D&D General Making consistent Monsters?

[Scurvy_Platypus]

I think LevelUp is going to be the most help here. That said, 5E is not a point buy system. You are going to have to wing it a lot.

Yeah. Like I said, I'm willing to do the work but it'd be a lot easier if 5e had some point-buy options. I'm aware of Anime5e existing but won't touch it for a variety of reasons. Maybe I'll just have to figure out something myself; however, that still requires an underlying base, so that if I muck it up, at least it'll be consistent. Sounds like I'm going to have to look closer at LevelUp.

 

[J-H]

While I'll look at LevelUp and MM on a business card... if I wanna grab a critter from Palladium Fantasy and build it for 5e... which is gonna be "better" (more complete) for doing so? I need to be able to figure out how to "price" funky abilities, as well as creating the basic chassis that those abilities are gonna be attached to. Yes, I get that I can "look for a similar ability on a 5e critter" but part of getting inspiration and converting critters is grabbing something that's "unknown" in the 5e rules and surprising folks with it.

MM on a business card has a quick comparison chart for 6 numbers that'll get you pretty reliably close every time. Stat out what you think a monster should be, and then check the chart to see what CRs its AC, HP, to-hit, damage, and best save line up with. Take the average value and that puts you in about the right place.
The only funky part is that monster Proficiency Bonus is linked to CR, so if you bump something from CR 10 down to CR 8 you should take 1 off its to-hit and proficient skills/saves if you want to "follow the rules." Realistically a +1 doesn't matter... you can always override it by just mentally giving something a trait like "Has the Poo-flinging fighting style for +2 to hit with poo" to put your numbers where you think they need to be.

Then the dice will cheat you anyway. I put 4 slingers with +7 to hit for 1d4+3 against a level 7 party tonight. They got off 12 total attacks (including 6 with advantage from surprise & at a barbarian) and only hit once against ACs of 15, 16, 19, and 22. :-(

The problem isn't so much "what to use" but more "is this gonna kill my group outright or just singe their eyebrows and make 'em panic?" And that's what I need some sort of underlying base to build my critters from and hopefully have an idea of whether my grizzly needs a bear-hug attack or just flies around zotting everyone with its lasers.

Yep, eyeballing the CR with Blog of Holding method should be fine. As long as you're pretty close you are fine.
Also keep in mind that 5e characters are very resilient and hard to kill unless you are really overwhelming them.

 

[dave2008]

Making my own.

Gotcha! Here are my thoughts on 3 options:

2014 DMG:
Personally, I find the rules in the 2014 DMG robust and consistent (if you apply them correctly) and there are online tools that make CR calculation fairly easy. However, these no longer reflect the power bump higher CR monsters see in 2024. I did an analysis of the MM and developed my on little conversion chart.

Level Up:
I don't really like the LevelUp guidelines. IMO, they leave to much out. That being said, I haven't used them - only read them.

Tails of the Valiant:
My recommendation if consistency is the major factor would be the TotV monster building guidelines. They are a good combination of being broad in scope and easy to use. The only reason I don't use them is a that I am so familiar with the 2014 rules.

Sidenote: no other real place to say this, so I'll just use my thread to do so... I really appreciate how level you are. As I said, I've been through a lot of threads the last day or so, and you seem to really go out of your way to be thoughtful and considerate, even if the folks you're responding to seem to be less easy-going. Thanks for making ENWorld a bit better like that.

Thank you! I try to be level headed and treat people with respect. However, sometimes we all have bad days!

 

[AlViking]

I use the MM on a card and since it's been released I'm relying more and more on the 2024 MM as a base. The new versions are generally closer to what I want. Some sources like Tomb of Beasts have interesting ideas but the complexity/style and generally OP nature means I don't use it much any more.

So it's kind of hit or miss, try stuff out to find what works for you.