One of the biggest parts of the Fantasy Craft rules that I'm looking forward to playing with is the NPC creation system. Chapter 6 of the rulebook ("Foes") is all about crafting your own NPCs and monsters. The authors provide hundreds of examples, including many of the classic monsters of fantasy, but they really are just examples. The meat of the system is the creation rules, which let you tailor an NPC or monster to your adventure with a pretty good idea of what kind of challenge the creature will be. What's more, each creature is scalable to any level, so the creature your create for your very first adventure is still usable at the end of the campaign.
To get started, here is a creature I just worked up, a simple fiendish rodent meant to serve as a minor obstacle in small numbers.
Demon Rat (Tiny Outsider Animal Walker - 40 XP): Str 6, Dex 12, Con 14, Int 2, Wis 10, Cha 10; SZ T (1x1, Reach 1); Spd 30 ft. ground; Init IV; Atk III; Def III; Res IV; Comp I; Health V; Skills: Sneak IV; Qualities: Darkvision II, improved sense (scent), light-sensitive, swarm
Attacks/Weapons: bite II (dmg 1d4-2 lethal, threat 17-20; bleed)
Treasure: 1T
This little skulker is pretty good at hiding in tight, dark places, waiting for some hapless do-gooders to wander by. Individually, a demon rat isn't much of a worry; its bite attack does a tiny amount of damage. With the swarm quality, however, demon rats can gang up on a single target and potentially dish out quite a bit. This quality lets multiple creatures perform a single combined attack with a total bonus to hit equal to the number of creatures in the swarm. On a hit, the attack's damage is multiplied by half the number of creatures.
Demon Rat (Tiny Outsider Animal Walker - 40 XP, TL 1): Str 6, Dex 12, Con 14, Int 2, Wis 10, Cha 10; SZ T (1x1, Reach 1); Spd 30 ft. ground; Init +2; Atk -2 melee or +1 ranged; Def 14; Fort +3, Ref +2, Will +1; Damage +4 if standard or 25 vitality if special; Comp +0; Skills: Sneak +6; Qualities: Darkvision II, improved sense (scent), light-sensitive, swarm
Attacks/Weapons: bite II (dmg 1d4-2 lethal, threat 17-20; bleed)
Treasure: 1T
At Threat Level 1, demon rats rely almost entirely on their swarm quality. An individual rat has a -2 to hit with its bite, but a swarm of 5 rats has a +5, and the damage is doubled. With a decent damage save bonus, each rat should be able to take two or three hits before being knocked out of the fight.
Demon Rat (Tiny Outsider Animal Walker - 40 XP, TL 5): Str 6, Dex 12, Con 14, Int 2, Wis 10, Cha 10; SZ T (1x1, Reach 1); Spd 30 ft. ground; Init +5; Atk +1 melee or +4 ranged; Def 16; Fort +5, Ref +4, Will +3; Damage +6 if standard or 125 vitality if special; Comp +1; Skills: Sneak +10; Qualities: Darkvision II, improved sense (scent), light-sensitive, swarm
Attacks/Weapons: bite II (dmg 1d4-2 lethal, threat 17-20; bleed)
Treasure: 1T
At Level 5, the rats are still relying on swarm tactics. They are a little harder to hit and still darn hard to take down when you do hit. A dedicated combatant or skilled spellcaster focused on damage spells shouldn't have much trouble with these guys, though.
Demon Rat (Tiny Outsider Animal Walker - 40 XP, TL 10): Str 6, Dex 12, Con 14, Int 2, Wis 10, Cha 10; SZ T (1x1, Reach 1); Spd 30 ft. ground; Init +9; Atk +5 melee or +8 ranged; Def 19; Fort +8, Ref +7, Will +6; Damage +9 if standard or 250 vitality if special; Comp +3; Skills: Sneak +14; Qualities: Darkvision II, improved sense (scent), light-sensitive, swarm
Attacks/Weapons: bite II (dmg 1d4-2 lethal, threat 17-20; bleed)
Treasure: 1T
At Threat Level 10, the rats really start to become interesting. Individual attacks become conceivable, especially against non-combat characters like Courtiers and Sages. At this level, it might be fun to throw in a special demon rat with a mob of standard ones. This "king rat" can take advantage of the bite attack's threat range to score a few criticals, and with 250 vitality, he can take a lot of punishment.
Demon Rat (Tiny Outsider Animal Walker - 40 XP, TL 15): Str 6, Dex 12, Con 14, Int 2, Wis 10, Cha 10; SZ T (1x1, Reach 1); Spd 30 ft. ground; Init +13; Atk +9 melee or +12 ranged; Def 22; Fort +10, Ref +9, Will +8; Damage +11 if standard or 375 vitality if special; Comp +5; Skills: Sneak +18; Qualities: Darkvision II, improved sense (scent), light-sensitive, swarm
Attacks/Weapons: bite II (dmg 1d4-2 lethal, threat 17-20; bleed)
Treasure: 1T
Demon Rat (Tiny Outsider Animal Walker - 40 XP, TL 20): Str 6, Dex 12, Con 14, Int 2, Wis 10, Cha 10; SZ T (1x1, Reach 1); Spd 30 ft. ground; Init +16; Atk +13 melee or +16 ranged; Def 25; Fort +13, Ref +12, Will +11; Damage +14 if standard or 500 vitality if special; Comp +6; Skills: Sneak +22; Qualities: Darkvision II, improved sense (scent), light-sensitive, swarm
Attacks/Weapons: bite II (dmg 1d4-2 lethal, threat 17-20; bleed)
Treasure: 1T
At the highest levels, it might seem silly to pit a party of heroes against a mob of demon rats, but thanks to the scaling system, the rats are just as (relatively) dangerous as they were at level 1. Their greatest potential danger is the bleed quality on their bite attack. A bleeding character takes 1 point of subdual damage on their turn if they do nothing; if they take even a half action, the damage becomes 1d4 lethal. Over the course of a combat, the blood loss can really add up. And one or two special demon rats scoring threats 20% of the time might put a scare in your party.
