Periodic Table of Dragons/Bestiary

Non-Dragon Bestiary

This section lists out all monsters and hazards aside from dragons that could be later included in a bestiary for the setting. Everything is categorized by habitat and threat level. Possible habitats are as follows: Forest, Jungle, Grasslands, Desert, Snowforest, Tundra, Arctic, Mountains, Caves, Aquatic, Coastal, Urban, and Other (Specify). Threat levels range from 1-5, and are not a formal CR system but rather a means for us to loosely gauge how dangerous monsters are and see if particular habitats need more weak or strong monsters.

Threat level 1 would be something that your average adventurer can and does regularly defend himself against, and even an untrained (but healthy) non-adventurer has a good chance at fighting off. Threat level 2 is what an average adventurer thinks of as dangerous- it can be fought off or overcome, but you'd best be prepared for it because it will kill you if you aren't. Threat level 3 is the reason you travel in groups, a particularly skillful and powerful adventurer can fight something of this range by themselves but for most adventurers, being caught alone by this means certain death unless you're really lucky. Threat level 4 are the really scary monsters that can wipe out villages unless a timely hero or small battalion of soldiers comes by to save them. Threat level 5 are the things that you field armies against, and it's where a lot of our dragons are categorized. A man who slays this sort of beast alone is instantly flung into legendary status.

Format monsters as "Name (Habitat, Threat Level): Description", and try to make sure we cover a wide variety. We don't need five different forest monsters all at TL 2, after all. Let's proceed for now with the assumption that we will later make a bestiary. We should aim for around 4-6 entries for each habitat, and most regions probably won't have monsters at TL 5 (even TL 4 monsters might not be in every biome). That works out to a bestiary with somewhere between 50 and 80 monsters in it, but don't rush and try to pump out tons of stuff to fill it. We want quality over quantity, so if you want something to end up in the hypothetical bestiary (here's hoping that we get that far with this project!), take care to make something creative and interesting that fills a logical role in the environment and would be sensible to throw at players in a game.