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Monster Design in D&D Next, Part 2
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<blockquote data-quote="Alphastream" data-source="post: 5948670" data-attributes="member: 11365"><p>Overall I thought the article had many interesting and sound ideas. I am eager to see them in a playtest. It could be really cool to have units work in certain ways.</p><p></p><p>I still remain worried that orcs and goblins and all the other races end up being a wielded weapon and worn armor (dx due to weapon wielded, AC y due to armor worn) instead of being interesting foes. And fighting orcs at level 1-5 is fine... but when I'm 10th I don't need to fight 100 orcs. I want a more interesting challenge at that point (and far earlier as well). That fight can be a higher level special set of orcs or new foes, but it should be a different experience or it will be tiresome.</p><p></p><p>I recall a fight in the dungeons of Greyhawk Ruins where two of our PCs fought 30 or so trolls. We would drop two a round, and those would start regenerating while we fought the rest, and so on and so forth. It was an incredible grind of a combat until we finally had enough down to break out a torch and stop the regen and clean up the rest. In 4E, such a combat is against a small set of really cool trolls. The anchor troll that wields a ship's anchor as a weapon, the timber slinger troll that throws tree trunks, the bladerager, the war troll... that is a really fun and imaginative fight. I'm not sure we can get there with the current plan. I think it will take the ideas presented working plus some system (perhaps in a module) of add-on powers (via monster themes, templates, etc.). And when I go down that road I end up wondering why we didn't start there in the first place.</p><p></p><p>My ideal scenario is to have all D&D Next monsters have three powers: The basic attack, a species attack, and an attack based on the role or name of the creature. For example, all trolls might have the claws, plus the rend and regen. The battlerager would have the death burst. This keeps things pretty simple (simpler than most 4E monsters), offers expansion possibilities, but isn't boring every time you meet that creature - or worse yet, when meeting this and other creatures in the dungeon.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Alphastream, post: 5948670, member: 11365"] Overall I thought the article had many interesting and sound ideas. I am eager to see them in a playtest. It could be really cool to have units work in certain ways. I still remain worried that orcs and goblins and all the other races end up being a wielded weapon and worn armor (dx due to weapon wielded, AC y due to armor worn) instead of being interesting foes. And fighting orcs at level 1-5 is fine... but when I'm 10th I don't need to fight 100 orcs. I want a more interesting challenge at that point (and far earlier as well). That fight can be a higher level special set of orcs or new foes, but it should be a different experience or it will be tiresome. I recall a fight in the dungeons of Greyhawk Ruins where two of our PCs fought 30 or so trolls. We would drop two a round, and those would start regenerating while we fought the rest, and so on and so forth. It was an incredible grind of a combat until we finally had enough down to break out a torch and stop the regen and clean up the rest. In 4E, such a combat is against a small set of really cool trolls. The anchor troll that wields a ship's anchor as a weapon, the timber slinger troll that throws tree trunks, the bladerager, the war troll... that is a really fun and imaginative fight. I'm not sure we can get there with the current plan. I think it will take the ideas presented working plus some system (perhaps in a module) of add-on powers (via monster themes, templates, etc.). And when I go down that road I end up wondering why we didn't start there in the first place. My ideal scenario is to have all D&D Next monsters have three powers: The basic attack, a species attack, and an attack based on the role or name of the creature. For example, all trolls might have the claws, plus the rend and regen. The battlerager would have the death burst. This keeps things pretty simple (simpler than most 4E monsters), offers expansion possibilities, but isn't boring every time you meet that creature - or worse yet, when meeting this and other creatures in the dungeon. [/QUOTE]
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