Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
The
VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX
is coming! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
In Search of "the" Ideal Monster Presentation
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Faolyn" data-source="post: 9167025" data-attributes="member: 6915329"><p>Humanoids are given descriptors and short ideas for cultures (plural, at least one or two each of good, evil, and neutral, or something else along those lines). And they'd have mini-templates (a tiny number of traits, speeds, and stat bonuses) <em>but not stats</em>. Then there's an NPC stat section in the back; each type of NPC should have different variants for different tiers of play. So basic guard, advanced guard, guard captain, mega-guard, etc.</p><p></p><p>Throw the racial template on the NPC stat of your choice. Viola!</p><p></p><p>Not only will this give people ideas for using each humanoid in a variety of ways, whether we're talking good orcs or evil halflings, but will cut down on having a ton of nearly-identical statblocks spread across the books. There's not that much difference between an orc bandit and a hobgoblin bandit and a human bandit and an aarakocra bandit and an elf bandit other than the racial differences.</p><p></p><p>I know that this would make the humanoids less ready to run right out of the book, but I think that in the long run it could be a useful format. It also means that if you run without racial stat bonuses then you can't say "I don't know where to put mine!" (as several people said in threads about removing those racial bonuses, because apparently it's difficult to realize that a big burly orc is probably quite strong unless the book tells you so) because they're right there in the mini-template to use as a guide.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Faolyn, post: 9167025, member: 6915329"] Humanoids are given descriptors and short ideas for cultures (plural, at least one or two each of good, evil, and neutral, or something else along those lines). And they'd have mini-templates (a tiny number of traits, speeds, and stat bonuses) [I]but not stats[/I]. Then there's an NPC stat section in the back; each type of NPC should have different variants for different tiers of play. So basic guard, advanced guard, guard captain, mega-guard, etc. Throw the racial template on the NPC stat of your choice. Viola! Not only will this give people ideas for using each humanoid in a variety of ways, whether we're talking good orcs or evil halflings, but will cut down on having a ton of nearly-identical statblocks spread across the books. There's not that much difference between an orc bandit and a hobgoblin bandit and a human bandit and an aarakocra bandit and an elf bandit other than the racial differences. I know that this would make the humanoids less ready to run right out of the book, but I think that in the long run it could be a useful format. It also means that if you run without racial stat bonuses then you can't say "I don't know where to put mine!" (as several people said in threads about removing those racial bonuses, because apparently it's difficult to realize that a big burly orc is probably quite strong unless the book tells you so) because they're right there in the mini-template to use as a guide. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
In Search of "the" Ideal Monster Presentation
Top