3.5 Monster Manual Issues

[MerricB]

One thing concerns me about the new MM. I have not checked out all the monsters, but I know one monster that *really* seems to have been altered just to fit better as a miniature: the wyvern.

It has a space/reach of 10'/5'. I did a double take when I saw that. In 1st & 2nd edition, these creatures were 35' long. In 3.0, they were 30' long. In 3.5, they are 15' long. Their wingspan was 50' in all previous editions. Suddenly in 3.5 their wingspan is 20'.

Can anyone think of any reason to do this besides the miniature angle?

Yes.

Oh, you want a reason?

Partly it distinguishes wyverns from dragons - certainly a 35' wyvern is bigger than most dragons that the party will encounter.

The size is also an important factor in determining the Challenge Rating of an encounter. Bigger creatures are tougher. A 35' big wyvern implies a challenge rating of greater than 6, I guess.

Consider the Challenge Ratings of a Blue Dragon:
Small - 3
Medium - 4 to 6
Large - 8 to 11
Huge - 14 to 19.

Apart from that, it allows Wyverns to be encountered indoors more often.

Cheers!

 

[Destan]

3. I loved the combat tactics breakdown that Wizards advertised when they were pushing the new book. Why is it that so few of the monsters in the 3.5 MM have it?

Regarding combat tactics
I really can't think of a good reason why they didn't, indeed, include round-by-round tactics for many, many more creatures.

That's my largest (and pretty much - only) complaint with 3.5. I was led to believe, as it appears you were, that many of the creatures would have tactical breakdowns included in their descriptions.

Maybe some enterprising and veteran DM could throw something like that up on his/her homepage?

Regarding Wyverns:
I too didn't like the reduction in size, though I understand Merric's reasoning. One of my earliest 3E sessions featured a wyvern as the "big bad evil thing" the party faced at the culmination of twenty hours' worth o' gaming.

In my story hour, I have the wyvern hoisting a rider and his mount and carrying the hapless duo off to his mountainous ledge for lunch time. Now, I may have to engage in some revisionist history and change the rider into a tiny fey and the mount into a dragon fly.

Cheers,
Destan

 

[demiurge1138]

Something I noticed. The balor's listed Strength is 35. This makes sense, since all demons have very high strength, which tends to get higher as the demon's CR increases. But all of the damage is listed as if the Strength was 25. What gives?
I also dislike the deletion of the random slaadi mutations table.

Demiurge out.

 

[MerricB]

Balors had a 25 strength in 3E, it looks like they forgot to update the figures.

Other demon strength changes:
Dretch 10->12
Quasit - none
Succubus - none
Bebelith - none
Retriever 25->31
Vrock 19->23
Hezrou - none
Glabrezu 25 -> 31
Nalfeshee 23 -> 25
Marilith 21->29

It would make sense for the Balor to have a 35 strength (as the most powerful of the MM demons).

Something for the errata.

Cheers!

 

[d4]

Re: Re: 3.5 Monster Manual Issues

In my story hour, I have the wyvern hoisting a rider and his mount and carrying the hapless duo off to his mountainous ledge for lunch time. Now, I may have to engage in some revisionist history and change the rider into a tiny fey and the mount into a dragon fly.

you only need to advance a wyvern by 1 Hit Die to make it Huge.

 

[Derulbaskul]

Something I noticed. The balor's listed Strength is 35. This makes sense, since all demons have very high strength, which tends to get higher as the demon's CR increases. But all of the damage is listed as if the Strength was 25. What gives?(snip)

... and while that may be true, you have missed the most important point: the balor is FINALLY immune to fire.

And there was much rejoicing in the Land of the Semi-Autistic Obsessive Compulsive Arch-Pedants....

Cheers
D

 

[Destan]

Re: Re: Re: 3.5 Monster Manual Issues

you only need to advance a wyvern by 1 Hit Die to make it Huge.

Done!

 

[Pbartender]

2. Why is it that the lycanthrope stat modifiers are, for the most part, very different from the "revised" ones in Savage Species? SS changed their stats around (as well as the stats of the base animals) so that some of them (like the weretiger) weren't so grossly overpowered (+12 Strength?!), but the 3.5 MM happily ignored SS and went right back to the original stats. What's more, it makes all lycanthropes a mere +3 ECL, from the cool, but comparatively inoffensive werewolf to the walking monstrosities of death that are the werebear and weretiger.

Because they followed the example of Races of Faerun, not Savage Species.

As stated above, all the Lycanthropes have the same ECL, but you have to add in the HD of the appropriate animal to the character's levels. A werewolf, for example, will have two 'levels' of Animal.

 

[JohnRTroy]

One thing pleases me.

The Rakasha and the Nightshade no longer have "immune to spells of x level or lower" in their descriptions. For the nightshade, that was taken from Basic D&D (3rd Edition) and it never was a good fit, as spell level immunity was never really a good fit with (A)D&D. Both now have SR instead.

Wish they did that to the Will O' Wisp and golems. I have to wonder if both were given such immunities simply based on the small number of spells in the original game, rather than a need for them to be specifically anti-magic.

 

[DaveMage]

Yes.

Oh, you want a reason?

Partly it distinguishes wyverns from dragons - certainly a 35' wyvern is bigger than most dragons that the party will encounter.

The size is also an important factor in determining the Challenge Rating of an encounter. Bigger creatures are tougher. A 35' big wyvern implies a challenge rating of greater than 6, I guess.

Consider the Challenge Ratings of a Blue Dragon:
Small - 3
Medium - 4 to 6
Large - 8 to 11
Huge - 14 to 19.

Apart from that, it allows Wyverns to be encountered indoors more often.

Cheers!

Hmmm...I suppose that's possible. I don't suppose anyone knows the history of the wyvern? Is it a creature from myth, or was it an invention of Gygax (or other designer)?

I would have rather they left the creature's size alone, even if they had to tweak the ability scores. I mean, to change it from a 50' wingspan to a 20' wingspan seems a bit drastic, and really creates a different creature. Of course, I can always use the 3.0 version, so I probably will.

Now, rather than it sound like I'm just being negative, I do like most of the 3.5 changes I've seen. I would just hate to see monsters changed simply to make them more marketable as a miniature, so hopefully that is not the case.