Sortable Monster Manual index spreadsheet with built-in encounter calculator -- v1.2

[Aluvial]

v1.2 uploaded.

Wow, I really wished you had used my XP addition.... It really allowed me to sort on the fly, rather than have to hunt and peck through the list to find the "right" challenge....

Oh well....

Aluvial

 

[withak]

Wow, I really wished you had used my XP addition.... It really allowed me to sort on the fly, rather than have to hunt and peck through the list to find the "right" challenge....

Oh well....

Aluvial

Hm, I knew I was forgetting something. I'll add that in v.1.3.

I also got a request for being able to set party size to less than 4.

 

[Dacileva]

Great spreadsheet!

One thing I might suggest adding (I did this for my own copy of it) for future extensibility and individual customization:

I renamed the MM Entry column "Entry", added a column before that labeled "Source" (and fill with MM1 for everything here), then hid both of those plus Page, and added a "Reference" column concatenating those three. That way, I can extend it with other things, like keterys' and The Jester's creations/updates, or monsters published in Dragon or other books I want to use.

 

[soulcatcher78]

Fantastic! Thank you for sharing this with us.

 

[Aristotle]

First. Very cool resource. I wish I had a better grasp of Excel. A lot of the proposed enhancements to the encounter generator portion sound like added value. I look forward to seeing what ultimately gets added.

Great spreadsheet!
I renamed the MM Entry column "Entry", added a column before that labeled "Source" (and fill with MM1 for everything here), then hid both of those plus Page, and added a "Reference" column concatenating those three. That way, I can extend it with other things, like keterys' and The Jester's creations/updates, or monsters published in Dragon or other books I want to use.

I basically did the same. I definately intend to use monsters from magazines and future supplements. Might as well support them now.

I'm also looking at adding a similar set of fields for miniatures, or at least a notes area behind each entry; so I can track which mini I intend to use for each entry, how many I have, and which bag/bin it is stored in.

 

[jaldaen]

Thanks a bunch this is great!

 

[dammitbiscuit]

This is easily the most useful fan creation that made it into the Pick. Thank you very much for your hard work and error-checking - I haven't spotted one!

 

[itliaf]

Random Monster Generator

Hey Withak.

Great work on this archive. It should be really handy for all my game planning from here on out.

I used your original database to construct a random monster generator sheet. It uses the ratios for role and level ratios set out in the DMG on p 194, to match up role with level (say Artillery 14) and chooses a random monster that fits the criteria for each slot. I had to setup up an extra hidden column on the main page, and a monsters Elite and Leader tags are not considered. I also made the changes suggested by dacileva in order to accomodate new monsters.

As is, there are too many monsters in some places and too few in others to make the randomizer all that useful for constructing entire encounters. There are some simple mods that can fix this:
1. Filter the monster list down to monsters within a certain theme
2. Once you have a narrow themed list that fits your need, expand it by adding an Easy (level-2) Normal(level) and Hard (level+2) version of each monster. You can also double/triple monsters you think should be exceedingly common in your adventure site.

The file is in Excel 2007. It does rely on the randbetween function in one column, but i think this can be safely replaced with int(rand()). I honestly am not sure. Any Feedback would be great.

 

[pmbruner]

I look forward to testing your spreadsheet