Dungeons of Dread Preview 3: Templates

[orangefruitbat]

Heavy armor movement rates?

The Deathknight has a move of 5 squares (25'), while the vampire has a move of 6 squares (30'). Maybe heavy armor only slows you down 5'/round in the new rules.

 

[Shroomy]

I'm assuming that the DMG also has the rules for NPC creation and since many of these templates can be applied to classed-opponents (I'm assuming), it does make sense to put them in the DMG.

 

[mhensley]

Next week -- two monsters with double letters and a digraph.

Guesses as to what monsters these will be?

Thoqqua? Vargouille?

 

[mhensley]

Also, with templates being in the DMG, and monsters in the Monster Manual, it means you can have both books open at once and apply the template to the monster without flipping pages in either book. It may not be the designers' intention, but it is a great side-effect even if it wasn't.

Ooh, yes this is a good thing.

 

[frankthedm]

The Deathknight has a move of 5 squares (25'), while the vampire has a move of 6 squares (30'). Maybe heavy armor only slows you down 5'/round in the new rules.

Maybe thats a Fighter thing.

ANd after all these years and all D&D editions [OD&D, AD&D, BD&D, Revised BD&D, 2E, 3E and 3.5E], vampires still have life draining claws?

 

[jhouse]

Certainly, shifting a monster from being a normal monster to being an elite monster is an efficient and elegant way of balancing out templates. I like it.

That tells me that the designers intend for monsters to get only one template. Some of the nastiest monsters I faced as a 3E player had several templates applied to them. Can a bullete (already elite) have templates applied to it?

I'd hope there's templates that change normal creatures into minions. I'm sure the rules offer ways to simply convert a creature to a minion, but stuff like a vampire spawn template seem more interesting...

 

[Gort]

Maybe thats a Fighter thing.

ANd after all these years and all D&D editions [OD&D, AD&D, BD&D, Revised BD&D, 2E, 3E and 3.5E], vampires still have life draining claws?

It's an attack versus fortitude now, which the vampire can't do more than once per round. That's a far cry from the vampire monk who flurried you to do twelvety negative levels a round. Plus, no negative levels, which I always thought were a horrid mechanic.

This mechanic I can feel more comfortable saying "The vampire tries to grab you and sink his teeth into your neck! *roll* His fangs bite deeply into you and he sucks a mouthful of your blood before you can get him off! Take a -4 on everything from the blood loss."

The way I'd have done it in 3rd ed is use a grapple check, but this way is also acceptable, and faster.

 

[eleran]

Guesses as to what monsters these will be?

Thoqqua? Vargouille?

First one that came to my mind was Illithid. I am trying to find the confimed list of what minis are in the new set, but havent found it to check against.

 

[frankthedm]

It's an attack versus fortitude now, which the vampire can't do more than once per round. That's a far cry from the vampire monk who flurried you to do twelvety negative levels a round.

3e vampires only got use their enegy drain one per round as well.

Energy Drain (Su)
Living creatures hit by a vampire’s slam attack (or any other natural weapon the vampire might possess) gain two negative levels. For each negative level bestowed, the vampire gains 5 temporary hit points. A vampire can use its energy drain ability once per round.

 

[Perun]

First one that came to my mind was Illithid. I am trying to find the confimed list of what minis are in the new set, but havent found it to check against.

My guess -- bullete and illithid. The silhouettes at the end of the article resemble those two: bullete could be the last one in the first row, and illithid might be the second one in the last (fifth) row.

And they have the same double letters (ll).