Monday, January 10, 2011

MyD20 Lite: Player's Guide Errata...

Good Evening, All:

With the changes in math behind the monster stats, it occurs to me that I need to update the monster stats found in the MyD20 Lite Player's Guide under the various Summoning spells. This post should serve as some basic form of errata until I am ready to post an official errata update.

Summoned Monster I: Small Planar Monster; CR 1; XP ––; HD 1 (4 hp); MV 5; AC 12; AT melee +3/+3 claws (1d4-1) or melee +3 bite (1d6-1); SV Fort +1, Ref +3, Will +2; SA ––; SD Darkvision or Low–light vision, half damage vs. acid and cold, smite foe (1/day), one bonus defense, one special feature.
* Bonus Defense: Select a bonus defense ability from the following: +1 AC, +2 Fort, +2 Ref, +2 Will or +3 hitpoints.
* Bonus Special Feature: Select a bonus special feature from the following: +1 attack and +1 damage, +1 hitpoint/HD and +1 on Fortitude saves, +1 AC and +1 on Reflex saves, +2 AC, burrow (MV), climb (MV), constrict, fly (MV), poison (1d4), pounce, powerful charge, rake, rend, swim (MV), trample, or trip.
* Smite Foe: When using this ability, the summoned monster gain a +4 bonus on its melee attack roll, and inflicts an additional +2d6 damage if the attack is successful.

Summoned Monster II: Medium Planar Monster; CR 2; XP ––; HD 2 (9 hp); MV 6; AC 13; AT melee +4/+4 claws (1d6) or melee +4 bite (1d8); SV Fort +3, Ref +3, Will +3; SA ––; SD Darkvision or Low–light vision, half damage vs. acid and cold, smite foe (1/day), one bonus defense , one special feature.

Summoned Monster III: Medium Planar Monster; CR 3; XP ––; HD 4 (18 hp); MV 6; AC 14; AT melee +6/+6 claws (1d6+1) or melee +6 bite (1d8+1); SV Fort +4, Ref +4, Will +4; SA ––; SD Darkvision or Low–light vision, half damage vs. acid and cold, half damage vs. non–magical weapons, smite foe (2/day), one bonus defense, one special feature.

Summoned Monster IV: Large Planar Monster; CR 4; XP ––; HD 5 (22 hp); MV 7; AC 13; AT melee +5/+5 claws (1d8+3) or melee +5 bite (2d6+3); SV Fort +5, Ref +3, Will +4; SA ––; SD Darkvision or Low–light vision, half damage vs. acid and cold, half damage vs. non–magical weapons, smite foe (2/day), one bonus defense, one special feature.

Summoned Monster V: Large Planar Monster; CR 5; XP ––; HD 9 (40 hp); MV 7; AC 16; AT melee +10/+10 claws (1d8+5) or melee +10 bite (2d6+5); SV Fort +7, Ref +6, Will +5; SA ––; SD Darkvision or Low–light vision, half damage vs. acid and cold, half damage vs. non–magical weapons, smite foe (2/day), one bonus defense, two special features.

Summoned Monster VI: Large Planar Monster; CR 6; XP ––; HD 13 (59 hp); MV 7; AC 15; AT melee +15/+15 claws (1d8+6) or melee +15 bite (2d6+6); SV Fort +9, Ref +7, Will +8; SA ––; SD Darkvision or Low–light vision, half damage vs. acid and cold, half damage vs. non–magical weapons, smite foe (3/day), one bonus defense, two special features.

Summoned Monster VII: Large Planar Monster; CR 7; XP ––; HD 16 (72 hp); MV 7; AC 22; AT melee +18/+18 claws (1d8+7) or melee +18 bite (2d6+7); SV Fort +11, Ref +9, Will +10; SA ––; SD Darkvision or Low–light vision, half damage vs. acid and cold, half damage vs. non–magical weapons, smite foe (3/day), one bonus defense, three special features.

Summoned Monster VIII: Large Planar Monster; CR 9; XP ––; HD 22 (99 hp); MV 7; AC 26; AT melee +24/+24 claws (1d8+9) or melee +24 bite (2d6+9); SV Fort +14, Ref +12, Will +13; SA ––; SD Darkvision or Low–light vision, half damage vs. acid and cold, half damage vs. non–magical weapons, smite foe (4/day), one bonus defense, three special features.

Summoned Monster IX: Large Planar Monster; CR 11; XP ––; HD 30 (135 hp); MV 7; AC 28; AT melee +27/+27 claws (1d8+10) or melee +27 bite (2d6+10); SV Fort +15, Ref +13, Will +14; SA ––; SD Darkvision or Low–light vision, half damage vs. acid and cold, half damage vs. non–magical weapons, smite foe (5/day), one bonus defense, four special features.

Other errata for the MyD20 Lite Player's Guide includes:

Initiative: Monsters and NPCs use their Reflex save modifier on their Initiative rolls, since they do not have Dexterity scores and thus cannot make Dexterity-based ability checks.

Similar logic will be included in the Referee's Guide for monsters making ability checks. Strength- and Constitution-based ability checks will use a monster's Fortitude save modifier; Dexterity- and Intelligence-based ability checks will use a monster's Reflex save modifier; and Wisdom- and Charisma-based ability checks will use a monster's Will save modifier.

As always, your input on the above is always welcome and appreciated.

Hope This Helps,
Flynn

7 comments:

James said...

Nice! I was only yesterday wondering about initiative modifiers for Monsters!

I noticed some strange progressions in these revised monster stats:

Hit Die: 1,2,4,5,9,13,16,22,30 seems like a smoother progression would be:
1,2,4,6,9,13,16,22,30. I suppose my question is seeing as how the Hit Die governs so many other stats, how did you arrive at this progression for the summoned monsters? Is it based on CR?

Attack bonuses seem to be:
HD+2,HD+2,HD+2,HD-1,HD-1,HD-1,HD-1,HD-1,HD-6. Does this trend represent a slowing in BAB progression for monsters at 10HD and then at 20HD? It leads to the curious outcome of the Summoned Monster III creature having better melee attack bonus than the Summoned Monster IV, although maybe the later's significantly better damage counteracts that.

I'm pointing these out, not because I think there is a mistake, but I'm just curious as to where these effects come from. To my mind (maybe I've worked it out wrong), they don't quite match the 'designing monsters' progressions.

Anyway, thanks for the errata and I'm looking forward to seeing a new draft or maybe even the finished product sometime soon!

Flynn said...

The Hit Dice progression comes from the one found in Trailblazer, but I like the progression you suggest.

For BAB, check out the following:
http://flynnwd.blogspot.com/2010/08/myd20-lite-math-behind-monsters-part_11.html

Planar Monsters gain a +2 bonus on top of that.

Crap, looks like I'll have to adjust the values in the original post. I need to update my Referee's Guide draft with these values.

Thanks For Asking,
Flynn

Flynn said...

Oops, sorry. The link I quoted above was for determining AC.

BAB is directly based on HD, with a cap of +25 at 25 HD.

I think it was your suggestion that made me put a cap on this, and I chose 25 HD because that's equivalent to a 21st level character, from the CR to HD conversion I pointed to in the Math articles I mentioned above.

I still think I need to make some changes to the original post.

With Regards,
Flynn

James said...

OK so if you were to go with the HD progression of:
1,2,4,_6_,9,_12_,16,22,30 (change the 5 to 6 and the 13 to 12 to make a smooth progression)

Then the melee attacks would go:
+3,+4,+6,+8,+11,+14,+18,+24,+27, right?

Thanks for the explanation!

James said...

The ACs in your original post also have a slightly 'funky' progression, with a step backwards:

12,13,14,13,16,15,22,26,28

I realise that there's the matter of size change (M to L) from III to IV which accounts for the first backward step in the progression, but what causes the 16 to 15 AC drop from V to VI?

James said...

Would you consider the variations to armor categories to include a 'medium' group as discussed over at Dragonsfoot to be errata?

Flynn said...

Yes, the Medium category of armor is definitely an errata I should include. Can you think of any others?

With Thanks,
Flynn