Greetings to all galactic denizens! I am currently the GM for a nice group of creative scoundrels on the fringes of the galaxy. So far they have kidnapped an Imperial spy, set up contacts as bounty hunters and formed a nice synergy as a group. One of the things they are trying to do is take down giant beasts. And I don't mean just a rancor. They want to slay a krayt dragon, zakkeg, maalraas, a space worm, and more big game dangerous creatures. Two of the group are bounty hunters that pride themselves on trophies, one of which being critters of extreme danger. I don't see why I won't let them try to seek out and hunt these things down at some point, but how do you suppose I go about statting them out? Clearly, creatures don't have the same baseline or talents/skills as humanoid NPCs. Has anybody found a viable way to make rival/nemesis adversary creatures?

There was a thread somewhere here, or on the d20radio forum with a bunch of creatures. Mind you I don't think I saw a space worm.

As for deciding between rival/nemesis, it depends on how tough you want the fight to be. A nemesis is basically a GM controlled PC, but with potential for even more power, like acting twice per round, freely picking talents from any tree that you as a GM see fit. The good thing with the Rival is that there is no Strain to track, but of course as such can take less pounding.

I haven't venture too much into this, I made some early attempts, but got busy with other stuff,

It seems that creatures are more one-trick ponies. They will have 1 in all characteristics except their primary, and perhaps a secondary. Those will usually be start at 3 and increase.

Soak is usually higher than Brawn, particularly for large beasts, you can easily double Brawn for soak (look to Rancor for inspiration).

Same about Wounds, large Rival creatures (and definitely Nemesis too) can easily have 20 wounds.

I'd make a Krayt dragon a beefed up Rancor I think. Give it a silhouette of 2 or 3 (depending on type and age and all), 30-40 odd wounds (if you make it a Nemesis have at least 25+ Strain), Soak of 12 to 15. Brawn 6, Agility 2 or 3, Intellect 1 or perhaps 2?, Cunning 2 or 3, Willpower 1 or 2, Presence 1... or some such stat line. Let is have a reach attack akin to the Rancor, a swallow whole type attack and some really vicious claws, make the players roll against Fear, give it Adversary 2 or 3.Also, make it real stealthy.

If players go big game hunting, its fun to turn them into prey Krayt Dragons are, in my mind, hilariously dangerous and nigh on mythic. If my players went up against one intentionally I'd make sure to know what abilities and weapons my players have, so I could design it to really, really challenge them. Currently one of my players have a stupendously bearded heavy blaster pistol with increased damage, pierce, and he's got a bucket load of damage increasing talents. It's not fun. 3 or 4 shots and he downed Rancor, alone on a speeder bike.

So after all this nonsense, my suggestion to you: look up the creatures in the core book (and if there are any in the Beyodn the Rim adventure, and if you've got it), and check out the GSA . Not everything in the threat assessment series is beast, but there are some in there.

I just used the rancor as a guide and made a custom beastie. I also didn't go with the mainstream beasties like space worm or krayt dragon. Instead they were on a backwater world which allowed me some creative flexability. The biggest feature is its size. If its vehicle size or space size this greatly changes its stats vs personal scale.

Nothing was more satisfying than my player who thought he could kill anything hit my swamp wyrm. It was vehicle size and he didn't get through the soak. Luckily the players took the hint and ran which turned into a chase scene. A critical hit might of had someone being slowly digested.

I was thinking that you could also give it no stats at all.

If it's a Krayt Dragon, supposed to be nigh invincible and awfully dangerous, treat it as such. Force the players to use their skills to plant explosives, bait it somewhere, pull cables to immobilise it, get a bike to try and distance it while you have other players waiting to ambush with a RPG.. you know stuff like that.

Treat it like a boss in a video game that you cannot defeat by regular means and instead use fun skill challenges for your players.

It's an idea but I think it would be better than having a fight against a beast with X billion HPs.

Cheers!

If you use the GMtools included with Oggydude's character generator, it will give you baseline stats that you can then modify for any enemy level. It also shows a 'power level' stat after creation that you can use as very ROUGH power gauge/indicator.

Also consider using 'Enhanced Nemesis' rules (found in free, Under a Black Sun , PDF adventure) as a guide if your Nemesis doesnt have much backup.

Abilities: Enhanced Nemesis Combat
(the GM should add an additional NPC Initiative slot at the end of the Initiative order. The nemesis may take a second turn during the same round in this slot. Any effects that are supposed to end during his next turn end instead during his next turn in the following round. This allows the nemesis to keep up with the PCs even if they have greater numbers)

These rules are very common in D&D type games for high level monsters, some of them even get 3/4/5 turns a round. The rules worked well with an encounter I ran for my group where they faced a Nemesis beasty. I also gave my large beastie a quality the Hutts have, " Ponderous " which means they only ever get 1 maneuver per round. So the Epic Energy spider got 2 actions, but only ever 1 maneuver. Bad if you want to fight it, good if you want to run away!

Thanks a lot! All of this is great information to work with. Currently, they just jumped into hyperspace to outrun a set of Imperial fighters and break away from a blockade. However, the pilot failed his checks. So they could possibly be jumping into a crash course with a jungle moon.

Thanks a lot! All of this is great information to work with. Currently, they just jumped into hyperspace to outrun a set of Imperial fighters and break away from a blockade. However, the pilot failed his checks. So they could possibly be jumping into a crash course with a jungle moon.

Failed astrogation check shouldnt be too serious unless its like 3+ threat or a despair.

Failure could mean end up taking more time & fuel.