Sunday, January 3, 2016

Encounter: Goblin

Need something stronger than Dinoman.
I want a rank and file weak enemy that is stronger than Dinoman, but weaker than Bugbear. Horde Zombie comes close, but I want something different. I'll go with another fantasy standby: a goblin. I'm going to be taking a template from Next Level, and adapt it for fighting. Today, I'm gonna calculate a better than worthless encounter from that template, and aim for a CER of 20.
CER 20 is basically something that is close to a fair fight for a lot of the weaker classes in Dungeon Fantasy. While the 10 and 15 point pygmies and dinomans are meant to be fought in large swarms by super powered teams of PCs, sometimes you want something between a swarm and a boss, and something that feels generic enough to still have a reason to have a lot of. Goblins can be used to fill this niche.
Like I said, let's start with the basic template for a goblin and see where we can go from there.


Attack Skill0Active Defense0
Affliction0Damage Resistance2
Damage1Health1
Fatigue Points1Hit Points2
Move-1Will0
Total Offensive Rating (OR)1Total Protective Rating (PR)5

So right off the bat, we have someone with a bit of resilience, and we have room to add a few more points. First off, I think they should be more wily than move 5, so I think I'll pump this thing up to move 8. It should have a few weapon proficiencies. I think a bow and a knife seems appropriate. And maybe 2 DR for tough skin. Playing around with strength for appropriate damage as well, we get:

Attack Skill5Active Defense4
Affliction0Damage Resistance4
Damage6Health1
Fatigue Points1Hit Points5
Move2Will0
Total Offensive Rating (OR)14Total Protective Rating (PR)14
I seem to have overshot my goal a bit. This monster would probably have too much overlap with a bugbear to be interesting as it is. I think I'll take off the tough skin, and 3 HP, which will lower us by 5. I think I'll drop the strength to accomplish lowering the hit points, as well as taking damage down a bit.

Attack Skill5Active Defense4
Affliction0Damage Resistance2
Damage5Health1
Fatigue Points1Hit Points2
Move2Will0
Total Offensive Rating (OR)13Total Protective Rating (PR)10
This brings us to 23. I can't think of anything else to take off of this guy without ruining the basic essence of what I was setting out to do: creating a monster that can appear in small to medium quantities repeatedly, so I think I'll leave it at that. With that all calculated, working out an enemy template for this guy, I get:


ST: 12HP: 12Speed: 6
DX: 12Will: 10Move: 8
IQ: 9Per: 10
HT: 11FP: 11SM: +0
Dodge: 9Parry: 10DR: 0
Bite (14): c, 1d-1 cutting
Knife (15): c,1 1d cutting, or c 1d-1 impaling
Short Bow (13): 1d-1 impaling
Traits: Infravision, Rapid Healing, Cowardice (CR:12), Appearance (Ugly), Resistant to Metabolic Hazards (+3 on dice rolls)
Skills: Brawling-14, Bow-13, Knife-15, Stealth-14, Traps-10

This monster, though weak, can take advantage of darkness in caves to attack sneaky-beaky like with a good stealth and infravision. It is cowardly, so it has no qualms with abandoning a losing battle to regroup and plan. Variations on a theme could include goblins that use stronger weapons or sneakier tactics. Too strong though, and you verge on hobgoblin territory; too sneaky, and you verge on bugbear territory. It might be appropriate to have them use poison tipped knives or thief skills as well.

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