Each creature entry uses the same table-facing format.
Image Placeholder gives the art direction and intended image slot for the creature.
Role lists the adversary tier and encounter role.
Where It Appears gives common habitat, faction use, or scenario placement.
What It Is gives the GM a short description focused on the playable idea of the creature.
Ecology and Behavior explains how the creature lives, hunts, thinks, reacts to intrusion, and changes the surrounding region. Mindless hazards can keep this short. Creatures with animal cunning, social behavior, language, culture, or tactical intelligence need a fuller writeup.
Signs and Knowledge tells the GM what the party can notice before the fight and what successful research or field checks reveal.
Stat Block uses Exodus NDS characteristics and adversary values.
Skills list only the skills that matter in play. If a creature has no listed skill for a task, use its characteristic alone.
Attacks list skill, damage, critical rating, range, and qualities.
Abilities give triggered rules. Each ability should state the trigger, cost, roll or resistance, effect, and limits.
Soul is a one-line field carried by every entry, placed directly after the creature's abilities. It reads - **Soul:** <claimable | none | already claimed | not a soul in the mortal sense>; at death <passes normally | returns to patron | dissolves | becomes Spent if burned | canon does not specify>. The rule and the family table live in the Ix GM Guide, Chapter Four; the catalog only reports the answer for this creature. A line ending in (default) is the working default for a family canon leaves silent, not canon itself. Where an entry's own text settles what happens to its soul, that entry-specific line overrides the family default.
Disease X is the catalog shorthand for mundane infection. X sets the difficulty of the resistance check: Disease 1 = Average, Disease 2 = Hard, Disease 3 = Severe, and Disease 4 = Extreme. Each disease entry should name the save, the failure effect, the in-game result, recovery, cure, and any transmutation. A complete entry follows this pattern: Disease X (Name): trigger; save; failure effect and table effect; recovery; cure; optional transmutation.
Once per chronicle appears on a few named entries in the Unique Named Threats chapter. A chronicle is one campaign arc as the GM Guide uses the term (the First Chronicle runs four sessions), so the ability fires once in that arc, not once per session.
Fear X is the catalog shorthand for a creature that forces a Fear check. X is the Fear rating, 1 to 4, and it sets the difficulty of the check: Fear 1 = Easy, Fear 2 = Average, Fear 3 = Hard, Fear 4 = Severe. The check is Readiness for sudden shock or Discipline for sustained dread, made once per source per scene. Failure means Strain equal to the rating and the Frightened condition; Minion groups and Elites roll once as a unit and become Demoralized instead. The full procedure is in the Ix GM Guide, Chapter Nine; the player-facing rule is in the Ix Player Guide, Chapter Thirteen. Do not restate the rule in a creature entry. State only the rating, and any wording the creature changes: an ability that reads "Frightened for one round" overrides the default duration for that ability.
An entry that reads cannot be Frightened, cannot be Frightened or Demoralized, or immune to fear means the creature never makes a Fear check and never suffers either condition. Undead and constructs are immune by default even when the entry does not say so.
Tactics explains what the creature does in the first three rounds or first three beats.
Encounter Use explains how to deploy the creature without flattening it into a bag of numbers.
Harvesting and Trade appears only when the creature has parts worth collecting. Not every creature needs this section. Common animals, humanoids, plants with no special properties, and creatures whose remains spoil or dissolve may have no meaningful harvest table.
Variants gives quick scaling options when the same creature appears at different levels of danger.
The Infectious Condition
Some creatures spread a curse, disease, or supernatural affliction through their attacks. The mechanic is consistent across all infectious creatures; outcomes vary by type.
Trigger: When a creature is wounded by an infectious creature's attack (bite, scratch, or specified contact), it makes the resistance check listed in the infecting creature's Infection or Disease ability. Willpower is the default save unless the entry names another skill or characteristic.
Success: No infection. The character's body or spirit resisted.
Failure: The character gains the Infected condition at Stage 1. Effects at each Stage are defined in the creature's entry. Some infections also apply an immediate effect at Stage 1; others are silent until they advance.
Advancing Stages: An untreated infection advances one Stage after each extended rest, or sooner if specified (some infections advance faster under certain conditions). Time, travel, and stress can all accelerate an infection at the GM's discretion.
Disease Rating: Mundane diseases use Disease X instead of unique stage names unless the creature needs a bespoke curse or transformation. X sets the resistance difficulty: Disease 1 = Average, Disease 2 = Hard, Disease 3 = Severe, Disease 4 = Extreme. The disease entry states the save, failure effect, in-game result, recovery, cure, and any transmutation.
Repeated Exposure: If a character is already Infected and is wounded again by the same type of infectious creature, make the check again. Additional successful Disease attacks increase the difficulty by one step until the character recovers or is cured. For staged supernatural infections, on failure the infection advances one Stage immediately.
Difficulty Modifiers: Some infections modify the check based on circumstances. Common adjustments:
- Deep wound or multiple hits in one round: add 1 Bane to the check
- Character already at Stage 2 or higher: difficulty increases by one step
- Protective measures (specific herbs, divine warding, antitoxin): as noted in the creature entry
Treatment: Each infection specifies how it may be slowed, halted, or reversed. Successful treatment does not automatically remove existing Stage effects; it stops the infection from advancing further. Reversing an existing Stage requires a separate, usually harder, intervention.
Turning: Infections that end in the victim becoming that creature type (zombification, lycanthropy, vampiric turning) describe the conditions and timing in the creature's entry. A character who turns is removed from play unless the GM rules otherwise. The transformation is rarely reversible once complete.
Stat Block Notes
Characteristics are listed as Might / Agility / Intellect / Savvy / Willpower / Charisma.
Resistance is the final value used in play, including natural armor or supernatural protection. Wounds and Strain follow the adversary tier:
- Minions have Wound Points only and use group pools.
- Elites have Wound Points only. Strain effects become Wounds at 1 Strain = 1 Wound.
- Nemeses have Wound Points and Strain Points and may spend Peril Points.
Breath, Auras, and Recharge
Some creatures, especially dragons, have major powers too strong to use every round. Unless a creature says otherwise:
- A breath weapon takes an Action.
- After using a breath weapon, the creature cannot use that same breath weapon on its next turn.
- A Nemesis may spend 2 Peril to ignore that waiting turn once per encounter.
- A creature can always use claws, bite, tail, movement, or other listed actions while the breath weapon is unavailable.