Wich book do you recomend for this?

[Trencher]

I am looking for some advice for getting more monster out of the CR. There are several books out on the market but I want to know which one you think is best. The new group I am gaming with is classical ruthless powergamers, and third (and a half) edition gives the player way to much exp in my opinion. three hundred exp for killing a couple of orc's?
I looking for templates and feats and classes and stuff.

 

[Old Fezziwig]

I'm not exactly sure what you're looking for as far as a book goes, as most of that (templates, feats, classes) is usually found in different books, and you seem to be talking about two different things (XP, templates and stuff). As far as the fact that 3e/3.5e gives too much XP, halve (or quarter) the XP you give out -- I used to do this in my old group and it worked really well. Rather than leveling up after almost every adventure, it slowed it down to every 3rd adventure or so. If you could be a little clearer in what you want the book to do, I could probably be more helpful.

Nick

 

[Crothian]

I have two suggestions for you. The first is Monster Handbook written by Mike Mealrs for Fantasy Flight Games. It has was to alter the creatures and you can make creatures a little more powerful without increasing the CR. It was written for 3.0 but really should work well for 3.5

http://www.enworld.org/reviews/index.php?sub=yes&where=currentprod&which=FFGMH

THe other book is Delux Book of Templates. It has a lot of templates that can be used to increase the power of creatures as well.

http://www.enworld.org/reviews/index.php?sub=yes&where=currentprod&which=BoTDE

 

[Trencher]

That monsters handbook certainly got rave reviews. And I am very happy with the mythic races book. In any case that is what I am looking for, any other recomandations?

 

[Trencher]

And I am not going to halve the xp even thoug it is tempting
I run 3,5 straight from the books this time if I have to make up house rules then I'm just going to use Hero5 instead.

 

[Eremite]

I'm not sure if I understand your request. If you do apply templates etc... to your monsters, you're going to boost the CR and that's going to result in more XP for the PCs.

It seems that what you need are better tactics for your monsters so that, for their CRs, they are more dangerous. Have your melee monsters use high crit weapons and power attack. Of course, this will mean that they hit less often but, when they do, it will be for more damage. Make sure you use ambushes and ranged attacks. Use low CR cannon-fodder while higher CR spellcasters pepper away at the PCs.

You mentioned orcs. One of the FR books (Silver Marches, I think) has a feat for orcs called Headlong Rush (IIRC) that allows orcs to do double damage on a charge attack. Yes, it's powerful... but it doesn't change CR and makes an encounter with low level orcs that much more frightening... especially when combined with power attack and high crit weapons.

 

[Patman21967]

In my new game..I am going to start halving experience, because the PC's are going to have alot to accomplish early...and I don't want them to get too powerful too fast

 

[Voadam]

Advance monsters just shy of the point that they would gain a CR boost, so say 3 HD for undead. This makes them a bit tougher with more HD, BAB, and power DCs but not over the top.

Add on a single npc class as this doesn't up the CR but does add on some hit points and saves etc. Example centaur warrior 1.

Use some classes from d20 modern with your monster NPCs, the strong hero class can give significant bonuses to melee combat, a bit more than a regular fighter.

I'm not sure there was guidelines on the CR increase for gestalt characters (villains) but worth checking out as it can give your sorcerer villains a lot more hit points if they gestalt with the barbarian class.

 

[Arkhandus]

The CRs of Dragons (chromatic or otherwise) are purposely lower than what they should be ; Dragons thus give less XP and treasure than their actual difficulty would warrant. So get out your Monster Manual, Monster Manual II, Monsters of Faerun, and Oriental Adventures books, and go to town on the unsuspecting PCs. They just became dragon-slayers in a land where dragons rule and nothing is as easy to take down as it would seem. :^D

.........Start them off fighting the dragons' Lizardmen henchmen, since wymling dragons are a bit too high in CR to try until the PCs are something like 3rd or 4th level at least. Lizardmen are strong, but low CR.

 

[Turjan]

In my new game..I am going to start halving experience, because the PC's are going to have alot to accomplish early...and I don't want them to get too powerful too fast

The easier way to handle this is to double the XP values in the advancement charts; then all XP calculations remain the same. Of course, this way even unexperienced players see directly what you are doing .