What Monsters Could Work in Society?

[Palanan]

Assuming a large city that’s seen its fair share of weird things, and willing to accept monsters if they work hard and pay their taxes, what monsters would be reasonably well-suited for working at particular jobs?

I’m thinking mainly about occupations that require plenty of strength and a basic degree of patience, such as loading water barrels onto a ship, carrying heavy masonry or construction timber, etc. What monsters could earn a place for themselves by working at jobs like this? And what other tasks could other monsters perform?

My goal is not “monster city” per se, but rather to get an idea of what monsters might be able to coexist productively in a large trading port, probably just a few individuals of any given kind. This is for Pathfinder, but I’m open to ideas about monsters from any official Wizards or Paizo publications.

[Jack_Simth]

Anything that can and will communicate, really. I mean, something that exists only to bring suffering to the world (a hag, say) is going to have some issues with other people, but... well, just pulling a random monster from d20srd.org: Gray Render (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/grayRender.htm): Int of 3, so it's not doing paperwork, but... Large, Str 23? Can move baggage just fine; it's got a heavy load of 1200 pounds.

A Grig (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/sprite.htm#grig) isn't going to move much (tiny, Str 5), but with a Fly speed of 40 feet and average int (10), they make decent messengers.

A Griffon (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/griffon.htm) isn't very bright (Int 5), but is has Fly 80 (average) and is Large with 18 strength - great for packages that need to get places quickly.

And so on. Almost anything can have a niche, if you look, even if other creatures may do the job better (consider an Imp or Lantern Archon messenger).

[DrMotives]

The Discworld novels by Terry Pratchet do this pretty well with the main city of Ankh-Morpork. The city is a primarily human city, but includes dwarves, trolls (although Discworld trolls are more like goliaths with the mineral warrior template), goblins, gargoyles, and various undead as citizens. These groups do tend to experience a certain varying amount of bigotry/racism, and many of them maintain their own cultures while living in their own neighbourhoods, yet they all are part of the same major city and tend to have more in common with other city folk, regardless of species, than those from elsewhere in the world.

[Mechalich]

The best candidates are various Monstrous Humanoids since they can both communicate in known languages and function within a humanoid-based built environment - compare to a giant, which can't fit properly within a human-sized city. Fey and outsiders are both capable of this but Fey have deep seated issues with humanoid society and outsiders are driven to push such society towards their own ideological goals rather than participating in it. Now, a lot of the stock monstrous humanoids are tagged with the CE label, which makes it impossible for them to function properly in society, so your candidates would have to be either rare exceptions or you'd need to reconfigure the species a bit.

Just working of the base bestiary I get:
Centaur - highly mobile in open terrain, fairly strong. Ideal as a herdsman.
Gargoyle - a basically perfect sentry
Green Hag - constant tongues, making one a perfect translator, and if you put a coven together you get all sorts of society-useful abilities like control weather and speak with dead.
Harpy - a useful flying messenger, also surprisingly useful for crow-control
Lamia - an ideal controller for some form of other heavy monster labor using their charm monster ability.
Lycanthropes - various abilities and a nice little DR bonus, natural lycanthropes have full control
Minotaur - a suitable heavy laborer, only a stone's throw away from already being a playable race
Ogre - just like the minotaur, already marginally playable

[Quertus]

My favorite monster NPC is Sprout the Porter. He's a Treant, with enough bloodlines that he doesn't pay off to earn negative XP - meaning that he never grows up, and is immortal.

[Particle_Man]

Gold Dragon, so long as that job is: Ruler of the City.

Modrons would be definitionally organized workers.

[DwarvenWarCorgi]

Theres loads of monstrous humanoids that can easily be inserted into any cities, the less humanoid the creature the harder its gonna be to integrate into society. Unless you go with like flintstones society where they use creatures instead of appliances lol.

Another way would be to have different "domesicated" animals than the norm. I had a campaign I ran where the dwarves all rode boars and used dire weasels as pack/draft animals for example.

Or what about having Formian construction crews? Thatd be unexpected in an otherwise humanoid city.

[redking]

Any humanoid could probably fit in.

*Ogres: strength 21. They can do simple jobs hauling things or simple construction jobs. They have low intelligence (only 6), so they will require close supervision to do their jobs (a pixie has intelligence 16 and could probably do the supervisors job). They are also usually chaotic evil and of violent temperament, so excellent security in the area is a must.

*Orcs and Goblins: low cost, unskilled labor. These guys aren't going to be craftsmen or doing any complicated work. The advantage of Orcs and Goblins is the low cost of their labor compared to other humanoids. The Orcs do hard physical labor, and the Goblins can do slightly less taxing, but more complicated, work than Orcs. Potential demographic threat via fast breeding of Orcs and Goblins. The city could soon find the majority of its population this demographic. Also issue with non-consensual relationships between Orc males and Human females, leading to the birth of half-orcs, unless they are kept strictly segregated.

*Doppelgangers: prostitutes. Quite simply doppelgangers do this job better than anyone else. Their ability to change shape gives them an unbeatable advantage. The downside is that its quite likely that the doppelgangers won't want to work in an honest trade like prostitution and prefer to kill some wealthy merchant or noble and assume his identity. If that is the case then doppelgangers represent a dire security threat.

*Medusa: probably not a niche large enough for more than one medusa in a city. A medusa can humanely conduct 'executions' by using its Petrifying Gaze ability. Suitable for a city with qualms about the death penatly. In this scenario the medusa replaces the headsman.

*Rakshasa: if the local populace can overcome their distrust, Rakshasa make excellent police. They can detect thoughts, have skill ranks in bluff, disguise, intimidate, diplomacy, sense motive, and spot, all of which help in investigations. They cast spells as a 7th level sorcerer, so they are no slouch in the magic department either. Rakshasa cops become essential to have if you happen to have doppelganger former prostitutes killing your upper classes and replacing them.

*Half-Celestial: not exactly a monster, but a template that can be applied to creatures, often humans. If there is a community of Half-Celestials in your city, its possible that the reason they are there is because of a eugenics breeding program. Getting that celestial blood in a creature provides Str +4, Dex +2, Con +4, Int +2, Wis +4, Cha +4 for starters, which is a huge advantage. You will have to find a celestial creature that doesn't have a vow of celebacy if you want this to work. Depending on the celestial, the opportunity for a sexual encounter may even be considered 'payment' for your planar ally or planar binding spell.

*Deepspawn: this creature may be the MVP of the diverse monster community (assuming it behaves). Its ability to spawn clones of creatures of up to 6 CR make it perhaps the most valuable member of the community. A community that produced a 1 in 100 million Mozart need never despair losing Mozart again for the deepspawn can produce such a genius every 12 days on average. It can also do things like produce clones of champion race horses. Given that the spawn of deepspawn are "fanatically loyal" to it, the deepspawn can probably force doppelgangers that it clones to remain in the brothels.

I am really only scratching the surface here, but this is sufficient for now.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by redking
Ogres…are also usually chaotic evil and of violent temperament, so excellent security in the area is a must.

Ogres wouldn’t be well-suited for just this reason—evil and violent makes a poor mix in a densely crowded city, and providing enough security to contain them would cost more than they’re worth.


Originally Posted by DwarvenWarCorgi
Another way would be to have different "domesicated" animals than the norm. I had a campaign I ran where the dwarves all rode boars and used dire weasels as pack/draft animals for example.

What, the dwarves weren’t riding corgis? :smalltongue:

But a broader spectrum of domesticated animals is definitely worth looking into. I’d love to use a Baluchitherium (https://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/animals/megafauna/megafauna-baluchitherium/) in some capacity.

[DwarvenWarCorgi]

What, the dwarves weren’t riding corgis? :smalltongue:

But a broader spectrum of domesticated animals is definitely worth looking into. I’d love to use a Baluchitherium (https://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/animals/megafauna/megafauna-baluchitherium/) in some capacity.

Alas this was before I fell in love with Dwarf dogs. Was listening to sabbath one day, and got to really thinking about Warpigs and one thing led to another.

baluchitherium, the pic hurts my head to look at.
dire corgi (https://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/animals/canines/dog/corgi-dire/) is statted FYI.

[awa]

Does it have to be voluntary?

An evil city not afraid to use slaves can get a whole lot more out of monster than one that wants to give them rights.

Take the ogres stupid violent and strong that makes it hard for them to be citizens but if their slaves working a quarry somewhere then those matter a lot less. Their low intelligence and chaotic nature make planning an uprising harder offsetting the fact that they are more powerful.

in regards to other critters
doplgangers work better as secret police than prostitutes it puts them far closer to the power they crave and is frankly more valuable to the state.

Minotaur could be prison guards

wargs could be scouts for the army with goblin handlers

[Wraith]

What, the dwarves weren’t riding corgis? :smalltongue:

Halflings ride corgis; Dwarfs ride war-badgers (http://www.manticgames.com/ImageCache/Products/3443.1.1000.1000.FFFFFF.0.jpeg).


Minotaur could be prison guards

Also sewer-jacks and watchmen. Provided the tunnels were big enough, it's not like they would be able to get lost and not know how to get out, and would know exactly the best way to cut off a fleeing criminal who tried to evade them by disappearing down dark alleys. :smalltongue:

[Particle_Man]

How about an LG society entirely composed of werebears? Lycanthropy is fairly easy to spread, and it makes people LG so it is good for reforming criminals too. Talk about a strong militia!

[Blue Jay]

I've always been kind of enamored by the concept of "slum monsters" in a fantasy city. The idea of extensive slums or shantytowns in a sprawling city that are largely unregulated and ignored by the city guard can really breed lots of interesting human-monster interactions. Monsters like goblins, ettercaps, gargoyles and ghouls make interesting "slum monsters" Things like otyughs and oozes and gricks are also things you could find.

And then, once you've got a sort of "ecology" of the slums, then you can start asking questions about how those monsters might come to be integrated into the human society. Do the humans merely tolerate them as long as they stay out of their way? Or, do they let them stay around because they offer something valuable (but still prefer that they keep their distance)? Or do they eventually find it worthwhile to invite the monster into "proper society" for some purpose or other?

One of my settings has goblins living exclusively in the shadow of humans. Virtually every human town, city and village has a population of goblins in it, often cordoned off into its own shantytown district. Most goblin communities are self-governed, with their own reeves or other officers (though goblins do not have a noble class), and they have their own guildhall or commons in the middle of their shantytown. The goblins are tolerated, but generally dismissed as low-class wretches that are generally not nuisance enough to be worth exterminating, but not valuable enough to welcome. Goblins are nocturnal, and they spend most of the daylight hours hiding in their little shanty homes. During the night, they scavenge on garbage and vermin, and sometimes they do chores like clean barns and stables in exchange for table scraps or an extra saucer of milk. So, they fill a role like that of the domovoi or house brownies of real-world mythology. The outlying villages often have more genial relationships with goblins, and you often get much more open collaborations.

There's also a city that, due to a convoluted history of nomadic settlements between wild and developed lands, is inhabited by humans and centaurs (and of course, goblins), who have learned to live together (albeit with some residual volatility). Centaurs and humans are generally seen as equals, though the centaurs are more often menial laborers and farmers than are the humans. This is very unusual behavior for centaurs, which are usually hunter-gatherers in this setting; but their physical strength makes them able to work the land without the aid of livestock. The centaurs are generally thought of as aloof and disinterested in politics, governance or other "administrative" roles, but there are signs of change there, especially in the current and rising generations, which is renewing some of the interspecies frictions that have always been there between humans and centaurs.

And there's an entire human kingdom that developed on the open plains around a partnership of humans and griffins. Most of the human population migrated into the area a couple centuries ago (fleeing from a major calamity), and they developed means of communicating and partnering with the griffins to enhance their ability to survive in this unusual land, and to provide mutual defenses against the blended hordes of "barbarians" to the east. In modern times, the griffins usually serve as laborers, transporters, messengers and scouts. The kingdom is predominantly human (perhaps a ratio of 50 humans to every griffin), and is governed by humans, and griffins serve most visibly in the military, where they are bonded to human knights and serve as their mounts and co-commanders.

In another region of the setting, in a very large archipelago, there are collaborations between humans and merfolk, who work together to tap the resources of the land and the sea. Merfolk regularly serve as guides or messengers for human ships; as divers, whalers and hunters who accompany human voyages to help keep them fed; and as maritime police and coast guard. Some of the coastal cities on the mainland have also taken to employing merfolk, and some of these merfolk now consider themselves subjects of the human kings.

[Malphegor]

Slaymates, near as I can tell, are just super traumatised undead children that are a fleshy metamagic reducer device for necromancers who want sad kids.

Once you realise that no therapy will help them they can probably wander around polite society without issue, content to cry and be eternal orphan homeless people.

(I think they’re pretty harmless from memory, I may be mistaken)

[hamishspence]

They do have a nasty diseased bite, at least.

[stack]

Dragon bankers. Issue notes against the wealth you deposit in their horde. Defaulting on loans is...unwise.