Any creatures that break and reform?

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PalladiumBrony
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Any creatures that break and reform?

Unread post by PalladiumBrony »

Hi

A common trope in horror/adventure fantasy is the creature that's relatively easy to defeat - one good smack with a sword/mace will take them out of the fight - but have a nasty habit of not staying down for very long. Maybe they'll be back up in seconds, maybe minutes or hours, but they're difficult to keep down permanently. Think for example some kind of forest spirit or stone elemental that's made of bits of stone/branches held together with magic, that breaks apart easily when attacked, only to reform again when the adventurer thinks they're safe.

Are there any creatures in Rifts like that? I haven't come across any in any of the books I'm reading. Anyone have any good ideas for handling the reforming mechanic?
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The Beast
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Re: Any creatures that break and reform?

Unread post by The Beast »

I'm not aware of any that will go down with only a handful of hits, but there's plenty that require you do specific things to their remains in order to kill them, otherwise they'll eventually reform.
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Nekira Sudacne
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Re: Any creatures that break and reform?

Unread post by Nekira Sudacne »

The Tetonic Entity. It's a noncoporeal entity that can gather and possess all manner of inanimate matter (including dirt and rocks and vines, but also random scrap, household furnature, anything really). but also basically never die and if they deside to follow (or are commanded to follow) the party around they can just keep doing it. The only way out is to get someone to perform a successful Exorsim or somehow get one of the very rare weapons able to hit incoporeal beings.

It's basically Palladium's one-size-fits-all solution to that Trope, as they can use littearlly any material as their form, and their stats depend on size, the GM can fit them to basically any scenario, and they're relatively easy for bad mages to command with summon lesser being.
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Re: Any creatures that break and reform?

Unread post by Veknironth »

Well, I think vampires fit the bill as well. Sure you can chop them up but they'll regenerate and come back. Most lycanthropes are the same. The stats for them are malleable, just like the tectonic entity. They can be first level and not have a lot of HP/SDC and no combat bonuses, or they could be high level problems for the group.

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PalladiumBrony
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Re: Any creatures that break and reform?

Unread post by PalladiumBrony »

Nekira Sudacne wrote:The Tetonic Entity. It's a noncoporeal entity that can gather and possess all manner of inanimate matter (including dirt and rocks and vines, but also random scrap, household furnature, anything really).


Oh hey, thanks! That's exactly what I'm looking for!
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Axelmania
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Re: Any creatures that break and reform?

Unread post by Axelmania »

I'd say Bonelings forming into a Giant Bonelin (Rifts Dimension Book 11: Dyval page 43) would probably function similarly. Once the combined MDC reaches near-death they're probably all going to scatter and run apart in different directions to regenerate.

IDEALLY you'd have some penalty to hit/detect small bonelings compared to giant (or give giants a penalty to prowl, a bonus to hit them, a penalty to dodge,) to reflect such a logical strat.
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