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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Reynard" data-source="post: 8745742" data-attributes="member: 467">Monster deign is near and dear to my heart. I am an occasional freelancer for RPGs, including 5E 3PP content. Of the mechanical aspects of the job, my favorite is monster design and if I do say so myself I am pretty good at it. But that is not terribly difficult to say, at least compared to things like classes or even feats and spells, since you are designing for individual units of fun (encounters) rather than much longer periods of play like whole campaigns. Anyway, I digress.I would like to discuss that monster design in 5E, both as participants and, if applicable, as designers. I would like to use examples, too, in order to keep it out of pure vague theorycrafting. Those examples can be homebrew, official content, 3PP content or stuff you found on reddit.I want to start by looking at the lowliest of creatures: the ggoblin. I will be using three sources for goblin examples: the 5E Monster Manual, the LevelUp Monstrous Menagerie, and the Flee Mortals! preview from MCDM. There are many other sources out there, of course, and feel free to introduce goblins from them. But just to be clear: this thread isn't about goblins, it is about monster design and we will be ranging far and wide, Mordenkainen willing.The 5E MM goblin can be viewed <a href="https://www.5esrd.com/gamemastering/monsters-foes/monsters-by-type/humanoids/goblin/" target="_blank">here at 5esrd.com</a> and it's pretty basic: it has a melee attack, a ranged attack, and an ability to take the Disengage action as a bonus action. Since it has no other possible bonus action available to it, the goblin should never be standing still. Of course, it does not have any extra movement, so its movement won't amount to much unless the GM builds the encounter to reward mobility. This goblin is our baseline.EDIT: I apparently misread the MM goblin entry. It has Hide as part of its Nimble Escape.The LevelUp goblin can be found at A5Etol.com (which as of this writing is not loading for me so i can't link it.) The LevelUp goblin is nearly identical to the MM goblin except it can choose between Hide or Disengage as a bonus action -- and the goblin gets a bonus to Stealth rolls. This ostensibly makes the goblin more versatile, but it should be notes that again without additional movement even this requires the GM make sure the environment is set up to take special advantage of the ability. Moreover, the LevelUp goblin comes with an explicit number of variants that use different equipment and tactics (but retaining the Nimble Escape bonus action).MCDM's "basic" goblins are a little harder to pin down: there are two different CR 1/4 goblins in Flee Mortals! The goblin minion is sort of analogous to the MM goblin although it behaves a little differently. First of all, it is a minion that dies when it takes any damage at all, and only does 1 damage. However, the minion does not have a nimble escape bonus action. Rather, it's movement simply does not provoke attacks of opportunity (which, ultimately is functionally the same as the M goblin since it has no other use for its bonus action). It also has a feature where any creature that starts its turn next to a goblin minion may take a point of damage. It isn't much but it can certainly break concentration! This makes the goblin minion's freedom of movement more useful without necessarily requiring the GM to build the environment to that end.Flee Mortals! also has a goblin warrior that is not a minion. This one is mechanically very similar to the base goblin from the MM with the addition of an important synergy with the movement not provoking ability: a reaction allowing the goblin warrior to move if an enemy misses it.It should be noted that there is some minor variation between the different goblins with respect to AC, hit points, skills and ability scores. At the very lowest levels these might have an impact but should disappear shortly even while goblins are still useful threats in numbers.The reason I chose the lowly goblin to begin this discussion is that, mechanically speaking, they have a schtick (moving without provoking) and we can easily see how the different sources tried to utilize that schtick. LevelUp diversified it, while MCDM tried to make it more valuable through synergy. Both of these are solid iterations on the MM goblin, and it is almost certain that the One D&D goblin will come with some new way to use that schtick.Of course, each source also has other goblin types. Just as a quick survey, the MM has a Goblin Boss. LevelUp also has a Boss, as well as a spell casting Warlock -- which like the base goblin has a few variants built right into it. Flee Mortals! includes the highest number of statblocks with variable CRs, which is in line with Colville's appreciation for 4E's monster methodology.I won't belabor the point by going through every type of goblin, but I wanted to mention the Goblin Boss because it is present in all the sources. In the MM in addition to just being tougher, it can sacrifice one of its underlings to take a hit for it as a reaction. The LevelUp boss trades this reaction (which it hands to the goblin Warlock) for the ability to give underlings an attack with their reactions. The Flee Mortals! boss is a full CR tougher than the other two (probably because there are a wider range of goblin underlings for it to command) and has the most tools: it keeps the sacrifice ability, can also allow underlings to attack, and on top of it can grant allies advantage to attacks (if they take advantage being attack themselves as a consequence) as a recharge 6 bonus action. Since Command and "Get Reckless" are an action and a bonus action respectively, this is a potentially very effective combo -- especially early on while the Boss has enough foot soldiers around to keep one nearby to protect him as well. As a recharge 6 ability, though, it is a one time synergy which keeps it from being overpowered for a CR 2 enemy, I think.That's a long winded introduction to what i would like this thread to be about. What are your preferences for monster design? What monsters do you think are well designed -- and what are some you think are poorly designed?Thanks.</blockquote>

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