Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Kraydak" data-source="post: 3734894" data-attributes="member: 12306">Monster or NPC creation?The main difference between 3ed and my suggestion is that in 3ed, the type HD have no special abilities linked to them.  So the special abilities (the hard part of monster design, basic stats are easy) are done ad hoc.  This is part of the reason why LA exists (and sucks).Now, both the design team and my suggestions differ not in the amount of choices made, but the order.  (remember, the fact that a goblin shaman and a goblin warrior and a goblin rogue are in the MM is a matter of MM inflation, and does not reflect on the design procedure).  I want the relationship of each HD to the abilities gained to be made clear.  This allows one to tie monster design and usage into the multiclassing system.  But the choices made in the design process are the *same*.  Its just that you *know* that the "large" size category came form the talent choice at lvl 3, the SLA blah came from the talent choice at lvl Y.  Because the choices are the same, the time is the same.Except, perhaps, that I'd like some more precision made.  In 3ed, facing a mage, you know that 1 good dispell magic will drop a lot of defenses.  Facing a fighter, you know you have good odds that sunder/disarm will bypass a lot of his feats.  Because the numbers have *provenance*, you can choose your tactics to match.  Does this matter for NPC really?  Well, what if your players succesfully negotiate with the goblins to jointly raid the kobolds.  Does the goblin shaman's AC include Mage Armor (or any other source for an armor bonus to AC)?  Can you help him by buffing him?  Can you hurt him by debuffing him?  Are there problems if you wait out the duration?  (I know that some of these questions are probably made moot in 4th, but other questions will arise).Of course, precision in these matters is also complexity.  Which makes design take longer.  Trade-offs...</blockquote>

Verification