Lots of statistics from the Monster Manual

phil500 · Jun 5, 2008

Bookmarked.

If I knew enough about excel i would make a spreadsheet with all the powers in the PHB so you could search, for example, which powers are vs. will or whatnot.

Hussar · Jun 5, 2008

Aria Silverhands said:
Yeah, just what a roleplaying game needs to encourage: number crunching. It's my opinion that number crunching like this only undermines what a roleplaying game is supposed to be and I blame it on crpg's, mmo's, and the internet.

Sorry, but, I disagree 100%.

This is what ALL games need. If you want a game where no one did any number crunching in order to have game balance, then play Paladium. OTOH, if you want a game where all levels are viable options, then you HAVE to crunch the numbers.

I will guarantee that someone at WOTC has already done this. They may not make the numbers available, but, they have done it. The fact that they include a "make a monster" section shows that they have already crunched the numbers.

Look at it another way. Do baseball statistics add or take away from the enjoyment of the game of baseball? Or, are they somewhat set apart from the game and simply add another method of design when building a team?

Aria Silverhands · Jun 5, 2008

Hussar said:
This is what ALL games need. If you want a game where no one did any number crunching in order to have game balance, then play Paladium. OTOH, if you want a game where all levels are viable options, then you HAVE to crunch the numbers.

The game designer does. We don't.

Look at it another way. Do baseball statistics add or take away from the enjoyment of the game of baseball? Or, are they somewhat set apart from the game and simply add another method of design when building a team?

Yes, it does. I'd rather watch little league games than the majors, where stats and inflated salaries rule the game.

hong · Jun 5, 2008

Aria Silverhands said:
Yes, it does. I'd rather watch little league games than the majors, where stats and inflated salaries rule the game.

I agree with you. Millions wouldn't.

blargney the second · Jun 5, 2008

Aria Silverhands said:
Yeah, just what a roleplaying game needs to encourage: number crunching.

This thread definitely needs a timely injection of the Stormwind Fallacy.
-blarg

keterys · Jun 5, 2008

Aria Silverhands said:
The game designer does. We don't.

I've got an index of 263 monsters at the moment and you're saying this data might not be useful to me!?

I'm not a game designer, but I'd rather what I did make was of good quality, thanks.

P.S. Thanks for the Stormwind link, had no idea what that meant.

Aria Silverhands · Jun 5, 2008

blargney the second said:
This thread definitely needs a timely injection of the Stormwind Fallacy.
-blarg

Propaganda by power gamers. Nothing more and not relevant at all.

keterys said:
I've got an index of 263 monsters at the moment and you're saying this data might not be useful to me!?

The only value this has is for power gaming number crunchers who have no interest in play cooperatively, rather than competitively. Thus ruining the game for others that just want to have fun as is and not agonize over every single number.

I'm not a game designer, but I'd rather what I did make was of good quality, thanks.

The DMG already has guidelines and plenty of tables to insure what you create using the system is balanced.

keterys · Jun 5, 2008

The only value this has is for power gaming number crunchers who have no interest in play cooperatively, rather than competitively. Thus ruining the game for others that just want to have fun as is and not agonize over every single number.

I'm a DM... who makes monsters for other DMs... and wants them to be balanced and wants to compare against the published monsters. And I find this information useful. Full stop.

The more you post, the more I seriously question your sanity. It's a real shame, because I liked some of your posts, but power game propaganda? Seriously? Nice.

Infiniti2000 · Jun 5, 2008

Wait, does this game have numbers in it? What is this thing called "numbers" that everyone is speaking of?

And, hey, you people, stop with all this Number Propaganda! You can't trust anyone with numbers in their name.

keterys · Jun 5, 2008

Anyhow, back on topic for a bit... a lot of this data is skew due to things like devils and undead being in the MM, so over 5 MMs it's a lot less clear...

But it is interesting how little vulnerability or resistance to certain other energies there are. Also, my gut instinct for balancing powers (for creating new ones) was that being radiant at all was worth something, because of undead, and this does suggest that's correct.

Untyped damage certainly seems more valuable than fire damage at the moment, that's for sure. I'm still confused about the lack of 'DR' for weapons on creatures - just stuff like the grick and tarrasque.