Schubert's Blog: MM Monster Distribution

[Olgar Shiverstone]

From Steven Schubert's blog:

The grunt work will continue - we've updated the monster numbers through level 10, which is a sizeable chunk of the Monster Manual. That leaves 20 more levels to get through, which is still more than half the book. I also start leading actual Development of the monster manual next week, which, in addition to reality-checking our numbers work, will let us hammer out how all the special abilities will work, and make the monsters as fun to play for the DM as the PCs are for the players. It'll be fun.

So slightly less than half the monsters are designed for PCs level 10 and under. That sounds like a pretty good balance to me, since a little mroe play happens at lower levels, plus by the time some campaigns work up to higher levels there may be more MM volumes out with higher level monsters.

Anyone ever calculate what the monster distribution by CR in the current MM is?

 

[Masquerade]

Anyone ever calculate what the monster distribution by CR in the current MM is?

Not sure about 3.5, but the 3.0 MM had an index that sorted monsters by CR.

 

[Aloïsius]

From Steven Schubert's blog:



So slightly less than half the monsters are designed for PCs level 10 and under. That sounds like a pretty good balance to me, since a little mroe play happens at lower levels, plus by the time some campaigns work up to higher levels there may be more MM volumes out with higher level monsters.

Anyone ever calculate what the monster distribution by CR in the current MM is?

CR 1/10 to CR 5 : one page in the index
CR 6 to CR 10 : 2.6 columns
CR 11 to CR 15 : 1 column
CR 16 to CR 23 : 0.4 column

Add the dragons.

It seems there will be more powerful monsters in 4e MM than in 3e. However, 5 level 10 monsters in 4e should be the same overall threat than 1 CR 10 monster in 3e. So the math is somewhat faulty.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I would very much like it if the toughest dragons were either the top monsters in 4E, or close to it. (Barring such entities as gods and arch-devils and the like.) So a level range of, say, 10-30 would make me very happy. Level 3 dragons make me sad.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

See, now, I liked the fact that in 3E you could encounter a dragon at any character level. Baby dragons can't be that uber.

A dragon fight in D&D is fun, regardless of what level it occurs at.

 

[Rechan]

See, now, I liked the fact that in 3E you could encounter a dragon at any character level. Baby dragons can't be that uber.

Depends on your definition of "Uber". Some parties can get their clocks cleaned by little dragons.

But I think that fighting a CR 2 dragon sort've takes the majesty out of fighting a dragon.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Depends on your definition of "Uber". Some parties can get their clocks cleaned by little dragons.

Good!

What I meant was ... it would seem silly to have all baby dragons appropriate for encounters only with characters of level 10 and higher. C'mon ... it just hatched and it's wiping the floor with four experienced heroes?

Hope they keep the general 3E concept.

 

[Mouseferatu]

Good!

What I meant was ... it would seem silly to have all baby dragons appropriate for encounters only with characters of level 10 and higher. C'mon ... it just hatched and it's wiping the floor with four experienced heroes?

Hope they keep the general 3E concept.

Well, if they keep the notion of at least five "presumably enemy" dragons (i.e. the evil chromatics), and if they keep the notion of 12 age categories per dragon, that's 60 difference combinations right there. I'm sure that, with monsters ranging in level from 1 to 30+, they could have more than one at each, if they so chose.

Of course, there's no guarantee that either of those assumptions holds true...

 

[EricNoah]

The cool thing about a lower level monster is you can always jack it up through advancement or class levels or whatever.

It isn't always easy to "jack down" a tough monster. I actually thought it might be valuable to have rules for such a thing, though -- or guidelines at least -- how to make a weaker beholder or troll or whatever...

 

[Echohawk]

Anyone ever calculate what the monster distribution by CR in the current MM is?

Give me a minute... okay, including the dragons sample templated creatures and classes/advanced versions of creatures like the aboleth mage and displacer beast pack lord, the CR distribution of the MM 3.5 looks like this:

CR 1/10: 2
CR 1/8: 2
CR 1/6: 4
CR 1/4: 8
CR 1/3: 7
CR 1/2: 30
CR 1: 45
CR 2: 50 (including the Satyr sans pipes)
CR 3: 70
CR 4: 44
CR 5: 50
CR 6: 27
CR 7: 47
CR 8: 32
CR 9: 29
CR 10: 16
CR 11: 25
CR 12: 13
CR 13: 13
CR 14: 12
CR 15: 8
CR 16: 10
CR 17: 8
CR 18: 7
CR 19: 8
CR 20: 9
CR 21: 8
CR 22: 5
CR 23: 7
CR 24: 4
CR 25: 4
CR 26: 2
CR 27: 1