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

[Paul Farquhar]

2014 including monster creation rules certainly did not seem to hurt their ability to sell multiple monster books.

They did hurt when people tried to use them to create monsters though.

 

[Oofta]

I'm pretty sure 3e had such rules; after all, it was their entire design philosophy. And in any case, there are plenty of non-official D&D-style games out there and I know some of them have them.

There were rules in 3.x that you could use to build NPCs, nothing for monsters that I know of.

 

[Micah Sweet]

There were rules in 3.x that you could use to build NPCs, nothing for monsters that I know of.

They all used the same rules. I'd look it up myself but my sleeping daughter's bedroom doubles as the family library.

 

[sevenbastard]

(Putting my big spoon in the pot and stiring it around while adding gasoline to the fire)

Cause someone might use the monster rules to make orcs!!!

 

[J.Quondam]

There were rules in 3.x that you could use to build NPCs, nothing for monsters that I know of.

3.5e MM had a couple chapters about building monsters from scratch. That was in addition to whatever rules for layering on class levels.

 

[Oofta]

3.5e MM had a couple chapters about building monsters from scratch. That was in addition to whatever rules for layering on class levels.

Ah, I didn't think to look at the MM. I just saw the NPC section in the DMG.

 

[Charlaquin]

Nope. You playtest before you publish, and once you've published you have released your formula. How could it be otherwise?

Because the results of playtesting are not likely to perfectly match what the formula says. If it did, you wouldn’t need the playtesting. The formula is great for a starting point, but when the rubber meets the road you need to go with what actually works, not what the math says should work.

 

[Senior_WotC_Janitor]

actual play experience always trumps theory.

Horse s.h.it.

 

[Doc_Klueless]

Yeah, I'm that guy who'd rather have 40 pages about the planes in the DMG than Monster Building Rules.

BECAUSE...

I feel they belong in the Monster Manual. Little disappointed that they're not in the MM. But only a little as I'd never use them but I know others would and I don't like yucking on other people's yum.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Because the results of playtesting are not likely to perfectly match what the formula says. If it did, you wouldn’t need the playtesting. The formula is great for a starting point, but when the rubber meets the road you need to go with what actually works, not what the math says should work.

You make the formula, playtest it, then make adjustments to the formula based on the playtesting, then you publish the adjusted formula. All of these steps take as long as is needed to produce a happy result.

And Bob's your uncle.