Top 8 Monsters and Spells!

[steenan]

If we're not limited to D&D, I'll borrow a lot of monsters and spells (with a wide definition of "spell") from other games. I have no idea where they'll fall on level scale, though.

Monsters
Excrucians (Nobilis)
Actuals (Nobilis)
Kandra (Mistborn)
Steel Inquisitors (Mistborn)
Raksha (Exalted)
Hosts (Werewolf the Forsaken)
Illithids (D&D)
Horrors (Earthdawn)

Spells
Days of Our One Life to Live (Unknown Armies)
I Know Your Price (Unknown Armies)
Death of Obsidian Butterflies (Exalted)
Avoiding the Truth Technique (Exalted)
Ultimate Argument of Logic (Werewolf the Apocalypse)
World-Breaker's Hand (Nobilis)
Prestidigitation (D&D)
Simulacrum (D&D)

I just imagined a character that has these eight spells (and no others). Could be really fun to play.

 

[GMMichael]

[MENTION=23240]steenan[/MENTION]: those sounds awesome! What the heck are they?

Let's start a list...

Monsters (level):
Kenku (1), Kobold (1), Goblin (1), Skeleton (1)
Kuo-Toa (2), Rot Grub (2), Lizardfolk (Reptillans?) (2), Zombie, Human (2)
Werewolves (3), Doppelganger (3), Bugbear (3), Ghoul (3), Ogre (3), Dire Wolf (3)
Minotaurs (4), Gargoyle (4), Flock of carnivorous butterflies (swarm) (4), Chocobo (4)
Werebear (5), Gray Render (5), Basilisk (5), Slime/Ooze (5), Mind Flayer/Cthulhu acolyte (5)
Will o' Wisp (6), Vampire, Dwarf (6)
Aboleth (7)
Dragon (10)
Demon (from between the stars) (92)
Lich (just a vampire who hasn't been keeping up his appearance)

Quasar Dragon (no idea)

Consider levels (and several of the above are arbitrary) to mean "general danger level." And if you have an interesting twist to put on some of the simpler ones (kobold?), chime in!
​

 

[steenan]

[MENTION=23240]steenan[/MENTION]: those sounds awesome! What the heck are they?

Excrucians are beings from outside the world that want to destroy it, idea by idea, by proving it's self-contradictory, so obviously false.

Actuals are manifestations of hubris: results of trying to use miractes to control powers greater than one's own. They tend to replicate and infect, like a virus. Infect places, minds, words, concepts...

Kandra are shapeshifters who can take a form of a human or animal by consuming their flesh and building own body on the prey's skeleton. The twist is they abhor killing and never do it by themselves - people hire them as spies and give them bodies to use.

Steel inquisitors are people transformed into powerful warrior-mages by driving metal spikes (empowered by killing other people with them) through their bodies. Including two spikes that go through the eyes.

Raksha are beings of myth and story. Narrative entities that, when they enter Creation, build bodies and minds to inhabit like RPG players build their characters. They eat dreams and virtues, and really love how humans taste.

Hosts are swarm-like spirits (typically spiders or rats) that kill people and inhabit their bodies, changing them into human-animal hybrid monstrosities.

Horrors are powerful magical creatures that ruled the world during the magical apocalypse and even after it ended are able to mark name-givers to act through them.

Illithids are quite well-known, I think. And probably the least unsettling creatures on the list, even with their brain consumption and parasitic lifecycle.

 

[Cadence]

Lich (just a vampire who hasn't been keeping up his appearance

Vecna is so going to get you for that one.

As the "pinnacle of necromantic art" (PF), it isn't surprising that Liches have been better than Vamps in every edition. http://howtokillyourcharacters.blogspot.com/p/extraneous-stats-for-lich-and-vampire.html

Vampires, seriously? How freaking dangerous can they be if they roam high schools looking for romance? http://www.filmschoolrejects.com/news/why-do-vampires-always-go-back-to-high-school-rruin.php

 

[GMMichael]

Vecna is so going to get you for that one.

As the "pinnacle of necromantic art" (PF), it isn't surprising that Liches have been better than Vamps in every edition. http://howtokillyourcharacters.blogspot.com/p/extraneous-stats-for-lich-and-vampire.html

Vampires, seriously? How freaking dangerous can they be if they roam high schools looking for romance? http://www.filmschoolrejects.com/news/why-do-vampires-always-go-back-to-high-school-rruin.php

Trust me, I'm watching my back. Vampires got themselves a bad name. Ahem TWIGHLIGHT cough. So as I mentioned in an earlier post, a new twist on an old monster is in order. It will be revealed in time, but the lich will be shaking in his boots.

In the meantime, any name recommendations to instill new fear in player hearts? What I'm doing for conventional races (in my free RPG's bestiary) is giving them professions to add interest, the like human valkyrie, hobgoblin warrior, elf archer, and gnome wizard. Maybe a Starving Ghoul (has started eating itself). And the ancient vampire, which looks suspiciously similar to a lich...?