I actually have no idea what would fit Grendel. But if you give me a power level and a list of things that you want him to be good at, I can write stats. His list of competencies (judging from this thread so far, the short story Heorot, and wikipedia) seem to include:
-Fighting and killing people
-Being seriously scary
-Bestial trickery and cunning
-Countering spells
I'd say that 24-30 points worth of stunts and powers and 50 skill points with a cap of fantastic ought to do.
Does that sound reasonable to you?
Based on the legend, I suggest his catch should be that he can only be harmed through grappling.
I am thinking that this party is a long way from being ready to take the original Grendel...... of course he and his mother were both killed in the saga.
Perhaps they have truly epic recovery powers, and were able to come back much later.
1) What is Grendel? The Grendelkin are his Scions, but as far as I am aware there is no predetermined concept of what Grendel was. Which is awesome, leaves lots of room to deal with. From the original poem-epic I believe he was the 'Descendant of Kain' (the biblical Kain); but this is rather vague. Is he a demon? Or what? I could even concieve of Grendel being an outsider, but what are your opinions?What if Grendel was created via some Darkhallow-like ritual? There could have been several throughout history though the poem's Grendel is probably the most 'successful'.
I think that it may not be grappling, but maybe taking him on in a show of near-insane True Bravery. ........ It would have that dramatic feel to it, and make it so you don't have to be some warrior on steroids with thews the size of mountains to kill him.
....... That said, Beowulf wasn't an ordinary guy. He killed a bunch of nasty monsters before ever tackling Grendel.
Either way, what I find interesting is although Grendel will have supernatural toughness of some kind and be strong fast etc., Grendel was defeated far before the advent of the gun. What would be awesome is if 4 or 5 characters all armed with .50 BMG rifles just tore into him. It's not impossible to kill most monsters without their catch, just difficult. ........
What if Grendel was created via some Darkhallow-like ritual? There could have been several throughout history though the poem's Grendel is probably the most 'successful'.
Whether born anew, created, or resurrected, the original took time to gain power - nearly a generation if I remember the story correctly. So you could also use a combination of time and sacrifice / murder to expand his powers. Start a bit above the grendelkin and add a point of refresh per murder perhaps. Better yet, require the number of murders to increase exponentially. That puts time pressure on the PCs once they figure it out. :)
Also, again pulling from the original story, have him stalk feastal halls (restaurants) and mead halls (bars), taking the patrons one at a time. For bonus points, have him run a bar, and grab the last patron at last call.
[Insert The Information From This Generally Very Good Post]
Thoughts?
The Catch (True Heroism, not magic) [+1]
Ah, that makes sense. Cheers for the explanation. Glad you liked the ideas. The Kain reference was in my opening post, albeit briefly; although in all honesty, I cannot remember from where I gleamed that piece of information. So it could be from one of the other representations and not the original. Either way, it seems to work.
About Grendal being a descendant of Cain, I think that was added in the Christanized versions of the Saga, since in the version I found, they pray to God, not Odin, which I find very odd. Grendal is more likly a Jotan (ice giant), or a scion of one.
That is the only pair of coppers I have to add