DMG Excerpt: Customizing Monsters

[Grimstaff]

Worn armor, such as a suit of chainmail, and natural armor, such as an insect’s carapace or a dragon’s thick scales, do not stack.

Yay!

Hope this is true for PCs, too!

(Stacking armor and natural armor was one of my pet peeves from 3.5)

 

[Lizard]

Do we really need rules for how a vampire lord creates vampire spawn? Sure, that they can do it is important to know, but hard rules? I can't see what it adds to the game to know that a vampire lord can create level/2 vampire spawns per night by using it's ability Create Vampire Spawn [ritual].

Yes, it does matter.

Can the vampire 'spawn' an entire town in a night? Or one person a year? The rate of spawn creation -- how fast, how often, how many -- tells you how fast vampires can spread themselves. How big a threat they are. What kind of culture they're likely to have. If spawn are disposable nonentities or precious children. Etc, etc, etc.

Can a DM change all this at will? Sure. But it's good to have an "official" baseline. (Given the way in which they've cranked the forced fluff up to previously unheard of levels, it's rather odd that USEFUL fluff is being left out. But, as others have said, it might be in the full description. The rule seems to be that anything long-term is a Ritual.)

 

[Plane Sailing]

Do we really need rules for how a vampire lord creates vampire spawn? Sure, that they can do it is important to know, but hard rules? I can't see what it adds to the game to know that a vampire lord can create level/2 vampire spawns per night by using it's ability Create Vampire Spawn [ritual].

It is also possible that the rules might be under Vampire Spawn, something like "A vampire spawn is created when a vampire kills someone with its blood drain" or something similar.

 

[AllisterH]

Um, didn't the Bodak entry from the actual MM that was on display at DDXP list that the creation was a Ritual?

I think Lizard is right in that anything LONG_TERM, the default is that it is a ritual.

 

[Lizard]

Oh my god...i'd never thought i'd say this but... Derren has a valid point! The lich template sure seems a bit broad.
Edit: I just checked the old 3.5 Lich template in the SRD and, well, looking back it doesn't appear to be specifically geared for arcane caster either.

Each lich must make its own phylactery, which requires the Craft Wondrous Item feat. The character must be able to cast spells and have a caster level of 11th or higher. The phylactery costs 120,000 gp and 4,800 XP to create and has a caster level equal to that of its creator at the time of creation.

Not ARCANE caster, but caster. A main BBEG in my current game is a druid lich.
The 4e lich template, applied to a non-caster, is pretty useful -- necrotic aura and recharge on any encounter powers. Convert "Any" attack power to necrotic -- give it to a high-level archer-type and have him literally rain down death. Or a stone giant lich hurling 'necrotic boulders'. That's pretty cool, actually.

 

[med stud]

Yes, it does matter.

Can the vampire 'spawn' an entire town in a night? Or one person a year? The rate of spawn creation -- how fast, how often, how many -- tells you how fast vampires can spread themselves. How big a threat they are. What kind of culture they're likely to have. If spawn are disposable nonentities or precious children. Etc, etc, etc.

Can a DM change all this at will? Sure. But it's good to have an "official" baseline. (Given the way in which they've cranked the forced fluff up to previously unheard of levels, it's rather odd that USEFUL fluff is being left out. But, as others have said, it might be in the full description. The rule seems to be that anything long-term is a Ritual.)

Why is an official baseline needed? I'm not arguing for the sake of arguing, I can't see the need for official rules when it comes to how many vampire spawns that can be created. I've tried to think of a situation where I would wish I had the spawning rate of vampires, but I just can't think of any such situation. Vampire lords can create vampire spawns. That's everything I need to know.

 

[vagabundo]

Why is an official baseline needed? I'm not arguing for the sake of arguing, I can't see the need for official rules when it comes to how many vampire spawns that can be created. I've tried to think of a situation where I would wish I had the spawning rate of vampires, but I just can't think of any such situation. Vampire lords can create vampire spawns. That's everything I need to know.

It is a little bit of a hole in the rules. It could be something like Vampire Spawn are created however the DM wishes, but that is a little lazy. Give something sensical and let DMs change it if the wish, is the ideal.

 

[Lizard]

Why is an official baseline needed? I'm not arguing for the sake of arguing, I can't see the need for official rules when it comes to how many vampire spawns that can be created. I've tried to think of a situation where I would wish I had the spawning rate of vampires, but I just can't think of any such situation. Vampire lords can create vampire spawns. That's everything I need to know.

I've already told you -- when working out exactly how dangerous/prevalent vampires are, when building their culture, etc.

If a beloved NPC is captured by a vampire, do the PCs need to rush madly to save him from becoming one of the Undead, or do they know they have a week until the ghastly ritual is complete?

If WOTC (or a third party) publishes a module based on the idea a vampire can turn an entire village into his loyal slaves overnight, does this fit with your campaign where a vampire can only control Int bonus servants?

The difference in what the world will be like between "Vampires create spawn every time they feed, unless they deliberately stop the process" and "Vampires must spend a month of time and sacrifice a hit point permanently to creat spawn" is immense. In the former, a hungry vampire can fill the streets with abandoned, useless, ravening, monsters in a matter of days as the plague spreads. In the latter, a vampire will lure and seduce a special, perfect, target as the blessed recipient of the gift of eternal life. There's lots of other options, too, and each one changes the world -- or at least how vampires fit into it.

It's fine to change things to fit your campaign, but there needs to be a baseline to work from. I don't understand why people love fluff that's non-essential and intrusive (like the entire giant/dwarf backstory) but see no need for definitions of actual game mechanics.

Fluff is easy. Mechanics are hard. I expect developers to do the hard stuff.

 

[med stud]

The 4e lich template, applied to a non-caster, is pretty useful -- necrotic aura and recharge on any encounter powers. Convert "Any" attack power to necrotic -- give it to a high-level archer-type and have him literally rain down death. Or a stone giant lich hurling 'necrotic boulders'. That's pretty cool, actually.

I thought the same thing, but with a fighter. You could have a character like witch king of Angmar without the magic; a sword that is wreathed by cold flames, "immune" (by regeneration more or less) to normal weapons and so on.

 

[Derren]

I thought the same thing, but with a fighter. You could have a character like witch king of Angmar without the magic; a sword that is wreathed by cold flames, "immune" (by regeneration more or less) to normal weapons and so on.

You know that there is also a Death Knight template?