Special Qualities

[Feithen]

Hi,

I’m starting to dig into creating custom monsters (for Rappan Athuk!) and trying to figure out how to manipulate special qualities. For example, if I bring up a skeleton and have a player hit it with a piercing weapon, it’s damage reduction works properly. Is that effect driven by what’s written in Special Qualities section of the monster’s sheet? If so, is there a global list available of all types of entry that this field will accept?

If not (and it’s driven by something else) – what is it? Where can I get at it, to add special qualities to my monsters?

Thanks!
Fei

[Trenloe]

Yes, it is from the special qualities - which is decoded when the NPC is added to the combat tracker. The special qualities usually get extracted and put in the NPC as a line of effects. You can see this in an affect line for the NPC in question in the combat tracker.

Unfortunately there is no documentation on this - but, it generally follows the format as defined by Paizo for the creature statblocks (see the statblock definition in the introduction of any of the 3 bestiaries or the universal monster rules (in the appendix of the bestiaries or in the PRD) for specific entries).

[Feithen]

Awesome, thank you! I see what you mean about it adding the effect in the tracker, I wondered how it did that.

It sounds like my best bet is to find a monster that I know already has the type of effect/quality I'm after, and add it to my new monster. Nifty. I'll probably keep a running global list of all the ones I use, and can post it sometime if anybody else wants access.