Understanding the design quirks behind Monster Creation in 4e

[Najo]

In the 4e DMG on pg. 184-185 they gave us monster design rules for building our own creatures. In reviewing the rules, its seems all of the monsters are actually built with these rules with one exception:

Where does the Damage by Levels get used on the monster manual's monsters? It seems the monsters either have weapon damage or some other fromula. I haven't checked every monster, but the ones I have, none of them use this table. Why? Where does this table get used?

Aside from that, have any of you run into design quirks like this with monsters in the monster manual?

 

[Tequila Sunrise]

In the 4e DMG on pg. 184-185 they gave us monster design rules for building our own creatures. In reviewing the rules, its seems all of the monsters are actually built with these rules with one exception:

Where does the Damage by Levels get used on the monster manual's monsters? It seems the monsters either have weapon damage or some other fromula. I haven't checked every monster, but the ones I have, none of them use this table. Why? Where does this table get used?

Aside from that, have any of you run into design quirks like this with monsters in the monster manual?

The designers didn't use their own guidelines. This is most obvious with damage values, but if you take a close look at attacks and defenses you'll realize that they also ignored their own formula.

Another "quirk" that was no doubt intentional, but that I think was a mistake nevertheless, was to oversimplify the attack and defense golden standard into "N + Level." That simple formula works for attack vs. AC (monsters have about the same chance of hitting AC at low levels than they do at high levels), but it doesn't work for anything else (monsters hit other defenses, and dodge all PC attacks, much more often at high levels than at low levels).

If you're interested, I wrote a detailed guide to 4e monster creation. Unfortunately my site is temporarily MIA, but I can email it.

TS

 

[Najo]

Yeah, I would love to see your guide. Please email it to borderlandsgames<at>yahoo<dot>com

 

[questing gm]

Me too! questinggm(at)gmail(dot)com.

 

[avin]

ivan(dot)fiedoruk(at)gmail(dot)com

 

[the Jester]

Yeah, count me in too...

unca_james

AT

yahoo.com

Thanks!

 

[Jack99]

Sounds interesting

chris.kummel

AT

gmail.com

Thanks in advance

 

[Protagonist]

I'd be interested as well. Thanks in advance.

 

[Gothmog]

I'd like to see your guidelines Tequila Sunrise- please email to:

pwsneuro

at

yahoo.com

 

[The Little Raven]

Where does the Damage by Levels get used on the monster manual's monsters?

I ran an all zombie encounter last night, and every single zombie I used straight out of the MM had damage values that were consistent with the list.

Also, a key thing to remember is this:

"Following these steps won’t result in a fully designed and developed monster, but they’ll provide a good approximation."

It's a guideline to help you, but you still have to tweak and test it to determine whether it's right.