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There are two sorts of non-humans that characters might encounter. The first are humanoids like elves, dwarves or many aliens. Creating these races are usually just a matter changing the dice that are rolled for statistics. For instance if you want dwarves to be stronger give them say, 4D6 for strength.

We suggest though that you include one disadvantage for every advantage a race has. Often a GM will like a particular race and say "Ok, they're stronger, more intelligent, more agile and better looking than humans." This is certainly the right of the referee. In this case however it is not always wise to allow players to run these races as characters. The result is that anybody who doesn't play one sits in the back of the party staring through a kaleidoscope and asking when pay day is.

Non-human races may also have radically different cultures and thus may have different bases for some skills. They also may have skills that aren't possible for other races. A particular alien race may have a base in psionics or in sensing pain and suffering in an area (perhaps it feeds on this). At some point a distinction should be made between abilities and skills. A skill is something that is learned and improved. An ability is just there and the being can use it whenever he wants to without rolling for it.

The other sort of monster is more complex to design but perhaps also more fun to design. These are monsters that bear little or no resemblance to humans. When designing these feel free to invent special rules about how they attack and defend themselves. You could give them special attack types which are only applicable to a certain situation or position. For instance one could say that a leopard can pounce and grapple only when it is more than 10 ft. away and has had 14 segments to prepare. If it succeeds then the defender falls and is grappled, vulnerable to a bite. Again, monsters may have special abilities or skills. While all the human stats may not apply you could assign those that do (usually intelligence and strength).

We have included what is intended to be a representative list of animals and monsters. These are based on our impressions of the beasts and you may wish to change them. We include them as guidelines. The GM is the creator of the world and should design the monsters as he sees fit. Also, these represent the average beast on the street. Smaller stats may apply to young monsters or larger for "the great white ape".

In any world the GM bears the responsibility of preparing encounter charts for each area of his world. Again it is not our place to tell you what is in your world. This is one of the basic tenets of Eternal Soldier; it's your world.

Animals & Monsters

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