Essentials and monsters

[Nathal]

Could somebody enlighten me on what hanged have been made to monsters in general, as with MM3, that will likely be integrated into the essentials line? I played a bit of 4E, and noted monster HP seemed higher than in past editions. So what has changed? Oh, and for clarification, I was attempting to run a one player and one DM game without a whole lot of supporting NPCS, so I may have noticed the high HPS more than others.

Anyway, I'm hoping the Essentials line is a bit friendlier to "solo PC + DM play" (my understanding is that 4E highlights team play and group characteristics a little more than in the past).

 

[mach1.9pants]

I wonder if any one knows of a link to the different 'design philosophy' of monster of MM3 on, not just stat blocks. Was there an article in DDi I missed?

You are right 4E is totally aimed at group play, I have 2 players and they played 2 PCs each.. not ideal, slows play and is not so good for RP.

As to HP they seem the same lvl 4 Skrm: 55HP and lvl 8 soldier 80 vs 87 from 2 random picks

 

[Tony Vargas]

Yes, 4e monsters have high hps - and virtually no healing - relative to PCs. They also didn't do a lot of damage compared to PCs, at first.

One major change in the MM3 is supposedly that the monsters hit harder.

In the MM2, IIRC, elite and solo monsters were given slightly lower defenses, and monsters in general were given less extreme spreads between their highest and lowest defenses. Could be mis-remembering that...

 

[mkill]

Could somebody enlighten me on what hanged have been made to monsters in general, as with MM3, that will likely be integrated into the essentials line?

As for MM3, the main changes were in the stat block format. They also increased the damage output of higher-level monsters somewhat. As for how far this will effect monsters in the Essentials line, nobody knows because we haven't seen any stats yet.

What we do know, however, is, that Essentials PCs and PHB PCs are supposed to be compatible, and they can play in the same group. As that group could face either MM or Essentials monsters, their power level is probably similar. I assume the Essentials monsters will be more simple, so they are easier to handle for beginner DMs.

I played a bit of 4E, and noted monster HP seemed higher than in past editions.

Well, first of all, you can't really compare the stats of a 3rd edition monster and a 4th edition monster directly. One is designed to fight 3rd edition PCs, the other is designed to fight 4th edition PCs.
The whole basic maths, and many design assumptions changed.

I'm hoping the Essentials line is a bit friendlier to "solo PC + DM play" (my understanding is that 4E highlights team play and group characteristics a little more than in the past).

4th edition isn't really made for solo PCs. It's possible, sure, but not as much fun if you ask me. You're better off inviting more players to the game (or using 3rd edition).
I can't say whether this changes with the Essentials series (I don't work at WotC so I can't see the game before it's in the stores), but I assume it will be the same.

 

[Dire Bare]

The only thing we really know is that the Essentials monsters will be new builds of existing monsters. It's reasonable to infer that they will take advantage of changes in design philosophy that we've seen in MM2 and MM3. It also seems reasonable to infer (IMO) that while the new builds don't invalidate earlier monster builds, they do serve the same purpose as the monsters in MM1 . . . monsters for beginning players/DMs.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

Low level monsters have about 5/4 hp of a player, i.e.: second wind factored in, so the DM can run them more easy!

The design philosophy for MM3 monsters can be found in the July update:
the result of those changes seems to be that a Level + 0 encounter is quite challenging and should be the standard, instead of level +2. This results in less hp/lower defense/ higher damage.

Also in my opinion it is much more intuitive, that a Level +0 encounter is the average difficulty (hard but manageable, even for a beginner, not boring because of high hp/low damage combination).