Greetings!

The great dragons, giants, hordes of humanoids, as well as Undead monstrosities like Vampires and Liches are always glamorous in a campaign world. However, I suppose I also enjoy using more "normal" savage beasts and creatures as a source of constant danger and threat, creating a dynamic where the wilderness is never entirely safe. By that, I mean do you embrace crazy "normal" animals and monsters to keep the edge in the campaign?

For example, I have hordes of Giant Rats. These things are often 50 to 100 pounds in weight, something similar to a good-sized dog. Having a mouth full of teeth, very swift and agile, and roaming in huge packs. They infest dungeons and sewers alike, and always also carry a range of vicious diseases, which they pass on to their victims, as well as spreading through eating various animals and consuming portions of stored food in urban settlements. Some breeds are definitely evil, and possess a malicious intellect and a savage hunger to kill humanoids in particular. Some also have bizarre mutations, providing them with a range of strange and unusual powers or attributes.

I also enjoy using Mutant Weasels. These creatures are mutated, weigh 300 to 500 pounds, and live in clans of 12 to 30 members. They are excavators, live in subterranean tunnel realms, and are fiercely territorial. They are carnivorous, and cooperate using pack tactics. Kobolds, Goblins, and human and dwarf miners always have problems with these fierce creatures, as well as parties of adventurers seeking to explore dungeons and other subterranean locations.

The Valku. The Valku are a race of avian, vulture-like humanoids that live in bands and loosely-connected barbarian tribes. They are rugged and omnivorous, and live nearly everywhere, in most climates and environments. They make large warren-like nests amidst rugged hill slopes, mountain ridges, and other difficult terrain, either inaccessible through height, or concealed and hard to reach through being protected by very dense underbrush. The Valku harass and terrorize caravans, bands of hunters and woodcutters, pilgrims, and so on, usually on the fringes of civilized society, but also within more wild areas that are otherwise in the embrace of civilized realms.

Carrion Crawlers: I like using large nests of these creatures throughout the subterranean environment, providing a constant threat to parties exploring the subterranean realms. The Carrion Crawlers can also be mutated and possess unusual powers and attributes, making them always potentially very deadly and somewhat unpredictable.

Savage Boars that gather into large nomadic clans, often of 12 to 20 members, roaming the wilderness. These savage boars tend to be a bit more intelligent and cooperate in their groups better than a standard Boar. Savage Boars hold onto a fierce enmity towards humans and other humanoids, and seek to bring death and terror to them at any opportunity. Clans of Savage Boars often ally with groups or tribes of evil humanoids, so as to maintain their freedom and independence, while also gaining aid in a constant search for prey and food. Much like nests of evil, dark spiders, clans of Savage Boars can multiply in number, growing strong enough and forging primitive alliances amongst themselves and evil humanoids to overrun and dominate a forest region, turning the forest into a dark slaughterhouse, where humans and other good humanoid races and animals are in constant danger. Some few of the leadership within a Savage Boar Clan have the ability to speak languages, and some make use of barbaric forms of natural magic.

These are some examples of determined, ferocious creatures that I often use in the campaign. I think it can be interesting and entertaining to take some of the more "normal" or mundane animal and creatures, spice them up a bit, and they become more interesting and more of a challenge as well. Such creatures also provide a different dynamic of threat besides the more common humanoid and mythical opponents.

Have you used something similar in your own campaigns? How do your players respond to such ferocious opponents?

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

Lots of great ideas there! For me it depends very much on the setting. A medieval type setting may have minimal 'natural' threats, whereas my Primeval Thule campaigns have a nice variety of deadly mundane fauna such as the Short-Faced Bears, Giant Sloths (worse than many 'monsters'!), Sabre-Tooth Tigers et al. Definitely gives a different feel. I also think Gamma World type settings benefit from lots of deadly natural/mutated flora & fauna.

I'm sadly unoriginal most of the time with this stuff, since it isn't a priority for me.  I'm long on mix and match with existing creatures in the game I'm running, twisting descriptions and abilities enough to camouflage the source.  

OTOH, I've used three different versions of a mutated owl bear in my current campaign, each one so different that the players haven't recognized the source creature or connected the three variants to each other.  My latest is a "wolf bear" that is a mix of the owl bear and the winter wolf.  The whole idea of such a creature running in packs and using pack tactics is enough to scare the wits out of the players.  All I'm lacking so far is a good local name for the critter, so that when the players finally meet someone that can talk about it in horror, I've got something better than "wolf bear" to avoid giving the game away.

My gibbering "demon dawgs"--slightly modified gnolls supplemented with the Kobold Press gnolls--and descriptions changed to a more demonic aspect--have sent multiple parties fleeing in terror, some of them more than once.  In fact, they are scarier to the players than the actual demons I have used.  Got to up my game on the latter.

I'll just give you one example and some generalities.

It really depends on the campaign world, but most of the time I use, besides the creatures in the books, prehistoric beasts and cryptids, this presents the double problem of giving them a inworld name and stating them to my liking.

As an example: Currently working on a beast loosely based on the cryptid known as The Ropen, loosely based since I like the name but the cryptid's description is a Pterosaur described by someone who knows shit about Pterosaurs. So I'm turning it into a mix between a terror bird and a Dunkleosteus, not sure if I'll give it arms or (functioning or atrophied) wings. Also still not sure about the size, been toying with the idea of making several different beasts of different sizes; some flying, some not, some with functioning arms others atrophied wings.

Imagine a flock of Cockatoo sized things with armored skulls and a bone crushing "beak" made of bone that attack at once and go into a feeding frenzy like piranhas?
Or a family of Emu sized fuglies with the same type of head, a killing talon in each feet and that run really fast and hunt in groups?
Or a bigger yet predator, with working clawed arms, a bone crushing bite strong enough to bend steel?

Quote from: S'mon;1132761Lots of great ideas there! For me it depends very much on the setting. A medieval type setting may have minimal 'natural' threats, whereas my Primeval Thule campaigns have a nice variety of deadly mundane fauna such as the Short-Faced Bears, Giant Sloths (worse than many 'monsters'!), Sabre-Tooth Tigers et al. Definitely gives a different feel. I also think Gamma World type settings benefit from lots of deadly natural/mutated flora & fauna.

Greetings!

S'mon! Short-faced Bears and Giant Sloths are awesome! That has to terrify the player characters for sure! Sabre tooth Tigers, yeah, they can definitely bring the pain! I love using prehistoric animals, and weird, "normal" creatures, dialed up to 11. It definitely creates a different kind of campaign dynamic.

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

Quote from: Steven Mitchell;1132780I'm sadly unoriginal most of the time with this stuff, since it isn't a priority for me.  I'm long on mix and match with existing creatures in the game I'm running, twisting descriptions and abilities enough to camouflage the source.  

OTOH, I've used three different versions of a mutated owl bear in my current campaign, each one so different that the players haven't recognized the source creature or connected the three variants to each other.  My latest is a "wolf bear" that is a mix of the owl bear and the winter wolf.  The whole idea of such a creature running in packs and using pack tactics is enough to scare the wits out of the players.  All I'm lacking so far is a good local name for the critter, so that when the players finally meet someone that can talk about it in horror, I've got something better than "wolf bear" to avoid giving the game away.

My gibbering "demon dawgs"--slightly modified gnolls supplemented with the Kobold Press gnolls--and descriptions changed to a more demonic aspect--have sent multiple parties fleeing in terror, some of them more than once.  In fact, they are scarier to the players than the actual demons I have used.  Got to up my game on the latter.

Greetings!

More variations of Owl Bears? That sounds awesome, Steven! I also love Gnolls! Gnolls are cool.

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

Quote from: GeekyBugle;1132788I'll just give you one example and some generalities.

It really depends on the campaign world, but most of the time I use, besides the creatures in the books, prehistoric beasts and cryptids, this presents the double problem of giving them a inworld name and stating them to my liking.

As an example: Currently working on a beast loosely based on the cryptid known as The Ropen, loosely based since I like the name but the cryptid's description is a Pterosaur described by someone who knows shit about Pterosaurs. So I'm turning it into a mix between a terror bird and a Dunkleosteus, not sure if I'll give it arms or (functioning or atrophied) wings. Also still not sure about the size, been toying with the idea of making several different beasts of different sizes; some flying, some not, some with functioning arms others atrophied wings.

Imagine a flock of Cockatoo sized things with armored skulls and a bone crushing "beak" made of bone that attack at once and go into a feeding frenzy like piranhas?
Or a family of Emu sized fuglies with the same type of head, a killing talon in each feet and that run really fast and hunt in groups?
Or a bigger yet predator, with working clawed arms, a bone crushing bite strong enough to bend steel?

Greetings!

Geeky, those ideas sound great, my friend! Have several different kinds, you know? Crushing beaks. Geesus. I love evil bird-like things with crushing beaks!:D

Stat them babies up, Geeky! Their profiles would be very cool.

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

Quote from: SHARK;1132861Greetings!

Geeky, those ideas sound great, my friend! Have several different kinds, you know? Crushing beaks. Geesus. I love evil bird-like things with crushing beaks!:D

Stat them babies up, Geeky! Their profiles would be very cool.

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

I'm hopping so, especially if I manage to do some drawings of them. Think they'll make their official debut on an adventure module:

The Island of The Ropen!

I often include dire wolves and worgs. Wolves tend to be the mounts of choice for goblins raiders in my games, and the animals will often be a greater danger than the riders themselves, mowing down adversaries while the goblin warrior pokes them from above with a spear as they struggle to wrestle with the large canines.

I've also used worgs and dire wolves as pets as well. In one campaign I included an ogre beastmaster ranger who kept a pair of dire wolves while fighting with twin battle axes himself (which I treated as "light" weapons in the ogre's large, powerful hands). His wife also raised a pack of dire wolves, and "evil" humanoid rangers were a feature of the campaign, who worshiped a god of savagery that embodied the cruel side of nature. His rangers would train vicious creatures and use their skills to hunt wayward people down and bring misery and fear upon them, followed by a brutal, painful death.

Other animal types vary depending on the nature of the adventure or the campaign. Bears are a common sight, particularly for wayward adventurers sticking their noses into random caves. Giant snakes may also show up on occasion, and little ones as well. Or giant lizards and gators. I also used to use carrion crawlers quite often early on, but it's been a while since I've brought them in.

Wolves.  A classic natural beast.  Let the party encounter ever more dangerous varieties as they progress.

And bears.  And big cats.  As well as, Snakes and Spiders.

All of these evoke a fear and imminent need to escape, until the player characters become too powerful for them; but the DM doesn't have to let that happen.

Use extra-planar varieties, if necessary.

I love to use prehistoric beasts, whether dinosaurs or extinct animals. ERB's Pellucidar stories are a great inspiration for these, and various "lost world" stories from books and movies. Not everything has to be magical or supernatural - in fact most things should not be, so as to avoid cheapening the "fantastic".

Quote from: SHARK;1132859Greetings!

S'mon! Short-faced Bears and Giant Sloths are awesome! That has to terrify the player characters for sure!

I remember they fled their camp in terror at the approach of a giant sloth - it ate their tents.

Now the PCs are 14th-16th level, when they met two short faced bears eating a mammoth last session, their attitude was more "We don't want to hurt them - let's just go around".

I like to sometimes give animals levels to beef them up and anthropomorphize them, a la Rudyard Kipling. There are tigers, and then there this Shere Khan.

I have a post apoc campaign I run, where at some ruins and some buried ruins there are monsters lurking there that look suspiciously like Hormangaunts and Gene stealers.   They are part of an alien spore landing that came down during the roughest parts of the apocalypse (an asteroid hitting the planet and a nuclear war over what resources were left).   As the planet was hostile the hivemind leading this spore seeding went elsewhere and abandoned the planet, and was later destroyed in another solar system.    The critters that landed went into stasis and were mutated by their extreme adaptability and background radiation (the good old radiation mutates you and does not melt your cell structure trope) and are there to be found in various stages of awakening by explorers.   Gave me a way to get more mileage out of tyrannid miniatures, which make pretty nasty monsters to deal with in close quarters underground.  I have no name for them in game.   The players call them slashers or pouncers.

I think I've mentioned this before on this site, but it fits this topic:  The legendary giant spider cat.  I've never actually used the thing.  I'd commented several times to my group that I'd noticed that a couple of easy ways to push their buttons were to include giant spiders and large stalking cats in the game.  That always seemed to get them, especially the ladies.  One day I mentioned in passing that since they reacted so strongly, eventually I'd bring out the giant spider cat.  One of them laughed and asked what that was.  I said it was a giant furry spider that dropped off of the ceiling and rubbed up against you, purring, right before it bit you.  It's the only time I've produced identical, visible shudders in 4 people at once.

I think it is more effective as a mythical beast than using it would be.  If I really want to set a scary tone, all I need to do now is mention the thing.  I'm planning on having an orc tribe with an idol and a bunch of beliefs about it.