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Looking for some unique and new NPC monsters that can give my players a challenge for a very high level campaign. All level 11+.

So if anyone has any good ideas or old creations in their folders collecting dust could use some inspiration. Not just vanilla big monsters with lots of SDC and high damage output, but something with unique tactics and special abilities that are tactical tough to deal with would be good.

Do you have any Rifters?

As far as "new" monsters, the Beyond the Supernatural line may be of interest to you. Teleporting Dimenional ghouls, haunting spirits, etc.

Rather than more firepower, maybe you need a change of tactics for challenging your party? Challenging any high level party means you need to take into account their class abilities and their equipment.
- Psionics, if you don't have them you are extremely vulnerable. Empathic Transmission from a Weeping Banshee hurts the party's attack and defense abilities.
- Smart enemies will disable dangerous party members from a distance.A gremilin may not be able to make a magic sword break, but a saddle strap or a boot lace breaking can be very bad during combat.
- Does the party easily detect "evil" enemies? Constructs (Golems) and animals (tiger, bears) aren't "evil". The party won't sense them approaching.
- Is everyone equiped with a deadly magic sword? Harass them with flyers with bows and spells.
- Party well protected by magic armor? Posion gas, avalanches, falling from a great height (dropped by flyer or knocked off a cliff).
- Ambush. Prowl skill, invisibility, teleportation, hiding underground. Particularly Shadowbeasts in darkness or aquatics hiding in water...you know it's there, you just can't see it well enough to attack it <insert JAWS theme here>.

Design encounters that are more than a slugfest:
- Dealing with an orc chief holding a knife to the princess is harder than if he has her locked in a cage in the back room.
- Enemies that can shapeshift or turn invisible should be using those powers to observe the party and either manipulate them or strike at a good moment; not the instant they walk in a lair. A dragon/vampire/demon might let a party loot their lair. Follow them back to town and attack when they are drunk, sleeping or in other comprimising situations.
- If party shoots first against any threat? Shapeshifters and mind-control powers could turn a village or even kingdom against the party. How do the people react to a party that killed their beloved Prince/War Hero when he obeyed the false King's order to arrest the party?

Remember, the goal is typically to make a memorable gaming session. Not to crush the party, but to make them sweat a little.

Really need more firepower? It maybe cliche, but how would they fight evil doubles from a mirror dimension. Same equipment and abilities as the party. Or you could just throw 50 dragons at them.

The Monstrous Creations thread at the top of this forum has all of the creatures I have created for the game, as well as by many others. You might want to check it out.

Lukterran wrote:Looking for some unique and new NPC monsters that can give my players a challenge for a very high level campaign. All level 11+.

So if anyone has any good ideas or old creations in their folders collecting dust could use some inspiration. Not just vanilla big monsters with lots of SDC and high damage output, but something with unique tactics and special abilities that are tactical tough to deal with would be good.

Take a peek at the new Rifts Bestiary... some good stuff in there (with conversion notes for SDC worlds, if needed). The stat blocks are also standardized and updated.

Lukterran wrote:Looking for some unique and new NPC monsters that can give my players a challenge for a very high level campaign. All level 11+.

So if anyone has any good ideas or old creations in their folders collecting dust could use some inspiration. Not just vanilla big monsters with lots of SDC and high damage output, but something with unique tactics and special abilities that are tactical tough to deal with would be good.

If you're looking for a direct physical challenge to overcome, I'd consider scenarios first and villains second.

"You cannot pass!" -Gandalf, The Fellowship of the Ring
If your players are used to fighting together, consider putting them into a situation where they have to fight something supremely powerful one-on-one. Tunnels and bridges can be good for this.

"Yes! The ticking crock!" - Kim Jong Il, Team America: World Police
If fights tend to drag out, consider putting the party into situations in which they have to win within a set timeframe or all is lost. This can be due to villains performing evil rituals, rising tides, an impending volcanic eruption, the limited duration of a key enabling spell.

A weapon that can kill it. -Batman, Batman vs Superman
You could create a monster that is only vulnerable under certain circumstances: certain weapons, certain materials, a time of day, a weather condition, certain specific magical effects, being in a specific place or type of place, et cetera.

"What's in there?" -Luke
"Only what you take with you." -Yoda, The Empire Strikes Back
Ask each player to duplicate his/her character. Then write up a twisted alternate version of each, and create a scenario in which the party must confront and defeat a corrupted version of itself.

"Run away!" - Various, Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Present a force too numerous and terrible for the characters to overcome. Their only hope is to escape and evade capture.

Execute Order 66 -Palpatine, Revenge of the Sith
Take the faction the heroes have been fighting for and turn them on the party suddenly, without warning.

As for actual antagonists, my favorites are characters that a player could conceivably create/play. I created a nonviolent genocidal villain a year ago. He could give almost any party some serious trouble.

You could go with a summoner who likes to summon and force angels to do his dirty work. The party must fight them, but needs to at least try not to kill.

You could go with a possessing entity who jumps from P.C. to P.C., using prepared notes you clandestinely pass to players.

You could go with a possessing parasite or item that the characters must remove from an innocent that requires the players to incapacitate or knock off with very high called shot rolls.

Hotrod wrote:

Lukterran wrote:Looking for some unique and new NPC monsters that can give my players a challenge for a very high level campaign. All level 11+.

So if anyone has any good ideas or old creations in their folders collecting dust could use some inspiration. Not just vanilla big monsters with lots of SDC and high damage output, but something with unique tactics and special abilities that are tactical tough to deal with would be good.

If you're looking for a direct physical challenge to overcome, I'd consider scenarios first and villains second.

"You cannot pass!" -Gandalf, The Fellowship of the Ring
If your players are used to fighting together, consider putting them into a situation where they have to fight something supremely powerful one-on-one. Tunnels and bridges can be good for this.

"Yes! The ticking crock!" - Kim Jong Il, Team America: World Police
If fights tend to drag out, consider putting the party into situations in which they have to win within a set timeframe or all is lost. This can be due to villains performing evil rituals, rising tides, an impending volcanic eruption, the limited duration of a key enabling spell.

A weapon that can kill it. -Batman, Batman vs Superman
You could create a monster that is only vulnerable under certain circumstances: certain weapons, certain materials, a time of day, a weather condition, certain specific magical effects, being in a specific place or type of place, et cetera.

"What's in there?" -Luke
"Only what you take with you." -Yoda, The Empire Strikes Back
Ask each player to duplicate his/her character. Then write up a twisted alternate version of each, and create a scenario in which the party must confront and defeat a corrupted version of itself.

"Run away!" - Various, Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Present a force too numerous and terrible for the characters to overcome. Their only hope is to escape and evade capture.

Execute Order 66 -Palpatine, Revenge of the Sith
Take the faction the heroes have been fighting for and turn them on the party suddenly, without warning.

As for actual antagonists, my favorites are characters that a player could conceivably create/play. I created a nonviolent genocidal villain a year ago. He could give almost any party some serious trouble.

You could go with a summoner who likes to summon and force angels to do his dirty work. The party must fight them, but needs to at least try not to kill.

You could go with a possessing entity who jumps from P.C. to P.C., using prepared notes you clandestinely pass to players.

You could go with a possessing parasite or item that the characters must remove from an innocent that requires the players to incapacitate or knock off with very high called shot rolls.

A lot of these scenarios are answered if you make the government or corporation providing the funding for the hero be the villain all along.

Hotrod wrote:You could go with a summoner who likes to summon and force angels to do his dirty work. The party must fight them, but needs to at least try not to kill.

That's actually quite difficult to pull off. Have you seen the M.E. (and save bonuses) of Spirits of Light? Not to mention the bonuses to break free of control if one were to command them to do something abhorrent to their nature, etc.

malaclypse wrote:

Hotrod wrote:You could go with a summoner who likes to summon and force angels to do his dirty work. The party must fight them, but needs to at least try not to kill.

That's actually quite difficult to pull off. Have you seen the M.E. (and save bonuses) of Spirits of Light? Not to mention the bonuses to break free of control if one were to command them to do something abhorrent to their nature, etc.

Difficult, yes. As a player, I wouldn't try it. As a GM, it's a hand-wave, or if you really want to go down the rabbit hole...

1. Do evil vs Do evil: Make the angel believe that, if they don't keep the summoner happy, something far more dreadful will happen.
2. Have the summoner trick the angel into believing that what the summoner is actually doing is not just good, but morally imperative.
3. Have the summoner (or one of the summoner's minions) mentally possess the angel.
4. Corrupt the angel over time.

Hotrod wrote:

malaclypse wrote:

Hotrod wrote:You could go with a summoner who likes to summon and force angels to do his dirty work. The party must fight them, but needs to at least try not to kill.

That's actually quite difficult to pull off. Have you seen the M.E. (and save bonuses) of Spirits of Light? Not to mention the bonuses to break free of control if one were to command them to do something abhorrent to their nature, etc.

Difficult, yes. As a player, I wouldn't try it. As a GM, it's a hand-wave, or if you really want to go down the rabbit hole...

1. Do evil vs Do evil: Make the angel believe that, if they don't keep the summoner happy, something far more dreadful will happen.
2. Have the summoner trick the angel into believing that what the summoner is actually doing is not just good, but morally imperative.
3. Have the summoner (or one of the summoner's minions) mentally possess the angel.
4. Corrupt the angel over time.

Or, summon angels and have them attack "bad people"... like, summon a few angels and have them wipe out a coven of witches. Sure, wiping out those witches allows YOUR vampire coven to grow, but the angels don't need to know that.

I gave the first section of a campaign a memorable end when the PC party had to fight a sunken ship brought to life by a "greater techtonic entity"... as well as the 60+ techtonically-animated former crew members.

I liked the faeries animating the cyclops skeleton in high seas.