I also dislike Special Attacks or Abilities that force me to look down in the prose to find out what they mean, that has been resurrected from 3e. Especially when they are fairly standard tactics. For example, a Bugbear's Bushwacked ability is just a sneak attack isn't it? So why not just say "Sneak attack +1d6" in the statblock? Why waste time forcing DM's to read the same explanations for basic attack bonuses?
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Monsters with spell lists is not a good sign
- Thread starter Dragonblade
- Start date
Phaezen
Adventurer
But bushwacked is significantly different from sneak attack in conditions required to use it.
CasvalRemDeikun
Adventurer
I just noticed I can't give XP for some reason (Was I bad?!). But anyway, I am in total agreement with this. The DM should not have to hunt all over to find out what a monster does. Is this what they mean by DM "empowerment"?
Kinak
First Post
Not that I know of
They just turned XP off temporarily to help the servers run a bit more smoothly.Cheers!
Kinak
To that, perhaps it shouldn't be. Bushwacked tells us Bugbears are supposed to be dirty fighters, so doing extra damage when they have advantage seems a simpler way to express that.
If you wanted to keep bugbears only as ambush monsters instead of thuggish hobgoblins though, you still could say: "Bushwack: +2d6 when attacking while hidden" right in the stat block.
Phaezen
Adventurer
Judging from what they said in today's podcast as well as the live chat, they are no where near close to looking at final statblock formatting for monster, so I am assuming this is just a temporary measure.
I think going away from the 4e style monster block would be a bad idea, as having to open 6 books to see what a monster's abilities all do is what turned me off from DMing older editions.
Plane Sailing
Astral Admin - Mwahahaha!
For what it is worth, I (and I guess many others) quite like to see spells listed in a monster stat block - because spells are common currency and I find them dead easy to memorise. Know one fireball, you know them all. The 4e monster powers didn't work well for me at all - because every little monster had something slightly different, I found it impossible to memorise all the necessary stuff.
I know many people found the 4e approach made it easier for them to run monsters. I found it harder than previous editions (and I might not have been the only one!)
Cheers
I know many people found the 4e approach made it easier for them to run monsters. I found it harder than previous editions (and I might not have been the only one!)
Cheers
To me it depends.
If its a spell-like ability, even if it duplicates the effects of a spell, I would like to see it in the stat block. I would also like to see such thing being pretty limited, perhaps to a max of two or three.
If a monster is supposed to be an actual spell-caster, I.e. having levels in a spell-casting class or equivalent. I would like that to be noted, and then be told to pick the spells myself.
If its a spell-like ability, even if it duplicates the effects of a spell, I would like to see it in the stat block. I would also like to see such thing being pretty limited, perhaps to a max of two or three.
If a monster is supposed to be an actual spell-caster, I.e. having levels in a spell-casting class or equivalent. I would like that to be noted, and then be told to pick the spells myself.
