I'm attempting to do this in my DMSGUILD products going forward, it dramatically increases the size of the statblock (even cutting out the non-combat spells).
D&D 5E How would you improve monsters?
- Thread starter Morrus
- Start date
any monster meant to be a solo should have "monster actions" or legendary actions or whatever you want to call them. something they can either do after a player's turn, or once per round, in addition to their normal action.
Monsters could be more unique. Burrowers should pull enemies into tunnels or whatnot. Big giants and trolls and such should knock enemies around. 5e monsters have very few unique powers, or things that make them memorable. I'm adding that kind of stuff into my products, because I find the idea that a strong monster picks you up and smashes you into walls or the ground memorable, compared to it hits you with its fist.
Every humanoid ancestry should have examples with melee, ranged, leader, and spellcaster types.
Art......give me art......for every monster.
If combat is really too slow for many tables, have the monsters to more damage on every attack, but have fewer hit points.
High level demons and devils should have magic weapons, otherwise they can't even hit their foes ......
Look at high level drow vs high level demons and devils, and ask yourself how arch devils or demon lords even survive....
Monsters could be more unique. Burrowers should pull enemies into tunnels or whatnot. Big giants and trolls and such should knock enemies around. 5e monsters have very few unique powers, or things that make them memorable. I'm adding that kind of stuff into my products, because I find the idea that a strong monster picks you up and smashes you into walls or the ground memorable, compared to it hits you with its fist.
Every humanoid ancestry should have examples with melee, ranged, leader, and spellcaster types.
Art......give me art......for every monster.
If combat is really too slow for many tables, have the monsters to more damage on every attack, but have fewer hit points.
High level demons and devils should have magic weapons, otherwise they can't even hit their foes ......
Look at high level drow vs high level demons and devils, and ask yourself how arch devils or demon lords even survive....
Reduce Hit Points. I may decide to just ignore the Con mod bonus and just used rolled hit dice.
Have them be proficient in at least 2 saves that make sense (with so magic available to PCs, monsters need better saves).
Consider some abilities of monsters that are detailed as actions, but don't need to be. I think hags are an example of this. Their shape change is an action. It should just be something they can do and still use their action to attack or cast.
Remove the save every round kickers from iconic monsters' iconic powers. Many monsters have key abilities that define them that end up being not only hard to land, but only a minor inconvenience when they can be just saved against.
Add multi-attack to more monsters especially ones that don't have it but should. For example, Ghouls should have at least multi-attack claw, bite.
Have them be proficient in at least 2 saves that make sense (with so magic available to PCs, monsters need better saves).
Consider some abilities of monsters that are detailed as actions, but don't need to be. I think hags are an example of this. Their shape change is an action. It should just be something they can do and still use their action to attack or cast.
Remove the save every round kickers from iconic monsters' iconic powers. Many monsters have key abilities that define them that end up being not only hard to land, but only a minor inconvenience when they can be just saved against.
Add multi-attack to more monsters especially ones that don't have it but should. For example, Ghouls should have at least multi-attack claw, bite.
Voadam
Legend
Do not radically change CRs, it was real annoying going from 3e to 3.5 and have base mummies increase in HD, gain +5 on their attacks, and go from CR 3 to 5 so they did not fit well when swapping in the new one while running an old module. 5e similarly annoyed me with their Spectre redesign as the low level incoroporeal undead instead of as the traditional top predator one from prior core MMs. It was great that they now finally had a core useable low level combat ghost, but it was terrible that it had a legacy name of something with a different world role.
I would want the monsters from a new alt MM to be useable in their existing roles in an existing module.
I feel Pathfinder did this well when adapting creatures from the 3.5 SRD into pathfinder, changing power levels they felt appropriate, but keeping the name and target CR the same. Their allip for example went from an ability drain to an ability damage ability to better fit the low CR, while outsiders like the succubus were beefed up to fit their higher CR and feel better tuned to their advertised CR power level.
I would want the monsters from a new alt MM to be useable in their existing roles in an existing module.
I feel Pathfinder did this well when adapting creatures from the 3.5 SRD into pathfinder, changing power levels they felt appropriate, but keeping the name and target CR the same. Their allip for example went from an ability drain to an ability damage ability to better fit the low CR, while outsiders like the succubus were beefed up to fit their higher CR and feel better tuned to their advertised CR power level.
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aco175
Legend
I do favor the 4e style of making spells more like powers than just a name. I would think that listing all the spell parameters would make the statblock unwieldy though. If you changed the name to make it more an 1/rest power you may loose some of the information you are looking for that the traditional description has. Although I never found it a problem in 4e. Fireball could become Ball of Fire 1/rest and work, but may need some range and damage context. Some casters could modify the blast or increase damage as they gain levels rather than follow traditional spell descriptions.
Vael
Legend
More monsters with more interesting tricks, and fewer spellcasters. Rewrite most monsters with spell-like abilities to have the spell in their stat-block, so I don't have to cross-reference. Add monster combat roles from 4e. Have tools for leveling up/down a monster in their writeup or somewhere in the Monster Manual.
Voadam
Legend
I would add my voice to including 4eisms.
1 Monster roles, either have templates or tune some monsters to better fill roles like brutes or skirmishers.
2 minions, elites, solos, either add simple templates or have some examples in the statblocks.
3 Clear theme power for humanoids.
4 More grid powers, 4e did a lot that have not been utilized much if at all in 5e.
1 Monster roles, either have templates or tune some monsters to better fill roles like brutes or skirmishers.
2 minions, elites, solos, either add simple templates or have some examples in the statblocks.
3 Clear theme power for humanoids.
4 More grid powers, 4e did a lot that have not been utilized much if at all in 5e.
Quickleaf
Legend
There are ways to mitigate the stat block bloat caused by in-line spell description, but they all require a compromise of one kind of another that deviates from what's being done in official products.
1. In an adventure heavy with spellcasters, you can have a curated "Spell Brief Index" which can be printed separately and referenced whenever one of those spellcasting NPCs/monsters uses a spell. For example, I've used this approach for an adventure filled with fire mages.
2. You can reduce the number of spells known and heavily shorten/annotate each spell description. However, in published products this may necessitate an introductory bit about "Reading Shorthand Spell Descriptions." This is my baseline when transposing spellcasting monsters for my home games; for example, I did this with Acererak's spell list in Tomb of Annihilation.
3. You can overhaul the design of spellcasting monsters in 4e style, focusing on 3-5 unique magic effects that drive home that NPC or monster's identity/theme. These can include certain spells, such as mirror image, written in shorthand. But they can also include merged effects, such as combining stinking cloud and darkness or arms of hadar to get "Darkening Cloud", then putting it on a recharge timer. The key with these is to denote them as spells with levels, for the purposes of being counterspelled (if that's important to you). For example, I just did this – in a very rough form – for an "enchantress" NPC in the game I'm running for my nephew.
I don't think any one of these is the perfect solution, but in my experience any of these 3 approaches is superior to the way the 5e Monster Manual is written in terms of ease-of-use and accessibility at the table. Flipping through the PHB or even DNDBeyond (when juggling multiple files/windows and internet lags) to find the right spell, then having to do it each round or multiple times a round, kind of sucks.
Weiley31
Legend
Class levels and Feats. Not to every single monster, but like more boss level or elite/champion type enemies. Dragons should be able to have Sorcerer levels or like have Elite Guards/Swordsman using the College of Sword's Flourishes to represent their increased focus on using swords/weapons.
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