Creatures are the foes that Player Character's will face in combat or similar encounters. They include not only your standard monsters, such as Giants, Orcs, and Ogres, but also NPC combatants that a party may face, such as town guards, bandits, and evil clerics. While creatures make attacks and have powers similar to players, there are some key differences in how they are run by a Gamemaster, depending on the type of creature that is being utilized for a particular combat.

Types of Creatures

There are three main types of monsters in QoD: Simple, Complex, and Legendary. Each type has slightly different mechanics, making them simpler or more difficult to run respectively. Though each type is explained in brief here, you can find more details on the Monster Types page. Of course when we say "monster," we really mean a generic term for any opponent that the players will face (i.e. Humans, Elves, Dwarves, etc that oppose the party are still considered "monsters").

Simple Monsters

Simple Monsters have a single long Recovery time that allows them to move, make attacks, and take other actions on the same turn. Additionally, simple monsters take initiative as a group (i.e. all Common Goblins in an encounter act on the same initiative). This makes them simpler to run and track during combat. Most opponents that you run will be Simple Monsters.

Complex Monsters

Complex Monsters have a separate Recovery time for each action (like PCs) and each Complex creature takes its own initiative. Because of this a Complex Monster is considered to be a harder challenge and is worth more experience, and is typically a challenge for two or more PCs of equal level. Usually, you only want to run one or two complex monsters at a time, though more is ok in a particularly complex encounter. Generally speaking, running more than two complex monsters slows down the combat rounds, as the GM needs to spend too much time tracking and determining what each monster does.

Legendary Monsters

Legendary Monsters also run like PCs, with a separate Recovery Time for each action and taking its own initiative. Legendary Monsters, though, typically have much shorter Recovery Times and significantly more hitpoints than normal, as they are meant to challenge an entire party of four our more equal level PCs. Legendary Monsters also have an Automatic Action that functions as a free action ability every round. A Legendary Monster will typically serve as a challenge for the party on its own and are usually run as solitary creatures.

Most encounters you create should consist of one or two groups of Simple Monsters, with zero to two Complex Monsters. Legendary Monsters are usually their own encounter, but a group of Simple Monsters may be run with them if there are a large amount of Players in the party. Generally speaking, it is best to run no more than three different monster groups in any one encounter, as much more than that tends to slow down the games progression. Remember that each group of monsters added to an encounter increases the complexity for the GM, but also makes the gameplay more interesting and challenging (as different monsters usually require different tactics to defeat). With this in mind, it is best to vary your encounter complexity from battle to battle, to sometimes give the Player's a more interesting encounter and sometimes give yourself a break with a simpler encounter to run.

Monster Level

In addition to Monster Type, you should also pay attention to the level of your Monsters. Generally speaking, any creatures that will directly oppose your party should remain within about 4 to 5 levels (either higher or lower) than the PCs, especially at lower levels (i.e. 15 or less). Creatures of too high a level may prove too difficult a challenge for the PCs (even when experience is taken into account), and creatures of too low a level usually have difficulty effectively attacking the PCs (even when numbers are taken into account). As the differences between levels are more pronounced at the lower levels, this is much more noticeable then and not as important at the higher levels. See Creatures by Level to find creatures of appropriate level for your adventuring party.