On doing battle with fantasy creatures

blackcat777

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Now that I've stressed enough about human-to-human combat, I was wondering if anyone could recommend any resources to feed my imagination about engaging purely fantastical creatures in combat? I have to think about dragons, demons, chimeras, slimy things with no eyes and lots of teeth... Thanks :)
 

Atalanta

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Video-game cut-scenes on Youtube. Some of the epic music mixes also have full hour-long cinematics, often a mix of scenes from games, tv shows, and movies. Lots of swords and magic and dragons and undead. Good stuff.

I wrote fan-fic about my favorite video-game for NaNo this year so it was no trouble at all to construct the monster battles. I get super inspired even watching cut-scenes for games I don't play -- or don't even recognize. Sadly, the cinematics are often better than the games. :tongue
 

blackcat777

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I actually made this post because I was concerned that binge-gaming might negatively impact how I was thinking about these scenes. There are a lot of fantasy conventions in games that don't stack up to how weapons and armor function in real life--but then again--chimeras and bat-winged demon spawn, I think, are allowed a little more creative license.
 

themindstream

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Youtuber Shadiversity has a playlist of "what weapons would <fantasy race> best use", which includes one of what to use against dragons (spoiler: polearms and seige weapons). Disclaimer: YMMV when it comes to some of his opinions about things that aren't weapons and castles, I know at least one person who's been turned off of him by that.
 
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Brightdreamer

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Not sure if this would help, but there's a children's book series "Who Would Win?" comparing and contrasting different animals in a hypothetical fight.

You might also look for nature shows (not the sensationalized crud; the real nature shows) to get a sense of how an animal would live and react, then hybridize and imagine your way through. A griffin, for instance, would have elements of raptors and big cats, a dragon could be based on various reptiles with a touch of raptors (flight-based predation), etc.
 

TSJohnson

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I think the really strong dividing factor here is intelligence. If a fantastic beast is intelligent, it will fight vastly different than, say, a lion or a snake (or a combination of them that has no intelligence). Beasts in nature often pause quite randomly in the middle of combat, which is something that doesn't happen with humans/intelligent beasts - unless they are fighting for money and not for life and death in a battlefield. Especially dragons and demons are the sort that irk me in combat scenes in fantasy novels usually. They lash at someone or try to bite someone or something silly like that, when they can burn a human from a thousand yards. If you were intelligent, would you rather do that than go melee with a knight?
 

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If you have any D&D manuals lying around, particularly monster manuals, that can be great for this sort of thing!
 

SimaLongfei

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Now that I've stressed enough about human-to-human combat, I was wondering if anyone could recommend any resources to feed my imagination about engaging purely fantastical creatures in combat? I have to think about dragons, demons, chimeras, slimy things with no eyes and lots of teeth... Thanks :)

Oh, you're going to love this youtube channel: Shaduniversity
Check out his videos on "What weapon would ____ use?" and his videos like ... "Would castles be effective against dragons?" His part and parcel is speculating on how fantasy conventions change battle, combat, or castles.
 

Eviora

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I've had my main character fight a slew of demons, some rather grotesque, so I have a bit of experience with this. When I write them, I try to keep the following in mind:

-Does my character know what the demons are capable of doing? That greatly influences her reactions to them.
-How intelligent is the demon? In my writing, they vary. More intelligent ones use complex strategies, while less intelligent ones off fight more instinctually.
-How does the demon see the world? I guess this goes without saying, but fantasy creatures are characters in their own rights, with thought patterns of their own. Some value different things than others do; for example, I have one demon who doesn't mind pain at all, and will put itself at risk on a whim.

I'm sure there's more to consider. If your fantasy creature has a pre-established background in other fiction (perhaps it's a dragon, or a kraken, or whatever else) you can draw on the methods of previous storytellers, too.
 

lpetrich

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You might also look for nature shows (not the sensationalized crud; the real nature shows) to get a sense of how an animal would live and react, then hybridize and imagine your way through.
As to "real" vs. "sensationalized" ones, what should we watch out for?
 

Enlightened

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People on YouTube upload insect vs. insect fighting videos. Till now, I did not see any value in them. I think these videos can help your query.

YouTube search: bug insect fight OR black widow vs OR whatever vs

Warning: Not for the faint of heart.
 
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sockycat

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I've found that the more you can tie fantasy to something real, the easier it is to make the fantastical believable. The same goes with monsters. Find a real-world animal that reminds you a lot of your monster, and watch/read about how that video acts under stress and steal tiny pieces of that body language. Like, if your character is fighting a griffin, watch videos of lions and eagles hunting, fighting, etc. Even the way that common housecats play-fight (which always seems to vicious, my god) is a great place to start and then build from there.
 

SimaLongfei

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Coming back to this topic, I'm starting to think of what my own writing philosophies and strategies for writing fights between fantasy creatures tend to be.

A background in martial arts helps me immensely. That teaches a certain mindset on how to fight, specifically about strengths and weaknesses of the human body and how to pit your strengths against their weaknesses. Also, it helps teach the flow of a right, as well as the chaos of being thrown into it.

So when I go to build my fantasy fight contest, be it creatures or magic, I try to think: What is their strength? How do they capitalize on where they're strong? What is their weakness? How do they compensate or avoid situations they are weak?
--then, in direct comparison--
What are they stronger in than their opponent? What are they weaker in? How do they adapt to their opponent's strength and weakness?

Though, this list works best with intelligent opponents versus other intelligent opponents. For more bestial combatants, it's worth thinking about: How do they hunt? How do they defend themselves? Since these animals rely on instincts, they tend not to adapt all that much. That said, they've tended to have evolved/learned effective ways to defend themselves or they'd be extinct.
 

mongo

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IMHO

In Eviora's post of 1/19, she stated "-Does my character know what the demons are capable of doing? That greatly influences her reactions to them.
-How intelligent is the demon? In my writing, they vary. More intelligent ones use complex strategies, while less intelligent ones off fight more instinctually.
-How does the demon see the world? I guess this goes without saying, but fantasy creatures are characters in their own rights, with thought patterns of their own. Some value different things than others do; for example, I have one demon who doesn't mind pain at all, and will put itself at risk on a whim."

I think this is incredibly valuable advice. The characters and the circumstances should dictate the battle. For instance, in Ryk Spoor's Grand Central Arena series, the aliens doing combat duels are functionally risk-averse due to the possible unintended consequences and unknown political pressures surrounding the battles (duels). Therefore, they do not fight the same way they would in a more 'natural' setting.
Motivation plays a huge role in battle, any battle, and each character involved has their own individual motivation. Is the character battling for its life? Or are they battling for their species survival? Do they have moral values, or are they just hungry?

In nature, predators hunt and can be incredibly violent to satisfy their hunger, but they will ALWAYS put self-preservation first so they can survive to hunt another day. An alien hive species intent on galaxy domination may ignore morals or self-preservation and just attack, attack, attack, ala Aliens. But, in the end, it is YOUR story. Write it your way.