What's a template?

[Tuzenbach]

No foolin', I really don't know. You see, I haven't gamed in a great while and when I did, I was only a very part-time gamer who gamed with fellows "out of the loop" regarding the latest D&D concepts and terminology. All these threads about templates are making my head spin as I don't know what those are!

 

[Seravin]

No foolin', I really don't know. You see, I haven't gamed in a great while and when I did, I was only a very part-time gamer who gamed with fellows "out of the loop" regarding the latest D&D concepts and terminology. All these threads about templates are making my head spin as I don't know what those are!

Welcome back to the game then.

Templates are essentially themed modifications that can be made to monsters and/or characters. Sometimes they only apply to one specific type of creatures (like only humanoids) or they can be applied to virtually any creature (like giants, humanoids, dragons, etc).
Templates in the SRD (or MM) include (but are not limited to): Vampires, Liches, Ghosts, Lycanthropes, Fiends, Half-Fiends, Celestials, and Half-Celestials.

Templates are tools for the DM to make an encounter more interesting. Each template includes what kind of creatures they can be added to and what modifications they make to the creature.

For example, say you wanted to make a Fiendish Wolf for the party to fight against. You'd take the statistics for the wolf and apply all the modifications that the Fiendish Template gives (the wolf type changes from animal to magical beast, it gets darkvision and energy resistances, limited SR and it's intelligence goes to 3. It can also Smite Good 1/day). The template also lists how it modifies the CR. In the case of the wolf, it doesn't modify the CR at all.
Add the template to a troll however and it modifies the CR by +1 and you have a really interesting encounter. A troll with Fire Resistance 5 and Damage Reduction 5/magic becomes a little bit tougher.

There are a lot of templates out there, including many undead-based and elemental based templates - even a half-golem template.

 

[Tuzenbach]

Welcome back to the game then.

Templates are essentially themed modifications that can be made to monsters and/or characters. Sometimes they only apply to one specific type of creatures (like only humanoids) or they can be applied to virtually any creature (like giants, humanoids, dragons, etc).
Templates in the SRD (or MM) include (but are not limited to): Vampires, Liches, Ghosts, Lycanthropes, Fiends, Half-Fiends, Celestials, and Half-Celestials.

Templates are tools for the DM to make an encounter more interesting. Each template includes what kind of creatures they can be added to and what modifications they make to the creature.

For example, say you wanted to make a Fiendish Wolf for the party to fight against. You'd take the statistics for the wolf and apply all the modifications that the Fiendish Template gives (the wolf type changes from animal to magical beast, it gets darkvision and energy resistances, limited SR and it's intelligence goes to 3. It can also Smite Good 1/day). The template also lists how it modifies the CR. In the case of the wolf, it doesn't modify the CR at all.
Add the template to a troll however and it modifies the CR by +1 and you have a really interesting encounter. A troll with Fire Resistance 5 and Damage Reduction 5/magic becomes a little bit tougher.

There are a lot of templates out there, including many undead-based and elemental based templates - even a half-golem template.

Thanks! My next questions would be:

What's a CR?
What's an SRD?
How about the BAB I keep seeing eveywhere?

Thanks again!

 

[Nifelhein]

CR is a relative measure of the monster power, a CR 4 creature is meant to be a challenge for a 4th level party with 4 characters, note that this challenge is so that it would mean 25% of the resources of the party are spent in the battle.

SRD stands for System Reference Document, the 3rd edition and 3.5 (revised) of D&D have been released in its game rules, as open game, provided that you abide to its license. You can download the rules and start playing, with monsters too, the PHB, DMG and Monster Manuals have some add ons and explanations, however.

BAB is the character's Base Attack Bonus, in 2nd edition you had Thac0, now you have BAB, it adds to the attack of a character and then if it beats the Armor Class or equals it, it is a hit. Note that in 3.X edition you always have to roll high, AC starts at 10 and goes up only.

 

[Tuzenbach]

SRD stands for System Reference Document, the 3rd edition and 3.5 (revised) of D&D have been released in its game rules, as open game, provided that you abide to its license. You can download the rules and start playing, with monsters too, the PHB, DMG and Monster Manuals have some add ons and explanations, however.

Thanks! I'm still a little hazy about the SRD thing. Is it alternative rules for D&D 3.0 & beyond which are downloadable? And your statement about "provided that I abide by it's license", what's that all about? Thanks again!

 

[Seravin]

Thanks! I'm still a little hazy about the SRD thing. Is it alternative rules for D&D 3.0 & beyond which are downloadable? And your statement about "provided that I abide by it's license", what's that all about? Thanks again!

The SRD is not an alternative set of rules, it is the set of rules which have been made publicly available by Wizards of the Coast (WOTC). They are available online at WOTC's website www.wizards.com\d20 .]here.[/URL]

WOTC made them available under a system called the Open Gaming License (OGL). In short, the SRD is a combination of the Player's Handbook, the Dungeon Master's Guide, and the Monster Manual in a set of .rtf documents (some people have redone them as .pdf's though).

The 3.5 version of the SRD also includes the Epic Handbook and the Psionic Handbook (currently the 3.0 version of Psionics - it will be updated with the Expanded Psionic Handbook in a month or so). The SRD specifically does not include any Intellectual Property (IP), so you won't find references to Kord, St. Cuthbert, Mordenkainen, Bigby, Mind Flayers, or Kuo-Toa (to name a few things). Magic items and spells that used those named were renamed (Bigby's Crushing Hand becomes Crushing Hand).
In general, I find the books better because I like books - plus there are some explanatory paragraphs you'll find in the books but not in the SRD.

The OGL is the set of rules that WOTC allows other publishers to use in order to create material for D&D. So Malhavoc Press can create an adventure using everything in the SRD (and only the SRD) which is then useful for anyone.
In the example above, the publisher Malhavoc Press can also create it's own set of rules, spells, and monsters that are in addition to what's in the SRD, but they couldn't use a monster out of the Fiend Folio or the Monster Manual II because those monsters are not in the SRD and are not what's called Open Content (in otherwords, not available without negotiating with the owner of those books).