Monster Design--from a designer's standpoint

[Wiman]

This one is for Clark,

If you can design me a Flind (dosn't have to be named a flind) with Flail Snail minions I will promise to buy every Necro product that comes out for 4e. I am a fan of your company and it's products to date. As for the Flind I'm disappointed it was missing from the gnoll write up - here's hoping next year.

Take care,

Wiman

 

[Henry]

Glad to know S'mon and I were ahead of the curve on this 4e development. I remember my little kit-bash system for NPCs a long time ago, and several people who just didn't like the concept because they felt they had to stat out NPCs and monsters fully, or didn't want to appear unfair to their players. The only time I ever statted out monsters fully was end-game big bad guys, and I had fun with it; the rest of the cannon fodder got treated to single-score saving throws, single-bonus attack rolls, damages, skill scores, etc.

I am glad to see the promise of a fleshed-out system, without all the need to re figure feats, hit dice, etc. just to end up with the single bonus number I wanted in the first place.

 

[Grazzt]

This one is for Clark,

If you can design me a Flind (dosn't have to be named a flind) with Flail Snail minions I will promise to buy every Necro product that comes out for 4e. I am a fan of your company and it's products to date. As for the Flind I'm disappointed it was missing from the gnoll write up - here's hoping next year.

Take care,

Wiman

Ya know..Clark and I were just talking about the Flind the other night actually.

 

[Wiman]

Well the old entry was between Flail Snail and Flumph (both monsters mentioned on this thread) which was why I originally picked up my dusty AD&D fiend folio (pg. 39).

Growing up the Flind was my favorite monster, with Mr. Gygax passing away I've had a little extra time to go look at the old books and remember some very important things - like at one time being the DM was as good if not better then playing......other things I could say don't go with this thread.....I hope companies like Necro who obviously still have the pulse of "gamer before company" keep some of the monsters alive that made the game great. I can easily make a Flind because I have fought them in the AD&D days, people new to the game probably will like these creatures as they were the kings of dual headed weapons and the art of the disarm back in the day (plus they're GNOLLS people, ok thats a personal preference.)

All of the above should have the correct tm's and IMHO's added by the discerning reader.

 

[Lizard]

Ya know..Clark and I were just talking about the Flind the other night actually.

Flinds, and many other 1e "high hit die humanoids", fit in well in 4e, as Elite or Solo versions of basic monsters. (In 3e, they're better modeled as humanoids with class levels). They existed, really, to extend the 'life' of humanoid opponents in 1e past 1-2nd level. Things like the flind, the orog, the norker..all those 'palette swap monsters' really work better in 4e. It's built for them.

 

[jaldaen]

As a freelance writer and designer I must say that I too was very excited when 3e first came out. A unified monster design system! Woot! I had visions of wiping up monsters with the greatest of ease, but I soon discovered that although low level monsters were quite easy to design for that once you got past the first few HD the system became more and more tedious to design for. I'd spend an hour or more just getting the stat block done and then I'd have to fiddle around with determining CR, etc... It got even more complex and bewildering the higher the HD crept up. I still enjoyed creating the fluff for these monsters, but I felt like I spent most of my time trying to make the fluff fit the statblock, rather than the other way around.

4e seems to have a different approach to monster design, which promises to make my life as a freelance designer/writer and DM much easier... and to me that is a big selling point for the new system!

 

[Saishu_Heiki]

In the future, please report the post rather than copying, thanks. --Dinkeldog/Moderator

I am excited about the announcement and look forward to the book. If you are not, there are other places to vent.

 

[Cadfan]

In the future, please preface posts of that sort with "Please place me on ignore." It will save time.

 

[Piratecat]

Well, zip-a-dee-do-dah. Necro jumped on the 4e bandwagon very early last year before anything had been seen or much was known about 4e. Necro lead off 3.0 with a big monster book and plans to lead off 4.0 with a big monster book. Now, ::sudden intake of breath:: Necro says 4e monsters are just uber coolness! Not like that baaaaad old 3x that used to pay their bills! This is soooooo unexpected! No one could have seen this coming.

Gosh, I sure wish we had warned people (both anti- AND pro-4e) not to be sarcastic jerks...

Oh wait, we did.

Out of the thread. And please adjust your posting style in the future. It's really easy to make your point without being purposefully offensive.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

I have a low-prep style of DMing, with 20 years of slightly-more-than weekly GMing, I like to make it up as I go along, most of the time.

That said, I can attest to the speed & fun of 4E monster creation.

I've run 5 sessions of 4e now with the pregens, and in each and every one I've MADE UP at least one monster, in the middle of the session, with only a couple of minutes scribbling. I doubt many players noticed, and the monsters were FUN.

Like the 3rd level flightless land-dragon that would bite, shake, and toss PCs away from it, just this afternoon.

Man, I love it.

Fitz