Monsters
One of the two forms of Antagonist in Last Odyssey is the Monster. Every Monster has a Domain, which is a territory that it defends and attempts to expand in order to earn Anima. Domains are usually physical territories, such as a network of temples or a forgotten crypt, but they could also be located inside of more abstract locations like a dream realm, a pocket dimension, or a person’s psyche. A Monster’s Domain will reflect its nature in recognizable ways. Forests might grow dark and foreboding, or become infested with insects. A feudal domain might become miserable and oppressive, while a city or town might experience a sudden, inexplicable bout of plague. Defeating a Monster is often the key to ridding the world of such ills. When a Monster is thrown out of its Domain, it might become a Villain if it has the capacity. Otherwise, if it is not promptly killed, it will eventually take root in a new Domain and continue to spread its influence.
New Monsters created by the GM begin with 5 Anima. During the campaign, there are four ways that a Monster can earn more:
- For each Anima that players spend while inside of a Monster’s Domain, the Monster earns 1 Anima. This effect takes precedence over Anima earned by a Villain.
- Each time the players perform an action to significantly expand a Monster’s Domain, whether willingly or otherwise, the Monster gains 1 Anima.
- Every time the Monster significantly expands its Domain or acquires a new one, it gains 5 Anima.
- Every time a player character uses Anima during combat against a Monster, the Monster earns the same amount of Anima the player character spent.
Monsters may also steal Anima from players by using the Devour paradigm action. During the paradigm phase, if at least one of the Monster’s enemies is downed, the Monster can attempt to grant them True Death. When it does this, the GM should roll 2d4 and then subtract the amount of Anima the target has remaining from the result. Then, the GM should roll a 1d10. If this number is equal to or under the number they got from the last roll, the player character undergoes True Death. If not, they remain downed, but take a number of injuries equal to the target number. In either case, the Monster then gains the amount of Anima they absorbed from the player character, and the battle continues.
Monsters use the power of Anima to protect themselves and to neutralize any threats to their Domain. They can spend Anima to perform any of the following actions:
- Interrupt. A Monster may spend 1 Anima during combat to take one additional action during, before, or after another character’s turn. This action does not cost them any AP.
- Intervene. When the narrative or mechanics indicate that a player character would succeed at doing something inside of a Monster’s Domain, such as after a Skill Challenge, the Monster may spend 3 Anima to make them fail instead. This also includes successful rolls made during combat.
- Revive. If a Monster is downed during the paradigm phase, it may spend 5 Anima in order to revive itself to full HP and MP. If it cannot do this, it will either move to its next Form, Retreat, or die.
- Grow. A Monster may spend 10 Anima to acquire a new Form. The GM should create this Form using the same process for creating the Monster’s initial Forms.
While inside of its Domain, a Monster has a lot of latitude to interfere with the players’ progress. GMs who want to increase the horror factor should make Monsters behave in unpredictable ways. Here are some possible actions they could take within their Domain without spending Anima:
- Influence. Even when not physically present, Monsters can remind players that they are in their Domain. Bugs will crawl in strange patterns, mysterious howling and barking can be heard at night, spectral forms will invade people’s dreams, or anything else the GM can think of. More powerful monsters might even be able to inflict real injuries or scare threats into leaving.
- Storm. Monsters can distort the behavior of nature within their Domains to their own ends, and that includes the weather. While the players are traveling within a Monster’s Domain, the GM should sometimes intervene during the Travel Round to make the weather more dangerous than what the weather table would indicate. Players using the Divine action are still be able to predict the weather if this happens, but will notice that something is amiss.
- Spawn. Monsters have enemy underlings such as pack animals, children, and bands of thugs that they will periodically create more of to further cement their power in a Domain. The presence of these types of enemies and the players’ inability to get rid of them is a clear sign that a Monster is nearby.
- Ambush. A deep understanding, whether instinctive or intellectual, of a Monster’s domain allows them to navigate it much more easily than the players can. The Monster is always able to ambush the player characters while they are in their domain, either as a plot event or in place of an enemy encounter during the travel round.
To create a new Monster for their campaign, the GM should take the following steps:
- Create a concept. What is the Monster’s appearance? How does it behave? Does it have any desires, or is it acting on pure instinct? Every Monster also begins with 5 Anima.
- Determine its Domain. The easiest way to do this is to designate one or more paths and/or nodes where the Monster is active. A Monster’s Domain can be as large or fragmented as the GM wants, although they should keep in mind that the larger a Monster’s Domain, the more Anima it will be able to make use of.
- Choose the creature type, elemental type, appearance, and tier of each of the Monster’s Forms.
- Calculate the statistics and abilities for each of the Monster’s Forms, including any paradigm actions. The rules for this can be found in the Enemy Creation section of the Enemies section.
- Create a few Normal and Elite enemies to serve as the Monster’s underlings. Does the Monster have a brood of tiny versions of itself? Are they the leader of a faction, or do they influence their minions in more subtle ways?