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I just finished compiling and analyzing all of the statistics I could think of from the Monster Manual. It started with wondering how the defense scores (AC, Fortitude, Reflex, Will) compared to each other -- how much of an advantage is it to attack Reflex instead of AC, anyway? Then I wondered how prevalent the different types of resistances are. Eventually I just decided to get every easily-comparable piece of monster data I could and throw some perl together to get interesting statistics.
A few high-level observations:
Attacking Reflex or Will instead of AC is effectively about a +3 to hit, with Will being somewhat better. Attacking Fortitude only gets you +1-2, declining at higher levels, and Brutes actually have higher Fortitude than AC.
Of the damage types, poison has the most common resistance (23%) because so many creatures are immune. Next is fire (17%), and necrotic is also high (13%) because of undead. Most of the rest are at about 5%, with radiant (2%), psychic (<1%), and force (<1%) performing the best. The only significant vulnerability is Radiant (9%), again due to undead.
Not a big surprise, but creatures tend to get both bigger and faster as you move up the tiers. About 17% of creatures fly in the heroic and paragon tiers; that jumps to 60% in epic.
The ratio of heroic : paragon : epic entries is about 6 : 5 : 2. About 11% of heroic entries are elite or solo monsters. That increases to 33% for paragon and 53% for epic.
I've broken the statistics down into several sections:
Defenses:
Spoiler:
This first table compares average fortitude/reflex/will to average AC at each tier, to see how much of an advantage there is in attacking each defense. At every tier, will is the easiest defense to hit, followed closely by reflex. Fortitude is a distant third, and unsurprisingly AC is (on average) the highest defense.
Code:
1-10 11-20 21-30+ Overall
Fortitude - AC -1.76 -1.14 -0.88 -1.39
Reflex - AC -2.51 -3.07 -2.64 -2.75
Will - AC -3.28 -3.20 -3.68 -3.31
This table looks at how the defenses scale with level. AC holds pretty steady at level + 14. The rest of the defenses are lower than AC by the amounts shown in the previous table.
The defenses also vary by monster role. The fact that fortitude stays closer than the other defenses to AC seems to mostly be due to soldiers and brutes. Brutes actually have a higher average fortitude than AC. Since soldiers tend to have both high AC and high fortitude, that means their reflex and will defenses are far lower by comparison.
Code:
Artillery Brute Controller Lurker Minion Skirmisher Soldier
Fortitude - AC -1.89 0.86 -1.84 -2.86 -1.90 -2.04 -1.55
Reflex - AC -1.69 -2.55 -2.95 -1.50 -3.15 -2.06 -4.29
Will - AC -2.67 -2.71 -2.19 -3.52 -4.00 -3.79 -4.39
This table shows defenses by level and role. Again, we see AC at level + 14 for most roles, but soldiers are significantly higher, artillery and minions a little lower, and brutes significantly lower.
The first table shows what percentage of creatures at each tier have at least one attack that targets each defense. For example, only 13.8% of level 1-10 creatures have an attack that targets Will. "AC only" is the percentage of creatures that have an attack against AC and not against any other defenses.
Attacks against AC are the most common (no surprise), and attacks against Will are the least common, with only about 21% of creatures having an attack vs. Will. At higher tiers, we see more creatures able to attack defenses other than AC.
Code:
1-10 11-20 21-30+ Overall
AC 95.6 96.3 86.5 94.5
Fortitude 24.9 35.3 43.2 31.7
Reflex 25.8 37.4 55.4 34.8
Will 13.8 26.3 28.4 20.9
AC only 51.1 34.2 27.0 40.9
The next table shows the average attack bonus vs. each defense, compared to the creature's level. For example, level 1-10 creatures have an average attack vs. AC of their level + 4.47. These say pretty steady; attacks against AC are at level + 4-5, and attacks against other defenses are at level + 3.
Code:
1-10 11-20 21-30+ Overall
Attack vs. AC - Level 4.47 4.41 4.55 4.46
Attack vs. Fortitude - Level 3.15 3.15 3.07 3.13
Attack vs. Reflex - Level 3.14 3.01 2.95 3.03
Attack vs. Will - Level 2.97 3.39 2.75 3.13
Resistances:
Spoiler:
Because there's a lot of information to cover, this section is broken into one table per tier, and then an overall table at the end. The values shown are percentages of creatures that have the given level of resistance or higher. For example, in the first table we can see that 17.3% of heroic-tier creatures have at least resist poison 5. 13.8% have at least resist poison 20, and 13.8% are immune, so we can see that all of those high resistances actually come from immunity.
Note that I counted "variable" resistance as resistance to acid, cold, fire, lightning, and thunder, since it can be any of those. Also, swarm resistance (half damage from melee and ranged) is listed under immunities.
These tables are laid out basically the same as the resistances tables above. The "Special" column indicates what percentage of monsters have a vulnerability that causes some effect other than extra damage.
As you can see, there aren't a whole lot of vulnerabilities out there aside from radiant.
Note that the swarm vulnerability to close and area attacks is listed under immunities.
All of the damage-type immunities are included in the resistances tables; this table covers all the rest of the immunities (as percentages of monsters who have the given immunity).
These don't really fit anywhere, but I'm throwing them in here because they appear in the immunities/resistances/vulnerabilities section of the stat block. Swarm isn't actually a resistance or vulnerability defined in the MM, but there are a bunch of swarm creatures that all have the same special resistance and vulnerability: half damage from melee and ranged attacks, extra damage from close or area attacks.
This lists the percentages of monsters at each tier that have each type of special sense. I also created a category to show how many monsters have no special senses listed ("normal only").
The first table shows the average speed of creatures at each tier, taking the maximum speed of any of their movement modes. The second table shows what percentage of monsters have each type of special movement.
These are just a couple random monster statistics, but they're right up there at the top of the stat block, so I figured I should do something with them . According to the monster design guidelines in the MM, perception and initiative should scale with about 3/4 level -- 1/2 for the level bonus and 1/4 for the stat bonus. They definitely scale more slowly than level, as we can see that they drop off compared to level as we move up the tiers. It turns out they don't even quite scale with 3/4 level, but it's closer.
These tables show some information about how the entries within the Monster Manual are distributed. They list how many entries (stat blocks) there are at each tier, what percentage of entries are elite or solo, and what percentage of entries are filled by each role. Note that the "(Leader)" role is in addition to one of the basic roles, so the values will add up to more than 100% if you include it.
It is my intent to design/choose monsters based on what powers and feats the players pick. That is to say, if someone focuses on fire, they'll get fire vulnerable, and fire neutral, and fire resistant opponents.
Let 'em shine, then make 'em sweat.
Particularly recurring villain nemesis types.... if you keep burning them, they're going to get smart about it.
It is my intent to design/choose monsters based on what powers and feats the players pick. That is to say, if someone focuses on fire, they'll get fire vulnerable, and fire neutral, and fire resistant opponents.
Let 'em shine, then make 'em sweat.
Particularly recurring villain nemesis types.... if you keep burning them, they're going to get smart about it.
I agree I like to build some encounters where the players choices really shine and others where they are severely hampered.
__________________ Look for players for my 4E campaign "Liberty or Death" in Scottsdale, AZ PM me if your interested. www.arcanefire.com
__________________ Joseph Miller
Designer and Writer of the Nevermore 4th edition campaign setting. Currently only available in PDF. Privateer Press Wordsmith (Monsternomicon & Monsternomicon revised!) Mongoose Freelancer (EA: Illusionism & Familiars, SG to Derro)
Former ENnies Biz Manager (2004)
Stay tuned for more upcoming products...
One of the things I'm missing from the MM is the break down of monsters by origin and type (undead, giant, aberration; acquatic, fire, air) like we used to have in 3e. I wonder if WotC will provide those readily on DDI after the official launch date.
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. According to the monster design guidelines in the MM, perception and initiative should scale with about 3/4 level -- 1/2 for the level bonus and 1/4 for the stat bonus. They definitely scale more slowly than level, as we can see that they drop off compared to level as we move up the tiers. It turns out they don't even quite scale with 3/4 level, but it's closer.
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