Playstyle/Edition neutrality: Modules in Monster Stat Blocks

[Minigiant]

Every group/DM have their own preferences of how the way they want to play and run their encounters. Unfortunately, all these styles cannot fit into a monster entry so any DM who wishes to deviate from the norm has to convert the monster entries of the Monster Manual to whatever kind of monster that matches their preferred playstyle, favorite edition, or special need.

What if this was not true?

[B]Drow
Neutral Evil Medium Humanoid
Level 1 Warrio[/B]r
---
STAT BLOCK
---

[COLOR=Red][B]HP Module[/B][/COLOR]
Normal: 9
Gritty: 6
Heroic: 14

[COLOR=Lime][B]Drow Poison[/B][/COLOR]
Whenever a is struck by the drow's poisoned weapon, they must succeed a DC 13 Constitution Saving throw or be poisoned.
[B]Normal[/B]: Fall unconscious
[B]Serious[/B]: 1d6 poison damage and fall unconscious
[B]Light:[/B] Disadvantaged on Str checks and make a secondary save on their turn. [I]Second Failed Saving throw[/I]- Fall unconscious. 

[B][COLOR=DarkOrange]Magic Rating[/COLOR][/B]
Drow in high fantasy settings are common magic item carriers. Even in  low magic settings, experienced drow of at least 6 levels are often  found with at least one magic item.
[B]+1 rapier
Melee attack[/B] +4 (1d6+2 piercing)
[B]Spider rod
Melee attack[/B] +2 (1d6 bludgeoning) Spider allies withing 30 feet of you have advantage on melee attacks
[B]Shadow leather
AC: 14[/B] 
Advantage with using Stealth in shadows

[COLOR=Yellow][B]Tactical Module[/B][/COLOR]
[B]Darkfire[/B]- Blah blah DC 14 Dexterity saving throw or attack against the target are at an advantage and the target cannot become invisible for 5 minutes. The drow can only perform this once per short rest. 
[B]Blade Mastery[/B]- Blah blah extra attack blah once per short rest.  

[COLOR=Plum][B]Skills:[/B][/COLOR]
Stealth +3, Intimidate +3, Dungeoneering +3
[COLOR=Pink]
[B]Roles Module[/B][/COLOR] 
[B]Lurker:[/B] Combat advantage (see page XYZ for details)
[B]Artillery[/B]: Rapid Shoot (see page XYZ for details)
[B]Controller:[/B] Ray of frost at-will

FLUFF
FLUFF
FLUFF

This way if the DM want to play a tactics heavy heroic game, the info for heroic HP and the tactical module is right there. A fan of gritty games with tons of magic items has sample items and their effects and gritty HP. A DM who want a drow wizard with his bodyguard can use 4 gritty drow and a heroic drow controller.

The only issue is the book space that will be eaten up.
But colors.

 

[GX.Sigma]

I do like the "sample magic items" idea, and the poison effect is an interesting problem, but I don't think they're going to do it this way. It's way too cluttered. Rather than have different things written in a single monster's stat block, it makes more sense for each monster to just be itself, and different modules work around that.

 

[Stormonu]

Nah, I don't like the idea of trying to make a camel* out stat blocks. Considering the number of modules that could be in existence, that could bloat a stat block significantly.


* As in, "a camel is a horse designed by committee."

 

[Li Shenron]

I think that the rules modules mentioned so far (tactical and narrative combats) will be designed so that they don't require straight modifications to your characters or monsters, but only change how you use them during combat. There will be a problem only if these modules come with additional character material such as feats that are designed to work only with a module's specific rules, but I think they are trying to avoid that. Thus, no need for additional stats or changes in a monster's entry.

Character generation might be seen as "modular" in the sense that you don't have to use Backgrounds or Themes, so you might question what does this mean for monsters...

I think backgrounds are a piece of cake because their benefits will rarely be used in an encounter, tho some skill bonuses will be used at least to determine surprise. I think that in the case of a monster, those skill bonuses are much more important than explicitly mentioning a background, because a savage monster probably doesn't really a have background at all, it just is what it is all the time, but those skill bonuses can be essential to define some monsters which are e.g. extremely stealthy or perceptive. For non-savage monsters, it's possible that their entry will mention a default background, but it should be fairly easy to swap with another if you want, or ignore it altogether.

For themes, you normally don't want to browse the list of feats unless you're customizing a monster on your own initiative, so the monsters entry will just mention some default feats or a default theme, and if you don't use feats at all you just ignore this part.

I do not think that varying HP should really be called a "module". It's just plain and simple about cutting or increasing the HP of everyone and everything in the game, for whatever purpose, so IMHO you don't really need to put the results in each entry of the MM... if the DM is cutting everyone's HP by 1/3, she can just do that on the fly. A small chapter on this and other possible modifications "modules" (if you want to call them like this) can be written at the beginning of the MM, but I don't want to see the numbers repeated everywhere.

Magic Items: this is instead a very interesting topic. IMHO the best way to solve this would be to have a tiny list of "typical magic items" (max 10) that might be carried by a creature who can and does use them, and then you can just mention e.g. "pick 1, 3 or 7" depending on magic availability in your campaign, or don't mention anything at all.

---

All in all, rather than modules, I am concerned on how each of the MM entries will be broken up in sections. I think the most useful way for me would be if it was clearly broken up between the 3 pillars of the game: combat, exploration, interaction (probably best in this "reversed" order). This way, a DM who is running a mostly combat game just stops reading at the end of the 1st section and already knows everything he needs to run a combat, while a DM who also wants to use the monster in the other phases/pillars, can find such information in the other sections.

NOTE that this is different from the traditional way of presenting a monsters stats, which is breaking them down by type or system: you get e.g. abilities, then attacks, then special/supernatural abilities, then skills, then feats...

What I want to see is an organization by use. Ok to start with the 6 abilities, but then I want:

1) a stat block with everything and nothing else I need in combat: HP, AC, attacks, special abilities that are used in combat, skills that are used in combat, feats that are used in combat... followed by description of combat tactics, morale etc.
2) a second block or section with everything and nothing else I need in the exploration phase, particularly stealth and perception skills, tracking information, lair description, treasure, and any special ability/skill/feat that are used in the exploration phase
3) a third block or section with everything and nothing else I need in the interaction phase (if applicable), with ecology and society description, languages, customs such as tips on things that this type of monster loves/hates/is scared of etc., plus any special ability/skill/feat that are used in the interaction phase

I don't think this generally requires more information or space than before, it's just a rearrangement of the stats and descriptions.

The only potential problem is that of course some special ability/skill/feat (not to mention spells!) can be useful in more than one pillar. I would not want it to be repeated, I think that with some sensible work by the designers, the best placement for such ability can be found, and alternative uses are left for the creative DM to find.

 

[Minigiant]

[MENTION=1465]Li Shenron[/MENTION]

Some thing like this:

Drow
Neutral Evil Medium Humanoid (elf)

STR 11 DEX 14 CON 9
INT 12 WIS 10 CHA 12

COMBAT
HP 9
AC 14
Melee attack +3 rapier (1d6+2 piercing)
Ranged attack +3 handcrossbow (1d6+2 piercing + Drow poison)
Equipment: Studded leather armor, rapier, handcrossbow, 20 bolts, 10 doses of drow poison

EXPLORATION
Stealth +4
Dungeoneering +3

Darkvision
Light Sensitivity

Spells: Drow can cast each of the following spells once per day: dancing lights, darkness, faerie fire.

INTERACTION
Intimidate +4

 

[Crazy Jerome]

I think there has to be a split between what is in the listing and what is elsewhere, in a modular game, and it has to be a thoughtful, considered split every time.

My reply in the ability damage topic yesterday on modular monster poisons is one example: http://www.enworld.org/forum/new-ho...ability-damage-should-game-3.html#post5966428

I'd generalize the point as this: Pointers to things outside the listing should contain some information, but break off at the point where the option starts. Furthermore, the more consolidated the outside stuff can be by module, the more you can so point.

That is, what we don't want is a giant list of spells, that anyone can use, and then in the monster listing we reference a few spells. That's "modular" in the sense of swapping one spell for another, but not "optional" in the sense that there are 8 versions of fireball to pick from (at least not heretofore). When you follow that link from "fireball," you have to go check a huge list, regardless of which playstyle and options you have chosen.

OTOH, weapons you generally can do that way (ignoring magic items for the moment). If the listing says "morningstar" here and "dagger" over there, it's the exact same kind of pointer, but the list of things pointed to is managable enough that it doesn't matter. You can reference it easily.

Of course, there are other considerations, such as how often you use it, how easy it is to memorize, where it happens in play (e.g. combat stuff needs to be somewhat fast to reference, if possible). This is where carefully considering the break between pointer and reference material comes in. There may need to be, for example, some judicious redundancy, such as with including the damage expression on a weapon line, even though you could follow the pointer to find the same thing.

In general, though, if you want to make such a scheme work in printed material, the target of the pointers needs to be labeled, catergorized, etc. such that the pointer can contain a lot of information in a short, clear format. Spell listings as pointers did work fairly well in BECMI/RC, because it was easy to memorize that "fireball" was a third level spell that did level/d6 damage--and there weren't that many 3rd level wizard spells, with all of them grouped together if you needed to go look. A new system, with maybe 30 or 40 spells per level, might need to break those up into a few categories, and then reference spell name along with key facts, level, and category too--e.g. "fireball (L3 elemental, 20' explosion, level/d6)".

 

[Li Shenron]

Yes, but with fluff also

Some thing like this:

Drow
Neutral Evil Medium Humanoid (elf)

STR 11 DEX 14 CON 9
INT 12 WIS 10 CHA 12

<Main monster concept and physical description> Drow are... and look like...

COMBAT
HP 9
AC 14
Melee attack +3 rapier (1d6+2 piercing)
Ranged attack +3 handcrossbow (1d6+2 piercing + Drow poison)
Equipment: Studded leather armor, rapier, handcrossbow, 20 bolts, 10 doses of drow poison

<Combat tactics> Drow fight like this... using that... taking advantage of their ability of... but flee if outnumbered or the battle turns to worse...

EXPLORATION
Stealth +4
Dungeoneering +3

Darkvision
Light Sensitivity

Spells: Drow can cast each of the following spells once per day: dancing lights, darkness, faerie fire.

<Encounters, stealth tactics, defense strategy, treasure etc> Drow settlements are protected by... and contains riches and lots of magic items... they setup poisoned traps... ambushes based on... good trackers and take measures against being tracked...

INTERACTION
Intimidate +4

<Ecology/society/culture> Drow society blah blah... they value X and Y... religion... friends with race A, sworn enemies of race B... craft magic items... fond of... afraid of... offended by...

Edit: and one or more good pictures!

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

Oh, gosh, no - do not, under any circumstances, break up the flow of the statblock with prose.

 

[Remathilis]

I want two stat blocks.

A: Main/Combat stats
Size, Type, Align, XP Value
Ability Scores
AC
HP
Movement
Attacks
Special Attacks
Special Defenses
Notes

Then below the fluff, I want...
Frequency: How common IS this monster?
Climate/Terrain: Where do you commonly find these things
Activity: Day, Night, or Either
Treasure: Do they carry specific types or none at all (tigers carry no treasure, drow carry magic gear, etc)
Morale: Fearless or Cowards?
Role: Are these frequently masterminds, artillery, shock troops, beserkers, etc

The latter is good shorthand on HOW to use them in a story. I can look at the latter info and know goblins are common, beholders like deserts, orcs are nocturnal, mindflayers make good controllers, and kobolds are craven beasts in maybe 5-6 lines of text.

 

[Steely_Dan]

I would like Drow to go back to Chaotic Evil, they do worship that demon babe.