D&D 5E How would you improve monsters?

[Laurefindel]

I like 5e monster design, but I agree that there is only so many way you can describe AC 13, 21hp, +4 to hit for 1d6+2. Monsters in the MM feel too same-y.

Orcs, goblins, bugbears, and hobgoblins have their gimmick ability, and their "boss" have yet another one. That's the way to go, and I wish all creatures had one. Basic, elite, and leader options for humanoids would be my preference, each introducing a new gimmick based on the creature's concept.

Oh, and I wish monsters had more area-of-effect attacks, like i don't know, a giant's stomp? A griffon's wing slap with a push/prone rider? A bear rush?

Actually, I wish monsters had more tools to counter PC's magic than being forced to include NPC spellcasters in most encounters...

 

[Bacon Bits]

I think the biggest issue I have is with the organization of NPCs. I'd like NPCs every 3 HD or so and have them grouped together. Like I want Acolyte and Priest to kind of be together. It's pretty frustrating that NPCs are across multiple books. I think there needs to be a better way to make arbitrary NPCs in general. I get why it's hard because there's both a quality dial (low stats, average stats, high stats) and a class (martial, divine caster, arcane caster) and a role (tank, sneak, ranged, support, blasting, etc.) and a level (1 HD, 3 HD, 6 HD, 9 HD, etc.) and a race/ancestry (with benefits from a different part of the book).

Otherwise, I'm a fan of:

1. Reintroducing 4e minions. What I've done is used low CR creatures (1/8), given them 1 hp, and then said they always have disadvantage and can't gain advantage. Just complete trash mobs.
2. Better rules options for running elite and solo monsters. Legendary actions are a good start, but they feel a little half-baked. I really like action-oriented design for monsters that are meant to be prominent encounters. I do not think every monster should be this way, but I think a lot more of them should be. I'd like a toolkit for doing that.
3. Eliminating spell blocks from most NPCs. They're miserable as a DM and the spell selection is always terrible. The default lich spell list has like 10 blaster spells and no utility. It's awful. Every monster should have two modes: the "This is an epic monster that will need to have full stats for the next 12 sessions" and "this thing is going to live for about 30 seconds of in-game time just give me some abilities to use oh my god don't make me read a spell description."

In general, I want to have stuff I can farm for ideas so that I can feel more comfortable retooling monsters as I want.

I want to just be able to pull the type of NPC I want for any situation I want them, but they all take a moment of retooling. It's the one thing that I really want a digital solution for to combine the NPCs into a stat block based on the 5-6 things I pick. Like in my head I think, "Ok, they're fighting hobgoblins, I want 2 hobgoblin average martials, an average hobgoblin sneak, an elite hobgoblin blaster, and then several goblin mooks at minimal CR." There's my encounter, now I just want to pull those stat blocks easily. 4e was built to do this, and while there's a lot that I didn't like about 4e I really miss how well put together the monsters were. I didn't like that the game just took the same 5-6 monsters for each race and scaled them from level 1 to level 30 across like four books, but other than that I thought it was great.

 

[Mistwell]

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?

Decrease hit points, increase AC, add additional interesting abilities to each which is more in line with their theme, add more lairs with lair actions, and more legendary templates for solos. I'd also take a harder look at increasing their saves, particularly wisdom and dexterity saves.

 

[clearstream]

Decrease hit points, increase AC, add additional interesting abilities to each which is more in line with their theme, add more lairs with lair actions, and more legendary templates for solos. I'd also take a harder look at increasing their saves, particularly wisdom and dexterity saves.

Definitely saves. Also give monsters a reasonable skill set. Like Athletics and Insight! After a few levels it is kind of pathetic the resistance (or lack thereof) monsters have to player skill use. A huge brute of a monster shouldn't have next to no chance to remain standing when a player shoves it.

 

[Laurefindel]

Spoiler: Childhood education would disagree with you on that

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Jut not a reason you can... you know... say? Got it.... great reason. How could anyone argue with such a slam dunk case.

It's a slam dunk case if your target audience are third-grade kids. Subtractions are less abstract than divisions, that's true. And divisions in high denominators are increasingly harder to do. But halving is the simplest form of division, and the numbers we're asked to deal with aren't astronomical either. 42/2 is arguably easier to calculate than 42-15 in terms of complexity.

But division is a more abstract concept than subtraction, this I give you, making the game slightly harder for kids under 10 and people with learning disabilities. I should know, my son has learning disability. But even for him, 42/2 is an easier operation than 42-15, because "half", while abstract, is the easiest division concept to grasp and execute.

[Edit] 42 was an easy number to work with. 37, for example, is harder to half than subtracting 15 from it. Nevertheless, given the target audience, I don't think 50% (vs -5, or -10, or -15) is a huge obstacle. People experiencing great issues with mathematics will disagree. So yes, divisions are harder. I will not argue otherwise.

 

[Li Shenron]

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?

I'd keep the monsters as they are, but add a few pages with drag-and-drop abilities to boost existing creatures (with a given CR/XP cost), and add at least a hundred sidebars with examples of upgraded monsters.

 

[tetrasodium]

It's a slam dunk case if your target audience are third-grade kids. Subtractions are less abstract than divisions, that's true. And divisions in high denominators are increasingly harder to do. But halving is the simplest form of division, and the numbers we're asked to deal with aren't astronomical either. 42/2 is arguably easier to calculate than 42-15 in terms of complexity.

But division is a more abstract concept than subtraction, this I give you, making the game slightly harder for kids under 10 and people with learning disabilities. I should know, my son has learning disability. But even for him, 42/2 is an easier operation than 42-15, because "half", while abstract, is the easiest division concept to grasp and execute.

they don't need to be notably be more or less difficult to be more advanced concepts that require more braincells... that goes orders of magnitude beyond just double when the claim is that moving from -N to 50% is "easier" because it & your reply shows that the difference of ease in the calculation is not significant for the vast majority of players & gms while there are concrete harms done by the shift from flat dr & flat resist to always 50%. People have been going over those harms for quite a few posts now, go back & read them tp make educated topical points rather than just distracting from your weak argument by asking for someone to repeat them with a pointless "what problems"

 

[billd91]

It just means that classes that specialize in htting something fewer times than the eldritch blast warlock, fighter, & PAM whatever but hitting it harder. Those classes who make fewer harder attacks are directly harmed in order to shove aside all barriers for the classes that get to play the odds & average their damage out across multiple attack chances.

Frankly, this is ideal. Any flat DR low enough to not completely block out the low damage dealer would be barely a speed bump to the damage spikers. Better to affect them all proportionately the same.

 

[dave2008]

For all of those suggesting lower the CR or changing how CR is calculated. I will state here and now is if @Morrus wants this information for LevelUp!, I strongly suggest you do not change how monster CR is calculated.

The better approach is to change the encounter guidelines to make encounters more challenging. Changing the CR calculation just makes any monster you make not compatible. Believe it or not, the MM monsters work just fine for many groups. You can always just make tougher versions with higher CRs if you think the MM monsters are two weak.

If you want make monsters a little more interesting:

1. Give them better saves: you can give 2 for free before it affects CR
2. Give them interesting trairs: 1 per tier is a good start
3. Give them interesting action options: not just a melee or ranged attack
4. Use more bonus and reaction options: but don't over use (some DM's have a hard time keeping track)
5. Give the monster choices / tactics defined by the stat block: similar to a minotaur's charge.
6. Give "solos" abilities to attack from range and/or escape from being cornerer

 

[Xeviat]

I've put a lot of thought into this:

• More special actions/special attacks. Knockback and sweeping attacks for giants, stuff to excite and keep things varied.
• The current monsters are heavily skewed towards offense over defense largely. This makes fights fast and swingy. Rebalance this in a lot of cases.
• Bring back 4E level/roles instead of CR. Make it clear that X creature is meant for Y level and to be used enmass, while Z creature is meant for Y level and meant to be a solo. Monster roles can be tied in with better encounter design guidelines so even a fight with wolves can be exciting and varied (alpha wolves have leader functions, other wolves are more skirmishers, etc).

4E monster structure made building monsters very fast. I could whip up custom monsters in minutes instead of the tens of minutes it can take now.