D&D 3E/3.5 The impact of revised 3E on monster design

[BOZ]

as i told Leopold and posted to the Nukinland boards...

i doubt that the Tome of Horrors is going to be re-released (not anytime soon at least), but scott does want to use new rules for our creatures. all new conversions will probably follow the revised rules when they are available, and in time, we may update the Creature Catalog. time will tell exactly how that works out, though, of course.

 

[Knight Otu]

i doubt that the Tome of Horrors is going to be re-released (not anytime soon at least), but scott does want to use new rules for our creatures.

I didn't really think that it would be re-released, but maybe a web enhancement... (don't hit me! )

all new conversions will probably follow the revised rules when they are available, and in time, we may update the Creature Catalog. time will tell exactly how that works out, though, of course.

OK. I'm still willing to help.

 

[Knight Otu]

Front page news!

Savage Species has a sidebar in the introduction detailing "several changes to the rules concerning monsters":

Skills: Monsters gain skill points based on HD and INT. Wilderness Lore is now called Survival; and Alchemy is now Craft (Alchemy).

Feats: Every monster receives at least one feat and gains more at the same rate as characters -- one more at 3 HD, another at 6 HD, etc.

Types & Subtypes: "Beast" is no longer a type -- all beasts are either Magical Beasts or Animals. Shapechanger is now a subtype. So for example, the Areana is now a Magical Beast (Shapechanger). Fire and cold subtypes have been changed. The fire subtype reads: "...immune to fire damage and takes a -10 penalty on saves against cold. If a cold attack does not allow a saving throw, the creature takes double damage."

Face/Reach: A we know, all faces are square. Large = 10'; Huge = 15'; Gargantuan = 20'; Colossal = 30' or more.

 

[Geocorona]

I've always wondered why Shapechangers was a monster class, and why Animal and Beast could not be combined. I also think Giant, Humanoid & Monstrous Humanoid could be reduced to 2 monster classes instead of three.

These are all reasonable changes, but probably irksome to those who've spent many hours conforming their material to the present conventions.

 

[BOZ]

I didn't really think that it would be re-released, but maybe a web enhancement... (don't hit me! )[/B]

actually, that's not all that bad of an idea. we'll just have to see if scott can find the time to set something like that up. or if he even wants to go to that much trouble...

 

[Krishnath]

I finally got the Tome of Horrors (Yay, me!), and I really like it, although I don't agree with some of the art, I find it an all around good product. Anyways, back on topic...

Removing the beast type and changing shapechanger to a suntype makes sense (I guess that would make Dopplegangers into monstrous humanoid (shapechanger)'s.). But I disagree with Knight Otu's (what a surprise ) idea that they should incorporate the giant type into humanoids/monstrous humanoids, as I feel that there is a too big a difference between say a hill giant and a minotaur.

Well, anyway, that's my opinion, and if you don't like it <The rest of this message has been censored>

Later,

 

[Knight Otu]

And now that we have the Extraplanar subtype, how about getting rid of the Outsider type in 3.75? It looked like a good idea at first, but proved to more problematic than helpful in several cases.
Humanoids and giants would certainly make a better combination ruleswise, but with spells such as charm person, I guess giant and monstrous humanoid would be better.

I agree that those changes are mostly good, but they are putting a bit of a hiatus on my monster file. Luckily I had only one Shapechanger planned. Guess I'll make it a Humanoid.

An additional bit from Eric Noah:

All "types" follow the 2+Int mod formula except dragons and fey (6+Int mod). All get x4 at first level.

This apparently includes Outsiders.

 

[Krishnath]

What! BOOOOO! Are you shure that he didn't just forget to include the outsider skill points? If not then it puts a serious dent in my outsiders...

 

[Knight Otu]

What! BOOOOO! Are you shure that he didn't just forget to include the outsider skill points? If not then it puts a serious dent in my outsiders...

Sadly, no. Someone asked if it included outsiders, and Eric replied with yes. I seriously hope that it is just an error in Savage Species.

 

[Krishnath]

I certainly hope so. Otherwise most of my sliver are going to need a serious int boost...