Monster Design in D&D Next, Part 2

mrswing · Jun 19, 2012

Good article. One thing I'd like them to think a bit more about, though, is monster weaknesses. For instance, the hook horror uses echolocation to find its prey. This means it's blinded when hit by a silence spell, but also - are there other ways to blind or befuddle it? Use bard song, make loud noises to confuse the echo... Giving the PCs ways to overcome the special ability if they use their brains.

jadrax · Jun 19, 2012

Balesir said:
I think that would be very cool, but what makes you think it's what they have in mind?

Well on the swarm thing:

'I'd like to incorporate a core "swarm" rule into the game, an easy way for DMs to group up monsters into single attacks. For instance, something that lets you combine X attacks into one die roll, with some small amount of damage even on a miss to make that an appealing option. Hopefully, that solves the rat issue and also the humanoid horde issue at higher levels.' - Mike Mearls, Reddit

'The orcs can all hit as often as they should, but it might be better/faster/easier for the DM to resolve their 18 attacks in fewer die rolls.' - Mike Mearls, Reddit

pemerton · Jun 19, 2012

El Mahdi said:
I like the idea that there are practical and economic reasons for using adventuring heroes, but it doesn't necessarily negate that there is also an "you're our only hope" aspect. The Hero sees it as they are the only one that can get the job done. The King sees that also, but also considers the other aspects also. Kings see the big picture...usually...and that's why they're the King

I'm not sure I like this idea that the heroes are heroes only in a slightly ironic sense.

I would prefer that the King be the one who is the victim of irony (ie that, ultimately, it's the heroes who have a proper handle on the big picture, and but for them the king's "big picture" couldn't be realised, as one component of the real big picture).

KidSnide said:
the D&DN designers have recognized that low-level humanoids should also have a useful "horde" role for high-level characters. Humanoid hordes are part of the fantasy genre and have been under-represented in D&D editions of the past because the rules rarely provided effective support for this type of scenario. I love this type of story, and am excited by the idea that D&D might support it out of the box.

I'm with [MENTION=27160]Balesir[/MENTION] in wanting swarm mechanics to handle this sort of thing. That's how I've done it in 4e.

Bedrockgames · Jun 19, 2012

On a quick read though, liking what I see so far.

KidSnide · Jun 19, 2012

pemerton said:
I'm with [MENTION=27160]Balesir[/MENTION] in wanting swarm mechanics to handle this sort of thing. That's how I've done it in 4e.

Obviously. You can't really have 100s of orcs without some kind of mechanic to simplify what would otherwise be an unmanageable amount of die rolling.

(That's how I did it in 3e too.)

-KS

Balesir · Jun 19, 2012

KidSnide said:
Obviously. You can't really have 100s of orcs without some kind of mechanic to simplify what would otherwise be an unmanageable amount of die rolling.

(That's how I did it in 3e too.)

So, in other words, the more perceptive folk did it that way in 3.X, 4e did it that way and 5e will (we hope and believe) do it that way. Sounds like it's all good!

jadrax · Jun 19, 2012

KidSnide said:
Obviously. You can't really have 100s of orcs without some kind of mechanic to simplify what would otherwise be an unmanageable amount of die rolling.

Yes, I was in an AD&D game where we used these kinds of numbers and rolled every attack, and frankly the system doesn't really cope as well as it should.