Inevitably, the player character's adventuring party will encounter two types of creatures, characters (non-playing characters with names, statistics, possessions, etc.) and monsters (a generic term used to describe anything else, even otherwise docile or respectful beings). Typically, monsters will seek the defeat and even total destruction of the party and are often at the root of BrowserQuests™ encounters. A wide variety of parameters are used to track monsters, including:
Name
Naturally, all monsters carry a common name. Again, not all monsters are truly monstrous--an otherwise pious merchant is generically known as a monster within the BrowserQuests™ system.
Types
All monsters fall into a particular type or category which loosely describe their general abilities, attitudes and physical makeup:
- Amorphous - Creatures that don't possess any real structural form physically, such as a gelatinous cube or green slime.
- Animals - The typical mammal that moves on four legs such as a dog, fox or bear.
- Giants - Substantially larger versions of typical creatures within the world such as giant wasps, giant rats or even giant humans.
- Humanoid - Any of the races that are similar to humans, dwarves, elves and halflings but less evolved (such as orcs and kobolds).
- Insects - Invertebrates that typically have a hardened exoskeleton, a three-part body, several pairs of legs and compound eyes.
- Magical - Unnatural creatures not of the known world (typically summoned or created through magic).
- Mercenaries - Humanoid classes (such as a human cleric or halfling thief) nearly always in business for itself.
- Undead - Dead creatures infused with negative energy that can attack and maim the living.
- Vegetative - Plant-like creatures that possess the capability to move and even attack on their own.
Armor Class
Refers to the creature's general ability to protect itself in combat (the value on a 1d20 needed to "hit" the creature and cause damage). Some monsters are only able to be damaged by silver or magical weapons even if a hit would otherwise have been scored.
Hit Dice (HD)
Hit dice refers to the number of hit points a particular monster has, calculated by a random roll of an eight-sided die (a "1 HD" monster can have 1-8 hit points, a "2 HD" monster can have 2-16 hit points, etc.). Some monsters receive a hit point bonus as well, so a monster with 2 HD + 2 can have 4-18 total hit points.
Attacks and Damage
Virtually all monsters have some sort of attack, a way of inflicting damage upon its enemies. While a typical bandit attacks with a single bladed weapon, other monsters can utilize multiple attacks (such as an undead ghoul that attacks with two claws and a bite, all of which can hit and do damage). For each attack, the amount of damage that can be done (in terms of die rolls) is also provided.
Special Attacks and Special Defenses
In addition to standard attacks, some monsters can use a special attack (such as a dragon's breath weapon) and/or a special defense (such as a black pudding's invulnerability to cold). These are listed as well.
Save As
Appropriate character class and level the monster uses for saving throws. Most monsters save as fighters of a level equal to their hit dice.
Experience Points
Reference to the number of experience points awarded to the adventuring party for defeating the monster.