Monster Hunter in D&D

[eess1]

So I am going to be running my first 5e campaign. It will be something heavily based on the Monster Hunter video game by Capcom. Found an amazing looking homebrew for monster stats, gear (love the write up/tables for harvesting monster part to make weapons and armor, it's what the games is all about) and even an neat class.

(Sorry to new too posting to link. so hi everybody)

Doodles & Dragons, a 5e D&D supplement for Monster Hunter
reddit.com/r/MonsterHunter/comments/32ds5k/doodles_dragons_a_5e_dd_supplement_for_monster

Campaign's going to be low magic no caster class (although going to give the options for my players to use corjest Spell-less Bard or Khrysaes Spellless Ranger 2.0) to kept with the Monster Hunter theme i am consider about how balance the homebrew seems. but mainly I'm look for a better way to implement the rage and frenzy virus mechanic from the game

Rage (wiki link monsterhunter.wikia.com/wiki/Rage)

Basically monster will trigger rage upon receiving a enough damage. Monster becoming much more aggressive and their attack, defense, and agility stats are boosted (by something like 100+% in most cases). They remain raged until their stamina is depleted if you are fighting them causing them to enter an exhausted state, or until monster flees the area reverting to a normal state as well as regaining some stamina. If they are re-engaged shortly after fleeing they will immediately rage again. Of course i have consider just using some health based barbarian rage kind of like the 4th edition bloodied but any suggestion are greatly welcomed.


Frenzy Virus (wiki link monsterhunter.wikia.com/wiki/Frenzy_Virus)

Description: (copied form status effect wiki)
The Hunter becomes infected with a virus. It requires time to incubate, represented by a purple bar filling up below the Hunter's on-screen name. If the bar fills completely, the virus negates natural health recovery, meaning that the Hunter takes full damage from attacks without being able to heal back half of it. Additionally, all attacks which would cause the condition will deal extra damage while the virus is active. However, if the Hunter inflicts enough damage on a monster whilst the virus is incubating, they gain a 15% Affinity boost (critical hit chance) instead, as well as an immunity to infection for a short period of time.
Remedy:
While incubating, the incubation can be delayed by consuming a Nulberry. The fully incubated virus can only be cured by prolonged exposure to a Panacea or waiting it out.
For frenzy i really don't have much of an idea beside just changing it to a con sav like the homebrew does.

My other fun idea was to try and give some classic D&D monster the monster hunter treatment. So any monster you all feel would be worth stalking and hunting down to make a sweet armor or weapon set? and what special property would you give them?

[Sabeta]

I won't go through those documents because I'm at work, but Monster Hunter is a game where a single attack can kill you if you don't dodge. Dodging isn't really a thing in D&D, but you can replicate the effect by giving your monster very high damage abilities with a very low to-hit modifier.

Rage isn't too hard. AngryGMs Project Hydra does a good job of it. The tldr of it is to basically create two or more identical monsters and then "stack" them into the same Monster.

So take 5 Dire Wolves and combine them into one. It has 5 health bars which must be depleted individually, and there's no spillover damage. In AngryGMs version, the beast has as many turns as it does health bars, but the reverse works as well. Take your quintwolf and start it as a normal Dire Wolf (except with 5 health bars). Everytime it loses a health bar, it gains another turn that it may use immediately after another player.

This is pretty close to rage, in my opinion. You could also tag in a Bavarians Rage as well, with limited duration to make it feel more Monster Hunter.

As for Frenzy, I can't imagine it working too well. Again, Frenzy is all about risk vs reward. Apex Monsters and Gore Magala spread clouds of it that your players can't avoid. Consider a Con Save instead, and let the meter that builds up be incredibly difficult Con Saves each turn. Purging the virus gives you Advantage on everything for a couple of rounds. Failing it is disadvantage.

Best I could come up with on short notice. By the way, that Dire Wolf from before could be Zinogre with a bit of tweaking.

[Malifice]

So I am going to be running my first 5e campaign. It will be something heavily based on the Monster Hunter video game by Capcom. Found an amazing looking homebrew for monster stats, gear (love the write up/tables for harvesting monster part to make weapons and armor, it's what the games is all about) and even an neat class.

(Sorry to new too posting to link. so hi everybody)

Doodles & Dragons, a 5e D&D supplement for Monster Hunter
reddit.com/r/MonsterHunter/comments/32ds5k/doodles_dragons_a_5e_dd_supplement_for_monster

Campaign's going to be low magic no caster class (although going to give the options for my players to use corjest Spell-less Bard or Khrysaes Spellless Ranger 2.0) to kept with the Monster Hunter theme i am consider about how balance the homebrew seems. but mainly I'm look for a better way to implement the rage and frenzy virus mechanic from the game

Rage (wiki link monsterhunter.wikia.com/wiki/Rage)

Basically monster will trigger rage upon receiving a enough damage. Monster becoming much more aggressive and their attack, defense, and agility stats are boosted (by something like 100+% in most cases). They remain raged until their stamina is depleted if you are fighting them causing them to enter an exhausted state, or until monster flees the area reverting to a normal state as well as regaining some stamina. If they are re-engaged shortly after fleeing they will immediately rage again. Of course i have consider just using some health based barbarian rage kind of like the 4th edition bloodied but any suggestion are greatly welcomed.


Frenzy Virus (wiki link monsterhunter.wikia.com/wiki/Frenzy_Virus)

Description: (copied form status effect wiki)
The Hunter becomes infected with a virus. It requires time to incubate, represented by a purple bar filling up below the Hunter's on-screen name. If the bar fills completely, the virus negates natural health recovery, meaning that the Hunter takes full damage from attacks without being able to heal back half of it. Additionally, all attacks which would cause the condition will deal extra damage while the virus is active. However, if the Hunter inflicts enough damage on a monster whilst the virus is incubating, they gain a 15% Affinity boost (critical hit chance) instead, as well as an immunity to infection for a short period of time.
Remedy:
While incubating, the incubation can be delayed by consuming a Nulberry. The fully incubated virus can only be cured by prolonged exposure to a Panacea or waiting it out.
For frenzy i really don't have much of an idea beside just changing it to a con sav like the homebrew does.

My other fun idea was to try and give some classic D&D monster the monster hunter treatment. So any monster you all feel would be worth stalking and hunting down to make a sweet armor or weapon set? and what special property would you give them?

Dude you want a Monster Hunter afflicted by Rage?

Dip a level or two of barbarian (Berserker). Done.

[Trum4n1208]

Dude you want a Monster Hunter afflicted by Rage?

Dip a level or two of barbarian (Berserker). Done.

Not at all what OP was talking about.

[Malifice]

Not at all what OP was talking about.

To be honest I really have no idea what he is on about.

And I just re-read his post like twice.

[Trum4n1208]

To be honest I really have no idea what he is on about.

And I just re-read his post like twice.

The rage he is describing a Monster effect from a game and how to translate that to D&D. If you didn't know then why comment?

On that topic, sorry OP, I am no use to you here. From what I can tell, Sabeta's advice is pretty solid and I'd go the route he's describing. Sorry to briefly commandeer the thread.

[Malifice]

The rage he is describing a Monster effect from a game and how to translate that to D&D. If you didn't know then why comment?

Why cant it be simulated via Barbarian rage?

That was my pooint dude.

[Trum4n1208]

Why cant it be simulated via Barbarian rage?

That was my pooint dude.

It sounded to me like you were talking about playing a Monster-Hunter fighter and dipping into Barbarian for Rage, when it's not the PC who'd have Rage but the monster. Also, Barbarian Rage seemed a poor fit for how the game's rage was described.

If I misunderstood you then my bad.

[Sabeta]

based on the Monster Hunter video game by Capcom

Monster becomes much more aggressive and their attack, defense, and agility stats are boosted (by something like 100+% in most cases). They remain raged until their stamina is depleted

monsterhunter.wikia.com/wiki/Rage


To be honest I really have no idea what he is on about.

And I just re-read his post like twice.

I don't believe you. TC was very clear what he wanted, and he even posted external links so that people unaware of the Monster Hunter franchise could understand what he was talking about. It's very obvious to me that you glossed over TCs post, made an assumption, and posted without thinking.


Why cant it be simulated via Barbarian rage?

That was my pooint dude.

Because Rage is different in Monster Hunter than Barbarians. In Monster Hunter an Enraged monster deals more damage, it attacks far more frequently, and some body parts toughen up and become more resistant to attack. Occasionally their AI changes as well, for example Nargacuga can only be trapped by a Pitfall while it's enraged, as it's normally too intelligent for such shenanigans. It also has a habit of recklessly charging around the map spitting fireballs everywhere rather than its calculated pecks and tail-swipes that it's normal state offers.

You would know all of this if you had used TC's link. http://monsterhunter.wikia.com/wiki/Rage

[eess1]

Rage isn't too hard. AngryGMs Project Hydra does a good job of it. The tldr of it is to basically create two or more identical monsters and then "stack" them into the same Monster.

So take 5 Dire Wolves and combine them into one. It has 5 health bars which must be depleted individually, and there's no spillover damage. In AngryGMs version, the beast has as many turns as it does health bars, but the reverse works as well. Take your quintwolf and start it as a normal Dire Wolf (except with 5 health bars). Everytime it loses a health bar, it gains another turn that it may use immediately after another player.

This is pretty close to rage, in my opinion. You could also tag in a Bavarians Rage as well, with limited duration to make it feel more Monster Hunter.

As for Frenzy, I can't imagine it working too well. Again, Frenzy is all about risk vs reward. Apex Monsters and Gore Magala spread clouds of it that your players can't avoid. Consider a Con Save instead, and let the meter that builds up be incredibly difficult Con Saves each turn. Purging the virus gives you Advantage on everything for a couple of rounds. Failing it is disadvantage.

Best I could come up with on short notice. By the way, that Dire Wolf from before could be Zinogre with a bit of tweaking.

I might give the health bars idea a chance it will give me a nice way to stagger monster fights. Plan to make monster fleeing mid fight a big part of some encounter so the health bars would set up stop points. Have monster roll to rage or flee each lost health bar. I could even give certain monster breakable parts which is a game mechanic I didn't even think to try and recreate although don't know if 5e has a rule set for aim at certain parts. If not just disadvantage when you aim for one?

For the frenzy meter i think i will go the repeat con save route. Basically when first get infected roll a d4 you have that many rounds to overcome or succumb to the virus, if you deal damage that round you get advantage on the save that round or maybe closer to Sabeta idea have an rising dc but the dc does not increase if you deal damage that round. Like the advantage/disadvantage for success/failure (although there are already alot of way to gain or loses advantage). Rolling another d4 to see how long it last or make it the same as the roll for frenzy meter.

[Malifice]

I don't believe you.

I dont care.


Because Rage is different in Monster Hunter than Barbarians. In Monster Hunter an Enraged monster deals more damage, it attacks far more frequently, and some body parts toughen up and become more resistant to attack.

Lulz. So its exactly like Berserker Barbarian rage then?

Deal more damage, check, attacks more frequently check, becomes resistant to damage, check.

[Quintessence]

I dont care.



Lulz. So its exactly like Berserker Barbarian rage then?

Deal more damage, check, attacks more frequently check, becomes resistant to damage, check.

A enraged monster also tends to gain new attacks in MH.