Roles
You'll need Horrors of all shapes and sizes, each with their unique strengths, weaknesses, and combat behaviors. One way to classify these Horrors is by their "role" in combat. The role of a Horror helps define its contribution to the encounter, its health pool, and its available reactions.
While these guidelines are here to help you create balanced encounters, they're not hard rules. Feel free to mix and match, create unique scenarios, and surprise your Hunters with unexpected combinations. Creativity is key!
Let's take a closer look at the three primary roles:
Group: These are your foot soldiers, the swarm of Horrors that come at the Hunters in numbers. Divide their assigned portion of the encounter HP pool equally before combat, then track each Horror's HP separately. They typically have few, if any, reactions. Think about a pack of feral cryptids or a horde of undead. For a typical party of Hunters, you'd expect around 4 to 5 group Horrors.
Elite: These are the lieutenants of the Horror world, tougher and more dangerous than their group counterparts. When fighting alongside Group Horrors, the Elites receive half the HP pool by default, rounded down, divided among them. They usually have more reactions at their disposal. An example could be a terrifyingly powerful spectral entity accompanied by lesser spirits. In a standard encounter, you'd have one elite Horror and about 2 to 3 group Horrors.
Solo: These are the bosses, the big bads, the Horrors that make even the bravest Hunters pause. A solo Horror fights alone, taking the entire HP pool for itself and wielding a hefty number of reactions. This could be a colossal abyssal entity or a powerful alien being. A typical solo encounter consists of just this single, formidable Horror.
The HP Pools section gives the full allocation procedure, including mixed levels, leftover HP, and encounters with unusual role combinations. Adjust these defaults deliberately rather than making several creatures draw damage from one shared health total.
Overseer: "As you enter the abandoned factory, you see a swarm of smaller insectoid Horrors buzzing around a much larger, more menacing one."
David: "Looks like we've got a fight on our hands, guys."
Amy: "I'll take the big one. John, David, you handle the swarm."
John: "On it, Amy. Let's thin out their numbers, David."
Overseer: "Alright, let the battle begin!"
In this encounter, the smaller insectoid Horrors fill the group role, while the larger one is an elite. It's up to our Hunters to strategize and take them down. Will they succeed? Only the dice will tell!