Now you can have some real fun. One of the coolest things to do in Realmz is create new monsters to pummel those who dare oppose you.
A quick note before we get into the nuts and bolts of creating fantastic creatures. There is a file in your scenario file called "Data Menu" This file contains info used to construct the Beastiary Menu whenever a new scenario is loaded. If this file is missing a new one is created when the scenario is loaded. To insure that the file is always up to date and correct, it is deleted every time you enter the Monster Editor. The next time you load your scenario from Divinity, it will create a new "Data Menu" file and construct the information from scratch. This is necessary in case you change the names of any creatures and will insure that they appear in alphabetical order in the Beastiary menu.
Lets make a quick rundown of all the fields in the Monster Editor to give you an idea of what’s what. Most of the fields are pretty easy to understand but a few have some things you need to know.
Lets take a look at somebody we all know and love, my friend and yours, REWOP.
 
Figure 6.0
Stamina Level: This is equivalent to the skill level of the monster. Each level will give the monster a random amount of stamina from 1 to 8 points when the monster is generated at the start of each battle. This value is also used in determining the base victory points awarded to the party and some other things like chance to hit, chance to be turned, etc.
Bonus Stamina: This value will be added to the monster's stamina in addition to the stamina as generated above. Think of it as a way to create a creature that has 3d8 + X stamina.
Agility: The monster's agility. Value ranges from 1 to 25. This will be used in battle setup. Faster monsters have a better chance of moving early in the combat round. Note: Just because a monster is faster than everyone else in a battle does not mean it will go first. Battles are shuffled randomly.
Then a few passes are made through the lineup that bump all creatures that are faster than the one ahead of them up on position. This will cause those that are fast to be shifted to an earlier order in battle but does not give them free hand at going first all the time. Much more realistic in my view.
Move Max: The movement points the monster get each round.
Armor Rating: The armor rating of the monster. Ranges from 0 to 100+.
Magic Resist %: The magic resistance of the monster. This percentage only applies to spells that can be resisted.
Req Weapon: Required weapon to hit monster. For most monsters this will be left blank. If you create a monster that can only be hit by a special weapon, put the weapon ID. (Same as Item Number) here. If this monster can only be hit by blunt weapons, then place a -1 value here. If only bladed weapons can hurt this monster, then a value of -2 must be placed here. The popup menu does not enter any value, it's just there to give you a quick reference as to the valid values that can be placed here.
Traitor: This is where you determine who is friendly towards this monster. The party is on team 0 (Zero). This is how you can set up battles with more than one side.
All creatures are aggressive towards any other character or creature that has a different traitor value than itself.
As an example: You have a goblin with a traitor value of 1, an orc with a traitor value of 2 and a centaur with a traitor value of 0. If all three creatures were in a battle with the party, the centaur would be friendly as it has a value of 0 as does the party by default. The Goblin would be hostile towards the party, the orc and the centaur as its value is different than all the others. The same holds true for the orc as its value is also different than all the others.
Size: A value of 0 = one hex monster, 1 = tall monster, 2 = wide monster, 3 = large monster.
Physical Traits Check Boxes: Sets a monster's traits. Example: Those characters who have special abilities like +2 vs. Undead will have such bonuses applied when attacking this creature if this creature has the Undead box checked. Rewop here is a Magic Using Demon who is Very Evil and a Intelligent Non-Humanoid.
Magic Using: All creatures that cast spells of any kind should have this checked. That creature will not cast spells even if everything else is set up to do so. Realmz checks this value to see if the creature can cast at all.
Undead: If the creature is an Undead creature such as a ghost, vampire or zombie.
Demon/Devil: If the creature is a Demon, Devil, Daemon or other nether being of similar ilk.
Reptilian: If the creature is a reptile or has reptilian qualities.
Very Evil: Check this if the creature is a purely evil creature. Do not assume that every evil creature is Very Evil. Example: A troll is an evil creature to be sure, but if it stood to benefit by saving a drowning man it would do so. This makes the troll just a normal evil creature. Only a pure evil creature is VERY Evil. A Devil for instance would let a man with gems in his pocket drown rather than save him to get the gems. Why? Because it’s the really EVIL thing to do.
Intelligent: If the creature shows an intelligence above that of primitive animals. i.e. Spot the wonder dog is NOT intelligent, no matter how many stupid pet tricks he learns. Yet an Orc, no matter how stupid, is still intelligent enough to get out of the rain. (Or so they say.)
Giant Size: Some creatures that are extremely human like or closely related to the standard humanoid races but are of large size may be considered Giant Size. Just being big and biped does not qualify. They must have a pretty good human-like appearance.
Non Humanoid: Any creature that does not resemble one of the humanoid races in basic design and shape.
No. of Attacks: Enter the number of physical attacks the creature gets. All creatures must have at least 1 attack and may have up to 5.
No. of Magical Attacks: Enter the number of magical attacks the creature gets. This will allow some special creatures to cast more than one spell per round. Don't go too crazy here. Trying to kill a squad of creatures with multiple magical attacks can be very hard. Try and take out a dozen mind slayers and you will see what I mean.
Atk 1 through 5: Enter the range of damage the creature inflicts for each attack. This is required even if the creature uses a weapon. (Why you ask?) Remember that this guy could fumble his club and have to resort to bare knuckles. As long as the creature is using a weapon it will calculate damage from the weapon, but if the weapon is lost in combat, the damage will be calculated from here.
Form: The base value is 31 for a pummel attack. You may select a form for each attack by clicking on the Form button. It is a popup menu that lists all the attack form. As an example, a Lion would have 3 attacks. Two Claw Attacks and a Bite attack.
Special Attacks: You can click on the SPECIAL button to see a popup menu of the choices for special attacks. These special attacks only happen if the attack in question is successful.
Spells: You can either type in the spells available to the monster or you may click the “Spells” button to go to the Spells Editor. The editor aids you in selecting spells. Not all spells are available to creatures for casting. Using the spell editor will filter out all spells that are not valid spells.
Items: You can either type in the items the monster has or you can click on the "Items" button to go to the items editor. The editor aids you in selecting items and gives you a few extra features as well.
Immunities: If the monster is immune to any class of spells, check the appropriate box. Rewop is immune to all charm and fire based spells as can be seen in Figure 6.0.
NOTE: Any super special creatures should always be immune to charm as it really takes the fun out of cutting these guys off at the knees if you can charm them in the first round of combat. Just my opinion.
Treasure: Any gold, gems or jewelry the monster has. The actual amount will be a random amount from 1 to Value. So if you put a 100 in the Gems field, the actual number this monster will give up during treasure collection will be a random number from 1 to 100.
Damage Reduction Vs. %: When this creature takes damage from spells or other magical based attacks, just like your characters, it has a chance of reducing the damage if it makes a successful DRVs.
If a value is 100 the creature will always DRVs that type of damage. In this case, REWOP will always just take 1/2 damage from heat attacks and will have a 33% chance of taking 1/2 damage from the other forms of attacks.
If a value is negative in this field, that creature will never DRVs and will take extra damage from that form of attack. Example: lets say Rewop had a value of -33 in the COLD field. That means he would take 133% damage from all cold based spells. This mimics the vulnerability some creatures have from some types of attacks.
As a rule, I make all insectoid creatures vulnerable to chemical based attacks. But that is just my opinion from many days of squirting ammonia on ant hills outside my house as a youth. Perhaps the ants viewed me as a chemical breathing dragon of legend. See how life takes on a more fantastic viewpoint if you picture yourself as an ant.... but I digress.
Damage Plus: This value will be added to all damage the creature causes from physical attacks (or with weapons). In addition, It will receive a +5% chance to hit for each +1. So Rewop who has a +3 here does +3 damage and has a +15% chance to hit over and above what a creature of his level would normally have.
Cast Spell %: For creatures that can cast spells or breathe fire, etc., this will determine how often they will cast a spell vs. try and make a physical attack. In this instance, Rewop will hang back and attempt to kill you with spells 66% of the time. If the creature wants to but is unable to cast a spell, for one reason or another, it will then attempt to attack physically.
Run Away %: Some creatures are just not as brave as legend would have them. Even a 30 foot red dragon has the urge to save his own skin if things start to turn against it. Save a few diehard creatures, a true blue marine or those guys on those cheesy action flicks, nobody wants to fight to the death. If you set this value to say 15%, that means the creature will attempt to flee battle if it reaches 15% or lower of it's original stamina. Example: Rewop has a Run Away % of 10%. If by chance he happens to have 100 Stamina at the start of battle, if he ever falls to 10 or lower, he will try to run away.
TIP: Some creatures should have a value of 0 here. Any mindless creatures such as Zombies or Mush Mounds or even those that are super aggressive like insects would never run from a fight.
Surrender %: This is similar to Run Away % only if the creature falls to this percent or lower it will surrender immediately and disappear from the battle. In general some creatures that will flee from battle may still never surrender. For example, Rewop may flee when he hits 10% of his max stamina but he would never let himself be taken alive. It's just not good Demon edict to give up.
Use Missile %: Similar to Cast Spell % but applies to how often the creature will want to use a missile weapon if it has one. If it wants to but can't use a missile weapon, the creature will still attempt to attack with melee weapons or physical attacks.
Summon: This value should be a 0 if the creature is not eligible for being summoned from spells and a 1 if it is. In general, any special creatures or those that are more civilized should not be able to be summoned. i.e. It really makes no sense that you could summon a King's Guard or other special NPC from thin air.
Magic + Req to Hit: Some creatures can only be hit with magic weapons. Creatures like ghosts, demons, etc., can't be touched except by magical weapons. If the creature requires a weapon to have a certain plus or higher, place that plus value here. In this example, you need a +1 weapon or better to hit Rewop. NOTE: Monster Monsters and Mega Monsters automatically boost this value.
Weapon Used: This is the ID of the weapon used by the creature if any. If you place a Weapon ID here, make sure it's also the 1st item in the creature's item list as well. Clicking the WEAPON button will bring up a popup menu of weapon choices.
You can also have it randomize a weapon from a weapons group. This will let you have the same creature start with any of a number of weapons. This is most often used for basic creatures types like Orcs or Goblins. Due to the large groups encountered at one time, they most often have a variety of weapons.
To have a random weapon generated, leave the first item in the creatures items list blank. This will be filled in when the creature is created at runtime. Place a value from -1 to -9 in the "Weapon Used" field. Depending on the value it will pick from a different list of weapons.
In addition, a small POPUP menu next to the "Item Used" field in the monster editor will give you access to the below chart for quick reference.
Here is a brief list of the standard weapons lists used for this use.
Weapon Used Value Weapon Type Given At Runtime
-1 Swords
-2 Clubs
-3 Clubs / Spears
-4 Axes
-5 Small Swords / Small Axes
-6 Clubs / Flails / Spears
-7 Spears / Pole Weapons
-8 Axes / Spears
-9 Swords / Dagger / Cutlass / Nunchucka
Icon: The icon of the creature. 370 is the lowest value here. See the section "Adding Monster and Item Icons" for info on how to use icons of your own design. Clicking on the ICON button will bring up a popup menu of choices.
Spell Points: The number of spell points the creature has. All the spells in the world are no good if the creature does not have the magical energy to cast them.
Extra Victory Points: Some creatures can award extra Victory Points. This can reflect some combinations of features the creature has that make it extra tough. Due to all his special abilities, Rewop should give more victory points than a dinosaur that has the same amount of stamina.
There are several other buttons in the Monster editor and here is a list of what they do.
Conditions: This will bring up an editor that lists all the conditions a creature can suffer from. The most common of which would be Regeneration, Animated (For undead creatures), Protection from Something, etc.
Negative values are permanent. So as an example, if you wanted to make a special zombie master that can regenerate 10 points per combat round, put a -10 in the field of Regenerating. If you place a positive number in any of these fields, they will reduce each round.
As an example let's say you stumble on a sleeping cave bear. You could make the bear SLOW for 2 rounds by putting a 2 in the Tangle field to simulate it waking up.
Monster Macro: Here you can edit a special script that will take place upon the death of the creature. They are scripted just like an Extra Action Point. However, Monster Macros can make use of some special codes that are specifically designed for this purpose.
In this case, if Rewop dies, Monster Macro 125 will take effect. This is actually just Extra Action Point 125 as the format is the same. For Rewop, you may remember that if he dies, all the minor demons he summoned during battle die right away thus ending the battle. There is more information on this subject in the chapter "Macros."
Normal Monsters: Monster Monsters: Mega Monsters: These three buttons allow you to make changes to any specific monster set you choose. In a nutshell, once you have created all your monsters, you may want to make those of any particular set tougher/easier or have some other special abilities. In fact, you can have completely different monsters defined for different sets.
Taking a closer look at the lower left hand section of the Monster Editor you will see a group of buttons like in Figure 6.1. Here is a detailed description of their functions.
 
Figure 6.1
Switch With: This will just swap the data of the currently selected monster with the Monster ID listed. This will help you move monsters around and keep them organized. However, this does not modify any battles that may contain this monster so if you make the switch, you may have to update battles as well.
Copy Current To All Sets: This just copies a duplicate of the current monster to Normal Monsters, Monster Monsters and the Mega Monsters file.
Create Sets: This will take all monster definitions from Normal Monsters and copy them to Monster Monsters and Mega Monsters. In addition, it will increase some aspects of the monsters to increase the difficulty level by a standard amount. This will save a ton of time when it comes to defining the higher monster sets as you need only define normal monsters. It is always good practice to scan through the higher monsters sets to clean up any problems with over-bounding of variables. Some aspects of monsters have upper limits that may be exceeded. If this is the case, then it may cause the monster definitions to be in error.
Not On Menu: Any monster that has this box checked will not appear in the Beastiary. Some special creatures or one of a kind creatures that you want to be a surprise should not be included here.
Build Icon Set: This lets you access the Monster Mash file and import icons from it for use with your scenario. Realmz can only handle so many icons for use with Monsters. If you want to override any standard monster icons in favor of others, this is where you do that. This is explained in more detail in the section "Monster Mash."
