurk called Bestiary of the Fabled Occident and can't wait until the book is available. Just take a look at one of the samples, nice image of the creature, lots of useful tables. It's just perfect. My only problem is the Header fonts are hard to read but that's a small thing.




I bought Peterson's Field Guide to Lovecraftian Horrors based on the images alone but the useful little bits and comparisons made the book fun. I've never played Call of Cthulhu but I certainly wanted to use a few of those monsters. Beautiful image, size comparisons, and details on the beast. It's a beauty.








The beautiful images and page color of the 5E monster manual apes this style. They have a nice division between mechanics (boxed off) and background that I like, but they don't really have the nice extra tables and info that elevate the info a bit beyond an encyclopedia entry that I'm talking about.

It also annoys me how most bestiaries are sort of cobbled together. I'm talking about older D&D (not sure about 5E) and Pathfinder 1 that seem to put the must have monsters in the first volume, then things get progressively worse as each additional bestiary comes out and they claw around for enough content with a few really solid monsters to ensure sales. I mean AD&D already provided the vast bulk of these monsters, look them over and come up with some organization. Maybe by CR so the books are very useful (yeah that'll cost some of the high end sales but I think they'd find most gamers are completes and would buy the books anyway); maybe by genre (Sword & Sorcery monsters vs Vanilla Fantasy Tolkien vs Earth Mythology).

So I came across Skerples Monster Overhaul. He included some of those useful tables. One article led to another and then another then to one called  OSR: The Monster Overhaul - Planning
 and another called OSR: Sharpening the Axe - How I Plan and Write RPG Books


and I realized I really needed to plan out my Bestiary. I need to merge similar beasts together to reduce the vast numbers and categorize the beasts. Categorizing is important as I believe undead should have a certain feel and it is easier to create that feel when they are all written as a group. Same with Constructs or Chaos or whatever. Then when I'm putting my bestiary together I can chop categories to get the right length and theme to a volume instead of chopping out individual beasts. I think the whole will be better that way. I might even put together an appendix or two of oddball stuff such as Pathfinders Clockwork Golems and Robots which don't really fit in most settings but might make for a really unique setting and/or Barrier Peaks style adventure.

So that's the idea anyway. Go over the Pathfinder beasts as the list there is so super-large and online in a useful way, and decide what I like and don't and group things together.

Bestiary - Thoughts on Beastiaries

Another thing that has always bugged me about various RPG beastiaries is that they are all do-it-yourself. Here are the dice to role to determine this and that. RuneQuest 2 at least provided the average number so that you could quickly create an average creature but nobody else has followed suit. 

A beastiary should have stat-blocks ready to go. Not just for the average but for big and small versions. If done correctly a GM could just transcribe or copy/paste the info and populate an adventure quickly, or just use the book on the fly.

As I've been thinking about the beastiary(s) I'd create it occured to me that i've grouped beasts together in two situations. (1) When the beasts were behaviorally the same even if they were drastically different. An example would be Canines. A Chihauha and a German Shepard behave basically the same except one can back up the threat more than the other so they'd need different statblocks. (2) When the beasts are basically the same but behave differently. My example here would be Elves. From a Statblock point of view the Wood Elf and Dark Elf are basically the same, but culturally (the part required when putting an adventure or campaign together) they are night and day. Still their weapon, armor, & spell choices would be different so a partial stat-block of that info for each type is probably warranted. Same with humans, Desert Nomads have a different culture from Civilized or Feudal humans, they'll have different weapons and armor and all that, but both will have the same 3d6 for every attribute when it comes to their stats.

Anyway that's been on my mind so I thought I'd write it out specifically before I go on.