New DM needs 3.5e D&D knowledge

[Pretoryan]

Right , Hello good friends and creatures alike !

As I stated in the topic , I have been selected to DM a party of friends , in D&D 3.5 edition , and I have a few questions that I need some help with -

1) What exactly is , and how does it work , when a monster has for example ,,+10 melee`` stated before their Dmg. Full example : Bite +3 melee (1d6+1) . Now the only thing I found is that this could relate to the str bonus which you add to an attack , and maybe 3 could be the max in this case ? Please any help would be much appreciated.

2) I have looked all over , and found some relating topics , but still I have trouble connecting and finding a full list of how does a Druid level up his Animal companion. is the HD really something like 4xHD + 8 ? And how do its stats work ?

I apologize if these questions have been asked / answere in previous topics , I couldent find them. If they have , please just link and I will read , but if not I will look forward to any help given.

Thank you in advance , Pretoryan

[Seto]

I'm not sure for the Druid (not really my area of expertise), but Bite +3 melee (1d6+1) means that when you attack, you roll a D20 and add 3 to the result. Then if the attack is successful, you deal 1d6+1 damage.

For example, you attack a character with an AC (armor class) of 15 ; if you roll a 14, that's ok because you add +3 ; if you roll a 9, that's still not enough.

[Pretoryan]

Mhm , thank you for that.

I didn`t think its something you add to attack roll , because I`ve seen creatures with +10 and alike , and it just felt overpowering to me.

Thanks for a very fast reply !

[Keneth]

The +X is the attack bonus. When a creature attacks with one of its weapons, you roll a d20 and add its attack bonus to see if the attack hits against its opponent's Armor Class (AC) which is a static number.

The druid's animal companion levels up in much the same way as player characters do. Hit Dice are basically just levels in a specific Creature Type. In the case of animal companions, the creature gains hit dice as an Animal.

These are pretty basic principles, if you're having trouble with this, you should probably start at the beginning with Player's Handbook and then move on to the Introduction chapter in Monster Manual, so you get a firm grasp on how things work.

[PersonMan]

A Druid's animal companion is a normal animal except where noticed in the ability. So a Wolf with 14 Str keeps that 14 Str as an animal companion unless something changes it.

There's a table for progressing the animal companion which you can find here (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/classes/druid.htm) if you scroll down until you find the second table. The animal companion has its normal Hit Dice, modified by an amount shown on the table.

[eggynack]

2) I have looked all over , and found some relating topics , but still I have trouble connecting and finding a full list of how does a Druid level up his Animal companion. is the HD really something like 4xHD + 8 ? And how do its stats work ?
I'm not sure exactly what you mean here. You just add the amount of HD it tells you to add, along with the other various things, at the appropriate level. There's a fancy table hereabouts (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/classes/druid.htm#theDruidsAnimalCompanion) if you haven't seen it yet. As an example, let's suppose that you have a riding dog, and get to level three. You would add +2 HD, so the HP would be 4d8+8. The dog would increase its BAB to +3, gain a feat for hitting three HD, as well as an increase to saves and skills as appropriate. Finally, it gets +2 natural armor, +1 strength and dexterity, a bonus trick,and evasion. I've never been entirely clear on whether it also gets a stat boost, but it might.

[Pretoryan]

Thank you again for the quick answers , really !

What was mostly my problem , is just some things felt too strong after I`ve read them , and I needed help because I didn`t want to get something wrong in the campaign.

Thanks !

[Andezzar]

Thank you again for the quick answers , really !

What was mostly my problem , is just some things felt too strong after I`ve read them , and I needed help because I didn`t want to get something wrong in the campaign.
Don't worry about it. If presented in the Format of the Monster Manual a first level fighter could have:

Greatsword +6 melee (2d6+6/19-20)
That's +1 BAB, +4 from STR 18 and +1 from Weapon Focus. 2d6 is the base damage of a greatsword, +6 is because two-handed weapons add 1.5 times the STR bonus to damage

[Ranting Fool]

Thank you again for the quick answers , really !

What was mostly my problem , is just some things felt too strong after I`ve read them , and I needed help because I didn`t want to get something wrong in the campaign.

Thanks !

This forum is (as a rule) very helpful so never fear to ask questions :smallbiggrin:


I didn`t think its something you add to attack roll , because I`ve seen creatures with +10 and alike , and it just felt overpowering to me.

It's not overpowering :smallbiggrin: think about it this way. A Fighter meatshield type can get AC20 or higher with little / no effort (it gets harder the higher you go but muh) a monster having +10 attack means it will hit only 50% of the time.
Bigger creatures tend to get a LOT of +to hit but then they also tend to have power attack (Get at - to hit but + damage)

For monster stat blocks we'll look at the common wolf (http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/SRD:Wolf)

Most of it should be understandable enough (if you don't know what a line/term is on about feel free to ask)

But the Wolf's Base attack is only +1 where as it's "Attack" = Bite +3 because that is counting in it's str, Base attack, and feats (weapon focus Bite)

Also remember that at higher levels/some creatures have multi-attacks which go under "Full Attack" (Which is a full round action meaning they can only move 5ft and do that)

[Ranting Fool]

Oh and for Druid pets it says

Bonus HD: Extra eight-sided (d8) Hit Dice, each of which gains a
Constitution modifier, as normal. Remember that extra Hit Dice improve
the animal companion’s base attack and base save bonuses. An animal
companion’s base attack bonus is the same as that of a druid of a level
equal to the animal’s HD. An animal companion has good Fortitude and
Reflex saves (treat it as a character whose level equals the animal’s HD).
An animal companion gains additional skill points and feats for bonus
HD as normal for advancing a monster’s Hit Dice (see the Monster
Manual).

And leveling up monsters/animals is on page 290 Monster Manual.

[Keneth]

A Fighter meatshield type can get AC20 or higher with little / no effort (it gets harder the higher you go but muh) a monster having +10 attack means it will hit only 50% of the time.

Nitpick: It's actually 55%. :smalltongue:

[Andezzar]

And don't forget that the druid's animal companion does not increase in size even if the HD advancement of the base creature says so.

[Ranting Fool]

Nitpick: It's actually 55%. :smalltongue:

Right you are sir! :smallbiggrin: because they only need a roll of 10 to hit AC 20. :smalltongue:

[Pretoryan]

But the Wolf's Base attack is only +1 where as it's "Attack" = Bite +3 because that is counting in it's str, Base attack, and feats (weapon focus Bite)


This now makes sense... I have completely forgot , and didn`t even consider that it might be a combined score of all those things.

Thanks a LOT !