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I am currently in the planning stage for a campaign and one thing that I would like to do is avoid using monsters that have appeared in PFS, modules and APs.
Is there a breakdown anywhere of what monsters have appeared across Paizo's published adventures that i can use to pick the more seldom used or less common creatures from?
Hope that makes sense, coffee level is currently only at 2%
Cheers,
Apoc
Despite being the mascots for the whole shabang goblins and their kin are fairly underutilized. This may be to keep the "we be goblins" scenarios feeling special but I just love the little guys to much to see them so rarely. I have also never seen an Abolith in society.
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I'm not sure if there's a breakdown anywhere of the kind you describe, not without going through each path individually.
Aboleths make an appearance at the very end of Shattered Star
but yeah, they don't make too many in-game appearances besides that as far as I know. Possibly to keep up the mystique?
Some of my favorites that don't see much use:
-Maftets (Bestiary 3) provide some really interesting possibilities for parties in Garund (or non-Golarion desert areas). Their dedication to guarding the ruins/ancient sites they live in could definitely put them into conflict with treasure hunting PCs, but they're not evil as a general rule, so it opens up some interesting diplomacy options as well.
-I find the morlocks pretty interesting too, and they haven't appeared in any path or module I've played (though I haven't read all of them).
- The various types of inevitables could also prove interesting adversaries for a more chaotically-inclined party, and again, I haven't run across them too much.
(I also would really like to put a party in a position to get a blink dog ally at some point. Blink dogs are cool.)
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thanks for the ideas, I am looking at throwing some monsters that my players are likely to never have heard of as a change of pace. it will also avoid the metagaming that occurs when you throw a well known beasty at a group.
A skeleton drops at the table and everyone switches out for blunt weapons. Throw a gribbly and obscure monster at them and they pause for thought and think about the encounter.
thanks for the ideas, I am looking at throwing some monsters that my players are likely to never have heard of as a change of pace. it will also avoid the metagaming that occurs when you throw a well known beasty at a group.
A skeleton drops at the table and everyone switches out for blunt weapons. Throw a gribbly and obscure monster at them and they pause for thought and think about the encounter.
You could also try third party bestiaries, like the recent Southlands Bestiary, or the earlier Midgard Bestiary or Tome of Horror Complete.
Some nice monsters to throw are not necessarily unknown creatures, but ones with twists you don't expect. Generally plant based creatures are not that common as far as I know, so throwing those is always fun. Some other interesting creatures include Xill's, Formians, and some of the lesser used Evil and Good deific creatures such as Daemons or Proteans if your going for somewhat obscure creatures. You can also change up things by giving templates to well known creatures. Perhaps someone has been corrupting a tribe of Orc's into Half-Fiends. Maybe a local evil dragon has started crossbreeding their offspring with other powerful creatures to create abominable half-dragons. Possibilities are endless.
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You could tell your players to stop metagaming. When a skeleton shows up, a non-metagaming player has to make a Knowledge (religion) skill check to *possibly* learn that the skeleton has DR/Bludgeoning. If they don't learn the information, they have to use trial and error to figure out how to overcome the DR.
If you decide to allow your players to continue metagaming, any published information is likely to be used by them to further metagame. That means custom monsters build by you (lots of work) is really the only thing they won't possibly know in advance. You can cut the work down by only changing the signature abilities of Bestiary monsters: Skeletons with DR/Slashing, etc.
Personally, I'd recommend a "no metagaming" policy.
They would if I ask but it is not them purposely gaming the system, it's just we have fought a LOT of skeletons and it is almost second nature.
This is about throwing some variety in there by not using the same tired monsters (well classic, i never tire of squishing goblins!).
thanks for your reply though :)
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I ran a very successful homebrew campaign once based on the MtG Kamigawa world. About 60% of the monsters that they fought were kami and spirits of varying types. Since there wasn't enough variety in those creature types I just went and reskinned things willy-nilly. Need a pack of kami of the icy howling winds on a mountain top? Hellhounds with all their fire changed to cold. Need a low-level lumbering oni? Ogre should do the trick. Giant forest kami that hates worked metal? Advanced Bebilith!
My players were constantly on their toes and started heavily investing in the knowledge skills related to identifying their foes.
I like this, i may shamelessly steal it :)
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Well, you can always vary monsters on your own. Skeletons could lose their DR but raise again after 2 rounds - unless their heads are cut off with slashing weapons. This way metagaming will provide no benefit for your players, or even backfire.
Alternatively you could roll with it and hand out full information about the monster. Compensate the decreased difficulty by more monsters - and probably less XP per monster. It will become less of an exploration game and more of a tactics game.
Custom variety monsters is always a good way to go. That being said, I am sure someone out the has catalogued the encounters from the APs and Modules ... because ... it sounds like the kind of crazy thing someone would do.
Paulo surely has an in house list to ensure good balance. You could post in the ask James Jacobs anything thread.