Are Monster templates necessary?

[Bagpuss]

Here are the Prerequisites...

"Prerequisites: Living creature, level 11, Charisma 13"

Reading it I can see the reason behind the level requirement-

You don't want a heroic monster doing "20 ongoing psychic damage" for example. Because it will finish of the party in short order.

Also the Charisma requirement is because all it's attack powers are calculated on Cha. IE: "2d6 + Charisma modifier" If it had a negative modifier then it wouldn't be a credible threat. I suppose you could put it on any creature as long as you increased it's Cha to a positive modifier.

 

[Venport]

I can totally see them being used for new players or maybe even as a quick change to a monster. I guess when i was playing 3e i found templates a very cool way to change up a monster, the requirements felt like they made since, and hours of work went into each monster.

Now with 4e I find that it's so easy to just change a monster that a template does not feel needed as it did in 3e. But once again I do see a few reasons why they are handy to have around.

@bagpuss: Sure the reason this template has a level requirement is for balance. However with a few charts out of the DM tool box you can make sure your DM is in a good range for your PCs and just add a new power to the monster and as for the cha requirement. If you want it to do 2d6+4 psi dmg, (for example) i don’t care what it’s cha score is, give it 2d6+4 psi dmg. With out ability score dmg in 4e having dmg based on ability scores seems not all that needed.

All said you wont find me using a template in my games but you might find me pulling ideas out of templates for my monsters.

 

[Venport]

If I had my way, all monsters would be race templates to be stretched over a handful of core roles, with a level template and a "theme" template attached.

Take the mind flayer template, apply it to the lurker role, plug in a level template so that it matches your players, and for giggles apply the "Deciple of Fire" Theme for an elemental power that connects it to the other denizens of the lava fields.

Of course, I do understand that ready-made monsters are more useful to beginner DM's, but it would be nice if I didn't have to reverse engineer all the monsters I want to change.

This would be great, and as another posted said it does sound like somthing that would be great in the DMG2. I really love how you can do this now for the most part. just by adding racial powers and bonues to your creatures.