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How much damage should OSR monsters do?
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<blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 6821865" data-attributes="member: 4937"><p>I think that there is a like monster to like monster consistency. I think there is also a scale of how threatening a monster is supposed to be. Remember, 1e did have something like CR in that monsters had a level from 1-10 that was supposed to correspond to the average depth of the dungeon the monster appeared on which in turn was supposed to correspond to the average level the PCs had obtained. </p><p></p><p>Now for OSR you might want to scale that out to a monster level of 1-15. Your calculation would then be something like <hit points>/<average expected PC damage per round> * <monster average expected damage based on some assumptions about THAC0>/<intended monster level> = <some constant>. </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>What is going on here is that giants, dragons, hydras, and certain devils and demons are 'end game content'. They have relatively high damage per hit die because they are intended to be of a relatively high monster level (what we'd now call CR). And in particular, keep in mind that dragon effective hit die is calculated much like golem effective hit die - divide hit points by 4.5. For example, an ancient red dragon with 10 HD and 80 hit points is effectively a 17HD monster (and explicitly in the rules saves as such). </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>I wouldn't split up the attacks. Probably the reason giants have a single attack is ease of running them. Giants are expected to be encountered in groups. If you split up the attacks, you are doubling the number of rolls the DMs are supposed to make. Dragons on the other hand are expected to be encountered alone (most of the time). So giving them the usual claw/claw/bite routine isn't a lot of burden.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Celebrim, post: 6821865, member: 4937"] I think that there is a like monster to like monster consistency. I think there is also a scale of how threatening a monster is supposed to be. Remember, 1e did have something like CR in that monsters had a level from 1-10 that was supposed to correspond to the average depth of the dungeon the monster appeared on which in turn was supposed to correspond to the average level the PCs had obtained. Now for OSR you might want to scale that out to a monster level of 1-15. Your calculation would then be something like <hit points>/<average expected PC damage per round> * <monster average expected damage based on some assumptions about THAC0>/<intended monster level> = <some constant>. What is going on here is that giants, dragons, hydras, and certain devils and demons are 'end game content'. They have relatively high damage per hit die because they are intended to be of a relatively high monster level (what we'd now call CR). And in particular, keep in mind that dragon effective hit die is calculated much like golem effective hit die - divide hit points by 4.5. For example, an ancient red dragon with 10 HD and 80 hit points is effectively a 17HD monster (and explicitly in the rules saves as such). I wouldn't split up the attacks. Probably the reason giants have a single attack is ease of running them. Giants are expected to be encountered in groups. If you split up the attacks, you are doubling the number of rolls the DMs are supposed to make. Dragons on the other hand are expected to be encountered alone (most of the time). So giving them the usual claw/claw/bite routine isn't a lot of burden. [/QUOTE]
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