Lots of statistics from the Monster Manual

Aria Silverhands · Jul 6, 2008

Cailte said:
Thanks to the OP.

As to Aria; now people that grok math can crunch the numbers for me, and I can focus more on my story and campaign. Their number crunching helps me understand the underlying math of the system, its logic, its common sense as it were. That way when I need to make that "common sense" rule on the fly I grok the game well enough to make good rulings. If math isn't your thing, that's ok, plenty of us like math though.

To those who are interested, how does this analysis stack up with the table on page 184?

Any serious discrepancies?

(It looked like a good match to me, but...)

You don't need to grok the math to make an interesting story. The math is balanced behind the scenes already and you just have to follow the xp budgets and guidelines. The only math required is simple addition. Everything else is worthless and takes away from the game.

thedarkdownunder · Jul 6, 2008

ausomeness... now if only I had all of their stats.......

<

wingedcoyote · Jul 6, 2008

I love it when one person disagrees with everybody else and they just won't... stop... posting...

To the OP: Great work, man! Really appreciated.

Donatello · Jul 6, 2008

From all of us that like writing encounters using more than what's in the DMG/MM, and from all of us trying to write for 4e and contribute meaningful additions to the game, and from all of us that really enjoy seeing arrays of statistics so we know if our own homebrew creatures are really balanced or not when we come up with something a little exotic and therefore not covered by the DMG, I offer a hearty THANK YOU.

To all of the hatemongering for stats and math; please stop.

Karui_Kage · Jul 6, 2008

Great statistics! Kind of nifty to see how things parse out behind the scenes.

I'm kind of curious now though. No monster is vulnerable to cold damage. What, then, is the point of the Wintertouched feat? I'm sure they'll eventually have creatures vulnerable to cold, but right now it seems nothing short of useless.

wingedcoyote · Jul 6, 2008

Karui_Kage said:
Great statistics! Kind of nifty to see how things parse out behind the scenes.

I'm kind of curious now though. No monster is vulnerable to cold damage. What, then, is the point of the Wintertouched feat? I'm sure they'll eventually have creatures vulnerable to cold, but right now it seems nothing short of useless.

It's mostly useful in combination with the Paragon feat Lasting Frost. With those two and a Frost weapon or a wand of an Ice spell you're in business.

loisel · Jul 6, 2008

Yum! Crunchy data!

Najo · Jul 6, 2008

Aria Silverhands said:
Propaganda by power gamers. Nothing more and not relevant at all.

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.

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

These tables are valuable for understanding the design behind the game, helping Dms build interesting monsters or monsters that are intentionally not balanced or are balanced and understand the game mechanic effects they have on the players.

DMs can more accurately plan encounters for their players with these tables if they choose too.

For some people, doing this math or seeing the inner workings, is fun and there is nothign wrong with that. You do not have to be a power gamer to take want to take something apart and see how it ticks inside.

Honestly, your being rude to the OP and those interested in what he is doing. Please take a step back and relax and do your best to understand other people's perspectives instead of putting your own on them.

darkdragoon · Jul 6, 2008

1. Stormwind actually has designed.

2. You'd have to explain how inflated salaries are, especially in light of the increased revenue, to decline phases, and on the availability of a cheaper player with similar talent.

Cortani · Jul 6, 2008

Thanks a lot for putting this together!

The fact that reflex is the most used defence is quite interesting. If it is an intentional design choice it needs to be taken into consideration when considering and designing new races (using eladrin as a starting point and merely swapping the bonus over to reflex will make a stronger race, which might not be immediately obvious, for example), classes' defense bonuses and special abilities (hi2u shape the dream, radiant censure). Arguably it should have been made explicit in the books as well ("making the system assumptions transparent" is a design goal, after all).

It makes a fair bit of sense to be intentional since the defenders, the ones in the core anyway, carry shields which give 10% better mitigation against those attacks. After all, what's the point of a defender if it's not actually beneficial for the party to have him/her targeted?

Again, thanks for the data, good food for rambling thought.