Director of Narrative
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I was wondering what methods some of you folks used for creating new critters. Most everything that I've made, that I feel is balanced well, was created by using the handy table on p290 of the MM to determine the guts and then hack it in a book-scanning compare/contrast fest. How do y'all determine stats? Educated guess and then testing and re-tweaking? It's worked for me in the past, but then again my name ain't on any monster manual.
Hmm . . .good question. I have about 17 homebrew monsters, 8-9 of which I feel I want to send out for publication (hint hint Paizo).
My normal method is to develop the idea . . I want an elemental that flies and blah blah blah . . . then I pick a CR I want it to be aimed at and start comparing it to similar creatures of similar CR's. If I create a magical beast 5-6 CR, I use something like the Manticore as a guideline. When I am done I playtest it myself, but only using characters of 25 point builds or I send them to my friends in other gaming groups (along with pregen characters) and ask them to run it for me. I should add that the playtesting is ideal situations at best, I think of all my creations only 4 have seen significant 'playtesting', but as soon as I get free time I plan on doing some with my others.
Whenever possible, I "create" monsters by simply applying templates and/or classes to existing ones, or swapping out feats as needed (like they did with the verbeeg in Expedition to the Ruins of Greyhawk). There are so many to choose from, filling so many niches and descriptions, that it's almost never necessary to make one up from scratch.
hehe ever heard of a game called Impossible Creatures?
RPG Superstar 2011 Top 32
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My method is a lot like Last Rogue's - I start with a concept, then begin expressing abilities in terms of/relation to what's included in the MM.
After all is said and done and I feel the monster is finished, I weigh it against other monsters I feel are well designed and assign an appropriate CR.
