D&D 5E (2014) Starter Set: Except 7

[Plaguescarred]

I like the statblocks layout in red and how the line grows thinner. I preferred the ability scores emplacement as they were before, but there is something in it creating an emphasis on them, an importance too that i like. The ogre art is niice too, pretty close to the concept art we've seen in Dragon's Eye View column

 

[Stainless]

All the skills are based off of stats, so if you EVER think a monster might need to make skill checks, you might as well include all their stats.

Plus, there are 6 saving throws against spells now. Those are the 6 stats. If PCs cast a spell that requires a Charisma saving throw, you'll need to know what the Ochre Jelly's saving throw is against it.

It kind of needs to be in there for the monster to be run in combat.

Thanks. That makes a lot of sense. Perhaps this is an example where designing a simpler subsystem for monsters would have saved a lot of space, rules, time, etc. rather than slavishly sticking to a single universal system. I like unified systems to a degree, but don't agree with them if they end up being counter productive.

 

[fjw70]

I wonder how the ogre's CR and XP will change if you put him in some plate and give him a great axe.

 

[Klaus]

That's ok but we've taken to running published adventures in recent times due to lack of preparation time and this makes it more difficult as would need to change things around finding alternative creatures to those in the module.

Oh well guess there's always the option of NPC party members again

I regularly DM for 3 PCs, and I remove 1/4 of the monsters' numbers in a given encounter.

 

[Klaus]

I like the statblocks layout in red and how the line grows thinner. I preferred the ability scores emplacement as they were before, but there is something in it creating an emphasis on them, an importance too that i like. The ogre art is niice too, pretty close to the concept art we've seen in Dragon's Eye View column

That is also pretty much the ogre from the D&D Dungeon Command set Blood of Gruumsh:


Which is, in turn, pretty much the ogre from the concept art by Conceptopolis:

 

[Plaguescarred]

Yeah its true i had forgotten about the Dungeon Command ogre art!

 

[Thaumaturge]

Yeah its true i had forgotten about the Dungeon Command ogre art!

No worries. There are realms of things I've forgotten.

Thaumaturge.

 

[delericho]

No worries. There are realms of things I've forgotten.

Thaumaturge.

Fortunately, I've never...

what was I saying again?

 

[UngeheuerLich]

59 hp ogre with AC 11.

He is a brute. #high damage, high hp, low armor. A bles spell will asure that you hit most of the time. +6 against you makes him hit you half of the time, so he may kill you in 2 or 3 rounds. A non fighter does not want to be in melee with him. A fighter with second wind and protector style will easily hold his own against him, for a few rounds at least.

So a 3 person group can still fight him at level 2, hence CR2. The xp budget however will all be taken up for a normal fight, so it will be only the single ogre, not 2 or 1 and his goblin friends.

Assuming the aveage damage vs an AC 11 ogre is somewhere around 8 per round, the ogre dies within 3 rounds. So an organized group will take him down.

 

[Zaukrie]

I already miss the elegance of the 4e stat block. And, the lack of description for the Nothic is criminal. How could a new DM run one?