Huge monsters in E6

[Wiseblood]

For E6 I have considered removing all ability score bonuses for monsters. No extra HP from Con. (really take a look what happens later.) No save bonuses. No strength bonuses to hit or damage. They essentialy have HD to tell how tough they are. Also a limit on size might make things more sensible. 300' long dragons are Epic They also make no sense. A 45' Long Flying Fire breathing lizard would be damn scary IRL. It's 300" long what are you going to do? Exfoliate it? Your puny weapons won't penetrate it's dermis. At this point you can hope that you jab it in the gums like a sharp Dorito when it devours you.

Pathfinder Fire Giant
HP 142 (HD 15D8+75)
Constitution 21 (+5)

Attack
Greatsword +21/+16/+11
DMG 3D6+15


My E6 Variant
HP 67 (HD 15d8)
Constitution 21 (+0)

Attack
Greatsword +11/+6/+1
DMG 3D6

There would still be some things to work out... Natural Armor and such but you get the point. My vision of E6 seeks to deflate number bloat.

 

[S'mon]

For E6 I have considered removing all ability score bonuses for monsters. No extra HP from Con. (really take a look what happens later.) No save bonuses. No strength bonuses to hit or damage. They essentialy have HD to tell how tough they are. Also a limit on size might make things more sensible. 300' long dragons are Epic They also make no sense. A 45' Long Flying Fire breathing lizard would be damn scary IRL. It's 300" long what are you going to do? Exfoliate it? Your puny weapons won't penetrate it's dermis. At this point you can hope that you jab it in the gums like a sharp Dorito when it devours you.

Pathfinder Fire Giant
HP 142 (HD 15D8+75)
Constitution 21 (+5)

Attack
Greatsword +21/+16/+11
DMG 3D6+15


My E6 Variant
HP 67 (HD 15d8)
Constitution 21 (+0)

Attack
Greatsword +11/+6/+1
DMG 3D6

There would still be some things to work out... Natural Armor and such but you get the point. My vision of E6 seeks to deflate number bloat.

I ran my last 3.5e campaign like this - basically you can just use a pre-3e (or C&C) Monster Manual for your monster stats; turn AC to ascending and assign saves (typically Fort = hd/2+2, Ref & Will = 1/3 hd). This works very well if you want the PCs to be powerful, eg there was one fight where the 6th level PCs wiped out a warband of 8 hill giants (8hd, 36hp, AC 16, ATT+8 dam 2d8+7, save F+6 R/W+2)

 

[pawsplay]

My thought on dragons was to cap them at Adult level. Then you advance them one size, using MM guidelines, to create an Ancient. And done. Some dragons might take 2 to 4 levels of Sorcerer. At that level they are sufficiently dangerous they don't need a lot of variation in abilities; feat choices and (when applicable) spell choice will distinguish one dragon from another.

 

[Runestar]

Might savage species be of help here? You can use the monster classes to create de-advanced versions of monsters. For example, a frost giant would normally be too tough at cr9, but you can use the tables to create a cr5 version with 8 HD and large size. There should still be enough "frost giant" in him to make for a memorable encounter.

 

[Doc225]

You also have to consider the abilities of your party. If you knjow what the average AC, Atk+, and Saves are for your party, you'll have a rough guideline of where a challenging monster's numbers should be. Lessen damage from the monster's attacks and spells/SA's to fall in line with your party. The thing to remember is that, while E6 orcs couldn't attack Waterdeep as it sits in the campaign setting, think about if you capped all the levels of every NPC in the FR at 6. Drizzt, Elminster, Kelben, Alusair, all 6th level. some have more feats, but all are 6th level. those hordes of e6 orcs can do much more to Waterdeep now, right?

It's all a matter of scale. If your PCs are capped in E6, so are your NPCs.

An adult dragon is a challenge for pretty much anyone in E6, and can destroy town with relative ease. It takes careful planning from a 6+ party to be able to confront this thing and bring it down. It seems right in line for me.