Whatâ??s in a Monster?

avin · Nov 13, 2012

Kamikaze Midget said:
Personally: lets do both!
Alignment Neutral Evil (greedy, selfish, cruel)

Even better.

Stoat · Nov 13, 2012

I'm out of the loop. Do Morningstars do 2d8+2 points of damage now?

I'm A Banana · Nov 13, 2012

I think they do that because it's a Large morningstar -- the kind of morningstar a giant might use. It is that because Bugbears are burly: they can use weapons larger than human-sized creatures can normally use. A bugbear will leap out of the shadows and smash your skull in with a sapling.

TerraDave · Nov 13, 2012

I, for one apparently, liked it.

Blackbrrd · Nov 13, 2012

Kinak said:
This block is step up from some others, but I still don't want to use it in combat.

Here's more what I want out of a stat block:

Bugbear (medium humanoid, goblin)
AC 14, HP 18
Walk 30'
Morningstar +2 1d8+1 bludgeoning and 1d8+1 piercing
Javelin 30'/120' +2 2d6+2 piercing

Darkvision, +5 Stealth
Common, Goblin
Str 15 (+2); Dex 14 (+2); Con 10 (+0)
Int 8 (–1); Wis 11 (+0); Cha 9 (–1)

Click to expand...

The first half covers them in combat, the second in skill-based conflict (and also provides the attributes for saves, which you'd need anyway). Obviously there would need to be a separate block (or just text) giving encounter information and discussing their role in the world.

Cheers!
Kinak

I really like how you dropped the labeling and just have the stats and put all the combat stats together at the top. Less verbose stat blocks is a good idea.

Bugbear (medium humanoid, goblin)
AC 14, HP 18, Walk 30'
Morningstar +2 1d8+1 bludgeoning and 1d8+1 piercing
Javelin 30'/120' +2 2d6+2 piercing

Darkvision, +5 Stealth
Common, Goblin
Str +2; Dex +2; Con +0
Int –1; Wis +0; Cha –1

Neutral Evil (greedy, selfish, cruel)
Hills or any underground
140 xp

I think you can add the movement speed to the AC/HP line and add the assorted rest of the info below. I do agree that burly is something not needed in the stat block. It's information already accounted for. For encounter building I think adding alignment/personality, environment and xp should be added. I think it's safe to drop the actual score from the stats as well. It's not used for anything. The rest of the information should be added to the presentation of the monster.

Basically: drop labels, divide monster into three sections: 1) combat, 2) skills and 3) encounter building. Less text, group similar items.

GreyICE · Nov 13, 2012

I really am against concise stat blocks IF they are harder to use than verbose stat blocks. That means no segmenting powers/abilities/etc. into a different section of the book (or Odin forbid a completely different book - "this book is not useable without a totally different product, gotcha!"). Spell out every single thing a monster can do in the stat block. If the point is speed, the concise stat block should not be slower than the verbose stat block.

Kinak · Nov 13, 2012

Blackbrrd said:
I really like how you dropped the labeling and just have the stats and put all the combat stats together at the top. Less verbose stat blocks is a good idea.

Thanks!

Blackbrrd said:
I think it's safe to drop the actual score from the stats as well. It's not used for anything.

I was wondering about that. Yeah, if they're not needed, cut 'em out.

On an unrelated note, it's funny how much less impressive the functional stats (bonuses) look than the usual presentation. Seems like a lot of effort for some -1s and +2s.

Blackbrrd said:
Basically: drop labels, divide monster into three sections: 1) combat, 2) skills and 3) encounter building. Less text, group similar items.

Looks good to me. I'd slip the alignment and personality up with the skills, because that's primarily for roleplaying encounters (i.e. greed is to diplomacy as darkvision is to stealth).

Cheers!
Kinak

Libramarian · Nov 13, 2012

So bugbears are both lanky and burly?

These are literally antonyms.

/facepalm

This is yet another reason you need to give up the idea that bugbears are lean and lanky like basketball players. It's just not right at all.

Other than that, it's ok. I am concerned about the lack of treasure information. Please don't tell me that the treasure "system" in the latest packet is what they're actually planning to use.

ZombieRoboNinja · Nov 13, 2012

Warbringer said:
Incredibly blah, and I'd rather they fix monsters and the logic before how to present ... Still not understanding the logic behind to hit and damage bonuses

Different job for different people.