Frogboy said that the different creatures will be individually rare, but varied. That means you aren't likely to find a civilization of unicorns or trolls, but maybe you'll stumble across a forest with a small population of various creatures or an isolated tribe of trolls.

And I would like to stress that 'critters' should not be entirely about recruiting or killing. They should be able to provide other opportunities as well. Geoff the Slug is a prime (but very specific) example.

Hmm... I remember him saying that having, say, a dragon on your side would be a very big deal. But I imagine (and hope) that the range of magical critters in the game will cover a very wide spectrum of archetype and combat ability. I think all fantastical beings should be stronger than (or have some other advantage over) regular troops in combat, but only the upper few levels should be really big deals. For example, yeti should be powerful in their own right but easily taken down by correct application of numbers. If my opponent as a yeti, it shouldn't be a big deal. If he has 20 yeti, then maybe I should start being worried. Likewise if he has a handful of Ents. And if he has 1 dragon I should be pissing my pants.

look at the media section paradoxnt:   there are several dragon breeds there.  I couldn't imagine that they would  have the same stats.

@pigeonx2:  I remember him talking about fantastic creatures in general being a big deal, before dragons were mentioned.  But I guess we'll  see.  (I personally think that Ents would cave to even 1 dragon.  But I'm a bigger fan of dragons being the most powerful creatures around.   The near indestructable forces I imagine from stories like "the wizard of Earthsea".  The dragon's stats in Burning Wheel also reflect this, being unable to even be injured except by "grey" stats and weapons)

Yeah, I'm with Winter (btw, I adore your latest avatar). I simply do not know enough. We know less about how dungeons are supposed to work than the magic system/research - and that says a lot. That is, it doesn't say squat.

I wonder if there'll be a viable option for those of us that don't want "fantastical" creatures in our armies, instead opting for.. racial purity.

don't forget that they can "link directly to quests"  (boogiebac made sure to bold that part)

Thats the part I'm most interested in.   Boogiebac confirmed that dungeons will include ruins and things like that, but what kind of quests will be linked to them I wonder?   I was kinda hoping for speculation there.

another reason I brought it up, is I am trying to figure out a few good questions for Denyu's surveys.   I am forming some questions to send him like "how do you want them to work" or something related to a possible "dungeon crawl" mode (fan or official made, doesn't really matter at this point) and I was hopping somebody would say something that would help create good questions (my brain is fried)

I hope we see quests like 'sneak into the Oger Bear Cavalry's cave and switch their chocolate for ex-lax.  Then plant evidence so they think Psychoak is responsible'.

Surely the question should be what sort of person listens to a questgiver who is trying to unleash a horde of diarrhetic bear cavalry on the world?

I remember the mention of creatures you would might play the game for weeks without seeing.  I wonder what kind of stuff falls under that catigory.  I find it hard to imagine what would work for that.   It would need to have quests and such based on it.  Some kind of ancient creature that has been chained deep beneath the  planet surface, or perhaps a being that has been adrift and frozen in space for millions of years that crashlands and is awoken by the entry of atmosphere.

I don't think of Geoff the Slug as a dungeon critter at all. He's an Independent Power. Maybe his Swamp would need to be built with the dungeon blocks instead of the code chunks behind a human or Fallen community, and maybe both the Swamp and Geoff need links to existing quests and hooks for links to new quests.

My impression about the Beasts is that the sentient ones will be as rare as the very powerful ones, and I really like the idea of many (most?) of them being singular entities or parts of a small non-reproducing group, not 'breeds' of some sort. Espcecially if they're both sentient and magical, e.g. dragons.

p.s. Here's hoping that the 'little forests' stuff includes some sub-types: temperate rain forest, tropical rain forest, sub-tropical hardwood, swamp...

Quoting Scoutdog,

reply 19

I actually want hordes of small, weak "cannon fodder" beasts, as well as the big guys, for one simple reason: I want "beast master" to be a valid platystyle in its own right. No powerful cities or great heroes, but a giant army of wild boars (and yes, that IS with an O, not an E . Sorry, Luckmann....)

I'd like to try that out. Although then I wouldn't want 'Beasts' as much as 'Animals'.

would/could his swamp not be a dungeon?   If a dungeon is like an X-com battle, its perfectly reasonable to imagine a  swamp as a possible dungeon location.

Re my previous Geoff mention, I was referring to landi's occasional oblique slug-references, not what you pigeonpigeon said. I was just typing straight from the brain while wondering just how big and flexible the 'dungeon' stuff will be as opposed to 'towns.'

On the Beasts thing, I used the capital because I'm under the impression that the devs have all units divided into humans, Fallen, and Beasts. I have no idea how much weight the prose on the Beasts lore page might still carry. Probably everything that can fight in a tactical battle descends from a common parent object, so categories should be flexible. And that old set of lore pages has zero info/hinting about undead units, traditional elementals, djinns, and other not-so-biological things common in the fantasy genre.