Creating Monsters issues

[shadoe]

Has anyone else run into problems when trying to build monsters from the MM while using the rules in chapter 10 of the DMG?

I have put together a excel file to do the calculations for the various defenses, hit points and initiative, and for some of them it creates the correct value according to the book, but most of the others I have tried don't.

 

[Dalzig]

They're not rules, they are guidelines. Their only purpose is to get you close enough to make it a decent challenge. Most of the monsters in the MM have fudged stats to help differentiate them from each other.

Otherwise, you'd have all level 5 skirmishers having the exact same stats... Yawn!

 

[Jhaelen]

Yep. It seems the official monsters intentionally don't follow the guidelines exactly. Basically, you'll have to trust the designers they knew what they were doing AND hope there aren't too many unintentional deviations from the norm...

I guess, as long as the stats aren't completely off, it's not important if they are really correct. This is one of the things I find really difficult to get used to coming from the 3E mindset.