Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Echohawk" data-source="post: 4172126" data-attributes="member: 9849">I thought it might be interesting to take a look at what we know so far about the creature types, origins and subtypes in 4ed.This is based on an analysis of the RPG stats from the Dungeons of Dread minis set, the monsters previewed on the WotC web site, and the scanned pages from the Monster Manual that were available at D&D Experience.There seem to be six 'origin' types: <ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Aberrant</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Elemental</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Fey</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Immortal</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Natural</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Shadow</li> </ul>And four general types: <ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Animate</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Beast</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Humanoid</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Magical Beast</li> </ul>We also have the following known 'subtypes': <ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Angel</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Aquatic</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Cold</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Construct</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Demon</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Devil</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Dragon</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Earth</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Fire</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Eladrin</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Shapechanger</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Spider</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Spirit</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Undead</li> </ul>So, is there any correlation between the origin and general types, and the various subtypes?<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Animates are (so far) of either Natural or Shadow origin. All known Animates also have either the Construct or Undead subtypes.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Beasts are (so far) of either Aberrant, Natural or Shadow origin. Only one Beast has a subtype (Spider).</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Humanoids dominate the stat blocks we've seen so far (50 of the 79 reviewed). There are known humanoids with all six origin types. Subtypes for the Humanoids include Angel, Cold, Construct, Demon, Devil, Earth, Fire, Eladrin, Shapechanger, Spirit and Undead. (That is all known subtypes except Aquatic, Dragon and Spider.)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Magical Beasts come (so far) from every origin except Shadow. Known subtypes for Magical Beasts include Aquatic, Demon, Dragon and Undead.</li> </ul>From this, it seems likely that origin and type are entirely independent for Humanoids and Magical Beasts. For Animates and Beasts, there may be some limitations -- for example, it might be that there are no Immortal Animates or Beasts. We don't really have enough information to tell for sure yet.Looking at the subtypes, we can see some potential correlations:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Constructs are always Natural and are either Animates or Humanoids.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Demons are always Elemental and are either Humanoids or Magical Beasts.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Devils are all Immortal Humanoids.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Dragons are all Natural Magical Beasts.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Undead can be of Elemental, Fey, Natural or Shadow origin, and can be Animates, Humanoids or Magical Beasts. So far, we have no Undead of Aberrant or Immortal origin and no Undead Beasts.</li> </ul>Clearly there appears to be a strong correlation between the Demon and Devil subtypes and origin, which is to be expected give the 4ed cosmology. Dragons may always be Natural Magical Beasts, but it is too soon to conclude that for sure. And although we don't have any Immortal Undead that combination seems like a natural fit for the 3ed "Deathless" type, so it also seems premature to draw any firm conclusions about the Undead subtype just yet.Finally, taking a quick look at the correlation between type and level:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">For creatures of levels 1-10, 72% are of Natural origin and 63% Humanoid. Not surprisingly then, many encounters in the Heroic tier will be with Natural Humanoids.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">For creatures of levels 11-20, only 36% are of Natural origin, with 17% Aberrant, 17% Elemental, 14% Shadow, 11% Fey and 4% Immortal. As expected, some more variation for the Paragon tier.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">For creatures of level 21+, the majority (75%) are Immortal. We only have four creatures of this level to analyse though, so that's far from conclusive. But a strong focus on the immortal agents of the gods and primordials seems a natural fit for Epic tier.</li> </ul></blockquote>

Verification