Hey all i was just perused through the rules for modifying monsters (new to the edition) and i just want to know if it's possible to add class levels to a monster to up it's power? or how easy it would be if it is possible?
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You should not add class levels to monsters. If you want them to have certain feats, just give them the feats.
For example, you want a Troll Barbarian, just take a troll, increase the level to 9 or something, then give it Rage and a couple of Barbarian feats. Sudden Charge would be a good one. Make sure to adjust their stats accordingly as well.
Monsters should not be gaining feats at the same rate as players though.
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Adding class levels to monsters is pretty easy, except that the process is not adding levels. Instead, you decide on a monster, a class, and a level higher than the monster's level. Level up the monster with the numbers from the Gamemastery Guide's Building Creatures rules. Then select from feats and features from the class that feel appropriate and add them in. Perhaps modify the feats to be easier to use or have a special characteristic that fits the monster. That's it.
The main reason to modify feats and features from a class is to avoid behind-the-scenes abilities.
Invisible Abilities
Avoid abilities that do nothing but change the creature’s math, also known as “invisible abilities.” These alter a creature’s statistics in a way that’s invisible to the players, which makes the creature less engaging because the players don’t see it using its abilities in a tangible or evocative way. For example, an ability that allows a creature to use an action to increase its accuracy for the round with no outward sign (or worse, just grants a passive bonus to its accuracy) isn’t that compelling, whereas one that increases its damage by lighting its arrows on fire is noticeable. These both work toward the same goal—dealing more damage this round—but one is far more memorable.
We can see this in the Bestiaries. The Hobgoblin Archer is modeled after a ranger with Precision Edge. Yet it lacks the characteristic Hunt Prey ability of a ranger, because use of Hunt Prey is invisible to the players. Instead, its Crossbow Precision ability can be used against any target, not just hunted prey.
Let's have an example from my game. In Assault on Longshadow Lieutenant Kosseruk, leader of the army assaulting the city Longshadow, is a CR 10 minotaur fighter (sensate) 8. Her NPC gallery stat block lists her feats as PF1 feats as Combat Expertise, Disruptive, Improved Critical (warhammer), Improved Initiative, Improved Iron Will, Iron Will, Power Attack, Skill Focus (Use Magic Device), Step Up, Vital Strike, Weapon Focus (warhammer), Weapon Specialization (warhammer). Thus, we can deduce that 8 levels of fighter where added to the CR1 PF1 minotaur, but they did not stack perfectly so she ended up CR 10 rather than CR 12.
I converted In Assault on Longshadow to Pathfinder 2nd Edition, so I had to build Kosseruk under PF2 rules. I was emphasizing Brigadier General Kosseruk's tactical cunning in my campaign, so I made her class investigator rather than fighter. And I promoted her, since a lieutenant does not lead an army of 1,000 soldiers.
The PF2 minotaur is a 4th-level Large creature, much like the PF1 minotaur. I started with that minotaur and used the tables in Building Creatures. I compared the original minotaur to the 4th-level values in the tables to see whether that stat was in the low, moderate, or high column and then followed the column down to 10th level. I might have altered a few numbers to reflect Kosseruk's ability scores (copied from the module) or the investigator class--I don't remember the exact details.
Then I had to select gear and feats. I swapped out the minotaur's unenchanted greataxe for a +1 thundering fauchard. She kept the Axe Swipe, Hunted Feat, and Powerful Charge of the minotaur, except the Axe Swipe became a Fauchard Swipe and the Hunted Fear became the more intellectual Hunting Riddle. She gained Endless Strategem based on the investigator's Devise a Stratagem ability, but more automatic because Devise a Stratagem is invisible to the players. I copied To Battle from the Marshall archetype as appropriate for a general.
A creature has fewer trained skills and fewer special abilities than a player character. Instead, they have better bonuses and hit points. Thus, Kosseruk has relatively few abilities for a named 10th-level character.
LN, Large, Humanoid
Based on Minotaur, Bestiary pg. 237
Recall Knowledge - Humanoid (Society): DC 25
Perception +18; darkvision
Languages Common, Goblin, Jotun
Skills Athletics +20, Intimidation (master) +23 (assurance), Society +15, Survival +17 (natural cunning), Stealth +12, Warfare Lore +15
Str +6, Dex +0, Con +5, Int +3, Wis +1, Cha +1
Natural Cunning A minotaur automatically critically succeeds at Survival checks to avoid becoming lost or to find its way, including those from the maze spell.
Items +1 resilient breastplate
+1 thundering fauchard https://2e.aonprd.com/Equipment.aspx?ID=306
+1 Striking Cunning Handwraps of Mighty Blows
Cunning https://2e.aonprd.com/Equipment.aspx?ID=885 free +1 Recall Knowledge on successful hit
Diviner's Nose Chain https://2e.aonprd.com/Equipment.aspx?ID=855
Cat's Eye Elixir https://2e.aonprd.com/Equipment.aspx?ID=85
moderate Antidote https://2e.aonprd.com/Equipment.aspx?ID=80
moderate Elixir of Life https://2e.aonprd.com/Equipment.aspx?ID=91
AC 29; Fort +22, Ref +15, Will +16
HP 167
Speed 25 feet
Melee [Single Action] +1 thundering fauchard +23 (Deadly d8, Reach, Sweep, Trip), Damage 2d10+8 slashing + 1d6 sonic
Melee [Single Action] horn +23, Damage 2d8+8 piercing
Fauchard Swipe [Two Actions] Kosseruk swings her fauchard in a wide arc, making Strikes against any two foes who are adjacent to each other and within her reach. The multiple attack penalty does not increase until after both attacks are resolved. That turn, Kosseruk may also Trip one creature struck by the Fauchard Swipe and automatically succeed.
Hunting Riddle [Single Action] The minotaur asks a riddle as it hunts its prey, inspiring terror. The minotaur makes an Intimidation check to Demoralize all living creatures within 60 feet that can hear the minotaur. The creatures that cannot see the minotaur take a -2 penalty to their Will save. Roll once and apply the result to all creatures. If the targets are in a maze or similarly difficult-to-navigate structure, the minotaur gains a +4 circumstance bonus to this check. Creatures that become frightened as a result also take a -2 circumstance penalty to Survival checks to avoid getting lost for 1 minute. This use of Demoralize doesn't have the visual trait. Each target is temporarily immune for 1 minute.
Powerful Charge [Two Actions] The minotaur Strides twice, then makes a horn Strike. If it moved at least 20 feet from its starting position, the Strike's damage is increased to 3d8+10.
Endless Stratagem (Fortune)
You continually assess a foe's weaknesses in combat and envision your tactics one step ahead of reality. At the beginning of Kosseruk's turn she choses an opposing creature and rolls 1d20. If she makes a Strike or Athletics skill attack against the chosen creature this round, she uses the result of the the roll made at the beginning of the turn instead of rolling. Make this substitution only for the first Strike or Atheltics attack against the creature this round, not any subsequent attacks.
To Battle [Single Action] (auditory, concentrate, emotion, mental) Bellowing mightily, Kosseruk gives all allies within 60 feet a +1 status bonus to attack and damage rolls until the end of her next turn.
You can see that my stat block mixes up the terms "you," "minotaur," and "Kosseruk" to describe Kosseruk. I did not unify wording borrowed from many sources because I thought I would be the only person reading this stat block.
In the campaign, Kosseruk mostly directed the army. But in the final battle, she led an assault on the south gate of Longshadow. She used Hunting Riddle and To Battle as the leader of the company at the gate, but she relied on a giant to smash down the gate so that her company could rush into Longshadow. The PCs killed the giant while the gate still had 25 hit points left, seemingly foiling that particular attempt to enter the city. However, Kosseruk is a minotaur. She lowered her head and used her Powerful Charge against the gate. Her second charge destroyed the gate. The players thought this was impressive. It also sealed her fate, because she became the primary target of the defenders.
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Hey all i was just perused through the rules for modifying monsters (new to the edition) and i just want to know if it's possible to add class levels to a monster to up it's power? or how easy it would be if it is possible?
The big big thing to understand about 2E monster design is that it's all about the end result, not how you got there. 1E had you go through a whole process of building a monster by calculating ability scores, hit dice, changing ability scores, applying size modifiers to strength and to-hit to cancel each other out, adding con and subtracting dex for size, giving natural AC and subtracting AC for size, and that was before you got to adding class levels. Then it turned out that for example adding three levels of wizard to a level 12 giant doesn't make it into a particularly effective giant, so that process also needed revision.
2E is focused on the end product: a monster that's interesting to encounter, challenging but fair. So we don't really care how it got the numbers it has, just that those numbers are reasonable for its level and abilities. We might as well just say "I want a level X monster" and look up appropriate numbers in a table. Which is exactly how the Gamemastery Guide monster creation works.
This is also what Mathmuse refers to when warning you away from "invisible abilities"; stuff that moves around numbers behind the scenes in a monster, but that isn't really doing anything interesting that the players can see or interact with. Might as well just get the end result numbers and skip the hidden ability.
Of course sometimes you want a monster that feels like it's a particular class. Maybe you want a troll that feels like it's a barbarian. Oh, and also a bit higher level because this is the big boss troll and should be scarier than the other trolls the party fought so far.
So like Mathmuse already said, you look at the GMG and compare the regular troll to the tables to figure out whether it's in the high/medium/low column for stats, and flip the numbers to the row for the monster's new level. But to give it more of a specifically barbarian feel, you compare that to the suggestions for the barbarian "class road map" in the GMG:
Barbarian high Athletics; high Str, high to moderate Con; high AC; high Fortitude; high HP; moderate attack and extreme damage (when raging); Rage and a few barbarian abilities
Well, a troll has most of that already, but we need Rage and a few barbarian abilities. The Rage is going to be factored into its numbers that you look up from the table, so what about the abilities? We need this one to look extra barbaric so we need very noticeable ones. Let's say we go with Raging Intimidation and give our troll boss barbarian a High Intimidation skill to go with it. (We don't care about his charisma score, since it doesn't actually get factored into his intimidation). And oh, let's say Dragon's Rage Breath - this troll breathes fire when he gets really angry. Definitely makes him stand out from the other trolls. If the party is well-informed, maybe they can position so that some of the other trolls get caught in the crossfire. Otherwise, they're just going to be pretty surprised. But hey, easy to see why the rest of the tribe is terrified of this troll!