My new monsters (UK/EU rules) - now with cards!
Posted: January 31st, 2025, 4:27 amG'day all,
I've come up with a few new monsters for classic HeroQuest, UK/European edition. Lots of people have their own versions of monsters like these, but I thought I'd throw my own out there too in case anyone wants to use them.
WARNING: I haven't playtested these in actual games yet. Most of them are straightforward, but a couple have unusual rules that might need tweaking.
The monsters are based on the classic Warhammer background, in keeping with old-school HQ. I've kept them as simple as possible. When designing them, I tried to answer the question, "What if these monsters had been released in an official expansion in the early 90s?" That includes deciding what colour plastic they would be, for substitution purposes when you run out of a monster type. I also looked at the monster stats as a whole and tried to fill in gaps in the patterns where possible.
EDIT: I've attached test versions of Monster cards. Art is variously from Battle Masters, old-school Talisman by Gary Chalk, and some Warhammer artists (not sure but I think one is Dave Gallagher). Naturally, these cards are for non-commercial use only.
GREY MONSTERS
These are meant to fit in with the Chaos Warrior, in the same way as the Goblin-Orc-Fimir:
Ghoul > Chaos Archer > Chaos Warrior
Ghoul
Move 8 squares
Attack 1 die
Defend 2 dice
Body 1
Mind 1
The Ghoul is grey plastic rather than white because it's not Undead--it's part of the "living team" along with the Chaos Archer and Chaos Warrior. Grey helps the player to remember Holy Water and the Spirit Blade won't work on it. However, it hangs out in crypts and has the same dice pattern as the Undead as well, so it's useful to throw into Undead-themed quests for some variety, sort of like a graveyard goblin.
Miniatures: Games Workshop has done plastic multi-part Ghouls but I don't like them much, and older metal Ghouls. Haven't really found a good model I like yet.
EDIT: Mantic make some pretty good plastic Ghouls for Kings of War / Frostgrave. They come two per sprue and require assembly, but if you have several sprues you ought to be able to make several in the same pose, for that classic HeroQuest look. However, they do tend to lean forward a lot...
Games Workshop's Lord of the Rings / Hobbit / Middle-Earth range also includes some Goblins that were done for the Hobbit movie release (the Goblin Town pasty-white morlock-lookalike ones). They would be perfect for Ghouls, except they're only sold in a huge expensive box of 36 and they come in a variety of poses, meaning you don't get that all-important monopose HQ look. Hmm...
Chaos Archer
Move 6 squares
Attack 2 dice*
Defend 3 dice
Body 1
Mind 2
*(may be ranged)
The Chaos Archer is midway between the Ghoul and the Chaos Warrior. He has a bow, though, which shakes things up a little.
Miniatures: grey plastic Chaos Archers from Milton Bradley's Battlemasters.
BROWN MONSTERS
Skaven > Beastman > Troll
(Yes, really it ought to be a Minotaur, but I have a Troll figure and no spare Minotaur figure...)
Skaven (rat-man, squeak-squeak!))
(this one is from White Dwarf 'Halls of Durrag-Dol', not my own creation, so the stats are already fixed)
Move 12 squares
Attack 2 dice*
Defend 2 dice
Body 1
Mind 1
*Skaven have slings. They may attack anyone they can see with one combat die.
Miniatures: old plastic Skaven, preferably from the 'Fantasy Regiments' box because they face forward. I don't have any of those so I use the bigger side-facing Skaven from Warhammer Quest (1995).
Beastman
Move 6 squares
Attack 5 dice
Defend 4 dice
Body 2*
Mind 2
*If a Beastman loses BOTH Body points to an attack, it is killed. If not, it does not lose any Body points.
The Beastman fills a gap midway between a Gargoyle and an Ogre in power. In keeping with classic HQ design tenets you don't have to track its Body point losses. I later found out the Japanese Heroquest had a very similar rule! To clarify, if the Beastman loses 1 BP to an attack, it instantly heals and restores that BP. I had trouble getting that wording onto the card itself in a clear and concise way, but a rulebook / quest pack entry would make it clear.
In Warhammer terms you wouldn't put Skaven and Beastmen on the same 'colour team', but HeroQuest probably would have (just as it put Fimirs in with the Orcs and Goblins). They're both animal-human hybrid monsters after all.
Miniatures: horned Beastmen with axes and shields from Milton Bradley's Battlemasters.
Troll
Move 4 squares
Attack 6 dice
Defend 5 dice
Body 3*
Mind 1
*If a Troll loses ALL Body points to an attack, it is killed. If not, it does not lose any Body points.
If a Troll is hurt by a Fire spell, it becomes Body 1 for the rest of the Quest.
The Troll is the next level up from a Beastman in terms of power, but it's slower (and stupider to fit with Warhammer background). Its rules are a little complicated but they do avoid Body-point bookkeeping.
To clarify, you have to hit a Troll with 3 skulls that it fails to defend against, all in the same blow. If it only loses 1 or 2 BP to an attack, it instantly heals and restores those Body points. If it loses a BP to a Fire spell, though, its maximum Body point value becomes 1 from then on. Effectively, hit a Troll with fire and it becomes an ordinary EU one-body-point monster! This represents its inability to heal burned flesh.
In the WH background, Trolls continually regenerate and regrow limbs and even heads, but if you burn their flesh they can no longer regenerate. In HQ terms a Troll may be impossible to kill for a hero who lacks 3 attack dice, but with the help of a Fire spell he stands a fighting chance.
White Dwarf had some Troll stats for HQ, but they were pretty feeble. Trolls are tough!
Miniatures: These tend to be large, but I was surprised to find that a classic metal Stone Troll from Citadel Miniatures fits on a standard HQ base and balances pretty well. (The one holding a rock above its head.)
PURPLE MONSTERS
Assassin > Dark Elf > Witch Elf > Sorceress
(See later in this thread for these Monster cards. I can't attach more than five cards to this first post.)
Dark Elf
Move 8 squares
Attack 4 dice
Defend 2 dice
Body 1
Mind 3
The Dark Elves use a dice pattern that isn't used by official monsters: two more attack dice than defence dice. Quest Notes could give some of them crossbows.
Miniatures: Plastic Dark Elves from the old 'Fantasy Regiments' box, or the Dark Elf with sword from Warhammer/Talisman in the mid-90s.
Witch Elf
Move 8 squares
Attack 5 dice
Defend 3 dice
Body 1
Mind 4
[optional stronger variant] A Witch Elf may attack TWICE per turn.
(I have two different versions of the Witch Elf card, one that can attack twice and one that can't. I only own one HQ Witch Elf - the plastic Talisman one - so I want her to be extra-strong when she appears all by herself.)
Miniatures: Ideally the plastic Witch Elf from Talisman 3rd edition, but that can be hard to get hold of. Metal (and later plastic) Witch Elves were sold by Games Workshop.
Sorceress
Move 8 squares
Attack 6 dice
Defend 4 dice
Body 1
Mind 4
A Sorceress can cast a Genie spell once per Quest.
[or, if you have EU Chaos spell cards] A Sorceress has one random Chaos spell.
This one might be unnecessary as magic-using leaders are often 'named personality monsters' in the Quest Notes and don't need monster cards of their own. But a generic Sorceress could be fun to have around. The default Genie spell is meant to represent the Dark Elf Sorceress unleashing a trapped Chaos daemon or spirit. In game terms it can be versatile--Genie might actually open a door for once, to let some monsters out as reinforcements. Alternatively, if you have EU versions of the Chaos spells, she gets one of those.
Miniatures: Again, Talisman 3rd edition had a great plastic Sorceress but she can be hard to find. Other metal and plastic Sorceresses have been produced by GW.
Assassin
Move 0 squares*
Attack 3 dice
Defend 1 die
Body 1
Mind 2
*To move the Assassin, place it behind your screen. Or, if it is behind your screen, place it next to any character.
Ideally the Assassin will never have an icon on a quest map--it will only appear as a wandering monster / special Treasure card, or due to an event in the Quest Notes. It pops up next to a hero. When it "moves" you take it off the board and put it behind the Evil Wizard player's cardboard screen, representing it disappearing into the shadows. The next time you "move" it, you put it back on the board adjacent to any hero. Since you can normally only move-attack or attack-move, the players will get a chance to kill it before it disappears again.
Miniatures: I use the 3rd ed Talisman Assassin plastic figure for this guy.
---
I've thought about doing Lizardmen but haven't gotten around to it. If I were to do Lizardmen I would make them BLUE MONSTERS and give them the pattern of two more defence dice than attack dice, hinting at their scaly armour and slower-paced nature. So a Skink might have Attack 1, Defend 3. A Saurus might be Attack 3, Defend 5. And so on.
---
The other tricksy thing you can do is put special monsters onto Treasure cards. This is handy if you don't have a miniature for a monster.
For example, in an Undead-themed quest, you could have a Treasure card "Wight" for a powerful Undead creature. Put the stats on the Treasure card and use a Skeleton miniature for it until it's destroyed, then return the Treasure card to the pile. Since you usually search only when there are no monsters around, it's unlikely you'll get the Skeleton-Wight mixed up with other Skeletons on the board.
You can also use Treasure cards to place monsters that you don't have Monster cards for. I'm trying out some 'dungeon vermin' such as Rats and Spiders. If you draw a Rat card you place one rat model beside each hero in the same room or passage (so you need 4 rat models). Same with Spiders. Rats can move through other models, while Spiders can be placed on furniture squares (because mine don't have bases)!
Of course the alternative to this, if you lack miniatures, is to just say "a horde of rats attacks everyone in the room with X combat dice before scampering away" and forego miniatures entirely. You just need some evocative art on the Treasure card.
---
Oh, and the Ogre Champion from Against the Ogre Horde should be Attack 5 / Defend 6. Officially it's identical to the Ogre Warrior and I've never understood why.
I've come up with a few new monsters for classic HeroQuest, UK/European edition. Lots of people have their own versions of monsters like these, but I thought I'd throw my own out there too in case anyone wants to use them.
WARNING: I haven't playtested these in actual games yet. Most of them are straightforward, but a couple have unusual rules that might need tweaking.
The monsters are based on the classic Warhammer background, in keeping with old-school HQ. I've kept them as simple as possible. When designing them, I tried to answer the question, "What if these monsters had been released in an official expansion in the early 90s?" That includes deciding what colour plastic they would be, for substitution purposes when you run out of a monster type. I also looked at the monster stats as a whole and tried to fill in gaps in the patterns where possible.
EDIT: I've attached test versions of Monster cards. Art is variously from Battle Masters, old-school Talisman by Gary Chalk, and some Warhammer artists (not sure but I think one is Dave Gallagher). Naturally, these cards are for non-commercial use only.
GREY MONSTERS
These are meant to fit in with the Chaos Warrior, in the same way as the Goblin-Orc-Fimir:
Ghoul > Chaos Archer > Chaos Warrior
Ghoul
Move 8 squares
Attack 1 die
Defend 2 dice
Body 1
Mind 1
The Ghoul is grey plastic rather than white because it's not Undead--it's part of the "living team" along with the Chaos Archer and Chaos Warrior. Grey helps the player to remember Holy Water and the Spirit Blade won't work on it. However, it hangs out in crypts and has the same dice pattern as the Undead as well, so it's useful to throw into Undead-themed quests for some variety, sort of like a graveyard goblin.
Miniatures: Games Workshop has done plastic multi-part Ghouls but I don't like them much, and older metal Ghouls. Haven't really found a good model I like yet.
EDIT: Mantic make some pretty good plastic Ghouls for Kings of War / Frostgrave. They come two per sprue and require assembly, but if you have several sprues you ought to be able to make several in the same pose, for that classic HeroQuest look. However, they do tend to lean forward a lot...
Games Workshop's Lord of the Rings / Hobbit / Middle-Earth range also includes some Goblins that were done for the Hobbit movie release (the Goblin Town pasty-white morlock-lookalike ones). They would be perfect for Ghouls, except they're only sold in a huge expensive box of 36 and they come in a variety of poses, meaning you don't get that all-important monopose HQ look. Hmm...
Chaos Archer
Move 6 squares
Attack 2 dice*
Defend 3 dice
Body 1
Mind 2
*(may be ranged)
The Chaos Archer is midway between the Ghoul and the Chaos Warrior. He has a bow, though, which shakes things up a little.
Miniatures: grey plastic Chaos Archers from Milton Bradley's Battlemasters.
BROWN MONSTERS
Skaven > Beastman > Troll
(Yes, really it ought to be a Minotaur, but I have a Troll figure and no spare Minotaur figure...)
Skaven (rat-man, squeak-squeak!))
(this one is from White Dwarf 'Halls of Durrag-Dol', not my own creation, so the stats are already fixed)
Move 12 squares
Attack 2 dice*
Defend 2 dice
Body 1
Mind 1
*Skaven have slings. They may attack anyone they can see with one combat die.
Miniatures: old plastic Skaven, preferably from the 'Fantasy Regiments' box because they face forward. I don't have any of those so I use the bigger side-facing Skaven from Warhammer Quest (1995).
Beastman
Move 6 squares
Attack 5 dice
Defend 4 dice
Body 2*
Mind 2
*If a Beastman loses BOTH Body points to an attack, it is killed. If not, it does not lose any Body points.
The Beastman fills a gap midway between a Gargoyle and an Ogre in power. In keeping with classic HQ design tenets you don't have to track its Body point losses. I later found out the Japanese Heroquest had a very similar rule! To clarify, if the Beastman loses 1 BP to an attack, it instantly heals and restores that BP. I had trouble getting that wording onto the card itself in a clear and concise way, but a rulebook / quest pack entry would make it clear.
In Warhammer terms you wouldn't put Skaven and Beastmen on the same 'colour team', but HeroQuest probably would have (just as it put Fimirs in with the Orcs and Goblins). They're both animal-human hybrid monsters after all.
Miniatures: horned Beastmen with axes and shields from Milton Bradley's Battlemasters.
Troll
Move 4 squares
Attack 6 dice
Defend 5 dice
Body 3*
Mind 1
*If a Troll loses ALL Body points to an attack, it is killed. If not, it does not lose any Body points.
If a Troll is hurt by a Fire spell, it becomes Body 1 for the rest of the Quest.
The Troll is the next level up from a Beastman in terms of power, but it's slower (and stupider to fit with Warhammer background). Its rules are a little complicated but they do avoid Body-point bookkeeping.
To clarify, you have to hit a Troll with 3 skulls that it fails to defend against, all in the same blow. If it only loses 1 or 2 BP to an attack, it instantly heals and restores those Body points. If it loses a BP to a Fire spell, though, its maximum Body point value becomes 1 from then on. Effectively, hit a Troll with fire and it becomes an ordinary EU one-body-point monster! This represents its inability to heal burned flesh.
In the WH background, Trolls continually regenerate and regrow limbs and even heads, but if you burn their flesh they can no longer regenerate. In HQ terms a Troll may be impossible to kill for a hero who lacks 3 attack dice, but with the help of a Fire spell he stands a fighting chance.
White Dwarf had some Troll stats for HQ, but they were pretty feeble. Trolls are tough!
Miniatures: These tend to be large, but I was surprised to find that a classic metal Stone Troll from Citadel Miniatures fits on a standard HQ base and balances pretty well. (The one holding a rock above its head.)
PURPLE MONSTERS
Assassin > Dark Elf > Witch Elf > Sorceress
(See later in this thread for these Monster cards. I can't attach more than five cards to this first post.)
Dark Elf
Move 8 squares
Attack 4 dice
Defend 2 dice
Body 1
Mind 3
The Dark Elves use a dice pattern that isn't used by official monsters: two more attack dice than defence dice. Quest Notes could give some of them crossbows.
Miniatures: Plastic Dark Elves from the old 'Fantasy Regiments' box, or the Dark Elf with sword from Warhammer/Talisman in the mid-90s.
Witch Elf
Move 8 squares
Attack 5 dice
Defend 3 dice
Body 1
Mind 4
[optional stronger variant] A Witch Elf may attack TWICE per turn.
(I have two different versions of the Witch Elf card, one that can attack twice and one that can't. I only own one HQ Witch Elf - the plastic Talisman one - so I want her to be extra-strong when she appears all by herself.)
Miniatures: Ideally the plastic Witch Elf from Talisman 3rd edition, but that can be hard to get hold of. Metal (and later plastic) Witch Elves were sold by Games Workshop.
Sorceress
Move 8 squares
Attack 6 dice
Defend 4 dice
Body 1
Mind 4
A Sorceress can cast a Genie spell once per Quest.
[or, if you have EU Chaos spell cards] A Sorceress has one random Chaos spell.
This one might be unnecessary as magic-using leaders are often 'named personality monsters' in the Quest Notes and don't need monster cards of their own. But a generic Sorceress could be fun to have around. The default Genie spell is meant to represent the Dark Elf Sorceress unleashing a trapped Chaos daemon or spirit. In game terms it can be versatile--Genie might actually open a door for once, to let some monsters out as reinforcements. Alternatively, if you have EU versions of the Chaos spells, she gets one of those.
Miniatures: Again, Talisman 3rd edition had a great plastic Sorceress but she can be hard to find. Other metal and plastic Sorceresses have been produced by GW.
Assassin
Move 0 squares*
Attack 3 dice
Defend 1 die
Body 1
Mind 2
*To move the Assassin, place it behind your screen. Or, if it is behind your screen, place it next to any character.
Ideally the Assassin will never have an icon on a quest map--it will only appear as a wandering monster / special Treasure card, or due to an event in the Quest Notes. It pops up next to a hero. When it "moves" you take it off the board and put it behind the Evil Wizard player's cardboard screen, representing it disappearing into the shadows. The next time you "move" it, you put it back on the board adjacent to any hero. Since you can normally only move-attack or attack-move, the players will get a chance to kill it before it disappears again.
Miniatures: I use the 3rd ed Talisman Assassin plastic figure for this guy.
---
I've thought about doing Lizardmen but haven't gotten around to it. If I were to do Lizardmen I would make them BLUE MONSTERS and give them the pattern of two more defence dice than attack dice, hinting at their scaly armour and slower-paced nature. So a Skink might have Attack 1, Defend 3. A Saurus might be Attack 3, Defend 5. And so on.
---
The other tricksy thing you can do is put special monsters onto Treasure cards. This is handy if you don't have a miniature for a monster.
For example, in an Undead-themed quest, you could have a Treasure card "Wight" for a powerful Undead creature. Put the stats on the Treasure card and use a Skeleton miniature for it until it's destroyed, then return the Treasure card to the pile. Since you usually search only when there are no monsters around, it's unlikely you'll get the Skeleton-Wight mixed up with other Skeletons on the board.
You can also use Treasure cards to place monsters that you don't have Monster cards for. I'm trying out some 'dungeon vermin' such as Rats and Spiders. If you draw a Rat card you place one rat model beside each hero in the same room or passage (so you need 4 rat models). Same with Spiders. Rats can move through other models, while Spiders can be placed on furniture squares (because mine don't have bases)!
Of course the alternative to this, if you lack miniatures, is to just say "a horde of rats attacks everyone in the room with X combat dice before scampering away" and forego miniatures entirely. You just need some evocative art on the Treasure card.
---
Oh, and the Ogre Champion from Against the Ogre Horde should be Attack 5 / Defend 6. Officially it's identical to the Ogre Warrior and I've never understood why.
