Applying 4e ideas to 3e

[Andor]

I confess I never spent much time Gming 3e. So I have little personal experience with the chores of GMing high lvl D&D.

However from what I've seen it boils down to a few core complaints.

A) HP = HD = High saves and BAB etc.
B) Stating up classed monsters in a PITA.
C) Statting up High lvl NPC is also a PITA.
D) Stat blocks.

Now 3e gives us the option of having monsters and PCs play by the same rules, and this is a truly wonderful option (IMHO), but it's not the only option present. I've got a few ideas and I wonder what people think of them...

1) "Meat Bonus" hit points. Just a big lump of arbitrarily assigned HP to reflect the fact that a Whale is hard to kill but may not need a higher will save than Elmuenster, or a BAB on par with Orcus.

2) Class templates. Make a few "lvl 5 wizard" and "lvl 3 Cleric" Templates that can be slapped on monsters quickly without all the paperwork.

3) Don't sweat the stat blocks. Seriously. Do you really need the Tarasque's Knowledge (Ballroom dancing) skill score? Assume max skill ranks in anything they should be good at (3 + HD + Stat). You need to know the full AC breakdown, stats, and what he can do in combat, the rest is window dressing. What are the PCs going to do, audit your NPCs? Eyeball the rest. If you're off by 1 or 2 it won't make Gary spin in his grave.

4) NPCs. Do as much as amuses you, fake the rest. You're the GM aren't you?

5) Combat cheat sheets. Unless you want to there is no need to go making things complex. Draw up a 4e style index card of the beastie with key powers listed each in it's own entry. The Bad guy's probably only going to take 4 ations before he dies. Why try to memorize all 25 abilities he has? Pick a few signature moves and leave the rest to the MM entry.

This thread was inspired by the "4e isn't for us" thread btw.

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

I've tried to do some of these. 4E crystallized some of the issues I have with 3.X, and I'm trying to apply those lessons to my 3.5 campaign.

1) "Meat Bonus" hit points. Just a big lump of arbitrarily assigned HP to reflect the fact that a Whale is hard to kill but may not need a higher will save than Elmuenster, or a BAB on par with Orcus.

This isn't so different from on of the "off the books" things that DM's have been doing for years - giving a monster max HP.

2) Class templates. Make a few "lvl 5 wizard" and "lvl 3 Cleric" Templates that can be slapped on monsters quickly without all the paperwork.

What I'm going to do is create "role" templates. This is most needed for Fey and undead warrior types - they have that annoying 1/2 HD BAB. The answer is simple; just give your Fey Knight a Soldier Template, change his BAB to 1/HD, and maybe a few other changes. I'm thinking I can create this as a template in E-Tools, which will make my prep easier.

3) Don't sweat the stat blocks. Seriously. Do you really need the Tarasque's Knowledge (Ballroom dancing) skill score? Assume max skill ranks in anything they should be good at (3 + HD + Stat). You need to know the full AC breakdown, stats, and what he can do in combat, the rest is window dressing. What are the PCs going to do, audit your NPCs? Eyeball the rest. If you're off by 1 or 2 it won't make Gary spin in his grave.

I try to keep the stat blocks as basic as I can. For simple minion-ish foes (the average sailor on a pirate ship, for example) I'll do a very old school stat line - for example Ftr 1/Rog 1, hp 16, AC 17 (leather armor), Atk shortsword +5 1d6+2, Tumble +5, Jump +5. I've condensed the Paizo style stat block down further so that it takes up less space as well.

5) Combat cheat sheets. Unless you want to there is no need to go making things complex. Draw up a 4e style index card of the beastie with key powers listed each in it's own entry. The Bad guy's probably only going to take 4 ations before he dies. Why try to memorize all 25 abilities he has? Pick a few signature moves and leave the rest to the MM entry.

I add this sort of thing after the stat block in my session notes.