Tips and Advice on Monster Creation

[Odraude]

Been sick all this week and bedridden, leaving me a lot of time to browse heavily through the RPG Superstar entries for monsters. It really got me wondering about how to make a proper monster of certain CRs. Things such as bonus feats, strength of abilities, and even starting stats. I remember reading what one of the judges mentioned about the stats having an 11,11,11,10,10,10 array, then adding +2,+4, etc as needed. I don't see that anywhere in the Bestiary. Same thing with when a creature gets bonus feats. So, how does one make a mechanically balanced monster? And what is this about arrays and bonus feats? Thanks for any help.

[Fergie]

http://paizo.com/forums/dmtz5caj?Tips-and-Advice-on-Monster-Creation
Ability Scores: The creature's ability scores are listed here. Unless otherwise indicated, a creature's ability scores represent the baseline of its racial modifiers applied to scores of 10 or 11. Creatures with NPC class levels have stats in the standard array (13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8), while creatures with character class levels have the elite array (15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8); in both cases, the creature's ability score modifiers are listed at the end of its description.

This area has a lot of good info (see the big chart in the beginning):
http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/monsters/monsterCreation.html
as does this section:
http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/monsters/monsterAdvancement.html

The best way to balance a monster, which I guess means figuring out what CR to use, is to compare it to existing monsters, as well as that big chart. There are a lot of "guidelines" that give recommendations, but really it MUST be based on common sense.

[Odraude]

Fergie wrote:

http://paizo.com/forums/dmtz5caj?Tips-and-Advice-on-Monster-Creation

Ability Scores: The creature's ability scores are listed here. Unless otherwise indicated, a creature's ability scores represent the baseline of its racial modifiers applied to scores of 10 or 11. Creatures with NPC class levels have stats in the standard array (13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8), while creatures with character class levels have the elite array (15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8); in both cases, the creature's ability score modifiers are listed at the end of its description.

This area has a lot of good info (see the big chart in the beginning):
http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/monsters/monsterCreation.html
as does this section:
http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/monsters/monsterAdvancement.html

The best way to balance a monster, which I guess means figuring out what CR to use, is to compare it to existing monsters, as well as that big chart. There are a lot of "guidelines" that give recommendations, but really it MUST be based on common sense.

Just curious, for the first part, where does it mention the normal arrays of 10 and 11? I think you meant to link it but you accidentally linked back to my topic.

Nvm I actually found the link to it. Admittedly, kind of wish it was in the Monster Creation section, but it's good to know where it is now. What allows a creature to get a bonus feat naturally?

[Odraude]

Just a little bump. Still trying to figure out when something gets bonus feats.

[OldManAlexi]

Another thing to note. As far as I know, there are no rules on how special abilities affect CR. For example, giving a creature regeneration would obviously make it a tougher fight but how much tougher? Obviously, that would depend on many different factors. There really isn't a good way to generalize the utility of most abilities.

I would imagine feats work the same way. How much taking Iron Will affects how powerful a monster is can be very different depending on whether or not it starts out with a good Will Save.