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<blockquote data-quote="Iosue" data-source="post: 8797608" data-attributes="member: 6680772"><p>Next we have the <strong>Monsters</strong> section. As a linguistic side note, "monster" translates the Japanese term 魔物 <em>mamono</em>. First, it notes that each monster belongs to one of the below eight categories:</p><p></p><p><strong>Barbaros</strong> - The races of Ignis, the Second Sword. Have been given increased power through Impurity, which is noted in their entries. Most have two arms and two legs, but some have extra limbs or wings, and their size is quite variable. Intelligence is also variable, from childlike, to equivalent to humankind. They will always have an Impurity of 1-4. Individual Barbaros may have higher Impurity than is listed, but they will never have more than 4.</p><p></p><p><strong>Fauna</strong> - All animals except for humankind, Barboros, and Mythic Beasts. The fauna of Raxia includes megafauna and other animals not seen on Earth. In principle, Impurity is 0. In extremely rare cases, they may have Impurity of 1-4, but this will always come with some kind of transformation.</p><p></p><p><strong>Flora</strong> - Unlike Earth, the flora of Raxia includes some that can move, or who eat humankind or animals, and could thus be considered monsters. In principle, Impurity is 0. In extremely rare cases, they may have Impurity of 1-4, but this will always come with some kind of transformation.</p><p></p><p><strong>Undead</strong> - The bodies of the deceased reanimated by the power of magic or mana. The possess tremendous Impurity. Intelligence can vary, but most undead seem to act with a deep-seated hatred for the living. They are immune to poison and illness, and minor mental effects. Impurity is always 5.</p><p></p><p>(Sidenote: Interestingly, "nosferatu" are introduced in Rulebook II, but these are <em>not</em> undead, but rather classified under Barbaros. However, their victims arise as low-intelligence "blood suckers," which <em>are </em>undead.)</p><p></p><p><strong>Magical creatures and Magitech</strong> - Magical creatures are the strange abominations created during the Magic Civilization, while Magitech were created in the Magitech Civilization (natch). Both do not have any intelligence of their own, but rather follow the orders of those that created them. Both are immune to poison, illness, and all mental effects, and can be detected by Sense Magic. Impurity is always 0.</p><p></p><p><strong>Mythic Beasts</strong> - These are creatures that we would consider imaginary creatures on Earth. On Raxia, the difference between them and animals is that mythic beasts have a certain level of intelligence, some even on par with humankind. In principle, Impurity is 0. In extremely rare cases, they may have Impurity of 1-4, but this will always come with some kind of deformation.</p><p></p><p><strong>Demons</strong> - Monsters from another dimension. Intelligence can vary from animal-like to superhuman. They operate on a unique value system that, from the humankind perspective, can only be appraised as twisted and evil. They always have an Impurity of 0.</p><p></p><p><strong>Humankind</strong> - The races of Lumiere, the First Sword. Some have fallen into evil. In principle, have an Impurity of 0, but if resurrected may have Impurity of 1-4, which will come with some kind of deformation.</p><p></p><p>The next section discusses adjudicating <strong>Monster Knowledge Checks</strong>. Essentially, anytime characters come across a monster, in or out of combat, they can roll a Monster Knowledge Check. Each monster has knowledge check target number in their description. If the players beat tie or beat this number, they get to look at the monster's stats. If the monster has been augmented with Sword Shards, they get that information, as well. This applies even to original monsters created by the GM. Next to their knowledge check target number, monsters also have a Weakness target number, which is a few points higher. If a Sage beats the Weakness target on the monster knowledge check, they party knows the monster's weakness, typically given as a +2 damage vs certain types of damage. Successful monster knowledge checks mean the characters always know those monsters, but successful Weakness knowledge checks last only till the end of the session. The game also explicitly allows player knowledge to be valid, although there's no guarantee that the player's knowledge is <em>accurate</em>.</p><p></p><p>All monsters have <strong>fixed values</strong> for their initiative, and also have fixed values of 7 + their bonus for attacking, evading, and resisting. The GM can use all the fixed values, or they can roll for all checks, or any combination of the two. The game suggests that using fixed values for unimportant monsters, and rolling for leaders and boss monsters, is a good mix.</p><p></p><p>Generally, monsters die when they reach 0 HP, but the GM can elect to use the Life-or-Death checks if they think it might be interesting. Finally, defeated monsters provide bonus XP of their level x 10, given to each member of the party (not split). The game explicitly notes that this should be given even if the PCs overcome or bypass the monsters without fighting or killing them.</p><p></p><p>The rules for augmenting monsters with Sword Shards are pretty simple. 1-5 shards give a +1 to monster resistance checks, 6-10 give a +2, and so on. Also for each shard, monsters get 5 additional HP and 1 additional MP. Augmented monsters do not provide any extra bonus XP, though.</p><p></p><p>Finally, we come to my favorite rules for monsters in Sword World. Large and powerful monsters are presented as <strong>multi-part</strong> monsters. Rather than be solo monsters with minions, each part gets its own turn. So for example, a Griffon has three parts: the body, and two wings. Each part gets a turn, so in effect the single monster acts as three. Each part has its own to-hit bonus, evade bonus, damage bonus, armor protection, HP, and MP. If a spellcaster wished to cast, say, Nap on the monster, they would need to augment the spell so that it affected three targets. Each part of the monster usually has special attacks or abilities. The Griffon's body has a double attack (if the first attack is successful, the Griffon gets to do another attack). Meanwhile, the wings provide flight to the Griffon, allowing it bonuses to attack and evade. If one of the wings is reduced to 0 HP, this ability is lost. (The surviving wing can still be used to attack, though!)</p><p></p><p>Each multi-part monster has a core part. If this core part is reduced to 0 HP, the monster is defeated. Depending on the monster, ignoring non-core parts to focus fire on the core might be a good idea. But for others, it may be necessary to take out one or more non-core parts in order to get to the core. Dragons, for example, (in Rulebook II), are so large that their head part (the core part) cannot be targeted by melee attacks until the torso is reduced to 0 HP.</p><p></p><p>5e gives its solo boss monsters extra attacks and typically extra non-turn actions to overcome the parties numerical superiority, but I like Sword World 2.5's implementation as another way to skin that cat. There's some interesting design space for parts, as well as special abilities.</p><p></p><p>Next time, we look at the <strong>Monster Data</strong>, the final section of Rulebook I.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Iosue, post: 8797608, member: 6680772"] Next we have the [B]Monsters[/B] section. As a linguistic side note, "monster" translates the Japanese term 魔物 [I]mamono[/I]. First, it notes that each monster belongs to one of the below eight categories: [B]Barbaros[/B] - The races of Ignis, the Second Sword. Have been given increased power through Impurity, which is noted in their entries. Most have two arms and two legs, but some have extra limbs or wings, and their size is quite variable. Intelligence is also variable, from childlike, to equivalent to humankind. They will always have an Impurity of 1-4. Individual Barbaros may have higher Impurity than is listed, but they will never have more than 4. [B]Fauna[/B] - All animals except for humankind, Barboros, and Mythic Beasts. The fauna of Raxia includes megafauna and other animals not seen on Earth. In principle, Impurity is 0. In extremely rare cases, they may have Impurity of 1-4, but this will always come with some kind of transformation. [B]Flora[/B] - Unlike Earth, the flora of Raxia includes some that can move, or who eat humankind or animals, and could thus be considered monsters. In principle, Impurity is 0. In extremely rare cases, they may have Impurity of 1-4, but this will always come with some kind of transformation. [B]Undead[/B] - The bodies of the deceased reanimated by the power of magic or mana. The possess tremendous Impurity. Intelligence can vary, but most undead seem to act with a deep-seated hatred for the living. They are immune to poison and illness, and minor mental effects. Impurity is always 5. (Sidenote: Interestingly, "nosferatu" are introduced in Rulebook II, but these are [I]not[/I] undead, but rather classified under Barbaros. However, their victims arise as low-intelligence "blood suckers," which [I]are [/I]undead.) [B]Magical creatures and Magitech[/B] - Magical creatures are the strange abominations created during the Magic Civilization, while Magitech were created in the Magitech Civilization (natch). Both do not have any intelligence of their own, but rather follow the orders of those that created them. Both are immune to poison, illness, and all mental effects, and can be detected by Sense Magic. Impurity is always 0. [B]Mythic Beasts[/B] - These are creatures that we would consider imaginary creatures on Earth. On Raxia, the difference between them and animals is that mythic beasts have a certain level of intelligence, some even on par with humankind. In principle, Impurity is 0. In extremely rare cases, they may have Impurity of 1-4, but this will always come with some kind of deformation. [B]Demons[/B] - Monsters from another dimension. Intelligence can vary from animal-like to superhuman. They operate on a unique value system that, from the humankind perspective, can only be appraised as twisted and evil. They always have an Impurity of 0. [B]Humankind[/B] - The races of Lumiere, the First Sword. Some have fallen into evil. In principle, have an Impurity of 0, but if resurrected may have Impurity of 1-4, which will come with some kind of deformation. The next section discusses adjudicating [B]Monster Knowledge Checks[/B]. Essentially, anytime characters come across a monster, in or out of combat, they can roll a Monster Knowledge Check. Each monster has knowledge check target number in their description. If the players beat tie or beat this number, they get to look at the monster's stats. If the monster has been augmented with Sword Shards, they get that information, as well. This applies even to original monsters created by the GM. Next to their knowledge check target number, monsters also have a Weakness target number, which is a few points higher. If a Sage beats the Weakness target on the monster knowledge check, they party knows the monster's weakness, typically given as a +2 damage vs certain types of damage. Successful monster knowledge checks mean the characters always know those monsters, but successful Weakness knowledge checks last only till the end of the session. The game also explicitly allows player knowledge to be valid, although there's no guarantee that the player's knowledge is [I]accurate[/I]. All monsters have [B]fixed values[/B] for their initiative, and also have fixed values of 7 + their bonus for attacking, evading, and resisting. The GM can use all the fixed values, or they can roll for all checks, or any combination of the two. The game suggests that using fixed values for unimportant monsters, and rolling for leaders and boss monsters, is a good mix. Generally, monsters die when they reach 0 HP, but the GM can elect to use the Life-or-Death checks if they think it might be interesting. Finally, defeated monsters provide bonus XP of their level x 10, given to each member of the party (not split). The game explicitly notes that this should be given even if the PCs overcome or bypass the monsters without fighting or killing them. The rules for augmenting monsters with Sword Shards are pretty simple. 1-5 shards give a +1 to monster resistance checks, 6-10 give a +2, and so on. Also for each shard, monsters get 5 additional HP and 1 additional MP. Augmented monsters do not provide any extra bonus XP, though. Finally, we come to my favorite rules for monsters in Sword World. Large and powerful monsters are presented as [B]multi-part[/B] monsters. Rather than be solo monsters with minions, each part gets its own turn. So for example, a Griffon has three parts: the body, and two wings. Each part gets a turn, so in effect the single monster acts as three. Each part has its own to-hit bonus, evade bonus, damage bonus, armor protection, HP, and MP. If a spellcaster wished to cast, say, Nap on the monster, they would need to augment the spell so that it affected three targets. Each part of the monster usually has special attacks or abilities. The Griffon's body has a double attack (if the first attack is successful, the Griffon gets to do another attack). Meanwhile, the wings provide flight to the Griffon, allowing it bonuses to attack and evade. If one of the wings is reduced to 0 HP, this ability is lost. (The surviving wing can still be used to attack, though!) Each multi-part monster has a core part. If this core part is reduced to 0 HP, the monster is defeated. Depending on the monster, ignoring non-core parts to focus fire on the core might be a good idea. But for others, it may be necessary to take out one or more non-core parts in order to get to the core. Dragons, for example, (in Rulebook II), are so large that their head part (the core part) cannot be targeted by melee attacks until the torso is reduced to 0 HP. 5e gives its solo boss monsters extra attacks and typically extra non-turn actions to overcome the parties numerical superiority, but I like Sword World 2.5's implementation as another way to skin that cat. There's some interesting design space for parts, as well as special abilities. Next time, we look at the [B]Monster Data[/B], the final section of Rulebook I. [/QUOTE]
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