Wandering Monsters: What’s in a Monster?

What information belongs in a monster entry? The amount and arrangement of information has fluctuated throughout editions, sometimes changing within the same edition.

2nd Edition blocks were lengthy lists of un-formatted information, which probably could have been sorted better. In its favor the flavor text tended to lean towards the extensive, often telling how many women and/or young are in a lair, if one is a leader (as well as any modifications), chance of shamans, and more.

3rd Edition blocks started out similar to 2nd Edition’s, but were eventually re-arranged and divided to make it easier to locate information. Flavor text varied from monster to monster, but when the stat blocks changed were expanded to include a lore table and paragraphs for strategies, encounters, ecology, and sample treasure.

4th Edition stat blocks were a major departure from its predecessors. Colored rows made it easier to locate information, and the later iteration even clustered up action types so that you did not have to look long or hard to cash in a move or minor action you might have left over. Also important was the fact that you never had to reference another book; the effect of every power was always included in the block, making spellcasters and the like a breeze.

While I recall 4th Edition initially getting criticism for a seeming lack of flavor content, flipping around the Monster Manual it looks only somewhat leaner than–if not on par with–most 3rd Edition entries. As with 3rd Edition, the last run of monster books–Monster Manual 3 and the Monster Vaults–resolved this beefing up the flavor to about a half-page per entry, if not more.

Having gone through four editions (so far), I can say that my ideal statblock serves two purposes.

First, it should require no outside reference. I can deal with having to check a glossary in the same book for stuff like Plant/Ooze/Swarm/Ooze/etc traits, but if running an angel, wizard, demon, or dragon requires that I take cliffnotes from Player’s Handbook, Arcane Supplement II, and Spell Compilation V I will be sorely disappointed. Thankfully the three “monsters” in the bestiary with built in spellcasting–dark acolyte/adept/priest–have spell effects in their entries.

Second, the flavor material should present a solid foundation of default information to work with; appearance, culture, environment, lairs, etc. While I like making up my own lore, often the defaults give me inspiration. To this end I really like how they did it in 3rd Edition’s Monster Manual V, which not only included monster variants (a trend that thankfully continued in 4th Edition), but encounter ideas, treasure, and even the occasional map.

Flavor-wise the monster entry for Next does really well. You get a physical description, motivation, combat tactics, number-encountered, lair ideas, and some personality traits. Easily enough to give me something solid to work with (or expand on/deviate from). I assume that they will include leaders (and perhaps spellcaster types) in the final product, so I think that my only nitpicks are that it could go a bit further with a sample encounter map and treasure (or two).

As for the stat block, it does…alright. It seems easier to follow than 2nd Edition, but lacks late-3rd and 4th Edition’s information grouping. I think that the defensive and offensive information should be stacked, so that it is a bit quicker to switch between the two. I would even move the “social” stuff–ability scores, alignment, languages, and senses–on top, which would give you something like this:

Bugbear
Medium Humanoid (Goblin)
Environment Hills or any underground

Abilities Str 15 (+2), Dex 14 (+2), Con 10, Int 8 (-1), Wis 11, Cha 9 (-1)

Senses darkvision 60 ft.

Languages Common, Goblin
Traits Burly, Stealthy +5

---

AC 14 (leather, shield)

hp 18 (4d8)

---

Speed 30 ft.

Space 5 ft. Reach 5 ft.

Melee Large morningstar +2.
Hit: 5 (1d8 + 1) bludgeoning damage and 5 (1d8 + 1) piercing damage.

Ranged Large javelin +2 (30 ft./120 ft.).
Hit: 9 (2d6 + 2) piercing damage.

What do you think? What about this one:

Or this one:

Legend & Lore; Monster Design in D&D Next, Part 2

Nothing mechanical, but it sounds like they are still using quite a bit of monster design from 4th Edition.

Strength in Numbers
In 3rd Edition an orc was CR 1/2, which meant that you would want to throw like, two of them at a 1st-level party as part of their balanced encounter. Given the unreliable nature of Challenge Ratings, depending on your party this number could vary quite a bit. Case in point when I ran Burnt Offerings for three players, they got creamed by a trio of goblins (otherwise known as the first encounter).  4th Edition upped the character-to-monster ratio to a 1:1 basis, with the rule of thumb being that you could swap out one monster for four minions (though I have heard five works better). In this way you could end up throwing a small horde of monsters, better approaching what I felt was a realistic amount.

There are a few critics opposed to the notion of just throwing more monsters at a party to account for their level. I think that this solution is just as good–if not better–than simply leveling up a monster; I would rather my group take on a larger warband of goblins, then just a handful that are inexplicably harder to hit and deal way more damage. I also do not mind the notion that a town can provide some measure of support without having to bump their level up to that of the party’s. Besides being able to lead an army or rally a militia that will not instantly die (or just be a pointless exercise in d20 rolling) would be awesome for charismatic characters.

Shepherding Complexity
4th Edition gave us the leader role for both characters and monsters, which basically let you know that this thing was good at giving out bonuses/healing/actions/etc to her allies, and I loved it for adding a tactical layer for both sides of the screen: DM’s got the ability to buff their monsters and let them do other things, while players got an important target to go after. It also introduced “monster schticks”, in that goblins could scramble away if you missed them, gnolls did more damage when you were surrounded, and orcs got in free hits before they died.

Thankfully it looks like they are retaining both of these concepts to some degree, which will hopefully be an indication to 4th Edition fans that they are not just throwing everything out. From what Mearls is saying, DMs will still have a lot of control over how complicated they want their encounters to be, by choosing if you want to include leaders/champions. I am also pleased to see that they are “likely” to add in a rule for breaking away from melee (hopefully also for running by monsters), as well as grouping monsters into units (which makes things go faster and also helps avoid just running through monsters to get to the BBEG at the back).

Nonhumanoid Monsters
Not all monsters will be simple, especially those that tend to operate alone. Sound advice, though I hope that “elites” and “solos” will not take a billion rounds to whittle into the ground. I am glad to see that rather than build in hard-wired special attacks to an individual monster, that they are at least considering general maneuvers that a monster can try. This is what I wish they had done with 4th Edition’s powers, and hopefully this time around we will not see slight variations on “make two attacks” or “make an attack and knock a target prone”.

Presentation
I really hope that they stick with something like 4th Edition’s stat block, as it made things very easy to navigate and read, even for complex things like dragons, primordials, and gods. Go ahead and and include all the “lore” content that you want (personally I dug a lot of those Ecology articles), but do not force DMs to dig through a huge wall of text that then forces them to reference another book to figure out what this or that monster ability means.

Dragon’s-Eye View: Making of an Owlbear, Part 2

Another encounter with owlbears? At least, to a point, it indicates that they are paying attention.

I never really liked the whole “a wizard did it” treatment. Not just because I have no seen magic that let a wizard fuse two things together–which could be pretty awesome–but because it also seems lazy. Even so I like Oldgrump and his sasquatch-like gait, while the beak on Longbeak does not make me think of owl (even though it matches what we have seen), and Tallgrizz’s action-hero pose seems kind of out of place.

Out of track 2 I actually kind of like Screecher. I could see it as an owlbear-variant, but I think I would actually prefer it as another monster entirely. While I do not particularly care for the Gorillowl, to me it looks more like result of a wizard’s experimentations or bizarre magical mutations. Again I would prefer something else for the “core owlbear”, but could see room for both.

The “Grizzowl” is basically exactly what I want: it looks bear-like, dangerous, and seems to walk mostly on all four legs. My only problems are that it looks too expressive (like, sinister), and I guess the beak could be a bit bigger, though I can still easily imagine it mauling adventurers to death with just its claws, chowing down, and then barfing up massive pellets later.

Living Spell Six-Pack

For those of you with a DDI subscription that also want more monsters–specifically living spells–I have uploaded six heroic-tier threats here:

• Living magic missile
• Living magic missile mote
• Living magic missile salvo 
• Living storm pillar
• Living acid mire
• Living fireball

Adventure Tools Lets You Build Monsters Now

It looks and builds like Character Builder, but for monsters. To give you a thorough look, I’ll go mostly step by step through the process of updating a monster.

You start out by picking the role and whether the monster is a standard, elite, solo, or minion. A radio button at the bottom lets you toggle the leader sub-role.

Then you can name your monster and determine its level, origin, type, and race and keywords (if any). In this case, our raggamoffyn is a Small natural animate with the blind and construct keywords.

The default values for hit points and defenses are already filled in, but you can fine-tune them as before. When entering new movement types, you can select the drop down menu to adjust the speed and add details like “(hover)” to fly or a range on different senses.

When choosing powers attacks automatically got set as Standard actions, while utilities seem to get set to Minor. I have already created slam as a basic melee, but let us take a closer look at the menus.

This is what the power editor normally looks like. If you want to add in details like range and targets, you have to choose Power Body on the left-hand side…

Which looks like this. This is kind of annoying that I have to go to another section to add what are often routine details, but whatever.

Skills is fairly spartan and straightforward. I have added Stealth, making it more likely that the raggamoffyn will get the jump on characters.

Finally we wrap things up with ability scores, alignment, languages, and gear.

And voila, we have a new monster ready to challenge (or embarrass) your players.

Homebrew: Wererat Piper

I posted a poll a few weeks back asking which faction out of Neverwinter Campaign Setting that people would be interested in tackling first. The winner was New Neverwinter, so am writing up a 1-10 adventure dealing with who will end up ultimately ruling Neverwinter. When it comes to adventure writing I like to make lots of homebrew content to go along with it (especially if it means that I do not have to deal with level ranges). It is still in the works, but here is a homebrew monster I created for it:

The Heirs of Ruin: Meet Hakaar

Here is the stat block for the “end boss” for the first adventure in The Heirs of Ruin. I wanted to give him some other multi-attack ability aside from a stock double attack, and ended up giving him a minor action and ability to spread the fire damage around when its not his turn.

Star Cults

In the near future my group will be going up against a star cult, which prompted me to create some new monsters in accordance with my level and thematic requirements. If they’re reading this, they can go ahead and take a peak, or stop and be surprised.

Neophytes are cult newbies that haven’t been “rewarded” with any appreciable mutations. They’re better when they can get flanking, but in general aren’t that much trouble.

Acolytes are neophytes turned up to 11. They are more dangerous when flanking, but due to whispered portents and multiple eyes cannot be flanked. Also, they can teleport, which is great for maneuvering but also to gain combat advantage against an enemy.

Warlocks are, well, warlocks. They can tear open the planar fabric to conjure up clusters of grasping tentacles, or emblazon their foes with baleful signs. Mostly they just stick to eldritch blast while applying their curse.

Husks are the cult’s guardians. Most people that are exposed to the baleful energy of stars die. They’re the lucky ones. These guys didn’t die, and now simply exist as roughly humanoid cinders that obey their masters. Husks draw their enemies close with their gravity well so that they can crush them with fiery slams, and can even fold space in order to better protect their charges.

Voices claim to speak for the stars, when they say anything coherent at all. They spend most of their time frantically scrawling the messages that the numerous mouths on their bodies whisper to them, which they can levy on their foes in order to instill insanity and terror.

Bat Monster Homebrew

Nothing special, just a basic bat that serves some function in a combat scenario. I was thinking of doing a bat swarm as a kind of hazard instead of traditional monster swarm.

Monster Manual 3 Lite Review

Monster Manual 3 is purported to have, “over 200 monsters,” but I’m not about to count the index or glossary to confirm this. There’s a lot of monsters, and book supports the entire range of monster levels, so like past books its good no matter what tier(s) your characters populate. Some are classics, like the cave fisher, mimic, and nymph, while others expand upon existing monster types (more gnolls, runic gargoyle, and pact hags). I’m not sure if some of them are entirely original, but again I’m not about to do a shit-load of Google-searches to figure it all out.


Aside from having new monsters, it also features the new stat block layout that we’d heard about last month. The main difference between the format layouts is that powers are categorized by the action required to use it and are given a dark-green color to make the action type stand out, and powers now take up additional space. What I mean is that while power mechanics are listed in a clearer manner, they tend to take up an extra line or two of space.

For example, a typical weapon attack in the old format would take up a single line: +X vs. AC; X + X damage. In the new format, it has an Attack and Hit row. Really, most powers basically end up taking an extra line to type out, but the more powers the monster has the more lines it eats up (ie, four powers means four extra lines used). Otherwise there are some minor differences, such as auras and shit like regeneration being categorized in a traits section. I think that while it might take some getting used to, ultimately it’s going to be more intuitive and easier to reference.


I’d heard that some of the formulas got shuffled around a bit, and comparing default values from Monster Builder I’ve determined that in most cases the attack bonuses haven’t been changed at all (I did find a brute that had two points up on an attack bonus), but damage output got ramped up. For example, default level 5 brute damage is 1d10 + 5, but the silverback ape has a slam attack that deals 2d10 + 5. One of the apocalypse spells inflicts 4d10 + 10 damage on a hit, up from 3d8 + 10. Finally, one of those mirror golem thingies deals 3d8 + 14 on at at-will (normally 3d6 + 8).


On the topic of new layouts, all monsters now have multiple paragraphs devoted to fluff content about them instead of well, barely one-ish. There’s an opening paragraph that supplies some exposition about the monster in general, some more focused information on the individual monster type, a section on encounters (though no more sample encounter group bullet lists), and a bit on combat tactics. Some monsters like the chitine get quite a bit of story content (not to mention a sidebar).


For example, since for some reason I keep opening the book up to the entry on banderhobbs, I’ll just fucking roll with it. Banderhobbs are frog-like creatures native to the Shadowfell that cross over into the natural world to abduct people for some nefarious purpose. How do they abduct you? By either swallowing you up, or more mercifully stuffing you into a sack (though oddly the Equipment line is absent from the stat block…I…don’t wanna know).


Anyway, under Banderhobb Abductors in Combat it doesn’t say something like, “Start out with grasping tongue and follow up with gobble or swallow.” No, instead it says, “In a soundless second, a long, muscular tongue encircles a body and yanks it forward. The monster’s head snaps backward, and it’s jaws unhinge. Then the victim’s body disappears down the creature’s gullet. A second later, the creature vanishes.”


I actually like these descriptions, since it not only provides you with an example of how to narratively describe the actions as they occur, but also adds some, I don’t know, personality to the monster. Not all monsters follow this trend, however, some just talk about the monsters habits in combat though it doesn’t cite specific powers.


This is my favorite Monster Manual by far: more monsters (obviously), better stat-block layout, and better balance between hard mechanics and story content. I’m hoping that Wizards updates Monster Builder to alter all the official monsters to follow the new format (because I’ll already have my hands full updating my own creations). 


Update: My Girlfriend is a DM also did a review.