RobbyPants wrote:So, does the Bestiař have stuff like orcs and goblins in it as well? Did they do the old edition thing of breaking down what percentages of various weapons they use, and then stat up women and children as well?
OK, there are several sections, and the monsters are arranged in alphabetical order (by first letter only, so
Duch Obraza comes
before Dabel) within those sections. And each of those sections has a subsection divided off of it where the monsters that go into it are in their own alphabetical order (kind of). These subsctions have their own introduction and rules section, so it's really exactly like it was a whole new chapter except that the header at the top of the page that tells you what chapter you are in does not change.
It goes like this:
- Real Chapter: Animals
Quasi Chapter: Dragons
Real Chapter: Humanoids
Quasi Chapter: Lycanthropy
Real Chapter: Magical Beasts
Quasi Chapter: Undead
Real Chapter: Fanfic about named character monsters in the world.
There is no particular rhyme or reason why any creature gets put into any particular section, as you might have guessed by the fact that
Dragons are a chapter of their own that is inside the
animals section. The animals section includes such crowd favorites as lions, halucinogenic frogs, kraken, and giant fucking crabs - but it also has things which very clearly have magical powers like the Sirit who are these parasites that look kind of like the Face Huggers from Alien, except they are all smooth and molluscish instead of having chitin, and they burrow their tentacles into their hosts like roots and then psychically control them instead of laying eggs down the throat. Actual Hapies and "Ents" (not "Treants" because
fuck Tolkien's Estate's Copyright) are in there under "humanoids" while a bunch of the "magical beasts" are basically humans with magical powers. Including the "Mask" - who as I understand it is literally just a crazy dude wearing a magical and evil mask.
Why does a Dryad go into Humanoids while an Astral Demon goes into Magical Beasts? I don't know. Many of the Undead are also basically humanoids, but they are all in the Magical Beasts section too (at least, kind of). They aren't all even ugly or evil, as I mentioned before,
Angels are in the Undead section.
But as to the question of how it treats creatures who use weapons, (un)fortunately it just lists their damage as "by weapon type". It doesn't even give you an example weapon they might carry based on their cultural predilections and ability to meet strength minimums (and I have yet to see a weapon list that includes a weapon big enough to fully utilize the strength of the Strength 16 Fog Giant). Creatures with natural weapons are given damage values and an explanation of what they are doing that damage
with. So the wereboar does his damage with "hooves and tusks" while the giant fucking crab does its damage with "pincers". Remember that in DrD+ you always roll 2d6 and add a number, so damage values are literally just a single number. Most of those damage values are in the 1-3 range, with spikes for monsters that rip your face off. The giant fucking crab does 8 damage, many of the Dragons do 9, and so far the absolute most ridiculous monster I have seen is the Weretiger, whose teeth and claws do 11 damage. For comparison, in Swan form, the mighty wereswan does 2 damage with their beak (yes, it says "zobák", which means "beak").
On a final note looking through these damage values, I actually found something that does ѱ damage. It's a Mirror Demon, and its claws do its Willpower in ѱ damage, whatever that means.
Weirdest monster so far is probably the Paramit. It's shaped roughly like a gorilla, and gets by by pulling itself forward with its front legs and making erratic jumps. It also has a spinneret on its butt that makes webs that it does not seem to use in combat. It has six jointed mandibles coming out of its face that all move independently like sharp, grasping fingers around a lamprey mouth. These things are about the size of a large dog or medium pig, and are more afraid of you than you are of them. When you get too close, they hop around, hissing and whistling. If you don't back away, they may panic and lap on you, blender face first. These things are specifically mammals.
-Username17