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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Varianor Abroad" data-source="post: 5015835" data-attributes="member: 12425">There are three keys to memorable monsters (plus there's lots of good advice in this thread)1. Seek inspiration from the world around you and your own imagination. Example: I once saw a picture of a bodily organ in liquid. Later I saw a fish tank. From this I conceived of a monster that was a swarm of writhing, leaping, attacking organs jumping out of an enormous laboratory tank that try to enter a person's body. 2. Try to describe the creature in one sentence. Example: An organ swarm is a mass of writhing, leaping, attacking organs that try to slither their way into a person's body. Once you have that you can create a larger, more detailed description. If you can't describe your monster in one sentence though, your audience won't have a good "hook" to get interested.3. Give your critter one significant, flavorful and/or strong ability. In the above example, the organs all drip the alchemical equivalent of formaldehyde, causing horrible burns in their victims, that might cause adverse effects in recently imbibed potions. Alternatively, you could make their attack choke the victim. (Actually, I did both, because I was using the D&D rules, and the acid fit the swarm damage and the choking attack just seemed awful and cool at the same time. My reward was all of my players going "Eww, that's just gross.")You really have to know the ruleset you're writing for too. Be careful with your description. If you conceive of a Hope Devourer which is a giant cloud of moaning faces that dives into a victim's brain to make them lose hope, its attack with a wooden stick will seem out of place. To put it another way, don't make a monster that is "immune to all physical attacks" only to find out that the ruleset a) allows ways around that and/or b) that wouldn't fit with the book that you're writing because it's about small, dangerous critters like kobolds and their mutated offspring.Good luck!</blockquote>

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