The Creatures of Arthur's Britain

Listed from this point forward are a selection of the many animals and supernatural creatures that populate the world of Pendragon. This information is designed for Gamemasters, but Players may flip through to get some idea of the relative power of creatures they might well face—most knights have heard enough stories and legends of dragons, for instance, to know whether pursuing one is a wise course (regardless of what their valor and honor would have them do). Each animal listing includes Statistics, game mechanics, and commentary.

Notes on Statistics

Characteristics: SIZ, DEX, STR, and CON are always listed. APP is only listed for humans and for creatures that have a human-seeming appearance.

Derived Characteristics: Damage (Dmg.), Knockdown (KD), Movement Rate (Move), Hit Points (HP), Unconscious (Unc.), Major Wound (MW), and Healing Rate (HR). Some animals have inherent modifiers to their attributes, and some have different means of moving, such as flying or swimming.

Movement for quadrupeds is figured out by their real-world running speed (or the closest equivalent, in the case of supernatural creatures). As noted under “Horse Speeds” on p. 181 of the Pendragon Core Rules (opens new window), this is equal to four times the miles covered per hour at a walk. Remember that quadrupeds may canter, trot, or gallop.

The Damage statistic for most creatures is calculated differently from that of humans, for beasts cannot always bring their full strength and mass to bear in combat the way that a knight can with a steel weapon. As a result, many monsters and beasts have a Damage statistic significantly less than what would be expected for human characters.

Armor: Some animals and creatures have natural armor values, from scales or tough hides, or from supernatural ones.

Traits and Passions: Only available to humans and human-like fairies, and only the useful or notable ones are listed. Gamemasters may modify Trait or Passion values to individual creatures, of course.

Skills: Animals and some supernatural creatures have an Avoidance Skill, described below.

Combat Skills: Animals and fairy beasts attack by tooth, claw, and other means, both natural and supernatural. Each is listed as a separate skill, with its own value.

Special Abilities: Animals and supernatural creatures may have unique abilities or qualities that are simply unavailable to human characters. Valorous Modififier: Some animals and all supernatural creatures impose inherent modifiers to the Valorous Trait. This modifier applies whenever a character must roll Valorous to engage with or attack the creature in question, and a creature with a modifier always requires a Valorous roll to approach.

Treasure: Some creatures might be sitting on something of great worth or may have beautiful pelts, magnificent horns, or other prizes to bring home after a successful hunt. Such valuables are listed here. Raw materials such as hides are not assigned a value, as their final worth is decided by the skill of the artisan who works the material.

Glory Won: The amount of Glory gained by defeating or killing an animal or supernatural creature.

Spears Against Beasts

Spears wielded with two hands and any two-handed hafted weapon with a spear point are particularly effective in the hunt. When attacking an animal with such a weapon, gain a +5 modifier to Weapon Skill. Spears may also be set against charging beasts.

Avoidance

The Avoidance Skill, known by nature to some animals and supernatural creatures, shows how adept the beast is at hiding and escaping from hunters. During each segment of a hunt, the quarry makes an opposed Avoidance roll against a character’s Hunting Skill.

Hunting Pack

During a hunt, the dogs follow the scent hounds, who howl when quarry is discovered. Once the quarry is seen, gaze hounds take over and run after the prey, keeping it in sight and nipping at it to make it stumble and slow down. As the quarry slows from exhaustion, the rest of the pack catches up and falls upon it, biting and killing the beast. Human hunters arrive last, take the dogs off the prey, and reward them with the steaming innards.

When employing pack tactics, dogs harry and swarm their prey, forcing it to take a penalty as it tries to fend off multiple opponents. If the beast tries to focus on just one attacker, the other dogs make Reckless Attacks.

Flying Creatures

Some creatures can fly, making them particularly dangerous. While in the air, they get the Height Advantage Modifier of +5 to their Weapon Skills while attacking an opponent on the ground. If subjected to missile shooting while flying, the attack is opposed by their flying Movement Rate. If a flying creature is reduced to half its Hit Points, it can no longer fly.

Valorous Modifiers

Some creatures are big, fierce, and naturally evoke fear in humans when met. Characters wishing to attack a fierce beast may be required to make a successful Valorous roll upon first sighting it: If the creature has a Valorous Modifier as part of its statistics, each character present must make a Trait Test roll before engaging the creature (attacking, attempting to parlay, etc.). Failure indicates the character’s reluctance to close with the beast for one Combat Round (another roll may be attempted the next Round, and so on, until successful), while a fumble indicates that the character checks Cowardly and flees in terror at their (or their horse’s) full Movement Rate for 1D6 rounds before returning to their senses, at which point they may act as they wish—though they must continue to make Valorous rolls if they wish to approach the creature again.

This modifier is a survival factor for young Player-knights— creatures too large or too powerful to kill should be avoided or placated, not attacked.

Note that groups of knights confronting a single monster have a better chance of defeating it, so any Valorous Modifiers are divided equally among all of those present and able-bodied, even if only one character wishes to engage the beast.

Of course, other modifiers for the situation might also be applied; the Inspiration bonus from a Passion may be applied to offset the Valorous modifier if, for example, the object of the knight’s Passion is in danger.

Player-knights who wish to actively avoid a confrontation with a dangerous creature may request a Prudent roll in place of Valorous, in which case the Valorous modifier is “flipped” and applied to Prudent. For example, a creature with a –10 Valorous modifier grants a +10 Prudent modifier. This modifier is not divided by the number of other characters present.

Creatures with a Valorous modifier are inherently deadly and dangerous, and a knight who chooses the Prudent path never checks Cowardly. Knights who are notably Valorous may only choose to roll Prudent instead if the Valorous modifier reduces their effective Trait to below 16.