In my efforts to transport monster stats to cards, I've discovered something about monsters in 4e, that being that there is an extremely large disparity in power and variety even within the same level and role.
One 3rd-level artillery monster is not equal to another.
This really highlights for me the fact that there is really no established system for monster creation. It's all just 'eye-balled'. One monster could have five powers and another of the same level, role and sometimes even race, could have just two.
Contrary to popular belief, this makes monster creation harder, not easier.
So I was wondering if anyone would be interested in creating a homebrew system for standardising monster creation rules. By standardising I don't mean making dull, I simply mean providing a template based on level, role and race.
For instance, the template could say that a 3rd-level artillery monster should have one melee basic attack without any special additions, one ranged basic attack without any special additions, one at-will ranged attack with a special addition, one encounter ranged attack, and one racial special ability. All of these should have damage dice in the range of the level and monster type, ie. minion, standard, elite or solo.
So voila, we've standardised 3rd-level artillery monsters!
You could then go on to provide special circumstance global rules. For example, if you replace the encounter power with a different type, ie. change a ranged to an area or burst, then it should be of lesser or greater power accordingly. Same would go for rechargeable powers.
By creating a set of standard rules for monster creation, we could easily create a balanced and therefore readily usable database of such creatures for common usage.
One 3rd-level artillery monster is not equal to another.
This really highlights for me the fact that there is really no established system for monster creation. It's all just 'eye-balled'. One monster could have five powers and another of the same level, role and sometimes even race, could have just two.
Contrary to popular belief, this makes monster creation harder, not easier.
So I was wondering if anyone would be interested in creating a homebrew system for standardising monster creation rules. By standardising I don't mean making dull, I simply mean providing a template based on level, role and race.
For instance, the template could say that a 3rd-level artillery monster should have one melee basic attack without any special additions, one ranged basic attack without any special additions, one at-will ranged attack with a special addition, one encounter ranged attack, and one racial special ability. All of these should have damage dice in the range of the level and monster type, ie. minion, standard, elite or solo.
So voila, we've standardised 3rd-level artillery monsters!
You could then go on to provide special circumstance global rules. For example, if you replace the encounter power with a different type, ie. change a ranged to an area or burst, then it should be of lesser or greater power accordingly. Same would go for rechargeable powers.
By creating a set of standard rules for monster creation, we could easily create a balanced and therefore readily usable database of such creatures for common usage.