From Concept to Finished Monster

[Dog Moon]

Two ways of how I do it:

1. The most common: a concept. I have an idea in my head. Doesn't really matter where it came from; dream, picture, movie, whatever. Then I start to build the creature. Most of the time, I can find a creature within the MM that works at least vaguely with my concept. Like my idea of shadowy/firey charismatic women from this one picture I found. I took the Nymph and began modifying things. I always found this to be easier to than just start making up stats and making sure everything fit.

2. Begin with a creature. Say Gargoyle. Then I'm like 'What can I do to make this creature neat?' Includes both templates and class levels. One time I ended up making a flaming gargoyle guy of Mephistopholes and he looks pretty wicked in my mind. I added a couple templates, then gave whatever class he needed to meet the prereqs of the Meph PrC and then gave him a bunch of levels into that. Generally, when giving creatures PrCs I finish the class at where I think the coolest level is. A few times it's maxed out, but in some, the cool abilities finish at level 5 and after that is basically a few increases; then, that creature will have 5 levels in that class. Add up CRs and voila, I have my creature.

 

[Dog Moon]

Oh, forgot about this:

3. Take a PrC. Some are easier to do this with than others. Devoted Defender, for example. Yeah, it's fine enough for a Human to take it, but then say, 'Hey, a Devoted Defender Minotaur could be neat.' Then think it through a little bit, add in the fluff. Perhaps the DD Mino is searching for the one who he is supposed to protect with his life. Perhaps he has been commissioned by the Gods to do this [and thats probably worthy of some sort of divine/holy something or other template - or maybe he's a Paladin]. Then build everything up from there. This, of course, occasionally leads me into ANOTHER creature when I think 'So what would the guy that he's supposed to protect be like? WHY does he need protection?' And then build the guy up using one of these methods.