Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
White Dwarf Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Nest
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
EN Publishing
Twitter
BlueSky
Facebook
Instagram
EN World
BlueSky
YouTube
Facebook
Twitter
Twitch
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
I might have bitten off more than I can chew
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Oofta" data-source="post: 6999093" data-attributes="member: 6801845"><p>The way I would approach it would be to look at existing monsters (such as empyrians) but then do some high level guessing on PC class equivalency.</p><p></p><p>Assuming that you want these devices to be used by PCs, how big of a character multiplier do you want this to be? In other words if two PCs are required to run the mech, how much more powerful are they than if they didn't have the mech?</p><p></p><p>So if you want the mech to be 4 times as powerful as a standard PC, then it should have 4-5 times the damage potential and roughly 4-5 times the hit points. You want to up the numbers a little bit because a single target is easier to focus on for most opponents and damage is going to be a little more concentrated.</p><p></p><p>Take a look at your group or take a quick swag at how much a barbarian of the appropriate level would do on average. For melee attacks target total damage for a round based on what 4 barbarians could do. This may be spread out on multiple targets - I can see a mech having any number of close area effects.</p><p></p><p>Decide what spells you want to mimic. I'd stick with standards like fireball, lightning bolt and so on. A mech should be big and flashy. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> Change the flavor of the spells as you see appropriate - a meteor swarm is a great stand-in for an artillery strike for example.</p><p></p><p>Make sure all spell-like attacks are limited in number (similar to a caster of the appropriate level). You can either up the damage, spread it out or just give the mech multiple shots. A gatling-lightning-bolt could shoot up to 4 lightning bolts for example. Justify need for short/long rests as needing to refuel/repair.</p><p></p><p>Base number of spells on appropriate level wizard/sorcerer.</p><p></p><p>So that's it for offensive. Defenses are a little tougher, but I'd do something like give the passengers immunity to damage for a while until their mech is 50% damaged, then it goes to resistance. If the mech is on it's last legs, panels have fallen off, sparks are flying and the mech may be doing bad things to the drivers.</p><p></p><p>By doing all of that, the mech now counts as 4 PCs and your encounter challenge ratings shouldn't be too difficult, although you are going to effectively have a large group which does throw off some calculations.</p><p></p><p>A last note though - you need to be sure both people have enough to do. It might be kind of boring to be the guy "steering" the mech. Make sure they have enough to do.</p><p></p><p>Overall I like the idea - I may have to steal it at some point!</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Oofta, post: 6999093, member: 6801845"] The way I would approach it would be to look at existing monsters (such as empyrians) but then do some high level guessing on PC class equivalency. Assuming that you want these devices to be used by PCs, how big of a character multiplier do you want this to be? In other words if two PCs are required to run the mech, how much more powerful are they than if they didn't have the mech? So if you want the mech to be 4 times as powerful as a standard PC, then it should have 4-5 times the damage potential and roughly 4-5 times the hit points. You want to up the numbers a little bit because a single target is easier to focus on for most opponents and damage is going to be a little more concentrated. Take a look at your group or take a quick swag at how much a barbarian of the appropriate level would do on average. For melee attacks target total damage for a round based on what 4 barbarians could do. This may be spread out on multiple targets - I can see a mech having any number of close area effects. Decide what spells you want to mimic. I'd stick with standards like fireball, lightning bolt and so on. A mech should be big and flashy. :) Change the flavor of the spells as you see appropriate - a meteor swarm is a great stand-in for an artillery strike for example. Make sure all spell-like attacks are limited in number (similar to a caster of the appropriate level). You can either up the damage, spread it out or just give the mech multiple shots. A gatling-lightning-bolt could shoot up to 4 lightning bolts for example. Justify need for short/long rests as needing to refuel/repair. Base number of spells on appropriate level wizard/sorcerer. So that's it for offensive. Defenses are a little tougher, but I'd do something like give the passengers immunity to damage for a while until their mech is 50% damaged, then it goes to resistance. If the mech is on it's last legs, panels have fallen off, sparks are flying and the mech may be doing bad things to the drivers. By doing all of that, the mech now counts as 4 PCs and your encounter challenge ratings shouldn't be too difficult, although you are going to effectively have a large group which does throw off some calculations. A last note though - you need to be sure both people have enough to do. It might be kind of boring to be the guy "steering" the mech. Make sure they have enough to do. Overall I like the idea - I may have to steal it at some point! [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
I might have bitten off more than I can chew
Top