Ten mooks you will come across in gamebooks

A mook and an elite mook.

The life of an adventurer is a dangerous one.  When you are sent on a quest to slay an evil lord or you want to infiltrate a sorcerer's dungeon to steal their treasure or if you are just travelling the countryside, you are likely to come across a whole variety of dangerous creatures.  These adversaries pose a physical threat and may even be extremely skilled and tough but they don't have many tricks up their sleeves beyond a straightforward assault and maybe an ambush.  These creatures are known as mooks and it seems that every self respecting villain has employed a horde of them.  Most of the time, you should be able to defeat them without trouble unless they appear in large numbers or you have been
weakened or if you face a more powerful mook.

Here are ten common mooks that you would encounter in most fantasy settings.



Goblins


Goblins and their bigger versions, orcs generally infest a lot of Titan and they are usually enslaved into service by some evil sorcerer.  They are not very bright and alert and you can probably sneak past them or scare them away.  A single goblin should be no threat to anyone with even basic combat training.  The danger is being attacked by a horde of goblins.




Giants

Giants, along with trolls and ogres are an elite mook version of goblins.  Some of them may not want to kill you - merely intimidate you into handing over your money.  Some of them may prefer a wrestling contest, but most of them will prefer to bash your brains in.  If you are unlucky, you may come across an ogre with enough intelligence to really capitalise on all of that corruption and malice inside of it.  Fortunately, most of them just want to kill and eat you.



Soldiers
In times of war, many people are conscripted into the army.  You may be lucky and be facing some conscripted peasant with a makeshift spear or you may be facing a disciplined and trained fighter.  Soldiers are their most dangerous when they are highly trained and disciplined and are directed by an intelligent and daring commander.  Feoir manages to raise a powerful army backed up by a crazy dragon which requires you to pull all of the disparate threads of the Isles of the Dawn together at the last minute.  It is only through your own cunning tactics that you win.





Zombies

On of the staple undead soldiers for necromancers, zombies are shambling rotting corpses that you can easily outrun.  They are most dangerous when they are in a large group and they all start shuffling towards you, arms outstretched, moaning for your brain.  If this is happening, you need to make sure that you have an escape route.





Small animals
These creatures include rats, insects, wolves and bears.  These creatures are generally not in the service of some evil lord - they just want some dinner.  You can probably keep them at bay with fire or if you wound them enough.  Most animals will not fight to the death.  Be careful when outdoors.  They could strike at any time in the wilds.






Large animals
The elite mook version of your bog standard animal, these creatures are extremely strong, quick and have great senses in order to track you down and eat you.  They may have tough hides and sharp teeth.

Plants

Most normal plants will do nothing other than provide a physical barrier to your path when you are outdoors. You may also be unlucky enough to get poisoned if you eat or come into contact with a part of a plant but that is rarely going to be fatal.  Some plants, however, can grab you with tendrils and squeeze the life out of you or release deadly poison.  There are also plants with sentience out there, who will get very angry if you are destroying their habitat.





Elves

Elves are intelligent combatants who may have magic to back them up.  In some worlds, they may be on the side of good, but in some worlds, they may just want to be left alone and they may let you know that with a few well placed arrows.  Don't be fooled if they don't hit you the first time.  They were a warning.  The next ones definitely will.  Their dark versions will be deadly to all intruders.






Faerie folk

Be careful if you come across these vicious and capricious creatures.  They do not prefer a full frontal assault but may sneak into your camp and steal your treasures, lead you through dangerous marshes, ambush you and inflict some pain upon you before vanishing into the undergrowth or just disrupting your magic.  These creatures are highly unpredictable and if you come across them, you should run a mile.





Constructs/animated objects


These creatures involve golems or normal objects that can fly around and buffet you.  They generally have low intelligence and their main tasks are guard duty.  These constructs may have an element of surprise if they are just normal objects that can fly or of they are disguised as statues or suits of armour.  Be careful.  Depending on their material, constructs may be impervious to certain types of weapons or to magic.



If you are an adventurer, good luck when you face these monsters.  You probably will face all of them at some point.  And if you are an evil sorcerer, good luck in stocking up on your mooks.  However, don't forget to have some more dangerous challenges for all of those pesky adventurers out there.