Update: The new campaign file now has a cool Edit Monster macro that lets you tweak things on the fly, including Solo/Elite/Minion status. Thank you to JonathanTheBlack over on the MapTool forums!
After I put my initial pass at new damage tables and MapTool monster templates out there for the world to see, I saw some niggling problems that I wanted to correct.
First, my original damage tables had a couple of flat spots where the damage expression stayed the same from one level to the next. Since average damage is supposed to increase by 1 per level, this bugged me and I wanted to fix it.
Second, I knew I should be able to make monsters tweakable more easily with some additional properties.
Third, I wanted to handle limited damage expressions more elegantly.
My damage table now increases at every level. It also has a slightly wider range than the official tables, even at low level, but I’m okay with that. My crits will hurt a little more and my lousy damage rolls will hurt a little less than with official monsters. At the lowest levels, my expressions still have less overall variance because I’m rolling two dice right from the start (the official expressions only roll one for level 1-3). And at the highest levels I have some more variance because I’m only rolling two dice instead of four; that’s a good feature in my opinion.
I also fleshed out the table to include damage expressions for multi-target attacks (about 25% less than standard attacks) as well as limited damage expressions (25% more and 50% more than standard attacks). These took some fiddling to get right, but I’m pretty happy with where they ended up.
Tweakable monsters
I added a property for the attack bonus versus non-AC defenses (NADs); it’s just the normal attack bonus minus 2, but it makes it easier to tweak attack macros en masse. If you want a particular monster to have an easier time hitting NADs (as Soldiers do), just tweak the one property rather than editing every attack macro.
The same goes for having the 125% and 150% damage expressions; it’s easier to do something like tweak the Brute by changing the normal damage to the 125% numbers and the 125% numbers to the 150% numbers in the monster’s properties rather than in each individual attack macro.
Limited damage expressions
High-damage attacks are not perfectly formulaic; the official guidelines say to increase the damage for encounter or recharge powers by 25 to 50 percent.
I decided to add a formula. My generic monsters’ recharge powers do 25% extra damage, while their encounter powers do 50% extra damage. If it’s a multi-target recharge attack I use the standard single-target damage expressions; a multi-target encounter attack gets the 125% damage expressions.
A word on artillery monsters
The official guidelines say that artillery monsters should have +1 or +2 to hit for ranged or area attacks. This is entirely too vague for me, and messy to implement. So, I just gave them +2 to hit versus both AC and NADs. Sure, maybe they’re a little more accurate than they “should” be; I can live with that.
Putting it all together
If you want to download a template campaign file with the sample monsters and properties, you can download it here. The file was created in version 1.3.b66 of MapTool. The properties themselves have been pasted below.
#---StatsToSetManually----- #Level:1 #Role:Skirmisher #HPModifier:8 #Spd:6 #NativeSize:Medium #ActPts:0 #SaveBonus:0 #HeShe:It #ArmorClassRoleMod:0 #InitiativeRoleMod:0 #Leader:0 #MinionHP:0 #SubType:Standard #SubTypeHPMod:1 #----StatsThatCanBeDefaulted--------- #MaxHP:{((HPModifier + Constitution + (Level * HPModifier)) * SubTypeHPMod) + MinionHP} #ArmorClass:{Level+14+ArmorClassRoleMod+ACAdj} #Fortitude:{Level+12+FortAdj} #Reflex:{Level+12+RefAdj} #Will:{Level+12+WillAdj} #Init:{HalfLevel+DexMod-ArmorPenalty+InitAdj} #Strength:{10+HalfLevel+StrAdj} #Constitution:{10+HalfLevel+ConAdj} #Dexterity:{10+HalfLevel+DexAdj} #Intelligence:{10+HalfLevel+IntAdj} #Wisdom:{10+HalfLevel+WisAdj} #Charisma:{10+HalfLevel+ChaAdj} #DefaultAttackBonusVsAC:{Level+5} #DefaultAttackBonusVsNAD:{Level+3} #SingleTargetDamageBonus:{DamageBonus100} #SingleTargetDamageDie:{DamageDie100} #MultiTargetDamageDie:{DamageDie75} #MultiTargetDamageBonus:{DamageBonus75} #DamageBonus100:{1+CEILING(Level*2/3)} #DamageDie100:{6+FLOOR(Level/3)} #DamageDie75:{SingleTargetDamageDie-2-FLOOR((Level+3)/9)} #DamageBonus75:{SingleTargetDamageBonus-1-FLOOR((Level+1)/9)} #DamageDie125:{8+FLOOR(Level/3)} #DamageBonus125:{1+CEILING(Level*2/3)+FLOOR((Level+1)/4)} #DamageDie150:{9+FLOOR(Level/3)+FLOOR((Level+3)/6)} #DamageBonus150:{2+CEILING(Level*2/3)+FLOOR((Level+1)/3)} #MinionDamage:{4+FLOOR(Level/2)} #-----CalculatedOrStaticStats----- #HitPoints:{MaxHP} #TempHP:0 #BloodiedHP:{FLOOR(MaxHP/2)} #DeathFails:0 *#HP:{Hitpoints}/{MaxHP} + {TempHP} *#AC/Fort/Ref/Will:{ArmorClass} / {Fortitude} / {Reflex} / {Will} *#Type:Level {Level} {Role} *#Speed:{Spd} *#Initiative:{Init} *#ActionPoints:{ActPts} *#Str/Con/Dex:{Strength} / {Constitution} / {Dexterity} *#Int/Wis/Cha:{Intelligence} / {Wisdom} / {Charisma} #E1:1 #E2:1 #E3:1 #E4:1 #E5:1 #R1:1 #R2:1 #R3:1 #R4:1 #R5:1 #PowerCharged:1 ---------------------------Skills------------------------------------- #ArmorPenalty:0 #Acrobatics:{HalfLevel+DexMod-ArmorPenalty+5*AcrTrained} #Arcana:{HalfLevel+IntMod+5*ArcTrained} #Athletics:{HalfLevel+StrMod-ArmorPenalty+5*AthTrained} #Bluff:{HalfLevel+ChaMod+5*BlfTrained} #Diplomacy:{HalfLevel+ChaMod+5*DipTrained} #Dungeoneering:{HalfLevel+WisMod+5*DunTrained} #Endurance:{HalfLevel+ConMod-ArmorPenalty+5*EndTrained} #Heal:{HalfLevel+WisMod+5*HeaTrained} #History:{HalfLevel+IntMod+5*HisTrained} #Insight:{HalfLevel+WisMod+5*InsTrained} #Intimidate:{HalfLevel+ChaMod+5*IntTrained} #Nature:{HalfLevel+WisMod+5*NatTrained} #Perception:{HalfLevel+WisMod+5*PerTrained} #Religion:{HalfLevel+IntMod+5*RelTrained} #Stealth:{HalfLevel+DexMod-ArmorPenalty+5*StlTrained} #Streetwise:{HalfLevel+ChaMod+5*StrTrained} #Thievery:{HalfLevel+DexMod-ArmorPenalty+5*ThvTrained} #AcrTrained:0 #ArcTrained:0 #AthTrained:0 #BlfTrained:0 #DipTrained:0 #DunTrained:0 #EndTrained:0 #HeaTrained:0 #HisTrained:0 #InsTrained:0 #IntTrained:0 #NatTrained:0 #PerTrained:0 #RelTrained:0 #StlTrained:0 #StrTrained:0 #ThvTrained:0 ------------------AbilityMods------------------------------- #StrMod:{FLOOR((Strength-10)/2)} #ConMod:{FLOOR((Constitution-10)/2)} #DexMod:{FLOOR((Dexterity-10)/2)} #IntMod:{FLOOR((Intelligence-10)/2)} #WisMod:{FLOOR((Wisdom-10)/2)} #ChaMod:{FLOOR((Charisma-10)/2)} #HalfLevel:{FLOOR(Level/2)} -----------------Adjustments------------------- #StrAdj:0 #ConAdj:0 #DexAdj:0 #IntAdj:0 #WisAdj:0 #ChaAdj:0 #ACAdj:0 #FortAdj:0 #RefAdj:0 #WillAdj:0 #InitAdj:0 ---------------Other----------------------------------------- Elevation:0 AttackState:0 DefenseState:0