D&D General The Resurrection of Mike Mearls Games.

[Zaukrie]

Could you perhaps elaborate on this? This might just be different tastes, but it sounds to me like he's condensing monster stats to something like AC, hp, saves, attack bonus, and damage (which is pretty much what was in an AD&D stat block). This seems antithetical to interesting monster design to me. I mean, I don't need calculations on how monsters get their stats, but I do want them to have interesting abilities and not just be sacks of hit points the way they often are in 5e. To me, 4e monsters were peak D&D monster design (except they could have used a recalibration of actual numbers).

There are abilities.... The other stuff he is merely stating how to stat it at different levels. Definitely not trying to do sacks of HP, but we've not seen much so far....

 

[mearls]

Inspired by the years I spent working on Magic: the Gathering, I'm trying to get the core stats down so that I can create design space for more interesting effects. I think monsters have too much detail for running them at the table, and much of that detail doesn't add much fun for the DM.

A creature in Magic has two stats - power and toughness - but individual cards can vary from super simple to powerful cards that define an entire, 100 card commander deck. I'd like to bring that to monster design.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

I think ability scores are not needed for monster blocks.

Maybe something like:

• Set HP
• Armor and saves
• speed
• Passive stealth, Passive perception
• Attack routine
• 1 special trait or ability.

It's pretty rare a monster has to make a skill check, even more in 2024 since grapples and such are a save. A passive score for stealth and spot is probably enough in 90% of the cases.

Ex:

Town Watch (lvl 1 humamoid)
Armor: 14 [if shield +2] HP: 11
Defense Saves: str +3, dex +0, con + 1, wis +1, int -1, cha -1.
Speed 30, Initiative 11 Surprise; 9 Spot; 13 (dim-light vision)

Attack: d20+3, 1x [W]eapon +3

 

[Zaukrie]

I think ability scores are not needed for monster blocks.

Maybe something like:

• Set HP
• Armor and saves
• speed
• Passive stealth, Passive perception
• Attack routine
• 1 special trait or ability.

It's pretty rare a monster has to make a skill check, even more in 2024 since grapples and such are a save. A passive score for stealth and spot is probably enough in 90% of the cases.

Ex:

Town Watch (lvl 1 humamoid)
Armor: 14 [if shield +2] HP: 11
Defense Saves: str +3, dex +0, con + 1, wis +1, int -1, cha -1.
Speed 30, Initiative 11 Surprise; 9 Spot; 13 (dim-light vision)

Attack: d20+3, 1x [W]eapon +3

I have no interest in looking up weapons.... But otherwise agree. Just set damage for a level, doesn't matter the weapon,imo.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

I have no interest in looking up weapons.... But otherwise agree. Just set damage for a level, doesn't matter the weapon,imo.

Maybe have a set damage for melee and one for range? I wrote this to allow a watchman to use the weapon that makes the more sense.

 

[Zaukrie]

Maybe have a set damage for melee and one for range? I wrote this to allow a watchman to use the weapon that makes the more sense.

Just set damage, I mean, does 3 or 4 average really matter? But yes, they should have both melee and ranged.

Wotc way over thinks this and the statblocks are way too much for ninety percent of monsters, imo. Mike is on the right track, as are you.

 

[Vael]

Yeah, I always use average damage, double it on a crit. The only exception might be spells or breath weapons. As a DM, I too want the joy of rolling a fistful of d6s

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

Yeah, I always use average damage, double it on a crit. The only exception might be spells or breath weapons. As a DM, I too want the joy of rolling a fistful of d6s

Tangent; You remind me of something I've been sorely missing lately: fatal damage. Some special attacks from important monsters should not allow death saves, much like the Desintegration spell.

If you fall to 0 hp from a dragon breath or a liche necrotic attacks, you should be dead immediately.

Or even more cruel; falling to 0 hp from necrotic/acid/ psychic damage should not allow death saves.

But I disgress.

 

[dave2008]

Just set damage, I mean, does 3 or 4 average really matter? But yes, they should have both melee and ranged.

Wotc way over thinks this and the statblocks are way too much for ninety percent of monsters, imo. Mike is on the right track, as are you.

I do think there is an issue of readability. The old school module monster entries which are just a line of text are very hard for me to easily read and get the information from, simple as it may be. Then once you organize it so that it can be easily read, you free up space for more information. Then if you have free space - why not use it!

Also, I do think there is probably a happy medium. However, I also focus on mostly high end monsters that need more space than most IMO.

 

[Vael]

Tangent; You remind me of something I've been sorely missing lately: fatal damage. Some special attacks from important monsters should not allow death saves, much like the Desintegration spell.

If you fall to 0 hp from a dragon breath or a liche necrotic attacks, you should be dead immediately.

Or even more cruel; falling to 0 hp from necrotic/acid/ psychic damage should not allow death saves.

But I disgress.

That's around. There's a monster in Spelljammer that has a brain extraction attack, if it takes a PC to 0 hp with it, that PC dies and their brain gets extracted. No save. Party got unlucky and I landed it on the Rogue. While running Light Of Xaryxis.