作者 主题: 乱七八糟团务区  (阅读 23109 次)

副标题: 本区更新公告,loot,城主碎碎念和PC战报存放

离线 A球

  • 米妮瓦之手,Mythica系列电影死忠粉
  • 版主
  • *
  • 帖子数: 292
  • 苹果币: 0
Why Do I Like 5 Room Dungeons?
« 回帖 #20 于: 2019-06-17, 周一 19:22:44 »
Why Do I Like 5 Room Dungeons?
This format, or creation method, has a number of advantages:

Any location. Though I call them 5 Room Dungeons, they actually apply to any location with five or so areas. They dont have to be fantasy or dungeons. They could take the form of a small space craft, a floor in a business tower, a wing of a mansion, a camp site, a neighbourhood.
Short. Many players dislike long dungeon crawls, and ADD GMs like to switch environments up often. In addition, some players dislike dungeons all together, but will go along with the play if they know its just a short romp. This helps ease conflicts between play styles and desires.
Quick to plan. With just five rooms to configure, design is manageable and fast. Next time you are killing time, whip out your notepad and write down ideas for themes, locations, and rooms. Knock off as many designs as you can and choose the best to flesh out when you have more time and to GM next session.
Easier to polish. Large designs often take so long to complete that game night arrives before you can return to the beginning and do one or more rounds of tweaking and polishing. The design speed of 5 Room Dungeons leaves room most of the time to iterate.
Easy to move. 5 Room Dungeons can squeeze into many places larger locations and designs cant. If your dungeon goes unused or if you want to pick it up and drop it on a new path the PCs take, its often easier to do than when wielding a larger crawl.
Flexible size. They are called 5 Room Dungeons, but this is just a guideline. Feel free to make 3-area locations or 10-cave complexes. The idea works for any small, self-contained area.
Easy to integrate. A two to four hour dungeon romp quickens flagging campaign and session pacing, and can be squeezed into almost any story thread. It also grants a quick success (or failure) to keep the players engaged. The format is also easy to drop into most settings with minimal consistency issues.
 

 

Room One: Entrance And Guardian

There needs to be a reason why your dungeon hasnt been plundered before or why the PCs are the heroes for the job.  A guardian or challenge at the entrance is a good rejustification why the location remains intact. Also, a guardian sets up early action to capture player interest and energize a session.

Room One challenge ideas:

The entrance is trapped.
The entrance is cleverly hidden.
The entrance requires a special key, such as a ceremony, command word, or physical object.
The guardian was deliberately placed to keep intruders out. Examples: a golem, robot, or electric fence.
The guardian is not indigenous to the dungeon and is a tough creature or force whos made its lair in room one.
Room One is also your opportunity to establish mood and theme to your dungeon, so dress it up with care.

 

 

Room Two: Puzzle Or Roleplaying Challenge

The PCs are victorious over the challenge of the first room and are now presented with a trial that cannot be solved with steel. This keeps problem solvers in your group happy and breaks the action up for good pacing.

Make Room Two a puzzle, skill-based, or roleplaying encounter, if possible. Room Two should shine the limelight on different PCs than Room One, change gameplay up, and offer variety between the challenge at the entrance and the challenge at the end.

Note, if Room One was this type of encounter, then feel free to make Room Two combat-oriented.

Room Two should allow for multiple solutions to prevent the game from stalling.

Room Two ideas:

Magic puzzle, such as a chessboard tile floor with special squares.
An AI blocks access to the rest of the complex and must be befriended, not fought.
A buzzer panel for all the apartments, but the person the PCs are looking for has listed themselves under a different name, which can be figured out through previous clues youve dropped.
A concierge at the front desk must be bluffed or coerced without him raising the alarm.
A dirt floor crawls with poisonous snakes that will slither out of the way to avoid open flame. (A few might follow at a distance and strike later on.)
Once youve figured out what Room Two is, try to plant one or more clues in Room One about potential solutions. This ties the adventure together a little tighter, will delight the problem solvers, and can be a back-up for you if the players get stuck.

 

 

Room Three: Trick or Setback

The purpose of this room is to build tension. Do this using a trick, trap, or setback. For example, after defeating a tough monster, and players think theyve finally found the treasure and achieved their goal, they learn theyve been tricked and the room is a false crypt.

Depending on your game system, use this room to cater to any player or character types not yet served by the first two areas. Alternatively, give your group a double-dose of gameplay that they enjoy the most, such as more combat or roleplaying.

Room Three ideas:

The PCs rescue a number of prisoners or hostages. However, the victims might be enemies in disguise, are booby-trapped, or create a dilemma as they plead to be escorted back to safety immediately.
Contains a one-way exit (the PCs must return and deal with Rooms One and Two again). i.e. Teleport trap, one-way door, 2000 foot water slide trap.
The PCs finally find the artifact required to defeat the villain, but the artifact is broken, cursed, or has parts missing, and clues reveal a solution lies ahead.
Believing the object of the quest now lays within easy reach, an NPC companion turns traitor and betrays the PCs.
Another potential payoff for Room Three is to weaken the PCs as build-up to a dramatic struggle in Room Four. It might contain a tough combat encounter, take down a key defense, exhaust an important resource, or make the party susceptible to a certain type of attack.

For example, if Room Four contains a mummy whose secret weakness is fire, then make Room Three a troll lair (or another creature susceptible to fire) so the PCs might be tempted to burn off a lot of their fire magic, oil, and other flammable resources. This would turn a plain old troll battle into a gotcha once the PCs hit Room Four and realize the are out of fire resources.

Dont forget to dress Room Three up with your theme elements.

 

 

Room Four: Climax, Big Battle or Conflict

This room is The Big Show. Its the final combat or conflict encounter of the dungeon. Use all the tactics you can summon to make this encounter memorable and entertaining.

Room Four ideas:

As always, generate interesting terrain that will impact the battle.
Start or end with roleplay. Maybe the bad guy needs to stall for time to let PC buffs wear out, to wait for help to arrive, or to stir himself into a rage. Perhaps the combat ends with the bad guy bleeding to death and a few short words can be exchanged, or there are helpless minions or prisoners to roleplay with once the threat is dealt with.
Give the bad guy unexpected powers, abilities, or equipment.
Previous rooms might contain warning signals or an alarm, so the bad guy has had time to prepare.
The bay guys tries to settle things in an unusual way, such as through a wager or a duel.
The lair is trapped. The bad guy knows what or where to avoid, or has the ability to set off the traps at opportune moments.
The bad guy reveals The Big Reward and threatens to break it or put it out of the PCs so reach so theyll never collect it.
The bad guy has a secret weakness that the PCs figure out how to exploit.
A variety of PC skills and talents are required to successfully complete the encounter.
 

Room Five: Reward, Revelation, Plot Twist

Heres your opportunity to change the players bragging to
we came, we saw, we slipped on a banana peel. Room Five doesnt always represent a complication or point of failure for the PCs, but it can. Room Five doesnt always need to be a physical location either - it can be a twist revealed in Room Four.

Room Five is where your creativity can shine and is often what will make the dungeon different and memorable from the other crawls in your campaigns.

In addition, if you havent supplied the reward yet for conquering the dungeon, here is a good place to put the object of the quest, chests of loot, or the valuable information the PCs need to save the kingdom.

As accounting tasks take over from recent, thrilling, combat tasks, this would also be a good time to make a campaign or world revelation, or a plot twist. Perhaps the location of the next 5 Room Dungeon is uncovered, along with sufficient motivation to accept the quest. Maybe the true identity of the bad guy is revealed. New clues and information pertaining to a major plot arc might be embedded in the treasure, perhaps sewn into a valuable carpet, drawn in painting, or written on a slip of paper stuffed into a scroll tube or encoded on a data chip.

Room Five ideas:

Another guardian awaits in the treasure container. A trap that resurrects or renews the challenge from Room Four.
Bonus treasure is discovered that leads to another adventure, such as a piece of a magic item or a map fragment.
A rival enters and tries to steal the reward while the PCs are weakened after the big challenge of Room Four.
The object of the quest/final reward isnt what it seems or has a complication. i.e. The kidnapped king doesnt want to return.
The quest was a trick. By killing the dungeons bad guy the PCs have actually helped the campaign villain or a rival. Perhaps the bad guy was actually a good guy under a curse, transformed, or placed into difficult circumstances.
The bad guy turns out to be a PCs father.
The true, gruesome meaning behind a national holiday is discovered.
The source of an alien races hostility towards others is uncovered, transforming them from villains to sympathetic characters in the story.
The entrance is hazardous and requires special skills and equipment to bypass. For example: radiation leaks, security clearance, wall of fire.
The PCs must convince a bouncer to let them in without confiscating their weapons.
A collapsed structure blocks part of the area. The debris is dangerous and blocks nothing of importance, another trap, or a new threat.
The true meaning of the prophecy or poem that lead the PCs to the dungeon is finally understood, and its not what the PCs thought.
It’s not a great look for a company that wants to represent humanity “in all its beautiful diversity.” Continuing to sell these products–and bear in mind, the original Oriental Adventures is a “mithral best seller” which means it’s continuing to sell–takes a lot of wind out of WotC’s Inclusivity and Diversity sails. They have to do better than this if they want their promise to be more than empty words. Not to say we should pretend these books never existed, but WotC is still actively profiting off of this material.

离线 A球

  • 米妮瓦之手,Mythica系列电影死忠粉
  • 版主
  • *
  • 帖子数: 292
  • 苹果币: 0
Re: 乱七八糟团务区
« 回帖 #21 于: 2019-07-09, 周二 08:01:31 »
GURPS Gukmun 2-pan Sylfiena ( GURPS국문2판실피에나
GURPS Bushin kourin (「ガープス·マーシャルアーツ·アドベンチャー武神降临」
GURPS Runal / Yuel (「ガープス·ルナル」「ガープス·ユエル」

GURPS Runal (ガープス・ルナル) is a role-playing game supplement that was written in Japanese language for the GURPS game rules. It was written by Shou Tomono and Group SNE, then first published in 1992. It was followed in 1994 by GURPS Youmayakou.

Over twenty novels of a series named Runal Saga (ルナル・サーガ) have been published based upon GURPS Runal.[1]

The setting is a fantasy world named Runal that was strongly influenced from RuneQuest. There are seven mysterious Moons grant magic power to worshipers.

The seven colors Moons are worshiped by various people as follows:

Blue Moon - The Moon of lawful deities and one of the twins Moons. It is worshiped by dwarves and humans who prefer order and law.
Red Moon - The Moon of chaotic deities and one of the twins Moons. It is worshiped by humans who prefer liberty and disorder.
White Ring Moon - The Moon of magic. It is worshiped by wizards. It is called ring moon because it when the gods of the Moon left for a higher plane of existence, it split in two forming a ring.
Green Moon - The Moon of plants and forests. It is worshiped by elves called Elfa. Elfa culture is similar to the Native Americans'.
Wandering Moon - A capricious Moon whose orbit is random and also called the Moon of all colors. It is worshiped by various non-human races.
Silver Moon - The Moon of strangeness and madness. It is worshiped by residents of elemental planes and fearful monsters like as creatures of Cthulhu Mythos.
Black Moon - The Moon of evil. It is worshiped by demons.
The Rhiado continent is the main land and focus of the game. The strongest nation is the Tor-Addness Empire which is modeled after the Tang Dynasty of China. Its state religion is the worship of the Blue Moon. The Toru-Addness Empire are disputing with neighboring countries which worship the Red Moon.

GURPS Yuel, the sequel of GURPS Runal was released in 2005 as a supplement of GURPS 4th ed.
It’s not a great look for a company that wants to represent humanity “in all its beautiful diversity.” Continuing to sell these products–and bear in mind, the original Oriental Adventures is a “mithral best seller” which means it’s continuing to sell–takes a lot of wind out of WotC’s Inclusivity and Diversity sails. They have to do better than this if they want their promise to be more than empty words. Not to say we should pretend these books never existed, but WotC is still actively profiting off of this material.

离线 A球

  • 米妮瓦之手,Mythica系列电影死忠粉
  • 版主
  • *
  • 帖子数: 292
  • 苹果币: 0
揭秘唐朝士兵的武器配置
« 回帖 #22 于: 2019-08-02, 周五 18:37:41 »
      历史是琐碎的,要了解它的真相,得去翻史料,比如对于唐朝军队的装备,《新唐书》的“兵志”就有记录。

  唐朝初年实行府兵制,是民与兵合一的机制。这种兵制的特点之一就是士兵出征的很多装备得自己掏钱购置,“皆自备”。具体自备哪些东西呢?《新唐书》交代得很清楚:人均一张弓,三十支箭及一种叫胡禄的箭囊;横刀一把——一种佩刀,日本现在有完整样本。武器有了,还得有后勤装备,即磨刀石、毡帽、毡装、行李箱各一件。当然,还有吃的:人均携麦饭九斗、米二斗。此外,还有着装要求,唐朝的大部分士兵穿明光铠,骑兵还要在身上、腿上和手膀上配置铁甲,背上有长枪。

 以上装备是不是都直接配置在士兵身上呢?不得而知,如果是这样,那份量也不轻,不过根据记载来看,军队里有驮马。这些装备在平时都储存在折冲府的军库里,当有军事行动时,再看具体情况进行发放。

  隋炀帝时期远征高丽,因为路途遥远,粮食运输艰难,所以每名野战士兵身上要负重好多天的粮食,严重影响行军速度和战斗力。也因此,有些士兵冒着杀头和饿肚子的危险,将粮食埋在地下。

  如果是和平时期,这些府兵就配备横刀和弓矢。

  个人装备如此,那么单位的配备情况又如何呢?唐初士兵三百人形成一个团,每五十个人组成一个队,每十个人组成一个火。火是一个很小的军事单位,但仍会配备六匹驮马,如果弟兄们实在差钱,可以用驴子代替驮马。同时还有布幕、铁马盂、铲子、凿子、箩筐、斧头、钳子、甲床等各两件,锅子、火钻、盐袋、碓等各一件,马缰绳三件。马盂是什么呢?据唐朝人李筌的《太白阴经》记载,它是一种盛食品的容具,有木制的,也有铁制的,容量为三升,能保温,“冬月可以暖食”。

  唐朝的军粮可能还是未脱皮的,上了前线,还得用舂米工具,这工具就是“碓”。

  还有火钻这玩意,别以为这是取火工作,实际上它是一种兵器,打仗的时候,在火钻上浇上油,点上火,直接往敌人阵地上扔,大约可以算是原始手雷吧。

  此外,每人还配备一把锤子,象牙做的。这锤子可管用了,可以用来开箱撬锁,类似瑞士军刀吧。

  这样看来,大唐王朝单兵的装备确实杠杠的。

  而对于战马,政府是有补贴的,不是直接给战马,而是每个骑兵发二万五千钱,自个儿买马去。如果战马过了服役年龄,就卖到民用市场上,用所得资金再买新的战马。不过这战马会不会和机动车一样折旧,就不得而知了。

  当然,唐朝历时将近三百年,其军制也是在变化发展中,后来的情况如何呢?

  唐朝募兵考试

  射击命中率要求在50%以上

  到唐玄宗的时候,由于拓边战争增多,原来的兵力明显不够用,于是改为募兵制,关于这个制度如何,咱们没必要做学术性的研究,还是看细节吧。

  唐朝募兵,首先身高是有要求的,20岁入伍,身高应该在五尺七寸(大约1.7米)以上,就算降低要求,也要在五尺以上。入伍男子免除赋税。

  对士兵使用兵器也有要求,即要求士兵能够自主使用伏远弩,射程三百步;要求士兵在四发中能命中两发,50%的命中率才算过关;对擘张弩的应用会有场考试,擘张弩是一种用双臂拉开的弓弩,射程二百三十步,要求是四发二中,也是50%的命中率。

  以上两种是重射击武器,对于轻射击武器的使用,则是这样的:角弓弩,射程二百步,要求是四发三中,对于命中率的要求提高了25%;单弓弩,射程一百六十步,要求是四发二中。

  兵力战术分配

  战斗人员占七成弓弩手比例不低

  在《李卫公兵法》里,每次出征时的军队数量是有规定的,大将出征,一般每次授兵两万。当然,这也不是死指标,会根据实际情况酌情增减,“临时更定”。至于兵种的组成结构,李将军说得很详细:一支四千人的野战部队,称为“中军”,必须有2800名战斗人员,比例为70%。

  这2800战斗人员当中,有800名弓弩手,弓弩手又再细分:弓箭手400人,弓弩手400人,骑兵1000人,刀盾手500人,唐朝管这类士兵叫“跳荡”。还剩下500人干什么?他们是“奇兵”,是用来机动作战的。按照唐朝部队编制,机动作战人员必须占三成,“大率十分之中,以三分为奇兵”。

  唐代史料也记载了唐前期军队训练情况。《新唐书·兵志》对这个程序有详细记载。

  “每岁冬季”,是全国士兵集中训练的时机。以一个折冲都尉府为单位,分左右两个校尉统领,每个校尉手下有十支步兵队,一支骑兵队。还没有正式集合的时候,士兵们都打开旗帜,分散站立。

  第一通号角吹起,指挥官马上集合手下士兵,步兵和骑兵都排成队列,“诸校皆敛人骑为队”。

  第二通号角吹起,将军旗和长矛都放下,有点偃旗息鼓的味道。

  第三通号角吹起,军旗和长矛都举起来,似乎进入战斗状态。

  接下来,擂起战鼓,两支部队鼓噪冲锋。当然,绝对不是漫无纪律的群殴,还是有章法的:先是右校尉这边鸣金,队伍稍稍退却,左校尉分队进入右校尉的位置;接着,相反操作。

  两支部队退却之后,又上前迎面对杀,进入演习状态。最后,三通号角,演习结束。然后,大伙去自由狩猎,猎物各自分配,“是日夜,因纵猎,获各入其人”。事实上,狩猎也是增强战斗力的一种方式。
It’s not a great look for a company that wants to represent humanity “in all its beautiful diversity.” Continuing to sell these products–and bear in mind, the original Oriental Adventures is a “mithral best seller” which means it’s continuing to sell–takes a lot of wind out of WotC’s Inclusivity and Diversity sails. They have to do better than this if they want their promise to be more than empty words. Not to say we should pretend these books never existed, but WotC is still actively profiting off of this material.

离线 A球

  • 米妮瓦之手,Mythica系列电影死忠粉
  • 版主
  • *
  • 帖子数: 292
  • 苹果币: 0
Level     Coin Gain (gp)    Coin Total (gp)
1   0   0
2   877   877
3   877   1,753
4   877   2,630
5   13,634   16,263
6   13,634   29,897
7   13,634   43,530
8   13,634   57,164
9   13,634   70,797
10   13,634   84,431
11   72,425      156,856
12   72,425   229,281
13   72,425   301,706
14   72,425   374,131
15   72,425   446,556
16   72,425   518,981
17   672,050   1,191,031
18   672,050   1,863,081
19   672,050   2,535,131
20   672,050   3,207,181
« 上次编辑: 2019-10-15, 周二 23:08:15 由 A球 »
It’s not a great look for a company that wants to represent humanity “in all its beautiful diversity.” Continuing to sell these products–and bear in mind, the original Oriental Adventures is a “mithral best seller” which means it’s continuing to sell–takes a lot of wind out of WotC’s Inclusivity and Diversity sails. They have to do better than this if they want their promise to be more than empty words. Not to say we should pretend these books never existed, but WotC is still actively profiting off of this material.

离线 A球

  • 米妮瓦之手,Mythica系列电影死忠粉
  • 版主
  • *
  • 帖子数: 292
  • 苹果币: 0
Money Money Money
« 回帖 #24 于: 2019-09-04, 周三 05:30:54 »
References
 Dungeons & Dragons Basic Rules pp B20 4th ed. Jan 1981 - "Moldvay red book"
 The 1974 Edition had the following values for electrum: "If Electrum is added it is optionally worth either twice or half the value of Gold."
 Dungeons & Dragons Basic Rules book 2, page 39 1st ed. 6th printing - "White box"
 Dungeons & Dragons Basic Rules page 34 3rd ed. Dec 1979 - "Holmes blue book"
 Dungeons & Dragons Basic Rules pp B47 4th ed. Jan 1981 - "Moldvay red book"
 Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Player's Handbook pp 35 1st ed. 1978
 Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Master's Guide (1st edition) 1979 pp 25
 Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Master's Guide (1st edition) 1979 pp 86
 "Only Train When You Gain" Dragon #97
 Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Player's Handbook pp __ 2nd ed. 1989
 SRD
 David Nalle "For the Sake Of Change" Dragon #63 pg 67
 GURPS Middle Ages I pg 60
 Dragonlance Adventures Hardcover, 1987



Gold Piece
 
*Gold ducat from Austria

The gold piece, or gp for short, is the foundation of the default monetary system in the D&D system since its inception. All prices in the core rulebooks and boxed sets are given primarily in gp, with items of lesser value given in silver pieces (sp) or copper pieces (cp), which are monetary fractions of the standard gp.

Contents[show]
Size and Weight
The gold piece is generally considered to be a coin, though ingots or trade bars made of gold or other materials may be worth multiple gold pieces. In coin form, it is generally described as “approximately the size and weight of a United States half-dollar coin” meaning 30.6mm in diameter and weighing 11.5 grams (approximately 40 to an avoirdupois pound). In “Basic” D&D (and previous editions) and First Edition AD&D, despite the described weight, gold pieces are considered to weigh a tenth of an avoirdupois pound (1.6 avoirdupois ounces) each for encumbrance purposes, with 10 gp weighing one avoirdupois pound. Indeed, in these editions of the game, the basic unit of weight/encumbrance is either the “coin” (cn in Basic D&D)[1] or the “Gold Piece Weight” (gpw), either of which equals one tenth of a pound.

Starting in Second Edition AD&D and continuing through Third and Fourth Editions, gold pieces are considered to weigh approximately a third of an avoirdupois ounce (9 grams) each, which equal about fifty gp to an avoirdupois pound, while maintaining the size.

It should be noted that the avoirdupois ounce and pound is different than the Troy ounce and pound (which is used for precious metals). An avoirdupois ounce is 0.9114 Troy ounce and an avoirdupois pound is 14.58 Troy ounces (1.215 Troy pounds).

Value
As part of the default monetary system of all editions and versions of D&D, the gp is a staple of the system, but its relative value varies depending on edition.


Basic D&D
1974 1st Edition:

1 gp = 10 sp = 50 cp = 2 OR[2] 1/2 ep = 1/5 pp (meaning 5 gp = 1 Platinum Piece)[3]
1979 3rd Edition:

1 gp = 10 sp = 50 cp = 2 ep = 1/5 pp (meaning 5 gp = 1 Platinum Piece) [4]

1981 4th Edition:

1 gp = 10 sp = 100 cp = 2 ep = 1/5 pp (meaning 5 gp = 1 Platinum Piece) [5]
First Edition AD&DEdit
1 gp = 20 sp = 200 cp = 2 ep = 1/5 pp [6]
As can be seen, an attempt at replicating a real world economy was made; the 20 sp = 1 gp corresponds to the pre-decimalisation British system of 20 shillings to a Pound Sterling.

It should be mentioned that by the rules in the DMG a character was supposed to "automatically expend not less than 100 gold pieces per level of experience per month".[7] It was even worst regarding leveling up as the cost of doing so was the "Level of the trainee character * 1,500 gp = Weekly cost during study/training" with the number of weeks being 1 to 4 depending on how good the player role played.[8]

As expected any DM who tried to follow this rule and gave out enough wealth that his players could easily get to the next level quickly found themselves in a death spiral of having to giving out more and more treasure to "one up" the previous adventure resulting in the dreaded Monty Haul campaign.[9]

Second Edition AD&D
1 gp = 10 sp = 100 cp = 2 ep = 1/5 pp [10]
With 2e, a return to the simple decimal system was made, presumably due to the familiarization of most players with such a system.


Third Edition and Beyond
1 gp = 10 sp = 100 cp = 2 ep = 1/10 pp[11]
With the introduction of the third edition (and the d20 System), the trend toward decimalization reached its logical conclusion; the platinum piece doubled in value to 10 gp (from the earlier 5 gp), so that with the exception of the electrum piece, each coin is exactly one tenth the value of the coins “above” it, i.e.: 1 pp = 10 gp = 100 sp = 1,000 cp. This continued through the Fourth Edition.

3e offers a table that indicates that 1 gp can buy a goat or a pound of cinnamon. Magical Items can range in value from the low 12 gp, 5 sp (sometimes described as 12.5 gp) single-use 0-level scroll to artifacts valued at hundreds of thousands (or even over a million) gold pieces.

Gold coins in the real world
Roman gold coins
Gold was used for coinage very infrequently until the time of Julius Caesar, who introduced a standardised coin called aureus, which was struck regularly. It weighed 8 grams, about 1/40 of a Roman pound, but later its weight decreased to 1/45 of a pound in the time of Nero and to 1/50 of a pound in the time of Caracalla. The aureus had a fixed value of 25 denarii (Roman silver coin). Emperor Constantine I introduced the solidus to replace the aureus. Solidi were wider and thinner than the aureus, with the exception of some dumpy issues from the Byzantine Empire. The weight and fineness of the solidus remained relatively constant throughout its long production, with few exceptions. Fractions of the solidus known as semissis (half-solidi) and tremissis (one-third solidi) were also produced.[12]

Middle Ages
There were very few gold coins minted during the middle ages with gold more often being made into jewelry, lavish items for personal use, or holy items. When gold was used as money the weight was more important than the form the metal took and it was mainly used to settle debts between kingdoms.[13]

Copper and silver coins as well as barter were the way average transactions were carried out.

British gold coins
The noble was the first English gold coin produced in quantity, having been preceded by the twenty pence coin and the florin (also called double leopard) earlier in the reigns of King Henry III and King Edward III, which saw little circulation. The coin was introduced during the second coinage (1344-1346) of King Edward III, when the coin weighed 138.5 grains (9.0 grams); during the kings' third coinage (1346-1351) the weight of the coin was reduced to 128.5 grains (8.3 grams), while in his fourth coinage (1351-1377) it became even lighter, at 120 grains (7.8 grams).

A gold sovereign is a gold coin first issued in 1489 for Henry VII of England and still in production as of 2006 (equal to a pound sterling). Those original sovereigns were 23 carat (96%) gold and weighed 240 grains or one-half of a troy ounce (15.6 grams). Henry VIII reduced the purity to 22 carats (92%), which eventually became the standard; the weight of the sovereign was repeatedly lowered until when it was revived after the Great Recoinage law of 1816, the gold content was fixed at the present 113 grains (7.32 g), equivalent to 0.2354 Troy ounces. Sovereigns were discontinued after 1604, being replaced by unites, and later by laurels. Production of sovereigns restarted in 1817.

The guinea coin of 1663 was the first British machine-struck gold coin. The coin was originally worth one pound, which was twenty shillings; but rises in the price of gold caused the value of the guinea to increase, at times as high as thirty shillings. 44½ guineas would be made from one Troy pound of 11/12 finest gold, each weighing 129.4 grains. In 1670 the weight of the coin was reduced from 8.4–8.5 g to 8.3–8.4 g, but the price of gold continued to increase, and by the 1680s the coin was worth 22 shillings. The diameter of the coin was 25 millimetres throughout Charles II's reign, and the average gold content (from an assay done in 1773) was 0.9100.

General circulation US gold coins
The United States had general circulation gold coins from 1792 to 1933. Four of these coins are officially known as "Eagles".

Gold dollar: Minted from 1849 to 1889. While the coin weighed 1.672 g it varied in diameter (12.7 mm to 14.3 mm)

Quarter Eagle ($2.50): 17 mm diameter; 4.37 g (nearly 104 to a pound)

Three-dollar piece: Minted 1854 to 1889; 20.5 mm diameter; 5.015 g (about 90 to a pound)

Half Eagle ($5): 21 mm diameter; 8.75 g (nearly 52 to a pound)

Eagle ($10): 27 mm diameter; 17.5 g (nearly 26 to a pound)

Double Eagle ($20): minted 1849-1933. 34 mm diameter; 33.4362 grams (nearly 14 to a pound)

Gold coins in different campaign settings
Forgotten Realms
Gold Pieces are called Golden Lions in Cormyr, Dantars in Amn, Bicentas in Calimport, Dragons in Waterdeep, Shilmaers in Cormanthyr and Dinars in Southern Lands. Sembia mints five-sided coins of the same weight called Golden Lions (not to be confused with the eponymous Cormyrean gold pieces.


Dragonlance
The Dragonlance Campaign Setting greatly devalues the intrinsic worth of the gold piece and replaces it with the Steel Piece (Stl) as the default value in the rulebooks, with 1 Stl = 1 standard gp. In the Setting itself, the actual value of a gp relative to the other coin types depends on the region; in some areas (Seeker Lands) the gp is literally worthless, while in others it may be worth between 1/10th Stl, 1/40th Stl or 1/50th Stl.


Silver Piece
 
SHARE
* 1964 US Silver Half Dollar
Genuine, 100% Authentic D&D Silver Piece

The silver piece, or sp for short, is an integral part of the default monetary system in the D&D system since its inception. All prices in the core rulebooks and boxed sets are given primarily in gold pieces (gp), with items of lesser value given in silver pieces (sp) or copper pieces (cp), which are monetary fractions of the standard gp.

While the gp is the most common coin used by adventurers, most economies in fantasy settings actually have the silver piece as their foundations, with most wages calculated in silver pieces, not gold.


Size and Weight
The silver piece is generally considered to be a coin, though ingots or trade bars made of silver or other materials may be worth multiple silver pieces or even fractions thereof. In coin form, it is generally described as “approximately the size and weight of a United States half-dollar coin” meaning 30.6mm in diameter and weighing 11.5 grams (approximately 40 to a pound). Pre-1965 US half dollar coins are made of 90% silver, 10% copper, which is a very reasonably accurate representation of the composition of good quality medieval European silver coins.

In “Basic” D&D (and previous editions) and First Edition AD&D, despite the described weight, silver pieces are considered to weigh a tenth of a pound (1.6 standard ounces) each for encumbrance purposes, with 10 sp weighing one pound. Indeed, in these editions of the game, the basic unit of weight/encumbrance is either the “coin” (cn in Basic D&D)[1] or the “Gold Piece Weight” (gpw), either of which equals one tenth of a pound.

Starting in Second Edition AD&D and continuing through Third and Fourth Editions, silver pieces are considered to weigh approximately a third of a standard ounce (9 grams) each, which equals about fifty sp to a pound, while maintaining the size consistent with previous editions.

Value
As part of the default monetary system of all editions and versions of D&D, the sp is a staple in the system, but its relative value varies depending on edition.


Basic D&D
1979 3rd Edition:

1 gp = 10 sp = 50 cp = 2 ep = 1/5 pp (meaning 5 gp = 1 Platinum Piece) [2]
Note that 1 sp = 5 cp; in all other editions, 1 sp = 10 cp
1981 4th Edition:

1 gp = 10 sp = 100 cp = 2 ep = 1/5 pp (meaning 5 gp = 1 Platinum Piece) [3]
First Edition AD&D
1 gp = 20 sp = 200 cp = 2 ep = 1/5 pp [4]
As can be seen, an attempt at replicating a real world economy was made; the 20 sp = 1 gp corresponds to the pre-decimalisation British system of 20 shillings to a Pound Sterling.


Second Edition AD&D
1 gp = 10 sp = 100 cp = 2 ep = 1/5 pp [5]
With 2e, a return to the simple decimal system was made, presumably due to the familiarization of most players with such a system.


Third Edition and Beyond
1 gp = 10 sp = 100 cp = 2 ep = 1/10 pp[6]
With the introduction of the third edition (and the d20 System), the trend toward decimalization reached its logical conclusion; the platinum piece doubled in value to 10 gp (from the earlier 5 gp), so that with the exception of the electrum piece, each coin is exactly one tenth the value of the coins “above” it, i.e.: 1 pp = 10 gp = 100 sp = 1,000 cp. This continued through the Fourth Edition.


Silver coins in the real world
US Silver coins Edit
As previously mentioned, the 90% silver pre-1965 half-dollar coins are the quintessential silver pieces. It should be noted that prior to 1965, all US coins (with the exception of the one and five cent copper and nickel coins… and the obvious gold coins) were made of silver; quarter-dollars were exactly half the weight of a half-dollar, silver dollars were exactly twice the weight of a half dollar, dimes were exactly 1/5 the weight of a half dollar and half-dimes (silver coins worth 5 cents) were exactly 10 to a half dollar in weight.


British silver coins
The quintessential silver British coin is the shilling; a 92.5% (.925) pure silver coin slightly smaller than a US quarter dollar coin. Twenty shillings made up one Pound Sterling (which does not weigh one pound), leading to the term sterling silver being used to denote .925 purity silver. Silver was minted in other denominations; the Crown was a heavy silver coin worth five shillings and was approximately the same size and weight as a US Silver Dollar. The Crown led to the creation of the Half-Crown, predictably enough, half the weight of a Crown (and very close in size and weight to the US half dollar. Other silver coins are the two-shilling Florin, the half-shilling Sixpence and the quarter-shilling Threepence.

Silver coins in different campaign settings
Forgotten RealmsEdit
Silver Pieces are called Falcons in Cormyr, Tarans in Amn, Decarches in Calimport, Shards in Waterdeep, Bedoars in Cormanthyr and Dirhams in Southern Lands. Sembia mints triangular coins of the same weight called Ravens.


Copper Piece


*Elizabethan & Victorian British Pennies; Authentic D&D copper pieces in size, weight and composition

The copper piece, or cp for short, is an integral part of the default monetary system in the D&D system since its inception. All prices in the core rulebooks and boxed sets are given primarily in gold pieces (gp), with items of lesser value given in silver pieces (sp) or copper pieces, which are monetary fractions of the standard gp.

While the gp is the most common coin used by adventurers, most economies in fantasy settings actually have the silver piece as their foundations, with most wages calculated in silver pieces, not gold. However, as the silver piece is subdivided into copper pieces, the humble cp is by far the most familiar and common coin used in daily transactions throughout most settings.

Size and Weight
The copper piece is generally considered to be a coin, though ingots or trade bars made of copper or other materials may be worth multiple copper pieces or even fractions thereof. In coin form, it is generally described as “approximately the size and weight of a United States half-dollar coin” meaning 30.6mm in diameter and weighing 11.5 grams (approximately 40 to a pound).

In “Basic” D&D (and previous editions) and First Edition AD&D, despite the described weight, copper pieces are considered to weigh a tenth of a pound (1.6 standard ounces) each for encumbrance purposes, with 10 cp weighing one pound. Indeed, in these editions of the game, the basic unit of weight/encumbrance is either the “coin” (cn in Basic D&D)[1] or the “Gold Piece Weight” (gpw), either of which equals one tenth of a pound.

Starting in Second Edition AD&D and continuing through Third and Fourth Editions, copper pieces are considered to weigh approximately a third of a standard ounce (9 grams) each, which equals about fifty cp to a pound, while maintaining the size consistent with previous editions.

Value
As part of the default monetary system of all editions and versions of D&D, the cp is a staple in the system, but its relative value varies depending on edition.


Basic D&D
1979 3rd Edition:

1 gp = 10 sp = 50 cp = 2 ep = 1/5 pp (meaning 5 gp = 1 Platinum Piece) [2]
Note that 1 sp = 5 cp; in all other editions, 1 sp = 10 cp
1981 4th Edition:

1 gp = 10 sp = 100 cp = 2 ep = 1/5 pp (meaning 5 gp = 1 Platinum Piece) [3]
First Edition AD&D
1 gp = 20 sp = 200 cp = 2 ep = 1/5 pp [4]
As can be seen, an attempt at replicating a real world economy was made; the 20 sp = 1 gp corresponds to the pre-decimalisation British system of 20 shillings to a Pound Sterling.

Second Edition AD&D
1 gp = 10 sp = 100 cp = 2 ep = 1/5 pp [5]
With 2e, a return to the simple decimal system was made, presumably due to the familiarization of most players with such a system in the modern context.


Third Edition and Beyond
1 gp = 10 sp = 100 cp = 2 ep = 1/10 pp[6]
With the introduction of the third edition (and the d20 System), the trend toward decimalization reached its logical conclusion; the platinum piece doubled in value to 10 gp (from the earlier 5 gp), so that with the exception of the electrum piece, each coin is exactly one tenth the value of the coins “above” it, i.e.: 1 pp = 10 gp = 100 sp = 1,000 cp. This continued through the Fourth Edition.


Copper coins in the real world
British Copper coins
The quintessential copper British coin is the pre-decimalisation Penny; a 95% copper (5% tin & zinc, technically making it bronze; pure copper is too soft for practical coinage) coin 31mm in diameter weighing 9.4 grams (little over 48 coins to a pound); this matches the D&D cp almost exactly in both size and weight. 12 pennies (abbreviated "d"). The penny was further divided into Half-Pennies - each half the weight of a Penny and about the size of a US quarter dollar. Half-Pennies are further divided into Farthings, again, half the weight of a Half-Penny (a quarter of a Penny) and the size of a modern one cent coin. At one point, Half-Farthing coins were circulated, each half the weight of a Farthing (eight to a Penny), as well as Quarter-Farthings and Third-Farthings, which were minted for the colonies during the Victorian era.

At the other end of the spectrum, King George III (1760-1820) struck a two-penny coin so large and heavy that it was commonly called a "cartwheel penny"; though its face value was two pence, it weighed a whopping 30 grams (pennies weighed more in this era than in later Victorian coinage). The sheer inconvenience of the coin (heavier and larger than the 38.1mm diameter of a US silver dollar, which weighs 26.73 grams [with the later cupro-nickel Eisenhower dollar weighing in at 22.68 grams]) made it not very popular with the masses, and it was removed from circulation as soon as enough silver to make Half-Groat (2d) coins became available.

US Copper coins
Few people today are aware that, until 1857, one cent coins in the US were "Large Cents", between 27mm and 29mm in diameter. These were last minted in 1857, when the US began to strategically reserve copper for the looming conflicts on the horizon and passed the Coinage Act of 1857, which also terminated the production of Half-Cent coins, which were slightly smaller than modern quarter-dollar coins (22mm v. 24.3mm with about the same weight).

From 1864 to 1873, the US minted Two-Cent coins that were about the same size and weight as the pre-1857 half-cent.

Composition remained bronze (95% copper) for most of the "small" (modern) cent's history, until 1982, when it was switched to 97.5% zinc.

Copper coins in different campaign settings
Forgotten RealmsEdit
Copper Pieces are called Thumbs in Cormyr, Fandars in Amn, Unarches in Calimport, Nibs in Waterdeep, Thalvers in Cormanthyr and Bits in Southern Lands. Sembia does not use copper coinage (but they do use copper trade bars), but the cp's place in the economy is taken up by a square iron coin called a Steelpence.
It’s not a great look for a company that wants to represent humanity “in all its beautiful diversity.” Continuing to sell these products–and bear in mind, the original Oriental Adventures is a “mithral best seller” which means it’s continuing to sell–takes a lot of wind out of WotC’s Inclusivity and Diversity sails. They have to do better than this if they want their promise to be more than empty words. Not to say we should pretend these books never existed, but WotC is still actively profiting off of this material.

离线 A球

  • 米妮瓦之手,Mythica系列电影死忠粉
  • 版主
  • *
  • 帖子数: 292
  • 苹果币: 0
Among the many new features of the Oriental Adventures supplement are two new spell-casting classes, the shukenja and wu jen. These two new classes each have their own complete spell lists, which include many spells borrowed from the spell-casters of traditional AD&D® games.
Clerical, druidic, magic-user, and illusionist spells from the Players Handbook and Unearthed Arcana have been adapted for use by shukenja and wu jen. The Oriental Adventures spell lists also include many new and original spells. While many of these spells are specially tailored for use in an Oriental campaign, other spells in the book are fairly broad in nature and could see use in many situations and cultures. Just as various spells have been adapted from West to East, many of the spells known to Oriental characters would work quite well with the spell-casters of Occidental AD&D games. Presented herein are four lists of Oriental spells adapted to the
four major spell-casting classes of Western AD&D game settings. In choosing which ones to adapt, I looked for ones that were not dependent on the unique qualities and characteristics
of an Oriental campaign world. Spells that too greatly overlapped or duplicated the effects of spells given in the Players Handbook or Unearthed Arcana are not included in the spell lists below. A few new spells are added for Western spell-casters by translating the effects of an Oriental spell into a similar spell that would be proper in an Occidental campaign. The specifics of these general guidelines are discussed below in the commentaries on the four groups of new spells. Any changes or differences in the details of these adapted spells are noted and explained. The material components, spell levels, casting times, or specific effects of spells are often altered in applying these spells to Western spell-casters. Full descriptions of the few completely new
spells are also given in these notes. In these commentaries, one asterisk indicates a spell with a slightly altered title, while two asterisks denotes a totally new spell in the game. Simple abbreviations indicate the source of a spell; WJ stands for a wu jen spell, Sh for a shukenja spell. The number following the two letters shows the spells level. The many spells presented here
need.

Clerical spells
All of the new clerical spells are adapted
from the list of shukenja spells. The Occidental cleric differs from the shukenja
class in several important ways, which
must be taken into account when shukenja
spells are chosen. To begin with, the supernatural beings of the Orient are very
different from those of the West. The
spirit beings of the East have no Occidental counterparts, so the many shukenja
spells used to influence kami of all types
cannot be adapted for use by Western
clerics.
not be introduced into an Occidental campaign all at once. Spells should be introduced a little at a time, appearing on
scrolls or in hard-to-find spell books. Cleric
and druid spells may be granted by deities
as the characters prove their worth. Most
fun of all, player characters might find
themselves the targets of spells never
before seen. A fighter hit by a magnetism
spell or a thief made lawful good by a
compel spell make for interesting encounters in the campaign.
Of course, the spell lists can be altered
as the Dungeon Master sees fit. Some
spells may be considered inappropriate for
the campaign, while additional spells from
Oriental Adventures might be introduced.
The shape-changers of the East are not
known in the West, so the two spells used
to detect or forcibly change these beings
are inappropriate for clerics. These two
spells, however, may inspire new spells
that affect those creatures of the West
vaguely similar to shape-changers  lycanthropes. Detect lycanthrope and force
werechange are two completely new spells
that may be known by clerics.
The metaphysics of the Orient is different from that of the West. Humans of the
East commonly experience reincarnation
of the spirit and may have many past lives.
As humans and most demi-humans in the
West are rarely reincarnated, the second
use of the remember spell is largely unknown to clerics.
Shukenja differ from clerics in their
range of possible alignment positions.
While shukenja are good-aligned holy
persons who revere a great many kami,
clerics are worshipers of a specific deity
and can hold any one of the nine different
alignments. Those spells used by shukenja
to coerce a wicked person into following a
more enlightened way of life must be
modified  or even abandoned  to suit
the full range of alignments available to
clerics. Remorse is a spell quite unsuitable
for neutral or evil clerics, and so should be
prohibited from use by the cleric class.
Other spells such as oath and compel must
be broadened in scope to permit a cleric of
any alignment to coerce another into
behaving in a way closer to the cleric’s
alignment and beliefs.
Shukenja are highly adept at casting
divination spells. Clerics who do not have
such great interest in the future or fortune telling should gain spells such as
omen or fate at a higher spell level.
The material components of a number
of spells must be changed to reflect religious or cultural differences between East
and West. Other changes in spell descriptions are made for various reasons of
magic specialty, a deity’s sphere of influence, or clarity of description

First level
Calm: (Sh1) This spell may be used by a
cleric to soothe most forms of mental
distress, except for magical fear, which
can only be cancelled by a remove fear
spell. This spell is identical to the shukenja
spell in all other ways but requires no
material component.
Detect disease: (Sh1) The clerical version
of this spell uses no material component.
Second level
Detect harmony: (Sh1) The material
component for this spell is the cleric‘s holy
symbol.
Omen: (Sh1) This spell is considered to
be second level for most clerics, although
a deity whose sphere of influence includes
divination and fortune telling may bestow
omen as a first-level spell.
Weapon bless: (Sh1) The material components for the cleric’s spell are a quill made
from the feather of an eagle and ink made
from dragon’s blood. The identity of the
foe and several prayers of the cleric’s
religion are written on the weapon using
the quill and ink, just as described under
the shukenja spell.
Third level
Castigate: (Sh3) As per the Oriental Adventures spell.
Detect curse: (Sh3) The material components for this spell are a small gem worth
at least 10 gp and a few fresh rose petals.
Snake summoning: (Sh2) This spell will
only affect ordinary, nonmagical snakes;
no serpent or serpentlike creatures are
summoned by the clerical version of this
spell. The material components for this
spell are the cleric’s holy symbol and a
miniature silver flute that disappears
when the spell is cast.
Substitution: (Sh3) Deities with little
regard for healing or protective magic,
notably war gods, barbarian deities, or
death gods, will not grant this spell to
their clerical worshipers. The prepared
statue must be made from materials costing at least 25 gp.
Warning: (Sh2) To more clearly separate
this spell from the find traps spell, this
spell is treated as a third-level improved
version of the find traps spell, rather than
a second-level spell that partly duplicates
the powers of the existing clerical spell.
The chance to detect any mechanical or
magical trap within the 10' radius of detection of the warning spell rises to 100%.
The chance of detecting any other type of
danger, including invisible opponents, rises
to 50%. The casting time of this spell is 6
segments. This spell is identical to the
shukenja’s warning spell in all other ways.
Fourth level
Detect lycanthrope: (* *) This spell is
similar to the fourth-level shukenja spell
detect shapechanger, except it can detect
any form of lycanthrope. When cast upon
a lycanthrope in human form, the spell
reveals the person to be a lycanthrope, but
does not identify which type of lycanthrope the person is. If cast upon a lycanthrope in animal form, the spell reveals
the creature is a lycanthrope, but does not
divulge the creature’s human identity. The
material component for this spell is a balm
of honey, dried carrot, moonwort, and
belladonna, which is rubbed onto the
caster’s eyelids. This spell is otherwise
identical to detect shapechanger in range,
duration, area of effect, and casting time.
Endurance: (Sh4) The material component for the reversed version, fatigue, is a
small quantity of cumin seeds or poison
nut.
Oath: (Sh3) Unlike shukenja with their
alignment limitation, clerics of all alignments may cast this spell upon opponents
of any alignment in order to force them
into a desired behavior. A chaotic cleric
will be less likely to abide by the conditions of the oath than a lawful or neutral
cleric.
Pacify: (Sh4) As per the Oriental Adventures spell.
Reanimation: (Sh4) The material components for this spell are the cleric’s holy
symbol, burning incense, and the cleric’s
prayer vestment.
Sustain: (Sh4) The material components
for this spell are a few drops of wine and
a small piece of bread.
Fifth level
Advice: (Sh5) As per the Oriental Adventures spell.
Fare: (Sh4) Many deities with little interest in fate, destiny, or divination will not
bestow this spell on their clerics. For a
deity with a special interest in divination
Force werechange: ( * * ) This spell is
somewhat similar to the sixth-level shukenja spell force shapechange. This spell
can be used to force a lycanthrope to
return back to his or her human form, or
to cause a lycanthrope to go from human
to wereform against its will. This spell
does not inflict the wracking pain of force
shapechange, but might cause injury if the
lycanthrope assumes wereform while
constricted by armor (see page 23 of the
Dungeon Masters Guide). A lycanthrope is
entitled to a save vs. spells to avoid having
his form changed by this spell. If the save
is successful, the lycanthrope does not
change form, and does not take any damage in trying to resist this spell. The material component of this spell is a moonstone
crushed into dust when the spell is cast.
This spell is otherwise identical to force
shapechange in range, duration, area of
effect, and casting time.
Instruct: (Sh6) The clerical version of
this spell is greatly altered because clerics
of all alignments may cast this spell. A
listener whose alignment is very different
from that of the caster will not be so easily
swayed. Listeners with a difference of one
alignment component (either lawful, neutral, chaotic, good, or evil) gain a + 1 bonus to the saving throw. Listeners with
both alignment components different from
that of the caster gain a + 3 bonus. A
character may still fail the save and become strongly devoted to the new religion
Sixth level
or astrology, this spell may be granted as a
fourth-level spell instead of a fifth level.
The material components for this spell
may vary depending on the particular
method of divination prescribed by the
cleric’s religion, as determined by the DM.
Immunity to weapons: (Sh6) This spell is
treated exactly as described in Oriental
Adventures, but is handled as a fifth-level
spell to accomodate the existing spell
description. Treating this spell as a sixthlevel spell poses a problem; although the
spell description states that shukenja of
11th level or below can provide immunity
to normal weapons with this spell, a shukenja must be at least 14th level to cast
immunity to weapons as a sixth-level spell.
For the existing spell description to make
sense, it would be better to treat this spell
as fifth level for shukenja and clerics. The
casting time of the clerical spell version is
8 segments.
Remember: (Sh5) For most clerics, this
spell can only restore lost memories. This
spell won’t usually confer any knowledge
of past lives, because most character races
of Western AD&D game campaigns do not
experience reincarnation. Only elven
clerics might be able to peer into the past
lives of other elves with this spell. Reincarnated PCs will have a much clearer memory of their previous life with this spell,
possibly allowing the use of certain skills
and abilities in the new form, as determined by the DM.
by rolling a 1 for the save vs. death magic.
Clerics, druids, paladins, and rangers all
gain an additional +2 to the save for their
strong faith in and dedication to their
alignment and religion. These characters
may still develop a mild interest in the
new religion by rolling a 1 for the saving
throw, but are immune from becoming
strongly devoted to the spell-caster’s
religion.
A character who becomes mildly interested in the caster’s religion may commit
some minor transgressions against his or
her original alignment, and may be penalized accordingly. A paladin might lose
some of his important powers, or a cleric
may lose touch with her deity and be
denied higher-level spells. The effects of
mild interest may be cancelled by an
atonement spell.
A character developing a strong interest
in the new religion is considered to have
suffered an involuntary alignment change.
The character may be brought back to his
original alignment and faith by receiving
an atonement spell.
When the cleric casting this spell addresses a crowd, the saving throw is handled as described in Oriental Adventures,
but a bonus of + 1 to + 3 may be applied
to the group’s saving throw, depending on
the general alignment make-up of the
people listening.
Smite: (Sh6) As per the Oriental Adventures spell.
Seventh level
Ancient curse: (Sh7) This curse may be
called upon by a cleric of any alignment to
bring the wrath of the cleric’s deity upon a
foe of both cleric and deity. The DM must
decide whether the deity feels the curse is
warranted, judging by the intended target’s obstruction or opposition to the cleric’s religion and cause. An evil cleric may
call this curse upon a good and noble foe
of the cleric’s religion as readily as a good
cleric may call this curse down upon a
wicked person, In fact, undoing an ancient
curse cast by an evil cleric may be the goal
of a campaign adventure.
Compel: (Sh7) This spell may be used by a cleric of any alignment to bring a foe into line with the clerics alignment. If the compelled character is changed to an alignment outside the character s class, then all special abilities and powers of the class are lost. A paladin changed to the neutral-evil alignment becomes an ordinary fighter. This spell may be reversed by a wish or atonement spell.
Longevity: (Sh6) The material components for this spell are a piece of giant
tortoise shell and an offering to the cleric’s deity worth at least 1,000 gp.
Druidic spells
The list of new druidic spells contains a mix of wu jen and shukenja spells. The trick of choosing new druidic spells is to pick spells that would suit the druid class without robbing the Oriental classes of all Spells that too closely duplicate existing druidic spells should be avoided, and so of their interesting nature spells. should spells that would overload the druid with too many spells that are variations on a single theme. Druids have no need for the animal companion spell when they already know animal friendship.
Druids have plenty of interesting fire spells as it is without piling on more fire spells that should remain unique to the wu jen class. Spells that seem proper at first glance are revealed to be inappropriate after closer inspection. Drowsy insects would seem a natural spell for druids by its very name, but the true effect of the spell is closer to the magic-user’s sleep spell. Reverse flow is a water-control spell that might appear reasonable as a druidic spell, but why would druids wish to alter the natural flow of rivers or waterfalls just to be able to paddle faster upstream?
The wood rot spell is often inappropriate for druids, although its reverse, prevent rot, would work well with the class. A totally new spell in the game, cure rot, is intended to overcome the main limitation on the power of prevent rot. All of the new druidic spells are altered in some way, usually to accommodate the different material components that druids use with spells. Mistletoe is a holy symbol and is included among the material components of all druidic spells, and the material components that are proper in the Orient must often be replaced by materials commonly found in a Celtic wilderness
setting.
First level
Detect disease: (Sh1) This spell is identical to the shukenja spell, but if the druid can identify the disease and it is a normal, nonmagical disease native to the druids homeland, then the druid has a 5% chance per level of experience to concoct a natural cure for the disease. Making the cure takes 2-8 turns. The material component for this spell is mistletoe.
Resist: (Sh1) The material components for this spell are mistletoe, a few edible berries, a drop of water, and a feather from a wren. This spell is a favorite of rangers.
Second level
Animate wood: (WJ1) The material component for this spell is mistletoe.
Create spring: (Sh2) The material components for this spell are mistletoe and a freshwater reed.
Swim: (WJ1) The reverse of this spell, sinking, cannot be cast by druids. The material components for this spell are mistletoe and a fish scale.
Third level
Animate water: (WJ2) The material components for this spell are mistletoe and a small vial of spring water mixed with cinnabar ore
Still water: (WJ1) The material components for this spell are mistletoe and a small fan
« 上次编辑: 2019-09-15, 周日 21:59:29 由 A球 »
It’s not a great look for a company that wants to represent humanity “in all its beautiful diversity.” Continuing to sell these products–and bear in mind, the original Oriental Adventures is a “mithral best seller” which means it’s continuing to sell–takes a lot of wind out of WotC’s Inclusivity and Diversity sails. They have to do better than this if they want their promise to be more than empty words. Not to say we should pretend these books never existed, but WotC is still actively profiting off of this material.

离线 A球

  • 米妮瓦之手,Mythica系列电影死忠粉
  • 版主
  • *
  • 帖子数: 292
  • 苹果币: 0
Re: 乱七八糟团务区
« 回帖 #26 于: 2019-09-15, 周日 22:15:06 »
Wood shape: (WJ3) Druids should be very reluctant to use this spell on living wood, of course, but may use it freely on nonliving wood. The material components for this spell are mistletoe and a miniature adze (as per the Oriental version).
Fourth level
Animate fire: (WJ3) The material components for this spell are mistletoe and a few
holly berries.
Elemental turning: (WJ4) This spell does
not turn elementals through the power of
fear, but causes them to wander away
peacefully due to the druids understanding and command of elemental beings. An
elemental cannot be forced to return to its
plane of origin by cornering it, but it may
be sent back to its own plane by the druid
if the elemental is willing to return. If the
elemental is being controlled by another
being, then a way must be found to break
the creature’s concentration in order for
the druid to peacefully send the elemental
back to its home plane. The casting time of
the druidic spell version is 6 segments.
The material components for this spell are
mistletoe and a pinch of the element identical to the type of elemental to be commanded  a pinch of earth for earth
elementals, a puff of breath for air elementals, etc
Prevent rot: (WJ5*) This spell is the
reverse of the fifth-level wu jen spell wood
rot. Prevent rot is the listed spell for
druids, since preventing wood rot is of
great interest to druids, while wood rot
would see only limited use. A druid would
never use wood rot against healthy, living
wood, but might use wood rot against
nonliving wood or hostile plant creatures.
The casting time for the druidic spell
version is 6 segments. The only material
component is mistletoe.
Fifth level
Cure Rot * * (Alteration)
Level: 5
Range: 3”
Duration: Perm.
AE: Special
Components: V,S,M
CT: 7 seg.
ST: None
Explanation/Description: This spell is
like a more powerful version of the pre-
 vent rot spell. If cast upon a wooden object affected by a wood rot spell, this spell
completely cures the wood rot at a rate of
1 cubic foot per round until the object is
restored to its original condition. At least
part of the original wood must be intact
for this spell to cure the rot; an object that
has totally rotted into dust cannot be cured.
This spell also cures any rotting, decay,
or damage to living trees or plants caused
by natural disease or living organisms.
Damage is cured at a rate of 1 cubic foot
of wood per round, or 1 square yard of
plant growth per round. At least part of
the original plant life must remain intact
for the spell to take effect. This spell may
cure up to one acre of plant life, so the
spell may treat a small grove of diseased
trees or a garden plot partly destroyed by
insects. The material components for this
spell are mistletoe and a dead woodborer
beetle.
Ironwood: (WJ5) The material components for this spell are metal filings mixed
with willow tree sap, and mistletoe sprigs.
Sustain: (Sh4) The material components
for this spell are mistletoe, a small vial of
spring water, and a few edible nuts or
berries.
Water to poison: (WJ5) This spell may be
cast by druids only if the DM permits
druids to use poison. The reverse of this
spell, poison to water may be used freely.
The material components for this spell are
mistletoe and the fang of a poisonous
snake briefly dipped into the liquid.
Sixth level
Quickgrowth: (Sh6) This spell must be
used with care by druids, who should not
use it just to create natural curiosities to
impress the rubes. A good reason should
always be given for this spells use. The
reverse of this spell, wither, is rarely used
against living plants. Mistletoe replaces the
staff as the material component for this
spell.
Warp stone: (WJ6) Mistletoe is needed in
addition to a piece of twisted clay as this
spells material components.
Magic-user spells
The majority of new magic-user spells
are culled from the list of wu jen spells. In
choosing these spells, it is best to pick
those that would see use in a variety of
different cultures and societies, and to
avoid those special spells that should remain unique to the wu jen class.
While wu jen sorcerers and Occidental
magic-users are both able to cast a broad
range of spells, wu jen are somewhat
more specialized in their abilities. Wu jen
are experts in the field of element control;
when spells dealing with the elements and
elemental beings are adapted for use by
the magic-user class, some of these spells
made available to the magic-user should be
placed at a higher spell level or be toned
down in power. Still water and animate
water are both treated as one spell level
higher for magic-users. Elemental turning
and elemental servant are slightly less
powerful when cast by a magic-user than
when cast by a wu jen sorcerer.
Certain other spells of element control
are too special to be granted to magicusers. The most powerful of element
control wu jen spells, notably ice blight,
whirlwind, internal fire, and tsunami,
should be reserved for the wu jen only
to allow the class to maintain its special
abilities and characteristics.
Other wu jen spells are too similar to
existing magic-user spells. Magic-users
who can hurl fireballs do not need to have
the fire rain spell made available to them
as well. Magic-users do not need the water
protection spell when they can already
cast water breathing. Fire wings is too
specialized for magic-users to use, and
magic-users can already cast fly.
Magic-users do gain a few shukenja
spells. Detect curse is gained as a fourthlevel spell, because magic-users can cast
remove curse at the same spell level. The
new spell detect lycanthrope is also available to the magic-user at the third spell
level. Mental strength and longevity are
gained at higher spell levels.
Magic-user spells are not as greatly
altered as cleric or druid spells, since the
material components for most wu jen
spells work well with magic-user spells.
Changes made in spells are usually minor.
First level
Accuracy: (WJ1) A quill made from the
feather of a hawk is used in place of the
brush to inscribe the mystical character
on each enchanted missile.
Chameleon: (WJ1) As per the Oriental
Adventures spell.
Secret signs: (WJ1) As per the Oriental
Adventures spell.
Swim: (WJ1) As per the Oriental Adventures spell.
Second level
Prestidigitation: (WJ1) As per the Oriental Adventures spell.
Protection from charm: (WJ2) As per the
Oriental Adventures spell.
Still water: (WJ1) As per the Oriental
Adventures spell.
Third Level
Animate fire: (WJ3) As per the Oriental
Adventures spell.
Animate water: (WJ2) As per the Oriental Adventures spell.
Detect lycanthrope: (* *) This spell is
identical to the new fourth-level clerical
spell given above.
Magnetism: (WJ3) As per the Oriental
Adventures spell.
Memory: (WJ3) The material components for this spell are a quill made from
an owls feather, a pot of ink, and a sheet
of vellum.
Fourth level
Detect curse: (Sh3) This spell requires no
material component.
Elemental turning: (WJ4) Elementals
make their saving throw vs. this spell at
+2 to their roll, because magic-users are
not as adept at controlling the elements
and elementals as are wu jen sorcerers.
Melt metal: (WJ4) The material component for this spell is a ruby chip worth at
least 100 gp.
Quell: (WJ4) As per the Oriental Adventures spell.
Reverse flow: The duration of this spell is only 4 turns/level of experience of the caster.
Transfix: (WJ4) As per the Oriental Adventures spell.
Wood shape: (WJ3) As per the Oriental Adventures spell.
e.
Eighth level
Tool: (WJ7) As per the Oriental Adventures spell.
Elemental servant: The task to be completed by the elemental can take no longer
than one day per two levels of experience
of the magic-user.
Seventh level
Warp stone: (WJ6) As per the Oriental
Adventures spell.
Pain: (WJ6) As per the Oriental Adventures spell.
Gambler’s luck: (WJ6) As per the Oriental Adventures spell.
Metal to rust: (WJ6) As per the Oriental
Adventures spell.
Aura: (WJ6) As per the Oriental Adventures spell.
Sixth level
Servant horde: The casting time of this
spell is 5 segments.
Water to poison: (WJ5) As per the Oriental Adventures spell.
Wood rot: The casting time of this spell
is 5 segments.
Mental strength: (Sh5) As per the Oriental Adventures spell.
Metal skin: (WJ5) As per the Oriental
Adventures spell.
Mass: (WJ5) As per the Oriental Adventures spell.
Ironwood: (WJ5) As per the Oriental
Adventures spell.
Seventh level
Elemental servant: The task to be completed by the elemental can take no longer
than one day per two levels of experience of the magic-user
Tool: (WJ7) As per the Oriental Adventures spell.
Eighth level
Longevity: The material components for
this spell are a piece of giant tortoise shell
and a scale from an ancient dragon of any
sort or size.
Surelife: The material component for
this spell is a butterfly cocoon floating in a
half-filled vial of liquid mercury.
Surelife: The material component for
this spell is a butterfly cocoon floating in a
half-filled vial of liquid mercury.
Of the four main spell-casting classes of
Western AD&D game campaigns, the
illusionist gains the fewest new spells. But
unlike other Occidental classes, illusionists
(who are such great specialists in one area
of magic) do not suffer greatly from the
spell level changes applied to the other
Western character classes.
Prestidigitation is a first-level spell for
illusionists, compared to second level for
magic-users. Two third-level wu jen spells,
disguise and face, are treated as second
level for illusionists. Both spells are considered to be specialized forms of the alter
self spell, used for very special roles to fool others regarding the character’s true
appearance or status. A very powerful wu
jen spell, summoning wind, is known in a
less-powerful seventh-level form. Few
other high-level spells from Oriental Adventures are applicable to the illusionist
class.
Two wu jen spells are slightly altered
and renamed for illusionists. The wu jen’s
fiery eyes and smoke shape spells are
known to illusionists under different
names and have restricted effects.
First level
Apparition: (WJ2) The casting time of
the illusionist version is only 1 segment.
Chameleon: (WJ1) The casting time of
this spell is only 1 segment.
Glowing eyes: (WJ1*) This spell is similar
to the first-level wu jen spell fiery eyes in
most respects, but with the following
exceptions. This spell version has no heat
component to it, so combustibles cannot
be set on fire by the beams of light. Also,
the casting time of this spell is only 1
segment. This spell behaves as does fiery
eyes in all other ways.
Prestidigitation: (WJ1) The reverse of
this spell, fumble-fingers, cannot be cast
by illusionists. The casting time of this
spell is only 1 segment.
Second level
Disguise: (WJ3) The casting time of this
spell is only 1 round.
Face: (WJ3) This spell may improve the
apparent social class of the illusionist by
Id4 ranks, such as from lower middle
class to middle upper class (refer to the
Social Class Table on page 82 of Unearthed
Arcana). The reverse of this spell, lose
face, is unknown to illusionists. The casting time of this spell is but 1 round.
Fog shape: (WJ2 *) This spell is similar to
the second-level wu jen spell smoke shape,
but only fog or mist may be shaped, not
smoke from a fire. The casting time of this
spell is only 2 segments.
Third level
Memory: (WJ3) The material components for this spell are a quill made from
an owl’s feather, a pot of ink, and a sheet
of vellum. The reverse of this spell, erasement, cannot be cast by illusionists.
Fifth level
Creeping darkness: (WJ5) The material
components for this spell are a whisker
from a black cat, a drop of pitch, and a
small bit of obsidian.
Seventh level
Summoning wind: (WJ8) The number of
creatures that may be contacted using the
illusionist spell version is only five times
the level of the caster. This spell has a
maximum range limit of 100 miles per
level of the caster above ground,or 10
miles per level underground.
It’s not a great look for a company that wants to represent humanity “in all its beautiful diversity.” Continuing to sell these products–and bear in mind, the original Oriental Adventures is a “mithral best seller” which means it’s continuing to sell–takes a lot of wind out of WotC’s Inclusivity and Diversity sails. They have to do better than this if they want their promise to be more than empty words. Not to say we should pretend these books never existed, but WotC is still actively profiting off of this material.

离线 A球

  • 米妮瓦之手,Mythica系列电影死忠粉
  • 版主
  • *
  • 帖子数: 292
  • 苹果币: 0
[Characters] Bishop Carr - First D&D Cleric 卡尔主教,最初的牧师
« 回帖 #27 于: 2019-10-07, 周一 20:35:03 »
The first Cleric in the history of D&D was played by original Blackmoor player and former TSR Editor Mike Carr and the character was later known simply as Bishop Carr. Mike Carr was not the only player to have used this class. Another famous example is Richard Snider, when he played Brother Richard - the Flying Monk.  When I talked to Carr last year, he explained that:

"It's true that I did take part in the original Blackmoor campaign and did play the role of a priest, participating in a few dungeon or overland expeditions. [...] I also recall having the ability to cast one or two spells and having the ability to help heal minor wounds, but in retrospect it's obvious my character was low level and not particularly impressive. Since my primary interest was in historical games rather than fantasy games (which is still the case), I didn't play too often and didn't make any progress with that character. It's ironic that I knew both Dave Arneson and Gary Gygax fairly well and enjoyed their company from time to time, but never played much D & D with either of them."

Mike Mornard was another player in Arneson's campaign at this time. Mornard is also unique in the fact that he is the only player to have played in all three of Gary Gygax', Phil Barker's and Dave Arneson's original campaigns. Mornard recalls the origins of the Cleric class designed for Carr's character:

"Ahem. I was there. In CHAINMAIL there were wizards that functioned as artillery. Then there was Dave Arneson's first miniatures/roleplaying campaign. Some players were 'good guys' and some players were 'bad guys' and Dave was the referee. One of the 'bad guys' wanted to play a Vampire. He was extremely smart and capable, and as he got more and more experience he got tougher and tougher. This was the early 70s, so the model for 'vampire' was Christopher Lee in Hammer films. No deep folklore shit. Well, after a time, nobody could touch Sir Fang. Yes, that was his name."

The Vampire Lord, Sir Fang, that Mornard refers to here was actually David Fant's character, who used to be the Baron of Blackmoor. How Baron Fant was turned into a Vampire is a shrouded mystery. The Last Fantasy Campaign suggests that Ran may have been responsible for turning Blackmoor's Baron into an undead lord. My fellow Blackmoor scholar David Ross speculates that it must have happened in the year 998 when the heroes drew the forces of the Egg out of Blackmoor, reclaiming their city:

"Meanwhile, a strong fighter becomes the vampire Sir Fang. This is also the last mention of Fant as a ruling Baron of Blackmoor. Great Vampire Hunt in which Fant is “killed”, but later two dwarves free him and join his undead legion."(-Blackmoor Gazetteer)
Lord Fang was also recruited the Baron's ally, Sir Jenkins, Lord of Glendover, to the ranks of the undead. The appearance of a Vampire lord and an undead legion on the side of evil threatened the balance of the campaign. Mike Mornard recalls how the Cleric class was designed to reestablish this balanace:

"To fix the threatened end of the game they came up with a character that was, at first, a 'vampire hunter'. Peter Cushing in the same films. As the rough specs were drawn up, comments about the need for healing and for curing disease came up. Ta da, the "priest" was born. Changed later to 'cleric'. The bit about edged weapons was from Gary's reading the old stories about Archbishop Turpin, who wielded a mace because he didn't want to shed blood ("who lives by the sword dies by the sword")."

Grognaria also suggest Peter Cushing's role of Dr. Van Helsing as an inspiration for the Cleric class. Since Mike Carr was the first to play this class, it would make sense to assume that his character conformed to the ideas they all had of the class at the time.

Besides battling the Vampire Lord, Mike Carr recalls what was probably the most dramatic adventures of Bishop Carr. It featured one of Blackmoor's most dangerous monsters:

"One of my recollections is one rather disastrous encounter with a balrog where our party had to beat a hasty retreat because we couldn't defeat that particular monster."
Could this have been the battle recounted by Greg Svenson as the Great Svenny's First Dungeon Adventure? It would not be the only time the heroes of Blackmoor were faced with Demons.

Bishop Carr is described in a humorous way in the First Fantasy Campaign, a description which still makes me chuckle today. Dave Arneson's accounts of the Bishop suggests Arneson's fond memories of playing with Carr. While the character was still of very low level when Carr played in the campaign, Arneson promoted him to Bishop of Blackmoor. In DA1, Garamond Bolitho is the Bishop of Blackmoor. Garamond may have succeeded Bishop Carr since DA1 is set 30 years after the First Fantasy Campaign, or they may be one and the same character. David Ross points to both Clerics' friendliness towards the "pagan" elves as a possible indication that they may be the same, but also offers the years 1002-1005 as the period when Bolitho may have replaced Carr as the preceeding Bishop over Blackmoor.
« 上次编辑: 2019-10-08, 周二 05:39:13 由 A球 »
It’s not a great look for a company that wants to represent humanity “in all its beautiful diversity.” Continuing to sell these products–and bear in mind, the original Oriental Adventures is a “mithral best seller” which means it’s continuing to sell–takes a lot of wind out of WotC’s Inclusivity and Diversity sails. They have to do better than this if they want their promise to be more than empty words. Not to say we should pretend these books never existed, but WotC is still actively profiting off of this material.

离线 A球

  • 米妮瓦之手,Mythica系列电影死忠粉
  • 版主
  • *
  • 帖子数: 292
  • 苹果币: 0
Monster Building 201: The D&D Monster Dissection Lab实用怪物创建指南
« 回帖 #28 于: 2019-10-15, 周二 05:33:13 »
The designers of D&D are very good at creating a game. I will give them that. Except for some bizarre-a$% oddities like the fact that magic missile is not intended to be an attack and dispel magic only actually works on spells and not on any magical class ability. But every game has it weirdities. And you can live with those. The problem is they are really bad at explaining the game. Or presenting it. The encounter building math is complicated and confusing, sure. But it doesn’t have to be. The problem is that it is poorly explained. And even worse, customizing monsters is atrociously explained.

Here’s the deal: D&D actually has a really good mathematical system behind its monsters. Or as good as it can be given how to came to pass, but I won’t get into that. End of the day, there is some really solid logic behind monster building. And I love it. Because I’m a gamer and I’m an accountant and I love rules and I love systems. I feel the way about RPG systems that Kate McCartney feels about baking. “It’s just a heap of rules and I’m good with rules. In fact, if this was a different time in history, there’s a very good chance I would have let war crimes happen.”

The problem is, on top of the beautiful mathematical system, there’s a well-documented and exhaustively explained process that is utter crap. Not only are the steps in the wrong order, but the important bits are buried under mounds and mounds of garbage. For example, the DMG advises that the first thing you do when creating a monster is come up with a Name, Size, Type, and Alignment. Then, assign Ability Scores. And then, THEN, think about what you’re going to do with the monster in the game. Like, hey, how powerful do you actually want this thing to be?

Worse still, the system basically says “just make a monster all willy nilly and then, hey, see what Challenge it comes out with. We can always fix it later.” And there’s no f$&%ing reason for that trial and error bulls$&%. Because if you understand how all the pieces fit together, you can figure out how to do some pretty cool stuff. Like, amazingly cool stuff. But that would require having the system explained. And delineating a process is NOT the same as explaining a system. Delineating a process does not empower people. Explaining a system does. Because then they can deviate from the process and still understand what the hell they are doing!

So, I’m going to teach you a better way to build a D&D 5E monster. Which shouldn’t surprise you, because I promised you that last week as part of my unofficial “Monster Month.” We’re going to be spending the whole month on building D&D monsters. In fact, we are going to spend more than a month because, surprise surprise, I’m going to give you a bonus article.

In THIS article, we’re going to analyze the rules that make 5E monsters work. I’m going to try to explain how it all works and how things all fit together better than the DMG did. And I’m doing that so that, NEXT article, we can actually find a process for building awesome D&D monsters. And then we’re going to do the same damned thing in Pathfinder.

Let’s Get Dissecting!
First and foremost, I’m here to teach you how to build complete and legal monsters. I explained why already, so I’m not going to do it again. If you want to fudge s$&% or reskin s$&%, go do that and get the hell off my site. The monsters I am going to teach you to build are mechanically rigorous. They could sit in a published product and be as accurate as any other goddamned thing in the D&D rules.

That means, you’ve got to understand the system. And I mean you have to really understand it. You’ve got to have a grasp on how all the little pieces affect each other. Because, next week, I’m going to show you how powerful the whole damned system is if you ignore the way WotC tells you to use it. Some of this information might be remedial if you’ve made a good study of the process already, but that’s just tough s$&%. You have to learn to walk before you can flee from a rampaging gorilla-demon while lemur people are flinging rocks at you.

What follows is a whirlwind tour of the bits of pieces that make the monsters work mathematically.

Proficiency Bonus
Every monster has a Proficiency Bonus based on it’s challenge, as you can see in the first column of the table on DMG 274. This bonus is added to attacks with which the monster is proficient, Saving Throws with which the monster is proficient, and skills with which the monster is proficient. That isn’t optional. That’s a rule.

Well, sort of. You can deviate from that. For example, some monsters actually have a sort of expertise, where they add double their Proficiency Bonus to a skill. This isn’t explicitly called out in the stat block, but it does happen. For example, check out the Grell on MM172. It is proficient in two skills, Perception and Stealth. It has a Stealth modifier of +6. It’s Dexterity modifier is +2. It’s Proficiency Bonus should be +2 based on it’s Challenge. So where is the extra +2 coming from? Well, some PC class traits, racial traits, and feat traits allow them to add double their proficiency bonus to specific checks. Clearly, that’s where it’s coming from. Grells are Stealth and Perception experts. They use double their Proficiency Bonus for those skills.

On the other hand, in monsters seem to ALWAYS be proficient with their attacks. I haven’t spotted any exceptions to this rule. It’s a strong enough trend that, recently, when I needed to create a creature with an attack roll lower than what the math allowed, I wrote a special trait to explain it.

Lummox. Erug is a clumsy brute who swings wildly with his weapons. He does not add his proficiency bonus to weapon attacks.

I don’t know if I had to that for my clumsy ogre brute, but I like to be thorough. When I deviate from the system, I like to explain it. That’s my design philosophy.

So Proficiency Bonus is always added to attacks and always added to Saving Throws with which the monster is proficient. A monster also adds its Proficiency Bonus to skills with which it is proficient. It can also add twice the proficiency bonus to give it expertise in certain skills.

What that means is that the Proficiency Bonus is pretty central to the monster’s attacks. And because it based on Challenge, it’s pretty fixed. You’re always going to have to account for Proficiency Bonus. But, as you’re going to see, that can make things very complicated.

Attack Bonus
When a monster can make an attack, there’s two important statistics: attack bonus and damage. A monster’s melee attack bonus is equal to its Proficiency Bonus plus its Strength modifier. A monster’s ranged attack bonus is equal to its Proficiency Bonus plus its Dexterity modifier. IN GENERAL. See, this is where things get a little weird. If a monster is using a weapon, it follows the rules for those weapons. A monster using a scimitar can substitute its Dexterity modifier for Strength because a scimitar is a Finesse weapon. A monster throwing a spear uses its Strength modifier, not its Dexterity, because it is a Thrown weapon. So, monsters using manufactured weapons follow the rules for manufactured weapons.

Now, when a monster uses a natural weapon, like claws or teeth or tentacles or tail spikes, things can get a little complicated. Or they might seem to. Except they don’t really. What you’re really doing when you give a monster a natural weapon is you’re inventing a weapon. Take, for example, the bite of a flying snake (MM 322). That’s a melee attack, and if it used the creature’s Strength modifier (-3), the attack bonus would be -1. But it’s +6. Where is that +6 coming from? Well, the creature’s Dexterity modifier is +4 and it has a proficiency bonus of +2. That’s the +6. Which tells us the creature’s bite is a Finesse weapon. See? Simple.

Manufactured weapon attacks follow the weapon rules for attack bonus, including the rules for Finesse melee weapons and Thrown ranged weapons. Natural weapon attacks follow the same rules, but you can decide that a natural weapon is Finesse or Thrown pretty freely. So, if I have a high-Strength, low-Dexterity quillbeast that fires quills, I can designate those as the equivalent of a Thrown attack and calculate based on the Strength score.

But, obviously, all of this should make some sort of logical sense. It’s one thing to designate claws and bites as Finesse because precision can be more important than power there, but when it comes to a slam attack, that’s a little harder to justify. You have to decide where your lines are. Just remember that players encountering your creations and other GMs using your creations will expect them to be logically consistent and behave accordingly.

Damage
Let’s talk a little bit about damage. For manufactured weapons, damage is pretty easy. It’s listed in the weapon table. A kobold wielding a shortsword, a goblin wielding a shortsword, and an orc wielding a shortsword all deal 1d6 piercing damage. As for the bonus on the end. The damage bonus is always equal to the SAME ABILITY SCORE MODIFIER as the attack bonus is based on. If it’s a Finesse weapon, and you use Dexterity for the attack bonus, you have to use Dexterity for the damage bonus. A Thrown weapon uses Strength for the damage bonus.

Now, larger creatures using manufactured weapons deal more damage. A large creature using a manufactured weapon deals double the damage dice. But the bonus damage from the ability score remains the same. So, an orc wielding a short sword might deal 1d6+2 damage. If the orc suddenly grew to large size (all else being equal), it would deal 2d6+2 damage. Not 2d6+4. Huge creatures deal three times the damage dice. So the orc that kept growing would deal 3d6+2 damage and then 4d6+2. That assumes the weapon grows with the monster.

Manufactured weapons are easy to calculate. But natural weapons are more open-ended. You can – in theory – assign any damage die you want to a natural attack. But, in general, it’s a good idea to follow the convention of number of dice based on size unless you have a very good reason. A small creature’s bite should probably not deal 4d6 damage. Players expect the size of a creature to say something about its damage and plan accordingly.

Just like with manufactured weapons, natural weapons always add a bonus based on the same Ability Score modifier as the attack roll. But here’s where things also get a little different. Attacks that deal damage types other than bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing, such as the lightning breath of a behir (MM 25) or the fiery touch of a magmin (MM 212) don’t generally add a damage bonus at all. They are based purely on a dice code. This is a good rule to follow. When an attack is based on some sort of odd damage or energy type, don’t add an ability modifier.

Saving Throw DC
Some attacks and abilities don’t involve attack rolls at all. Instead, they allow the target a Saving Throw to avoid or mitigate the effect. In those cases, it’s up to you, the designer, to decide which Ability Score determines the Saving Throw DC and which Saving Throw the target rolls. Generally, though, there seem to be some rules of thumb. If a creature is a spellcaster, it has a spellcasting ability based on the rules it uses for it’s spells. For example, a creature that casts spells as a cleric uses Wisdom as it’s spellcasting ability. But some creatures aren’t spellcasters. They just have some sort of innate ability that requires a Saving Throw. Poison and disease are the most common mundane abilities. Breath weapons and fear auras are examples of magical effects.

All Saving Throw DCs are calculated the same way. They are 8 plus the Proficiency Bonus of the creature plus the relevant Ability Modifier. Like Attack Bonus, there’s no deviating from this rule (unless you build a special trait to explain the exception). As for what Ability Score to use? It’s up to you, but there do seem to be some patterns. Physical effects are based on Constitution. That includes poison, disease, and breath weapons. You can reverse engineer a lot of the examples from the Monster Manual and discover that they seem to all be based on Constitution. Though, that is an educated guess in some cases because a creature has the same Constitution and Strength modifier, for example. And while the pattern doesn’t seem universal, it does seem pretty strong. So I prefer to follow it unless I have a really good reason not too. For example, a Knockdown ability might use a Strength-based DC.

Magical effects seem to be based on Charisma. But there’s something weird going on in a few creatures and the pattern may not be as strong here. The Intellect Devourer is absolutely the strangest case (MM 191). It’s Devour Intellect ability has a Saving Throw DC of 12, but the only way that could possibly work is if it is actually based on Dexterity. That might make sense if the the thing were a brain-eating face hugger, but Devour Intellect is a psychic ability. It just goes to show that even the designers sometimes f$&% up. Because I can’t believe that was done intentionally.

In general, my rule of thumb therefore is to base physical effects on Constitution and mental or magical effects on Charisma unless I have a really, REALLY strong reason to do otherwise.

Hit Points
A creature’s hit points are determined by a dice code. And that dice code is very simple. It is always some multiple of one die plus the Constitution modifier. You can sort of think of a monster as having a “level,” but only for hit point purposes. For each “level,” it rolls one hit die for its hit points and adds its Constitution modifier. This is a solid rule.

If you have a monster with a Constitution modifier of +3, it can have 1d6+3 hit points or 2d6+6 or 3d6+9 or 4d6+12. But you can’t have 2d6+3 or 1d6+6. The number of dice rolled is always also the number of times you add the Constitution modifier. If you roll 6 dice, you have to add six times the Constitution modifier. No exceptions. Check your Monster Manual and you’ll see 99% of the creatures follow this rule. I want to say it’s 100%, but I might have missed one or two that the designers screwed up. So I can’t swear to it.

Note, however, that the number of times creatures roll for hit points has NOTHING to do with its challenge. If you look back at your trusty table on DMG 274, you’ll notice that the total hit points is based on the Challenge. Or the Challenge is based on the hit points. It goes both ways.

The die you roll is determined entirely by the creature’s size. Small creatures ALWAYS use a d6. Large creatures ALWAYS use a d10. Notice this is true even of humans with apparent class features (MM 342-350) and when adding class levels to a creature (DMG 283). It’s a firm f$&%ing rule.

Extra Credit: Average Dice Codes and Hit Points
One of the most useful things you NEED TO KNOW when creating monsters is how to compute an average dice roll. Because the HP in a stat block (and the damage) are given as average numbers with dice codes in parenthesis. E.g.: Hit Points 90 (12d8 + 36). It’s important to know how to convert from one to the other.

The average roll on any die – for reasons of probability I’m not going to try to explain right now – is half the number of faces on the die plus one half. A d4 yields 2.5. A d8 yields 4.5. And so forth. So, how do you get to 90 from 12d8 + 36? Well, the average of a d8 is 4.5. Multiply 4.5 by 12 and you get 54. Then add 36 on top of it.

Note, also, that you know what that creature’s Constitution modifier is, right? It’s +3. Why? Because we add the Constitution modifier once for each die we roll. We also know the creature is medium size because medium size creatures always roll a d8 for hit points. Now, I’m going to a bit of mathematical gymnastics that will be VERY important. Watch carefully.

If a medium size creature has a Constitution modifier of +3 that means that it’s HP are going to be some multiple of 1d 8+3. Right? It’s going to roll 1d8+3 some number of times to determine its total hit points. In the case of the creature above, it rolled that 12 times. Got it? 12d8+36 is 1d8+3 12 times. Why do I bring this up? Well, because you’re going to need to figure out how to roll a specific number.

For example, I might be designing a creature and need to roll between 80 and 100 hit points. If the creature is small and it has a Constitution modifier of +1, I can actually figure out exactly the dice code I need to get in that range. Follow the logic. Small creatures roll a d6 for hit points. So this creature is going to roll 1d6+1 some number of times to determine its hit points. What’s the average roll? Well, the average on 1d6 is 3.5 (half of 6 plus a half), so the average of 1d6+1 is 3.5+1 or 4.5. So, if I take, say, 85 and divide it by 4.5, I get 18.8. That means I need to roll 1d8+1 about 18 times to get in the ballpark of 85. In this case, if I multiply 4.5 times 18, I get 81. Perfect. So, this creature has 81 (18d6+18) hit points.

Let’s try another one, because this is SUPER IMPORTANT. It’s the most mathy thing you have to do when making creatures. A large creature with +3 Constitution modifier and you want 160 – 175 hit points. Try it yourself.

Did you try it?

Okay, here’s my answer. Large creatures roll d10s, so the creature is going to roll d10+3 some number of times. The average on the die is 5.5. Add 3 and you get 8.5. 160 divided by 8.5 is 18.8. Well, multiply 18 times 8.5 and you get 153. A little too low. So the smallest would be 161 (19d10+57). The largest would be 170 (20d10+60).

It’s really important to be able to work back into a dice code from a hit point target.

Armor Class
If a creature wears manufactured armor, they gain the Armor Class formula described for that armor. Put a beast in Studded Leather armor, their AC is 12 + Dexterity modifier. Put them in Breastplate, its 14 + Dexterity modifier up to 2. And if they wear Plate, their AC is 18. Give them a shield and they increase their AC by +2 when using the shield. Simple.

But when it comes to natural armor, you have to understand the philosophy behind D&D AC. There are two TYPES of Armor Class: formulas and bonuses. Shields and shield spells are good examples of AC bonuses. Whatever your armor, you get a +2 to your Armor Class. Or whatever. Same with cover. Cover grants you a bonus to AC. But actual ARMOR grants you an AC formula. It tells you how to calculate your AC. Leather armor grants you the formula AC = 11 + Dexterity modifier. Plate grants you the formula AC = 18. End of story. You can add bonuses over the top of it, but Armor Class formulas don’t stack.

Why do I bring this up? Because if you very thoroughly examine the Monster Manual, you will discover that creatures have EITHER natural armor OR manufactured armor. They never stack one on the other. For example, look at the giants (MM 154-155). Some of them use natural armor, some of them wear manufactured armor. But there’s really nothing differentiating their hides. Thus, we can conclude that they all actually have natural armor. Some of them just wear manufactured armor over it. And since the manufactured armor grants an Armor Class formula and the natural armor doesn’t seem to be stacked with the natural armor, we can conclude natural armor grants an AC formula and doesn’t stack with worn armor.

That means, when you are giving a creature natural armor, you’re free to invent the armor any way you want, just like when you give a creature a natural weapon. Technically, you’re creating a new piece of equipment. How does this work? I have no f$&%ing clue. Because once it’s an AC formula, it could be anything. For example, check out the marilith (MM 61). She is clearly wearing a breastplate in the picture, which should make her AC 14 + Dexterity modifier (max 2) or 16. But her AC is 18 with natural armor. What are we to conclude from that? Is her natural armor like light armor (AC = 13 + Dexterity modifier), like medium armor (AC = 16 + Dexterity modifier (max 2)), or like heavy armor (AC = 18). Any one of those three solutions are valid. If I wanted to be really nitpicky, I’d point out that her natural armor couldn’t be like light armor because the breastplate she is wearing in the picture would then limit her Dexterity modifier (logically) and she wouldn’t lose that restriction just because she can’t benefit from the breastplate. Thus, I could use that to say that natural armor follows the same rules for manufactured armor right down to being light, medium, or heavy. But anyone could also argue the picture is just a picture.

In the end, though, it doesn’t matter. Just know this: either a creature has natural armor and you can set the AC to be anything OR the creature wears manufactured armor and you use the AC formula to calculate it. And you can always add a shield.

Also note that you can invent your own manufactured armor types. For example, Armor Scraps is a type of light armor that grants an AC of 11 + Dexterity modifier. How do I know? Because I looked at the skeleton (MM 272). How do I know it’s not medium armor that grants AC 11 + Dexterity modifier (max 2) or heavy armor that grants (AC 13)? Well, to be fair, I technically don’t. But there IS a pretty solid pattern for AC vs. weight of the armor. For something to grant only AC 11-13, it’s probably light. I’m guessing at this, but the pattern seems pretty clear.

Saving Throws
Most monsters are not proficient with any Saving Throws, which is why most monsters don’t have a Saving Throws line in the stat block. The only time a monster gets an entry for Saving Throws is if they have one or more Saving Throws that add something OTHER than the ability bonus. In general, though, you can grant a monster proficiency with up to two Saving Throws without really having a drastic impact on the monster. When you do so, the monster’s Saving Throw bonus with that Saving Throw is equal to the Ability Modifier plus the monster’s Proficiency Bonus. Should you do this? The DMG suggests you do it to bolster a low Ability Score, but frankly, I think that’s actually a bad suggestion. Remember that players are attentive. If they notice a creature is not very nimble, they are going to use spells with Dexterity saves over those with Constitution or Strength or Wisdom saves. At least, some will. And they deserve that opportunity. And a creature’s poor ability score SHOULD be kryptonite. It gives the creature variety and rewards the players for attentiveness and tactical thought.

In truth, I rarely make creatures proficient with Saving Throws except to emphasize something special about the creature or to communicate something about its nature. Often, that means I use Saving Throw proficiencies on top of HIGH ability scores more often than on low ability scores. Or on mediocre ability scores. For example, I recently made a soldier devil. It’s basically got infernal levels of dedication. So I gave it a proficiency with Wisdom saving throws to emphasize the fact that this thing doesn’t waiver from its duty or nature.

Actions, Reactions, and Traits
This is a big, complicated thing. Obviously, we’ve already attacks and damage dealing. But what about all those other neat things? Like a monster that can constrict with its tentacles or gain advantage on an attack when it has adjacent allies or a monster that can breathe a cone of burning acid-fire? I mean, surely, that’s where the art of monster building comes into its own, right?

Well, yes. Yes it does. And it is both an art and a skill. It requires a lot of finesse. And I can’t tell you how to invent new traits. You’re going to have to bring your own creative spark to the forge. But what I can tell you is that there is actually a logic to how those traits affect the monster. That is to say, there is a logic to balancing those traits, to deciding how powerful they are. But in order to talk about that, we need to talk about challenge and how challenge is actually calculated.

Challenge Rating
Challenge Rating determines how many XP a creature is worth, right? Which means it also determines how dangerous it is. A Challenge 5 creature is a medium difficulty encounter for four 5th-level PCs. Remember that, by the way. That’s the baseline. A Challenge X creature is a medium difficulty encounter for four X-level PCs.

But Challenge is actually a bit of a paradox and WotC isn’t going to help you. THEIR advice is to build a f$&%ing creature and then use their system to figure out the Challenge. Which is backwards. As I said, you build the creature to fill a role in your game. And part of that role is “what level are the stupid PCs that are going to fight this thing?” And that means, you can’t build a creature and then get surprised by the Challenge.

But where things get complicated is that Challenge is determined by five basic factors: AC, HP, Attack, Save DC, and Damage. And Attack and Save DC include a Proficiency Bonus. And Proficiency Bonus is based on Challenge. So, Challenge determines Proficiency Bonus which determines Attacks and Save DCs which determines Challenge. Isn’t that a delightful f$&%ing circle?!

Except it isn’t. Not really. Because the other thing that determines Attacks and Save DCs – along with every other f$%&ing thing that you can’t freely invent – are Ability Scores. Right? Attack is a combination of Ability Score Modifier plus Proficiency Bonus. And THAT is why I say you do the Ability Scores last. Because that is where you have final control over the numbers. See? I’m not crazy!

But let’s talk about how Challenge is determined.

A monster’s Challenge is the average of its Defensive Challenge and its Offensive Challenge. Take the two numbers, add them together, and divide by 2. If the creature has a Defensive Challenge of 4 and an Offensive Challenge of 1, its Challenge is 3 ((4 + 1) / 2 = 2.5, round up to 3).

So, how do you determine Offensive and Defensive Challenge?

First, you open your DMG to page 274. You start by finding the creature’s hit points on the table. And whatever row that is, that’s the starting Defensive Challenge. Now, look at the Armor Class on that table. Is your monster’s AC above or below that? For every two points above the AC on the table, increase the Defensive Challenge to the next highest one. For every two points below the AC on the table, decrease the Defensive Challenge to next lowest one.

For example, you have a creature with an AC 17 and HP 66 (6d6+12). 66 HP puts it in the Challenge 1/2 row, right? But a Challenge 1/2 creature is expected to have an AC 13. My AC is 17, four points higher. So I have to bump up the Defensive Challenge by moving down two rows. I go from 1/2 to 1 to 2. My Defensive Challenge is 2.

What about Offensive Challenge? Well, that starts with the average damage per round. For most creatures, you can simply look at their most damaging attack. Whatever the fixed damage is, that’s the damage output. Find that on the table. Then, look at the Attack Bonus or the Save DC (depending on whether it uses an attack roll or allows a save) on the table. And just like with AC, you adjust the Offensive Challenge up or down for every two points by which the monster’s Attack Bonus or Save DC differs from the one given on the table.

For example, you have a creature that attacks with a shortbow. It has +5 Attack and does 6 (1d6+3) piercing damage. The damage makes it a Challenge 1/2 . But its Attack Bonus is two points higher than the expected +3 for a Challenge 1/2 creature. So we have to increase the Challenge once. The Offensive Challenge is 1.

What’s the final Challenge for that creature? It’s 2. We add the Offensive and Defensive Challenge, divide by two, and then round up. 1 + 2 is 3, divided by 2 is 1.5, rounded up is 2. Got it?

Now, just to prove you’re really understanding the system, what can you tell me about this creature from the stats I gave you? AC 17, HP 66 (6d6+12), Shortbow Attack +5, 6 (1d6+3) piercing damage. Take a moment and figure out as much as you can.

And here’s a bonus question. Assume the creature is not proficient with Stealth and it tries to hide. Can you tell me what it’s going to roll?

Okay, first, we know the creature is small, right? It’s rolling a d6 for hit points. And it has a Constitution modifier of +2, right? Because it’s rolling 1d6+2 six times to determine its Hit Points. Now, because we know its Challenge is 2, we know its proficiency bonus is +2. It’s using a short bow, a ranged weapon, so it’s using Dexterity. Its attack is +5. If we take off the proficiency bonus, we’re left with +3 that is coming from its Dexterity, right? Which makes sense because its damage bonus is +3 and is always based on the same stat as the attack. What about its armor? If it is small and using a bow, it might have natural armor, but it’s more likely it’s wearing manufactured armor. What might it be wearing? Well, it has a Dexterity of +3 and we know it’s not using a shield because it needs two hands for that short bow. So, what are its armor options? Well, if it’s wearing heavy armor, it’s wearing splint mail. That’s easy enough. AC 17. If it’s wearing medium armor, it’s got to be half plate. Why? Medium armor limits the Dexterity modifier to +2. Thus, it’s got an AC of 15 + Dexterity modifier (max 2). And that’s half plate. Light armor means… well, that means it’s not wearing light armor. It would need an AC of 14 + Dexterity modifier to get up to light armor.

What about the Stealth check? Well, if it has natural armor, it has Stealth +3, right? Just the Dexterity. But if it has any sort of manufactured armor at all, and it probably does, that means it’s rolling with disadvantage.

How’d you do?

Try another one, just to check that you have it right. Hit Points 120 (16d10+32), Armor Class 11, Slam +5 attack, 22 (4d8+4) bludgeoning damage. Figure out the final Challenge. And then, as a bonus question, tell my why that monster isn’t legal unless it has some weird trait affecting its stats.

Got it?

HP 120 means a Defensive Challenge of 4. But the AC for a Challenge 4 is 14. This creature is 3 points too low on the AC. So we have to bump down the Defensive Challenge from 4 to 3.

Damage 22 means the Offensive Challenge is 3. And the attack should be +4. It’s +5. That doesn’t deviate by 2 points either way, so its Offensive Challenge is 3.

That means the creature’s final Challenge is 4.

Why isn’t the creature legal? Well, at Challenge 4, it’s got a proficiency bonus of +2. So, its attack has an ability modifier of +3. But the damage has a bonus of +4. Since those should be based on the same ability modifier, something funky is going on. In this case, it might have a trait that gives it a +1 to damage. That’s a weird trait, but whatever.

Where Challenge Gets Crazy
Now, you might notice that this whole Challenge thing is really simple, right? Hit Points, Armor Class, Damage, and Attack or Save DC. Done and done. But that’s just not possible, is it? It can’t be that simple, can it?

Well, no, it can’t.

For example, kobolds have a trait called Pack Tactics. They gain advantage when they have allies adjacent to their target. And advantage equates to a +4 to attack, in general. Surely that’s got to be factored in right? And what about a creature that has a lot of damage resistances, like undead. Hell, even a creature that can fly is more challenging to deal with than a creature that can’t. How do you handle all of this stuff?

Well, the DMG uses a concept called “Effective” stats. For example, if you have a flying monster whose Challenge is 10 or below, most PCs are going to have a difficult time with that creature since PCs below level 10 usually can’t fly. The creature can stay out of reach and limit their melee capabilities. So, DMG 279 explains that we increase the Effective AC by 2. Now, that’s not an AC bonus. Its AC doesn’t change. But when we determine the Defensive Challenge of the creature, we imagine the AC is two points higher to account for the flying.

The DMG lays out a lot of rules of thumb from DMG 275-279. If the creature is resistant to many damage types, increase the Effective HP by a factor based on its Challenge (x2, x1.5, or x1.25). If it has a lot of vulnerabilities, decrease the Effective HP by a factor. If the creature can fly, increase the AC by 2. If the creature is proficient with three Saving Throws, increase the Effective AC by 2. If it’s proficient with five Saving Throws, increase the Effective AC by 4.

As you build more monsters, you get used to these things. In addition, different Traits also change different Effective stats. And there’s a big list of Traits from DMG 280 to DMG 281. Each Trait tells you what monster it comes from and what the overall effect on the creature’s Effective stats are. So, if I give a tentacle monster the Constrict trait that Constrictor Snakes have (MM 320), I increase the snake’s Effective AC when I determine the Challenge. Again, I don’t change the ACTUAL AC. I just figure the Challenge as if the AC was higher.

Let’s create a monster. I’m going to create a thing. I’m going to create enchanted ceramic wolf monsters. Because they are ceramic, they are resistant to slashing and piercing weapons. Bludgeoning weapons deal normal damage, though. Because they are wolves, they gain advantage on attacks when they have adjacent allies, so they have Pack Tactics. In addition, they are very fast. As a bonus action, they can move toward a hostile creature. I’m stealing that from orcs (MM 246). It’s called Aggressive.

Ceramic Guardian Wolf, AC 14, Hit Points 22 (4d8+4), Bite attack +5, 6 (1d6+3) piercing damage. Resistant to piercing and slashing. Pack Tactics. Aggressive.

How the hell do we figure the Challenge on that? Well, we do it one step at a time. First, what are the effects of all of our traits? Multiple resistances mean we have to double the Effective HP. Even though the creature has 22 HP, we’ve got to figure the Challenge as if it had 44. Next, Pack Tactics effectively increases the attack bonus by 1, so we figure the Challenge as if the Creature has an attack of +6. And Aggressive increases the effective damage by 2. That means, even though we aren’t changing any of the stats, we’re figuring the Challenge as if the creature had AC 14, Hit Points 44, Attack +6, Damage 8.

Open up to the table and figure it out. Did you get Defensive 1/4, Offensive 1? Great! And what did you decide is the average? Did you decide the final Challenge is 1/2 or did you call it 1? Tough call, right? The average of 1/4 and 1 is 0.625 which is closer to 1/2 than 1. Do we always round up? Or do we round off? Honestly? That’s your call. The books aren’t totally clear on the better approach. I generally follow normal rounding rules, rounding down or up depending on the result. But if you always round up, you’ll probably be fine. It’s your call.

Okay? So that’s Traits and special abilities. But that isn’t all. Because there’s another monkey wrench here.

Damage Output per Round
Some creatures have multiple attacks. Some creatures can attack several times in a round. Some creatures can cast spells. Some creatures use area attacks like breath weapons. What do all of these things have in common? They all mean the creature’s damage output varies from round to round.

First, let’s talk about figuring a creature’s TOTAL damage output. Let’s say I have a flaming lava statue that swings a fiery lava axe. The thing (the statue, not the axe) is so hot that it has a damaging aura. At the start of each turn, the statue deals 3 (1d6) fire damage to everyone within 5 feet of it and anyone who hits with a melee weapon suffers 3 (1d6) fire damage. Second, let’s say its lava axe does 7 (1d8+3) slashing damage plus 3 (1d6) fire damage. Third, let’s say I’m a real bastard and I give the thing multiattack. It can swing its axe twice in a round.

How much damage does this thing actually do in a round (assuming it hits, because we always assume it hits because the Offensive Challenge is adjusted by Attack Bonus or Save DC later). First of all, that axe does 10 damage per swing and it’s going to get swung twice in a round, every round. So, that’s 20 damage right off the bat. Now, in addition, we can assume that the statue is going to keep at one PC adjacent to at all times, so it’s always going to be doing 3 fire damage. And someone is probably going to hit with a melee weapon every round and soak up the damage, so they will also take 3 damage. So, the statue’s effective damage output per round is 26. Yowza!

It’s important to include ALL sources of damage when you figure the damage output of a creature.

At the same time, we also always assume the creature will be using its best option. So, if I have a little goblin wizard with a ray of frost cantrip (3 (1d6) cold damage) and a dagger (1 (1d4-1) piercing damage), we assume it will use its ray of frost every round. The damage output is 3. It will only use that dagger in an emergency. Or not at all.

What about area attacks? What about a creature that can breathe fire? In general, we assume that an area attack will hit two creatures at a pop. The monster generally won’t waste the area attack unless it can hit more than one target. So if my statue can spew a cone of lava that does 10 (3d6) fire damage, we assume it’s going to hit two people and deal 20 damage per round with that.

And that brings us around to recharging abilities and different attack modes. Imagine a tentacled strangler that has a tentacle attack that does modest damage when it hits, like 4 (1d6+1). But it can grapple a target with that attack. If it starts a round with a creature grappled, though, it can deal 7 (2d6) damage by strangling. How do you figure the damage output on that?

Or, what about a creature that has a limited ability. Like, what if a creature can shoot eye lasers once per day that do 14 (4d6) fire damage. What about a creature with a breath weapon that does 10 (3d6) fire damage to an area, but it has Recharge 5-6? How do we do those damage outputs?

Well, we have to make some assumptions. Generally, we try to figure out how much damage the creature will do for each of the first three rounds and then take the average. And we usually have to make some assumptions to do this.

For example, take the fire breath. Area attacks hit twice, so it deals 20 damage in the first round. But that thing has a recharge. It probably won’t be available again for a while. Basically, with a recharge 5-6, it will be available one out of every three rounds. The other two rounds, the creature will have to use its bite attack 5 (1d6+2). So its damage output over three rounds is 30, which means its average damage output per round is 10. And THAT is what we use to figure the effective challenge.

What about the eye laser once a day? Same story. It opens with 14 damage. And then it uses its longsword for 7 (1d8+3) damage for the next two rounds. That’s 28 total damage output for three rounds, or 9 damage per round.

And the strangler? Well, assume it attacks on the first round and hits. It does 4 (1d6+1) damage. But on the second round, it probably has a creature grappled so it will deal 7 damage (2d6) damage. But then, the creature will probably have escaped (it’s got two chances by this point). So the third round, it will deal 4 damage again. That’s 15 damage over three rounds or 5 damage per round.

As for what Attack or Save DC to use when you have to average damage over several rounds? You use the one that it will use the most. The fire breather is using its longsword twice and its breath once, so use the longsword Attack Bonus not the fire breath Save DC.

Now, total Damage Output per Round is an extremely important concept. Why? Because, more than any other factor, damage (and hit points, which you can think of as the inverse of damage) determines the actual level of a thing. See, D&D is built on this concept of Bounded Accuracy. What that means is that the designers wanted to keep things like attacks, saves, and ability checks from ballooning to ridiculous numbers. You’ll never roll 1d20+25 for anything in D&D. At least, that’s the idea. In reality, at very high levels, you could conceivably roll an attack roll as high as 1d20+15 (+5 ability score, +5 proficiency, +3 magic item, +2 from some random bonus or circumstance). But for practical purposes, most games don’t get that high.

What that means is that damage and HP are where most of the leveling happens. And you can see this. Notice what happens at Levels 5, 11, and 17. Go ahead and check your cantrips. Check Ray of Frost. Check Fire Bolt. Check Magic Missile. Notice anything?

Yeah, the damage output doubles. And if you look carefully at all the various classes, you’ll notice most of the classes get double damage at that point. Damage and HP are the primary measurements of level is what I’m saying.

But the thing is, as you build monsters, you’re going to find it’s harder and harder to pump the damage to the expected levels. And you have to start pulling more and more tricks to do it. The most common trick – which we will talk a lot about next time – is a little friend I like to call Multiattack. Notice how many monsters in the DMG have Multiattack. Especially monsters with high Challenge who use weapons. Other tricks include bonus actions, adding extra damage types onto attacks, area attacks, auras, and on and on and on.

Levers and Knob
Okay, so why this deep analysis? Let’s end with that question so we don’t have to start with it next time. Because I’m going to start with getting nostalgic for the good old days of 4E. I’m not s$&%ing you. What’s the point of knowing all of this?

Well, it tells you what you can and can’t control in monster creation. For example, you have NO CONTROL over proficiency bonus. It is determined entirely by the Challenge. And it is always added to certain things. Which is why, again, I say its bats$&% insane for the DMG to leave Challenge for the end. Challenge should be the first thing you pick. Because Challenge also tells you where the HP, AC, Damage, and Attack Bonus have to fall. So you pick your Challenge with care.

BUT, now you also understand that Challenge has two components. Offensive and Defensive. And Offensive Challenge starts with Damage and then is modified by Attack and Save DC. And Defensive Challenge starts with Hit Points and then is modified by Armor Class. That understanding is central to what we’re going to do next time. So make sure you understand it.

MOREOVER, you also understand what you CAN Tweak. You have the LEAST control over Attack Bonus. Why? Because it’s mostly Proficiency Modifier and if you tweak the Ability Modifier, you’re also f$&%ing with the Damage. And maybe the Armor Class if the creature is using a Finesse attack and the equivalent of light armor (natural or artificial). With manufactured weapons, you trade damage for potential Armor Class as well. Two-handed weapons do the most damage but they cost you a shield.

MEANWHILE, traits, special abilities, even movement modes affect the Challenge of the creature. Which means you’ve got to take them into account. Giving a monster Nimble Escape seems like a neat way to make an assassin, but remember that creature is boosting its Armor Class and Attack Bonus by hiding every round. And that means, overall, the Challenge of the creature is two levels higher than you think it is. And now you should be able to figure out why I can say that so absolutely. Nimble Attack outright increases the Challenge of any creature by two levels. Every time. Work it out. Check DMG 281 and think through the numbers.

With a keen understanding of all of the levers and knobs you can turn on a monster, you can build any monster you want at any Challenge you want and be confident the numbers are going to work. And even more importantly, you can perform some impressive mechanical sleight of hand to really make your monsters’ mechanics match your flavor every f$&%ing time in an inherently consistent way.

But that’s a discussion for next week.
It’s not a great look for a company that wants to represent humanity “in all its beautiful diversity.” Continuing to sell these products–and bear in mind, the original Oriental Adventures is a “mithral best seller” which means it’s continuing to sell–takes a lot of wind out of WotC’s Inclusivity and Diversity sails. They have to do better than this if they want their promise to be more than empty words. Not to say we should pretend these books never existed, but WotC is still actively profiting off of this material.

离线 A球

  • 米妮瓦之手,Mythica系列电影死忠粉
  • 版主
  • *
  • 帖子数: 292
  • 苹果币: 0
抛弃10,使用8做基准
« 回帖 #29 于: 2019-10-15, 周二 05:45:17 »
However, note that I’m using 8 instead of 10. Why am I using 8 instead of 10? Well, frankly, I think that SHOULD be the standard. It favors action. I’m using the same logic as for Spell Saves. Players use way more skills than have skills used against them. And using 8 instead of 10 favors the person rolling the die. That is, the person who is doing the action should be more likely to succeed.

Does that mean that I think DCs should be dropped? Should AC also be based on 8? The answer is, you could sort of argue that it already is. Armor Class is a Passive Ability, right? Like a Save DC. It has some special rules that allow it to get bonuses for equipment. But what it doesn’t include is a Proficiency Bonus, which runs from +2 to +6 throughout the game. But you could argue equally well that, at low levels, the base AC is 8 + Proficiency Bonus because 8 + 2 is 10. Now, I realize AC doesn’t scale with level, so that logic breaks down at higher levels. BUT, it is also subsumed by armor bonuses from spells, magical items, and actual armor. Likewise, the baseline DC for an Easy check – one that any character in the group should have a good chance of succeeding on with or without training – is 10. At low levels, that’s the equivalent of saying DCs have a base of 8 and the world adds a “Proficiency Bonus” of +2. A Medium DC, one that should be doable for a character with proficiency more than half the time, is the equivalent of the world having 8 + Proficiency Bonus + Advantage. A hard challenge is the equivalent of the world having 8 + Proficiency Bonus + Advantage + 5 Ability Modifier. And since easy, medium, and hard are the baseline difficulties for most of the game, it all works out.

When we’re building rules modules, using 8 instead of 10 as the logical baseline for Passive Abilities gives more characters the opportunity to participate in different modes of play even when they are lacking a specialization. An untrained bluffer can pull the wool over the eyes of a trained but low-level opponent most of the time.
It’s not a great look for a company that wants to represent humanity “in all its beautiful diversity.” Continuing to sell these products–and bear in mind, the original Oriental Adventures is a “mithral best seller” which means it’s continuing to sell–takes a lot of wind out of WotC’s Inclusivity and Diversity sails. They have to do better than this if they want their promise to be more than empty words. Not to say we should pretend these books never existed, but WotC is still actively profiting off of this material.