D&D 5E Monster Creation in D&D Next

Ratskinner · Jul 24, 2012

Underman said:
The article "Hit Points, Our Old Friend" states that hit points partially models "Energy and experience, which is measured by a creature's ability to turn a direct hit into a glancing blow". So follow that through, when the minotaur accurately strikes the fighter, the fighter has the energy and experience to make the minotaur miss. When the minotaur misses due to poor accuracy, the fighter lacks the energy and experience to make the miss into a miss. No, I'm still confused.

Maybe when the minotaur "misses" with his main attacks, he is still so large and in charge that dodging them takes something out of the fighter?

vagabundo · Jul 24, 2012

FireLance said:
Would it have hurt WotC to say something along the lines of:
...

Then again, maybe WotC has assessed that publicly acknowledging the design influence that 4e had on 5e will cost them more sales than keeping silent on the subject.

Yeah I think you hit the nail on the head here. WotC are dancing the PR dance and they have be soo careful about what they say and how they say it. For some segments for the gamer public ideas/mechanic are tainted by association.

It's all cool to me. As long as we get a good game out of it.

Pickles JG · Jul 24, 2012

Chris_Nightwing said:
That seems, to me, just as hand-wavey as the 4E approach. I read it rather as, start with ability score, look at level, get expected attack bonus, consider whether it's appropriate to apply a bonus (hobgoblin martial training) or penalty (clumsy giants) and if you choose to steer away from the expectation then be aware of the consequences (which in flat-mathland, shouldn't be as severe).

I agree with you assessment of the design. I fail to see why flat maths makes the consequence of creatures not having par values less severe. You are just as far from being able to hit things as you are with increasing maths using level appropriate monsters.

The differences as I see it are
1) You will more routinely fight critters who are lower/higher level & who have worse/better attack bonuses, so you will be used to having trivial/frustrating encounters (

)
2) There are fewer hit points floating about so the combat is more swingy so differences are more likely to be swamped by randomness.

The first is a characteristic of the never obsolete monsters that requires flatter maths but will be less pronounced the flatter the maths is. The second explains why 4e needed math fix feats for differences that are absolutely drowned out by other factors in 3e.

Libramarian · Jul 24, 2012

The monster design system sounds alright. The XP budgeting system sounds terrible. Are they actually going to advise DMs to plan out an exact itinerary of encounters every day? That sounds even more sim-y (simulating the "perfect adventure") than 4e.

Heh, talk about "obfuscation". Why not just skip to the end of the adventure since it's predetermined beforehand exactly what the party's chance of survival is and exactly what percentage of their resources will be lost.

Maybe DDN will be the first edition where you can DM without needing any players.

FireLance · Jul 24, 2012

Libramarian said:
Maybe DDN will be the first edition where you can DM without needing any players.

Nah, we've had that since the early days of D&D. It's called "writing a module".

Underman · Jul 24, 2012

tlantl said:
I see it as the huge axe might not have actually penetrated your physical armor but it certainly hit your AC 10 self. The hit points loss is the portion of your hit points that are not actually physical damage, or are only a fraction actual damage, the rest is being (luck endurance and/or skill) used to avoid that huge splat it's going to make on you when it makes solid contact.

Sort of like a touch attack? This is OK actually, it's in line with my visualization of hit vs AC and damage potential.

An attack that equals or exceeds the armor class is an important abstraction. Call it self-justifying but it works for me...

A hit means your attack has the potential to bypass your opponent's defenses to hurt and kill. The wounds/kill potential is then abstracted as appropriate to the story (converted to a glancing blow, taken as an active real wounds, etc.).

Whereas a miss is exactly is that. It has zero potential to hurt your opponent, and no glancing blow that is meaningly hurtful.

I wouldn't mind if the rage ability was re-worded as so:
Rage +5/5: This creature can choose to take disadvantage on a melee attack. In addition, if the die roll was 10 or higher, the minotaur deals 5 morale damage.

So the die roll is double-dipped to adjudicate 2 results, and the melee attack is decoupled from the +5 damage.

So basically, the minotaur roars and goes nuts. Its opponent is practically tripping over his/her feet to get out of the way. The minotaur effectively has a 50% chance (after the disadvantage) of weakening its opponent, through sheer intimidation, shock and exhaustion of dodging a crazy fast large axe. Furthermore, if the 5 damage reduces the creature to zero hp, maybe the minotaur gets an instant coup de grace on the prone target.

Zaukrie · Jul 24, 2012

I am baffled that people have an issue with using an xp budget to create balanced encounters, if they so desire. I have been dming for decades, and I think using xp to simulate resource consumption makes sense. Of course, sometimes I still build encounters either much weaker or stronger. Can someone explain how having a formula as a guideline to help you understand the relative challenge a party of a certain level will face is a bad thing?

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TwoSix · Jul 24, 2012

Libramarian said:
The monster design system sounds alright. The XP budgeting system sounds terrible. Are they actually going to advise DMs to plan out an exact itinerary of encounters every day? That sounds even more sim-y (simulating the "perfect adventure") than 4e.

Heh, talk about "obfuscation". Why not just skip to the end of the adventure since it's predetermined beforehand exactly what the party's chance of survival is and exactly what percentage of their resources will be lost.

Maybe DDN will be the first edition where you can DM without needing any players.

Or you just use it to track how much the PCs have been challenged. If they typically can face 1000 XP of monsters a day, and have already faced 900 XP, maybe the 750 XP of dragon might be too much.

Up to you, of course. It's a living, breathing world, kill them if you want.

ren1999 · Jul 24, 2012

Monster Sizes
Size of Creatures in Squares
Fine Space 1/5th of a square Reach 1/5
Diminutive Space 2/5 Reach 2/5
Tiny Space 3/5 Reach 3/5 (roughly half a game encounter square)
Small Space 2/5 Reach 2/5
Medium Space 1 Reach 1
Large Space 2 Reach 2
Huge Space 3 Reach 3
Gargantuan Space 4 Reach 4
Colossal Space 5 Reach 5
A fine creature with speed 6 can move about 1 square per round.
A Colossal creature with speed 6 can move 30 squares per round.

Ability Scores
Fine str-4, dex+4
Diminutive str-3, dex+3
Tiny str-2, dex+2
Small str-1, dex+1
Medium dex+0 str+0
Large dex-1 str+1
Huge dex-2 str+2
Gargantuan dex-3 str+3
Colossal dex-4 str+4

Hit Points
Fine con+1d4 per hit dice
Diminutive con+1d4 per hit dice
Tiny con+1d4 per hit dice
Small con+1d6 per hit dice
Medium con+1d8 per hit dice
Large con+1d10 per hit dice
Huge con+1d12 per hit dice
Gargantuan con+1d12 per hit dice
Colossal con+1d12 per hit dice

Racial Traits and Powers
1 trait or power per hit dice

Standard Actions and Reactions
1 to 4 hit dice - 1 reaction or 1 action
5 to 9 hit dice - 1 reaction and 1 action or 2 actions
10 to 14 hit dice - 1 reaction and 2 actions or 3 actions
15 to 19 hit dice - 1 reaction and 3 actions or 4 actions
20 hit dice - 1 reaction and 4 actions or 5 actions

Natural Armor
Hairless or Fine Hair Hide AC+0 (example Panther)
Feathery Skin or Fish Scale AC+1
Tough, Fatty, and or Hairy Hide AC+2 (Bear)
Bristly Hide or Light Scale AC+3 (Snake)
Bony Scale AC+4 (Crocodile, Shark)
Hard Shell AC+5 (Turtle)

Mattachine · Jul 24, 2012

I don't like the idea that you have to "give monsters proficiencies or skills" so that it has the numbers you want.

Just give the monster the numbers you want and be done with it.