Choosing Monsters

[DShomshak]

Monster selection is based on what sort of setting and campaign story I want to create, so I don't know how much input I could really offer.

 

I do generally try tor a bit of variety, though, so I tend to make settings that can justify lots of different critters. Like, in my "Fantasy Europa" alternate-history campaign, Europe was still suffering from the damage of the Monster Wars, the alternate version of the World Wars fought with magic and artificially-created monsters (and no Marshall Plan to help rebuild afterward). Most intelligent monsters had once been people -- brains, not always of volunteers, placed in alchemically-generated bodies. One of the first adventures had the PCs meeting a sphinx who was one such creation. The PCs negotiated instead of charging in to defeat the monster, and so found a solution that pleased just about everyone. OTOH, in a later adventure they encountered another monster that was flipping evil insane, besides wanting to make more of its kind, that had to be destroyed.

 

On other matters, in my D&D world, the undead are intrinsically evil but it's not always their fault. They are powered by damaged souls -- damaged either by the horror of very bad lives, very bad deaths, or supernatural forces -- that are stuck in the mortal world instead of moving on to someplace else. To use the phrase from Supernatural, a human(oid) soul is a nuclear reactor of mystical energy. The undead are reactors that have melted down. One may pity them, but they still must be destroyed.

 

Dean Shomshak

[Ninja-Bear]

I just bought some frog people from Reaper minis.

[DShomshak]

The Darkness the story is as old as time, good (the pcs) versus evil (aka monsters). Its very Black and White. There will be heriics though.

What sort of evil? Or, where does evil come from? This may influence your choice of monsters, and certainly your choice of Big Bad.

 

If people, and the world they live in, is basically good and evil is an intrusion or disruption, the Big Bad should probably be something inhuman. A Dark God, Demon Lord, or even a Lovecraftian Thing from Beyond. Fill out the campaign with suitable monsters it has summoned or created. Human(ish) bad guys will be dupes or tempted/corrupted/driven mad by the Big Bad.

 

OTOH, if evil comes from people's choices, the Big Bad is a villain rather than a monster. Maybe the classic Evil Overlord or Tyrant Wizard who wants to rule the world, ascend to godhood, conquer death (even if he has to kill everyone to do it), etc. The Evil Overlord will have a cadre of subsidiary villains, plus lots of mooks in his (or her) Legions of Terror. Many of the monsters will be subservient to the Evil Overlord and the lesser villains, such as the horrible beast in the pit where he throws captured enemies, and then never checks on them because nobody has ever survived the Beast in the Pit. Or, as in Tolkien, at least some of the Legions of Terror consist of orcs. But even if some of the monsters are very powerful, they are secondary to the villains.

 

Dean Shomshak

[Ninja-Bear]

Good thoughts DShomshak! I think (as of now) Ancient Evil-Dragons/Snake people.

[DShomshak]

Dragons and Snake-People both make good monsters/villains.

 

For a bit of variety in your dragons, maybe take a look at the dragon-like monsters in Surbrook's excellent Asian Bestiary. Or how about Azhi Dahaka, the three-headed dragon of Persian myth, defeated by the god Thraetona, imprisoned beneath Mount Demavand, and prophecied to awaken and break free at the end of the world? Or possibly to destroy the world when it escapes. Just change the names and you have an Ultimate Menace for your campaign, whom the other dragons are trying to free.

 

(For fans of classic kaiju movies: Yes, it's Monster Zero.)

 

And evil, manipulative, shapeshifting Serpent People are a classic from Robert E. Howard's "Kull" stories to the Reptoids of modern UFO fabulation. Serpent People and dragons together sounds like a win.

 

Persian mythology incidentally combines dragons and serpent people, sort of. Azhi Dahaka and Thraetona have doublets in the myth of the tyrant Zahhak -- mythology's first Evil Overlord -- and the hero who defeated him, Feridun. Zahhak was a powerful king. Ahriman, the God of Evil, approached him in disguise and somehow persuaded Zahhak to let him kiss the king on each shoulder. Snake heads sprouted from each spot, turning Zahhak into a three-headed monster. The snakes had to be fed each day on the brains of two me or they would turn on Zahhak and munch down on *him.* The need for two victims each day quickly made Zahhak an intolerable tyrant, leading to a rebellion, climaxing in a battle between Zahhak and Feridun. (See the Shah Nameh if you want further details.) You could probably adapt Zahhak for your campaign as well, perhaps as the formerly-human front man for the serpent people.

 

Dean Shomshak

[Christopher R Taylor]

An Arabic bad guy people i like is the Wind Warrior, invisible flying men.  They are just people but... constantly invisible and able to fly is truly frightening.  They aren't evil per se, just bandits and raiders.