Monsters and fighting monsters is a cornerstone of D&D. Games which promote 6-8 year-olds killing things is not a recipe for success, and not a game I want to run for Zoe. These two things can be reconciled by limiting the types of monsters to "less living" and to make combat a portion of the game without the most important pillar of adventures.
Monsters in Apprentice that are intended to be fought/defeated in combat can be put into a few categories; the two clearest right now are "inanimates" and "chimera." Inanimates are non-living things which have movement and seem sentient without coming across as "people" - examples include living statues (golems, gargoyles, and scarecrow), suits of armor, and animated furniture (chairs, tables, chests). Chimera are escaped dreams which have taken on the shapes of classic D&D monsters but are a swirling rainbow of colors and dissipate into colored mist and leave a trail of glitter when they are destroyed. Chimera have powers that a similar to the non-dream version of themselves but many of the powers will be resolved differently (e.g., combat with a chimera displacer beast will include a modified version of memory, the results of which will modify attack rolls against it). The story behind chimera will be introduced in an adventure included in the product.
There will be other monster races in Apprentice, but their alignment/behavior/history will make them less likely creatures to be fought than interacted with an NPCs or serve as a backdrop to the world (Adventure #1 is about a dragon but will never be about the PCs fighting a dragon).
Monsters in Apprentice that are intended to be fought/defeated in combat can be put into a few categories; the two clearest right now are "inanimates" and "chimera." Inanimates are non-living things which have movement and seem sentient without coming across as "people" - examples include living statues (golems, gargoyles, and scarecrow), suits of armor, and animated furniture (chairs, tables, chests). Chimera are escaped dreams which have taken on the shapes of classic D&D monsters but are a swirling rainbow of colors and dissipate into colored mist and leave a trail of glitter when they are destroyed. Chimera have powers that a similar to the non-dream version of themselves but many of the powers will be resolved differently (e.g., combat with a chimera displacer beast will include a modified version of memory, the results of which will modify attack rolls against it). The story behind chimera will be introduced in an adventure included in the product.
There will be other monster races in Apprentice, but their alignment/behavior/history will make them less likely creatures to be fought than interacted with an NPCs or serve as a backdrop to the world (Adventure #1 is about a dragon but will never be about the PCs fighting a dragon).
