How mobs behave on AoW

1The short version

Vanilla mobs still spawn, still behave, still drop everything Mojang says they drop. We do not replace them, we do not retexture them, we do not register custom entities. What we do is layer extra behavior on top at the moment a hostile mob spawns and the moment it dies. A suite of custom plugins does all of it — gear, drops, loot, and the full Champions system — and every number on this page is in a config.yml that an operator can reload live.

2the mob-gear module in AoWMobs — armed mobs

Hostile mobs don't just get a stone sword from the loot table, they get kit-built at spawn time. the mob-gear module in AoWMobs hooks CreatureSpawnEvent and only acts on a controlled set of spawn reasons so that mob farms and spawner traps behave normally.

Spawner spawns, egg spawns, breeding, command-summons, and SPAWNER_EGG are not touched. Build all the iron farms you want.

Skeletons

• Bow-to-sword swap at chance 0.15. When a skeleton swaps, it becomes a melee chaser — they will close on you.
• Sword tier scales: usually wood/stone, occasionally iron.

Wither skeletons

• Default stone sword is upgraded to iron sword at chance 0.25.
• A rare diamond-sword roll layers on top of that — uncommon, but it happens.

Zombies, husks, zombie villagers

• Roll for weapons (wood/stone/iron sword or a shovel).
• Roll for armor pieces across leather/chain/iron tiers per slot.
• Roll for low-level enchantments on the weapon and on at least one armor piece.
• Equipment drop chances are low, so a single kill is exciting but not a printing press.

Drowned

• Trident chance 0.05. Drowned can already do this in vanilla in rivers — we extend it slightly to ocean spawns.

scale-with-distance is configurable. When enabled, chances ramp upward the further a player is from spawn. Far Outback mobs are meaner than the welcome-mat mobs around /spawn. The cap is configurable so we never reach silly numbers.

# /opt/mcserver/plugins/the mob-gear module in AoWMobs/config.yml (excerpt)
enabled: true
skeleton:
  sword-chance: 0.15
wither-skeleton:
  iron-sword-chance: 0.25
  diamond-sword-chance: 0.02
zombie:
  weapon-chance: 0.30
  armor-chance: 0.25
  enchant-chance: 0.20
drowned:
  trident-chance: 0.05
scale-with-distance:
  enabled: false
  max-multiplier: 1.5

Reload

Operators can reload live: /aowmobgear reload.

3Mythic Champions — titled, named bosses

Every so often, a hostile mob spawns as something extra. We call them Champions. They are still the same vanilla mob type — same AI, same hitbox, same animations — but they're titled, named, tougher, and they drop tier-scaled loot. the Champions module in AoWMythic is the flagship system: any mob can become a Champion across 8 tiers, and the old gold-named "Elites" are simply the mid-tiers of this deeper world.

Each tier raises the stakes — more health, harder buffs, richer loot, and a higher chance of affixes and signature attacks. The familiar gold-named "rare stronger mobs" live in the Veteran / Elite band; the top tiers are genuine bosses.

• Archetype titles fit the mob — a zombie might rise as "the Rotting Farmer", a skeleton as a marksman, a spider as a stalker.
• Sub-titles layer extra flavor and a hint of the Champion's specialty.
• Affixes bolt on modifiers (extra speed, resistances, on-hit effects) that change how the fight plays out.
• Signature attacks give higher tiers a telegraphed special move worth respecting (the signature-attack module in AoWMythic).

Champions aren't just stat-sticks — they reach back into the world:

• Vendetta — slay enough Champions and one starts hunting you by name (the Vendetta module in AoWMythic).
• Dimension Awakening — the Nether and End harden over time as you push deeper (AoWDimensionAwakening).
• Blood Moons — periodic nights when Champions surge (the Blood Moon module in AoWMythic).
• Relics & Ascension — top-tier kills can yield tier-scaled relics and progression (the Relics module in AoWMobs, AoWAscension, the Veilweaver module in AoWMythic).

• NATURAL spawn only. Spawners, eggs, raids, and patrols cannot produce Champions.
• Spawn location must be at least 200 blocks from world spawn (configurable as min-distance) for the mid-tier "gold mob" band.
• An RNG roll picks the tier — the higher the tier, the rarer it is.

• Bonus diamonds and emeralds in addition to the vanilla drop table, scaled by tier.
• A tier-dependent chance of an enchanted_book rolled toward Sharpness (around 15% at the mid-tiers, higher above).
• Tier-multiplied dropped XP orbs.
• Top tiers can drop tier-scaled relics — see the full guide.
• And whatever the drops module in AoWMobs / the loot module in AoWMobs roll on top — see below.

Reload

Operators: /champions (admin).

4the drops module in AoWMobs — themed bonuses & heads

On every monster death, the drops module in AoWMobs rolls two extra things: a small chance of a head drop, and a small chance of a themed bonus item that fits the mob's flavor. Vanilla drops are never removed.

Reload

Operators: /aowmobdrops reload.

5the loot module in AoWMobs — rare drops from tough mobs

the loot module in AoWMobs is the "you killed something dangerous, here's something worth keeping" plugin. It only fires on a curated list of tough mobs, and it has four tiers: common, uncommon, rare, and epic. Epic items only roll on tough mobs.

The base chance is

chance = (0.03 + looting_level * 0.01) * 2.5    # 2.5 = tough-mob multiplier

Worked examples:

Reload

Operators: /aowmobloot reload.

6What can drop from a tough mob — summary

When you take down a wither skeleton, a brute, or a warden, here's the full picture of what's rolling. It stacks.

7Combat tips

8ADD-only — what we promise we did NOT do

A common worry: "does this break vanilla?" No. Here is the exhaustive list of things the mob plugins do not do.

• No custom entity types. Every mob you see is a vanilla EntityType.
• No custom items, no custom blocks, no custom enchantments. Everything is a vanilla Material and a vanilla Enchantment.
• No removal of vanilla drops. We only call event.getDrops().add(...) — never clear().
• No nerf to vanilla XP. Champion XP is multiplied; tough-mob XP is added to; nothing is reduced.
• No interference with spawners, eggs, breeding, command-summons, or trial-spawner spawns. Farms are safe.
• No client mod. Java and Bedrock players see and experience the exact same world.

9Operator command cheat sheet