Arcane_Snowman
2011-10-28, 08:42 PM
I'm not entirely sure this is the right place to post this, but here goes.
So, I'm in the early stages of working on an E8 campaign setting, over the next couple of days I plan to hammer out something to actually post, but for now I'm just speculating left, right and center. I started thinking the Tarrasque is a pretty iconic monster in D&D, but it's entirely too powerful for a campaign setting like this.
So I thought to myself, what could take it's place, what could become the iconic and mythical creatures in this particular setting?
I've made one so far: The Illithid, instead of many, there is just one. The CR is a bit low, but giving it a few extra levels to bump it up should be no problems. Using the Thoonite stuff from Monster Manual 5 to add a little bit of extra oomph and enforce the evil mastermind theme a little more. To make it a more persistent monster in the setting, I decided to give the Illithid an extra survival mechanic. Instead of the ordinary tadpoles, a Thoon Infiltrators can start the ceremorphisis process if it has the Illithid's psychic imprint. The thought is that the Illithid is such a powerful creature that just before it dies, it sends out a powerful psychic burst which is embedded in the nearest Infiltrator, causing it start the ceremorphisis process.
I'm looking for ideas to make more of these creatures. I intend to have 5-7 such monsters roaming around the world.
For those who want to get creative:
I never really liked arcane/divine magic, and I absolutely loathe the alignment system. Seeing as the former are pretty heavily tied into the latter, I'm just getting rid of the whole shebang and using the alternative magic systems, with psionics being refluffed as the standard "magic" of the setting.
Outsiders: due in large part to the lack of alignments, and the fact that I don't intend to have as literal a religious system, outsiders are for the most part none-existent. I haven't really sat down and flicked properly through all available sources to determine if there actually is something I'd like to include.
Dragons: pretty rare, though I do intend to have several "smaller" and one great big dragon tucked away somewhere. More on that later.
Constructs and Undead: pretty rare as well. With the exclusion of arcane and divine magic, many of the sources of these creatures are gone. I like the ghostwalk book, but with everything else I want to do, it may just make things more crowded.
Animals and Vermin: I don't really want to go overboard with these two, apart from tinkering with what different Eco-systems look like, I don't really see much of a reason to include to many extraordinary creatures from this category. Dire animals would be exceedingly rare for example.
Abberations: would be uncommon, but not unheard of.
Elementals, Fey, Giants and Magical Animals: For those of you who know about the Fair Folk from Exalted, this is very much the feel I intend to garner with these creatures. They're beings that live beyond the veil of what we'd call reality, but they can march into the our world without much of any notice at all, and their goals are rarely what could be classified as nice.
Monstrous Humanoids: these are a bit all over the place, some will fall into the category above, and others won't, so there is the potential for them to be used for this.
Humanoids: the last category, and the only one that won't really pertain to this discussion. I intend to do a great deal of many things with this category, but they just don't have what it takes to become legendary monsters in the sense of that I'm looking for.
Anyone got ideas for what else I could use, suggestions for what I've already done so far? Ideas will of course get full credit once I get as far as posting something more comprehensive.
So, I'm in the early stages of working on an E8 campaign setting, over the next couple of days I plan to hammer out something to actually post, but for now I'm just speculating left, right and center. I started thinking the Tarrasque is a pretty iconic monster in D&D, but it's entirely too powerful for a campaign setting like this.
So I thought to myself, what could take it's place, what could become the iconic and mythical creatures in this particular setting?
I've made one so far: The Illithid, instead of many, there is just one. The CR is a bit low, but giving it a few extra levels to bump it up should be no problems. Using the Thoonite stuff from Monster Manual 5 to add a little bit of extra oomph and enforce the evil mastermind theme a little more. To make it a more persistent monster in the setting, I decided to give the Illithid an extra survival mechanic. Instead of the ordinary tadpoles, a Thoon Infiltrators can start the ceremorphisis process if it has the Illithid's psychic imprint. The thought is that the Illithid is such a powerful creature that just before it dies, it sends out a powerful psychic burst which is embedded in the nearest Infiltrator, causing it start the ceremorphisis process.
I'm looking for ideas to make more of these creatures. I intend to have 5-7 such monsters roaming around the world.
For those who want to get creative:
I never really liked arcane/divine magic, and I absolutely loathe the alignment system. Seeing as the former are pretty heavily tied into the latter, I'm just getting rid of the whole shebang and using the alternative magic systems, with psionics being refluffed as the standard "magic" of the setting.
Outsiders: due in large part to the lack of alignments, and the fact that I don't intend to have as literal a religious system, outsiders are for the most part none-existent. I haven't really sat down and flicked properly through all available sources to determine if there actually is something I'd like to include.
Dragons: pretty rare, though I do intend to have several "smaller" and one great big dragon tucked away somewhere. More on that later.
Constructs and Undead: pretty rare as well. With the exclusion of arcane and divine magic, many of the sources of these creatures are gone. I like the ghostwalk book, but with everything else I want to do, it may just make things more crowded.
Animals and Vermin: I don't really want to go overboard with these two, apart from tinkering with what different Eco-systems look like, I don't really see much of a reason to include to many extraordinary creatures from this category. Dire animals would be exceedingly rare for example.
Abberations: would be uncommon, but not unheard of.
Elementals, Fey, Giants and Magical Animals: For those of you who know about the Fair Folk from Exalted, this is very much the feel I intend to garner with these creatures. They're beings that live beyond the veil of what we'd call reality, but they can march into the our world without much of any notice at all, and their goals are rarely what could be classified as nice.
Monstrous Humanoids: these are a bit all over the place, some will fall into the category above, and others won't, so there is the potential for them to be used for this.
Humanoids: the last category, and the only one that won't really pertain to this discussion. I intend to do a great deal of many things with this category, but they just don't have what it takes to become legendary monsters in the sense of that I'm looking for.
Anyone got ideas for what else I could use, suggestions for what I've already done so far? Ideas will of course get full credit once I get as far as posting something more comprehensive.