Dear Community!

I have a player, whose road is going to the Shadowlands on Kashyyyk. She wants to find a hermit Wookiee friend of her.

She's absolute newcomer to Star Wars, but loves the game (girlfriends sacrifice so much for us!), So i can use every cliché I have. I planned to populate it based on the kotor, Kinraths, some cat-like predator, maybe those flying insects, the wookiees rode in ep3 and the cherry on top is a Tarantetek.

Can you help me, what are other possible sources to demonstrate the dangers of the Shadowlands?

Also. Can you help me skill- and statwise, creating these beasts? I don't have any F&D book which might list them

None of the shadowlands creatures have FFG stats, unfortunately.

For the Tarantetek I thought I use the rancor's profile in the CRB costumizing the abilities (force immunity, venomous claws). But the others I have no idea how can I make them balanced

1 hour ago, Rimsen said:

no idea how can I make them balanced

What is this "balance" you speak of?

Balance is for jedi. Gamemasters are much closer to Sith.

Seriously, don't worry too much about balance. I don't know if it was original D&D or video games that came up with this idea that everything should be balanced to the power level of the character(s), but that's bunk. There are fights you can't win; don't pick them. Find a different way to proceed. Sometimes that means hiding in a cesspit while a dozen gnolls are searching for you. Sometimes it means scaring some deer-sized herbivores so that the house-sized predator goes after them and you can safely proceed while it's distracted.

And sometimes, you nuke it from orbit, because it's the only way to be sure.

2 hours ago, the mercenary said:

What is this "balance" you speak of?

Balance is for jedi. Gamemasters are much closer to Sith.

Seriously, don't worry too much about balance. I don't know if it was original D&D or video games that came up with this idea that everything should be balanced to the power level of the character(s), but that's bunk. There are fights you can't win; don't pick them. Find a different way to proceed. Sometimes that means hiding in a cesspit while a dozen gnolls are searching for you. Sometimes it means scaring some deer-sized herbivores so that the house-sized predator goes after them and you can safely proceed while it's distracted.

And sometimes, you nuke it from orbit, because it's the only way to be sure.

It was an unfortunate choice of words. I should have used universal. I know my players power level, but I don't want to tweek it to them. I'd like to create something on it's on then let them take their own actions based on them. I don't find it satisfactory to throw them enemys, just so they beat it or not. I like to approach from the world's perspective. If it's logical to a Tarantetek to be there, it will be there, whether or not, you are prepared to fight it.

I'd like to use them later again, so I don't want something that overshadows already created content, or maybe abusable in some way (players can get creative, we all know that), so I have to overrule the players all the time.

Tarantetek with rancor stats seems an obvious choice, as it is rumored to be alchemically modified rancor by sith, but the other creatures (katarns - rival, Kinrath - rival, some kind of lesser, beast as a minion), i'm not sure how should I design them. Are there any rule of thumb, or sources that give advice on creating NPCs?

I'm not aware of any rules of thumb or sources of advice right off hand. I either use stats from the book that are "good enough for govt work", or make something up that seems about right.

Here's an example:

My EotE PC's were looking for a hideout/base of operations. They decided to go claim an abandoned factory and make it their own. Only it turned out to not be quite so abandoned. It had about a dozen or so crites lurking about. If you've seen the movie "Critters", or "Critters 2", you'll know exactly what I'm talking about. The crites were nasty little buggers, but they couldn't really take a hit (and my players roll like deities....or the online dice roller thing we use is as biased toward success as the actual physical dice are biased toward failure). Low soak (IIRC it was 1 or 2), not a high wound threshold (3 per), minions except for the alpha or queen (I still haven't decided which) which had higher everything, bite attack with Dmg 3, Pierce 1, and they could launch poisonous spines that did little damage but had a Pierce of 2 or 3 (I don't remember which) and required a Resilience check or suffer some black dice on all actions due to numbness/paralyzation. When the characters acted, these things dropped like flies. But when three or four of them started gnawing on the Trandoshan outlaw tech, he was in a lot of trouble, real quick.

I guess the advice I would give you is do exactly what you mentioned: make them make sense within their surroundings. The crites in my example were tough enough to be a deadly danger to the birds, rats, and homeless beings that they'd been feeding on, as well as inflicting some pretty good hurt on a group of well-armed beings that invaded their lair, but ultimately they were no match for blaster rifles, a vibro-axe, and a fusion cutter.

Take a wampa... put an 'S' in front, change the fur colour to brown, change any reference to ice and snow to swamp/jungle/forest etc.... SWAMPA!!!!

You're welcome

5 hours ago, ExpandingUniverse said:

Take a wampa... put an 'S' in front, change the fur colour to brown, change any reference to ice and snow to swamp/jungle/forest etc.... SWAMPA!!!!

You're welcome

Stealing this! So silly. So much fun!

5 hours ago, ExpandingUniverse said:

Take a wampa... put an 'S' in front, change the fur colour to brown, change any reference to ice and snow to swamp/jungle/forest etc.... SWAMPA!!!!

You're welcome

So If I put a T behind a TaunTaun, it becomes a mocking relative? A TauntAunt?

I'm so sorry, I let myself out.

These are the stats I came up with for a Terentatek, feel free to use or modify at your leisure. (This is designed to be a challenge for the 400+ xp bois of my party, so keep that in mind.)

Terentatek [Nemesis]

[B5][A2][I1][C3][W4][P1]

[Sk 12][Wt 28][St 18][D 1M/1R]

Skills: Athletics 3, Brawl 4, Cool 1, Coordination 1, Discipline 2, Perception 2, Resilience 4, Vigilance 3

Talents: Adversary 2 (upgrade difficulty of all combat checks against this target twice), Natural Hunter (once per session, may reroll any one Perception or Vigilance check)

Abilities: Force Hunter (gain [boost] to all combat checks made against Force-sensitive creatures or characters with a Force rating), Force-resistant Hide (terentateks always resist force powers targeting them, and upgrade the difficulty of the opposed check twice), Silhouette 2, Sweep Attack (The terentatek can spend [triumph] on a successful Brawl check to hit the target as well as anyone engaged with the target), Terentatek Venom (if a target suffers wounds from a terentatek's claw or tusk attacks, the target must make a Daunting Resilience check. The target suffers 7 wounds if they fail, plus 1 strain per [threat]. [Despair] means the target must check against the poison again at the start of their next turn), Terrifying (upon first seeing a terentatek, an individual must make a Hard fear check)

Equipment: Claws (Brawl, Damage 10, Critical 2, Range[Engaged], Pierce 3, Vicious 3), Tusks (Brawl, Damage 6, Critical 4, Range[Engaged], Ensnare 1, Knockdown, Pierce 5)

On 11/17/2018 at 1:44 AM, DarthHammer said:

These are the stats I came up with for a Terentatek, feel free to use or modify at your leisure. (This is designed to be a challenge for the 400+ xp bois of my party, so keep that in mind.)

Terentatek [Nemesis]

[B5][A2][I1][C3][W4][P1]

[Sk 12][Wt 28][St 18][D 1M/1R]

Skills: Athletics 3, Brawl 4, Cool 1, Coordination 1, Discipline 2, Perception 2, Resilience 4, Vigilance 3

Talents: Adversary 2 (upgrade difficulty of all combat checks against this target twice), Natural Hunter (once per session, may reroll any one Perception or Vigilance check)

Abilities: Force Hunter (gain [boost] to all combat checks made against Force-sensitive creatures or characters with a Force rating), Force-resistant Hide (terentateks always resist force powers targeting them, and upgrade the difficulty of the opposed check twice), Silhouette 2, Sweep Attack (The terentatek can spend [triumph] on a successful Brawl check to hit the target as well as anyone engaged with the target), Terentatek Venom (if a target suffers wounds from a terentatek's claw or tusk attacks, the target must make a Daunting Resilience check. The target suffers 7 wounds if they fail, plus 1 strain per [threat]. [Despair] means the target must check against the poison again at the start of their next turn), Terrifying (upon first seeing a terentatek, an individual must make a Hard fear check)

Equipment: Claws (Brawl, Damage 10, Critical 2, Range[Engaged], Pierce 3, Vicious 3), Tusks (Brawl, Damage 6, Critical 4, Range[Engaged], Ensnare 1, Knockdown, Pierce 5)

It's great, thank you. My player is around 200, but I don't intend to let it be a beatable challenge, I want to show her, there's always a bigger fish

12 hours ago, Rimsen said:

It's great, thank you. My player is around 200, but I don't intend to let it be a beatable challenge, I want to show her, there's always a bigger fish

Having something completely "unbeatable" is never a good idea. Having it extremely difficult to beat, is one thing, but "unbeatable"? Not so much. If it has stats , it can be beaten.

9 hours ago, Tramp Graphics said:

Having something completely "unbeatable" is never a good idea. Having it extremely difficult to beat, is one thing, but "unbeatable"? Not so much. If it has stats , it can be beaten.

Unbeatable, alone on her level of experience, and current equipment*

And the reason is to introducing it now, that i want to start a plotline later on hunting a force sensitive, so the Tarantetek will be good to let her know where to get lightsaber resistant furcoat