DMG Excerpt: Customizing Monsters

[Kzach]

Not sure if it's been mentioned before as I'm too tired right now to read through the entire thread.

It seems to me that they've made templates and monster scaling as simple and workable as possible to enable speedy game play.

I'm a big fan of this style of thinking as I *much* prefer to DM games on the fly, making stuff up as an interactive story with the players input. 3.x killed that for me not just by the complexity and comprehensiveness of the rules, but by the players *expectation* of that complexity and comprehensiveness.

The players could always tell if I was unprepared and it put me off DM'ing altogether given the staggering amount of preparation needed.

These rules, however, on paper seem to give me several tools with which I can easily and quickly adapt any monster to something a little different or more challenging on the fly.

Not only that, but it would seem I still maintain a fairly concrete understanding of the level of challenge I'd be creating, so I won't under or overwhelm the players.

Sweet.

 

[Khaalis]

It also seems to provide nice options to introduce tons of magical items, or none at all, in your campaign. Since most monsters don't rely on magical items, and having them won't change their stats much (or at all), this gives DMs lot more leeway.

I totally agree with more leeway. I am also liking the fact that we are seeing actual crunch to back up the fact that you CAN manage a game with no magic items. I personally like some magic, but hated the 3E need to have dozens of items per person. I don't want my D&D character looking like an MMO character having to worry about filling all my "gear slots" with appropriate magic doodads. If I want, I can have a world based on something like GRR Martin's Westeros where every "magic" (i.e. Valyrian) blade has a name and a history. Finding a magic item should mean something, and we can manage that now.

 

[Khaalis]

It seems to me that they've made templates and monster scaling as simple and workable as possible to enable speedy game play.

I'm a big fan of this style of thinking as I *much* prefer to DM games on the fly, making stuff up as an interactive story with the players input. 3.x killed that for me not just by the complexity and comprehensiveness of the rules, but by the players *expectation* of that complexity and comprehensiveness.

The players could always tell if I was unprepared and it put me off DM'ing altogether given the staggering amount of preparation needed.

I feel your pain on this. Our core group of friends that have been playing for (cut to not age myself) years are now scattered around the country. Once a year we actually take a D&D Vacation and go somewhere for a week and just hang out and run a mini-campaign of D&D for the whole week. Being the primary DM, at least I always get told I'm running... hmm... Anyway, as the primary DM, I have t spend months preparing enough material for a game of this style because of the pain the 3E system puts you through for prep time.

The new tools and system seem like they will be much more "on the fly" friendly, and this alone is probably The Biggest selling point for 4E for me. If its even half as hard as 3E, I'm golden.

 

[Lizard]

One thing I'm not entirely sure about:



So, I can't take an orc beyond 5 levels up? No more 15th level orc barbarians? Or, rather, these rules don't work very well outside of that fairly narrow band of 5 up or down?

I'm not sure if I'm all that happy about that.

Or, am I missing something vital?

Just start with a base 15th level orc. Since monsters no longer follow the same rules as characters, you can just say "This is an orc WarRager", stat him up as a 15th level Brute, then apply the modifiers.

 

[vagabundo]

Who says anything about sunlight no longer killing vampires?

This is the vampire lord we're talking about, he could also walk in dayligh in 3.x, the normal vampires have to hide from the sun

I though it was mentioned that the sun is Radiant 0, so the Vamp Lord will get 10 Radiant damage per round.

Just start with a base 15th level orc. Since monsters no longer follow the same rules as characters, you can just say "This is an orc WarRager", stat him up as a 15th level Brute, then apply the modifiers.

Or take the basic orc and slap the Class template on him.

Personally I'll probably avoid class levels for all monsters and most NPCs, my guys never see the stats, they only want a fun and interesting encounter.

 

[ShockMeSane]

Just thought I'd toss in a comment about how amazing this system is for DM's. As someone who DM's most of my groups D&D games, I am freaking ecstatic about how much easier it is going to be to tweak monsters that I might want to use and still provide a good challenge for my group.

I'm sure someone out there thinks this is ridiculously "gamist", and just loves either running only level appropriate monsters or spending 6 hours of prep pre-genning something that will be dead in 10 minutes of game time. Thank god that person doesn't play with me.

 

[ShockMeSane]

I though it was mentioned that the sun is Radiant 0, so the Vamp Lord will get 10 Radiant damage per round.

While this would be extremely easy to houserule in, I doubt that it is actually the case, as many of the Undead we have seen have radiant damage vulnerability. I find it pretty unlikely that a Bodak will be taking radiant damage from being exposed to sunlight.

In any case, it isn't like it's something you can't just rule on the fly if you feel the need for your Vampires to get face-melted by sunlight.

 

[Derren]

Ok.

-> Gamist rules which are completely unlogical

Magic Threashold makes no sense. Why do high level monsters not benefit from magical weapons? One explanation is that their magical "monsterousness" overpowers the magical attributes of the weapon. That works for monsters but it is very likely that NPCs will be build with the same system and I can't think a reason why a human level 20 NPC can't benefit from a +2 Weapon.
It solves that PCs get piles of magical weapons but in a very clunky way.

->Fluff text and game rules mismatch

Vampire lords create armies of vampire spawns......how? Certainly not through their blood drain ability.
And I fail to see how the Lich template is in any way geared for arcane casters considering that a fighter with a /encounter ability also benefits from it (but that is more of a case of the Lich being bland instead of flavor text mismatch)

 

[Guild Goodknife]

I too love the simplicity of the new advancement rules. When i DMed 3.5 i never bothered to use the actual rules for advancement they were just too cumbersome and time consuming, so i just made stuff up when i wanted a tougher monster. This time i can actually see myself using the rules

 

[Lizard]

So templates no longer change creatures radically, just make them tougher? That's disappointing. My favorite third party book was Advanced Bestiary by Green Ronin; it contains a few dozen Very Cool templates which did all sorts of things. The Shadow Creature template from Lords of Madness has been used a lot in my games, as well.

No more shadow bandits, half-plant wolves, or elder eidolon ogres, it seems... (all of which have featured in my campaign). I suppose the logic is that monster creation is now so easy that making same-level or slightly-stronger monsters is best done from scratch.

Does the Aura Of Badassitude (tm) apply to PCs? If a 15th level PC uses a +1 sword, does he get no benefit from it?

Regeneration -- so there's no more tracking different damage types. This means that if you keep hitting the lich with radiant damage -- even a smidgen -- you will kill it via normal damage, but if it can acoid it for a turn, it begins regenerating. I can see this; it makes a sort of sense. Keep hitting something with what its vulnerable to and its weaker overall, but if it gets away from that damage source, its powers come back. A lot like Kryptonite.

As I had earlier worried, the lack of any breakdown of natural vs. artificial armor bonus means Armor Is Wonky.

The lich's spellmaster ability doesn't seem limited to 'magical' encounter powers. I like the necrotic ability. Poor Xykon, though, will mourn the loss of his paralyzing touch.

The Vampire Lord's healing is not limited by surges; it can keep doing it all day. And some saves are tougher than others. No long-term control, though; the Vampire "Lord" is going to have to re-dominate even his weakest servant, who will have a 40% change/round of breaking out of it.

If you add a template to an already elite monster, does it become a solo? What happens if you add one to a solo? Does it raise its level? (They mention beholder liches, and beholders are solo monsters)

EDIT: Just noticed, vampire lords have to be humanoid? No more vampire dragons? Or winter wolves? Why? (And vampires don't seem to be able to create spawn any more...well, the flavor text says they can, as well as having 'armies of dominated spawn', but the dominate power gets a round-by-round save and explitly applies to only one creature at a time. How's that let you make 'armies'?)