Author Topic: Alternate creature types?  (Read 1484 times)

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Prime32

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Alternate creature types?
« on: July 09, 2011, 10:33:47 AM »
By which I mean Humanoid/Giant/Outsider, etc.

Anyone use a non-standard set? I was considering making Ooze a subtype myself, with most existing creatures becoming Aberration (ooze) and a few becoming Outsider (ooze).


A campaign set in ancient Japan might have, for instance:
[spoiler]Types
Abstract - kami and similar beings, who exist more like a concept than a physical thing. Most Abstracts are very strong or very weak.
Animal
Beast - unusual creatures which breed true
- Beast (oni)
- Beast (tengu)
Construct
Human
- Human (yuurei) - ghosts of various kinds
Plant

Subtypes
(youkai) - the most common subtype in the setting. A creature that becomes a youkai retains its original type and gains the youkai subtype. Hence a cat that becomes a bakeneko is an Animal (youkai) and can be affected by anti-animal spells despite their magical abilities. Youkai always have an Int of at least 3.
(hengeyoukai) - a youkai with the ability to change into a humanoid form.
(demon) - a creature that has been overcome by hate and had its form distorted. Most species have a unique demonic form with more powerful abilities, though individuals do not always fit this pattern. Equivalent to the (evil) subtype.[/spoiler]
« Last Edit: July 30, 2011, 10:43:05 AM by Prime32 »
My work
The tier system in a nutshell:
[spoiler]Tier 6: A cartographer.
Tier 5: An expert cartographer or a decent marksman.
Tier 4: An expert marksman.
Tier 3: An expert marksman, cartographer and chef who can tie strong knots and is trained in hostage negotiation or a marksman so good he can shoot down every bullet fired by a minigun while armed with a rusted single-shot pistol that veers to the left.
Tier 2: Someone with teleportation, mind control, time manipulation, intangibility, the ability to turn into an exact duplicate of anything, or the ability to see into the future with perfect accuracy.
Tier 1: Someone with teleportation, mind control, time manipulation, intangibility, the ability to turn into an exact duplicate of anything and the ability to see into the future with perfect accuracy.[/spoiler]

Eldritch_Lord

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Re: Alternate creature types?
« Reply #1 on: July 09, 2011, 03:47:07 PM »
For a 3e revision I'm working on, there'll be four main types:
--Outsider for things from the Outer Planes and transitive planes
--Elemental for things from the Inner Planes and other things made of single materials
--Beast for things from the Material Plane
--Humanoid for, well, humanoids with nothing else fancy about them.
Each type is actually a class with selectable abilities rather than just RHD, and since the system has a pseudo-gestalt option built in, it's possible for in-betweener monsters to have two types.  Everything else is a subtype.

For example, oozes are Elementals from the Paraelemental Plane of Ooze and plants are Elementals possibly from the Elemental Plane of Wood.  Aberrations are Outsiders (Aberrant) or Beasts (Aberrant).  Constructs and Undead are the appropriate type with the (Unliving) subtype.  Monstrous Humanoids are either Humanoids (for the "humans with funny makeup" ones) or Humanoid//Beasts (for the centaurs and other weirder ones).  Normal dragons are Elemental//Beasts and planar dragons are Outsider//Beasts.  And so on and so forth.

veekie

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Re: Alternate creature types?
« Reply #2 on: July 10, 2011, 05:48:45 AM »
Well, I've considered it, but it turns out to be too big a change, with more ramifications for most DMs than they're willing to handle. But if I were to do it...

Spirit - as a supertype for all creatures of well..spirit, embodying something that would not have physical form otherwise, like a concept. Most Outsiders fall under this. These have the traits of being banishable, generally difficult to kill permanently(an immortality clause would be appropriate) and a guideline defining numerous spell-like abilities.
Elemental - as a supertype for all creatures embodying a real thing or force, rather than the concept of it. Elementals mostly fall under this. Much like Outsiders, except not as banishable, and a greater focus on supernatural and Ex abilities than spell-likes.
Construct -  as a supertype of all the soulless devices and animated things. Some plants fall under this. All brawn and as a general rule, no brains. Higher HD, physical output and DR are the name of the game.
Beast - as a supertype for everything with flesh, in general terms.

Subtypes override their supertype
Plant - Animate plants in general. Comes with plant immunities. Plants up their HD by one step and add DR.
Ooze - Anything without a well defined form. Comes with the amorphous traits. No body slots, and proficiencies go down one level but higher HD and
Humanoid - Just a body layout thing. This defines that they have the humanoid body slots. Straight Humanoid hit dice grant more skill points for their HD type.
Undead - Goes on after other subtypes and turns it to well...undead.
Aberrations - Corrupt, twisted or unusual versions of the type.
Dragon - Makes it big, tough and gets the dragon ability suite.

BUT, HD goes under a separate metric(adjusted by subtype).
Bruiser - d10HD, Full BAB, high natural armor, low skills, good Fort and Ref. Proficient with Martial if they can wield weapons, heavy armor if they can wear armor, one natural weapon type inflicts one size higher damage than usual.
Caster - d6HD, Low BAB, low nat AC, medium skills, good Will. Proficient only with Simple weapons and light armor. natural weapons inflicts one size lower damage than usual. Comes with SLAs
Expert - d8HD, medium BAB, moderate nat AC, high skills, 2 good saves, Proficient with simple weapons and several Martial, as well as light and medium armors.

Theres more, but well...its too big a change and a pain in the ass to convert entire monster manuals.
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[spoiler]
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[/spoiler]

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oslecamo

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Re: Alternate creature types?
« Reply #3 on: July 10, 2011, 06:34:37 AM »
Theres more, but well...its too big a change and a pain in the ass to convert entire monster manuals.

This. I may make a handful of custom types/subtypes for specific monster for a specfic campaign depending on what I need, but I'm going to use it only on plot-relevant creatures. If I wanted to rewrite monsters from scratch, I would do so they interact better with player rules (which  I'm doing in my monster classes project). Everything else can just be re-flavored depending on the seting.

(Zun) Subtype. The creature appears as a humanoid loli with extra-frilly dresses (hat mandatory or at least some sort of head decoration). The creature is also a drunkard and can speak, but otherwise retains all previous abilities except for size.

veekie

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Re: Alternate creature types?
« Reply #4 on: July 10, 2011, 09:45:51 AM »
Theres more, but well...its too big a change and a pain in the ass to convert entire monster manuals.

This. I may make a handful of custom types/subtypes for specific monster for a specfic campaign depending on what I need, but I'm going to use it only on plot-relevant creatures. If I wanted to rewrite monsters from scratch, I would do so they interact better with player rules (which  I'm doing in my monster classes project). Everything else can just be re-flavored depending on the seting.

(Zun) Subtype. The creature appears as a humanoid loli with extra-frilly dresses (hat mandatory or at least some sort of head decoration). The creature is also a drunkard and can speak, but otherwise retains all previous abilities except for size.
Don't forget retaining positive size modifiers in general.
The mind transcends the body.
It's also a little cold because of that.
Please get it a blanket.

I wish I could read your mind,
I can barely read mine.

"Skynet begins to learn at a geometric rate. It becomes self-aware at 2:14 a.m. Eastern time, August 29th. At 2:15, it begins rolling up characters."

[spoiler]
"Just what do you think the moon up in the sky is? Everyone sees that big, round shiny thing and thinks there must be something round up there, right? That's just silly. The truth is much more awesome than that. You can almost never see the real Moon, and its appearance is death to humans. You can only see the Moon when it's reflected in things. And the things it reflects in, like water or glass, can all be broken, right? Since the moon you see in the sky is just being reflected in the heavens, if you tear open the heavens it's easy to break it~"
-Ibuki Suika, on overkill

To sumbolaion diakoneto moi, basilisk ouranionon.
Epigenentheto, apoleia keraune hos timeis pteirei.
Hekatonkatis kai khiliakis astrapsato.
Khiliarkhou Astrape!
[/spoiler]

There is no higher price than 'free'.

"I won't die. I've been ordered not to die."