Levelled creatures in own book?

[Firedancer]

So, I was having a look at WoTC site, and saw another MM is in the works. I’ve not picked up the last because the reviews put me off, partly all the dragon spawn, partly the levelled creatures. I like my MM containing monsters. Having said that, I would quite like a book with levelled creatures already done. The prep time it could save, and the added strength to random encounters means it would be something I would buy.

Would you be interested in (or indeed is there already available) a book/series of books with levelled monsters in, one that expands on the lair format introduced in more recent publications?

It seems to me a book structured thus would be useful:
Chapter 1: goblins
1st page, brief history, culture, society.
2nd page, tactics, particular equipment, common encounters (patrol, warband, tribe, lair) giving us a variety of ELs; numbers and type of goblin within each structure.
3rd page onwards, stats for your common goblin, and the more common types found in the encounters outlined above. This is where the class levels have been added, saving you the work. This need not be every class, but a selection of suitable classes, and not every level either, but provides a quick reference for DMs.
Follow this up with a page of options; wasn’t there a feral yowler they might have? Certainly in the case of goblins there’s wolf riders. Perhaps a couple of unusual classes.
Next, a couple of named individuals with a bit more detail and higher CR.
Lastly you could place in the lair structure used recently.

Repeat this layout for other races; orcs, hobgoblins, kobolds, etc and you can cater to a variety of adventuring groups. The higher CR races and monsters could also receive this treatment, returning MM’s to new and updated monsters while producing a discrete product for those who like the levelled creatures.

So what are your thoughts, or is anything similar available?

 

[ColonelHardisson]

I'd buy a product along those lines, but I'd prefer a minimum of fluff text. I'm a stat-block junky. The "Races of..." series and Heroes of Battle had stat-blocks for various examples of NPCs that fulfilled different roles in a given humanoid's society, and I'd love to see more examples of those (which I assume is the kind of stuff people were squawking about in the last Monster Manual).

 

[Imruphel]

I would happily buy the book but only if the stat blocks were more accurate than is normally the case.

 

[Garnfellow]

I have never, ever understood why a third party PDF publisher has not seized this product niche and shook hard. It seems like this could be a HUGE market. Consider: this is one area where an electronic file is far superior to a hard copy. It is extremely time-consuming to make classed creatures, particularly spellcasters -- this is probably the single biggest complaint about 3e. A series of sourcebooks that provided nothing but statblocks of generic classed monsters would have tremendous utility. Sex-appeal, not so much. But utility? Without doubt.

Generic, I think, is key here: just give me the the stats for a "kobold sorcerer 8" or a "hobgoblin cleric 6/fighter 3." I don't want a big backstory or fluff like that -- chances are, it just won't match up neatly my campaign. I just want archetypes along a wide range of Challenge Ratings that I can just cut and paste into an adventure. I would have paid good money for a book with nothing but drow statblocks.

The few products I have seen (what was the name of that terrible WotC book that came out early on in 3e?) that tried to provide loads of classed creatures failed because they spent too much effort on adding background fluff or by making the monster super-unique.

So here's Blathmaq, the LG half-dragon lizardfolk ranger 4/scaly disciple 6 that used to be a brigand but now, after a high priestess of the goddess Shanora cast remove curse on him, has become devoted to the power of Goodness!

Blah. The super-unique stuff -- like a big boss monster -- I'd much rather do myself. What I want and need is for someone else to do the statblocks for the BBM's lieutenant or loyal underlings. For the same amount of space I'd get much more use out of vanilla statblocks for a N lizardfolk barbarian at 3rd, 7th, and 11th level.

 

[Shade]

I would love to see this book. I have no interest in it myself, but I'd like my Monster Manuals to go back to including new monsters.

 

[Firedancer]

I have never, ever understood why a third party PDF publisher has not seized this product niche and shook hard. It seems like this could be a HUGE market.

Is it the complexity of what is and isn't open content?

Anybody out there got an idea why this hasn't happened, or are there just 4 of us interested in this kind of resource?

 

[Voadam]

Stat blocks are a lot of work.

But I would like such a product.

EN Publishing has Everyone Else which provides level 1,3,5,7 NPC class humans for typical professions, about 60-80 pages of statblocks for town and city folk, though none have equipment.

Ginjitsu Games has Flock of Foes which takes common (srd) monsters and applies either templates or classes to each of them. Each one is pretty unique though (similar to the examples in the 3.5 MM/srd), you won't get multiples of the same one at multiple levels.

There are some NPC products that come close.

 

[Shadowslayer]

Mongoose tried these, sort of, with the Slayer's guides.

Personally, I don't have a gripe with the way it was done in MM4. I liked it actually. But yeah, a Book with levelled critters would be OK.

 

[Garnfellow]

Is it the complexity of what is and isn't open content?

Anybody out there got an idea why this hasn't happened, or are there just 4 of us interested in this kind of resource?

No, I don't think Open content trips up many publishers these days. In fact, one could easily turn out several years worth of releases just using stuff in the SRD and nothing else. Just running through the major humanoids would be a book a month for over a year.

I think the problem is the same reason why I don't want to do myself: it's slow, tedious, and hard work. It's much easier for a designer to toss together a bunch of abilities and make a completely new monster.

 

[jmucchiello]

Is it the complexity of what is and isn't open content?

Anybody out there got an idea why this hasn't happened, or are there just 4 of us interested in this kind of resource?

The reason it isn't done is the same reason you haven't done it yourself. Time and effort versus reward. Stat blocks are a huge resource drain. I started a book like this. Advanced monsters: take the standard SRD monster and advance it to 2x and 3x it's normal hit dice and perhaps add a few stray abilities. Monsters with only 2x of advancement received class levels.

After about a dozen entries I was bleeding about the eyes. Well, not really, but it was more trouble then it could ever be worth. I was also taking a few liberties. For example, when advancing a creature with spell-like abilities cast as (for example) a 8th level sorcerer, the advanced version would cast as maybe a 12th or 13th level sorcerer and might have a few extra spell-like spells. The reason being that it weird for a 20 HD critter to have abilities of 5th level ability just his 7 HD cousins.