MRPG Mobs

For the purposes of organization and keeping in line with the trading card game, this article will refer to Units. I use the term "mob" all over the wiki as this is effectively a game design document; but the PnP and card games use "unit".

Units are devided into three super-categories: Mortal, Metal, and Mystical. Mortal enemies are basic, non-magical beings such as humans, animals, etc. They can be killed by ordinary weapons, and while they may possess magic, they are not magical in nature. Metal are beings of magical origins. While not inhernently mystical themselves, they do not exist by nature. Mystical are creatures of an inherently magical nature. They are often responsible for creating most of the Metal creatures. Mystical beings are usually highly intelligent and very powerful.

Each classification also has three generic subtypes: Anthropoid, Monster, and Beast, as well as customized sub-types:

• Anthropoid: an anthropoid is something that walks on two legs in an upright pose with its head on the top.
• Monster: a monster is unlike any normal, terrestrial shape. A monster may walk on two legs, but will not have anything resembling the shape of a man. It may walk on more than two legs; it may walk on more than four.
• Beast: A beast always walks on four legs; it lacks arms or opposable thumbs, and is largely unintelligent.

There is also some overlap: Spirits are Mystical Creatures and subject to the rules thereof, but there can be a spirit of any other unit-type. The same holds for Magetecha.

Mortal

Humans, alternate races, and basically any creature that begins as just an ordinary being. Something with a traditional life-cycle. The Galgan are an example: they can be killed by non-magical weapons; they lay eggs and raise young; eventually they grow old and die.

Mortal enemies can be enhanced by magic, but they are still hurt by ordinary weapons.

Anthropoid

Soldiers

In-game, these soliders would have the prefix of who they serve (such as "Marconian if they are Marcon).

• Foot Soldier - An unarmored conscript, usually carrying a very simple weapon such as a club or a crude spear. They have no real armor to speak of and are considered the lowest-level soldier.

• Pikemen - A lightly-armored foot soldier, cheap and expendable. Carries a long, metal-tipped spear.

• Swordsmen - A pikeman but with a sword and shield instead of a pike.

• Armored Swordsmen - A swordsman with better armor and weapons, etc.

• Light Horse - a rider on horseback, about as armored as pikemen, but mounted on a horse and carrying a flail. The rider of the Light Horse cannot be knocked off; they are considered a single unit. Has increased range.

• Cavalry - a rider on horseback, armed with a large kite shield and a long lance. The rider can be knocked off the horse and continues to fight on foot with the same basic speed but improved range of pikemen.

• Heavy Cavalry - think classic medieval armored knight. Big, powerful, long lance. When knocked off of horse, he becomes very slow and will break aggro easily.

• Villager - some peasant with a farm implement.

• Millitia - basically an organized group of peasants with slightly better weapons and armor.

Undead

• Basic zombie – dead body re-animated by sorcery, in varying states of decay.
  • Draugr - dead warrior haunted by its own spirit, borrowed from Norse mythology.
    • Thusen Draugr - a dead warrior haunted by his own spirit in Dolahan armor.
    • Dolahan - empty suit of armor possessed by a demon. Probably a miss-spelling of Dullahan, but different enough to be acceptable.

• Dullahan - probably the basis for my Dolahan, but in MRPG a different monster. Basically a possessed headless horsmen in awesome armor using its own demon head as a shield. Maybe a more powerful version of the Dolahan?

Monster

Not quite mystical or magical, monsters are beasts of fantastical origins but mundane modern strengths.

• Hellkite - hellkites are descended from Fallen Dragons, and while dragonesque in appearance are by no means a match for their brethren. Hellkites have moderate intelligence (putting them roughly on par with a fairly stupid dolphin, or a really smart cat), no magical abilities of any kind, and a life span of around 15-30 years. They operate mostly on instinct, acting as apex-predators on the outskirts of dragon lands where they are left relatively in piece. They have adapted smaller bodies, growing to no more than around 2,000lb, and all of them can be described as Red Fire dragons.

• Basilisk - a large snake-like creature that turns people to stone.

• Galgan - giant bug-like creature that exists mostly to eat basilisks.

• Trolls – Resembling humans, but larger and hairier, with longer arms and opposable toes. Sometimes have multiple heads each. Strong, warlike, and solitary. Not exactly stupid; but easily gullible, and bad-tempered. Also known as Sasquatch, Yeti, Bigfoot, Gigantopithecus, and other names.

• Ogre – Essentially a larger, more-intelligent, more-social edition of the troll.

• Hidebehind – a small-scale predator operating by stealth; as soon as its prey looks, it hides. Consequently, seldom seen.

• Sphinx – a large lion-like figure with the head of something else: human, ram, or falcon usually. Sometimes winged. Highly intelligent.

• Pakhiráj – winged horses. Capable of flying into the Underworld and back, alive. Hard to capture and even harder to tame.

• Gulon – Essentially a large cat, living partly on carrion, whose teeth and claws may be used in magic spells.

• Rukh – Also 'Roc': a giant bird-of-prey large enough to hunt emus. Mated pairs stay together until the chicks are full-grown, and can take revenge if the chicks are killed. Also called 'Erne' (hence, 'Arindell', meaning 'Eagle's Valley'); 'Great Eagle'; 'King of Birds'; and other names.

• Biloko – from Zairene (Congo) myth: a small anthropoid figure with a huge mouth and long razor-sharp claws. Hides in hollow trees, and attacks passing prey.

Viverren

Viverren are small, cat-like, bipedal creatures. They have limited inteligence, possessing the ability for speech and even a crude written language. They tend to inhabit sewers under populated regions, where they make and use tools and survive by killing and eating whatever they can. Including people.

Sauro-Taru

Sauro-Taru are small, lizard-like, bipedal creatures. They tend to live around human settlements and survive by stealing crops. They are less intelligent than Viverren but smart enough to make and use tools. They will attack and kill adventurers on site, but are thought to be herbivores and will usually avoid conflict if left alone.

Beast

Blood Beasts

Blood Beasts are typically ordinary apex-predators driven mad in the areas around large battlefields; especially fields where magic was used, and on which at least one side was pretty severely slaughtered.

You can basically take any animal you want, slap "blood" before the name, and call it a day. In Mage Wars RPG, the blood beast mechanic exists to explain why common animals are going out of their way to attack people.

Mystical

Mystical Creatures are sentient, non-human life forms with a strong magical nature. Unlike mortals, they are long-lived and considerably stronger. Mysticals cannot be hurt by ordinary (non-magical) weapons, and take extra damage from Magical Materials.

• Damage Reduction: All mystical creatures get 10-50% damage reduction from mortal damage. They take no damage at all from weapons made from non-magical materials. This applies only to mortal weapon damage; enchantments on the weapon can still do damage. A non-magical, un-enchanted weapon cannot strike a mystical creature.

Anthropoid

• Nuckelavee - looks like a skinless, fused horse and rider. Borrowed from Orcadian lore. Not going to be terribly similar, but will have weakness to water magic.

• Fairy – looks ordinarily human, but with elongated features and large decorative wings (used to steer only; propulsion is strictly magical). In a rage, assumes fangs, sharp claws, blazing eyes, and impenetrable skin. Good at long-term telekinesis.

• Elves – Similar to Fairy, but minus the wings. Usually live in forests. Stronger than human, and actually capable of creating life (outside the ordinary means).

• Centaur – Looks like a horse, but with a human head, shoulders, chest, and arms where the horse's head ought to be. Observant and patient, and even wise, when sober; but uncompromisingly violent when drunk. Impressively strong in either situation, and ferocious in war.

• Goblin – Basically any malevolent smallish humaniform predator. They are associated with various subspecies, societies, or castes, ranging in size from the nearly man-sized, warlike Orcs and mid-sized 'kobolds' to the smaller 'Red Caps' to various smallest 'Hobs'. Some Goblins are nocturnal, and some grow beards, and some carry poisoned spears, and some few build machines.

Elemental Manifestation

Elemental Manifestations are beings that manifest from the four cardinal elements Earth, Fire, Wind, and Water.

• Djinn – Also called 'Genie' from the plural form 'Djinni', these are fiery huge forms, sometimes approximating human or birdlike but capable of counterfeiting dust storms, or even dragons. Related species are the Marid and the Afrit. They can be terrifying and cruel, or can be held captive by sorcerers, who then use them as errand-runners. A 'magician'-class P.C. releasing a Djinn in the game, is equivalent to releasing three spells. They inflict stat damage.

Shade

A shade is a creature of absolute darkness, born of the abuse of dark powers. Like Spirits, they have a 50% chance to be missed when attacked, and usually inflict stat damage.

Monster

• Jabberwock: Similar to Hellkites, but more intelligent, and with an insectile head and long furry talons. Very dangerous, but can be killed.

• Hydra: a large venomous snake, with multiple heads joined by a hood. Can be good or evil with ease. If one head is cut off, another grows instantly in its place; and the venom is so potent, that even diluted it can kill a man 30 years later. To kill it, one has either to sever the throat below all the heads, or to destroy the whole thing.

• Tsuchigumo - giant transforming intelligent spider; it neatly circumvents the "spiders don't scale up" problem by being magical (i.e.: "A wizard did it"). Could do a whole quest-chain on these. Borrowed from Japanese folklore.

• Lycanthrope – In its natural form, resembling a wolf or jaguar, or some other large carnivore; but only seen in its natural form, in the presence of a great deal of magic. Always attacking the player-characters.

Daemons and Fiends

Due to a recentish necessary change in the Course Books, "demons" have been brought more in line with the traditional usage of the terminology. The term Daemon now refers to evil, flesh-and-blood monsters created by Moroni. Yes, I am aware that in Greek mythology eudaemons are supposed to be good; I'm just stealing a word.

• Fiends - fiends are less powerful, more common. Usually light and fast, focusing on melee attacks.

• Daemon - much more powerful than fiends, almost as strong as true demons.

Swallower of the Dead

A predator with the head of a crocodile, the body of a lion, and the hind legs of a hippopotamus. If the dead are judged unworthy of afterlife, it consumes them. From Egyptian funerary illustrations.

Beast

Mystical Beasts are special, insofar as they tend to be much more intelligent, sometimes even sapient, as compared to mortal or metal beasts.

• Phoenix – a medium-sized, purple-and-gold water-bird, with the interesting habits of cremating its dead, incubating its eggs in fire, and rejuvenating itself by immersion in flames. They are often considered sacred birds.

• Barghest – A large black dog with luminous eyes. Highly intelligent; can be dangerous if insulted. Guardian of certain territories and often savage.

• Lammasu – Not dissimilar to the Sphinx, but more-often winged. Highly-intelligent; can serve as an advisor to PCs.

Spirit

A weaker subset of mystical, spirits are incorporeal monsters of various sorts.There can be a "spirit" version of any mortal or mystical mob-type, which automatically makes that mob mystical (even if its original type was mortal).

All spirits have a 50% miss-chance for all attacks (including magic). This is calculated separately from AV and RV, so the actual miss-rate may be much higher. This can be bypassed if the weapon has the enchanted-effect Spirit Touch. Magical effects must may also recieve a ghspirit-touch ability later on.

Metal

Metal is a blanket-term for enemies of an artificial origin. The Basilisk, for example, which was created sometime during the Mage Wars (Although basilisks can reproduce, they are not natural in origin). Additionally, all summoned creatures will be considered metal. Any summoned enemies will also fall into this category.

These enemies take extra damage from magic and less damage from ordinary weapons.

Anthropoid

• Merpeople: resembling human or elvish form from the chest upward, but having a sinuous aquatic shape (like a fish or dolphin) from the ribs downward. Not always reliable.

Beast

• Nocverine: a metal, cat-like creature, very quick. They attack with sharp claws.

• Gryphon: resembling a bird of prey, but with four legs (the hind pair resembling a lion's) and a long, feline tail. Often employed to guard treasure; very fierce. Also, quite talkative.

Magetecha

Magetecha are a subgroup of Metal, and are normal creatures augmented by artificial means. They are weaker than traditional Metal but may have other advantages. In general, they lack the Mortal damage-reduction of metal. Like spirits, there can be a Magetecha-version of any non-metal mob.

Variables

Units can be made stronger or weaker by a set of variations, color and special distinctions.

Color

Units can come in one of four colors: Green, Blue, Red, and Black. Also you have normal (colorless), which is the standard unit.

• Green: Green are much weaker than normal. A green enemy can probably be defeated by a character three or four levels bellow it.

• Blue: Blue are weaker than normal but may still pose a small threat to the unprepared.

• Red: Red are stronger than normal. Not by much, a skilled combatant or able party could still succeed.

• Black: Black is the strongest and most powerful.

Special

Specials are abilities that any unit can have. These add some specific effect that usually makes them much tougher to beat.

• Maiming: Units with the Maiming special deal untyped damage instead of mortal damage.

• Bruising: every successful attack from a unit with the Bruising special causes an 'injured' effect.

• Shattering: every successful attack from a unit with the Shattering special causes 1d10 damage to all equipped items.

See Also:

• Mage Wars RPG