D&D 4E The New Monster Math, Explained and Expanded

[Tequila Sunrise]

For the Leader, maybe you might consider some example "Leadership" go-to powers? The most common seem to be Aura X= +AC/Defenses/Hit/Bonus; Special Attack=Ally gets bonus, and some quick guidelines on how to balance bonuses? That would be helpful addition I can help set up.

In the interest of establishing more go-to leader stuff -- well, partially at least -- I'm writing this undead horror for my Savage Tide conversion:

Hyukuva, Once-Cursed

Level 3 Leader
Small or Medium Natural Animate (Undead)
Initiative +2
Dark Vision
HP 44; Bloodied 22
AC 17, Fort 15, Ref 13, Will 17
Resist necrotic 5; Immune disease, poison
Speed 6

Traits

Bolster Undead (Aura 5)
Undead allies within the aura gain a +2 power bonus to attack rolls. Whenever the hyukuva takes radiant damage, this aura is suppressed until the start of its next turn.

Standard Actions

Slam At-Will
Attack: Melee 1 (one creature); +8 vs. AC
Hit: 1d8 + 6 damage.

Necrotic Dart At-Will
Attack: Ranged 10 (one creature); +6 vs. Reflex
Hit: 1d8 + 6 necrotic damage.

Hyukuva Curse Use or Lose 4-6 (Zone)
Attack: Area burst 1 within 10 (enemies within burst); +6 vs. Fortitude
Hit: 1d8 + 6 necrotic damage.
Effect: The curse creates a zone that lasts until the encounter’s end. Enemies within the zone grant CA.

Str 14 (+3), Con 14 (+3), Dex 10 (+1), Int 10 (+1), Wis 18 (+5), Cha 18 (+5)

Bolster undead gives the PCs great incentive to take this guy out, and his curse creates extra tension. ("Oh , we need to take this guy out before the whole battlefield is cursed!") That's my theory, at least.

 

[Terrance888]

Are the Goons Balanced as 1/2 standard monsters? I haven't tried them yet, but so far my players have no problems tearing open the Damage Threshold for the Minions I've used.(which would be 10 at Level 8) even without the damage rolls most times, and the Goons at Damage Threshold 16 would still be easy bait for most easy rolls.

 

[Tequila Sunrise]

Are the Goons Balanced as 1/2 standard monsters? I haven't tried them yet, but so far my players have no problems tearing open the Damage Threshold for the Minions I've used.(which would be 10 at Level 8) even without the damage rolls most times, and the Goons at Damage Threshold 16 would still be easy bait for most easy rolls.

Yes, goons are meant to be half-monsters.

My intent is for minions to go down to any mostly-damage at-will attack, and for goons to go down to any mostly-damage encounter attack. I didn't assume much optimization when I derived the formulas, so I may tweak them in the future.

 

[Pour]

I've actually been writing monster "lineages," so whether I need a level 3 jumping spider or a level 28 solo jumping spider, I can pull either one out of the appropriate pdf.

Color me interested! After just creating my version of an aberrant star toad by cross-referencing frog and toad mechanics to advance, it'd be quite a helpful and fun pdf to have.

In fact, the various lineage mechanics might have been a great appendix at the end of each monster manual / vault. For instance, most frogs/toads have a leaping move action, a tongue lash at-will, and the larger ones swallowing mechanics. Charting those for all the monsters would be very useful.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

For the Leader, maybe you might consider some example "Leadership" go-to powers? The most common seem to be Aura X= +AC/Defenses/Hit/Bonus; Special Attack=Ally gets bonus, and some quick guidelines on how to balance bonuses? That would be helpful addition I can help set up.

I've found blatantly stealing White Raven powers from Tome of Blood works pretty well for some leaders. (Actually, there's probably too many powers.)

I'd also recommend that they heal a smaller percentage of the target's hit points, or else a flat "Heal 25 hp" or something.

Especially if you're talking a solo monster, healing a surge's worth of hit points is pretty excessive IMHO.

Madness at Gardmore Alley has a leader companion who heals that way (a number of hp = 1/4 hp, explicitly, in that if it gains a level, the amount if heals increases a little bit) ... but also has an NPC cleric (an opponent) whose Healing Word power simply heals a healing surge. (In theory, it could heal a dragon and go way overboard.)

I have ay cleric-like NPCs heal 1/4 of their own hp value, rounded to the nearest 5 to keep the math down.

I couldn't find the message to reply to, but I have to delay my game a week, so expect the test a week late

 

[Terrance888]

IIRC, Monsters have invisible healing surges. Heroic=1, Paragon=2, Epic=3.

 

[Tequila Sunrise]

Color me interested! After just creating my version of an aberrant star toad by cross-referencing frog and toad mechanics to advance, it'd be quite a helpful and fun pdf to have.

In fact, the various lineage mechanics might have been a great appendix at the end of each monster manual / vault. For instance, most frogs/toads have a leaping move action, a tongue lash at-will, and the larger ones swallowing mechanics. Charting those for all the monsters would be very useful.

As an example, I attached my Jumping Spider (my rendition of MV's deathjump spider). In the case of animals, I usually differentiate different varieties of the same breed by their size; an 'arm' is a unit of length in my home brew. Hence the first few statblocks say 'Jumping Spider, 1 Arm Long.'

(If you notice that I don't adjust initiative and skills for monster level, that's intentional. I modify that stuff for true level rather than the effective level that's at the top of the stat block. It's just an added bit of 'reality' that I can't resist.)

 

[Tequila Sunrise]

On the topic of leaders, I've done a bit of research in the MV. A lot of (leader)s seem to have lazylord type powers; one artillery (leader) fires an arrow that forces PCs within a burst 1 to attack each other, and additionally allows its allies to make basic attacks. And it's only a level 4 hobgoblin!

I haven't seen this in play, but it just screams ABUSE ME WITH A SOLO! Maybe that's just me? But I don't think so.

So I'll be sticking with attack/damage boosters and friendly forced movement for most of my leader needs.

 

[Tequila Sunrise]

New document is up! I added go-to powers for several roles, added HP tables, and reorganized everything 'cause it was getting a bit schizophrenic.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

On the topic of leaders, I've done a bit of research in the MV. A lot of (leader)s seem to have lazylord type powers; one artillery (leader) fires an arrow that forces PCs within a burst 1 to attack each other, and additionally allows its allies to make basic attacks. And it's only a level 4 hobgoblin!

I haven't seen this in play, but it just screams ABUSE ME WITH A SOLO! Maybe that's just me? But I don't think so.

So I'll be sticking with attack/damage boosters and friendly forced movement for most of my leader needs.

There are paragon-level warlord powers that let you do the same thing. Also, there's a heroic level warpriest power (Essentials 1) that lets you do something similar. All those are daily powers however, so presumably they should be encounter powers for monsters.