Mike Mearls' Monster Makeover Suggestions HERE

[Sammael]

Why lose the Giant type? Never thought that that particular one was a problem.

It's pointless. There are no mechanical differences between Humanoids and Giants except for low-light vision and weapon proficiencies, neither of which should be automatic for all Giants (IMO). Oh, and "person" type spells don't work on them, which actually goes against their flavor of easily manipulated brutes.

IMC, I just turned Giants into a subtype of Humanoid. I also got rid of Monstrous Humanoids (too arbitrary, IMO).

 

[Nyaricus]

Why lose the Giant type? Never thought that that particular one was a problem.

I started a thread in general that was quite popular about how Humanoid, Monstrous Humanoid and Giant were all essentually the same thing, and how they should be simply one type, perhaps two types, with sub-types catergorizing everything else.

Look, for example, at the "reptilian" sub-type - why is it there, even? Well, stuff like Favoured Enemy, Bane weapons, etc, that's why. So, take it a step further and use real-life groupings for all the "furries" (term used loosely and non-offensively) all over the monstrous humanoids/humanoids classifications and sub-divide them - IE Canines, Felines, etc. Then, have giant as a another sub-type. And so on.

Giants, with their 3/4 BAB and d8 HD would be a humanoid (giant) and many cretaures would be moved into either humanoid or monstrous humanoid.

Spells like hold person would have to be re-tooled so as to only allow their effects affect those of a similar type (in the case of humans/elves/dwarve etc it would be "untyped" subtype, since they are basically, in D&Dland, humans squeezed and pulled different ways) and those other other types might have a higher spell level slot (not unlike metamagic). That way it smoothes over discrepenceis like the gaping hole of hold giant, which is infact not a spell but a place where a spell should be.

These are just some rough and random thoughts, but workable. I think perhaps one of the main problems was WotC not being hard-set on what classifies a humanoid/monstrous humanoid - like the Gnoll, for example.

EDIT: beaten to the punch, eh Sammael

 

[Imruphel]

(snip) I'd also like to see his redesign of the ice devil and of a vrock or hezrou. I like using fiends in my campaigns, but although the revisions for 3.5 made major improvements, there are still quiet a bit of apparently random or nonthematic immunities, resistances and abilities for most fiends.

Yep, the ice devil's lack of cold immunity never made sense (although, per my earlier post, I find most of the fiends make little sense- just victims of random design). Then again, the balor only stopped being vulnerable to burning itself to death in 3.5E when it was finally made immune to fire.

 

[Hussar]

It's funny. I've only recently gotten into higher level play with my campaign getting into the low double digits. I'd done some one offs, but, never consistent high level play.

You can really see that when people spent time remaking the monsters for 3.x, a lot of the time was spent on the lower end critters and the high end critters were mostly just copied over with the new rules laid overtop. Demons, devils, angels and the others are really just a hash of abilities.

What I would like to see is demons and devils and the like given a clear focus and then built up around that. No more Type I demons or Type II demons. They've got names, let's make them actually work. Vrocks aren't too bad, although honestly, it is nearly impossible to get off the dance of ruin. Three rounds of free shots at those kinds of levels is going to result in failure most of the time. Mirror image helps, but then, why the heck, other than protection, does a Vrock have mirror image? It's not like they are known to be tricksters or particularly gifted manipulators.

Yeah, demons and stuff need some serious Gamer Eye treatment.

 

[Andre]

Spells like hold person would have to be re-tooled so as to only allow their effects affect those of a similar type (in the case of humans/elves/dwarve etc it would be "untyped" subtype, since they are basically, in D&Dland, humans squeezed and pulled different ways) and those other other types might have a higher spell level slot (not unlike metamagic). That way it smoothes over discrepenceis like the gaping hole of hold giant, which is infact not a spell but a place where a spell should be.

I think a simpler solution would be to limit Charm Person and Hold Person by hit dice and caster level. In effect, if the creature has more hit dice than the caster has caster levels, it's not affected, or at least gains a significant bonus on its save.

Oh, and I vote for Lycanthropes. They are far, far, too much work as is.

 

[Destil]

Gnolls, bugbears, lizardfolk et cetera. All medium huminoids should advance by class level and not have any racial HD. Get rid of both options as racial HD (anything larger than medium should have giant HD).

Kobold's fractional HD is something else I'd like to see gone...

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Mind flayers.

Seriously, anything whose strongest attacks have only a 60 foot range, or is Suggestion, needs an in-combat upgrade.

Out of combat, a mind flayer that catches a PC by surprise and Charms or uses Suggestion on them is nasty. In combat, however, the only thing it can reasonably pull off is Mind Blast. The 2e mind flayer had the ability to daze single oponents and mind control PCs. Bring those abilities back!

 

[ssampier]

Some great thoughts in here.

I can see some marketing person eyes light up with glee as they try to release D&D 3.75.

 

[Fishbone]

I go with the Ice Devil. Its a huge mishmash of abilities whose sum is greater than the parts.
Its a total brick house and I seriously wonder if a core only party or party of people without plenty of playing under their belts could kill it. With Unholy Aura, SR 25, and its great saves it looks near impossible for a mid level party to effect it magically.
And good luck with hitting that AC 36, assuming the thing isn't flying at will and throwing down Cone of Colds on all the d4 and d6 characters.
Summoning 2d4 CR 9 devils is strong, too. At the very least it forces a Dispel Magic or some poor low HP schmuck will get mobbed and poisoned into paralysis.
Edit: And if you don't have a good aligned weapon that can hit consistantly or a lot of spells with the Good descriptor prepared you are dead before the battle begins.

 

[Razz]

KLURICHIR!

That darn thing haunts MY dreams. Not because of its sheer power but because of its completely fouled up write-up and stat block!

Someone at WotC please fix it already!

I love the demon, the CR it is and its place in the tanar'ri hordes as even more fearsome than a balor, but that thing needs a complete makeover.