Martyn Patrick / Portfolio
Coppernight Hold: Monster Design
While running Valanor, my first completely homebrewed campagin setting I encountered a problem. I had orginally designed the world for 5th edition but as my players at the time really wanted to use the Pathfinder system instead. I decided to switch, now unfortauntly I allowed them to use a set of 3rd party rules called Path of War. Now, this was fine it of itself but, I quickly found any encounter I drafted for the players to fight would be easily swept aside using the diffcult rules and monster design. Admitaby if I encountered this issue today while being more experience I likely would asked the players to retool their characters. However at the time I was convinced the problem was much deeper than that. I, completely rewrote the monster design combat system splitting monsters into distinct categories (Minions, Troops, Specials, Captains and Mini-Bosses and Bosses.)
Once I switched to this system the players immediately started having more fun and I was told that it was "the most fun they had, had in a dungeon combat encounters."
The numbers I used are all based on these two resources: Monster Creation and Monster Advancement. As well as my own "what seems reasonable sense" I don't grade the monsters by any sort of CR rating (and I can imagine in the future a "hobgoblin troop" might well become a minion if it isn't given some extra health and defences but that is by design.) I just focused on building encounters that seemed fun and if it was too much I could pull it back a little but in my experience, players always have some trick up their sleeve that gets them out of a sticky situation. If they don't, tweak some numbers, have an ally help out the group, infighting or blunder on the monster's behalf lets them escape maybe they even take the players captive!
You can find the Google doc with all of the Monsters I created using this system: HERE
Minions, were a 4th edition rule I co-opted, they had only 1 hit point but could never be killed by area of effect damage upon a successful save even if they would normally be killed. Minions had only an attack and some racial passive. For example, for a Kobold they had "Mob Attack" which gave them +1 to hit and +1 to damage if they were adjacent to another kobold. But for a Goblin they had Disengage which made the first square of movement on their turn not trigger an attack of opportunity. Because of their simplicity minions are often employed as the cannon fodder infront of other troops and have to work together to be effective. From a design standpoint, minions provide the players with the satisfaction of defeating multiple enemies when they die in droves. And allowing the more powerful creatures to really shine.
Here is the Stat block of two different Minions:
Kobold (Minion):
HP: 1 Ac: 12 Touch 12
Ref: 2 Fort: 0 Will: 0
Shortsword (spear) +4 1d6+2
Mob Attack: +1 +1 if adjacent to another kobold.
Goblin (Minion):
HP: 1 Ac: 14 (Shield) Touch 12
Ref: 1 Fort: 0 Will: 0
Shortsword +6 1d6+2
Disenage: first 5ft of movement doesn’t trigger aoo.
You will doubtless notice, a Goblin minion is not that much different to a kobold minion. This is by design but remember, you players don't see the stats they only see how the Minion behaves, what it does on it's turn and how you describe it. They'll feel very different to the players the second you describe how well the kobold is working with his buddies to get a bonus on attack and damage and how after striking a player they were in melee with, the goblin is shrieking as it darts away quickly not allowing any aoos fearful of getting hit back.
I later expanded the stat block to include CMB and CMD values which became more important later down the line. But they were designed to be small and readable at a glance. During play we did discover a minor loophole with the minions as a idea the spell Magic Missile. The spell shoots a number of missiles that scales according to the level of the caster (at the time it was 2 missiles) and deals 1d4+1 damage without any roll to hit. Normally this wouldn't be an issue, but in my mind why should a fireball a spell which does much more damage in an area be less effective at killing minions than a 1st level auto hitting but very low damage spell. During the game I came up with a small addendum in which when a minion was targeted by a magic missile they would make a fort save DC 10 + the damage they took from the missile. That way a wizard couldn't just spam magic missiles and kill 5 minions a turn with no saves. Now, in the future those numbers might need tweaking and in the grand scheme of things it's not a too bigger deal. An action to kill 2-5 minions at higher levels is a choice you can make compared to casting any other spell that might shut down a boss or melt a standard bearer that was giving all the minions buffs.
A troop, is a simplified standard monster it has hit points, ac and saves as normal. But it has a racial passive and a single passive or active ability. To make them more unique I often themed this ability around the equipment, a Hobgoblin with a shield for example would gain the ability to half the damage on an incoming hit. Whereas a hobgoblin without wouldn't gain that ability but may gain something else instead (depending on what it's battlefield role is.) An archer hobgoblin instead gains the ability to "steady their aim" to negate a cover bonus an enemy is getting from them as a swift action. The key is to make something that's interactable in someway with the players, even if its something basic like halfling the damage on an attack every turn it gives one of your players a chance to shine by getting a baiting out the instance of half damage letting another player strike with a big hit. And remembering the monster's stats and abilities are easy because they're all there in a small compact list. And if you've got a player who has an in combat ability that requires the monster to roll sense motive, you just add it to the stats or make something sensible up and adjust things as you go.