Decreasing Monster Level

[zsebree]

When you decrease a monster in level do you also decrease it's initiative at all? For that matter what in the world do you do with initiative when creating and or tweaking monsters?

 

[Yaezakura]

Well, monsters get the Initiative like anyone else. 1/2 level + Dexterity Modifier. If you adjust a monster's level, it's initiative modifier will change as well.

 

[ForbidenMaster]

Well, monsters get the Initiative like anyone else. 1/2 level + Dexterity Modifier. If you adjust a monster's level, it's initiative modifier will change as well.

Not according to the DMG, but maybe they just left it out.

 

[zsebree]

Excellent! I was thinking along those lines but it didn't mention anything about it in any of the core books. Thank you )

 

[Yaezakura]

Not according to the DMG, but maybe they just left it out.

It does seem that Initiative was accidentally omitted from the monster editing/creation rules. But all you have to do to figure out how monster initiative works is look as any given monster. Initiative is one of the few things that works exactly the same for PCs and monsters.

 

[Starfox]

Since initiative improves by 1/2level, and all the other factors change by 1/1 level, I think they omitted it for simplicity. And I agree with them. This isn't 3.5 with monsters having derived attributes.

Simplicity is king.