On the philosophy of monster design in the playtest

[howandwhy99]

What do you think about Small # of Encounter Abilities? & Larger # of Lifespan Abilities?

Think of this like the traditional Cleric. 1 spell / day, but 6 spells to choose from for the day.

Now we get easily run Encounters & no boredom from facing the same monster types over and over.

If you make: roles, unswappable powers, race iconic abilities, then we get bored. In some ways is this okay? Yeah, I want to know I'm facing an orc again, but the don't all need to wield scimitars every single time.

 

[Gold Roger]

The question I want to ask here is: do all monsters need to follow the same design philosophy?

Because, as so often, I find myself wanting both.

There's a very good reason there are monsters that are just lumps of hp and attack.

It's good to have slightly more complex beasts, like the bosses in COC or almost every 4th edition monster.

And sometimes (though rarely) a monster with more abilities than it could ever use in one combat are awesome (pre 4th edition demons and dragons).

What shouldn't happen is repeating older editions mistakes by splitting the different designs by level. Going from the kobold-ork-ogre-hill giant progression straight to the management nightmare that is demons is awful.

I want to be able to throw a complex monster at 1st level party without expecting a TPK or it even being a boss. And I want to throw out some simple HD lumps out at the highest level without using giants all the time.

 

[Andor]

In 4E, there are a much largely variety of interactions between kobolds and PCs, and many of them aren't even reliant on the grid. I have the option to chuck sticky pots to slow down my opponents, set them on fire, stink up the place to grant "disadvantage", interpose a defender to protect the weak and so on. The monsters feel like they have a place in the society as well as a place in the fight.

You can do all that now, and you do it the way every edition except 4e did.

You take a kobold, and you give it a glue pot. Or oil. Or skunk in a bag.

You don't need a seperate monster manual entry for every possible piece of kit or combat strategy a monster might employ. You just need basic stats, and some idea of what items do.