Beasts

Beasts (aka Animals) throughout the Realm of Strife come in a variety of shapes and sizes, but all share several things in common; they live, breath, move, sleep, reproduce, and ingest matter for sustenance. Most animals possess very little connection to the Spirit of Creation, sometimes marked by it, but rarely able to tap into its power. Most have lost any tie to their Realm of Origin and in many ways are considered to simply originate from the Realm of Strife itself. Some even speculate that most animals were so dramatically altered when they arrived in the Realm of Strife that they became beings comprised solely of the Substance of Creation, and in many ways this is why they are considered to be lower order beings of the Second Creation. This has lead to a misconception that they are also the least intelligent, however this is not the case. In fact some beasts are surprisingly intelligent and demonstrate wisdom far beyond the foolish adventurers so often found among the Third Creation.

Beasts also have the distinction of being trainable, providing many useful functions to those willing to put in the effort to train them (see Animal Training and Companions) or those with coin enough to pay someone else to do it.

Beast Metagroups

The Codex of Creation separates beasts into several Metagroups, each with common characteristics:

• Aquatic
• Arthropod
• Avian
• Invertebrate
• Mammal
• Reptile
• Chimera (a mixture or 2 or more species)

Beast Classes

Beasts can be subdivided into several classes, that characterize the combat and defensive styles employed when engaged in battle:

• Aerial: uses flight as a weapon or means of escape/evasion
• Ambusher: uses stealth and natural environments to its advantage to mask its presence until ready to spring upon its prey
• Brute: uses pure physical violence to overwhelm and intimidate enemies
• Burrower: capable of tunneling through the ground and often surprising foes by bursting onto the battlefield with a variety of effects
• Disabler: uses venom, poison or other means of disabling enemies, often at range
• Herd: use strength of numbers for natural protection and often try to avoid combat, but also possess trample effects that can crush enemies beneath their hooves
• Magical: uses magical powers or natural abilities that mimic magic for self defense or to overcome prey, often at range
• Pack Hunter: gains bonuses when fighting or hunting with other beasts of the same type
• Protector: uses natural abilities or adaptations to protect its territories or targets that it deems important, often capable of drawing enemies attention to itself and possessing natural defenses that make it tougher than most other beasts
• Demigod: extremely powerful primal beings with some measure or form of immortality, employing a vast array of tactics and special abilities to defeat their enemies

Beast Calling

Primal Beast-callers can use their Faith Powers to summon beasts to temporarily aid them in combat. Beast calling automatically counts as a failed Difficulty roll if attempting to call a beast that is not native to the habitat the caster is currently in. The Difficulty for Calling a particular Beast directly corresponds to the Difficulty field in the Codex of Beasts.

Codex of Beasts

The Codex of Beasts is the master list of all beasts available to Realm of Strife GMs. It does not contain all known beasts, but the list continues to expand as designers create new entries in the codex.

If you are looking for a beast that does not appear in this list please contact us and request that an entry be added to the codex and we will endeavor to publish your request in a timely manner.