D&D 5E Bigger monsters do more damage

[Shardstone]

I do it like this:

Stomp. Melee Weapon Attack: +19 to hit, reach 75 ft., one Gargantuan or smaller target or prone or incapacitated target with the colossal trait. Hit: 307 (35d8 + 150) bludgeoning damage and fall prone. Until Godzilla uses its Stomp again or moves, the target is restrained. While restrained in this way, the creature (or another creature within 5 feet of it) can use its action to make a DC 27 Strength check. On a success, the creature relocates to an unoccupied space of its choice within 5 feet of Godzilla and is no longer restrained. Each creature within a 30-foot radius of the target must make a DC 27 Dexterity saving throw or take the same damage, knocked prone, and restrained as the target.

Hmm ok. I like this. I asked not because I don't like the idea, but just because I want to see how it might look in written form. Maybe something like this.

Stomp. Melee Weapon Attack: +X to hit, reach 30 ft., one target. Hit: X (XdX + N) force damage and the target falls prone and is restrained until Godzilla uses this action on another target. Each creature within a 30-foot radius of the target must make a Dexterity saving throw with a DC equal to the attack roll. On a success, they are moved to an empty space of their choice that is 30 ft away from Godzilla. On a failure, they suffer the same damage and effects as the original target of this creature.

Tail Swipe. Melee Weapon Attack: : +X to hit, reach 30 ft., one target. Hit: X (XdX + N) force damage and the target is moved backwards 15 feet and falls prone. Any creature in a 15 foot cone originating from Godzilla must make a Dexterity saving throw DC equal to the attack roll. On a failure, they suffer the same damage and effects as the original target of this creature.

 

[Stormonu]

Yes you could, but not the raw crunching damage I am looking for!

Why not both? Does the damage you listed on the stat block and has the choice of either starting a grapple or flinging the hapless hero 5-20 (1d4 x 5) feet away (who takes falling damage and landing prone)?

 

[Stoutstien]

Yes you could, but not the raw crunching damage I am looking for!

Interesting thought. how often would a dragon actually risk its face to bite something unless it's going in for the kill? Could make a lower hit / higher damage option as a momentum swing or a finisher.

 

[dave2008]

Hmm ok. I like this. I asked not because I don't like the idea, but just because I want to see how it might look in written form. Maybe something like this.

Stomp. Melee Weapon Attack: +X to hit, reach 30 ft., one target. Hit: X (XdX + N) force damage and the target falls prone and is restrained until Godzilla uses this action on another target. Each creature within a 30-foot radius of the target must make a Dexterity saving throw with a DC equal to the attack roll. On a success, they are moved to an empty space of their choice that is 30 ft away from Godzilla. On a failure, they suffer the same damage and effects as the original target of this creature.

Tail Swipe. Melee Weapon Attack: : +X to hit, reach 30 ft., one target. Hit: X (XdX + N) force damage and the target is moved backwards 15 feet and falls prone. Any creature in a 15 foot cone originating from Godzilla must make a Dexterity saving throw DC equal to the attack roll. On a failure, they suffer the same damage and effects as the original target of this creature.

I would do it a bit differently (and differently from the old one I posted), but that is the basic idea.

 

[RoughCoronet0]

OK, here is quick ancient red I made with this idea. Let me know what you think! PS - I had to up it to CR 26 to make it work.

View attachment 363400

Definitely yoinking this to adapt some of those features for my Dragonspawn for my upcoming session.

 

[pawsplay]

Some of the monsters are sort of already built this way, while others do die changes, and a few don't seem to follow any pattern. One quick idea you can use that if you want to boost damage, you can take away a monster's Strength bonus to attack with that attack, making it powerful but slow and clumsy. Some monsters are built this way, losing either their proficiency bonus or ability score bonus, or both, with certain attacks.

 

[Upper_Krust]

I just had an idea when posting the pick below in the dragons thread. Bigger monsters need to do more damage. The DMG or MM (I can't remember which) gives guidance that as weapons in crease in size. Just give them another die. So a Large sword does 2d8 instead of 1d8 damage. I generally apply the same idea to my monsters. So if a Medium monster's tail does 1d8 damage (+ mod) then a Gargantuan should do 4d8 (+ mod) damage, right?

However, what if we increased the mod damage and the dice. So for each step up in size you add another mod. damage. So you would have 8 (1d8+4) damage for a Medium tail attack (STR 18) or 58 (4d8 +40) for a Gargantuan one. That seems better than what we get in the MM.

Hey Dave buddy!

Interesting idea (though I have settled on multiattack damage being 25% of hit dice myself, with recharges 100% and Reactions 12.5%).

One thing I did notice was that your Dragon's breath weapon is notably weaker than its multiattack. I guess you could argue it's an area effect, but with save's and potential protections up, it's notably weak.

 

[Upper_Krust]

Well, our friend the 20th level fighter (who's having a bad day if his party is fighting a gargantuan red dragon) has, what, 20d10 hit points, plus 20x5 Con bonus points? About 210 HP? A damage boost like you're proposing is a first-round kill on the fighter who gets hit by a good multiattack and legendary tail swipe.

But no fighter should get to 20th level without having a modicum of sense, and some decent allies. And a cloak of displacement. So I'd say go for it!

You could make the argument such a monster SHOULD on average kill a PC every round.

But yes my level 20 Fighter (now with 7 epic boons) never leaves home without his Cloak of Displacement and would likely solo that Red Dragon in one round...albeit he has some crazy loot from Stonehell.

 

[Upper_Krust]

How much damage does this guy do?

62 (15d6+10) punch, 107 (15d12+10) stomp.

vulnerable to fire.

 

[Upper_Krust]

As a general trend for design for large and larger creatures, I'd rather their attacks hit wider areas and multiple targets than just ramping damage up as single attacks.
Not only does this make it a little bit more friendly to the iconic tropes that you're trying to play out with this type of encounter it also let you clean up the stat blocks a little bit because now you don't need 15 different types of multi attacks.

You sort of need to do both. Otherwise you end up like the 200 feet dinosaurs from Wotcs Glory of the Giants dealing 30 damage on a hit or something like that.