Monster Hunters

Let's talk about them - all the people who decide to keep others safe (or perhaps just earn a good living) by facing things few men can stand up to.

It's clear that not many would set out to do so. It takes a certain kind of person to face the beasts, as all but the weakest could slaughter a village with relatively little difficulty - and even those could, in numbers, which they often have.

But more importantly and to the point - it takes a very specialized set of skills. Knowledge, too: A lot of the time, it takes exploiting a weakness to truly defeat the beast. Other times, a single mistake could be lethal - take a basilisk, for instance.

But it goes beyond knowing - it takes preparation, in equipment and tactics. To fight a monster - almost any, save for the most humanlike - is entirely different from facing a human. Mobility is so much more important against those who can shatter steel, but one still needs armor against those faster than a man. One must know how to avoid flame, or acid, or anything really, and how to fighting without looking at the foe if needed. How to best deal with a horde and a giant both. How to fight in any environment to full capacity. To always have means to strike, one would need a variety of weapons - going beyond regular categories. Certainly, a ranged, reach and regular weapon would serve well, but a veteran would have specialized weapons, just for a specific task. Just as a parrying dagger exists for a reason, so would the hunter's tools.

With all that in mind, the purpose of this thread is ideas: For how exactly a professional monster hunter would fight, with what, and how regular folk would think of them for it.

Monster hunters are no different from any other kind of trapper.

Bears were treated as essentially monsters during the migration period - mother fuckers still went out and hunted them.

Bears don't breathe fucking fire, turn people to stone or regenerate from death.

C'mon guy, I know what your point was, but comparing the real-world situation to the actual monsters is just silly.

They'd be feared and kept an arms length or further most likely. Someone who slays the monsters that uproot villages must surely seem even more monstrous.

Even though you insist that hunting a boar or a wolf is completely different to hunting some other beast, I'll bite.

One of human's greatest assets is their ability to pursue a creature relentlessly. That's how our cave man ancestors hunted big creatures, wearing them down before striking from multiple directions.

This means that our monster hunters just be lightly armoured, if armoured at all, and able to travel long distances, either by horse or by foot.

Another factor is distance. I think any good hunter would be keeping their distance from the quarry. Crossbows or bows would be effective and there's a massive amount of force behind those things.

I think that lances or other polearms would also help in keeping the distance as well as being able to pin the creature while your buddy pokes him in the arse.

Most of all, monster hunters would have to hunt in packs. It would allow them to attack the creature from multiple directions and confuse and pin it in place.

I think a good example of this is in the Black Company books. A mythical creature breaks into a fortress and so the company clears it with a formation of pikemen and with crossbowmen to the rear.

I think watching a monster hunter fight would be incredibly baffling and impressive at the same time. Consider all the habits developed during years of facing the bizarre beasts with horrifying powers - instinctually avoiding looking at your foe, instead following their shadow and sound; angling your shield to better deflect whatever they may spit at you, and ensuring it's both protected from all elements and polished to a perfect shine; keeping more distance than perhaps strictly necessary, just to avoid whatever reach and tricks they may pull.

And yes, the equipment. Regular weapons are well and good, but a strong enough hunter could opt to wield oversized weaponry when facing a giant foe - especially if they lacked the agility to simply climb the colossus and strike vital spots. Barbed chains could be used to limit a creature's movements, alchemical mixtures to weaken it, blind it, anything that would give an advantage.

Above all though, a hunter would likely find the mere notion of fighting the beasts fairly to be ludicrous. They certainly don't - their danger lies in the fact they are so far beyond the ability of a regular man to face. Almost all beasts feed - starve them, then, by collapsing their lair's entrance... that is, if you know for certain they will not make a new way, or clear the rubble. Strike when the monster sleeps, after masking your scent. Do anything and everything to ensure victory, because ultimately, you're not a knight in shining armour out for glory. You're there to keep people safe, and to rid the world of these vile beasts.

Besides, guile makes for good stories too.

So its got some tricks, so what? Just means the traps need adjusting. It's still nothing special.

What, you want a medal for killing a fire breathing chicken?

Geez, guy, do you hate fun or something?

Okay, you go around acting Mr Broody Super-Human acting separate from normal people while chasing fire chicken. I will be in tavern having beer like a normal person with my dragon spear.

It is like boar spear, but made for dragon.

Great. You go on glorifying mundanity in fantasy, then, I won't stop you.

You go on ripping off the Witcher, you are doing a poor job of it, but you keep at it.

To be fair, the Witcher has the actual dedicated monster hunters be considered weird fucks, require mutation to keep up with the monsters, and utilize very special methods.

But the attitude is certainly about right.

Could a Monster Hunter Mage or Wizard exist viably? Would it be more effective/achievable than a weapons-based hunter if they were to both exist in the same setting? Similarly to how a regular hunter would have a variety of tools, the mage would need to learn a variety of spells to effectively be prepared for any situation: offensive spells to actually kill the beast, defensive spells (either protection, mobility, or both), and even a few utility spells like maybe Detect Evil (for those more intelligent creatures capable of malicious thought) or of course Detect Weakness.

>drunk commoner believes he could slay a dragon with a bear trap and some spears
>doesn't know that dragons are impervious to everything but heavy firearms, ballista arrows and cannonballs to the face
>even admits that he only killed chickens in his lifetime

What a riot.

Thing I love about the Witcher is the importance they place on knowledge and preparation- what various monsters are weak to and the best way to tackle them actually crops up in the story in the game.

My character at larp is a fairly well known monster hunter, and since he has done work for just about every kingdom at some point, he is pretty respected by all.

Those who don't respect him either fear him or are disgusted by him. This is probably due to the fact he is completely and utterly in it for the gold, and has no empathy towards any of his clients or their situations.

>larp
>he is pretty respected by all
>Those who don't respect him either fear him
> he is completely and utterly in it for the gold, and has no empathy
Fucking kys, you autismo.

Where the fuck is the lock on?

do the hunters make better gear for the corpses like dragon bone caltrops?

>autismo
>Veeky Forums

risky strat m80

I mean, that just sounds smart.

what would griffen parts be good for besides fletching?

Yeah, that's pretty much the main draw for me. Everything else aside, monster hunting is portrayed in a very compelling way - in large part because the monsters themselves are portrayed in a less... common way, which is a failing many fantasy settings/games have. Take D&D - sure, the monsters are terrifying for a regular person, but by the time you normally face them... not so much. Well, it varies on the GM of course, but generally they don't pit players against something so powerful it requires careful preparation and unconventional tactics to tackle. Which is understandable, as doing it right is difficult, D&D has no actual default rule support for those unconventional methods, they're considered cheap, and - most importantly - an encounter like that is easy to fuck up and make it look like you're just trying to fuck over the players, if they're not in the tricky solution mindset right off the bat.

talons/ beaks for medicine?
tendons/ ligaments for crossbow/bow strings?

I wonder if there meats any good if so that would be a lot of fried chicken

...

>that would be a lot of fried chicken
I suppose it depends on the animal, but would it taste less and less like chicken the closer you get to the cat half? Or is it consistently one way?

But seriously, big monsters take big weapons to take down. Hunts take planning and preperation. If your running a grimmer setting than Monhun, then palico's probably wont wheel you away if you 'faint'.

>monster Hunter mage

The mage casts ray of exhaustion 3 times and then 3 max enervates. Unless said monster is immune to magic, it's paralysed and dead

Would probably use harpoons and other roped weapons to hold the monster down before moving in to execute.

combat would probably entail attacking from a distance and removing mobility before moving in when the enemy is down.

Monster hunters would probs also have pliers, hunting knives with gut hooks, etc to harvest anything from the monsters

C'mon, guy. If you understood his point correctly, then it wasn't silly. You should also have some internal issues over the fact you used 'actual monsters' in this particular thread. Or I hope you do.

Since there's no explicit reference, I'd caution your sense of embellishment. "all but the weakest could slaughter a village"? They are just men, after all, hunting a singular beast, sometimes two. It really makes no sense to state the guy apparently has some mystified, inherent power to allow him to single-handedly wipe out a village full of many able bodies, just like that.

This user is onto something that isn't just meta-shit flinging in the thread. I disagree with lances and horses in close combat. They are strictly jousting tools and perform exceptionally poorly in any other situation. Firing bows or bolts from horseback is far more difficult to achieve, arguably has less accuracy and power, and requires quantity rather than quality to defeat opposition. Melee combat atop a horse is even worse for considering trapper techniques. Just use horses the way they are best suited, logistics. Pretty easy to outrun your prey if you have not one but two forms of excellent navigation tools (you and a horse).

Don't go head to head. Wear it out, or assassinate, or poison it, or starve it, or bring in a natural predator that's easier to deal with, or bring in pack hounds. At this point 'monster hunter' is just a moniker for any old guy who does the job and doesn't die in the process. What's the difference unless you're reading into an author who says there is a difference? Be frank, if it's witcher, then say so. If you wanna imagine 'monster hunter' is more of a race than an ordinary class role, don't expect anybody to be impressed with your daydreaming.

The village-slaughtering was about the monsters, not the hunters.

Is this what being triggered feels like? Because I'm kind of feeling it.

>pretending a dragon is just a fire breathing chicken
>pretending anything that breaths fire could still royally fuck you up if you aren't careful anyway
>pretending you can kill a dragon with a spear
>pretending the common peasant could even hunt a boar even with the proper equipment
>hating anything interesting and fun

to go back on toppic a bit, i played a professional mosnter hunter in a dnd 5e game once.
biggest kill? a motehrfuggin dragon.
(green, adult)

i had prepared two plans, and executed one.
the first one was plan thermo-mooclear bomb.
load a living cows anus up with flasks full of base fluid and alchemists fire so that as soon as our dragon gulps our cow, its acid will get turned into water, and the alchemists fire will burn it from the inside out.then fight it to the best of your abilities.

because the female players at the table frowned upon plan thermo mooclear bomb i went for the more mechanicle aproach. adamantium net with hooks that catch the dragons scales. load it up on a specially designed balista, (heavy dute) and load that up on a coach that the party uses as a transport.

the dragon in question was venomfang? from the lost mines of phandelver.

lets just say its quite satisfying seeing a dragon taking a butload of falling damage after you hit it with a giant net, and even more satisfying to have a party member use heat metal on the net and to kick the dragon prone.. all it can do? try do escape. with disadvantage. and use its lair actions.

Why are people thinking that wolves and bears are the same thing as something like the Cleric Beast from Bloodborne?

We can start a humanity: fuck yeah thread for you.

Nowhere was it stated that the hunters are anything more than human - but there's nothing average about them... in the same sense there is nothing average about a skilled surgeon, or a good architect, or hell, a skilled trapper. It takes knowledge and ability to do a job right, no matter what it is.

Here, though, it's made far more impressive by the demands of the job, the risks involved, and the variety of knowledge necessary. It takes either quite a bit of studying or experience to know how to deal with whatever is plaguing a given place - you don't fight a basilisk the same way you do a wyvern, or a giant spider, or an ankheg, or... well, you get the idea.

Even regular hunters, good ones, have impressive knowledge on how to handle different animals. Here? The prey can kill you with their gaze, or spit acid that will burn through your flesh in seconds, or burrow through fucking stone. A mistake is far more costly - if your primary plan doesn't pan out and you have an angry beast on your ass, you need to know how to handle that too.

So no, monster hunters aren't some mythical kind, but they're far from ordinary. You object to over-embellishment, but you just do the exact opposite by claiming they're just some guy who does it and doesn't die.

Sure they are, if you want to make them seem as unimpressive as possible on purpose. But that's like calling a firefighter some guy who doesn't die from walking into fires. Misses the whole point and benefit of the job.

In a setting where monsters are common enough that regular folk know about them they are just dangerous animals. People that handle them would need special tools and training surely, but they would be looked at like any other menacing beast.

I'd say that's a hell of an exaggeration. Sure, the principle of the matter is the same - hunting wolves to protect a town's livelihood and hunting a pack of drakes has the same general purpose... but the threat level is far greater, and ignoring that is frankly silly.

My point is: While such a situation would make monsters the rough equivalent of dangerous animals, their sheer threat level would still mean those trained to exterminate them would need far more skill, and possibly garner far more respect than a pest exterminator or a regular hunter would.

Because seriously, arguing there's no difference between hunting a jaguar and a hydra is just being obtuse.

> For how exactly a professional monster hunter would fight
With magic. Or really advanced technology. So, magic.

How would you make a post-apocalyptic monster(or perhaps rather mutant) hunter? I was thinking about creating such character for a campaign few years back, but it was cancelled so I've never fleshed out the idea. I wanted him to be a part of some mysterious cult of wandering professional monster slayers. They would still take payment for they're services, but they had their own religion/philosophy based on eradicating mutated abominations from surface of Earth and specific rituals performed before and after the hunt.

A lot of firepower, most likely. Whatever horrors stalk the wastelands are likely a nightmare to handle up close, so it's far better to resort to the tried and true tactic of "just fucking shoot it". Some would call it boring, but... well, let's be honest, even if it was, post-apoc is generally all about survival over glory.

Going a bit wilder though, for less down to earth variants of post-apocalyptic, it's really just that they're combat specialists to an outrageous degree - the sort of guy who spends every day they're not actively hunting making sure they stay in shape and their skills remain sharp. Post-apoc loves their weird scrap-tech, which means the mutant hunter would have some wacky weapons like a shock-whip made of cables, or flamers on their gauntlets, or whatever. Just go nuts.

Also, including parts of slain mutants in their outfit/weaponry is always a good way to make things cooler.

Firearms are obviously the way to go in most cases, but "just fucking shoot it" doesn't work so well when monster/mutant in question is for example located in some cave/lair, comes out only during the night, can dig itself underground etc. As for wacky guns I can imagine net-gun would be helpful. Also perhaps adding poison to bullets/blades? For the ritualistic part I was thinking about a small Geiger counter as a sort of talisman. And to detect evil forces of radiation of course.

Well, I was referring less to shooting it as the universal method, but rather being preferable to engaging anything in close quarters. It's a given that sometimes it's just not an option - well, depending on the situation, there's always just a close-range magdump, still likely to be more effective than a melee weapon.
But yes, "just shoot it" is not a tactic you use by itself. There's always getting in a position to shoot it first.

Poison is always good, though it's a matter of having something that's certain to work - of course with mutants present, it's only a matter of time before some horrifying abomination with extremely deadly poison comes along, most likely. Then it's just a matter of extraction and storage. And very, very careful application.

As for the rituals, could include fashioning parts of the slain mutants into either trophies or weapon/armour parts into part of it. It's a statement of one's prowess as a hunter, after all.

It would largely depend on the exact brand of zealotry, though - some could view using parts of the impure as a sin, others would view it as either a statement of either having conquered them utterly or turning oneself into a monster that hunts monsters, glorifying the transformation into an engine of purification... others yet may simply believe that those trophies and talismans offer supernatural protection from the beasts.

Find a translated PDF of pic related if you want to play monster hunting fun times.