D&D (2024) Why No Monster Creation Rules in D&D 2024?

[Azzy]

If it really matters that much, find a monster close to what you just made, see what they give as XP, and then give your monster that.

I mean unless you are designing these monsters to be published... then anything you do for your home campaign does not need some sort of precision of any sort. Your players don't know about and don't care about what the CR levels the encounters are that you throw at them, nor do they care about the precise XP each individual enemy had in the fight. You throw some monsters at them, they defeat them, they earn some random total of XP. That's all they care about. How everything is set up "behind the screen" does not matter to them, so there's no reason for any DM to lose sleep over it.

So, just feeling it out and winging it? Even 2e and BECMI had better rules for determining XP than that.

 

[DEFCON 1]

So, just feeling it out and winging it? Even 2e and BECMI had better rules for determining XP than that.

Or more unneccesary, depending on how you look at it.

If you are the DM you can just give whatever XP you want. We do it all the time for finishing quests and the like. So what difference does it make how much XP one gives for some random monster they make up?

 

[Hussar]

I mean, you keep ignoring me when I tell you, so why do you keep asking? I'll answer you a final time on this. It gives a baseline guidance system to help with the creation of monsters. It doesn't need to be perfect to give guidance. Guidance > no guidance. At least with guidance you have some help out there rather than being left to twist in the wind.

I'm not ignoring you.

I'm point out what I see as an inconsistency. If you believe that the CR system is broken and will not give you accurate results, then building a monster creation system around the CR system is doomed to failure. It can't work. While I agree that guidance is better than no guidance, I would argue that poor or misleading guidance is worst of all. After all, if I use a system that is based around broken mechanics, then that system will not work. It will also be broken.

 

[Azzy]

Or more unneccesary, depending on how you look at it.

If you are the DM you can just give whatever XP you want. We do it all the time for finishing quests and the like. So what difference does it make how much XP one gives for some random monster they make up?

Vibes isn't a good enough answer for me.

 

[Selas]

End of the day the only real answer to this is that "They decided it wasn't worth it." There probably wasn't a huge demand, whatever tools they currently use likely only serve as a starting point. If they use a complex spreadsheet it may be considered proprietary software by the legal department.

I'd like a chart that shows averages by level because sometimes I upgrade monsters a CR level or 3, but most custom monsters are bits and pieces of other monsters of approximately the same CR thrown together with the fluff changed.

But I think people are asking the wrong question when they ask "How much does a drow levitate add to CR?" because it's far too granular and the wrong question. The real question to me is "Am I adding something that will significantly increase damage potential or survivability." Often that's just a judgement call.

Not official, but Alphastream's video has a spreadsheet of averages for 2024 MM in the link below:

The Math of the 2024 Monster Manual

 

[DEFCON 1]

Vibes isn't a good enough answer for me.

Then feel free to get your answer from someone else. You aren't required to listen to me. I'm fine with it. But you do have to accept that the answer isn't coming from Wizards of the Coast (as of yet) because the book has already been printed and the rules aren't in it.

Plenty of other books and designers have monster creation rules to use. And they've been mentioned many times all over the place.

 

[Alzrius]

I've literally made two books of mostly from-scratch monsters (and working on a 3rd).

I thought you'd made three monster books so far: the Bestiary Malfearous, Bestiary Nefarious, and Bestiary Fantastic...or does that third one not count because the monsters aren't "mostly from scratch"?

 

[Minigiant]

Another issues is:

"By The Chart" monsters are VERY BORING.


Monsters who follow the chart are bland. They are only good for throwaways, cannon fodder, and mooks.

People don't want to create bland monsters. They want to create interesting monsters. And those monsters won't fit the chart or be extreme edge cases. Teaching edge cases requires a ton of books space.

If you want an 6 armed aberrant cultist and the CR 16 marilith is too high level, teaching you to make a good reusable 6 armed CR 4 Mook with Lazer eyes and Wings is not gonna be a simple sentence. It's easier for them to let you reflavor a CR4 Mook and say it attacked and scored 1d6 hits than teach you to make a monster with 6 attacks.

 

[Azzy]

Then feel free to get your answer from someone else. You aren't required to listen to me. I'm fine with it. But you do have to accept that the answer isn't coming from Wizards of the Coast (as of yet) because the book has already been printed and the rules aren't in it.

Plenty of other books and designers have monster creation rules to use. And they've been mentioned many times all over the place.

All things I already know.

 

[Stormonu]

I thought you'd made three monster books so far: the Bestiary Malfearous, Bestiary Nefarious, and Bestiary Fantastic...or does that third one not count because the monsters aren't "mostly from scratch"?

I didn't count Bestiary Fantastic, that's the base monster book for the 54 game, not a d20 book.