A couple of questions on 4E Immortal design

[Khisanth the Ancient]

Actually, according to Echohawk's Complete D&D Monster Index, as of the end of 2008 there were just over 34,000 monsters published for D&D across all of the editions. Note that this includes, however, PC races and different editions of the same monsters.

Still, even with some overlap, that's a heck of a lot more than 5,000. And take into account third-party contributions (and it being over a year later) it probably hits the 50,000 mark easy.

So that's *not* including 3rd party monsters in the 34000? Wow.

 

[Upper_Krust]

Actually, according to Echohawk's Complete D&D Monster Index, as of the end of 2008 there were just over 34,000 monsters published for D&D across all of the editions. Note that this includes, however, PC races and different editions of the same monsters.

Still, even with some overlap, that's a heck of a lot more than 5,000. And take into account third-party contributions (and it being over a year later) it probably hits the 50,000 mark easy.

Very interesting, although obviously I was referencing the number of different monsters, not the same monster across multiple editions, so that 34,000 is probably more like 10,000 spread across 5 editions.

I was trying to use 3E as a guide and guesstimate the number of monster books there were during the lifespan of 3E. I anticipated there were between 30-40. Though that could be way out. Maybe its closer to 100?

 

[paradox42]

paradox42 ran a campaign that was pretty close, though I'm not sure exactly how far they got; there's a thread about that cosmology on here.

It sort of depends on whether you count essentially skipped levels in going "all the way" in my case. We dispensed with the rule that you can never gain enough XP to give you more than one level at a time, particularly after divine ascension since the number of levels needed in my game was much higher. Also, my PCs took on monsters of such absurd CR that they often gained millions of XP at a stroke, before I switched to UK's system for gaining it. Plus, I wanted the advancement to not take forever, so I was giving fairly massive story award XP. But we did have one character who started as a 1st level Psion, and got all the way up to 999 HD with 37 divine ranks (making him ECL 1184 in all). He was an active PC the entire way.

 

[Upper_Krust]

Hey there paradox42 amigo!

Plus, I wanted the advancement to not take forever, so I was giving fairly massive story award XP.

Thats interesting because I have been pondering over the Adventure series for 4E I have planned and thinking "these guys are going to be Overgods in less than 40 sessions".

But I think thats sort of what players want ~ faster paced progression.

But we did have one character who started as a 1st level Psion, and got all the way up to 999 HD with 37 divine ranks (making him ECL 1184 in all). He was an active PC the entire way.

I do know of one group that plays with custom D&D rules well into the millions. Its a sort of Oth/1st/2nd/3rd Edition hybrid.

However I am not sure at what level they started, and I'd hazard they have indeed skipped quite a bit.

 

[Yqatuba]

I have a question for U_K: what is the most powerful being you plan to make in 4th ed?

 

[Upper_Krust]

Hiya Yqatuba mate!

I have a question for U_K: what is the most powerful being you plan to make in 4th ed?

With the new Superboss rules I can go all the way up.

 

[Yqatuba]

Sorry but what is a superboss?

 

[DamienWilacoth]

Sorry but what is a superboss?

My guess is a new type of enemy that UK has designed rules for, which will be included in the Vampire Bestiary.

 

[Upper_Krust]

Sorry but what is a superboss?

Well, a superboss is a new type of monster rank.

Minion < Standard < Elite < Solo = Boss < Superboss

In part one of the Vampire Bestiary I'll go into the minor changes I suggest to Solo monsters to make them more interesting "Boss" monsters.

In the appropriate later part I'll explain superbosses. But basically its for tackling Godzilla sized monsters and up.

A few interesting things from Monster Manual 3 were that there were almost no solo monsters in the book (6 out of 272 or so monsters). Its clear that the official rules don't make interesting enough solo monsters so I have injected a few ideas and started calling them Boss monsters just to illustrate the distinction.

Also in Monster Manual 3 there is a planet sized monster, listed as Gargantuan, and the designer states that you can't have a monster thats actually planet sized...well maybe he can't but I surely can.

 

[Alzrius]

Having seen an early draft of U_K's new boss and superboss rules, I can verify that they're truly badass.