Keyboard shortcuts

Press ← or → to navigate between chapters

Press S or / to search in the book

Press ? to show this help

Press Esc to hide this help

Greater and lesser creatures

Two of the same creature need not be the same fight. When a creature comes into being, there is a one in six chance it is greater than its kind and a one in six chance it is lesser. The rest are ordinary.

A greater creature has more hit points, hits more surely and harder up close, and moves a little more slowly. A lesser one is the reverse.

Look mode tells you the grade with a word before the name: “a big kobold”, “a scrawny kobold”, “an ancient zombie”. Messages call it by its kind alone. Killing one is worth what its kind is worth in experience, whatever its grade.

Some creatures are never graded:

GradeChanceMaximum hit pointsTo hitDamageSpeed
Greater1 in 6+25%+1+2−10%
Lesser1 in 6−25%−1−2+10%

The words for each:

LesserGreaterCreatures
notchedkeenanimated blade
scrawnybigkobold, kobold alchemist, kobold archer, kobold shaman
smallbigair elemental, annis hag, arcanaloth, badger, balefire, balgura, balor, barbed devil, barrow spider, basilisk, bear, bearded devil, bheur hag, black hound, black pudding, blink dog, boar, boggle, bone devil, brimwolf, cambion, canoloth, cat, cave bat, cave beetle, cave lizard, chain devil, chasme, chicken, cinder elemental, cloud giant, cockatrice, crocodile, cult chymist, cult priest, cultist, dark wizard, darkling, deer, dire warg, dretch, drow arbalester, drow archmage, drow assassin, drow blademaster, drow captain, drow crossbowman, drow high priestess, drow mage, drow priestess, drow stalker, drow warrior, dryad, duergar crossbowman, duergar hulk, duergar king, duergar mindbreaker, duergar miner, duergar priest, duergar slinger, duergar smith, duergar spider rider, duergar thane, duergar veteran, duergar warrior, dust devil, earth elemental, elder air elemental, elder earth elemental, elder fire elemental, elder ice elemental, elder lightning elemental, elder troll, elder water elemental, ember beetle, ember mote, erinyes, fire elemental, fire giant, fire salamander, fire troll, footpad, footpad archer, forest troll, frost giant, frost mote, giant centipede, giant frog, giant jarl, giant leech, giant rat, giant shaman, glabrezu, goblin, goblin archer, goblin chief, goblin firebomber, goblin wizard, gorgon, grave worm, great boar, greater air elemental, greater earth elemental, greater fire elemental, greater ice elemental, greater lightning elemental, greater water elemental, green hag, hare, hell hound, hezrou, hill giant, hill troll, hoarstone, hobgoblin, hobgoblin archer, hobgoblin captain, hobgoblin legionnaire, hobgoblin sergeant, hobgoblin warcaster, hobgoblin warlord, horned devil, hound, hydra, hydra head, ice devil, ice elemental, ice troll, imp, incubus, invisible stalker, korred, large spider, lemure, lesser air elemental, lesser earth elemental, lesser fire elemental, lesser ice elemental, lesser lightning elemental, lesser water elemental, lightning elemental, lynx, magma crawler, marilith, marsh troll, meenlock, mezzoloth, mud golem, nalfeshnee, necromancer, night hag, nightmare, nycaloth, nymph, ogre, ogre mage, ogre mauler, orc archer, orc berserker, orc bowman, orc high shaman, orc raider, orc runt, orc shaman, orc veteran, orc war chief, orc warlord, orc warrior, panther, pit fiend, pixie, polecat, quasit, quickling, rakshasa, raven, redcap, rimethurse, rust monster, satyr, sea hag, spark mote, sprite, stone giant, stone mote, stone troll, storm giant, strange spirit, succubus, thunderhead, toad, troll, troll chieftain, troll shaman, two-headed troll, ultroloth, vrock, warg, water elemental, water mote, welkin wind, will-o’-wisp, wolf, yeth hound
witheredancientankou, archlich, ash wraith, banshee, barghest, barrow ghoul, barrow king, barrow wight, black shuck, bodach, bog body, bone colossus, bone dragon, bone drake, bone wyvern, burning skull, charnel heap, charnel titan, charred dead, church grim, corpse candle, crawling hand, death knight, deathless king, deathshade, draugr, draugr lord, dread lord, dread wraith, dread wyrm, drowned, drowned king, duergar skeleton, elder vampire, eldest vampire, fen ghoul, fetch, gallows dead, ghast, ghost, ghost dragon, ghost lord, ghoul king, ghoul lord, gibbering shade, grave hound, grave knight, greater shadow, hand of glory, headless knight, hound of the hunt, knocker, kobold zombie, lich, lich-drake, mummy, mummy king, mummy lord, mummy priest, night mare, nightganger, nightwing, nightworm, nosferatu, ogre zombie, pale drinker, poltergeist, revenant, rotting dragon, rotting drake, rotting troll, screaming skull, shadow, skeletal rat, skeletal wolf, skeleton, skeleton archer, skeleton warrior, sluagh, spectre, stone haunt, vampire, vampire lord, vampire spawn, washer at the ford, white lady, wight lord, wild huntsman, wormhost, wormlord, wraith, wraith lord, zombie
--never graded: abyssal gate, animated armour, animated bellows, animated book, animated broom, animated bucket, animated candlestick, animated chair, animated coat stand, animated cooking pot, animated kettle, animated ladle, animated lantern, animated panoply, animated rug, animated stool, animated teapot, animated warming pan, arch-gate, black gate, Black Wystan, bog hag, Brother Osrick, business partner, chambermaid, clatter of cutlery, cottar, crystal guardian, deep gnome, deep-gnome binder, deep-gnome headman, deep-gnome jeweller, deep-gnome priest, deep-gnome trader, demilich, dire gate, drow matron, duergar trader, dwarven miser, fire drake, gate of gloom, Gnægan the Rat King, Grundwyrgen the Mere-Wife, guildmaster, hellmouth, Hrīmwyrm the White, innkeeper, iron gate, lords’ gate, Līgetdrȳ the Storm-Wright, mimicling, mine factor, Mother Sallow, Nihtscinna the Hollow, Nīðdraca the Hate-Wyrm, patron, pedlar, reeve, rift, Sergeant Herrick, servant, sexton, shopkeeper, sister, squire, Stānēoten the Hurler, training dummy, villager, warden of the gate, wise-woman, Wælcyrge the Chooser, Wēalāf the Unburied, Āttorcoppe the Spinner

See also: Creatures in numbers and How creatures behave.