When preparing to run a scenario, is it Pathfinder Society legal to roll the monsters' hit points rather than just taking the average?
RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16
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The answers you've received are the official position of the Pathfinder Society campaign leaders.
There are exceptions for monsters in scenarios that were written back in Season 0, when we were still playing the campaign under D&D 3.5 rules.
Also, Jonathan's position could be misread to suggest that any time any GM alters a scenario, even accidentally, that session wouldn't be legal. (I know Jonathan wouldn't suggest that; I'm just saying that his words could be misconstrued.)
With respect, lakesidefantasy, why do you want to roll the monsters' hit points?
When I play outside of Pathfinder Society I don't normally roll hit points unless there are several of the same kind of creature. In that case I like to roll hit points in order to provide a little variety. If a creature has more than the average amount of hit points I describe it as perhaps bigger or more vigorous; if it has less I might describe it as frail or small. This just gives the players something else to consider in their tactics.
I thought the same practice would be fun in Pathfinder Society and just wanted to check if it weren't in fact legal to do so, as I'd always assumed it wasn't.
But you say there are exceptions in season 0 scenarios; what kind of exceptions do you mean?
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But you say there are exceptions in season 0 scenarios; what kind of exceptions do you mean?
They're very limited. Basically, if a season 0 scenario includes a monster without giving a statblock, you can:
- Use the monster as written in the D&D v.3.5 Monster Manual (or the v.3.5 SRD), calculating the CMB and CMD by the usual methods, or
- if the CR is the same as the v.3.5 version, use the monster of the same name from the Pathfinder RPG Bestiary.
I believe the first option is preferred by campaign leadership, but it's recognised that not all GMs will have access to the necessary v.3.5 rules.
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One season 0 scenario I can think of is Among the Living, where I had to create several of the statblocks using the Bestiary. The alternative was tracking down a copy of the Monster Manual. >_>
Or looking at the D20SRD.
I agree with Totenpfuhl, there is a strong case to be made that since player characters use average hit points the monsters and non-player characters should as well.
I'd always assumed the hit points in monster stat blocks were just the average of its' hit dice (notwithstanding the first PC class hit die). Many times in scenarios small arithmetical errors are made calculating the average hit points of a non-player character, but are there any obvious cases where this is not true and an NPC is given more or less hit points on purpose?
I see in the Monster Manual the average hit points are listed under Hit Dice, and in the Bestiary they are listed under hit points. Perhaps this implies hit points are not to be rolled for monsters and non-player characters under Pathfinder rules period. (And now, after some research, I see that is in fact the case, at least for creating non-player characters.)
Well then, given that hit points are listed under Hit Dice in the Monster Manual, I will consider rolling hit points for individual monsters in season 0 scenarios if several of the same type are encountered together.
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RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16
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Germaine tangent:
While I agree that it's always best practice to use the averaged hit points, I've run tables where rolling variable hit points would have been a tempting solution: when I have a table of metagamers who track damage done to each bad guy and, based on how many points of damage their currently-dead compatriots have taken, suggest that this minotaur or that harpy would be much happier with 2 or 4 more hit points of damage.
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Also, Jonathan's position could be misread to suggest that any time any GM alters a scenario, even accidentally, that session wouldn't be legal. (I know Jonathan wouldn't suggest that; I'm just saying that his words could be misconstrued.)
Yeah, mistakes happen. I've made more than a few where a bad guy wound up lasting an extra round because I misremembered the total hit points, or didn't flee or surrender when they should have. That's different from going in and intentionally altering the scenario ahead of time.
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I wouldn't mind seeing more monster packs with varied hit points.
Ice Storm hits for X damage. Whether all the monsters have X-1 or X+1 hit points seems too big an oscillation. If half have higher and half have lower, then it's cooler.
Maybe the average of the whole is 'average', but one of them has 20% more h.p. (while 4 others have 5% less). He's "the brutish one" who then doesn't need a new statblock, but adds some flavor.
Much like in Age of Worms module one where two wolves were starving, but Alpha Wolf was huge (and only with h.p. to tell them apart).
I'm not saying this to GMs, but to designers/contributors.