Grimrock

This thread is dedicated to suggestions and proposals for new monsters. Before it grows into a complete list of all existing and fictional creatures ever imagined, I'd like to add a restriction. You must explain why you think that a given creature would be interesting. "Because I want it" or "because it's cool" are not good explanations. Please come up with something better than that.

Kobold/gnome: I'd like to see a kobold or another small, quick moving humanoid. It would make an excellent early game opponent that does not do too much damage. It could still be very useful later in the game. He could approach the party from behind, steal some important object and then run away. Remember how annoying shrak torr was? Now imagine the same level of agility, but running away from you. You'd have to chase him down to get back the key he stole. Also, he could be a nice NPC. A slimy, shady character that would sell his mother if there's a profit in it.

Mantis/grasshopper: There are insectoids in Grimrock world already. I wanna kill one! Insectoid is really a very capable concept, because there are many different bugs that we could possibly see in the game. One type is a tough bettle with exoskeleton (like Emile's warrior. Very resilient, strong, but rather dumb. Another possibility would be a mantis or grasshopper. We all played 2x2 fight dance too many times to remember. What if the grasshopper could dodge sideways? How many times did you run away from a fight looking for an unobstructed 2x2 field to circle your enemy? Now you'd be looking for a tight corridor.

Creatures working in teams: We could have two species of creatures working in pairs, that could compliment their abilities. Here's an example. You have strong, slow moving creature, similar to Tolkien's ent or big herder, that can bind you in place using its roots. On its own, it would not be challenging. But there should be a swarm of fast moving creatures that try to surround you. Normally, you'd keep moving around, but that ent could foil your plan really quick. From the implementation perspective, this doesn't require any inter-AI coordination. AH, you can start breathing again now

Golem: I'd like to see a golem or other mechanical creature. Perhaps an improved warden? This creature should be resilient to throwing/missile weapons, due to hardness of its armor. Possible interesting twist: the projectiles should sometimes hit, but sometimes bounce back.

Different ranks of the same monster: I'd like to see more variety of the same monster. As I understand the modularity in LOG2, that won't be a problem. There are tons of low level skeletons that each look the same. But there should also be occasional higher rank skeleton, with better weapons, taller, moving a bit faster etc.

Beholder: I'd like to see a creature similar to beholder from Eye of the Beholder series (the last one here: http://stanislavs.tripod.com/games/eob1mons.htm). The unnatural pale skin, together with lots of eye staring at you with hate should give you shievers. That creature should be almost completely resistant to magic. I strongly believe that immune creatures greatly enhance the fun of combat as player needs to adapt his fighting strategy to a specific opponent.

Sunken creature: Can we have a half-sunken level? There could be a creature that swims under it and is comuflaged well (only small antennae sticking out, eye on stalks, or something similar to a croc that sticks out only top of his head out of water). It would give the player uneasy feeling of constantly looking out for hidden danger. Of course once the monster gets close by, it drops the camouflage and attacks. There was such a creature in an old game called Dark Forces in a level that was a mix of a swamp, sewers and garbage dumps.

Dismemberable creature: In LOG1 the opponents are fully capable up until the last blow that kills them. That doesn't sound too realistic. Monsters should lose capabilities during fight. For example, skeleton could lose his shield and become more susceptible to attacks. Poisonous shak torr could lose its sting and not be poisonous anymore. For extra fun, you could put some blood stains on the wounded monsters. It would be cool to see that ogres have green blood.

I would like to see:

Zombies. Why always skeletons? The flesh on a dead body can last centuries under the right conditions! Work it baby!

Morg pets. Although you had those hybrid fliers (wyvern bugs?) I would like a few more aptly alien creatures serving the tentacles.

thomson wrote: Kobold/gnome: I'd like to see a kobold or another small, quick moving humanoid. It would make an excellent early game opponent that does not do too much damage. It could still be very useful later in the game. He could approach the party from behind, steal some important object and then run away. Remember how annoying shrak torr was? Now imagine the same level of agility, but running away from you. You'd have to chase him down to get back the key he stole. Also, he could be a nice NPC. A slimy, shady character that would sell his mother if there's a profit in it.

I really don't enjoy the lose your items mechanic. It makes me stop whatever I was doing and chase down the little nuisance

Dismemberable creature: In LOG1 the opponents are fully capable up until the last blow that kills them. That doesn't sound too realistic. Monsters should lose capabilities during fight. For example, skeleton could lose his shield and become more susceptible to attacks. Poisonous shak torr could lose its sting and not be poisonous anymore. For extra fun, you could put some blood stains on the wounded monsters. It would be cool to see that ogres have green blood.

I can't say I'm much a fan of this one either. Just feels to me like too much thought into the monsters.

I particularly like the idea of having insectoids as a monster race... I'll talk about this idea with the team!

I like the idea of having insectoid bad guys. What's really cool about the insectoid race is that it gives a great possibility for variety in creatures of the race (even down to having more limbs and a non-humanoid bottom half of the body). I also quite like the idea of the pick-pocket thief taking things from the party (mostly because of the Dungeon Master nostalgia), but I think it has to be done in moderation. I don't know if the following creatures exist in Grimrock lore, but the following feel like they could be a good fit, and have some unique mechanics;

Moss Troll / Stone Troll: Trolls are pretty awesome creatures, and underground trolls that have been evolving with herders could have some cool quirks too. I can picture underground, moss-covered trolls that quickly regenerate but are especially vulnerable to fire. Stone trolls could emerge from walls (leaving a wreckage behind) and if forced under sunlight shafts they could literally turn to stone (at which point you could smash them with enough force, or just leave them there indefinitely!).

Frost Giant: Frost Giant's could be hulking creatures that, while they still occupy the foot-space of a 3x3m square, they could actually reach up to 5-6m tall. With the ability to throw huge rocks at the player and smash the party with a massive club from 2 spaces away - they could mix up combat quite nicely.

Swarm (of Crows?): An idea for a flying creature could be a swarm of small or tiny creatures that could even share the same space at the party. Area of effect magic would be best against a swarm, with bludgeoning weapons being the only other type of weapon that can really harm them at all (projectiles and swords would do hardly any damage at all). If the swarm manages to occupy the same space as the player, they could really get up in your grill. Attacking when they are in the same square will do damage as if they are adjacent, but casting a spell would likely hurt yourself as well. Whether they would 'stick' to you as you move or not is another possibility.

Variants: I think it would be cool if there were some variants of a couple of the creature types already found in Grimrock. For example, the Uggardian's feel like they could have alternatives (Ice and Poison being the obvious choices). This gives the opportunity to stagger the difficulty of creatures by having more variants with a bit less work.

Wraith, Banshee: A few more undead staples that I feel could fit well in the Grimrock world. Wraiths could move through walls and drain stats and/or stamina as well as deal cold damage whenever they touch a champion. I would picture them being quite tough to defeat - as they would probably only take damage from magical weapons or spells. A banshee could have similar-ish rules for taking damage, but they would try their best to keep their distance from the party while they hurl de-buffing spells and recharging a devastating 'scream' attack that can be done every minute or so. Maybe Banshee's only see "forwards" so you can sneak up and kill them from behind.

Winter Wolf: A fairly generic but big bad guy, but could work well in outside areas. Would be afraid of fire and would try to move around the map and locate other wolves before attacking the party from all sides, using a pounce from 2 squares away which counts as both an attack and a move at the same time. After attacking, they would try to flee and lick their wounds.

Slimes: Slimes that move around on the ceilings / walls / floor. By hiding on the ceiling and walls, they could spring out into a space to try to surprise the party. In combat, different types of slimes could have different special effects. They could all fling bits of poisonous or acidic slime at the party, and striking them with a sword could result in either a sword getting stuck (paralyzing the champion for a few seconds) or the attacking weapon getting 'damaged' which means that they cannot be equipped until they are cleaned or repaired. Similarly, the slime could have a 10% chance of damaging an item the target champion is carrying which needs cleaning with a flask of water or repairing.

Nidhogg Like Snake: A giant snake creature that could occupy between 1 and 4 spaces. In a single space it would be all coiled but it could then extend across a number of spaces (blocking them behind him). Attacks could come from the head and the tail at the same time. You can attack it anywhere, but it would take most damage when being attacked on the head space. Likely a boss / sub-boss creature!

Very good post. Ok, sorry for my english. My explanations are a little short but i try to do a little contribution.
Lich: Under undead category are old friend. Hard to beat and great spellcaster. I remember games like Arx Fatalis where Lich does few appearances but when you see it... you know problems are coming.
Naga: Mixture of human and snake. With virulent poison, great power and strength and always trying to bite other creatures. Higher magical defense too.

<insert ad&d monstrous compendium>

..

Having that (several volumes of) made watching x-files much more boring. I could tell the "monster of the week" from the first couple minutes of each episode, most of the time.. =)

Haha, yeah - it's hard to suggest a monster that hasn't at least got an equivalent in the many thousands of monsters in the plethora of compendiums and source books for D&D / Pathfinder, especially as they scour mythology as a reference.

I tried to base most of my suggestions on Norse mythology (trolls, giants, wolves, crows and Nidghogg), which feels like a good fit. Most importantly, I think I would like to see monsters that lend themselves to some unique combat mechanics (instead of just having different stats), as they will make combat interesting and help to combat the side-step warfare. As such, my suggestions are based around the combat mechanics I think the creatures could bring (even if they are just rough mechanic ideas).

Hi All!

I think, it would be nice to see a kind of a burning skeleton in LoG2. It could look like a mix of skeleton warrior and uggardian but with smaller fire and with heavy damaged armor (e.g. part of burning chest, part of burning leg and part of burning (and deformed?) skull would be visible). And long range burning flail as a weapon.
Also kind of ghost could be attractive for me (semi-visible or periodically unvisible creature capable to devour a light).

Regards

C0nrad

Giant Bettle - well we all know that grimrock will have some cave/dungeon creatures and we know how spiders were unwelcome in first pushing a lot of players to use mods , why not change those ugly spiders into giant bettle. He will make good replacment you can esily make him poison creature and also he can have diffrent types from low level range medium bettles to some huge Rihno bettles

Tree's (Dendroid, ENT) - just imagine your going by some spooky forest , just making quick stop to take a breath and think what to do next and suddentyl gigant try next to comes to life roraing at you


mage's - yes like in old games you going slowly to some new location and then whole screen strats to go black , what is happening , bang another black out , yes i remember those mages from ishar series casting their curses/blindess that was adrenaline


unique creatures - creatures that are tough but only are once in the game , remember the ishar series : lonley knight in maze with big axe , or giant beast guarding bridge , or some crazy black knight in dungeons , those guys can make heart beat faster