WarHammer's Top Baddies
Top Ten creature lists seem to be going around. To be different, and mostly to match my playing style, I have decided to try to list the most popular creatures in the WarHammer world.
I have been playing WarHammer Fantasy Roleplay (WFRP) since some time in high school. That's at least 15 years. Within the last few years, the Black Library has released a slew of WarHammer Fantasy novels, and it seems I have spent more hours reading recently than I ever did playing or prepping a game of WFRP.
Through my years of experience playing and reading, here's my list of WFRP's top "monsters".
Snotlings Snotlings are the smallest of the goblinoid races. They are not the same as D&D's kobolds. They have only 1 strength, 1 toughness, and 3 wounds. You can pretty much sneeze and kill them. They are, however, humorous and fun to use against the party!
Snotlings only attack if they outnumber their opponent ten to one. For weapons they use nets, clubs, axes, and, best of all, they throw poisonous fungi and molds. These molds can cause delirium, drowsiness, insanity, or death. How fun is that?!
Dark Elves Unlike D&D, WFRP dark elves are not dark skinned. Instead, the darkness is entirely represented in their psyche. They are a torturous, cruel, murderous race. They prey on any and every other race out there, including themselves. Appearance-wise, they can be rather like normal elves, excepting some tattoos or ritualistic scarring. If this can be covered up, dark elves can roam around relatively unmolested until they decide to start their havoc. What fun!
Chaos Warriors and Chaos Bands Chaos Warriors head small bands of beastmen who all follow the same chaos deity. Beastmen have such things as tentacles, multiple arms, horns, goat's legs, etc. These bands roam through the Old World slaughtering in the name of their chaos lord.
At the head of these bands are massive, armored warriors who have traded their humanity for mutinous powers. Their armor may be welded to their body, they may have a skull for a face, or they might be growing horns our of their otherwise human heads. They are warriors that you can make as powerful as the party needs for a challenge.
Skaven The most popular type of beastman is the Skaven. This race is a mixture of rat and man, giant rats who are man-height, walk on their hind legs, can speak common languages, and are highly intelligent. Skaven have a complex system of tunnels underneath the entire world, so you never know when they'll show up and how strong the party will be.
The WarHammer world seems to love these beasts above all others, and they can show up in just about any WarHammer novel. There are assassin clans, pestilence clans, engineer clans, and clans that experiment on making newer, stronger creatures. There's also a subset of magic users, called Grey Seers. They are normally the leaders and instigators of any interaction with characters.
Cultists/Mutants Skaven may be the most popular creature, but fellow human beings are the most popular enemy. People looking for power from one of the ruinous chaos deities, people who are doing bad deeds because of blackmail, people who only want to get ahead in life and don't care how they do it. These are the enemies you really have to look out for. At least you know an evil looking creature is your enemy. You can never be sure, though, if the book-worm looking weakling who is walking down a dark alley alone might be a high wizard of a chaos god who has superhuman strength and a mutant, ravenous maw hiding under his lacy shirt.
I have been playing WarHammer Fantasy Roleplay (WFRP) since some time in high school. That's at least 15 years. Within the last few years, the Black Library has released a slew of WarHammer Fantasy novels, and it seems I have spent more hours reading recently than I ever did playing or prepping a game of WFRP.
Through my years of experience playing and reading, here's my list of WFRP's top "monsters".
Snotlings Snotlings are the smallest of the goblinoid races. They are not the same as D&D's kobolds. They have only 1 strength, 1 toughness, and 3 wounds. You can pretty much sneeze and kill them. They are, however, humorous and fun to use against the party!
Snotlings only attack if they outnumber their opponent ten to one. For weapons they use nets, clubs, axes, and, best of all, they throw poisonous fungi and molds. These molds can cause delirium, drowsiness, insanity, or death. How fun is that?!
Dark Elves Unlike D&D, WFRP dark elves are not dark skinned. Instead, the darkness is entirely represented in their psyche. They are a torturous, cruel, murderous race. They prey on any and every other race out there, including themselves. Appearance-wise, they can be rather like normal elves, excepting some tattoos or ritualistic scarring. If this can be covered up, dark elves can roam around relatively unmolested until they decide to start their havoc. What fun!
Chaos Warriors and Chaos Bands Chaos Warriors head small bands of beastmen who all follow the same chaos deity. Beastmen have such things as tentacles, multiple arms, horns, goat's legs, etc. These bands roam through the Old World slaughtering in the name of their chaos lord.
At the head of these bands are massive, armored warriors who have traded their humanity for mutinous powers. Their armor may be welded to their body, they may have a skull for a face, or they might be growing horns our of their otherwise human heads. They are warriors that you can make as powerful as the party needs for a challenge.
Skaven The most popular type of beastman is the Skaven. This race is a mixture of rat and man, giant rats who are man-height, walk on their hind legs, can speak common languages, and are highly intelligent. Skaven have a complex system of tunnels underneath the entire world, so you never know when they'll show up and how strong the party will be.
The WarHammer world seems to love these beasts above all others, and they can show up in just about any WarHammer novel. There are assassin clans, pestilence clans, engineer clans, and clans that experiment on making newer, stronger creatures. There's also a subset of magic users, called Grey Seers. They are normally the leaders and instigators of any interaction with characters.
Cultists/Mutants Skaven may be the most popular creature, but fellow human beings are the most popular enemy. People looking for power from one of the ruinous chaos deities, people who are doing bad deeds because of blackmail, people who only want to get ahead in life and don't care how they do it. These are the enemies you really have to look out for. At least you know an evil looking creature is your enemy. You can never be sure, though, if the book-worm looking weakling who is walking down a dark alley alone might be a high wizard of a chaos god who has superhuman strength and a mutant, ravenous maw hiding under his lacy shirt.