4E-style Creature Types, please


Prerelease Discussion


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I am not a fan of 4E, but there was one thing it did right; creatures type. This was a format of two parts, one describing the creature's origin, the other describing its form. As opposed to the 1-part creature type of 3E and Pathfinder.

So, for example, a pixie goes from fey to fey humanoid
A displacer beast goes from aberration to aberrant beast.

And so on.

Scarab Sages

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My initial reaction to seeing your thread title made me cringe. I was ready to type a scathing response of, "no, no, no," and "Oh heck no!"

But now that I've read your post, I would have to agree. This sort of differentiation, while making it more granular, actually makes things easier on the GM as far as creating new monsters and challenges and in adjudicating how things may affect said creature.

Dark Archive

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This would help things a bit, I do like it


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Tallow wrote:

My initial reaction to seeing your thread title made me cringe. I was ready to type a scathing response of, "no, no, no," and "Oh heck no!"

But now that I've read your post, I would have to agree. This sort of differentiation, while making it more granular, actually makes things easier on the GM as far as creating new monsters and challenges and in adjudicating how things may affect said creature.

Exactly this.


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I would also like to see each creature get a special base ability and more difficult ones get their own reaction abilities as well like how 4e did it


Tallow wrote:
My initial reaction to seeing your thread title made me cringe. I was ready to type a scathing response of, "no, no, no," and "Oh heck no!"

I must admit to having almost the exact same reaction. I was dead sure it would be about minions.

I never understood why people were so excited about minions. I mean, making a one hit fodder mob isn't exactly a revolutionary idea. At the time I was thinking "What... I've been doing that for years... where's my gold medal?"

But yeah, the creature type thing wouldn't be a bad addition.

Dark Archive

Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Huh, didn't know 4e had that short of thing, sounds like it'd be cool and handy to have here as well


Pathfinder Maps, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

I have imported minions into games using other rule systems successfully. Of course, it is enough of a deviation from the standard rules in these other games that my players generally picked up that they need to do something to cut off the source of what seems like a nearly infinite number of foes entering the battlefield.


Agreed. While I didn't like playing 4e, it had some good ideas. The problem was it didn't have the stuff I wanted to run my games. But this idea is a good one.


I like this.

It's weird that a Pixie is immune to Charm Person in PF.

What other practical implications would this have?


Starfox wrote:

I am not a fan of 4E, but there was one thing it did right; creatures type. This was a format of two parts, one describing the creature's origin, the other describing its form. As opposed to the 1-part creature type of 3E and Pathfinder.

So, for example, a pixie goes from fey to fey humanoid
A displacer beast goes from aberration to aberrant beast.

And so on.

I've been using this unofficially ever since I played 4E for the first time, and I'd love it baked into Pathfinder.

4E honestly had a lot of great individual ideas, it's just that the game as a whole didn't gel. It was kind of a shame that 5E threw out the baby with the bathwater when it backpedaled so hard it became 2.75E.


Fuzzypaws wrote:
. It was kind of a shame that 5E threw out the baby with the bathwater when it backpedaled so hard it became 2.75E.

Wait...what? Lets just do a quick fact check here:

• Scaling damage cantrips (ala at-will magic)
• Non-magical healing via Hit Die healing
• No alignment requirements anywhere
• No racial penalties, racial class restrictions, or racial level caps
• Bounded Accuracy
• Combat Maneuvers
• 3e-style Multiclassing
• Skills
• Feats
• No negative effects from spells
• Wizards recharge spells as a class feature

None of this even closely resembles 2E, even with Skills and Powers. No weapon speeds, no THAC0, no casting spells by the round(s), no really really weak wizards at low levels....

I consider myself a pretty significant hater of AD&D 2e. I've found very little of that system that I can say I liked but to suggest that 5e is a re-vamped or improved 2E is just absolutely mind boggling.


Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber

Yes, that as indeed a great idea in 4E.

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