Creature

Throughout Middle-earth you will find many different types of creatures, which may or may not be aggressive, running the gamut from humans to "common beasts" and even monsters.

Naming Conventions

In LOTRO, and at Lotro-Wiki.com there are two terms used to refer to enemies. While often used interchangeably, consistent usage on the Wiki is defined by:

At Lotro-Wiki, use "Mob" when referring to enemies encountered INSIDE an Instance or Dungeon.
At Lotro-Wiki, use "Creature" when referring to enemies OUTSIDE an instance, prowling the landscape

A third term: Non-player Character (or NPC), is used to describe characters which are not aggressive toward the Player Character, but who may be toward others.

A "guard" is a typical NPC who will attack any approaching Creature or MOB, but who will ignore Player Characters and their allies.

Generic, Computer Gaming Usage

Back in the early days of on-line gaming called MUD -- Multi User Dungeons -- the term "Mob" derived from shorthand usage to describe a "Mobile" or "Mobile OBject" as opposed to a static object. That object was usually, but not always, a hostile enemy or "monster." Today, those Mobs would be called "Pathers" as they are moving in some computer described, usually repetitive and therefore predictable, path. ^[1]

In MMOs today, the term Mob has come to be a generic term describing any enemy -- static or moving -- that can be attacked by a player; a hostile, computer-controlled, non-player character (NPC). Depending upon the game, all such characters in a game may be referred to as "mobs"; or usage of the term may be limited to hostile NPCs and/or NPCs vulnerable to attack. The various terms are frequently used interchangeably by players simply to describe any animal or race or creature in the game who will attack you. The distinction is more often simply player jargon whose usage varies from player to player than any actual difference.

Also, in MMOs today and especially LOTRO, enemies don't have to be mobile. They frequently simply lie in wait for the unsuspecting player to approach or may be completely invisible until the unsuspecting player is attacked. Enemies may be aggressive or neutral, social or single, beast or humanoid, dumb or 'intelligent'.

Creatures on landscape generally have a threat radius of seven meters (less in Rohan), and show a white indicator overhead when they become aware of a nearby player and are preparing to attack.

LOTRO also has "Creeps" which are Player Characters found in Monster Play (PvMP).

↑ Mob definition at Wikipedia.

Creatures by Location

See Creatures by Location

Creatures are sorted by the location in which they can be found. Keep in mind that their difficulty and type are also related to each region, just as character progression. This list is sorted by land and then region, the order a character normally encounters those locations.

Eriador (1-50)

Bree-land Creatures	Ered Luin Creatures	The Shire Creatures	Swanfleet Creatures
Cardolan Creatures	North Downs Creatures	Lone-lands Creatures	Evendim Creatures
Trollshaws Creatures	Misty Mountains Creatures	Angmar Creatures
Forochel Creatures	Eregion Creatures
Enedwaith Creatures	Dunland Creatures
(PvMP) Ettenmoors Creatures

Rhovanion (50-140)

Moria Creatures	Lothlórien Creatures	Southern Mirkwood Creatures
Northern Mirkwood Creatures	Iron Hills Creatures	Ered Mithrin Creatures	Vales of Anduin Creatures
Wells of Langflood Creatures	Elderslade Creatures	Gundabad Creatures

Rohan (70-95)

The Great River Creatures

East Rohan Creatures

Wildermore Creatures

West Rohan Creatures

Gondor (95-140)

Western Gondor Creatures	Central Gondor Creatures	Eastern Gondor Creatures	Old Anórien Creatures
Far Anórien Creatures	Anórien (After Battle) Creatures	Ithilien Creatures	The Wastes Creatures
King's Gondor Creatures

Mordor (105-130)

Plateau of Gorgoroth Creatures
Mordor Besieged Creatures	Morgul Vale Creatures

Creatures by Type

See Creatures by Type

Visual indicators within the UI reveal certain information about the difficulty of creatures. The color of a creature's name is relative to a character's level and the portrait frame indicates the difficulty type of a creature.

Relative name colour

The colour of creature names give a quick indication of the difference between a creature's level compared to the character examining it. Creatures much higher than a player's skill level are prone to deflect or nullify attacks making it more difficult and sometimes impossible to defeat them while aggressive creatures will ignore a character nine or more levels above his own level.

Grey - 9 or more levels below the character's level (yields no XP)
Green - 6-8 levels below	Turquoise - 3-5 levels below	Blue - 1-2 levels below
White - Same level as yourself
Yellow - 1-2 level above	Orange - 3-4 levels above	Red - 5-7 levels above
Purple - 8 or more levels above (yields no XP) Most attacks deflected

Difficulty types

Together with a creature's level, difficulty type determines certain attributes such as morale, power, resistances and mitigations. Normal creatures are easily defeated while Arch-nemesis creatures require planning and cooperation to defeat. The prefix Rare on a difficulty level when hovering the mouse determines if it's a normal enemy or one that spawns at different areas and can be found prowling about. Types range from Swarm and Normal to Arch-nemesis. Combat NPCs aligned with the Free Peoples have an similar difficulty type scale ranging from Swarm to Hero. The difficulty type is revealed by hovering the mouse cursor over a creature or looking at its portrait frame.

Swarm	Swarm		Scion Swarm
Normal	Normal	Rare Normal	Scion Normal
Good Signature	Signature	Rare Signature	Scion Signature and above
Defender: Freep, NPCs	Elite	Rare Elite
Master Defender: Freep, NPCs	Elite Master	Rare Elite Master
Avenger: Freep, NPCs	Nemesis	Rare Nemesis
Hero: Freep, NPCs	Arch-nemesis	Rare Arch-nemesis

See Creatures by Type for all different types.

Creatures by Genus

See Creatures by Genus

Creatures are sorted by their Genus and then by Species. There are many different species of creatures wandering around Middle-earth and some are neutral while others are purely evil.