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Redoing existing monsters?
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<blockquote data-quote="jgsugden" data-source="post: 9192808" data-attributes="member: 2629"><p>I do this all the time - and have done so for 40 years - and long ago realized it is mostly self pleasuring.</p><p></p><p>Not like that, perv.</p><p></p><p>In order for these types of updates to be anything other than a personal pleasure, the change has to be significant to the players. This means you either need to drop the lore into the game prior to the encounter, or you need to have it impact the encounter. </p><p></p><p>Your Nature only matters if the PCs cast Remove Curse on the creature, or if a PC dies to the creature and the creature has time to eat the heart. The winged vulnerability is something the PCs might stumble onto with the right damage. You can let PCs know these elements through intelligence rolls or encountering lore before the game - but when you add a significant weakness to a creature and let PCs know of it in advance, it becomes a balance problem for the DM - do you assume they'll take advantae of the weakness - and thus that the encounter should be treated as easy - or not and that the encounter will be hard. This is not a horrible problem to have - but it does represent some level of balance challenge.</p><p></p><p>All in all - I found it less productive to tweak - and more productive to create. Rather than revise monsters, I tend to build new ones. They may take inspiration from existing monsters, but they're new creations that suit my purposes. Because they're new, they tend to have less of the 'adding weaknesses' elements to them and more fundamental design sythesis that ties them together. That being said, I do have my own homebrew versions of medusa, of gnolls, and of a few other creatures that I prefer because I feel they capture the spirit of the monster better than the base rules. </p><p></p><p>My medusa are tied to a location. They can't leave it, so they master it. Their lairs are designed to aid them in their petrification desires. They get lair actions, and they have a few extra abilities that allow them to utilize their petrified victims in various ways to aid them in pulling others into the pool. Also, when you slay a medusa, all the victims begin to return to life - although it takes as much time for them to be restored as they spent petrified. </p><p></p><p>My gnolls are a demonic force of nature. I mostly use them with swarm mechanics as they roll over enemies. They are fiends and inflict madness (Uncontrollable Hideous Laughter) when they are raging. The madness is caused in an aura around them (low DC). Being in their presence makes your eyes bleed and forces you to at least snicker. They always attack the most wounded option (including downed PCs) and are only slightly above beast intelligence (Intelligence 5). New players in my game assume gnolls are typical gnolls. Experienced players in my games know that gnolls are terrifying demonic threats. </p><p></p><p>These changes have been significant and have worked well for me. Many, many, many others were dropped on paper - and never were discovered, much less made a difference. </p><p></p><p>So my advice: Make sure the change is meaningful if you're going t take the time to implement it - and if you want to be creative, sonsider just building from scratch.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="jgsugden, post: 9192808, member: 2629"] I do this all the time - and have done so for 40 years - and long ago realized it is mostly self pleasuring. Not like that, perv. In order for these types of updates to be anything other than a personal pleasure, the change has to be significant to the players. This means you either need to drop the lore into the game prior to the encounter, or you need to have it impact the encounter. Your Nature only matters if the PCs cast Remove Curse on the creature, or if a PC dies to the creature and the creature has time to eat the heart. The winged vulnerability is something the PCs might stumble onto with the right damage. You can let PCs know these elements through intelligence rolls or encountering lore before the game - but when you add a significant weakness to a creature and let PCs know of it in advance, it becomes a balance problem for the DM - do you assume they'll take advantae of the weakness - and thus that the encounter should be treated as easy - or not and that the encounter will be hard. This is not a horrible problem to have - but it does represent some level of balance challenge. All in all - I found it less productive to tweak - and more productive to create. Rather than revise monsters, I tend to build new ones. They may take inspiration from existing monsters, but they're new creations that suit my purposes. Because they're new, they tend to have less of the 'adding weaknesses' elements to them and more fundamental design sythesis that ties them together. That being said, I do have my own homebrew versions of medusa, of gnolls, and of a few other creatures that I prefer because I feel they capture the spirit of the monster better than the base rules. My medusa are tied to a location. They can't leave it, so they master it. Their lairs are designed to aid them in their petrification desires. They get lair actions, and they have a few extra abilities that allow them to utilize their petrified victims in various ways to aid them in pulling others into the pool. Also, when you slay a medusa, all the victims begin to return to life - although it takes as much time for them to be restored as they spent petrified. My gnolls are a demonic force of nature. I mostly use them with swarm mechanics as they roll over enemies. They are fiends and inflict madness (Uncontrollable Hideous Laughter) when they are raging. The madness is caused in an aura around them (low DC). Being in their presence makes your eyes bleed and forces you to at least snicker. They always attack the most wounded option (including downed PCs) and are only slightly above beast intelligence (Intelligence 5). New players in my game assume gnolls are typical gnolls. Experienced players in my games know that gnolls are terrifying demonic threats. These changes have been significant and have worked well for me. Many, many, many others were dropped on paper - and never were discovered, much less made a difference. So my advice: Make sure the change is meaningful if you're going t take the time to implement it - and if you want to be creative, sonsider just building from scratch. [/QUOTE]
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