From Concept to Finished Monster

[Priest_Sidran]

Hello everyone,

I am here to ask how other people come up with their written monsters, starting with the conceptualization of the monster to its completion. How many people write "fluff" for their monsters. Do you make monsters for certain environments, based off of personal needs, or for the general interest of everyone around you. Those of you who are more into the mechanics of monstercraft, do you have any tricks up your sleeve per se that cut corners on the mechanical aspects of monster writing. I am just trying to get a polish on how monsters are written ( I have written a few monsters which have gotten some or no responses, and I want to get better at the work I do, I guess this is my mission statement).

 

[Angel Tarragon]

Make that two people that are interested in this subject matter.

 

[BOZ]

i've had very few original creatures, but i generally come up with a concept first, and work the stats and flavor text around that.

moving your thread, BTW...

 

[Priest_Sidran]

Sorry for posting to the wrong thread.

I two work from a concept, usually one that is taken from mythology, or from old bestiaries. or from inspiration from artists, at different places. I work the basic stats (hp, etc) from Creating a Monster article, from dragon...It is detailing the abilities, and fixing the small issues that creep up due to misunderstandings of the design theory behind the Monster Stat math, that gets me held up.

What I am really searching for is a bigger discussio behind how the monsters are made from start to finish.

Unlike the aforementioned dragon article which has a limited amount of usuability I am looking for something along the lines of a tutorial. Its a pipe dream I know, but having some small discussions, about design for Basics, and Advanced DM's and gamers would be a great help.

 

[Garnfellow]

I start from either the fluff or crunch end of the equation in roughly equal proportions.

Once I had a very creepy dream about these tall, gaunt alien creatures -- pale white and silent, with large black eyes. When they opened their mouths, an inky cloud issued forth. So starting with this fluff the next day I wrote up the leukodule, an extraplanar undead with a Charisma-damaging breath weapon.

Another time I was looking at a table of typical undead stats by size, and asked myself, what would a really small undead creature be like? By following that mechanical lead, I came up with a couple of new monsters: The Niece of Orcus -- essentially a Diminutive undead maggot -- and the corpsemoth swarm, a blood-draining flurry of undead moths.

Two tools that will help you immeasurably in creating monsters are Expeditious Retreat's Beast Builder guide, and Bad Axe Game's Grim Tales: Creature Creation PDF and spreadsheet.

 

[Khisanth the Ancient]

Usually I start with a concept (either a conversion from mythology or an original idea). The frist mechanics decision I make is what CR range to aim for. Then I choose a creature type and build the rest around those.

Very occasionally, though, I'll start with a CR and creature type first. For example, my skeletal minion of chaos (post 2 in this thread) was created because most of the sentient undead in the MM are either incorporeal or mid-to-high-CR (the ghoul family is about the only exception).

 

[Shade]

Great idea for a thread!

My methods tend to change based on the situation. Sometimes I'm inspired by a dream, a random thought, or even a word I see. Other times I'll see a gap in the official monsters and try to fill that gap (I created the paraelemental creature templates and parelemental monoliths in this manner) . Sometimes I try to expand a group, like "monsters affiliated with aboleths" or Or I might just glance at the list of demons and note any CR ranges that are a bit light, and try to craft something to fit the mold.

Most of the time, I start with a concept, then work to make the stats fit the concept. I generally assign the CR last, but might do some tinkering to try to fit the creature in a desired CR range.

 

[Priest_Sidran]

I wanted to thank you all for your advice and sharing. Hope to see more posts.

 

[Grazzt]

...i generally come up with a concept first, and work the stats and flavor text around that.

Yep- same way I do it actually.

 

[SuedodeuS]

Well, I haven't built a lot of creatures, but generally when I do it starts with a need to fill. This need tends to lead to a modestly-well fleshed-out concept within a few seconds, so I can't really comment on how I get from point A to point B here. I then look at the Monster Manual and/or any other book I have on hand with creatures in it at similar creatures to get an idea for the mechanics of the beast. CR is generally the last thing I get around to, and if it turns out to be too high (or too low) I mess with HD, AC, and special abilities until I get what I want.