5 Ways To Build Savage Worlds Monsters For Fast! Furious! Fun!

Creating monsters for Savage Worlds is a fairly simple process, but it may seem daunting to the uninitiated. Monster creation is more of an art than it is a science, and each GM will find that their process is only slightly different but unique nonetheless. There isn’t a set list of rules a gamemaster has to follow to create awesome foes for the heroes of their games to face. This can be a blessing to some, but a bit frustrating for others. Below are a few things that I have found useful to keep in mind when monster building.

1) Don’t Play By The Rules
One of the beauties of the Savage Worlds system is its ease of use. The core rules encourage the gamemaster to give their monsters Edges and abilities as needed so they can focus on the story. Since monsters aren’t given a traditional difficulty rating as they are in other RPGs, you’re free to mix and match things as you will. You don’t truly need to limit yourself to five attribute points and only $500 worth of gear as used in standard character creation. Once you embrace this, you are free to create whatever you want.

As an example, I’ve created the statistics for a stealthy saurian creature below. Note that if I was using the normal character creation rules, the Attributes would be too high. Parry, Toughness, and Pace are all still calculated according to the rules, but everything else is distributed as I see fit.

Shadow Lizard
These black-scaled humanoids have piercing green eyes and sharp, nasty teeth. They are cunning, but brutal beasts.
Attributes: Agility d10, Smarts d8, Spirit d8, Strength d12, Vigor d6
Skills: Fighting d8, Intimidation d6, Notice d10, Stealth d10
Charisma: -; Pace: 6; Parry: 6; Toughness: 6 (1)
Special Abilities
• Armor +1: Thick Scales
• Bite: Str+d6.
• Low Light Vision: No penalties for dim or dark lighting.
    
2) Don’t Reinvent The Wheel
A lot of gamemasters like to have a monster statted out, despite the fact that their concept is only slightly different from an existing beast. Save yourself some time by using an existing creature as a base. Given the example above, if I wanted to save time, I could easily use the goblin statistics found in the core rules and give it a bite attack. Remember, the players aren’t looking at the monster’s stats as you play; what they don’t know won’t hurt them.

3) It Doesn’t Have To Be A Wild Card
When a Gamemaster wishes to create a difficult encounter, it can be tempting to make a creature a Wild Card in order to achieve this. While this may work to an extent, it can also be unnecessary. Considering how volatile dice can be, even basic minions can be a threat. Wild Card is a status reserved for characters that are important to the story, and truly stand out. There are many ways to make a monster dangerous besides making them a Wild Card. Save that title for characters that are important to the story.

The Shadow Lizard I created works well as a minion, but can pose a threat without being upgraded to Wild Card. Simply by playing to its strengths and allowing it to sneak up on the players and potentially get the drop, a minion like this one can be very deadly.

4) Toughness Isn’t Everything
At first glance, it may seem that having a higher Toughness is the key to a more challenging monster. While this can be true, it is far from the only way to ramp up the difficulty of a creature. Increasing Toughness is an easy way to slow combat down, if it gets inflated too much. Instead, giving your monster appropriate Edges can really make a creature deadly and challenging. By giving the creature Improved First Strike, it can keep enemies at bay while Quick improves its chances of going first and activating its Power. which leads me to another alternative to Toughness boosting. Another way is to give enemies Powers, as they’ll keep combat interesting. I’ve decided to give the Shadow Lizard the Invisibility Power, making it able to hide with ease.

Shadow Lizard
These black-scaled humanoids have piercing green eyes and sharp, nasty teeth. They are cunning, but brutal beasts. Their scales can become almost transparent, and they use this ability to devastating effect.
Attributes: Agility d10, Smarts d8, Spirit d8, Strength d12, Vigor d6
Skills: Fighting d8, Intimidation d6, Notice d10, Stealth d10
Charisma: -; Pace: 8; Parry: 6; Toughness: 6 (1)
Edges: Alertness, Fleet-Footed, Improved First Strike, Quick
Special Abilities
• Armor +1: Thick Scales
• Bite: Str+d6.
• Low Light Vision: No penalties for dim or dark lighting.
• Invisibility: The Shadow Lizard has the power to warp and distort their features to the point of transparency. They have 15 Power Points for use with the invisibility Power. They use their Smarts as their Arcane skill.

5) Make Them Come Alive
It can be easy to forget what motivates a creature during an encounter, combat or otherwise. Hindrances make a monster stand out. The Shadow Lizard I’ve made is intelligent, but very primitive, though giving it the Bloodthirsty (Major) Hindrance can make the creature feel menacing if properly roleplayed. Since the creature loves the dark, it would be nice to add some sort of weakness to it. Giving it the Phobia (Major, Sunlight) Hindrance will reflect this well. It may be fine with artificial light but will avoid sunlight at all costs. These simple modifications can really make the monster come alive to the players. The final result looks like this:

Shadow Lizard
These black-scaled humanoids have piercing green eyes and sharp, nasty teeth. They are cunning, but brutal beasts. Their scales can become almost transparent, and they use this ability to devastating effect. They fear the light of day and prefer hiding in sewers, caves, and other dark places.
Attributes: Agility d10, Smarts d8, Spirit d8, Strength d12, Vigor d6
Skills: Fighting d8, Intimidation d6, Notice d10, Stealth d10
Charisma: -4; Pace: 8; Parry: 6; Toughness: 6 (1)
Hindrances: Bloodthirsty (Major), Phobia (Sunlight, Major)
Edges: Alertness, Fleet-Footed, Improved First Strike, Quick
Special Abilities
• Armor +1: Thick Scales
• Bite: Str+d6.
• Low Light Vision: No penalties for dim or dark lighting.
• Invisibility: The Shadow Lizard has the power to warp and distort their features to the point of transparency. They have 15 Power Points for use with the invisibility Power. They use their Smarts as their Arcane skill.

Savage Worlds is a fairly easy system to grasp, with a great emphasis on ease of use. This philosophy clearly extends to monster making. If you keep these simple guidelines in mind when designing your new beast, you will be well on your way to Fast! Furious! Fun!



Nathan Carmen is the founder and head writer of the Indie RPG company and Savage Worlds Licensees, Tricky Troll Games. Nathan loves building worlds and improving his craft when he’s not busy parenting. Reach Nathan at trickytrollgames@gmail.com or check out the TTG website at https://nathanccarmen.wixsite.com/trickytrollgames


Source: Shadow Lizard by Fae Dragon

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