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General Tabletop Discussion
D&D Older Editions
Thing I thought 4e did better: Monsters
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<blockquote data-quote="Staffan" data-source="post: 6980221" data-attributes="member: 907"><p>While I think 5e on the whole is a lot better than 4e, it is somewhat lacking in the monster department. There are three main things I think 4e did better with monsters:</p><p></p><p>1. Ramping up humanoids. In 5e, pretty much every natural humanoid monster is an appropriate monster for 1st level characters to fight. Bugbears, duergar, and thri-kreen top the humanoid pecking order at CR 1, and below those we have gnolls, svirfneblin, hobgoblins, lizardfolk, orcs, and sahuagin at CR 1/2, bullywugs, drow, goblins, grimlocks, kuo-toa, and troglodytes at 1/4, and kobolds and merfolk at 1/8. The only ones going beyond that are gith, lycanthropes, and quaggoths. In 4e, you had a progression of humanoids starting with kobolds and goblins at level 1-2, then moving up to orcs and hobgoblins at level 3-4, bugbears, gnolls, and lizardfolk at level 5-6, and shadar-kai and troglodytes at level 6-8. Sure, 4e had a different level scale than 5e does, but it would have been nice to have the humanoids spread out a big more over CR 1/4 to 5.</p><p></p><p>2. Variety in monsters. 4e usually provided multiple variants of a particular monster. In some cases it was just a higher-level version of the same thing (Iron Gorgon and Storm Gorgon), but (particularly among humanoids) often they were differently "classed" monsters - e.g. goblin blackblade for the sneaky ones that stab you in the back, goblin warrior for the relatively straight-forward fighters/skirmishers, goblin sharpshooter for the archers, and goblin hexer for the magical support. Volo's Guide to Monsters helps out with this a little, but nowhere near enough.</p><p></p><p>3. Monsters that do cool stuff. A lot of 5e monsters are just big bags of hit points and damage. By comparison, most monsters in 4e at least had a little something extra - and in 13th age, almost all the monsters have something cool to do. Perhaps one does not need to go <em>that</em> far, but it would be cool with monsters with more abilities.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Staffan, post: 6980221, member: 907"] While I think 5e on the whole is a lot better than 4e, it is somewhat lacking in the monster department. There are three main things I think 4e did better with monsters: 1. Ramping up humanoids. In 5e, pretty much every natural humanoid monster is an appropriate monster for 1st level characters to fight. Bugbears, duergar, and thri-kreen top the humanoid pecking order at CR 1, and below those we have gnolls, svirfneblin, hobgoblins, lizardfolk, orcs, and sahuagin at CR 1/2, bullywugs, drow, goblins, grimlocks, kuo-toa, and troglodytes at 1/4, and kobolds and merfolk at 1/8. The only ones going beyond that are gith, lycanthropes, and quaggoths. In 4e, you had a progression of humanoids starting with kobolds and goblins at level 1-2, then moving up to orcs and hobgoblins at level 3-4, bugbears, gnolls, and lizardfolk at level 5-6, and shadar-kai and troglodytes at level 6-8. Sure, 4e had a different level scale than 5e does, but it would have been nice to have the humanoids spread out a big more over CR 1/4 to 5. 2. Variety in monsters. 4e usually provided multiple variants of a particular monster. In some cases it was just a higher-level version of the same thing (Iron Gorgon and Storm Gorgon), but (particularly among humanoids) often they were differently "classed" monsters - e.g. goblin blackblade for the sneaky ones that stab you in the back, goblin warrior for the relatively straight-forward fighters/skirmishers, goblin sharpshooter for the archers, and goblin hexer for the magical support. Volo's Guide to Monsters helps out with this a little, but nowhere near enough. 3. Monsters that do cool stuff. A lot of 5e monsters are just big bags of hit points and damage. By comparison, most monsters in 4e at least had a little something extra - and in 13th age, almost all the monsters have something cool to do. Perhaps one does not need to go [I]that[/I] far, but it would be cool with monsters with more abilities. [/QUOTE]
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