The most immediate things we need to consider are what actions the monsters can take, and what rolls they can or will actually make. Where this system fundamentally differs from most d20 games, is that the players are always rolling to determine the result of an attack (whether they are making the attack, or suffering one.) Notably, this means that monsters will never deal a critical "hit" to the PCs. This also narrows down the the types and numbers of rolls that monsters will make, quite significantly. The list of what remains looks something like this:
- Initiative checks
- Skill checks
- Damage rolls
- Opportunity Attacks
While specific monsters may also be able to make Trade-offs (depending on their ability sets) those are pretty much it for monster rolls.
For initiative checks, we can give monsters a separate "score" or "bonus" for the roll, or we can have them simply use a skill, as the PCs do. In terms of actual skill checks, monsters (by necessity) only need to be assigned Training or Expertise with Combat skills, rather than also needing other "core" skills, or "background" skills. So that narrows down the list of specific skills that monsters need a "score" for to this list:
- STR: Brawl (including grapple/reverse grapple, and shove), Break Objects, Climb, Intimidate
- AGIL: Escape, Tumble, Jump, Stealth
- WIS: Perception
Now, we may want to limit which skills certain types of monsters can use. To wit, monsters that appear in larger numbers probably should not be able to simply overwhelm the PCs and mitigate their tactics through the sheer volume of skill checks they can make. This is another limitation we should consider, which can also serve to help simplify the job of the DM.
In terms of damage, monsters should be doing about 10 damage per "hit," as was outlined in a previous post. To come up with this result, I am proposing that we should use 1d6+1d10 for our monster damage rolls; this can also be used for their Opportunity Attacks, but we can apply bonuses separately to each of these types of rolls, in order to help flavour and differentiate our monsters.
The reason behind this thinking comes from its use in a previous untitled RPG that I wrote, and my familiarity with it, statistically. This dice expression produces a result with an average of 9, having all numbers from 7 through 11 be equally likely (10% each.) This damage caps out at 16, which is just over half the HP of the average PC. Using existing game language such as Expertise and "double roll" mechanics, we can increase the minimum and average results of this dice expression, without increasing the maximum; these tools will be used to further diversify our rogue's gallery.
To further streamline the DM's job of controlling the party's antagonists, monster skill checks will use this same roll. This means that monsters will not be capable of reaching the statistical benchmarks that PCs can (in terms of their baseline skill effectiveness, and capability to critically succeed) but it does allow the DM to roll the same dice regardless of the action a monster ends up taking. Potentially, the DM could decide the action after seeing the result of the roll, or such a perk could be limited to certain monster types.
In order for this unique type of roll to fit within the game's existing mechanical framework, we'll have to make some adjustments and specific exceptions for when these elements interact with monsters. In particular, things like Advantage or Disadvantage (as well as statuses which may grant them) will need to be ironed out.
...
Next blogpost will be another change log, but following that, the Monster Math series will continue, at least until the "summer break" (and possibly after) which begins in late June.
No comments:
Post a Comment