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You are absolutely right! Defiant Mind should be Wisdom, and I'll take a look at the table errors.

Not to get offtopic, but I do have an upcoming post about dragons! And there are spellcasting variants of each dragon, some with quite high-level spells (though mostly not direct damage, since few spells can compete with a dragon's natural damage-dealing abilities). But more on that later, let's...

Yeah... I don't price out individual traits/features, for instance by saying that Petrifying Gaze is worth such and such an adjustment, since there are more traits/features than monsters. Instead, there are rules for determining how much damage or HP an effect is equivalent to, based on what...

We actually considered this option before we started writing the book! We thought about converting every caster to, basically, an "innate" caster with spells castable x/day instead of using spell slots. I think both approaches could work perfectly well. For a big, complex caster like a lich...

One of our goals with the Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition Monstrous Menagerie was to make enemy spellcasters less of a pain to run. With an updated stat block format, we've made it possible to run a complex battle without looking up spells in another book or online resource–all while working as...

Yep Morrus is right. In my first draft, I had a more precise trigger - it might have been the first time you roll a 6 on your lucky roll - but changed it to leave it more in the Narrator's hands. Maybe the Narrator plans to run a Minnesota Fats-style side plot at a time of their choosing instead...

From looking at the stat blocks, it doesn't look quite accurate that the spellcasting action only contains utility spells, or even that it's mostly utility spells. The war priest has flame strike, guardians of faith, hold person, and banishment as spells. Only one or two signature spells have...

I like the new format, from what I can see from squinting. Reducing the number of spell options by removing trap options is a good idea. Looking at the bard, I like how they replaced Shatter with a somewhat similar non-spell combat ability (Cacophany) that you don't have to look up in the PHB...

My belief is that there should be a continuum of monster complexity. At one end are the types of monsters that are likely to be character allies and minions. That's why you've seen some previews like the Hippogriff that aren't significantly more complex than the MM version: these monsters are...

Good ones Faolyn! I updated Traits. Also I removed the While Bloodied constraint on Mental Fuzz, since it loses it as soon as it uses legendary resistance. Legendary Resistance effects, like becoming sluggish, remain in effect until the creature takes a long rest (I've got a general rule in the...

For what it's worth, I agree with you on the o5e mummy lord and did my best to make the a5e version able to survive more than one round.

Yes, the dread knight should get a 2-attack multiattack (+1 as a bonus action)! Nice catch. It may not matter much because the dread knight will probably spend its first 3 turns using a special 1/day move and attacking with its sword as a bonus action, but if the fight drags out to round 4, it...

For you Stalker, it's a few months :) At some point we will not be able to make changes anymore but I'll be tinkering until then.

Hey! I'm the lead writer of the upcoming Level Up bestiary, the Monstrous Menagerie. We're looking for a handful of enthusiastic game masters to be part of a closed beta playtest of Level Up monsters. If you're the game master of a gaming group and have time to test a few monsters in the coming...

Yes and no. The monster book doesn't have a ton of new monster types (though it does have a few), but it has a ridiculous number of variants - mostly higher-powered versions of classic monsters - so the higher end of the CR scale is much more filled-in. And there are a handful of new conditions.

In another post, I talked about the updates we’re making to monster stat blocks in Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition. Today, I want to talk about the changes we’re making to the rest of the monster entry. RPG bestiaries generally accompany a monster’s game statistics with an essay about the...

Hi! I’m Paul Hughes, a lead developer on Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition. At blogofholding.com, I’ve done statistical analysis on the Monster Manual (5E Monster Manual on a Business Card), character class damage, monster Challenge Rating, treasure economy, and so on. We’re publishing a heroic...

You get the ability to dual wield with rapiers from a feat right? I went with no feats.

Yep, 2 shortswords. Without feats it seemed a bit better to me than hidey sniper.

Yeah, if anything my estimates far underestimate what an AoE character can do in the right circumstances. Fireball, for instance, has an insane range and area and can tag quite a few foes, especially with Sculpt Spell. I need to do separate analysis for different types of combats: the Big Boss...