Example of Proactive Monster Design · Game Master's Laboratory

Apr 5 • Advice

Example of Proactive Monster Design

Hey everyone, I am designing a monster for one of my weekly games and wanted to record my thought process here in case anyone is doing something similar and finds it helpful.

CONTEXT

13th Age game, very high level, with four PCs. High magic fantasy setting with a focus on a "tears in reality are letting monsters from other dimensions leak through" trope.

GOALS

Gather splintered fragments of my personality from across the planes
Find allies for my crusade against the devils that I believe have infiltrated my government
Repair the tears in reality, but re-knit the planes in a way that benefits me financially

There are other goals at the table, too, but I left them out because they don't have to do with this monster design.

So I have a few antagonistic factions that the players are clashing with that we created in response to what they want to do. One player wanted to hunt devils, so... there are devils. That's easy. The others are a selection of extra-dimensional invaders (interacts with #1 and #3) that are after the same people and places that other character goals are built around. (As in, they're trying to find the same family crypt, they're hunting in the same sacred forest, etc)

My players have located an extra-dimensional gate in an old monastery and are preparing to close it next game. I'm going to use a skill challenge for that part, and a monster fight at the end (this group loves fights) with conditional bonuses and penalties based on how the group did on the skill challenge.

So I've already worked through most of the steps of encounter design: I know who the party is in opposition to (the devils trying to keep the rifts open for invasion purposes), where the conflict takes place, and what the stakes are.

I need to design a monster that EMBODIES this conflict:

The players want to stitch reality back together and close the rifts. The devils want to force the rifts open and keep the energy flowing in.

On a deeper level, the players want to unite and gather allies and preserve their world and make it stronger, and the devils want to smash it apart and fracture alliances and destroy.

So I need a monster that is preventing them from repairing the rift.

What's the best monster for the job? I want to design one from scratch, so I have lots of leeway here. I want a monster that can prevent them from closing the rift by interfering with their spells and skills. Notice that I don't want to just kill the party - any monster can do that - it's boring. I want one that can keep this rift open forever and frustrates all attempts to close it.
How would the monster fight in order to accomplish its goal? It would divide and control the players. It would keep them apart, it would stop them from assisting each other, and it would try to overcome them when they're weakest: alone. This is also highly thematic for our game.
It would also lean into the idea of "fracture" and breaking things apart, if possible.

From here, I chose base stats according to the rules and then created a few abilities that followed the guidelines above. Check out the stat block for what I mean.

Because I knew the monster wanted to separate, I made it stronger when they're spread out and weaker when they're together. I also added some minion-type enemies that I can change based on the plane the characters are trying to close the rift to, so I can add some thematic monsters and have some fun that way.

This monster will be present at many of the rifts they're trying to close, and I think I'll scale it up over time with more abilities and threats in addition to higher stats.

TL;DR: You can design monster abilities proactively by looking at what the group is trying to accomplish and then picking a monster or abilities to go against that (NOT to counter it mechanically, necessarily, but to act in opposition to it)

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