Spheres of Might; Martial Monsters

[Greylurker]

For those of you using Spheres of Might in your games. How often do you give the monsters some sphere stuff. either with classes or with the Monster Traditions

For Example: early in the campaign I am currently making my Players will face a Giant Spider with the Behemoth Tradition (Brute Sphere: Smash, Stampede and Takedown talents)

also all the Goblins they run into will have

Martial Tradition: Goblin Tunnel Fighting
Equipment: Goblin Heritage (From Spheres Apocrypha - Racial Martial talents)
Athletics (Run)
Scoundrel
Variable: Shield Training or Trap Sphere.

What sort of Martial Monsters have you hit your group with?

[Michael Sayre]

I had a "hill giant chieftain" with Brute and Shield who didn't end up making it into the martial monsters section (I decided the bull ankylosaurus made a better fit for the slot) who could deflect ranged attacks and throw the party around, forcing then to trudge back through his threatened reach or risk having their own ranged attacks bounced back at then by his shield. That was a spectacularly fun fight.

I also had a digmaul with Athletics and Duelist who was basically bouncing off trees, leaving someone in the party prone and/or bleeding each time as they had to spread out and ready actions to catch it and pin it down.

[Rednal]

If you're interested in more Practitioner monsters, you can also try applying Martial Packages (which aren't official, but can help quickly convert enemies - including monstrous foes - into practitioners).

[Sir Antony]

I ran an ape-themed adventure a little while back that used quite a lot of them. There were girallons which I kept pretty much as-is, but paired them with a bunch of gorillas with Athletics and Brute talents. So the girallons largely stayed put while the other gorillas ran around tossing PCs into their blender.

I also added plenty of Berserker, Gladiator, and Guardian to my King Kong. It was a nice way to add survivability to a big, solo monster without just pumping numbers to absurd heights. Sure, the party could focus fire and tack on debuffs, but he was going to get his swings in.