Special Mobs Mechanics

Special Mobs works by hooking into the natural spawning of vanilla monsters. When such a mob spawns, there is a small chance it becomes one of the special variants for its type rather than the ordinary version.

Common themes across variants:

• Status-effect attacks — many variants apply effects on hit, such as Blindness, Nausea, Slowness, Weakness, Mining Fatigue, Poison, or Wither.
• Stat changes — variants may have increased health, increased damage, or armor-piercing attacks; "Giant" variants are larger and stronger, while "Mini," "Baby," and "Small" variants are reduced in size and stats (often faster).
• Special behaviors — teleporting, phasing through blocks, riding other mobs, leaping or flying, summoning minions, splitting into smaller copies, stealing or eating the player's food, disarming the player, or altering the environment (placing dirt/gravel, destroying light sources, creating water spheres).
• Resistances and weaknesses — some variants are immune to fire, potions, arrows, fall damage, or drowning, and a few have specific weaknesses (for example, weak to wooden tools, snowballs, or Smite).
• Unique drops — variants commonly drop a thematic item, and some drop pre-enchanted weapons or bows, spawn eggs, or special potions.