DMG Excerpt: Customizing Monsters

[Lonely Tylenol]

Fair enough. But the War Devil entry says nothing about the + of the Trident, so if the PCs take it from him, how do we know that its +5 or +3 or whatever?

Assume it's equal to his magic threshold?

 

[Stogoe]

Except that the base level 15 monster doesn't actually have a + weapon at all. If it did, the PCs could take it and use it / sell it after defeating the creature.

If you're still stuck in the 3.x mindset, The Monster has an innate enhancement bonus to attacks. It's just that simple.


Oh, and the "Ogres and +3 greatclubs" example? Here's what it's really saying: "Think about why you're giving monsters magic weapons. Is it to make them better fighters? Then maybe you should just increase their level and make them tougher that way. Your players probably don't want to cart around half a dozen large +3 greatclubs (although, maybe they really do want that +18 teepee of shelter).

 

[Lonely Tylenol]

<Shudder> Never have liked messing with templates (after creating a whole forest full of fiendish critters that could be summoned) so I dont get your love.

Still I can imagine someone is working on ideas for a book of more involved templates now that the licensing issues have been (hopefully) sorted.

"Have plain vanilla mind flayers got you in a rut? Does your beholder need some extra tentacles? Do you ever say to yourself 'why can't a dire ape spit acid-glue?' Well, have we got the solution for you! Coming this fall: The Book of Involved Templates. Listen to the following testimonials from actual gamers like you:

"My evil druid was dull and lifeless until I started throwing the plant template on everything in the monster manual. Next week my PCs will fight plant aboleths, plant dopplegangers and plant Demogorgon!" -- Smedley P. Cruikshank

"My party tried to ambush the BBEG, but I had slapped the insectile template on him. Little did they know, four-armed is forewarned! Thanks, BoIT!" -- Mercedes Spengler

"With the gingerbread template, now the PCs can eat what they kill. And they can wash it down with monsters with the dairy template." -- Dagwood L. Sparrow

"Not only are there great monster templates in here, but you can also apply templates to an entire adventure. My favourite has got to be the fane template. You can revitalize your entire library." -- M. Kook

The Book of Involved Templates will be available in October, in PDF or 640-page hardcover, from PageVapor Publishing.

 

[Lonely Tylenol]

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].

Since the vampire lord is a NPC, the DM can add the desired number of vampire spawns without having to trudge through rules to do it. I'm probably a minority in thinking this, so there most likely is an ability for it, but I can't see the need for rules for something like that.

I'm with you there. The vampire lord can churn out enough vampire spawn to populate a dungeon with exactly as many spawn as I need him to have. If he were able to make any number other than what I need him to have, the rule would be useless. There is no reason to specify the number, because I'll just change it to "however many I need." A little note in the flavour text explaining how he accomplishes the transformation would be nice (does he bite them in a special way, feed them his blood, perform a dark ritual, or what?), because that might be a useful bit of info. But to arbitrarily limit him, and therefore me, to some number of spawn is the opposite of useful.

 

[Ingolf]

If you're still stuck in the 3.x mindset, The Monster has an innate enhancement bonus to attacks. It's just that simple.

This. This is the concept to get your brain around.

If all monsters of a given level X have an innate enhancement bonus Y, then picking up a +Z weapon will give that monster a net gain of (Z-Y).

Does it make "sense" in the simulationist mindset? No. On the other hand, why should it? You already know that PCs and NPC use different rules; this is just another place they differ. And here is the kicker - if you want to run a game where magic gear is de-emphasized and less important, you can with one simple tweak: give the PCs an innate enhancement bonus to their attacks and damage that's equal to what a monster of their level would get, and bang, Robert's your father's brother.

 

[Lonely Tylenol]

*Sigh*, I really wish it wasn't true, but not including there insults, I do agree. While I don't need hard rules, or even details for all the different types I would like a suggestion as to how fast/easy Undead Spawn in general could be pumped out in "normal" circumstances (and possibly some ecology?).

Where do you get the idea that you won't have any of this info? We haven't seen the fluff text for vampires. We have seen the template statblock. If a vampire could create spawn in combat, it would be in the statblock. The fact that this information is not in the statblock doesn't say anything about the vampire except that it can't create spawn in combat. I expect there will be some mention that they can create spawn, and maybe even some indication of how this can be accomplished, but I don't expect any kind of "2 HD/level" benchmark.

 

[HeinorNY]

And here is the kicker - if you want to run a game where magic gear is de-emphasized and less important, you can with one simple tweak: give the PCs an innate enhancement bonus to their attacks and damage that's equal to what a monster of their level would get, and bang, Robert's your father's brother.

Chris Simms mentioned in a post right here on EnWorld that it would be easier to just tweak with the monsters instead of PCs in order to come up with a low magic items game.

 

[Warbringer]

-sighs-

Now, take someone with tough, scaly, hide that has a better dispersive effect against blunt trauma and put plate mail on him and yeah, I CAN believe that stacks.

Take an iron golemn... put him in plate...now explain why it stacks...

I'm biased though... I've been ignoring armor stacking with natural armor since pre 3.5

 

[Warbringer]

Psychological? Maybe. But it keeps the player involved in the game. And that's a decided benefit.

And with faster game rounds he might even stay at the table

 

[Lizard]

I think the question is here is why they choose to repeat their already well known complaints ad nauseam, when its really not contributing to the discussion in any meaningful form.

Why do people vote for third parties? Silence==Consent.

I was really looking forward to templates and customization, only to find they're really stripped down. Right now, I'm starting to think the basic unit of DM Tinkering Fun in 4e is going to be the Encounter Group, not the monster.

It also occurs to me that a key point of 4e philosophy is that each monster is a very specific tool for a very specific job, and that modifying it is very much just a matter of extreme fine tuning. Compare to 3e, where you can take a lowly orc and via templates, class levels, and/or equipment, turn him into anything you want from a grunt warrior to a half-fiend vampiric sorceror weregoat. In 4e, you just say "Orc Vampiric Sorceror Weregoat", stat him up as a level 15 controller, and give him one 'vampirish' ability, one 'fiendish' ability, and one 'weregoat' ability and call him a new monster. You don't really vary creatures, you build them.