“Hmm…. AI or looks?”
I’ve started with the creation of the non-boss boss-like monster, but I struggle to decide what to do first.
Ugh, this is getting annoying… You know what? I know it’s technically not a ‘boss’ monster, but for simplicity, I’ll refer to it as a ‘boss’ from now on.
I’m still not sure what skills I want to give to it, but I’m sure they’ll come along naturally as I work on the other parts. The order is important because it’ll lead the monster in one direction or the other as I create it.
The problem is I can’t decide which one to start with.
“Well, I suppose that since I want the boss to work together with the adds, it’s best to start with the AI… yes, let’s start here.”
I changed the AI so that the Liquid Stones will swarm the closest targets and target healers. To make things as hard as possible for the invaders, the obvious is to make the boss target the damage dealers and squishy backline.
This way there won’t be any safe position or tactic.
If the players focus on stopping the adds from reaching the weak units, the boss will be free to massacre them as it pleases. If they stop the boss in its tracks instead, the adds will wreak havoc and swarm the unprotected.
So, the boss will switch targets to the enemy that deals the highest damage, or to the one who has the least HP, as long as it is below 30%.
Of course, I also make it stand completely still like the others when outside of combat. I plan to give it the same upgrade that makes it take no damage.
As for the trigger to start combat… I’ll think about it later. For now, I’ll just make him give the order to the Liquid Stones to start combat.
“Maybe I’ll come back to adjust one or two settings, and to set the trigger to start combat, but this will do for now.”
Now that I’ve finished with the AI, it’s time to set how it’ll look. It’ll be highly aggressive, as I set in the AI, and it’ll also have a focus on strength.
I must display it properly… I’m using a bear-like earth elemental as the base, and the other unit is another slime – for camouflaging purposes–, so it shouldn’t be too difficult.
Also, this one is a Basic Chimera, the unit with the most flexibility when it comes to body parts.
“For starters, let’s make the front claws huge. As big as possible!” If this is the monster who left the claw marks, inside of which a person can fit, they must be huge. “Bigger, bigger, more… Even more! Oh, I can’t anymore… Well, this will do. For now… Hahaha!”
They’re about a meter in size now, but I plan to make them even bigger in the future. How? You’ll see it soon.
The rest of the body will be based on the earth bear, so it’ll have the same shape and limbs as a bear does. But with the huge claws, which are bigger than its head, it looks extremely aggressive.
I change the material of the front paws to stone. There’s some dirt in the joints to make it look organic. I do the same with the head, but I leave the original orange eyes. They glow, as happens with all elementals, so all players should know what they’re facing.
As for the rear legs and torso, I change it to a mix of earth and stones that protrude from it. Some look like spikes and some like armor plates.
The bear, with the exception of the front paws and head, is continuously morphing; the earth and the stone fragments float around, swimming, thanks to the slime’s amorphous body.
This is only aesthetic, of course. There’s no real effect on gameplay except for slight differences in the hitbox.
“Aaand, done! Now I can safely move to the skills!”
As this won’t be an actual Boss monster, it won’t start with three skill points they have at level one, but with one. And given two of them will go into upgrading the Earth Elemental skill and giving it Unidentifiable, it’ll leave me with only five if I level it up to the maximum level.
It would be enough, I believe.
“I’ll start with the obvious one: Enlarge!”
Didn’t I just say I would make the claws even bigger? This is the easiest and most effective way to do so!
With the Enlarge skill, the bear turns from a two-meter beast, when on all fours, into a four-meter tall titan, six when standing.
Fufufu! Hahaha! Look at this beauty! Now, nobody can question who left those claw marks anymore!
I’ll also upgrade the Enlarge skill to make the boss stronger. I can technically only do it after I pick one skill of each category, but I’ve decided on it already, so I’ll upgrade it as soon as possible.
| Enlarge - Lv 2 (Passive skill) |
| Increases this unit’s size by a considerable amount. The only change to stats is an increase of 10% in the base HP. |
| Upgrades |
| Overpower: Increase the stats by 20% when fighting smaller units. |
In Dungeon Master’s Arena, there’s a general rule that the bigger the monster is, the stronger it is. Though for obvious reasons, this doesn’t apply to humanoids. Thanks to Enlarge’s upgrade, the Stone Tyrant – yes, I’ve already decided on its name – will have the strength it should have proportional to its size.
Only against smaller enemies, sure… but what units can the players bring that are bigger than a four-meter-tall bear?
I’m sure there aren’t that many.
I don’t think anybody will bring a giant or anything similar. In fact, even when Marta came to my dungeon, she only brought humanoids with her.
“Three skill points remaining, two of which must be for an active and a triggered skill.” I scratch my head in thought. “Should I pick a tricky one, or an offensive one…?”
Unless I have a clear idea of what active skill I want to give to a monster, I prefer to pick the triggered first because it defines the monster better.
“What about this one…? This is nice, even chaotic, perfect for what I want. And it fits the theme. Yes, let’s give it this skill!”
The skill I’m reading is Frightening Presence, a perfect choice to cause chaos in the enemy lines.
| Frightening Presence (Triggered skill) |
| When another unit attacks you in melee, there’s a 10% chance to inflict Fear for 5 seconds. This skill can only apply Fear to the same enemy once every minute. The timer resets after the Fear effect ends. |
“Two skill points left. Should I pick two active skills? Or only one and upgrade it…?”
I’m no expert in melee skills, I’m a mage and only interested in spells. This means I’ll have to spend some time browsing for a decent melee skill for the Stone Tyrant.
“No, this one is trash… Oh, this one? Well, an earthquake-like skill would be nice, but it would also damage the Liquid Stones, so discarded…”
I’m looking for a specific type of skill, one that will represent the Stone Tyrant. The one that’ll give it the ‘skill’ to leave claw marks on the rock.
“Lacerate…? This one sounds nice.”
| Lacerate (Active skill) |
| Cost: 60 EP |
| Deal (5 + 1,2 * STR) physical damage to a single unit. There’s a 20% chance to inflict Bleeding for 50% of the damage dealt as HP loss during 5 seconds. |
“Nice, neat, simple. Devastating. I can only say one word: perfect!”
Now for the last skill point. I could always upgrade Lacerate, but a boss-like monster with a single attack other than basic attacks would be too lame.
“A utility skill would be nice. Oh, I know! Why don’t I give it the Earth Wall skill?”
| Earth Wall (Active skill) |
| Cost: 100 MP |
| Create a 2-meter tall and up to 5-meter long earth wall. The wall is impassable, can’t be seen through, and lasts up to 1 minute. The wall can be destroyed by hitting it 20 times or dealing more than 200 damage with a single strike. |
Another nice, simple, but very effective skill, if I say so myself. And very thematic too.
The best about the Earth Wall is that, with it, the Stone Tyrant can isolate the enemies from the rest of their group.
In general, this is one of those skills players never give to a monster because they’re dumb and it’s hard to predict how or when they’ll use them. Most of the time, the monsters are better without them.
This is because most players don’t know how to change the monster’s AI…. But I do.
If I change its AI so that it only uses the wall to isolate the target from the rest of the group, the story is completely different. This change turns the useless and potentially self-harming skill into something extremely dangerous.
At least, I hope so.
| Stone Tyrant (Lv 7) | |||||
| HP | 1104 (690) | STA | 89 (56) | SOU | 76 (48) |
| EP | 784 (490) | MP | 720 (450) | ||
| STR | 81 (51) | CON | 104 (65) | AGI | 44 (28) |
| SPI | 67 (42) | WIL | 57 (36) | DEX | 32 (20) |
| SPD | 4 | INT | 4 | COM | 1 |
| Skills | |||||
| Active: Lacerate, Earth Wall. Triggered: Frightening Presence. Passive: Enlarge - Lv 2 (Overpower), Unidentifiable, Earth Elemental - Lv 2 (Like A Rock) (Innate), Eternal Pain (Innate), Regeneration (Innate). |
“Ok, so this is it. The Stone Tyrant is finished!” I say, pressing the button to save the Template. “The only thing remaining is to put the Liquid Stones and Stone Tyrant into the dungeon. This, and set the trigger that’ll start the fight!”
Shit! I almost forgot to tell you the names of the units I used!
The earth elemental, the bear, is called Stone Bear. I know, I know… it’s kind of lame. But it’s literally a stone bear, you can’t say the name is wrong.
As for the slime, it’s called Regenerating Slime. Yet another simple yet accurate descriptive name.
No, you’re not mistaken. Regeneration. Yes, you read it well.
Who said only Trolls could have Regeneration? Of course, they’re the most iconic ones, and maybe the most famous. But there are Hydras with regeneration, and other monsters, like… well, slimes.
Slimes might be the weirdest faction in regard to innate skills. Most factions have innate skills that follow a theme, but the Amorphous faction doesn’t. I’m sure you could find a slime that can do whatever crazy stuff you can come up with.
Teleportation, regeneration, fear… there’s even one that causes instant death. But let’s stop talking about slimes, shall we?
Where was I…? Ah yes, the Regenerating Slime.
The Regenerating Slime is green. This is why the Stone Tyrant has green tints here and there, though only in combat mode. I expressly made it so that there’s no green when it’s immobile and camouflaging as a rock.
This slime is the greatest punching bag in the whole game. It can survive for a long time thanks to the regeneration and the slime’s naturally high HP. All the other stats are mediocre at best.
As I said, the greatest punching bag!
And, at the same time, the greatest nightmare… if you have to kill them to get to the slimes that are attacking you from behind them.
I swear, I’ve never hated any monster so much… Except for the Stitched. I don’t know how they do it, but they’re the exception to everything.
If I had known there were slimes with the Regeneration skill, and that they were easier to find and capture, I wouldn’t have lost such a long time looking for a Troll in my ‘shopping trips’. Well, what’s done is done, there’s no use complaining about it now.
“Ugh, it hurts,” I say, checking the cost of this monster. “270 cp for the slime, 310 for the bear, 20 for the Basic Chimera, plus 385 cp for the level-ups. Almost a thousand cp for a single monster…!”
I complain because I like to do it, but the Liquid Stones were way worse in comparison. All thanks to the extra 50 cp for the Monstrous Hybrids.
Fuck my mistake!
I start the creation of the Stone Tyrant and open the dungeon edition menu. I’ll put them where they go, and they’ll automatically move there when they’re created.
First I create the look-alike rocks. I create exactly nine that look like the Liquid Stones surrounding a bigger one, the same size as the Stone Tyrant. I didn’t plan for it to end like this, but it looks like a ritual place.
Then, I place the ten monsters in the last area, the one with the platform hanging over the underground river, in the exact same position as the fakes.
“Now I realize it’s possible for the invaders to fall over the cliff too. Maybe I’ll take it into account for the future.”
I also put a small stone slate right in front of the Stone Tyrant. It says ‘Who made the claw marks?’. When a player reads it out loud, the Stone Tyrant will awaken and call for the surrounding Liquid Stones to join the fight.
What’s more, since the player who reads it will be right in front of the Stone Tyrant when the fight starts, that player will probably receive a free Lacerate on his/her face.
“And this is all, folks!” I say, clapping my hands.
Maybe, in the future, I’ll turn the Stone Tyrant into a real Boss, we’ll see how it goes. I also have to decide if I want to add a real Boss to the Failed Experiments area. Or to turn The Tunnels’ Nightmare into one instead…
“Sigh! So many decisions and options!” I dramatically raise my arms to the ceiling. ”This is what’s called analysis paralysis! Oh, gods, please send me a signal, so I know how to proceed!”
*Diring!*
| You have reached level 7! |
Ok… this wasn’t what I was expecting, but it sure is a signal of some sort. The problem is…
“This isn’t what I was asking for!” I complain. “More options, more choices! It’s even worse!” A smile appears on my face. “But I’ll take it anyway… Fufufu! Hahaha!”
“I’ll repeat it as many times as needed: DON’T TOUCH ANYTHING!
Do you see some text? DON’T read it, IGNORE it. Do you see a lever? DON’T touch it, IGNORE it. Do you see a button? DON’T touch it, IGNORE it. What’s more, if possible, don’t even LOOK at them.
EVERYTHING you see is a trap, waiting for you to come and activate it. So for f**k’s sake, unless you don’t mind dying, DON’T. TOUCH. ANYTHING!”
- Extract from the Chapter ‘Relearning exploration’ from ‘How to Stay Sane in The Mad Rat’s Lab’.
Radosh
I'm currently preparing the Patreon page with the first advanced chapters. For the next chapter, it should be ready.
“Hmm…. AI or looks?”
I’ve started with the creation of the non-boss boss-like monster, but I struggle to decide what to do first.
Ugh, this is getting annoying… You know what? I know it’s technically not a ‘boss’ monster, but for simplicity, I’ll refer to it as a ‘boss’ from now on.
I’m still not sure what skills I want to give to it, but I’m sure they’ll come along naturally as I work on the other parts. The order is important because it’ll lead the monster in one direction or the other as I create it.
The problem is I can’t decide which one to start with.
“Well, I suppose that since I want the boss to work together with the adds, it’s best to start with the AI… yes, let’s start here.”
I changed the AI so that the Liquid Stones will swarm the closest targets and target healers. To make things as hard as possible for the invaders, the obvious is to make the boss target the damage dealers and squishy backline.
This way there won’t be any safe position or tactic.
If the players focus on stopping the adds from reaching the weak units, the boss will be free to massacre them as it pleases. If they stop the boss in its tracks instead, the adds will wreak havoc and swarm the unprotected.
So, the boss will switch targets to the enemy that deals the highest damage, or to the one who has the least HP, as long as it is below 30%.
Of course, I also make it stand completely still like the others when outside of combat. I plan to give it the same upgrade that makes it take no damage.
As for the trigger to start combat… I’ll think about it later. For now, I’ll just make him give the order to the Liquid Stones to start combat.
“Maybe I’ll come back to adjust one or two settings, and to set the trigger to start combat, but this will do for now.”
Now that I’ve finished with the AI, it’s time to set how it’ll look. It’ll be highly aggressive, as I set in the AI, and it’ll also have a focus on strength.
I must display it properly… I’m using a bear-like earth elemental as the base, and the other unit is another slime – for camouflaging purposes–, so it shouldn’t be too difficult.
Also, this one is a Basic Chimera, the unit with the most flexibility when it comes to body parts.
“For starters, let’s make the front claws huge. As big as possible!” If this is the monster who left the claw marks, inside of which a person can fit, they must be huge. “Bigger, bigger, more… Even more! Oh, I can’t anymore… Well, this will do. For now… Hahaha!”
They’re about a meter in size now, but I plan to make them even bigger in the future. How? You’ll see it soon.
The rest of the body will be based on the earth bear, so it’ll have the same shape and limbs as a bear does. But with the huge claws, which are bigger than its head, it looks extremely aggressive.
I change the material of the front paws to stone. There’s some dirt in the joints to make it look organic. I do the same with the head, but I leave the original orange eyes. They glow, as happens with all elementals, so all players should know what they’re facing.
As for the rear legs and torso, I change it to a mix of earth and stones that protrude from it. Some look like spikes and some like armor plates.
The bear, with the exception of the front paws and head, is continuously morphing; the earth and the stone fragments float around, swimming, thanks to the slime’s amorphous body.
This is only aesthetic, of course. There’s no real effect on gameplay except for slight differences in the hitbox.
“Aaand, done! Now I can safely move to the skills!”
As this won’t be an actual Boss monster, it won’t start with three skill points they have at level one, but with one. And given two of them will go into upgrading the Earth Elemental skill and giving it Unidentifiable, it’ll leave me with only five if I level it up to the maximum level.
It would be enough, I believe.
“I’ll start with the obvious one: Enlarge!”
Didn’t I just say I would make the claws even bigger? This is the easiest and most effective way to do so!
With the Enlarge skill, the bear turns from a two-meter beast, when on all fours, into a four-meter tall titan, six when standing.
Fufufu! Hahaha! Look at this beauty! Now, nobody can question who left those claw marks anymore!
I’ll also upgrade the Enlarge skill to make the boss stronger. I can technically only do it after I pick one skill of each category, but I’ve decided on it already, so I’ll upgrade it as soon as possible.
| Enlarge - Lv 2 (Passive skill) |
| Increases this unit’s size by a considerable amount. The only change to stats is an increase of 10% in the base HP. |
| Upgrades |
| Overpower: Increase the stats by 20% when fighting smaller units. |
In Dungeon Master’s Arena, there’s a general rule that the bigger the monster is, the stronger it is. Though for obvious reasons, this doesn’t apply to humanoids. Thanks to Enlarge’s upgrade, the Stone Tyrant – yes, I’ve already decided on its name – will have the strength it should have proportional to its size.
Only against smaller enemies, sure… but what units can the players bring that are bigger than a four-meter-tall bear?
I’m sure there aren’t that many.
I don’t think anybody will bring a giant or anything similar. In fact, even when Marta came to my dungeon, she only brought humanoids with her.
“Three skill points remaining, two of which must be for an active and a triggered skill.” I scratch my head in thought. “Should I pick a tricky one, or an offensive one…?”
Unless I have a clear idea of what active skill I want to give to a monster, I prefer to pick the triggered first because it defines the monster better.
“What about this one…? This is nice, even chaotic, perfect for what I want. And it fits the theme. Yes, let’s give it this skill!”
The skill I’m reading is Frightening Presence, a perfect choice to cause chaos in the enemy lines.
| Frightening Presence (Triggered skill) |
| When another unit attacks you in melee, there’s a 10% chance to inflict Fear for 5 seconds. This skill can only apply Fear to the same enemy once every minute. The timer resets after the Fear effect ends. |
“Two skill points left. Should I pick two active skills? Or only one and upgrade it…?”
I’m no expert in melee skills, I’m a mage and only interested in spells. This means I’ll have to spend some time browsing for a decent melee skill for the Stone Tyrant.
“No, this one is trash… Oh, this one? Well, an earthquake-like skill would be nice, but it would also damage the Liquid Stones, so discarded…”
I’m looking for a specific type of skill, one that will represent the Stone Tyrant. The one that’ll give it the ‘skill’ to leave claw marks on the rock.
“Lacerate…? This one sounds nice.”
| Lacerate (Active skill) |
| Cost: 60 EP |
| Deal (5 + 1,2 * STR) physical damage to a single unit. There’s a 20% chance to inflict Bleeding for 50% of the damage dealt as HP loss during 5 seconds. |
“Nice, neat, simple. Devastating. I can only say one word: perfect!”
Now for the last skill point. I could always upgrade Lacerate, but a boss-like monster with a single attack other than basic attacks would be too lame.
“A utility skill would be nice. Oh, I know! Why don’t I give it the Earth Wall skill?”
| Earth Wall (Active skill) |
| Cost: 100 MP |
| Create a 2-meter tall and up to 5-meter long earth wall. The wall is impassable, can’t be seen through, and lasts up to 1 minute. The wall can be destroyed by hitting it 20 times or dealing more than 200 damage with a single strike. |
Another nice, simple, but very effective skill, if I say so myself. And very thematic too.
The best about the Earth Wall is that, with it, the Stone Tyrant can isolate the enemies from the rest of their group.
In general, this is one of those skills players never give to a monster because they’re dumb and it’s hard to predict how or when they’ll use them. Most of the time, the monsters are better without them.
This is because most players don’t know how to change the monster’s AI…. But I do.
If I change its AI so that it only uses the wall to isolate the target from the rest of the group, the story is completely different. This change turns the useless and potentially self-harming skill into something extremely dangerous.
At least, I hope so.
| Stone Tyrant (Lv 7) | |||||
| HP | 1104 (690) | STA | 89 (56) | SOU | 76 (48) |
| EP | 784 (490) | MP | 720 (450) | ||
| STR | 81 (51) | CON | 104 (65) | AGI | 44 (28) |
| SPI | 67 (42) | WIL | 57 (36) | DEX | 32 (20) |
| SPD | 4 | INT | 4 | COM | 1 |
| Skills | |||||
| Active: Lacerate, Earth Wall. Triggered: Frightening Presence. Passive: Enlarge - Lv 2 (Overpower), Unidentifiable, Earth Elemental - Lv 2 (Like A Rock) (Innate), Eternal Pain (Innate), Regeneration (Innate). |
“Ok, so this is it. The Stone Tyrant is finished!” I say, pressing the button to save the Template. “The only thing remaining is to put the Liquid Stones and Stone Tyrant into the dungeon. This, and set the trigger that’ll start the fight!”
Shit! I almost forgot to tell you the names of the units I used!
The earth elemental, the bear, is called Stone Bear. I know, I know… it’s kind of lame. But it’s literally a stone bear, you can’t say the name is wrong.
As for the slime, it’s called Regenerating Slime. Yet another simple yet accurate descriptive name.
No, you’re not mistaken. Regeneration. Yes, you read it well.
Who said only Trolls could have Regeneration? Of course, they’re the most iconic ones, and maybe the most famous. But there are Hydras with regeneration, and other monsters, like… well, slimes.
Slimes might be the weirdest faction in regard to innate skills. Most factions have innate skills that follow a theme, but the Amorphous faction doesn’t. I’m sure you could find a slime that can do whatever crazy stuff you can come up with.
Teleportation, regeneration, fear… there’s even one that causes instant death. But let’s stop talking about slimes, shall we?
Where was I…? Ah yes, the Regenerating Slime.
The Regenerating Slime is green. This is why the Stone Tyrant has green tints here and there, though only in combat mode. I expressly made it so that there’s no green when it’s immobile and camouflaging as a rock.
This slime is the greatest punching bag in the whole game. It can survive for a long time thanks to the regeneration and the slime’s naturally high HP. All the other stats are mediocre at best.
As I said, the greatest punching bag!
And, at the same time, the greatest nightmare… if you have to kill them to get to the slimes that are attacking you from behind them.
I swear, I’ve never hated any monster so much… Except for the Stitched. I don’t know how they do it, but they’re the exception to everything.
If I had known there were slimes with the Regeneration skill, and that they were easier to find and capture, I wouldn’t have lost such a long time looking for a Troll in my ‘shopping trips’. Well, what’s done is done, there’s no use complaining about it now.
“Ugh, it hurts,” I say, checking the cost of this monster. “270 cp for the slime, 310 for the bear, 20 for the Basic Chimera, plus 385 cp for the level-ups. Almost a thousand cp for a single monster…!”
I complain because I like to do it, but the Liquid Stones were way worse in comparison. All thanks to the extra 50 cp for the Monstrous Hybrids.
Fuck my mistake!
I start the creation of the Stone Tyrant and open the dungeon edition menu. I’ll put them where they go, and they’ll automatically move there when they’re created.
First I create the look-alike rocks. I create exactly nine that look like the Liquid Stones surrounding a bigger one, the same size as the Stone Tyrant. I didn’t plan for it to end like this, but it looks like a ritual place.
Then, I place the ten monsters in the last area, the one with the platform hanging over the underground river, in the exact same position as the fakes.
“Now I realize it’s possible for the invaders to fall over the cliff too. Maybe I’ll take it into account for the future.”
I also put a small stone slate right in front of the Stone Tyrant. It says ‘Who made the claw marks?’. When a player reads it out loud, the Stone Tyrant will awaken and call for the surrounding Liquid Stones to join the fight.
What’s more, since the player who reads it will be right in front of the Stone Tyrant when the fight starts, that player will probably receive a free Lacerate on his/her face.
“And this is all, folks!” I say, clapping my hands.
Maybe, in the future, I’ll turn the Stone Tyrant into a real Boss, we’ll see how it goes. I also have to decide if I want to add a real Boss to the Failed Experiments area. Or to turn The Tunnels’ Nightmare into one instead…
“Sigh! So many decisions and options!” I dramatically raise my arms to the ceiling. ”This is what’s called analysis paralysis! Oh, gods, please send me a signal, so I know how to proceed!”
*Diring!*
| You have reached level 7! |
Ok… this wasn’t what I was expecting, but it sure is a signal of some sort. The problem is…
“This isn’t what I was asking for!” I complain. “More options, more choices! It’s even worse!” A smile appears on my face. “But I’ll take it anyway… Fufufu! Hahaha!”
“I’ll repeat it as many times as needed: DON’T TOUCH ANYTHING!
Do you see some text? DON’T read it, IGNORE it. Do you see a lever? DON’T touch it, IGNORE it. Do you see a button? DON’T touch it, IGNORE it. What’s more, if possible, don’t even LOOK at them.
EVERYTHING you see is a trap, waiting for you to come and activate it. So for f**k’s sake, unless you don’t mind dying, DON’T. TOUCH. ANYTHING!”
- Extract from the Chapter ‘Relearning exploration’ from ‘How to Stay Sane in The Mad Rat’s Lab’.
Radosh
I'm currently preparing the Patreon page with the first advanced chapters. For the next chapter, it should be ready.
