New playtest report 9/20...

[Brother MacLaren]

So all you do is you take the monster, and increase its AC, HP, Attack Bonus, and Damage to match the benchmarks for 7th level. And voila, you've got a level 7 appropriate monster.

What about saving throws and ability DCs? I can see leaving off skills and feats, but it sounds like with what you're increasing it's not that different than 3E monster upgrading.

I had gotten pretty good at adding HD or levels to monsters. I did have to look up some effects of the size changes, but other than that it was quite simple. With no size change, going from a 5-HD magical beast to a 10-HD magical beast is +5 BAB, double HP, +3 on the good saves, +2 on the bad save, and +1.7 CR. Maybe take Improved Natural Armor twice for the bonus feats to keep it simple. An animal going from 5 HD to 10 HD is similar, but only gets +4 BAB. If it's a dragon or outsider, the BAB is +5, all saves are good, and CR is +2.5.

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

I'm wondering how long it takes before the "truth" that it takes 90 minutes to make a first level PC in 4e is adapted as a criticism of the new rules.

/M

Except its "re-imagining" mid level characters, some of whom no longer have race/classes already available. If my group was able to be done in an hour and a half with such an undertaking, I'd about pee myself with glee.

The thinkg I'm most intrigued with is thatthey acknowledge they dont have NPC generation done yet... which indicates it will be different than PC generation. As it stands, I dont plot out NPC's low level spells and allocate very few skill points. I have a couple feat distrubution schemes based around what I want the NPC to do, and rarely vary it. Bring on villain classes!

 

[GlassJaw]

I found this report fairly useless. So they made characters for 90 minutes - who cares? I want to hear about actual play!

 

[Simia Saturnalia]

Personal theory: 'Rampage' relates to it being a 'Hulk'.

No idea what the terms mean, but my brain draws a line through 'monster roles' and between those two.