Field Guide to the Creatures¶

"Every kind of beast tells you how it'll kill you before it tries - if you know how to read it. A wolf circles. A skeleton won't bleed. A troll just keeps getting back up. Learn the kind, and you're halfway to walking home." - Warden Aldric, Rangers Lodge

The wilds of the Known Lands are not a single soup of monsters. Everything you fight belongs to a family, and the family tells you far more than the individual name. A wolf and a dire wolf hunt the same way; a skeleton and a wight shrug off the same blows. Once you can sort a thing into its family on sight, you already know how the fight is going to go.

This guide is the broad-strokes map of who's out there. For the per-creature card - exact habitat, weaknesses, loot - see the Bestiary index and query /bestiary <name> once you've met something. This page is for the question before that: "what kind of thing is this, and do I run?"

At a glance¶

Family	Where you meet it	What makes it dangerous
Beasts	Forests, hills, sewers, caves	Pack-hunting, raw speed, bleed-you-out claws
Vermin & swarm	Cellars, sewers, mines	Numbers and poison, not muscle
Bandits & raiders	Roads, camps, alleys	Armed like you are - and they coordinate
Goblinoids	Caves, border-forts, tunnels	Cowardly alone, deadly in a led pack
Undead	Crypts, ruins, battlefields	Don't bleed, don't fear, drain the living
Brutes & giants	Hills, bridges, deep galleries	One hit folds you; some regenerate
Spiders & crawlers	Webbed caves, sewers, ruins	Webs, venom, ambush from the dark
Elementals & constructs	Vents, vaults, workshops	No flesh to wound; weak only to the opposite element
Fey & the strange	Old groves, deep glades	Bargains, charms, and rules older than you

Most of what you fight early is beasts, bandits, and the lesser undead. The rest you grow into.

Beasts - the territorial wild¶

Wolves, boars, bears, the big cats, feral dogs. Natural predators defending range or hungry enough to try you. They're the backbone of the bestiary and the first real fight most travellers see outside a town wall.

What makes them dangerous: the dangerous ones hunt in packs. A lone Grey Wolf is a manageable fight; a pack calls and circles, and suddenly you're surrounded and losing the initiative. The Dire Wolf and the like hit far harder than their smaller cousins but fight the same way - read one, you've read them all.

Wolves - Grey Wolf, Timber Wolf, and the heavyweight Dire Wolf. Pack-hunters; never let them flank you.
Bears - the Cave Bear and Grizzly are slow but enormous; a single mauling can leave a lasting wound even if you win.
Boars - the Wild Boar and Razorback charge in a straight line; sidestep and they overcommit.
Big cats - Mountain Lion, Cougar; fast, high-dodge ambushers that pounce from a ledge.

Use the terrain. A choke point - a doorway, a narrow trail - stops a pack from surrounding you and turns a four-on-one into four one-on-ones.

Vermin & swarm - small and many¶

Rats, bats, scorpions, serpents, centipedes, roaches. Individually trivial; the danger is numbers and poison, not strength.

Rats - from the cellar variety up to the Giant Rat and the Sewer Rat. Pack-hunters with a disease-carrying bite.
Bats - frantically evasive; hard to land a clean hit on.
Serpents & scorpions - the Pit Viper, Asp, and Giant Scorpion trade muscle for a venomous bite or sting that keeps hurting after the hit lands. See Wounds & Healing for what poison does to you over time.

A swarm wears you down through sheer attrition. If you can't thin them fast, fall back to a doorway and fight them one at a time.

Bandits & raiders - the human threat¶

The most common thinking enemy you'll face: Bandits, Highwaymen, Cutthroats, Muggers, Thieves, and the more dangerous Mercenaries, Bandit Captains, and Orc Raiders. They carry the same gear you do - swords, axes, daggers, the odd bow - and a captain's blade may be a real upgrade worth taking off the corpse.

What makes them dangerous: they're as capable as you are. They wear armour, they coordinate, and the leader hangs back while the grunts engage. Some thieves and footpads will break and run the moment a fight turns - let them go, or chase and risk an ambush.

Lone muggers and cutpurses fold fast under pressure.
Mercenaries and captains are a proper duel - expect armour, expect a finishing blow if you drop low.
Talk first where you can. Some will take a toll or a bribe over a fight. Not all roads have to end in blood.

Goblinoids - cowards in a pack¶

Goblins, Hobgoblins, Kobolds, Gnolls, Bugbears. Weak one-on-one, genuinely dangerous in an organised group with a leader barking orders.

What makes them dangerous: the pack and the leader. Kobolds lay traps; goblins throw rocks from the back; gnolls rally each other with a cackling war-cry that stiffens the whole pack. A Hobgoblin sergeant or a gnoll matriarch holds the others together -

Drop the leader and the pack frays. Cut the one shouting orders and the rest lose their nerve.

The Bugbear is the exception: a solo brute that hits like a small ogre. Treat it as a brute, not a goblin.

Undead - they don't bleed, they don't fear¶

Skeletons, Zombies, Ghouls, Wights, Wraiths, Mummies, Banshees, and the host of crypt-things below. The undead column is the deepest in the bestiary, and it runs in escalating order from a clumsy Skeleton to a draining Wight to a screaming Banshee.

What makes them dangerous: ordinary tactics fail. The undead feel no fear and never rout, so you can't break their morale - you have to put every one of them down. Many shrug off cold, dark, and poison entirely, and several carry nastier tricks:

Skeletons & zombies - the rank and file. Skeletons swing clumsily; zombies are slow but soak punishment. The fragile ones go down fast once you commit.
Ghouls & mummies - a paralysing touch that can freeze you mid-fight. Don't get cornered by one.
Wights & specters - drain the life out of you with each hit, healing themselves as they wound you. A prolonged fight feeds them; end it quickly.
Banshees & wraiths - a terrifying scream or fear-aura that can send you fleeing. Steel yourself, or bring someone who can.

Bring the right damage. Holy power and blessed weapons bite the undead where ordinary steel struggles. A temple-blessed bandage won't help here, but a cleric or paladin's holy light will. See the Bestiary index for the per-creature weakness list.

Brutes & giants - the wall of meat¶

Trolls, Ogres, Cave Trolls, and the giant-kin in the high country and the deep galleries. The tier where a single hit can fold you.

What makes them dangerous: crushing power, plus two special problems.

Armour-crush. Ogres and the like land heavy blows that smash through armour - your plate buys you less than usual. Some work themselves into a blood-rage as the fight drags, hitting harder the longer you last.
Regeneration. Trolls knit their wounds back together mid- fight. If you can't out-damage the regrowth, you'll never finish one - and fire is the classic answer to a regenerating troll. (Read the entry; not every brute regenerates the same way.)

Don't trade blows toe-to-toe with a brute if you can help it. Use reach, use terrain, and don't let a slow giant pin you against a wall.

Spiders & crawlers - the dark and the web¶

Giant Spiders, Cave Spiders, the Thornwood and Silk varieties, plus the Carrion Crawler and Centipede crowd in the deep places.

What makes them dangerous: they fight on their terms. A spider snares you in webbing so you can't move while it bites, and many crawlers carry a paralysing or venomous bite. They love the dark and the ambush - a roof-ambush in a webbed cave is exactly the worst place to meet one.

Carry a torch into web-choked ground; spiders see in the dark and you don't.
Cut yourself free of a web fast - a snared fighter is a dead one.
Fire clears webbing and hurts the spinner.

Elementals & constructs - no flesh to wound¶

Ice Elementals, Water Elementals, Bone Constructs, Iron Golems, and the animated things that necromancers and old vaults leave behind.

What makes them dangerous: they have no flesh, no morale, and no fatigue. They don't bleed, can't be frightened, and won't tire - they simply keep coming until destroyed. You can't skin them either; a kill yields a shard or a binding-rune, not a hide.

Elementals answer to their opposite - fire melts the frost- bound, water quenches the burning. Bring the counter and they fall fast; bring the wrong damage and you'll be there all day.
Constructs are animated by a binding-rune or a controlling frame; the real target is often that, not the body.

These are a knowledge fight more than a strength fight. Going in blind is how a manageable foe becomes an unwinnable one.

Fey & the strange - bargains, not battles¶

The deep groves and blessed glades hold creatures bound by older rules - charming, illusion-veiled, or simply not interested in a fight. The Bestiary index covers the surface of these; the short version is don't treat them like beasts. Many can be talked past, bargained with, or left well alone - and some of the most beautiful kills in the wood are sacrilege that no honest tanner will buy.

How to learn a creature - before it learns you¶

You don't have to discover every weakness the hard way. Three trades turn ignorance into advantage.

Study it (the Scholar's edge)¶

A Scholar can analyze or study a foe mid-fight, reading its movements and tells. A successful study reveals its weaknesses and slaps a debuff on it - the creature fights worse once the Scholar has its measure, and the knowledge is yours to keep (and even sell). Against an unfamiliar brute or aberration, a study in the opening round can decide the whole fight. See the Scholar class guide.

Track it (the Ranger's edge)¶

A Ranger or other woodland class reads sign on the ground - prints, scat, broken brush - and knows what made it and how fresh it is before the thing is in sight. Tracking tells you what you're walking into and lets you choose the ground, set an ambush, or simply avoid a fight you'd lose. The wilderness classes also run guided hunts that funnel the right tier of creature into your path. See the Ranger class guide and Mounts & Travel for covering ground safely.

Read the body (loot & skinning)¶

A kill is also a lesson and a payday. Most natural creatures - beasts, big game, spiders - yield hides, pelts, fangs, claws, venom sacs, and feathers to a skinner; the quality scales with your Skinning rank. Undead, elementals, and constructs give no hide, but their remains can still carry intel or reagents. And a corpse often names things: a contract-letter on a mercenary, a locket on a shapechanger. The full mechanics - what skins, what rots, how fast - live in Corpses, Looting & Skinning.

Just fight it (and remember)¶

Every creature you defeat is permanently logged in your /bestiary. The first kill is the expensive one; after that, the field-guide card is yours to review before you ever meet its kin again. The bestiary is your memory - use it.

Quick reference - "it's a , so I "¶

If the thing is…	Do this
Fast and packs (wolves, gnolls)	Find a choke point; fight them one at a time
A leader-led pack (goblins, gnolls)	Kill the one giving orders; the rest fray
Armed like you (bandits, mercs)	Expect armour and coordination - or talk/bribe first
Undead	No morale to break; bring holy/blessed damage, beware drain
A draining/paralysing toucher (wight, ghoul, mummy)	End it fast; don't get cornered
A screamer (banshee, wraith)	Brace for fear; bring willpower or a steadier ally
A regenerator (troll)	Out-damage the regrowth - fire is the classic answer
An armour-crushing brute (ogre, giant)	Don't trade blows; use reach and terrain
A web-spinner / dark ambusher (spiders)	Carry a torch; cut free fast; fire clears webs
Elemental	Hit it with its opposite element; wrong damage barely scratches
A construct	Target the binding-rune/frame, not the body; no skin to take
Strange and fey	Don't treat it like a beast - talk, bargain, or leave it be
Anything unfamiliar	Have a Scholar study it; check `/bestiary` after the first kill