New Podcast Posted!

[Moon-Lancer]

Nope. Wyatt explained that what they're doing is that they want to drive home the point that the MM1 isn't "The Core MM"; if the MM1 doesn't have Frost Giants, that doesn't mean "You don't have frost giants in your game". All MMs are Core.

MY COMMENTS:

So I suspect that various critters are going to be spread out., making each book legitimate, rather than MM1 = Core, MM2-5 = not important to your game, but a nice suggestion. Which probably also means "If you want X in your game, you'll have to Wait for it and then buy MM12 so you can have medusa" (I pulled that out of my butt).

Sounds like the same tactic they use for miniatures right now. You cant buy a pack of dragons, you have to buy every pack to get all the dragons. Really really lame. If they spread their classic material throughout all the books, Thats going to really cheese me off. I don't want to feel like every time i'm buying a book, its only for a few things with a ton of extra junk, Like I do when i buy miniatures once an a while.

What does this mean in terms of the srd? does this mean every monster book an ever phb will be in the srd? I doubt it, so i really don't think its honest to say they are core if it turns out only the phb 1 and mm1 are the srd.

I really wanted to love 4e. I was really exited. But if my assumptions hold true, I dont think I am as interested as I once was.

wears the druid? *old lady from Wendy's commercial*

 

[MerricB]

Encounters populated with monsters "on the fly" by James Wyatt: (28:13)

12th level encounter for 5 PCs in the underground/underdark: (done in 1 minute)
Ghost (Controller)
Human Fighter Death Knight (Elite Soldier)
Runecarved Eilodon (Lurker/Leader)

(29:20)
8th level PCs walking through the forest: (1 min 50)
Owlbear - Elite Brute
Quickling Runner - Skirmisher
Satyr Piper - Controller
Werewolf

3rd level PCs guarding a caravan moving through the caravan on the road.
(31:15)
Young White Dragon! (heh!) - took James 3 seconds for that one!

OR

2 Hobgoblin Soldiers - Soldier
Hobgoblin Archer - Artillery
Goblin Hexer - Controller (20 seconds)

32:10 - 15th level PCs who accidentally teleport into Dispater's Fortress. What's a patrol look like?
4 Legion Devils (Soldier Minions)
Bone Devil (17th level Controller)
Eye of Flame (Artillery)

Also:
Bar-Lgura Demon (Brute)
Angels of Valour (16th level Minion Soldiers)

Cheers!

 

[coyote6]

If I were doing it the way I am explaining, I would cut and paste the Combat/Skills chapter from the PHB1 into the PHB2. Probably with some refining or errata built into the system.

If you were doing that, you would also need to copy & paste the stuff on building a character, the stuff on ability scores, the stuff on adventuring (e.g., encumbrance, light, travel speeds, etc.), the stuff on rolling dice, and everything else. With just the combat & skills chapters, you couldn't actually build a character & play the game with just the PH2+.

And the wholesale copying of the core rules in successive PH would be really annoying. Who wants to spend $30+ multiple times, to keep buying new copies of rules you already own?

Even White Wolf dropped that idea -- they now do one core book (Exalted; World of Darkness), and other books build on it (Lunars, Sidereals; Vampire, Werewolf).

 

[Rechan]

I am not sure if they really MEANT this, but here's a problem I have:

I want to use Monster X, but I do Not intend to use Monster X's ability 3. But that ability 3 inflates that monster's CR. If I wanted to take ability 3 off the monster, how would that effect its CR?

The most gross example is the 3.0 Succubus. She had a CR 13, and one of her abilities was, once a day, she had the 10% of summoning a Balor. If your 13th level party is fighting a Succubus, it's all well. But then she has a 10% chance to cause Total TPK.

Compare that to the 3.5 Succubus. CR 7, can summon a vrock with 30% chance, for 3 rounds.

 

[Rechan]

8th level PCs walking through the forest: (1 min 50)
Owlbear - Elite Brute
Quickling Runner - Skirmisher
Satyr Piper - Controller
Werewolf

Am I the only one who finds that just... silly?

I might be able to see the Quickling and Satyr, as they might be fey. But... The werewolf and owlbear? WHAT IS IT DOING WITH THOSE TWO? Why hasn't it eaten them?

 

[MerricB]

Am I the only one who finds that just... silly?

I might be able to see the Quickling and Satyr, as they might be fey. But... The werewolf and owlbear? WHAT IS IT DOING WITH THOSE TWO? Why hasn't it eaten them?

The idea behind the encounter is that the Owlbear is rampaging through the forest, and is being followed by the fey and the werewolf who then attack the things it has first distracted. It makes a little more sense when you listen to the podcast, although I'm really not sure about the werewolf.

I like the fey following the owlbear bit, though.

Cheers!

 

[Rechan]

The idea behind the encounter is that the Owlbear is rampaging through the forest, and is being followed by the fey and the werewolf who then attack the things it has first distracted. It makes a little more sense when you listen to the podcast, although I'm really not sure about the werewolf.

That makes a little more sense.

Now that I think about it, the Satyr Piper might have "charmed" the werewolf. At least, appeasing the sucker.

 

[MerricB]

That makes a little more sense.

Now that I think about it, the Satyr Piper might have "charmed" the werewolf. At least, appeasing the sucker.

That's the idea. David Noonan was throwing party levels at James Wyatt, and getting him to come up with appropriate encounters on the spur of the moment, with the tables from the Monster Manual in front of him.

It's particularly interesting as (a) they revealed some monsters and (b) also how they fit together in roles. "Elites" counted as 2 creatures; I think you got four minions for the price of 1 creature.

The encounters didn't always make that much sense, but he was looking for roles/level/environment more than anything else.

Cheers!

 

[Vigilance]

Am I the only one who finds that just... silly?

I might be able to see the Quickling and Satyr, as they might be fey. But... The werewolf and owlbear? WHAT IS IT DOING WITH THOSE TWO? Why hasn't it eaten them?

The way it sounded to me in the podcast was that the werewolf was almost acting as a scavenger, waiting for prey to be killed by the owlbear, or perhaps scared out of hiding.

It was sort of a symbiotic relationship.

Also, James was under the gun, at the end of the interview, they basically started throwing stuff at him, like, in this case, "8th level party wandering through a forest, go!"

And he was coming up with mixed-monster encounters on the fly.

The forest one was probably the weakest of the lot.

 

[Rechan]

Oh man, if there's a table that has 'common monsters in x environment', I will squee.

Recently I was trying to put together several encounters for an abandoned town in a desert, and started pulling my hair out because I couldn't find environmental tables. The SRD filter had ones for the MM, but not for any books beyond that.