Creatures in the Campaign World
Many creatures that exist in a standard d20 fantasy world also exist in the Midnight campaign. However, some creature types have distinct modifications to adapt them to the dark and shadowy world they inhabit.
This site has chosen not to provide statistics for the vast majority of new creatures created for the campaign setting, as we feel that doing so would render the book Minions of Shadow unnecessary. As we do not want to hurt the sales of any book and thereby possibly be, in a way, part of the reason to end of the product line, we are leaving out all but a few key creatures.
Below you will find general information about creatures in the setting and any changes that should be made to them.
Aberrations
Many aberrations exist in the world, many having existed since the early days. Others are the direct results of experimentation in breeding pits by the minions of the dark god.
While those intelligent aberrations not created by or beholden to the dark god understand that his victory makes it very dangerous to operate in the world, most of these creatures still maintain their independence, preying on Shadow and resistance elements indiscriminately.
Animals
Adventurers who travel with animal companions are viewed with even more suspicion than most strangers, at least by those who are aware of the astiraxes' existence-- what insanity must a man have to travel with acompanion who could at any time become a servant of the dark god?
Changes to Animals
Dire Animals
All dire animals are considered to have benefited from an effect similar to the awaken spell. They are considered magical beasts for all effects relating to type (like astirax possession or the possibility of rising as Fell). and their Intelligence scores are replaces by a random score determined by rolling 3d6. All dire animals can speak and understand a language unique to their dire species, and can speak and understand one additional language (pidgin) per point of Intelligence bonus (if any). Most dire animals of the forest choose Sylvan as a common tongue with which to communicat with each other and their elven and fey allies, as High Elven is too complex for them to use easily
Dire animals also gain +1d3 Charisma and may take class levels. Dire animals do not have the manual dexterity to cast spells or perform other, similarly precise tasks.
Constructs
In the days before the fall of the dark god, magical constructs were a part of the everyday life of the elder fey. After the fall of the dark god, almost all of these constructs fell dormant, unable to live without a connection to the gods whose channeled power created and fueled them.
Changes to Constructs
Servitor constructs like golems, shield guardians, and homonculi can only be created, repaired, or powered by divine magic, placing them firmly out of reach of most PCs to create or control. The only channeling spellcasters who can create golems and the like are those who are bound by the dark god, such as the kurasatch udareen.
DMs may use golems and their ilk as plot devices, however, whether by giving PCs temporary control over a construct, offering them quests that may allow them to create or design golems through non-divine means, or even creating encounters with golems powered by magic other than the dark god's.
Dragons
Dragons are each unique creatures whose abilities are not defined by the color of their scales. Their coloring may range from silver-gray or mottled green to deep black, and have features that vary from spiked armor plating to long snouts, allowing them to be easily differentiated from one another by those who are versed in draconic lore. Dragons are ancient creatures, perhaps even immortal, who have watched the peoples of the world for thousands of years. They rarely involve themselves in the affairs of men, and when they do it is on their terms. They are not driven by riches or power offered by the kings of men, but have their own motivations that are seldom fathomable by less long-lived races.
In days long past, the world's dragon population was ravaged by war with the dark god, until finally only a few hundred remained. Today, a handful of dragons serve the dark god, whether driven to his side by madness or warped by the temptation of promises too alluring to resist. Those that are sympathetic to the oppressed people hide from the world, helping where they can but fearful of being discovered and suffering the full wrath of the dark god and his powerful minions.
Elementals
Elementals are one of many types of creatures that man, fey, and orc alike refer to as spirits. Unlike outsiders, they have always existed in the world, and far fewer of them were drawn to it and trapped. Most simply found out one they that they werer unable to leave. Elementals have remained neutral through the ages and merely adapted to their new homes.
Elementals are present at many of the world's power nexuses, leading manyu to believe that all power nexuses are somehow linked to these creatures.
Changes to Elementals
Although elementals and outsiders seem to have common experiences, the elementals are not affected as starkly as their extraplanar cousins. Rather than needing to possess the forms of living creatures in order to exist in the material world, forms which are notoriously fragile and subject to decay, elemental spirits may instead simply inhabit and animate the elements to which they are bound. Elementals may seem to burst out of a pool of water, form from the summoner's breath, or take shape from the sand or dirt at an enemy's feet, though such building blocks were mundane and non-magical moments before.
If a spellcaster attempts to summon an elemental of a particular type in an area without enough of that raw element (usually earth, air, fire or water) to support the creature's mass, he must make a caster level check (DC 10 + elemental's HD) in order to complete the summoning spell. If the check fails, he may continue casting the spell (effectively increasing the casting time by one round) and make another check on the following round. The caster may continue this for a number of rounds equal to his level before the spell breaks down and releases its grasp on the elemental.
Alternatively, if a spellcaster attempts to summon an elemental in a place high in content and quality of its preferred element, such as summoning a fire elemental from a pool of lava or an earth elemental amidst a vein of pure mithral, the elemental gains the benefits of the Augment Summoning feat.
All elementals gain the spirit subtype and the Trapped template.
Fey
While the races of elves, dwarves, gnomes, and halflings are referred to as fey, they are not truly creatures of the fey type. True fey creatures are incredibly rare and are mostly confined to islands in the south and off the west coast of the continent. Some surmise that true fey are a lesser form of the elthedar who would have become extinct had they not retreated to remote islands at the edge of the world.
Changes to Fey
All fey gain the spirit subtype and the Trapped template.
Giants
In the early ages of the world, the giants were a noble race that lived seperate from the elthedar but had a similar high civilization. When the dark god came the giants found that their stature and achievements meant little against the will of a god.
Over time, the dark god's plotting created a high rate of infertility in the giant race. Those children that were born had defects, and soon the entire race found itself devolving. The devolution of the giants created the breeds of creatures known as giant-kin.
Changes to Giants
The only giants to have survived resemble hill giants. The other giant types ceased to exist, at least in their natural forms. Use hill giant stats to represent these devolved giant-men, but give them -2 Str, +4 Dex, and a +4 racial bonus on Hide and Move Silently checks. The giant-men prefer cold locales; they are immune to nonlethal damage from cold weather effects, but they suffer a -10 penalty on Fortitude saves to resist weather effects involving extreme heat as well as suffereing double the normal nonlethal damage from such weather effects.
Other giant-kin, meanwhile, take many shapes and sizes. The most common are ogres and their orc-bred descendants, the oruks. Trolls, while once common in the dark god's army, were decimated by the elves' intense defensive fighting and have since been found to be too dangerous and difficult to control to make their use worthwhile. The remaining giant-kin to be found in the military are the devolved and brutish ancestors of the true giants. DMs may use the stats for hill giants, fire giants, frost giants, and stone giants to represent these monstrous men, though few have any mental ability scores above 6 and none are proficient with armor other than hide or with anything other than simple weapons, thrown rocks, and greatclubs. A few exceptions exist who have gained class levels and learned to wield huge axes and swords, but these are thought to be incredibly rare throwbacks to the original giant race whose loyalty to the dark god is questionable.
Humanoids
Humanoids make up the bulk of intelligent creatures found in the world. This broad categorization includes humans and all of the fey, half-breeds, orcs, and goblinoids. Many of the common folk go their entire lives without seeing a different type of creature--and they prefer it that way.
Changes to Humanoids
Changes to the PC races, including orcs are listed in the Character section of this site. There are no half-elves or half-orcs in the campaign, and no humanoids with the reptilian subtype are found on the main continent, but may exist elsewhere at the DM's discretion.
Additionally, goblins, hobgoblins, and bugbears are creations of the dark god and generally remain loyal to him as part of his war machine. The dark god also created a new breed of goblin, referred to by both their allies and enemies as "sniffers," though countless other derogatory names have been invented for these hated trackers.
Magical Beasts
Dangerous beasts and predatory creatures of magic are not found in large quantities. Occasionally, a strange beast escapes from the breeding pits of the far north, then retreat to the top of the tallest spires, the deepest waters of the most inaccessible rivers, or the elder forests whose roots deep they are said to touch the very center of the world.
Other magical beasts are more common and far less shy, but still easily outnumbered by mundane creatures and civilized humanoids.
Monstrous Humanoids
Monstrous humanoid villains tend to be very personal demons, competing with mankind for treasure, food, or territory. Harpies are among the most feared of the dark god's monstrous humanoid creations thanks to their ability to draw victims to them regardless of the danger, be it a lethal drop or a blockade of orcs, with their powerful song. Tales are told of elves captured by the dark god's sorcerer and inflicted with a terrible curse, then sent back to their people to turn all their loved ones to stone with their loving gaze.
Oozes
Oozes were unknown during the days before the coming of the dark god, and only began turning up after his fall to the world. Black puddings are particularly prevalent under mountains, and they remain second only to the orcs as threats to the dwarves' survival.
Outsiders
The arrival of the dark god caused some outsiders to go mad instantly, affecting them in unexplainable and never-before-seen ways. Others were frustrated by their inability to return home, and they endeavored to find a way to break the magic bond that enveloped the world. Through the millenia, these angels and demons have made pacts with one another and just about every other powerful creature on the planet in order to find a way home. They have served dragons, the elves, and the dark god, and siphoned magic from nexuses all over the world. All of their attempts have failed.
Outsiders that exist in their normal forms have either survived in their original bodies for thousands of years or achieved them as a result of their transformation ability.
Changes to Outsiders
As a result of their millenia-long entrapment, no outsiders have the Extraplanar subtype--the Material plane has become their home. All outsiders gain the spirit subtype and the Trapped template.
Plants
Living plants have never been a significant threat outside of the forest, and even there they are enemies only to those who oppose the queen of the elves. Few gained intelligence after the fall of the dark god.
Spirits
Spirits are a new subtype of creature that exist as part of but separate from the physical world. The subtype is applied to all elementals, fey, outsiders, and incorporeal undead, though it is more often used to dictate the level of impact of class abilities or spells on a creature than to describe a creature's abilities.
There are three general categories of spirits: the Eternal, the Trapped, and the Lost. The Eternal do not have any game mechanics and their effect on the world (or lack thereof) is completely up to the DM's discretion; the Lost, meanwhile, are incorporeal undead, and have few game mechanics that differ beyond those described in the core rules. That laves the Trapped, which are the sort of spirits that PCs are the most likely to encounter the most often.
Eternal Spirits
The Eternal are best described as the active essence of the world, intelligent spirits of near limitless power that constantly drive toward the fulfillment of their purpose. Each eternal spirit is a unique being that represents some aspect of creation, and each has incredible powers. Or it may be that all eternal spirits are part of the same being. These spirits are never meant to be fought, and their power is well beyond the scope of even the most powerful PCs. While not god-like in their power, the only beings in the world other than the dark god that rival the power of the Eternal are the elf queen and the dark god's four kings. Eternal spirits are often, but not always, tied to a location or region, and they may or may not take an active interest in the world as is their wont. Some are good, some are evil, and some simply enjoy meddling in the affairs of humans, orcs, and even the Shadow. THeir specific abilities are beyond the scope of the rules, as eternal spirits are meant to be used by the DM to further his campaign, not as adversaries for the PCs to directly engage or allies whose abilities they may manipulate.
Lost Spirits
The Lost are a pitiable but dangerous type of creature, the shades and spirits of the once living who have not found rest as part of the Eternal are not content to drift mindlessly in the spirit wind and dream of freedom. They live a half existence only semi-aware of what has happened to them, confused and trapped in a limbo somewhere between the physical and celestial realms.
Like the Fell, the Lost are traumatized by their own deaths but the effects are more varied. Haunts are not driven by bloody hunger but instead follow often-cryptic or bizarre motivations that reflect parts of their past personalities. Many suffer insanities upon death that drive them to malevolent and violent acts. Others remain motivated by the things that moved them in life and can be coherent or even benevolent at times. Unlike the Fell, the Lost do not have the release of eventually decaying away to dust, but face eternity in their horrific states. Eventually, what passes for minds in these spirits degrade, spiraling slowly into incomprehensibility and insanity. In the end, even the ghosts of the most kind and potent souls become dim and dangerous shadows of what they once were.
As the years pass and the veil between the heavens and earth remains, the frequency of ghosts haunting the realm of the living increases. It is an uncommon person that is lucky enough not to have been haunted by the shade of a deceased ancestor, and a rare traveler that has not been driven from his camp by the chilling wail of a Lost soul.
All incorporeal undead other than those created by necromantic spellcasting are Lost spirits. The Lost may seem to emerge from the shadows or from the embrace of the world itself to assail the living at seemingly random intervals, but each Lost spirit or group of them have defining conditions, called ties, through which they may emerge. As default, most Lost abhor the light and life represented by the sun, and as such only emerge at night or in places where the light of day does not shine brightly. Others, such as the ghost ships of the inner sea or the halfling spirit camp of the plains, may be tied to the anniversaries of historical events, to the approach of living creatures of specific allegiances, or other catalysts.
Characters can research a particular Lost or group of Lost to find its ties using the normal methods used to learn about a creature's powers. As with all creatures, an appropriate Knowledge check (in this case Knowledge [spirits]) with a DC equal to 10 + the spirit's HD can reveal information about the spirit, including its ties, at the DM's discretion. Alternative methods of investigation that may be allowed include the use of a hermetic channeler's lorebook, Gather Information checks made in communities near the spirit's home lair, Knowledge (history) checks, or even Spot or Sense Motive checks to attempt to decipher what a Lost spirit fears or desires by watching its behavior or motivation.
Trapped Spirits
Trapped spirits are not always appropriately named; some have been in the world since long before the fall of the dark god, and others are glad to be in the playground of flesh and feasting that is the material world. The vast majority are visitors, however, travelers from far realms who were never meant to remain on the world for so long.
Trapped spirits' natural state is one in which form and time have little meaning. In their default form, called bodiless, trapped spirits cannot interact with the physical world, and most have difficulty discerning things in the physical world that are not specifically tied to their natures or their interest. They can vaguely sense creatures, objects, and the passage of time, but not in the manner mortals sense things. Some rituals and magic can allow creatures from the physical world to contact and interact with spirits, but the alien minds of spirits are incscrutable things, and getting them to communicate what they've seen can be an adventure in itself.
Trapped spirits that regret their state sometimes latch onto areas with high populations, soothing their detachment and loneliness with the comfort of feeling so many people nearby. Others shun such comforts, exiling themselves to isolated areas, where only rarely do creatures happen upon them or seek them out to barter for some piece of information from ages past.
"Trapped" is an acquired template that can be added to any elemental, fey, or outsider.
Communicating With Spirits
Elementals, fey, and outsiders are inscrutable beings to begin with, and centuries trapped in a world that seems only partially real has not made them any easier to relate to. Likewise, the Eternal have always been strange and inhuman, and the Lost have forgotten their mortality.
Any time a mortal attempts to communicate with or get information from a spirit, even an astirax communicating with his legate, the mortal must use his knowledge of spirits to determine how much sense he can make of the spirit's cryptic and vague observations. No amount of threatening, coercion, or supplication can convince a spirit to be clear and concise in its communications; it isn't that it's trying to be vague or confusing, it's simply that the spirit sees the world, time, and even language in such a completely different manner that it often does not know what its questioner is asking or how what it may have seen relates to the questioner's concerns.
The first step in attempting to communicate with a spirit is to get it to manifest. Bodiless spirits have no way of communicating with mortals in the physical world, while the Eternal and Lost may or may not be able to communicate in any of their various forms. Summoning and calling spells are examples of ways to get spirits to manifest, but offereings of things of interest to a spirit, usually the exception that it can see and hear clearly, may also tempt a spirit to manifest.
Once the spirit arrives, a common language must be discovered, or a spell like tongues must be used. If the spirit agrees to talk with the character or provide information, it only does so via cryptic phrases, strange riddles, and esoteric observations. The DM secretly makes a Knowledge (Spirits) check for the character to determine how much truthful, useful information is contained within the ramblings. The DM should add a bonus of from +2 to +10 to the roll depending on how closely the question relates to the spirit's exception. See the table below for example DCs and of this check.
The DM should create a few phrases and snippets of import and announce those to the character, basing them on what he finds the spirit should know or might have seen, its nature, and its personality.
| Spirit Interaction Results | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| DC | Chance of Falsehood | Level of Detail | Example Information from a River Spirit |
| 5 | 75% | Extremely obscured | Something wicked this way came, and it someday will come again. |
| 10 | 55% | Obscured | It sang as it stomped. Can't you still hear its echoes? I can hear for seasons and seasons. How long can you hear ago? |
| 15 | 40% | Somewhat obscured | Oh, yes, dark it was, a beast that clanged like iron and breathed smoke. Wide as this river and long as an oak, several times it slept and woke. |
| 20 | 30% | Very vague | A sinuous serpent wound, until it the river found. Then it split and this I say, it was made of mortals (not the fey). The river's tide then lowered and rose since they left and maybe froze. |
| 25 | 25% | Vague | It was a great host of odrendor, twice your number and more. They went the way the water's new, and in mortal days 'twas but a few. |
| 30+ | 20% | Fairly clear | There were as many orcs as all of your fingers, it's been three days since they lingered. They walked upstream where the mountains dream. |
Undead
While undead once existed in the campaign world thanks to the normal means of restless spirits and foul necromancy, the fall of the dark god has caused them to be far mor common thanks to a corruption of the natural cycle. Whereas once all souls ascended to some higher place or joined the spirits of their ancestors as part of the Eternal, now they are trapped, either in body or in spirit, t the world that birthed them, unable to pass the veil brought down by the Sundering.
The Price of Undeath
When a creature with the aberration, dragon, giant, humanoid, magical beast, or monstrous humanoid type and an Intelligence of 5 or higher dies, the DM must make an immediate DC 12 Will save for the deceased. If the roll succeeds, the soul of the deceased departs his body and vanishes into the maelstrom of trapped but harmless spirits that wreath the world like an incorporeal halo. If the roll fails, the deceased is doomed to rise as Fell in 1d4 days unless it is beheaded or its body is destroyed by fire. In addition, there is a 10% chance that the unfortunate sould rises immediately, and despite whatever lethal wounds may be evident, the newly undead may be completely unaware that he has just been killed. Companions may even try Heal checks or cure spells, but these will prove useless and it will not be long before those companions realize something is very wrong.
If the DM rolls a natural 1 for the Will save, something potentially worse happens. Regardless of how the body is disposed of, it becomes destined to rise as a ghost if it has a Charisma score of 6 or higher; otherwise, it rises as some other form of incorporeal undead of the DM's choice. Because of the equal likellihood that anyone from a willful and experienced channeler to a naive and fearful commoner may roll a natural 1 on the Will save, the particularly wise and powerful are just as likely to rise as Lost as any other who has died.
Player characters that suffer the horrible fate of becoming Fell or Lost may immediately come under the control of the DM, and all of their actions become subject to his approval.
Becoming Fell
The initial shock of death and the subsequent realization that one has become undead is a crushing psychological blow and insanity is usually immediate, leading quickly to extreme paranoia, violent rage, and bloodlust. A DC 15 Will save allows the undead creature to keep these overwhelming impulses at bay, but only for short periods. A Fell creature retains its basic Intelligence and many of its memories, but as its body starts to decay, so does its mind. For every week that passes without feeding, the mental ability scores of a Fell (Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma) decrease by one. The creature thus decays gradually loses its intelligence and true sentience, as well as the associated memories and conscious control over its actions. As the creature reaches increasingly lower levels of mental ability scores, it deteriorates into more and more feral states until, eventually, it is nothing more than a walking, eating corpse.
From the moment it awakens, a Fell feels a magical craving for the flesh of the living, for only by consuming the living can an undead creature maintain its foul existence. This hunger quickly becomes the driving motivation behind the actions of the Fell and continues to compel it, even after its mind has rotted away. If a Fell consumes a large meal of still-warm flesh from the body of an intelligent creature (5 or higher) at least once per week, it can stave off the decay of its body as well as the rot of its mind. For every week a Fell foes without such a meal, it suffers decay and the associated loss of mental ability scores as described above. Only the flesh of living creatures with similarly potent souls can satiate the hunger of the Fell; an elf that rises as Fell could therefore survive on the flesh of dwarves or goblins but not on the meat of rabbits or bears.
Despite their horrific state, the madness of the Fell typically imbues them with a powerful survival instinct, and only the most willful soul can take direct action to destroy, and therefore free, itself. With a DC 30 Will save an undead character can intentionally destroy itself by means of any method that consumes or dismembers its body, such as lighting itself on fire or crushing itself in a rock fall. This sort of action obviously becomes more and more unlikely as the creature's mind decays and it loses control over its actions. A Fell character can typically not attempt this saving throw more than once a month. A failure typically results in a period of heightened madness, bloodlust, and a sustained feeding frenzy that can last for days or even weeks.
Behavior of the Fell
Ungral, the first stage of unlife for most risen characters, are typically intelligent enough to hunt on their own, stalking their prey on the edges of civilization, sneaking into and raiding outlying farms or hamlets in the dark of night. Many of these cunning creatures have even learned to hide beneath the surface of swamps, lakes, and other bodies of water during the day. At night, they crawl out of the depths and sneak into river towns and coastal cities to hunt. On the inner sea, amphibious dead have become such a problem that most coastal settlements are forced to maintain boat patrols along their nighttime shores.
Faengral and maelfral, as their Intelligence drops to the level of animals, often turn to hunting in savage, roving packs, where their decaying mental abilities and limited Dexterity are make up for by numbers. Hiding in woods, ruins, or empty caves during the day, these packs shamble deliberately into villages and outposts as darkness falls, attacking without warning. These nightmare bands have forced many human settlements to build high walls and lock their gates when night comes. When they attack, the faengral and maelgral bring down their prey by swarming them, and in their frantic compulsion to feed, they often end up in savage fights among themselves.
The Fell are creatures of darkness, preferring to hide in dim and secret places during the day, avoiding the sun whenever they can, biding their time before stalking into the night to hunt. Though light does not physically harm the Fell, they seem almost afraid or it and it clearly affects their ability to see. Undead will often shy away or even flee from sunlight, and even bright torchlight and lamplight seems to affect them.
Nature of the Undead
When a creature first rises as a Fell, it gains the Fell subtype and gains whichever template is appropriate for its level of Intelligence. As the creature's Intelligence decreases along with its other mental ability scores, it may devolve into a lower type of Fell.
| Intelligence | Fell Type |
|---|---|
| 5 or higher | Ungral* |
| 7 or less | Faengral |
| 3 or less | Maelgral |
| * All Fell begin unlife as ungral. | |
Unlike zombies in the core rules, the walking dead in this campaign setting may not completely lose their minds to rot and can have a rudimentary Intelligence that zombies do not. For several years, a walking dead can amble about in search of living meat, all the while rotting away, losing its own flesh and organs, exposing the skeleton beneath. If at least a year passes in which a walking dead does not feed, it becomes a mindless bony fiend held together only by magic and drying bits of sinew. The Fell templates are lost and the creature's original game statistics are replaced by those of a common skeleton. Though unale to gain sustenance from them, a skeleton is still driven to kill the living. Over time, the gristly bones will bleach white and weaken, becoming brittle. Eventually, even the most minor damage will destroy the creature, turning it to fragments and dust.
Changes to Undead
Deceased that have recently become Fell are ungral, a High Elven work meaning "tethered dead." Ungral often appear almost indistinguishable from living creatures, though a violent or debilitating death will typically leave obvious signs. Ungral retain the intelligence they had in life, and not allof them have yet succumbed to evil.
If an ungral fails to feed, it becomes a faengral. A faengral that fails to feed becomes a maelgral, or "walking dead." Finally, as the bodies of the Fell inevitably continue to rot and decay, they eventually become indistinguishable from animated skeletons created through necromancy. When they reach this stage, they are no longer considered Fell.
Vermin
Monstrous vermin are more of a threat now than they ever have been. The massive wars being fought across the continent provide a great amount of food to scavenge, and their colonies are able to grow as few have the attention to spare from their enemies to cleanse out vermin.