MFM interest survey

[whatisitgoodfor]

Would anyone be interested in working on a community project to develop a Manual of Functional Monsters ?

Currently, my idea for it is to try and get rid of silliness like a 100HD Baalor being the same CR as a 21HD Baalor with 3 levels of Fighter.

The way I've been thinking to do so is to create monster classes, kinda like the NPC classes from the DMG. Monsters will get a base CR from their ability mods and any (ex) abilities they may have, and all (sp) and (su) abilities will be stripped away from the base creature.

As they start gaining their monster levels, chosen from a list that looks something like this: Fey, Dragon, Beast, and probably a few others, they will begin to gain abilities comparable to that of the PCs.

What I would hope to accomplish from this is a MM that actually integrates well with the PHB. One that doesn't have a CR1 critter with an ECL of 15. And, finally, one where the advancement rules for the monsters actually work.

Well, am I on to something that people would enjoy and actually be able to use, or am I just spittin into the wind yet again?

 

[whatisitgoodfor]

Come on!

AT least one person out of the 80 that looked at this has to have an opinion one way or the other.

 

[Greatwyrm]

There's gotta be a simpler way to accomplish what you're after.

How about this. Instead of making monster classes of some sort, treat additional hit dice as npc class levels for CR.

I don't have my DMG handy, but I think NPC classes add the number of class levels -1 to the overall CR. One HD wouldn't really change the CR of a creature, but a few would change BAB, saves, DCs for spells and such.

What do you think?

 

[whatisitgoodfor]

That's sorta what I'm trying to say.

The only difference is that I want to have a set of monster HD progressions instead of simply using the NPC classes.

The problem arises from the current HD progressions in the MM.

Animals get +3/4 BAB, no skills or feats, and a good Fort and Reflex save.
Dragons get +1 BAB, 6 Skills, 1/4 feat, all good saves, and IIRC +1/2 caster level.

Animals are approx in line for NPC levels, but Dragons are way too good compared to even PC levels.

All of it is basically just a way to make Monster PCs work.