It’s advice I’ve seen a lot in TTRPGs: need a combat encounter at short notice? Send in the bears. Whether it’s a literal bear isn’t the point; GMs have a trusty stat block in reserve, reflavouring descriptions to feel fresh and suited to the environment. Reskinning monsters is great advice and here’s a guide on how to get the best out of your designs.
This is the first of a two-part series taking an in-depth look at making those creatures much more memorable. Part one will look at coming up with powerful concepts and effective names; part two will look at the aesthetics, making the monsters feel not only fresh, but alive. The overall goal is evocative designs that are exciting to face without significant prep time.
So, When Reskinning Monsters, Why Bears?
Bears, specifically brown bears for Dungeons & Dragons 5e and 5.5, are a common choice because they solve several requirements:
First, bears have enough health for everyone in the party to get involved before the creature’s defeat. Everyone gets to roll some dice; no one misses out.
Second, the bear’s Armour Class and other defensive stats are generally low. That means each player has a good chance of succeeding with their attacks and gets to feel effective.
Third, the bear’s attacks are not complicated. A single glance is often all that’s needed for a GM to know how they work. In contrast, spellcasters are usually terrible for this type of improvised encounter. Bears should be quick to deploy and fast to run.
And fourth, the bear’s attack hits hard enough for it to matter. There’s little to no risk of wiping out the party; however, the party cannot ignore the damage the bear can do. They increase the tension by adding a complication the players must manage carefully or fight cleverly.
Bears in All But Name
The sharp-eyed will have noticed: there’s no need to use bears at all. Any creature that fulfils these requirements—decent health, low defence, simple attack, good damage—will do. For instance, Mike Mearls, the original designer of 5e, has said he uses lions for this role. I actually use dinosaurs. “Bear” is just a shorthand term for anything that covers those requirements.
Mike Shea, aka Sly Flourish, made this excellent video on bear equivalents for 5e and other systems; incidentally, he suggests ogres and giants as bears for 5e. In the video, he also recommends bear substitutes for Dragonbane and Daggerheart.
From both Mikes and other sources of advice, beasts are a common suggestion because many cover the basic requirements. Of course, feel free to look through monster lists and pick a template that seems best to you; if time is short, consider skipping straight to the beasts section and start there.
Reskinning Monsters, But Keeping It Fresh
When creating the hit video game Darkest Dungeon, lead designer Chris Bourassa wanted to carefully make old tropes new. Many of the familiar heroes appear: barbarians, bards, clerics, fighters, paladins, rangers, rogues, and warlocks. Only now, they’re called hellions, jesters, vassals, bounty hunters, champions, houndmasters, grave robbers, and occultists.
These heroes, in turn, will fight horrors that feature in many D&D games like orcs and vampires. It’s here where the reskinning goes up a level. Chris felt between Warhammer’s football hooligan and Lord of the Rings’/Warcraft’s stock fantasy versions, orcs’ popular image had been perfected. If they were going to be in the game, they would need a heavy make-over to justify their inclusion.
And so, Chris turned to pigs.
He thought about orcs and how they often feel: savage, brutal, dirty, hateful of humanity, and fight in groups. Searching for inspiration, he initially considered other media. It was the world of animals, though, where he struck creative gold.
Pigs have the reputation for being filthy. They eat anything, including human bodies. Their flesh, perhaps less well known, is very similar to ours. Pigs have also featured in some evocative horror stories; Chris cites William Hope Hodgson’s The House on the Borderland as direct inspiration; H.P. Lovecraft’s “The Rats in the Walls” is very evident here, too. If you’re curious Chris gives a brilliant breakdown of his design process here.
Reskinning Monsters: Mashing Concepts
So, with the stat block chosen, the next step to an evocative reskin is choosing a concept. For increased speed, that means combining two ideas, just like orcs and pigs. Anything goes here. We won’t be changing the stat block in any meaningful way; however, there’s near-total freedom with regards to concepts and aesthetics.
As an aside, it’s worth noting pigs were far from the first thing Chris considered. In trying to move away from generic fantasy images, he first looked at a variety of sources, including mythology. If time allows, by all means, have fun with this; be warned though, it can be a rabbit hole, especially for the perfectionists and procrastinators out there.
Genre First, Media Second
GMs with limited time and no initial inspiration can quick-start the process by genre mixing. If the game is fantasy, look into sci-fi, mystery, post-apocalypse, horror, etc. For instance, take the classic zombie and turn it into an obedient drone trooper for a sci-fi opera. Alternatively, take the Nazgûl’s Fell Beast and make it act like a blood hound for a contemporary horror game; it’s hunting down someone asking the party for help; soon, it will hunt the PCs themselves.
If genre mixing isn’t inspiring enough, try changing media. Folklore and mythology are obvious places to lean into, especially if you have knowledge of lesser known content. GMs could take the ancient Egyptian enemy of Ra, Apophis, and turn this demon snake into a sci-fi, sentient robot.
Music and artwork (especially surrealist pieces) are also fruitful resources to browse. How might a mutated buffalo, looking like a cubist’s nightmare, act as it perceives the world turning into blocks?
Animals, especially sea creatures, insects and reptiles, can give some really exotic combinations. In his interview for us, James Introcaso taught me about horned lizards; they can squirt blood from their eyes (my response to this is still yikes)!
Human history, space and the sciences, industrial engineering, and architecture can all provide further inspiration. After all, gargoyles were unlikely to have become fantasy horror staples without adorning so many castles and places of worship.
Reskinning Monsters: Names
With the concept decided, next come names. Chris Bourassa’s orcs are swinefolk; his barbarians, rogues, and warlocks are hellions, grave robbers, and occultists. A single name taken from their nature, role, or profession is the quick and dirty approach. In many cases, this is more than enough.
Going deeper, a creature may have many names, often gained from the different groups that have to deal with it. Tolkien’s Nazgûl are more often called Black Riders because most people do not know their true nature. Those that do may call them ringwraiths or, the safer choice, The Nine. Only those strong enough or foolish enough to speak Mordor’s tongue dare utter their true name. The choice of name hints at what a character knows and their level of fear—brilliant worldbuilding.
How the creature looks, the sounds it makes, and how it attacks are the most natural sources for inspiration. Much like Black Riders, the Blue Crawlers, Doom Buzzers (likely just “Buzzers”), and Night Snatchers feel like names used day-to-day.
These don’t just feel more organic, they instantly give useful information the players can use against the creatures. PCs won’t be looking up in the sky if they hear the panicked shout of “blue crawlers!” Similarly, a heavy buzzing sound indicates it’s time to prepare, hide, or flee. And Night Snatchers doesn’t just signal the likeliest time of attack, but also it involves kidnapping or stealing.
Of course, any name the creature refers to itself as is another option. However, arguably the bigger goldmine for worldbuilding is assigned names.
Monster Names Should Sound Distinctive & Cool
In Warhammer 40,000, names come through the filtered perspective of humankind’s Imperium. The alien T’au may call their soldiers shas-la and veterans shas-ui, but xenophobic Imperials have no time for alien tongues; they are fire warriors and team leaders. Likewise, the calm, calculating T’au call their hover tanks distinctly unflashy names like TX7 and TY7; the humans distinguish this heavy tank and transport vehicle with assigned names: they are the Hammerhead and the Devilfish, respectively.
In a constant state of war, the Imperium needs distinctive names to speed up understanding of a situation. The exact same principle applies to players in a TTRPG. Saying the PCs are facing Hammerheads communicates more information than saying the party is fighting TX7s, not TY7s.
Giving enemies evocative names also makes beating them sound a lot cooler. Single-handedly taking down a Devilfish tank with your final grenade sounds badass; defeating Fluffy Horse does not (no matter how fluffy). Similarly, defeat against 10 Hammerhead tanks sounds more respectable, even valiant, depending on the situation.
Dangerous creatures should have names that inspire respect—if not outright fear or even terror—in the PCs. Players may come up with their own joke nicknames; it happens. However, if the fiction is cool, they tend to join in, not sabotage it. Power fantasy, narrative immersion, or simply wishing to support the group all help. Don’t betray that; leverage it to its fullest.
Reskinning Monsters: Sometimes Old Tropes Need Attention Too
One extra note about names that inspire respect: familiarity can be a killer. One of the most obvious examples is the humble zombie. Game of Thrones chose White Walker. The Walking Dead went with Walker, Biter, Roamer, Geek, Rotter, and Empty (again, choice reveals character). They are all, clearly, zombies. But even a simple rename can improve immersion. If nothing else, it signals effort. So, instead of saying the party are up against zombies, consider identifying them as the Sleepless, Hungerers, or Flesh Tearers. The same goes for any other trope the table are growing tired of.
Names Reveal the Namers
The Walking Dead zombie names are another example of character views influencing the world. Compare someone calling a zombie a biter versus a geek versus an empty. Biter is what the zombie does; that’s the most important detail for a character just trying to survive. Geek is dismissive; the character likely has self-confidence; to them, the zombies just aren’t much of a threat. An empty suggests ideology; people are whole while an empty has lost what is most valuable; they may be existing, but they have become less than a human.
Returning to the T’au Hammerhead and Devilfish, these are human names. The Imperium sees the T’au vehicles like aquatic predators; they’re fast, agile, dangerous, but fragile.
Then, there are the Tyranids. Based on the Xenomorph from the Alien franchise, these creatures are a horde that will consume the galaxy. Unlike every other race, the Tyranids have never had direct communication with the humankind. Accordingly, the Imperium echoes scientific convention by identifying them like any animal species; they all got Latin names. This leads to names like Carnifex—executioner or butcher—and Hive Tyrant, terms that communicate violence and power.
I would only suggest this level of depth if time and desire allow. In most instances, a single name that reflects how the creature looks or attacks will do. For GMs wanting to go further, consider who is doing the naming; think about concerns regarding the creature along with any relevant ideologies, too.
All names should communicate to players actionable information: how to identify the creature; what to expect from its attack; what a particular name reveals about the NPCs using it. The players are always learning something useful.
Reskinning Monsters: A Working Example
Here’s a quick example covering the first few steps for reskinning a monster.
My stat block for a 5e game is the brown bear: plenty of health, low defences, simple attack, solid damage.
For the concept, I’m going to mash together big cats with the horned lizards’ blood-spraying eyes. Using the same stat block for both cats, they will hunt in pairs. One can mimic a male voice, crying out in distress. As prey comes closer, they see tearful eyes suddenly turn red; the cat tries to distract the target with their blood spray. The second cat then strikes as the prey is vulnerable.
For the name, locals call them Weepers. They warn PCs to run away from any cries appearing to come from a male in the nearby forest. Hunters call them Blood Eyes, though some more money-minded individuals call them Gold Coats; their fur fetches a very high price indeed.
Players have a warning sound for an ambush predator, along with a possible resource to exploit.
That’s the initial process complete, and it takes just a few minutes:
1. Pick the stat block. Anything with solid health, low defence, a simple attack, and decent damage.
2. Combine two concepts together. Mixing genres is often fastest; changing media or looking further afield like to the animal kingdom opens up even more possibilities.
3. Choose a name based on how it looks, sounds, or attacks. If time allows, consider who is doing the naming and worldbuild from there. Names should be cool and give actionable information to the players.
Next Up, Part Two
Concept and name give the monster the foundation from which to live long in players’ memories; the next article will look at making it prowl and snarl there. Part two’s focus is on describing the creature, how it moves, and how it strikes. For now, I will sign off with the almost inevitable Shakespeare reference:
Exit, pursued by a bear.
See you in part two!
