D&D 5E Tome of Undeath

[generic]

View attachment 130814
Playing with ArtBreeder. I don't know what the hell this is, but it certainly sparks creativity

Pure pain and torment bound in the snapping jaw-joints of a skeletal figure.

The figure, cloaked in malaise, stumbles forwards, each tremulous limb held together by a detached jaw, teeth gnashing ineffectually on the bone.

 

[Imaculata]

Just a thought, but when you start describing the Filler category as minions, maybe you should just call the category Minions. It communicates a lot better.

I also don't like the category name Hitter. I feel it doesn't quite capture the role of monsters in this category. All monsters hit after all. I'm struggling to come up with an alternate name off the top of my head right now. But what they do as I understand it, is deal damage spikes. So maybe just call them Glass Canon?

Additionally, all monsters are a threat. Even minions. What monsters in this category are, are tough hard hitting juggernauts. They are line breakers, or body guards. Perhaps Veteran or Champion would be a better category.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

Just a thought, but when you start describing the Filler category as minions, maybe you should just call the category Minions. It communicates a lot better.

I also don't like the category name Hitter. I feel it doesn't quite capture the role of monsters in this category. All monsters hit after all. I'm struggling to come up with an alternate name off the top of my head right now. But what they do as I understand it, is deal damage spikes. So maybe just call them Glass Canon?

Additionally, all monsters are a threat. Even minions. What monsters in this category are, are tough hard hitting juggernauts. They are line breakers, or body guards. Perhaps Veteran or Champion would be a better category.

I agree. In my own designs I shamelessly steal the names they gave the different archetypes in Final Fantasy XIII. A creature can probably have 2 types.

• Soldier -> Regular monsters, average damage dealing and defense, no-damage spikes.
• Ravager -> Hi-damage spikes monsters, low-ish defense and at-will damage.
• Sentinel -> Hi-defenses, maybe counter-attacks or marking mechanics
• Medic -> Classic healer
• Synergist -> Buffer
• Saboteur -> De-buffer

Then you can have your ranking to show how your to threat the specific monster (solo, leader etc), in which case I generally use the old BECMI acronym to show the level of threat.
Basic, Expert, Champion, Master, Immortal. I tend to have templates that I can add to a basic monsters to augment its threat level.

So a young green dragon meeting a party would be classified something like: Champion Ravager/Saboteur, for example.

 

[loverdrive]

Just a thought, but when you start describing the Filler category as minions, maybe you should just call the category Minions. It communicates a lot better.

I also don't like the category name Hitter. I feel it doesn't quite capture the role of monsters in this category. All monsters hit after all. I'm struggling to come up with an alternate name off the top of my head right now. But what they do as I understand it, is deal damage spikes. So maybe just call them Glass Canon?

Additionally, all monsters are a threat. Even minions. What monsters in this category are, are tough hard hitting juggernauts. They are line breakers, or body guards. Perhaps Veteran or Champion would be a better category.

Well, the names are just lifted from Fate Adversary Toolkit -- I'm bad at naming. What they are (and I am) to convey is that some enemies just scream "I AM DANGEROUS", while others are more "delayed". When encountered together, they are supposed to create a very sticky situation, where the party needs to focus fire on a Threat, because every round it lives somebody gets hurt, but at the same time they really need to dispose of a Hitter before it strikes.

They aren't distinguished by their damage to HP ratio (but there is some correlation), but by "troubles right now vs. troubles later" -- Treat deals X damage every round, Hitter deals zero damage for two rounds and then finally strikes for 10X damage.

So, a wizard that is hurling fireballs at every turn is a Threat, while another wizard, who needs three turns to cast a complex devastating spell is a Hitter.

Thanks, by the way, I really like term Juggernaut, it certainly works.

I agree. In my own designs I shamelessly steal the names they gave the different archetypes in Final Fantasy XIII. A creature can probably have 2 types.

• Soldier -> Regular monsters, average damage dealing and defense, no-damage spikes.
• Ravager -> Hi-damage spikes monsters, low-ish defense and at-will damage.
• Sentinel -> Hi-defenses, maybe counter-attacks or marking mechanics
• Medic -> Classic healer
• Synergist -> Buffer
• Saboteur -> De-buffer

Then you can have your ranking to show how your to threat the specific monster (solo, leader etc), in which case I generally use the old BECMI acronym to show the level of threat.
Basic, Expert, Champion, Master, Immortal. I tend to have templates that I can add to a basic monsters to augment its threat level.

So a young green dragon meeting a party would be classified something like: Champion Ravager/Saboteur, for example.

Hm, archetypes of FFXIII certainly work.

Thanks for the input! I'll think about it a bit harder.


Also, a bit of progress, related to categories. I've been banging my head against the wall for some time trying to define what Boss actually is, given that with how character advancement in D&D works, a monster that can be an encounter of its own at level 1 is trivial at level 3 and is barely a speedbump at level 5, so potentially any monster can be a boss, so what's even the point.

But now it clicked. Boss isn't just a tough enemy. Boss is a tough enemy you're excited to finally cross swords with.

 

[Imaculata]

I think the category Boss is the clearest to me. I expect a boss category enemy to be hard hitting and durable, with special qualities and abilities that the default creature would not have, nor any of its other sub categories. It is also probably of a larger size than the default creature. It also should have legendary actions and/or lair actions.

The highly durable category could simply be called the tank. It is a very popular term for that type of creature.

 

[loverdrive]

I missed the self-imposed deadline for the adventure, because I suddenly decided to make something fancy. So, I'm gonna show what's I'm up to

View attachment 131095

 

[loverdrive]

Ok, this is it. I’ve been working on it for a long time.

Countless writes and rewrites, countless playtests…

Here it is. Exciting combat vol. 1: Tome of Undeath. Yeah, that’s a mouthful.



What’s inside:

• 12 new, action-oriented monsters with new, unique and thoroughly playtested mechanics.
• Explanations on how to use these monsters effectively, both from in-game and meta perspective.
• Ready to use prompts for campaigns focused on undead.
• Gorgeous programmer artwork.

 

[loverdrive]

That was fast, I'm pretty amazed