PDA

View Full Version : Need help with creating custom monsters



Wyvern72n
2019-09-08, 02:16 AM
I think I'm going to be running a game soon and it would be about a war between the Humanoid Alliance Nations (ie: Humans, Elves, Dwarves, etc...) and the Everoni League ( Monster nation with races like Lizardfolk and Kobolds ). I want to get some inspiration or advice before making the troops on each side but I don't want the classic horde of untrained conscripted savage monsters or a highly skilled army of Human Paladins, Dwarven Defenders or Elven Rangers. Also Both sides have good aligned leaders and gunpowder is available in my setting so could you possibly give me advice on how to make soldiers for both side? Also the system is a mix of 3.5e/4e/5e using the best of all three worlds with all the feats and classes for those systems

King of Nowhere
2019-09-08, 06:52 AM
soldiers?
are you looking for 1 hd mooks?
elite troops around 5 hit dice?
or special stuff with a CR of 10 or more?
it's difficult to say much without knowing more of what you actually want.

regarding gunpowder, I did something with it, so I can share my take.
cannons deal 20d6 to 30d6 on a single target. normal cannons are slow and difficult to aim, but golem-mounted cannons can be used with a touch attack.
cannons can also fire grapeshot, dealing 10d6 in a narrow cone
in both cases, reloading takes one minute or so.

guns don't hurt more than melee weapons, in fact they often hurt less. but they have an armor penetration factor, i.e. they can ignore part of an armor. for a primitive rifle, that's around 5 (goes through chain shirt as if it wasn't there, but full plate still offers some protection against it).
they are slow to reload, though, so after one shot it's generally back to normal weapons.

One of the most appreciated qualities of gunpowder is the ability to make a large explosion in an anitmagic field. many high level aventurers with immunity to fire and ghostform were caught by such traps.

Pleh
2019-09-08, 08:12 AM
Based on what you've said, I'd say we need much more setting info.

What us the war being fought over? You say there are Good leaders on both sides, so it seems more likely a resource dispute (such as classical territory allocation) than a racial/religious crusade. In such a case, we need to know what they're fighting over. If it's terrain, then you'd expect their fighting units to be tailored to the terrain they operate in. The Humanoids would employ Dwarves in mountainous or subterranean skirmishes while the Monstrous forces would likely employ Minotaurs and other advantaged species to counter them. Or the Raptorans and Elves might guard the open fields against the Orcs and Gnolls, who raid with pack tactics.

Where they fight determines how they fight. How they fight determines what skills they need. Their skills determines their builds.

Wyvern72n
2019-09-08, 10:23 AM
Based on what you've said, I'd say we need much more setting info.

What us the war being fought over? You say there are Good leaders on both sides, so it seems more likely a resource dispute (such as classical territory allocation) than a racial/religious crusade. In such a case, we need to know what they're fighting over. If it's terrain, then you'd expect their fighting units to be tailored to the terrain they operate in. The Humanoids would employ Dwarves in mountainous or subterranean skirmishes while the Monstrous forces would likely employ Minotaurs and other advantaged species to counter them. Or the Raptorans and Elves might guard the open fields against the Orcs and Gnolls, who raid with pack tactics.

Where they fight determines how they fight. How they fight determines what skills they need. Their skills determines their builds.

For the setting it's more like a post apocalyptic fantasy world where the planet's core kinda dies and that's the basis and only bits of lore i currently have. For the factions while the leaders are both good aligned both sides kinda hate each other with humanoids being scared of the monsters and attacked first out of fear of them growing too powerful in which is somewhat of a good idea since the monsters weren't exactly ready and their fighting force wasn't developed yet whilst the monster hate the humanoids for the persecution of their kind since humans already forced many sentient monstrous species extinct because some dumb tribe decide to attack the hairless apes and always overreact by wiping the whole species out and the monsters just wanted peace. The war also kinda got out of control and has been a stalemate for the last few decades where the humanoids got desperate and started sending barely trained conscripts to their deaths and had to ally with some non humanoid races (ie: Dragonborn, Couple race of fish people, Aaracockras) while the monstrous races ( Kobolds, Lizardmen, some other avian and amphibian races alongside goblins, dragons, some other fish people race ) were getting more advanced starting to get more advanced and their armies eventually became more skilled than the humanoids and than the war became a religious war and other stuff happens but eventually a ceasefire broke out. The setting takes place when the truce was nearing it's end and the PC's get conscripted into serving the united Humanoid Kingdoms of Humans, Dwarves, Elves, etc... against the Everoni League ( The monstrous races's lands is located in an area called the Everoni Planes)

Also if you want what i intended to make the strengths and weaknesses of both factions then here:
- Humanoids have better Heavy Infantry, Cavalry, Navy and has the help of both the monster hunting guilds and adventuring guilds with Elven rangers being kings in the forests but they have worst Range units, artillery, aerial forces ( Wyverns, Dragons, Airships beat Griffins and Pegasus ) and they don't use monstrous beasts but they do have support from giants.
_ Monsters have Better range units ( the Kobolds pioneered gunpowder ) with Aerial Superiority and Close air support and much better artillery ( primitive cannons ) and they use monstrous beasts ( Drakes, some Dragons, Wendigoes ). However, their navy is nonexistent, Goblin Dire Wolf riders won't beat knights with warhorses anytime soon and whilst they get points for having elite infantry with armour piercing weaponry and magical equipment their infantry are mostly militia fighters and their special forces aren't nearly as good as veteran adventurers or monster slayers.

That's basically the gist on things

Wyvern72n
2019-09-08, 10:26 AM
soldiers?
are you looking for 1 hd mooks?
elite troops around 5 hit dice?
or special stuff with a CR of 10 or more?
it's difficult to say much without knowing more of what you actually want.

regarding gunpowder, I did something with it, so I can share my take.
cannons deal 20d6 to 30d6 on a single target. normal cannons are slow and difficult to aim, but golem-mounted cannons can be used with a touch attack.
cannons can also fire grapeshot, dealing 10d6 in a narrow cone
in both cases, reloading takes one minute or so.

guns don't hurt more than melee weapons, in fact they often hurt less. but they have an armor penetration factor, i.e. they can ignore part of an armor. for a primitive rifle, that's around 5 (goes through chain shirt as if it wasn't there, but full plate still offers some protection against it).
they are slow to reload, though, so after one shot it's generally back to normal weapons.

One of the most appreciated qualities of gunpowder is the ability to make a large explosion in an anitmagic field. many high level aventurers with immunity to fire and ghostform were caught by such traps.

I'm looking for help making Elite cavalry for the humanoid and Aerial supperiority/ close air support for the Monsters and also need help with elite troops, I got the special forces and such done