One of the most important traits an entity can have in Realm of Runes is its creature type. Large numbers of options, be they feats or spells, reference a creature type to help determine when it functions at all or exclude potential targets. While it has great importance from a mechanical perspective, it's perhaps even more important from a story and world-building standpoint. Whether creating your own custom creatures, or making use of pre-generated ones from an adventure or Menagerie, understanding creature types plays a pivotal role in making encounters feel fleshed-out and alive.
This week we continue our exploration of creature types in Realm of Runes. This entry is a more direct continuation from last week than others, so it will probably be helpful to check that one out first if you haven't yet had the chance. Without further ado, let's jump right in.
DEVIL
Where demons are wild and unpredictable, devils are careful and methodical. Native to the lawfully skewed areas of the evil plane, these outsiders are organized into rigid castes and byzantine hierarchies that harness their power into ruthless efficiency. Devils do not hunt or corrupt mortals for sport, but instead harness the power of damned souls into a thriving and terrifying economy. To fuel this soul trade, devils take the most active interest in the material plane of any outsiders, offering power at a price. Devils play the long game, and will most often turn a mortal soul to damnation through slippery slopes and slow seduction, with always one more contract available for “reasonable” terms.
As being composed of pure alignment energy, most devils have physical resistance, and many further resist other types of energy damage as well, especially fire. All devils have a weakness to good damage. Some devils for which the lawful component of their alignment-being is of especial importance might also have a weakness to chaotic damage, but this is comparatively rare.
Devils can be tricky to deal with, both from a player and a GM perspective. Resorting to violence is not usually their first tactic, although they can be terrifyingly efficient when combat ensues. Most devils refrain from attacking first, because uncontracted death makes a soul so much harder to collect. The damage a devil wreaks is often much more subtle, and their schemes tend to be set up to advance regardless of actions taken to try to prevent it.
This creature type is commonly associated with evil deities. As such, those that are at least trained with the Religion skill can always use that skill as a Knowledge Specialty when attempting to identify devils.
DRAGON
Few creatures are as recognizable and dangerous as the iconic dragon. Physically powerful and highly intelligent masters of magic, dragons are never a trivial encounter, even when alone. Dragons can live for a long time, and continually grow in both size and power as they age. Dragons are divided into two sub-categories: true dragons and lesser dragons. All dragons are resistant to the energy type most closely associated with their concept, and many are weak to the opposite damage type as well.
True dragons are inextricably associated with a concept. The most recognizable concepts are elements, usually as represented by colors. Less common dragons might represent a natural environment, while extremely rare dragons have been known to represent more esoteric concepts like nightmares or spatial wormholes. Regardless of their inherent concept, true dragons have a lot in common with each other. All have potent breath weapons, which vary in area and damage based on the nature of the dragon, a large assortment of natural unarmed attacks, and potent innate magic. While not actually immortal, true dragons can live for millennia and can grow to considerable size, some even reaching the colossal size category.
Lesser dragons are beings that resemble dragons in their form or lineage, but lack the raw power and longevity of their pure-blooded cousins. This group runs the gamut from almost-dragons (such as drakes and wyverns) to variants of other creatures with which dragons have had a direct or indirect influence on their lineage (such as kobolds). Lesser dragons have few overall commonalities besides their creature type, except perhaps for a tendency toward an inflated sense of self-importance resulting from their draconic heritage.
This creature type is commonly associated with magic and spellcasting. As such, those that are at least trained with the Arcana skill can always use that skill as a knowledge specialty when attempting to identify dragons.
ELEMENTAL
Beings of pure, animated essence, elementals are life unlike any other in existence. Defying biological norms, these creatures composed of pure esoterica only display a rudimentary intelligence when young. Similar to dragons, the longer an elemental persists the greater it grows in both size and awareness, with elders developing a cunning and wisdom that rivals, or even equals, the gods of creation. Four of the divine pantheon in the Realm of Runes setting are widely believed to be elementals, and some suspect that others may be as well.
The most common elementals are those that are living embodiments of the four primary elements (air, earth, fire and water) but elementals can exist that are combinations of essences, such as magma, or even more esoteric essences, such as aether or positive energy. While some elementals might resemble other creatures in form by choice or coincidence, the aesthetic is typically where the similarity ends.
While the diverse elements that birth this creature type are often wildly different from each other, most elementals share several defensive characteristics in common. They always resist physical damage, and if their element has an associated damage type they are immune to that damage. Those with an immunity often also have a weakness to its opposite, if one exists. As beings devoid of normal biology, they have no weak areas and are immune to precision damage, such as Sneak Attacks, and attacks against them cannot get a better result than success under any circumstances.
This creature type is commonly associated with the fundamental nature of reality. As such, those that are at least trained with the Nature skill can always use that skill as a Knowledge Specialty when attempting to identify elementals.
FEY
Mischievous beings from the positive energy plane, fey are a source of mystery and fear for those that encounter them. Often having an incomprehensible perspective on morality as a result of their inability to understand the concept of death, even fey that mean well can be dangerous to others in ways that they do not intend. Fey are therefore creatures of paradox, somehow simultaneously good and evil and chaotic and lawful, and yet none of those.
Fey are nearly as diverse as the creatures of the material plane, and many resemble prototypical versions of animals or insects. What superstitious cultures tend to think of as nature spirits are often actually fey that have migrated to the material plane, and their natural deviousness usually leads to fully embracing the role in return. Fey are especially well suited to such disguises, as their capricious natures mimic the changing of seasons and environments in the cycles of mortal life.
Despite their incredibly varied nature, most fey share several characteristics that can be used to recognize them as such. Most resist physical damage, but all share an allergy to iron. All fey are uncomfortable touching iron in any form, even steel, but pure or cold iron physically burns them. Fey are also physically unable to lie outright, though they will twist and warp the truth when it suits them or just for fun.
This creature type is commonly associated with the natural world. As such, those that are at least trained with the Nature skill can always use that skill as a Knowledge Specialty when attempting to identify fey.
FUNGUS
Fungi appear superficially to be very similar to plants. While they remain more closely alike than any similarities to animal-based creatures, there are nevertheless many fundamental differences at a biological level that set them into distinct categories. In fact, it is more correct to suggest that plants resemble fungi, as this creature type developed first, possibly even before any other creature type native to the material plane. Despite this advance appearance, no gods take credit for their origin or claim stewardship over intelligent creature variants, which many fungi take as a point of pride and proof of supremacy.
Fungi can be extremely hazardous to encounter for most humanoids and goblinoids. They reproduce through spores that are usually either outright poisonous, or have such mind-altering properties that exposure can be utterly debilitating. Creature fungi with awareness and intelligence are able to deliberately expose their victims to toxins in an efficient manner, and some fungi are able to use their spores to completely hijack the bodies of others, turning them into zombie-like thralls that also grow more fungus.
Fungi always have natural regeneration, making them extremely difficult to kill without the right tools. Most fungal regeneration can be suppressed with acid or fire damage, though sometimes more obscure damage types are required. Unlike their plant cousins, fungi cannot generate nutrients through photosynthesis, and instead survive on decaying vegetable or animal matter. Creature fungi are capable of seeking out and creating that decay with violence.
This creature type is commonly associated with the natural world. As such, those that are at least trained with the Nature skill can always use that skill as a Knowledge Specialty when attempting to identify fungi.
GIANT
While most equate giants with enormous people, giant is not actually a unique trait by itself. Rather, this trait is added to any creature that is significantly over-sized compared to the typical baseline variant. This can result in counter-intuitive results such as giants that fall into the small size category, as is often the case with giant spiders or other creatures that are usually way too small to pose a threat at their normal size. Because giant is not a unique creature type by itself, there are no common offensive or defensive characteristics shared by giants of different types.
Despite this trait not being exclusive, humanoid or goblinoid giants tend to identify with, and be identified by, this trait over all others, often using their prodigious size as a point of pride or a reason for inherent superiority. Not all giant people seek dominion over those of lesser stature, but even those that don't frequently have difficulty treating them with any sort of equality.
The strange circumstances required to produce a creature of giant stature often has additional and surprising side-effects. Many giant creatures have a supernatural adaptation to their home environment, as is the case with fire giants or frost giants. These adaptations further diversify giant-kind, causing them to usually be more than just "this recognizable thing, but bigger."
Because giants are not a creature type by themselves, there is not one specific skill that can be used as a Knowledge Specialty for identifying them. Instead, giant creatures use the Knowledge Specialties associated with their other creature type or types. For example, a giant bear could be identified with Nature because it is an animal, while a giant manticore would instead use Occultism because it is a chimera.
GOBLINOID
Goblinoids are a set of creatures that resemble humanoids in a superficial way, but possess very different physicality and mindsets when put to closer examination. Believed to descend from humanoids that were twisted by powerful magical tyrants in lost ages, goblinoids have only further diverged over the ages since. Yet this shared heritage is indicated by the curious ability for goblinoids to interbreed with humanoids, even if both sides of the divide might consider such coupling taboo.
Like humanoids, goblinoids tend to be defined by their choices and experience rather than any unified strengths and weaknesses. The exceptions to this rule are a propensity for green skin, short natural life spans and violent urges. Goblinoids and humanoids, while similar in many ways, usually bear a strong distrust each other, and each tends to view the other as an unnatural and unpleasant reminder of what could have been if circumstances had been different.
Most species of goblinoids lack universal special abilities, which makes this category especially useful for player character ancestries. Goblins and orcs represent goblinoids this way in the core rules, and other types will surely make their debuts when additional rules supplements are released. When using goblinoids as a GM therefore, it is recommended to use the NPC creation rules variant of monster creation instead of treating goblinoids as typical monsters.
Goblinoids, much like their humanoid cousins, are most frequently defined by their cultures. As such, those that are at least trained in Society can always use that skill as a Knowledge Specialty when attempting to identify goblinoids.
HAUNT
Haunts are a variant of undead that lack awareness and mobility, and have more in common with traps than they do with creatures. Bound to an object or a limited area associated with the deaths of the constituent souls, haunts cannot be reasoned with or dealt with in a conventional manner. Even if a haunt can be defeated through some sort of physical or psychic combat, this only results in a temporary reprieve.
The only true way to put a stop to a haunt is to put its souls to rest, which is not an easy task. Each haunt has a unique, and often very specific, condition that must be met in order to be exorcized. This method can usually only be discovered through trial and error, or through spectral communication like a séance. Without a reliable means of communication, such as a spirit board, performing a séance in this way can be a dangerous prospect as some haunts restart their hauntings quick enough to catch would-be ghost hunters in the middle of the attempt.
As undead, all haunts are naturally immune to emotion, fear and other similar mental effects. Their more esoteric nature also typically makes haunts immune to most forms of physical and energy damage as well, though in the case of a haunted object sometimes damaging the spectral tether can damage the haunt as well. All haunts can be damaged directly with positive energy at any time, which makes holy water or some other reliable means of expressing such damage a must if adventuring in a likely-haunted area.
Like undead, characters that are at least trained with the Religion skill can always use that skill as a Knowledge specialty when attempting to identify haunts. For haunts specifically, however, their more esoteric nature allows those that are at least trained in Occultism to use that skill as a Knowledge Specialty as well. Simply identifying a haunt is never sufficient to determine how to put a haunt to rest, however.
Creature types are important for keeping diversity in the universe, while also giving guidelines for how characters can interact with challenges. Knowing what spells, items and feats work where, and which skills can be used for identification, keeps some options relevant without being necessarily overly powerful. Next week we'll continue our exploration of creature types with part 3!
Comments