D&D 5E Reskinning monsters, how much are DMs using it to bulk up monster options?

[trentonjoe]

Uh why not use the actual Lizard Man King and Orc Stat blocks?

Two different reasons.

I didn't use the Lizard Man King because I wanted to use a DRAGON and all the special abilities associated with it (breath weapon, lair effects, etc) without using a dragon. I wanted to use the mechanics of the dragons without the "fluff" associated with it.
That's also why I made a dinosaur a cave troll. I wanted to use the STOMP ability.

I didn't use the Orcs because I wanted some variety. It was a raiding party and it had 4 or 5 different low level creatures. I didn't want them to add be the same so I just reskinned the other monsters as an orc. Some of the "orcs" had AC 15 some had 12, some used man catchers, some had axes, some had 20 hit points, some has 11, some had the ability to disarm, some didn't. Variety is the spice of combat

I also ran a combat with two "ice elementals". One was a water elemental and the other was an air elemental. Two similar monsters with slightly different stats and abilities.

 

[trentonjoe]

I also use it for speed when unprepared for something. I use Ogres for almost anything that is big and strong.

Need a Orc leader, I use the Ogre stats. Need some wild monster, fabled lion of Fretville? USe the ogre stat. Quick and easy if unprepared.

 

[the Jester]

The only one I can think of was reskinning an orc eye of Gruumsh as the Hacker, a half-orc slaver; I did tack on the half-orc racial "I'm still at 1 hp nyaa nyaa" ability on to him, though.

Generally speaking, I'm too much of an inveterate monster converter to reskin when I could happily add yet another monster to my list of conversions instead. I've done the giant cave cricket, which someone mentioned upthread, for instance. (Heck, I've got 169 pages of monsters converted in an OpenOffice document, including my favorite pics of the creatures in question!)

 

[Joe Liker]

I reskin monsters all the time in every campaign I run. No Monster Manual could ever provide the variety and exact specifications I often require. The game I'm running now is not a standard fantasy world, so a majority of my monsters need at least a small tweak in appearance if not abilities.

So, I don't like merely swapping out the name and appearance of a monster while using the exact same mechanics. That said, I often practice what you might call "re-fleshing," where I take Monster X as a baseline and use it to create Monster Y with similar stats and comparable-but-not-identical mechanics. For instance, I might use a fire giant as the model for a half-ogre warlord; roughly similar hit points, attacks, and average damage, but with damage dice appropriate to the warlord's weapons and fire immunity replaced with some other middling-useful immunity or resistance. I expect to do a fair bit of that when I resume DMing 5E.

To me, this is part of the reskinning process. I don't even see the point in just throwing a zombie-shaped ogre at the party if I'm not going to give it some zombielike powers. Sure, there are some (I don't want to say "lazy") DMs who would do that, but I think for the most part when people say "reskin," they probably mean "reskin and adapt."

 

[trentonjoe]

I think for the most part when people say "reskin," they probably mean "reskin and adapt."

Absolutely. I love the Cave Fisher but if I want a tougher version and make it CR 4ish, I take a troll, remove the regen, add the filament attack, adjust some DC, give it a climb speed and done.

 

[Shiroiken]

Why? Just curious.

On the player side of things I detest it, because almost every time it's something a player thinks is "kewl" that everyone else thinks is "stupid." This isn't always the case, and I've managed to reskin a few concepts myself as player, but I worked hard with the DM to make these ideas work within the style and theme of the game. Usually when I've done it or allowed others to do it in my game, was when the base flavor didn't fit the style and theme and needed to be changed.

On the DM side of things, I find it to be lazy and unimaginative. Monsters are the only thing I've found it to be worthwhile for, and even then I find that unless you find a near match (such as my example of the blood hawk/giant raven), you end up having to make so many tweaks that you might as well have just made the monster yourself.

I can give a great example of reskin failure:
DM wants to run a 4E campaign using only orcs for enemies. For the most part, this works well until we hit about level 7 (IIRC). Suddenly there are not good options of humanoid monsters in our level range (MM1 only), so he decides to use non-humans and reskin as needed. This worked well until we faced the orcs using web-slinging crossbows (spiders). Not only was the idea ludicrous, but he had no excuse as to why we couldn't take the crossbows after the battle and use them ourselves. He "explained" it as the orcs having run out of ammo EXACTLY when we killed them. Even he admitted afterwards that it was a bad idea, and should have just made his own Lv 7 orcs.

 

[Mouseferatu]

Absolutely none of those problems, though, have anything to do with the notion of reskinning itself, and everything to do with the DMs or players in question doing it poorly. Any creative endeavor is bad if done poorly.

 

[Shiroiken]

If you can use it to save time without compromising the game, it works fine. IME, however, you either spend just as much time (more or less) or you half-ass the job. YMMV.

 

[trentonjoe]

we faced the orcs using web-slinging crossbows (spiders). Not only was the idea ludicrous, but he had no excuse as to why we couldn't take the crossbows after the battle and use them ourselves. He "explained" it as the orcs having run out of ammo EXACTLY when we killed them. Even he admitted afterwards that it was a bad idea, and should have just made his own Lv 7 orcs.

I actually think this is a great idea. If someone did that to me I would be impressed!

Different Strokes Baby!

 

[travathian]

I find using feats out of the PHB works well. Someone earlier mentioned converting a fire giant into something else. Remove the fire resistance and give it a feat or two from the PHB, change appearance, bam, done. Charger, grappler, martial adept, magic initiate, mobile, savage attacker, sentinel, and sharp shooter are all great choices. Likewise, some of the class abilities from the martial classes in the PHB can mimic many abilities. And some of these can be easily adapted to monsters, like sharp shooter not using a bow, and instead is applied to a venomous spitting attack. Your monster has a couple extra arms? Trying to make a B'rohg? Start with an Ogre or Hill Giant, slap on those extra arms and give it the grappler feat.

Coming up with unique mechanisms for every single monster is a significant time commitment. Reskinning can be done quick, easy, and believably with a little practice.