In celebration the BREAK!! x Animon Story crossover, I thought I would do some proper BREAK!! stats for that adventure's most terrifying creature - the mighty Charmpa!

CHARMPA

Massive molten muncher. Various magical phenomena (such as a trip to an alternate world) can grant the already grumpy Chompa literal fire in its belly. No one knows exactly how this happens, just that it's bad news when it does!

• Mega-Boss

Rank

•  6

Type

• Altered Beast

• Megafauna

Size

• Large

Allegiance

• Light

Home Region/Habitat

• While altered by magic, the Chompas habit of settling in places where there are plenty of things to eat doesn't change.

Traits: Brutish (+3 Might), Stubborn (+1 Grit), Galumphing (-2 Deftness),

• Might [14] (p)

• Deftness [7]

• Grit [11] (p)

• Insight [10] (p)

• Aura [9]

Combat Values

• Hearts [5]

• Attack [+6]

• Speed [Normal]

• Defense Rating [15] Braised Blubbery Hide

Communication Methods

• Belches, snorts, and angry exhalations of smoke

Tactics

Even more irate and hungry than the average Chompa:

• Will attempt to corner targets and wear them down with their Pressure Cooker ability.
• Will often spit super-heated rocks at potential meals keeping their distance.

Miscellaneous

• Indicators: Burnt landscapes, bodies of water that are near boiling, sounds of snarling and steam.
• Roleplaying Notes: Unlike normal Chompas, Charmpas are mean spirited and vengeful thanks to their transformation. That said, they are still easily distracted by food and prioritize filling their bellies above all else. 
• Customization: Creatures or individuals with protection from flame and heat will occasionally train Charmpas as guardians or even mounts.

Abilities

STILL A BIG 'UN (B)

One thing their transformation didn't affect is their size

• Charmpa's are Large.  

CHARBROIL CHOMP (A)

Charmpa's bite packs a punch - and some heat!

• A Charmpa's tusks strike as a Mighty Weapon that does Flame Damage.
• After a successful Attack, a Charmpa can attempt to draw you into its mouth if you are medium sized or smaller.
• Requires a Might Contest
• Success: You're Restrained in the Charmpa's teeth.
• You can attempt to escape at the beginning of each subsequent turn by winning a Might Contest.
• Inanimate Objects, such as boulders, can be sucked into the Charmpa's Mouth without a Contest.
• If the Charmpa Begins its Turn with you in its mouth, it can
• Broil: Cause a Serious Burn injury.
• Spit: Fire you at a target up too 2 Battlefield Areas away. On a successful attack, you and the target take 1 Heart of Flame Damage and are Toppled. On a miss, you land 2 Battlefield Areas away, take 1 Heart of Flame Damage, and are Toppled.  

BRAISED BLUBBERY HIDE (A)

A Charmpa's skin is even tougher than before.

• +6 Defense Rating
• +1 Hearts Total
• Charmpa's take 1 less heart of damage from sources doing Flame Damage, and an additional heart of damage from ones doing Frost Damage. 
• Speed rating remains normal - their fiery nature has put pep in their step! 

PRESSURE COOKER (L)

When fighting the Charmpa's body heats up, burning anyone brave or foolish enough to stick around them.

• During a fight, the Battlefield Area the Charmpa occupies has the Harmful condition. The Charmpa and anyone protected from fire or extreme heat is immune to the danger of this ability.

Sometimes, you just need a quick and simple adversary. While building one from scratch is great, you don't always have the time or energy for it. Today's blog entry introduces a shortcut for adversary creation for when you need one: Templates.

In the context of this (and likely future) blog entries, adversary templates are a very basic set of stats for a certain kind of foe that are intended to be easy to alter and customize on the fly. All you need to do to use one is grab the template, choose an extra ability or two, and you have a functional enemy to drop anywhere you need. Anything marked as Variable can be changed in accordance to the fiction you want to attach to your new adversary. For example, if you use the Lug to create a ponderous Knight of the Sacred Chain, their Home Region would be in the Wistful Dark.

Of course, you can ignore what you don't need or assign more fiction to the adversary or tweak it further as desired. You might even used the time you save on their basic stats to come up with custom abilities for them.

Featured this week are a pair of related adversary templates often seen working together in pairs: the big Lug and the wiry Lank. In their untouched state, they are meant to be native humans (if very odd ones), but you could give them a species ability to make them a different member of the folk if you like and both have suggestions on how to make them into other sorts of creatures as well.

Some suggestions on using the Lug and the Lank together...

• Members of a troublesome trio 
• Bumbling minions for a master villain
• Twin guardians of some temple or treasure 

LUG

A violent oaf. Use this template when you need some hired muscle, a lumbering threat, or a big bully.

Menace Level

• Boss

Rank

•  4

Type Main/Sub

• Variable

• Variable

    

• Large

Allegiance

• Variable

Home Region/Habitat

• Variable

Traits: Big, Strong, Dense, Oafish (+2 Might, +2 Grit, -2 Insight, -1 Aura)

• Might [12] (P)

• Deftness [9] (P)

• Grit [11] (P)

• Insight [6]

• Aura [7]

Combat Values

• Hearts [3]

• Attack [+3]

• Speed [Normal]

• Defense Rating [14] (+4 Brazen Defense Ability, +1 Standard Shield, -1 Large)

Gear

• A Mighty/Arc (Crescent Maul) or Mighty/Lash (Chain Flail) combination weapon
• Standard Shield 

Communication Methods

• Low Speech, Variable

Tactics

• Variable, but Lugs are usually bullies at heart, using their attacks to try and take down weaker members of a group to help thin out their numbers.

Miscellaneous

• Indicators - Foes that have been crushed by mighty blows, angry stomping, the occasional guffaw.

• Roleplaying Notes - Lugs are single-minded as a rule. Even the smartest among them would rather be ruthlessly direct than employ any amount of etiquette or finesse.

• Customization - Besides the Abilities you choose for them, you might give a Lug some sort imbued weapon or shield. You can also increase their rank to make them a more difficult opponent.

• Lugs always have the Champion's Brazen Defense elective ability, which gives them an improved defense. This can be replaced with the Chompa's Blubbery Hide ability to make a more overtly monstrous Lug.
• As a Rank 4 Adversary, Lugs should have 2-4 Abilities total. the Champion's Brute, The Gruun's As Tough as the Look make for good choices. The Battle Princess's Passion's Fire or the Murder Princess's Frost Blade could be reskinned to represent different forms of elemental attacks for them as well. 

Yield

• Any equipment the Lug has on hand is there for the taking if they are defeated.

Reskin

• You can change a lot based on what Abilities you give a Lug. For example, mechanical Lugs can be created by giving them Abilities from Drones.

LANK

A scrawny troublemaker. Use this template when you need a speedy trickster or cackling toady.

Menace Level

• Boss

Rank

•  4

Type Main/Sub

• Variable

• Variable

    

• Medium

Allegiance

• Variable

Home Region/Habitat

• Variable

Traits: Wiry, Clever, Frail, Annoying (+2 Deftness, +2 Insight, -2 Grit, -1 Aura)

• Might [9] (P)

• Deftness [11] (P)

• Grit [6]

• Insight [11] (P)

• Aura [7]

Combat Values

• Hearts [3]

• Attack [+3]

• Speed [Fast]

• Defense Rating [16] (+4 Bulwark of Disdain, +2 Fast)

Gear

• A Master/Arc or Master/Drawn Combination Weapon.
• 10 units of Ammunition if the latter is chosen. 

Communication Methods

• Low Speech, Variable

Tactics

• Variable, but Lanks generally like to use hit and run tactics to annoy and harry their foes rather than face them head on.

Miscellaneous

• Indicators - Foes struck down by multiple wounds, annoying cackling, the sound of someone shuffling about impatiently.

• Roleplaying Notes - Lanks are nearly always petty and cruel. They will not miss a chance at a rude wisecrack or mean-spirited gesture.

• Customization - Besides the Abilities you choose for them, you might give a Lank some sort imbued weapon or special ammunition. You can also increase their rank to make them a more difficult opponent.

• Lanks always have the Murder Princess's Bulwark of Disdain and Mange Bandit's Stray's Step Abilities, granting them a higher defense and making them Fast. 
• As a Rank 4 Adversary, Lanks should have 2-4 Abilities total. The Raider's Free Runner and the Sneak's Flanker are good choices for them. You might also give them some Sage Abilities like Hocus Pox or Eldritch Explosives if you want them to be troublesome warrior-mages.

Yield

• Any equipment the Lug has on hand is there for the taking if they are defeated.

Reskin

• You can change a lot based on what Abilities you give a Lank. For example, giving them some of the Insectoid Aspects that Bellzuub has access to is a great way to create a bipedal bug warrior. 

This weeks entry is an adversary that addresses three things: sometimes ordinary wildlife can be dangerous enough as is, ordinary wildlife on Outer World is still pretty strange, and the funniest method of attack is hitting a character with another character.

Big Bad Bird

Introduction

• Distant cousin to the more amiable Rokko-Do, Monstriches are huge, flightless birds with a heck of a meanstreak. Their impressive strength and speed make them surprisingly dangerous for all but the most formidable of travelers.  

Menace Level

• Boss

Rank

• 5

Home Region/Habitat

• Monstriches are found exclusively in the Blazing Garden, most commonly in open grasslands with plenty of places to run about.

Aptitudes (Mean, Dumb: +3 Might, -2 Insight)

Primary Aptitudes: Might, Deftness, Grit

Secondary Aptitudes: Insight, Aura

• Might [13 ]

• Deftness [10]

• Grit [10]

• Insight [7]

• Aura [9]

Combat Values

• Hearts [4]

• Attack [+4]

• Speed [Fast]

• Defense Rating [16 ] (Fowl Countenance)

Adversary Info

• Type: Beast, Avian

• Size: Medium
• Allegiance: Unaligned

Abilities

Fowl Countenance

The Monstritch is a large, flightless bird with surprisingly thick muscles and tough hide.

• The Monstrich has a natural defense of 14 and a Speed Rating of Fast

Peck and Grab Beak

Meant for catching and crushing small prey, the Monstrich’s long neck is used in conjunction with its powerful beak to devastating effect.

• The Monstrich’s beak strikes as a Mighty Weapon.

• The Monstrich may initiate a Might Contest with targets that are Large or smaller after a successful attack with its beak. If the Monstrich wins the Contest, the target is Restrained per the core BREAK!! rulebook. They or someone else may break them free by taking an action and succeeding in a Might Contest against the Monstrich.

• As long as they remain clamped in their beak, the Monstrich may drag restrained characters about or use them as weapons, slamming them against other targets. 

• Successful attacks of this nature do 2 Hearts of damage to both the restrained individual and the target.

Unhallowed Honk

The cry of the Monstrich is supernaturally intimidating, though it really doesn’t seem like it should be. Still, it has occasionally left even the bravest adventurers unnerved.

• The Monstrich may take an action to let out a truly horrible sound. This prompts a Grit Check for anyone within 2 battlefield areas of the Monstrich and who can both see and hear the creature. Anyone who fails this Check is Terrified as per the core BREAK!! Rulebook.

• This Ability may only be used once a conflict.

Communication Methods

• Monstriches are able to squawk and honk loudly. They cannot speak, but seem to understand one another at least.

Tactics

• Bullies at heart, the Monstrich will attempt to bite and grab the weakest member of a group and use them as a bludgeon against their friends. They may also drag restrained individuals away from slower friends if advantageous. 

Yield

• In the unlikely event a Monstrich is tamed, it can serve as a Mount as per the BREAK!! Core Rulebook. Its master becomes immune to its Unhallowed Honk.

Miscellaneous

• Indicators -  Odd footprints from long strides, the musty smell of unclean fowl, terrible honking noises.

• Roleplaying Notes - Monstriches are spiteful, territorial creatures. For the most part they just want to chase off anything they can’t eat.

• Customization  -  Certain unique monstriches may have the ability to fly short distances (Supernatural Leaping) or have disturbingly long necks (strike as a combination Mighty/Lash weapon).

Random Encounter Reaction

• Friendly/Benign (1-5) - The pair of monstriches encountered are actually engaged in a rare snuggle/nap. They will actually leave people alone as long as they don’t make any loud or sudden noises.

• Indifferent/Wary (6-13) - The single monstrich encountered is working very hard to crack open a very large nut. Staying clear of it is advised.

• Hostile/Bloodthirsty (14-20) - For reasons unknown to the party, this monstrich is coming right for them and hates their guts.

Variants and Related Entries