DMG Excerpt: Customizing Monsters

[I'm A Banana]

Possibly the long-term dominate is more of a ritual thing, since it's more of a narrative device than a combat mechanic.

 

[KingCrab]

Hmmm... Int adds to AC

I'm confused as well. None of the smartest professors I know would be any good at dodging a punch.

 

[Simon Marks]

I'm confused as well. None of the smartest professors I know would be any good at dodging a punch.

But smart enough not to get into fights nu?

 

[Fiendish Dire Weasel]

I'm impressed.

 

[KingCrab]

QFT.

I never understood why natural armor stacked with regular armor. I remember thinking "huh??" when I first read that it did.

If you have a tough hide, and you add padding or leather or plates on top of that hide, shouldn't it be able to help you defend (if it doesn't limit your mobility too much)?

 

[small pumpkin man]

I'm confused as well. None of the smartest professors I know would be any good at dodging a punch.

Strangely enough, they're also not heroic fantasy characters.

Before someone complains that Vampires are no more killed by Sun light, recall that Dracula wasn't

Actually, if the minions are damaged by sunlight, but the Lord is just inconvenienced, that would be awesome, and would actually fit a lot of the more recent stuff you see around.

 

[Green Knight]

Damn, you people are right. I didn't notice the lack of a vulnerability to sunlight. And I just checked and the Vampire Spawn isn't hurt by sunlight, either. Just the Vampire Vizier. What's up with that? Huh. Guess I was so thrilled about the utter disappearance of that stupid Slam Attack that I didn't notice that a pretty important detail was missing from this stat block. One can only hope that there's a general list of weaknesses or such that apply to all Vampire Templates listed elsewhere, cause damn it, I want my vampires to get their faces melted off their skulls by the sun.

 

[srn]

Actually, if the minions are damaged by sunlight, but the Lord is just inconvenienced, that would be awesome, and would actually fit a lot of the more recent stuff you see around.

This is how it is going to be in my campaign, RAW or not. Awesome idea.

 

[KingCrab]

Strangely enough, they're also not heroic fantasy characters.

The smartest fantasy characters I can think of (like Raistlin) also (I imagine) would not be very good at dodging punches.

I guess I can see a really intelligent (heroic fantasy character) martial artist using his brainpower to predict upcoming blows, but that still requires the dexterity to react. Perhaps int should add to AC together with dex only if the dex bonus is higher (so you need the reflexes along with the knowledge?)

 

[Victim]

If you have a tough hide, and you add padding or leather or plates on top of that hide, shouldn't it be able to help you defend (if it doesn't limit your mobility too much)?

Not if attacks that would be able to pierce the armor would also be able to pierce the tough hide. Sticking bullet proof vests to a tank doesn't seem particularly useful.

And mechanically, the armor/natural armor stacking allowed many creatures and characters to trivially boost their ACs beyond the apparent intended levels - especially when you look at polymorph effects (which have hopefully been massively changed).