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Those people who are intelligent enough (that means, possess the ability to read that I want artists for monsters, not suggestions of ones to make, because obviously I have no knowledge in the area) to send in artwork of a monster are often shot down not for a lack of drawing ability, but rather because they drew something in wild contradiction of the legend. Here's how to avoid that mistake.
- Step #5: Stats
- No matter what, every monster applicant who first sends in their vision of a monster's stats always way over-does it. The stats should represent the monster in relation to every other mythological monster, not to, say, a human or regular animal as most people must think.
Before I get to what the stats even mean, I should cover what they can even be. A species's stats range between ten and thirty, with twenty being the average. If it helps, you can just think of it as minus-ten to plus-ten with zero as the average. Since BD is a completely fair game, the total of all stats must be average (either equal to all seven categories being average, which is 140, or the deviations from average equaling zero).
Now, here is the part that everyone -- even though I specifically take time aside to make special note of it -- wants to go against for some reason: a monster's stats should only go above or below average by more than five points in extremely rare occasions. I can't tell you how many times someone has proposed that their new species be the max or close to it in multiple attributes.
The most powerful (and the least powerful) species are strictly regulated in BD. Most monsters should never merit to deviate even into the twenty-five point range. There are a lot of monsters out there, and if an undeserving species is given too high or two low of an attribute, it will mess up what other species should have in relation to it until there are several niches going unfilled. Bad mojo.
So try and pay close attention to what the stats mean and mind a monster's rank on the list of all other monsters:
- Strength represents physical power.
- Increased By: Large size, ferocity, demonstrations of destructive capability
- Decreased By: Small size, peaceful nature, soft or squishy composition
- Speed shows a monster's ability to move or act quickly.
- Increased By: Ability to travel large distances, multiple methods of attack
- Decreased By: Immobility, slow wits, rigidity
- Agility is the evasive property of a species.
- Increased By: Invisibility, nimbleness, small size, harmful presence
- Decreased By: Immobility, large size, difficulty in side-stepping
- Defense demonstrates a monster's resistance to physical attacks.
- Increased By: Shells, hard scales or skin, harmful presence
- Decreased By: Soft or squishy composition, feebleness
- Arcane shows black magic prowess and knowledge of hidden things.
- Increased By: Association with evil, death, magic, the afterlife, or elemental forces
- Decreased By: Animal intelligence, goodness, lack of a supernatural element
- Virtue is the white or holy magic ability ability of a species.
- Increased By: Association with good, repelling evil, light, divinity, or bravery
- Decreased By: Evilness, lack of supernatural elements, lack of alignment
- Strike connotes a monster's fighting ability and accuracy.
- Increased By: Ferocity, multiple attacking methods, enhanced vision, hunting, and tracking
- Decreased By: Blindness, limited reach, peaceful nature
Now here's where things get tricky: as a monster levels up, it will become privvy to some extra points. Its overall stats will see an increase of two points at both level ten and twenty. Moreover, whenever a monster changes its form, its stats can (and probably should) change. To make it easy for you, here are all possible combinations of forms and statistics:
| One Form | Lvl 1-9:
140 Points | Lvl 10-19:
142 Points | Lvl 20+:
144 Points
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| Two Forms | Lvl 1-9:
140 Points | Lvl 10-14:
142 Points | New Form! Lvl 15-19:
142 Points | Lvl 20+:
144 Points
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| Three Forms | Lvl 1-9:
140 Points | New Form! Lvl 10-19:
142 Points | New Form! Lvl 20+:
144 Points
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Three Forms
(w/ Egg) | Lvl 1-???:
140 Points | Hatch! Lvl ???-9:
140 Points | Lvl 10-19:
142 Points | New Form! Lvl 20+:
144 Points
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Tiamat is one of those very fortunate monsters that is also a diety. Dieties have a problem that many non-divine monsters do: they are too powerful to be fair. It is the fun of Battling Dragons to try to squeeze them into this balanced game.
One of the most immediate things to use as a chopping block for Tiamat is Agility. Tiamat is huge -- world-sized, even. There is an assigned "horse agility" at fifteen (minus-five) points which acts as a guideline for unevasive monsters. Tiamat is not the largest or more than planet sized (like Falak and Bahamut) but it is larger than Behemoth.
Tiamat is huge and destructive and nigh-invulnerable. Normally, invincibility is nothing; lots of monsters are impervious to weapons. Tiamat has the added advantage of being a goddess and a giant. She won't be the most defensive monster in BD, but she can be close. Her size and ferocity should also merit some exceptional strength.
The chaotic dragon should not have much virtue at all. This chaos also gives a good excuse to use the Strike category as a whipping boy (a stat to lower in order to raise others). Chaos is random and indeterminate; strike is about consistency and accuracy. The two are opposed.
Her divine status, wrath, and Tablets of Destiny make Tiamat a huge Arcane powerhouse. The only remaining category is Speed, which for a creature of Tiamat's size should be nothing impressive. It will probably also be used as a whipping boy.
In closing on Tiamat's statistic distribution, she was designed as a sort of counter to the Ryu. Both are dragons, both are divinity, and both have several elements in addition to their primary Water element. One is light; the other is chaos. Ryu is a very balanced; Tiamat has very tipped scales. No monsters up to this point had this sort of distribution, and since this dragon could fit the bill, I decided to go with it.
| | Egg | Hatchling | Hatchling (Lvl 10+) | Final (Lvl 20+)
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| Strength | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29
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| Speed | 16 | 17 | 17 | 17
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| Agility | 12 | 12 | 12 | 12
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| Defense | 29 | 29 | 29 | 29
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| Arcane | 29 | 27 | 28 | 29
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| Virtue | 12 | 12 | 12 | 12
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| Strike | 16 | 16 | 16 | 16
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