Pathfinder 1E Question for Pathfinder DMs

[sheadunne]

There's a joke in our group that the more time you spend customizing the monster the quicker it dies. I think though, that it only feels that way because of the amount of work spent on making it.

 

[Kinak]

I rework every monster and NPC I use from scratch, mostly so that I don't need to keep a dozen abilities in mind to run them at the intended effectiveness.

I find it's time well spent because I can run the actual combats so much faster. And, because I keep things to the guidelines rather than building them like PCs, it doesn't actually take all that long.

Cheers!
Kinak

 

[was]

I usually modify them in some way..like winged goblins...etc

 

[doghead]

What say you? Is your goblin a goblin? Your mimic a mimic? and your harpy a harpy? Or do you edit them? raise their levels, toss on new powers and feats?

Animal monsters I tend to use straight out of the book. This cuts down on prep time, and the amount of notes I have to keep. There enough different monsters that I can usually find something to achieve what I want. I will however modify them if I want them to be able to do something specific that the stoke monster can't.

Humanoid monsters I tend to modify using class levels and templates just as I would for human NPC's.

thotd

 

[GreyLord]

My buddy and I were engaged in a debate tonight regarding monster use in adventures.

I don't recall the last time I wrote, or ran, an adventure without creating or modifying the monsters.

He thinks most DMs just use monsters directly from the books without custom edits.

What say you? Is your goblin a goblin? Your mimic a mimic? and your harpy a harpy? Or do you edit them? raise their levels, toss on new powers and feats?

If I run PF (which normally I don't, but right now I seem to be) I normally do it straight from the book. If I don't, it's a significant NPC or such...otherwise, its simply easier to rip it straight.

 

[Yora]

While I love monster books, I mostly just use them as starting points and almost everything my players face is modified in some way to some degree.

 

[Lwaxy]

I slightly alter, like a few more or less HP or abilities, on the fly, so my players don't know what to expect exactly.

 

[Ralts Bloodthorne]

I did some updating to Rise of the Runelords Anniversary Edition, mainly adding in stuff from the racial guide, Ultimate Campaign, and the Mythic Adventures book.

Just filecards, nothing major.

But when I'm running my own stuff, it's doing it all myself all the way, because our homebrew has a lot of additional rules that really change thigns.