Monsters?

[LOTRfan]

I'm new to 4e, and keep in mind that I have been playing 3.5e the entire time I've played D&D.

I'm looking through the monsters, and my first reaction is: how the heck do you homebrew monsters? I haven't the slightest clue as to how you create your own (I realize you can just refluff, but work with me here).

Is there a formula I'm missing in the MM? Is it in the DMG?

I realize there is a monster builder on the WotC site, but I'm looking to be able to create my own monsters for free, like in 3.5e. Is it possible?

[Surrealistik]

I'm new to 4e, and keep in mind that I have been playing 3.5e the entire time I've played D&D.

I'm looking through the monsters, and my first reaction is: how the heck do you homebrew monsters? I haven't the slightest clue as to how you create your own (I realize you can just refluff, but work with me here).

Is there a formula I'm missing in the MM? Is it in the DMG?

I realize there is a monster builder on the WotC site, but I'm looking to be able to create my own monsters for free, like in 3.5e. Is it possible?

Monster Maker from the offline Adventure Tools 'suite' WotC produced is the definitive resource for homebrewing monsters, otherwise you'll have to resort to the guidelines in DMG 2? Don't recall.

[LOTRfan]

I see. My friend has the DMG 2, I'll have to ask if I can borrow that. Thank you.

[theNater]

I'm new to 4e, and keep in mind that I have been playing 3.5e the entire time I've played D&D.

I'm looking through the monsters, and my first reaction is: how the heck do you homebrew monsters? I haven't the slightest clue as to how you create your own (I realize you can just refluff, but work with me here).

Is there a formula I'm missing in the MM? Is it in the DMG?

I realize there is a monster builder on the WotC site, but I'm looking to be able to create my own monsters for free, like in 3.5e. Is it possible?
It sounds like you're looking for page 184 of the DMG.

[LOTRfan]

Another question: It seems that in this edition, creatures described as "mindless" still have intelligence scores much higher than their 3.5e counterparts.

Do all creatures have all ability scores, now?

[mobdrazhar]

they do all have a score in all stats.

All undead have a Con Score, as do constructs

[Mando Knight]

Do all creatures have all ability scores, now?

All creatures have all ability scores. Though, really, a "mindless" undead generally isn't (it can generally do something without being told explicitly how to do so, etc.), so an animalistic Int score of 1-3 (there's a pretty "smart" zombie in MM1 with an Int of 4) makes sense. Constitution, on the other hand, is given to all creatures because if your Con is supposed to be related to your toughness, how can you have a non-ability in Con? (Yes, it used to be explained as a lack of metabolism. I don't buy it, and apparently WotC stopped buying it, too)

[LOTRfan]

So, what would the average intelligence score of a creature of animal-intellect?

[Vknight]

I would say between 1-4
With aged creatures and more advanced mentally species can get 2-5
With more magical creatures reaching up to 6

Thats me but it makes sense

[Lord Ascapelion]

For new monsters, tweaking existing ones would probably be best, especially if you're just starting off with 4e. The guidelines for making new monsters is in the DMG, though if you're making Paragon or Epic monsters, the damage would be too low- you'd need to get the improved damage expressions from DMG 2 or some other source. HP and defenses expressions are different too, but you should be able to find this stuff around for free.

[Erom]

Head to the WOTC site and grab the DMG1 errata: http://www.wizards.com/dnd/Article.aspx?x=dnd/updatesarchive

The last page of that document includes updated tables for what the HP, defenses, damage, and attack bonuses should be for a given level for all of the monster roles.

Note that these numbers generally feature higher damage and lower HP than the ones printed early in 4e's run, MM1 and MM2 in particular.

In terms of monster powers, much like 3e it's left pretty flexible. You might want to compare with other monsters of similar level at that point. For simple "attack for damage" powers, though, using the to-hit and damage expressions from the book is the way to go.

As has been mentioned, the Adventure Tools Monster Builder is a good bit more convenient to use than doing it all yourself, though at this point it requires enough home tweaking that the best solution might be programming the formulas into a spreadsheet.

[TheEmerged]

First: follow that link to the errata. It works better. Use it as a GUIDE, not a hard/fast rule.

Second: there's a house rule I've seen in some quarters and have used with some success myself. At paragon, adjust minions to require 2 hits or 1 crit. At epic, adjust to 3 hits or 1 crit.

Third: keep a close eye on minions with ranged attacks, especially at lower levels, and skirmishers with a "hit & shift" type ability at any level. Probably the third-toughest fight we've seen so far was a fight of the party versus an equal number of monsters with that type of ability. I had it planned as the first of 4 fights that day, it ended up being 1 of 2.

(The second toughest was the Suzaku encounter against an Elite controller at partylevel+3 and a partylevel+3 monster for each party member. The toughest was the Clone battle where I put the players against themselves and an Intellect Devourer.)

[DontEatRawHagis]

If your monsters are just knock-offs of some other type of monster figure out what you need to make them.

ie you want to make a Human Necromancer into an eleven necromancer, give it elven accuracy

If a monster is not the level you want figure out what its half level boost, this does not always work, I tried to create a lvl 1 Solo Silt Horror(originally lvl12), but it failed though the math should be sound. Would be better to use the lvl 1 Id Fiend as a point of reference.