D&D 5E Tidbit for monster design

[dave2008]

Of course you can, it just isn't my way. I prefer much more free style and I have the experience to know how tough something is without the need of formulas. Even the CRs of the monstrous manual falter way too often.

Just realize your way does not work for a lot of people. I came from 1e where there really no monster creation rules. So I have the background of make first and assign difficulty later, but not everyone has the knowledge base or skill to do that. That is we other methods of monster design become helpful.

 

[Sword of Spirit]

How is the offensive CR formula coming?

It's been much slower going, because there are too many unknown variables in that side, and no neat correlation like on the Defensive. However, I may have had a breakthrough, but I haven't run the numbers to find out yet. Hopefully I'll be able to know whether it works by tomorrow.

 

[tomedunn]

A little while back I derived a formula for calculating monster XP values based on their effective offensive and defensive stats.

It may look arbitrary, but it was derived from a basic calculation of how much damage the monsters can be expected to do during an encounter against four generic PCs. You can find the full derivation here.

Once a monster's XP has been calculated, it can be converted to a CR by simply finding the CR with the closest corresponding XP value.

It works best for monsters that don't have special traits and don't apply conditions to the PCs, but it can also be applied to more complicated monsters by converting those things into bonuses/penalties to their base stats. For example, a monster that has a consistent way of gaining advantage might have an effective bonus to their AB of +4 to represent their increased chance to hit.

 

[^Dagon^]

Just realize your way does not work for a lot of people. I came from 1e where there really no monster creation rules. So I have the background of make first and assign difficulty later, but not everyone has the knowledge base or skill to do that. That is we other methods of monster design become helpful.

I can't disagree with that. Certainly, inexperienced DMs need some help in monster creation and if you want my opinion they may better be using entries from the MM until they get it. Takes some time, different for each person.