D&D 5E How would you improve monsters?

[Morrus]

You're given carte blanche to redo the Monster Manual from scratch, with the caveat that you have to keep the same monsters.

What do you do? What changes do you make?

 

[Zardnaar]

Easiest fix is lower the challenge ratings. Short of that total rewrites. By level 12 or so you can more or less steamroll everything that's vaguely fair RAW.

 

[Delazar]

No more "spells" in their stats block. I hate to have to reference another book, I want all the info already there and ready. And a small "tactics" section, with suggestions on how to use a monsters abilities.

 

[Minigiant]

1. Organize them by type
2. Then alphabetically
3. Then figure out where I have major CR gaps
4. Add new monsters variants and environmental hazards to fill some gaps
5. Include some the quirks and focuses on social interaction with major intelligent species.

 

[DEFCON 1]

Each monster should have 2 to 4 additional special abilities over what they already have, especially ones that occasionally make use of their Bonus action and Reaction.

A monster whose entire Action section is just a melee weapon/natural weapon and perhaps a ranged weapon needs to have more things to do. A 3rd level Battlemaster has an entire platter of maneuvers they have access to... monsters should at minimum have a couple of those in their tool kit as well.

 

[Tonguez]

I’d have an Alphabetic Index but have the write ups be grouped by Habitat and/or Type. I’d also have some tactical actions in the write ups (lair actions for all monsters?) and also include a Morale mechanic that presumes ‘Run away’ as the default for sentient creatures.

I also liked the ‘Young Adventurers Guide to Monsters’ inclusion of tactical Do’s and Dont’s (I recall the Goblin Do including: Do Target the Leaders because Goblins are cowardly and will run away if the leader dies)

 

[Crimson Longinus]

Each monster should have 2 to 4 additional special abilities over what they already have, especially ones that occasionally make use of their Bonus action and Reaction.

A monster whose entire Action section is just a melee weapon/natural weapon and perhaps a ranged weapon needs to have more things to do. A 3rd level Battlemaster has an entire platter of maneuvers they have access to... monsters should at minimum have a couple of those in their tool kit as well.

Yes, this. Well, maybe not all, it is fine for monsters that tend to appear in large groups to be pretty simple, but more 'elite' monsters definitely.

I think this is one of the things I feel 4e did better. Steal some of that stuff.

 

[DEFCON 1]

Yes, this. Well, maybe not all, it is fine for monsters that tend to appear in large groups to be pretty simple, but more 'elite' monsters definitely.

I think this is one of the things I feel 4e did better. Steal some of that stuff.

Matt Colville's 'Action-Oriented Monsters' does a lot of what I think would help out. Only problem is he hasn't re-written the Monster Manual adding his design views to all the creatures yet.

 

[Helldritch]

I would add a few special attacks/powers to all existing monsters. Some of the stats are not really well thought.
Example:" The veteran is using a long sword without a shield... put a shield on that arm and here you go. Or give him a great sword. Having NPCs with suboptimal choices is kind of meh...

Same with dragons. We've had spell casting dragons as default like almost forever. They should have these as the default and not be a "variant". Outsiders lacks a lot of their traditional resistances and powers. A few more would not hurt them either.

I understand that they wanted to keep monsters as bare bones as possible. But at this point, it is not what I wanted. At the same time, the HP bloat is forcing this issue as some monsters with the HP they have right now would be really swingy if the had more different powers... 5ed went on the safe side I guess.

 

[Dragonsbane]

In my game we do this:
1) All monsters have 2 good saves, perhaps 3 if high CR
2) All monsters have some sort of bonus action and reaction available to help against player action economy
3) Some monsters have more standardized resistances, ie all undead have the same resistances, usually more than listed, as some were left out
4) Intelligent monsters, some have things like potions or minor items (for players to find, possibly. no "chests" in my games to loot, almost ever)

Also, although I am not qualified to figure it out, CR system really needs some serious work