Posts
Standard Introduction
I have been
writing about Dungeons and Dragons semi-regularly this year and in the course
of writing those I found a 30-day blog challenge. As I have done those a couple times before it
seemed remiss not to jump on this one.
If you want
here is a link to my 30-day
challenge on Disney Movies, here is a link to my 30-day
challenge on Video Games, and here is a comically out of date 30-day
challenge on Movies (it is old and the writing is rubbish).
Day 13- My Favorite Animals and Vermin
Continuing
the Top 5’s with perhaps the most boring of monsters, today is Animals and
Vermin. Really, this should be less
boring than it is. Animals are the
monsters that people feared thru most of our history. Sure CANCER is the monster that hangs over
the heads of modern humanity, but in previous eras it was the howl heard to a
glowing moon that caused the hair to rise on necks of the village.
Let’s go.
#5: Lions, Tigers, and Bears
Bears are
kind of the only real life monster that is big enough to be a serious
threat. In 3rd edition they
were actually tougher than the semi-iconic monster “The Owlbear”. But aside from just being a somewhat tough
and damaging opponent, they are nothing special. I guess they had the Snatch ability, but it
is about as boring an ability as can be expected.
Lions and Tigers are more interesting, because they often have the Pounce ability. With Pounce, they can quickly close ground,
take numerous shredding attacks on the target they hit.
I wanted to
point out these guys at the start to establish a baseline. Animals are boring, but they don’t have to
be. Having an interesting small ability
is all it takes to separate a common ball of hit points from something more
interesting.
#4: Wolves
What sets
these guys apart from my baseline are Pack Tactics and Tripping. Totally in theme for these creatures. Wolves work best when working as part of a
pack, they gain advantage. But they also
grant advantage in other ways by killing movement, they trip the ever-loving
hell out of people.
If you are
fighting wolves, you will almost certainly spend a good portion of it watching
the GG throw a ton of dice and seeing your miniature laying on its side.
 |
| Dire Rats are not real. They are animals? |
#3: Dire Rat
This has
more to do with 3rd edition as these are for most, probably 99% of
games, a player’s first encounter with the disease rules. Filth fever was never a game breaking
element, or an entirely necessary one, but it is part of a whole cornucopia of
disgusting things.
Unlike “Skyrim”
in which you catch a new disease every time you walk outside (or maybe I just
hold on to diseases for a long time because I don’t notice I have them) in DnD
getting sick is a rarely touched upon issue, unless the GG makes it part of the
game’s larger story… Ooh, getting ideas for a plague world campaign. Maybe the image of an old-time plague doctor
mask being the party’s symbol. That
might be cool.
Digression,
Rats are typical of low level play, but they provide a necessary introduction
to a larger rule set and that makes them better than many other low level
monsters.
 |
| Giant Spiders are kind of a staple of this genre. As if people might have some kind of deep seated fear of the little buggers. |
#2: Spiders
Two narrow
bandwidths of new rules for players to deal with, Webs and Poison. While poison is the more robust topic that
will remain present and relevant throughout the game length, webs also deserve
a mention. They are a means to control
the map a bit, providing a superior movement to the spider while tripping up
the players. What is more, the webs are
what put spiders ahead of vipers, scorpions, and centipedes for a mention. Poison, like I said is everywhere, shooting
sticky nets from a butt, that is a spider only thing.
#1: Swarms of all Kind
This is a
stretch, but I am already distorting the original rules of this 30-day blog
thing by having top lists at all so rules are made to be broken.
The rules
for swarms are fascinating to me. Maybe
I am alone on this but the idea that it is not one singular creature but a
collection of creatures sets them almost as non-monsters. They are more like an environmental factor
like brown mold or acidic slime (though slimes are also monsters). The damage dealt is not just killing
individual bats, but also about dispersing their cohesion. Beyond that they can provide additional
aspects, like poison, like flying, they are dynamic.
What is
more this whole concept is terrifying.
Being covered in something chewing away at you is up there with being
set on fire or being buried alive on the most horrifying things to imagine.
Coming Tomorrow
Tomorrow I
am going to talk about Fiends.
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