This post is a sequel to this post, and I think you'll have want to read said prequel post to understand this one.
In my last post, I brought up the concept of peril, a mechanic to represent how scary a monster is. I find that often, methods such as hit die or challenge rating are poor methods of explaining how scary a monster is. Monsters can do incredibly scary things with very few hit die or a low challenge rating, so they feel more like loose guidelines than anything else.
Peril is an attempt to fix that by making it clear: higher peril means the creature takes more actions. A peril 6 creature takes as many actions as 6 peril 1 creatures, thus should be approximately as effective. Truly, I dislike the concept of a creature that is higher danger just having bigger numbers. Is a 10 hit die creature more interesting to fight than a 2 hit die one? Often not. So while a higher peril creature might have higher numbers, it will come at the cost of other things. Peril is meant to be linked to options, rather than raw power (the raw power comes from how many actions it takes).
Other Notes
Hit die are weird. The fact they vary so much means that a hit die can be anything from one quarter of a sword swing to two full sword swings, but on average a hit die is equivalent to one sword swing, ie: if you stab something with 1 hit die with a sword, it should die.
Let's say in this hypothetical card based TTRPG, that a sword does 3 damage, thus a 1 hit die creature has 3 health.
Also: monsters also get to specialize in a suit, but this should tell you something about the monster. Spades monsters are strong front line fighters, clubs monsters are either squishy ranged skirmishers or fast and high damage melee fighters, hearts monsters are healers or battlefield manipulators, and diamonds monsters are artillery pieces.
In terms of the statblocks themselves, bolded entries are major actions (only one can be used and only on the creature's turn), and italicized entries are minor actions (can use after any creature's major action). Entries that are neither are simply things passive to the creature.
Peril Descriptions
- A peril 0 creature is a mook. It should go down quickly and easily and be of minimal threat. It should be weaker than a trained human soldier.
- A peril 1 creature is a normal enemy. It should be a fair fight for a trained human soldier.
- A peril 2 creature is superhuman, but not massively so. It should defeat a trained human soldier on average.
- A peril 3 creature is beyond the realms of normal human ability. A trained human soldier should only beat it with specialized equipment and planning. No real world creature is higher than peril 3.
- A peril 4 creature is beyond the limits of any normal animal's ability. It would take a group of trained human soldiers having specialized equipment and planning to beat it.
- A peril 5 creature is powerful, but not all powerful. It should be able to take on a large group of trained human soldiers with some difficulty.
- A peril 6 creature is the most dangerous thing that there can be. It should be able to fight large groups of trained human soldiers with ease.
Peril 0: Goblin
Squeamish and weak, goblins prefer horde tactics and indirect fights.
3 Health, Spades
Horde: Abilities that strike multiple creatures can harm no more than 2 goblins at once. Excess melee damage is dealt to another goblin in the same zone.
Half Rusted Weapon: Melee, 2
Scram!: The goblin instantly moves and then falls flat on its face prone.
Peril 1: Trained Human Soldier
The soldier core of many an empire.
5 Health, Spades
Heavily Armored: Soldiers always play the highest card available for initiative.
Formation: When three or more soldiers are in a zone, they take 1 less damage from all sources.
Swords: Melee, 3
Crossbows: Ranged, 2
Peril 2: Orc
From the barren north, where survival is earned. Fast, lethal, and excellent hunters.
6 Health, Clubs
Feathered Javelin: Melee or Ranged, 3
Sparking Trap: The orc plays a clubs face down until the orc next moves. When a creature attacks the orc, flip the card up. If the card would hit them, they are stunned until their next turn.
Wyvern Venom: The orc plays a clubs to poison their next feather javelin attack.
Peril 3: White Lion
When a lone lion survives for 9 years, it is blessed with pale fur and incredible magics.
9 Health, Hearts
Blessed Presence: At the end of each round, all allied creatures in the lion's zone are healed 1 health.
Blessed Claws: Melee, 2
Guardian Dome: The lion plays a hearts to change the initiative for all allied creatures in its zone to the cards value for the purposes of armor.
Silvered Shift: The lion teleports to one of its allies.
Peril 4: River Devil
Horrid beasts born of the deep abyss, the worst possible combination of crocodile, lion, and hippo.
9 Health, Spades
Rampage: The river devil attacks all creatures in its zone at the same time (including allies).
Ravenous Maw: Melee, 3, If this kills a creature, the river devil swallows it in a single bite.
Stomp: The river devil plays spades to stun all creatures with a greater initiative in its zone (including allies).
Submerge: If the river devil is in a zone of water, it dives down. It may play another card as a minor action to rise up out of the water and make a free ravenous maw attack using that card.
Peril 5: Manticore
Evil and heinous, with barbed tails and wicked grins.
9 Health, Diamonds
Flying: Manticores are flying.
Barbed Spray: Ranged, 3, hits all creatures in a zone, but cannot be used in the manticore's zone.
Sting and Claw: Melee, 3
Swoop: The manticore plays clubs to move for free.
Barbed Shower: The manticore plays diamonds to cause its next barbed spray attack to hit all zones except the one the manticore is in.
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