Design a Monster ( or more) Contest!

[AGOTFANBOI]

http://www.escapefromundeath.com/forums/showthread.php?t=53009&highlight=BULLYWUGS

[Mort]

Good stuff so far. -- Refrain from posting anything that isn't a submission, please!

[Smile]

Monster Name: Withered Jester
 Monster Description: One often wonders what happens when you sneeze in Murdertown and you aren't killed. The Psychopomp has taken great pleasure in allowing Drogus Munt to melt hideous hunks of metal onto their skin and make them run around as a mockery as they have mocked his law. These poor pitiful creatures were once sentient beings, but after being cast out of Murdertown they were no longer able to stay safe and succumbed quickly to the withering becoming shadows of their former self. These creatures have been affected differently by the withering than most, it is speculated that perhaps this is due to the overwhelming sense of dread they felt as they stumbled about blindly in the wilds screaming for help before they finally submitted to the Liches will. Where they would be pitied under normal circumstances they are now very powerful servants of the lichess and few can penetrate their thick withered skin, the only chance most find is to flee from them before they are caught in their spell and consumed.
 
Monster abilities. 10/+2 Movement speed -30%  Tasha's Hideous Laughter
 
Monster appearance: Flesh golem
 
Region: Starwood, regions surrounding the Ziggurat and Shipwreck Beach

[Spiffy Has]

Monster Name: Wolf Tribe Stargazer
Monster Description: These Stargazers are the most feared of the Stargazer kind. Supreme Hunters, they are territorial and will oppose any who enter their lands.
Monster Abilities: Badass Stargazer
Monster Appearance:
Region: The Mountain/ Forest
Extra Comments: Should be non-hostile to PC gazers

[TakenbyUndeath]

Harbinger of The Nothing

This vaguely humanoid entity is an absence in the delicately woven tapestry of perceived reality. You stare into it and feel the emptiness of your own soul as the Void stares back into you. Around it reality is undergoing an evanescence of being. You have found the Truth of Nothing.

Negative Energy Vulnerability 100%, Immune to Critical Hits, 50% Concealment, Aura of Fear (strong), Physical Damage Immunity 100%, Spell Resistance (High), Vampiric Regeneration

It would use the Greater Shadow model, possibly with the Shadow Shield effect. The portrait would just be blackness. Ideally it would move slowly.

Anywhere of rampant death and subsequent undeath. I.E. The Withered Forest (The Duke's broken siege), Nebezzdos (obvious), The Tangled Wood (Vortgyn's Rest and multitudes of undead animals), The Starwood (Fall of the Stargazer Village), outside Castle Blackhearth. This creature would always spawn alone, and ideally be a very rare spawn.

This monster was inspired by a DM quest run by an unknown DM to me, because I wasn't on it, I just heard about it. It was run shortly after the return of the Numinous Order, the vision Nethzerim gave the adventurers that came to hear him speak inside the Priory.

For story purposes I can explain what it is, where it came from, and why it has the admittedly OP abilities that it has. However I think that would be a bit spoilerific so if you have interest in this submission, please let me know and I would be delighted to elaborate on my thoughts when creating this monster.

Co-Creator: Harbingers Requiem

[UnholyWon]

Monster Name: Eaters

Monster Description: An Eater is gaunt to the point of emaciation, its desiccated skin pulled tautly over its bones with its bones jutting out against its skin, it’s complexion the ash gray of death, and its eyes pushed back deep into their sockets a glow with supernatural sight. An Eater looks like a gaunt skeleton recently disinterred from the grave. An Eater’s abdomen appears to be engorged on the verge of rupturing. What lips an Eater has are chewed away and bloody leaving a horrifying smile. Unclean and suffering from suppurations of the flesh and scars leaving the appearance of flesh chewed away from their own bodies. The Eaters gives off a strange and eerie odour of decay and decomposition, of death and corruption.

Monster Abilities: Blood Frenzy (Rage), Ultravision, Increased Speed 15%, Increased Spot/Listen, Disease, OnDeath Cloud of Bewilderment, High AB/Low AC, Wounding

Monster Appearance: Ghast model or human models, Glowing eyes, pale
Region: The Mountain / Underground / Forest / Bog

Extra Comments:
Those remaining of the colony unwilling to bow under Father Michael's leadership, or travel to various safe locations on Ymph huddled together for protection in various hostile areas. As famine became a larger issue many of the survivors began to starve to death. Those left were overcome with cannibalism in order to survive. These Cannibals began to have limited food supply as each was either waiting for the next to die or be killed by one hungry enough. The Cannibals turned to the only other large resource food, H'bala's undead. Prefering to capture these creatures and feed on them while they were still, wiggling. The cannibals began a mixture of living and undead flesh eating to sustain them.

These communities of Eaters live together in albiet chaotic lifestyles like pack animals where there are alpha leaders, betas, and omegas. Most packs of Eaters are very welcoming to new comers because you are food and nothing more.

Whether the Eaters are Withered beings, alive, or some horrific hybrid of chance it is truly uknown.

(This was inspired by recent event in game when an NPC wished to pay adventures to kill another PC show that he may stave off the Withering process. Or so the characters were lead to believe.)

[caek]

Monster Name: Paragon of Virtue
 
Monster Description: The result of experimentation by a satellite sect of the Tyrran church, who believed that evil was a disease that could be ''removed'' from a person's soul if certain steps were taken. They starved, beat and experimented on criminals, necromancers and other persons of ill intent before sending them back into society as reformed men - honed to seek out evil and remove it from the world
 
The experiment was a failure, however, as they creatures gained a lust for simply wishing to destroy anything they deemed to be below their elevated status, now seeing themselves as ''perfect creature'' created by the gods themselves
 
Monster Abilities: Construct Abilities, 100% Negative Energy Vulnerability
 
Monster Appearance: Human form with the Ghostly Visage effect or glowing eyes, heavy armor etc. Generic paladin portrait
 
Region: Anywhere, but mainly populated areas
 
Extra Comments:

[Nihm]

Name : Portent of the End
 
Description : They appear to be vaguely humanoid ghosts, constantly murmuring prophecies and predictions. Either they're designed to dishearten H'balas enemies, or create fear for the Mist to feed from, few know for certain, or perhaps are remnants of Netherese diviners.
 
Abilities : 100 % concealment, and can only be harmed by positive energy. They have quick speed and high ab, though their attacks do no damage, merely dispel on hit. They have a fear aura of high dc. After this save is failed a certain number of times, the victim starts making Fortitude saves to represent heart failure, and might die.
 
Appearance : Spectre, or human with ghostly visage.
 
Region : Near H'bala's tower.

[Canzah]

Monster Name: Lost in the Mist

Monster Description: Strange misty echoes of the unfortunate souls who were once lost wandering through the forest. They seem to flicker in and out of existence, as fleeting as the Mist itself.

Monster Abilities: Hide in Plain Sight, 1d6 Sneak Attack, Moderate HP, Low AB and Damage.

Monster Appearance: A traveller, misty model.

Region: The different areas of the Forgotten Forest.

Extra Comments: Designed to add some further ambience to the Forgotten Forest, and something to break the peace and quiet without actual danger.

A few flavorful traits would be to add the talking script some creature types on EfU possess with lines such as our classic "The Mist is the Mist is the Mist" or "No way out... There is no way out" etc.

And further, there could be made "heroes" of these creatures that are given the names of historical NPCs mentioned IG that have been lost in the forest.

[TakenByVisions]

Monster Name: Canzah

Monster Description: A slim, awkward man with a vial at his side. He is complacent and wise, things easily noticed from a quick glance, yet his most apparent feature is his deadly nature.

Monster Abilities: HIPS, death attack, always on subdual, PCs lose a random limb at the end of it.

Monster Appearance: This drunkard is slim and squirrely, lithe and quick. If it weren't for his prominence and reputation you might take him for easy prey or a poor victim.

Extra Comments: Designed to add some further ambience to all of the areas. Whether it's the thanatol or simple affliction with alcoholic beverages, this man has long plagued the wilds of Ymph and has a love for your limbs.

[SanTelmo]

Monster Name: Son/Pup of Garevor (or something else proper and indicating such)

Monster Description: Larger than saber tigers, these young dire sabre tigers are a terroring menace when encountered. Luckily, or unluckily, these sabre tigers are very rare and are most often encountered in the Mountain Pass but sometimes they walk elsewhere into the Ymph in search of nutriment. It is said they are the legacy of Garevor the Terror of Men, a mighty sabre tiger allied with the Stargazer tribes when the Stygian Armada launched an unsuccessful attack against the Starwood.

Monster Abilities: 20% piercing, 50% slashing, 50% bludgeoning resistance,
high AB, high HP, moderate AC, fair amount of attack rounds and starts battle with the terror howl or fear spell if the howl isn't working yet.

Monster Appearance: The Dire Tiger appearance, larger size (not as large as Garevor though but larger than normal dire tigers)

Region: Mountain Pass, smaller possibility for Wyldwater and Morass

Extra Comments: This hero is supposed to be an animal hero and considered in spawns as such, maybe even rarer. It is created to add some extra fun for hunter PCs or those who wish to show they are badasses. I dont know if you want to go through skinning script to make this but it would be nice if the player received a Dire Tiger Cloak from it, a Cloak in the bright orange colour with black dots or markings that would distinguish you as a Pup of Garevor killer. I imagine it could even create conflict between druid PCs, considering they are rare and people may start organize large parties to get it's prized skin.

Cloak stats what I have planned: small percentage of immunity to bludgeoning (or slashing) and cold (like 10%) and good bonuses (3?) to AE (animals obey you out of fear), persuade and intimidation. This cloak can also be used as a bedroll like the Gaeseric camp cloak.

POST SCRIPT:

I wouldn't mind seeing other ANIMAL HEROES as well. Some crazy dire bear or something else, to give even more goals for hunter PCs. Of course, what they would drop or do, I will leave all up to you if you consider it worth the time. But all in all, they should be rare and DIFFICULT so not everyone and their mother has skinned them.

[Luke Danger]

Monster Name: Withered Paladin

Monster Description: During the shrouding, a number of Paladins had awoken prematurely or had arrived to hunt down the hordes of H'bala. Unfortunetly, because of foolish descisions like not trusting the Order Numinous or operating deep into H'bala's tower when they very well knew something was wrong has seen these Paladins withered into H'balan heavy infantry. Some others were just unfortunate or captured by H'bala to be turned into mockeries. They still possess a warped sense of divine ability and are roughly equal to most adventurers. They are drawn to other paladins and goodly clerics, making them H'bala's hunters of choice to hunt down those most effective against her hordes.
Fortunetly, Paladins will not be totally unprepared. If they use detect evil while in the same area they will recieve warning that these foul abominations are coming, but little more than how far they are. But this is unreliable, and few are sure if it will become reliable or if it will eventually disappear like so much hope has.

Monster Abilities: H'balan Undead; 5% immunity to all attacks, Level 8 Paladin (his HP being maximum possible for a Paladin with his stats) with his anti-evil abilities replaced with anti-good ones (courtesy of H'bala warping their Paladin Powers), automatically home in on Paladins and Good-aligned Clerics. Magic Weapon spell, weapons wielded by them are, by being held, deal 1d4 negative damage.

Monster Apperance: Varied, but primarily human and half-elven fully armored paladins (even using damaged appearing Paladin loot) with Withered traits such as the green glow. Red eyes optional for when they're hunting down Paladins. Elite/Veteran versions more comparable to a boss should use the Doom Knight skin, with H'balan withering slapped onto it.

Region: Withered Lands, primarily the Tangled Woods or the Bogs near her Tower.

Extra Comments: I've always wondered what H'bala does to the Paladins or even just adventurers she captures. It feels just like her to turn them into mockeries of what they were and set them on other paladins. These are litterally scaled as if they were a PC; they have a reasonable supply of potions and will use them like a hero, but they only have the HP of a Paladin PC. Given they're level seven, they'll have about seventy HP then add things like CON or possibly toughness. Their 'boss'-ness comes from being able to use potions. Think fo them as sub-heroes or counter-adventurers of sorts.
Their paladin loot is still usable, but almost always is going to be damaged in some way. However, it is a great way for Paladin-hunting PC's to get a reward for their goodly efforts. Perhaps script it that Paladin loot will only/almost only spawn from these guys if they're killed by a Paladin?
I have no idea how hard it'd be to script a 'hunt down paladins/good aligned clerics' thing onto them, but its optional and can be used as potential fluff; IE, H'bala tried it out early but decided it wasn't worth the effort, etc. etc.

--

Or even "Withered Adventurer"

Monster Name: Withered Adventurer

Monster Description: Some adventurers are indeed too dumb to live. These adventurers ventured too deep into the Withered lands or laughed the Withering away until it was too late. They now serve as H'bala's answer to the pesky adventurers who had delayed her efforts in the past, such as the Siege of Blackhearth. Unfortunetly, she failed to realize that as effective as adventurers are in groups against her hordes, they're even more effective against each other in the 'high risk high reward' kind of way. Regardless, she likes siccing these creations on adventurers to get more of them out of her way.

Monster Abilities: Varies depending on adventurer type, but all possess basic Withering traits and their abilities are modified to be negative energy/undeath oriented (IE, wiz/sorc ones use negative energy, etc.) They should be from the 6-8 range and only have the max HP possible for their class at that level.

Monster Appearance: Varies and is chosen much like citizen heads are, except now its every detail except for skin color. All of it has a withering glow over it.

Region: Any withered land, but they should spawn power wise roughly the same as the quests in the region (IE, Foothill spawning ones will be of the 6-8 range)

Extra Comments:
Just an expansion of the above idea to encompass all adventurers as a reminder that venturing into the Withered Lands regularly takes either balls/ovaries of steel or reliable access to a cure.

[Divine Intervention]

Monster Name: Sand Wraith

Monster Description: The spirits of travellers lost to the burning sands of the desert do not often go peacefully to rest.  This furious, howling ghost shrieks it's defiance at the world which abandonned it.  Driven on by a burning hatred for all living things Sand Wraiths are a vicious and dangerous foe.

Monster Abilities: Fear Howl, 50% concealment, fire and negative damage, casts circle of doom, good AB/moderate AC.

Appearance: Wraith model.

Region: Any desert region but more prominently found in the black well and great expanse.

Extra Comments: Due to their horrible wailing they always spawn alone.






Monster Name: Shade/Ancient Shade

Monster Description: These shades are the last remnants of the spirits of bitter soldiers, killed on the plains of Agramant.  They lead a tortured existance, unable to go to rest they haunt the mortal plane resentful of any who would walk the ancient battleground.  Constantly in fear of the sun they shelter in dark crevices during the day, waiting for night to fall so they might sate their hunger for the energy of the living.

Monster Abilities: Essentially much the same as a normal shadow for the shades and a shadow fiend for the Ancient Shades however some would use old weapons gathered from the field or kept in secret places.

Appearance: Shadow/Shadow Fiend

Region: Plains of Agramant.

Extra Comments: These monsters would only appear at night due to their hatred of the sun.  If it is possible to script they would have a weakness to light with some negative effects applied should some cast it on them.  They would tend to spawn in small groups usually led by a shadow fiend.




Monster Name: Mauler

Monster Description: A hideous beast much akin to the Ymphian Island Howler in appearance.  It's many fanged muzzle hangs low and gaping on it's apelike face.  It's eyes burn with the characteristic blue light of H'bala's undead.  Where it's arms might have been in life, two huge forelegs of a bear have been attached, forcing it to walk on all fours.  It is heavily muscled to the point of deformity and deceptively swift.

Monster Abilities: Very strong, increased speed 10%, 5 DR, high hp.

Appearance: Island Howler/Ogre Chieftan skin, large model size.

Region: Withered Lands, Especially prevelent in the mountains.

Extra Comments: Always spawns alone.

[Winston Martin]

Monster Name: Last Men, Cult of the Last Men

Monster Description: A haggard individual with large vacant eyes and bright smile. An unsheathed knife hangs about the neck upon a cord as if some manner of holy symbol.

Monster Abilities: None

Monster Appearence: Human

Region: Near Human Settlement

Extra Comments: These individuals believe they are in contact with the last men of a far flung future and an enormous alien being in orbit about the planet. They have been instructed to build a suitable host body for this visitor to inhabit so that it may both battle the Maiden's Curse as a living creature fighting off infection, and to guide the growth of humanity into a superior form of life. It is whispered the most devoted Last Men creep into their neighbors sleeping quarters to  harvest organ and tissue, and that beneath their secret meeting houses whole farms of organs can be found glistening in the dark.

[Divine Intervention]

Monster Name: Withered Wyvern

Monster Description: This great beast is very similar in appearance to a normal wyern, however it radiates a pulsating green aura which speaks of it's progression towards becoming undead.  Often found in the company of Wyvern Tribe flayers these creatures have be driven from their homes to seek food in the rapidly withering lands.

Monster Abilities: The same as those of a normal wyvern but with the withering later stage effects applied.

Appearance: Wyvern with glowing green aura like the withered marauders have.

Region: Mountains and foothills.

Extra Comments: Due to the very tough nature of these creatures they should probably have rewards akin to sub bosses and spawn accordingly rarely.  Also, it would be cool if they sometimes spawn with a wyvern flayer ally.



Monster Name: Withered Cultist.

Monster Description: Whilst most fight the undead and the withering curse, there are those who embrace it.  Usually insane or power hungry, these withering cultists are dangerous in the extreme, they are highly agressive and will attack anything they see.

Monster Abilities: Moderate AB/AC/Damage, they use a variety of weapons and armours.  Mage versions could be implemented focusing largely on using undead summons/negative spells.

Appearance: Any of the main races models, primarily human though.

Region: All over the withered lands.




Monster Name: Undead Templar.

Monster Description: The men of the Numinous Order have long fought to defend the living from the servants of H'bala, however strong and skilled these knights are, no war is without casualties.  Those templars captured by H'bala suffer a fate worse than death, being forcibly turned against their former brethren to battle in Her name.

Monster Abilities: All the standard undead immunities, order equipment, good AC and AB, fairly slow walking speed.

Appearance: Order Templar.

Region: Withered Lands, especially the Tangled woods and foothills near Blackhearth.




Monster Name: Ice Beast

Monster Description: A huge and menacing creature seemingly sculpted out of ice and frost.  Its large frame indicates a massive strength and its mouth is filled with needle pointed icles.  It exudes a bitter chill strong enough to sap the strength of even the bravest heroes.

Monster Abilities: 100% immunity to cold, 100% weakness to fire, 5 DR, High AC, High AB, cold damage, High strength, circle aura that does cold damage.  

Appearance: White Slaad.

Region: The Prophets Peaks ice tunnels and Eye.