Home of the Odd Duk
General heading for all RPGs.
If I had the brains, I'd really like to borrow from Rolemaster and set up the kinds of energy per this old post from rpg.net
My favorites are these:
Vacid: It is stable, but corrosive as it absorbs other elemental matter into itself.
Nether: The void.
Just throwing that in for extra thought. One day, I'd like to expound on it.
I've discovered that three of my most recent posts appear on the Campaign Wiki Links to Wisdom. I am honored by whomever thought my ramblings were good enough to be included.
Thank you.
So when it comes to energy types, I usually think what d20 and later games call the five types of energy:Â Â acid, cold, fire, lightning, and sonic. My definition is broader, but of those five, my favorite type of energy is sonic. Why sonic? In part because it is used so sparingly. Very few magic items are created to resist sonic attacks or even produce them. For most folks, a sonic attack is a variation of a banshee's special attack, some kind of loud shout.
Like Sean said in the blog post, though, it's also the energy of vibration. That lends itself to earthquakes and tremors. Tweaking it a bit further, a creature's ability to use echolocation (like bats and dolphins) can also be transformed into a type of detection magic that also causes damage. It is the perfect attack against an invisible creature, especially for those creatures that have poor eyesight anyway (like bats and dolphins).
Having said that, I have a much broader list. It may be influenced from 4e, of all things. I still have acid, cold, fire, lightning and sonic. I also consider arcane magic as a separate type of energy as well as divine magic and psionic energy. So I consider Magic Resistance to be the same as Fire Resistance, it's just that Magic is a different form of energy.
In most games, arcane/divine/psionic energy is the same, block one and you block them all. With the right group, though, I make them all different. This makes spells like Resist Divine Energy and Block Psionic Energy necessary. It also make the game more dangerous. Bwa ha ha.
I also use darkness as a form of energy - it is the source of level drain and ability score drain. You know, those nasty shadows can take your Strength down to zero.
Lastly, there ectoplasm, specifically the matter that comes from the deep ethereal plane. It isn't energy as much as proto-matter. With the right magic or technology, ectoplasm can be shaped into any object or form of energy. I consider paladins and theurges of Ptah (remember Spelljammer?) to increase their mastery over time of converting ectoplasm into various things that appear in our world as spells. In a sense, they have only one spell, Summon Ectoplasm, but they learn endless variations of it to heal, produce flame, create food and water, and anything else imaginable.
Even with the extended list, sonic is still my favorite. Maybe in the next monster book, I'll find some sonic-based monsters.
You'd think that after yesterday, I wouldn't really have a least favorite monster. That's almost correct.
I had said in a couple places that any monster could be reskinned as a human of some kind, but that I still did not like to use humans as monsters for the party to encounter.
So, I thought about it and tried my hand at shemping a couple monsters that are traditionally the most hated D&D monsters ever. These are stated for Swords & Wizardry. Feel free to use them, they are licensed under the OGL.
No one knows where he is from. Many who have asked ended up under his thrall for a few hours until they came to their senses 300 miles away from where they started. Little is known or understood about this peculiar man. Many choose to leave him alone to his wanderings.
Mr. Plum is dressed in shining white plate armor, though he never covers his face with his helmet. He carries a shining white spiked mace and a dirty gray bag of various odds and ends. He is not aggressive unless attacked. Even if attacked, he first attempt to deliver a foul spittle on his opponents. Anyone that fails their saving throw will be unable to be within 300 feet of F.H. Plum for 24 hours. If the spittle doesn't succeed, he will use his mace. Anyone hit by the mace will take and additional 1d4 points of acid damage for two rounds after the successful attack.
Violence, however, is rarely neccessary. Anyone that attempts to communicate with Plum must make a saving throw or be his thrall for 2d6 hours. Otherwise, he speaks only in total gibberish. Any attempt to use ESP or Comprehend Languages will fail.
Whatever his purposes are, he appears to be mostly harmless and best left alone. He does appear to walk, but observant creatures will note that he actually walks about 3 inches about the surface. It is rumored that he can walk on any surface, an ability that he sadly does not imbue upon his thralls.
F.H. Plum, the Priest: HD 2; AC 0 [19]; Atk Acid Mace (1d8 + 1d4 acid); Save 16; Move 6; AL L; CL/XP 5/240; Special: Repugnant Spittle, Charming Gibberish, Levitation
Udyn spends her time living near a large lake, just outside the village where she was born. She lives in a small hut near the edge of the water. She has domesticated a large number of ducks, geese and chickens and makes a living from selling their eggs in town.
She is otherwise ordinary in appearance and usually enjoys being hospitable to anyone that visits. Anyone who visits usually marvels at her ability to feed any number of people that arrive at her door. It is said that she once fed a local nobleman's garrison.
However, if anyone threatens her fowl, she will go into a rage. Anyone who fails their saving throw will be stunned for one round. The saving throw will need to be re-rolled every round in which she is enraged. She has no ability to fight in combat.
Udyn Nubuck: HD 1d4 hp; AC 9 [10]; Atk none; Save 20; Move 6, Swim 12;  AL L;  CL/XP A/5; Special: Stun, Create Food and Water
On second thought, shemping a creature originally described by Pliny the Elder as hurling almost half a mile of flaming poop with the properties of greek fire could be pretty bad. If I ever played Battlesystem again, I would make a rule for this guy.
Your charge against the left flank is not effective as you were hit with Greek Fire. Well, it's not exactly Greek Fire, it came from one man. He didn't have a traditional launching system for it, either.
You get the idea. Even terrible monsters, especially those that are not interesting in combat, can be made interesting by shemping. I could see adding Udyn as a major NPC that the party visits quite a bit. I mean, who doesn't like free food, right? F.H. Plum strikes me as either a survivor of swimming in the phlogiston for a century, or a cursed priest of a forgotten god. Breaking the curse could be a pretty good story arc with the right players. I'd love to see how they would "manage" his whereabouts.
Having said all that, I guess there are some monsters that I don't like. For some reason, I'm not a fan of unicorns. I also don't like autognomes though I do like having androids and robots in my games. It's just that the autognome is a poor robot and only funny for exactly one-half of a round. Beats me why I don't like them. I mean, I like the giant space hamsters and the miniaturized giant space hamsters. Why those two gnome gags always makes me chuckle is a mystery to me, too.
When in doubt, shemp a poor monster as a human to see if it can become more interesting. If it can't, the monster may not be worth your time.
P.S. While working on this post, I discovered that a perfect anagram of tirapheg is graphite. I almost created a human named Graphite, the Illusionist. As I was working on it, though, Graphite began to become more and more like Simon and the Land of the Chalk Drawings.
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