A 3.5 DM's Guide to Using and Improving Monsters

[Saintheart]

A 3.5 DM’s Guide to Using and Improving Monsters







Introduction

Not much clear and practical advice exists for 3.5 DMs when they’re trying to work with, and improve, monsters to challenge the party. Compare this with the mountains of forum threads and handbooks devoted to empowering players.

I wrote this guide attempting to redress the balance.

It’s not enough to say “Just build NPC/monster opponents the way you’d build a PC.” A PC is built for a campaign, with an eye to adventuring from level 1 to level 20 and beyond. The vast, nay, overwhelming majority of monsters only need to exist for one encounter. What goes into constructing a PC is not what needs to go into how you use and improve monsters or NPCs. You have more interesting options to pursue.

'But there’s Oslecamo's Guide (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?133604-3-X-Being-Ra-s-al-Ghul-Oslecamo-s-guide-to-DM-s-0-3) and Ur-Priest's Handbook (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?207928-Urpriest-s-Monstrous-Monster-Handbook), why are you doing another one?'

Oslecamo’s guide is short and written over a decade ago. Ur-Priest’s (magisterial) Handbook is a step-by-step walkthrough of how monster mechanics work … but it’s mainly for players who want to run monstrous PCs, and DMs who deal with them. It doesn’t focus on what monster mechanics mean for DMs in practice.

This is the guide I wish I’d had when I first started moving away from modules or default monsters to doing other things with them. It’s what I wish I’d had trying to piece together what the Monster Manual and the DMG (and dozens of splatbooks) had to say to DMs about monsters, how to make them stronger, and how to better use them in encounters.

And it’s for DMs, because, as said, most internet forums on 3.5 (or D&D generally) are more about breaking DMs over the player’s knee than the other way around. This is a sad situation. 3.5 – and D&D generally – doesn’t survive on the goodwill of players, it survives on the goodwill and support of DMs. DMs run the game, prepare the game, and have the lion’s share of the workload in doing both. It’s a lot harder to have a session, or a PbP campaign, minus a DM than minus one player. If 3.5 is going to continue to exist – and it should – then new and new-ish DMs have to be supported. Which is what I’m trying to do.



Table of Sections
Post 2: CR and what it means
Posts 3-5: Adding HD, Adding Class Levels, Adding Templates
Post 6: Feats and Skills
Post 7: Traits, Unique Abilities, Bloodlines, Ability Scores
Post 8: Items and Treasure
Post 9: Tactics
Post 10: Boss Monsters
Post 11: Roleplaying the Monsters
Post 12: Bibliography and Other Useful References, List of Abbreviations

[Saintheart]

CR and what it means
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If you’re a DM you’ve already run into the concept of Challenge Rating (CR). If not, review it: DMG, p.48. There are key points to remember when you’re using CR to gauge how strong a monster is.

CR is said to indicate the average level of a party of four adventurers that would find one creature of that CR to be a “good challenge” (per DMG). And right upfront, know that CR is a rough guess at what constitutes a challenge for a party of adventurers. Emphasis on rough. If you want examples of how misleading CR can get, search this forum or similar for “That Damn Crab”, or “Monster Manual 2 CR”. 3e’s designers have been cool enough to admit several times now that little math went into the original CR calculations. And CR assumes a group of casual, relatively inexperienced players is taking the monster on, not optimisers. In the designers' defence, especially with third edition's sheer optionality, there’s no way CR could be otherwise. And CR is a not-bad starting point at least.

But what does "challenge" mean?
Page 49 of the DMG asks that very question - "What counts as a challenge?" - and tries hard to give an answer.

But what it never says, and really should, is that D&D was designed as a game of attrition. A party has given resources at the outset of the day; the horrible things they run into over the course of the day eat away at those resources. The simplest example is in the wizard and cleric's spells per day. The challenge is both in overcoming the adventure's obstacles and managing your resources sufficiently that you don't run out of them at a crucial moment and come unstuck: you might regret having used a Fireball on the insignificant gang of goblins when the ice dragon is bearing down on your position.

Third edition thinks a party "should", "on average", blow about 20% of their day's resources handling an encounter of an Encounter Level matching the party's level. Absent anything that scales the difficulty of the encounter up or down - and thus changing the Encounter Level - a single monster on its own gets an Encounter Level equal to its Challenge Rating.

So as a rule of thumb:


CR means "if we, the party, being of a level equal to this CR, met this monster on its own ... we should expect to use up about one fifth of our daily resources killing it."

This estimation is frequently misunderstood as "Thou shalt throw 4 encounters of the party's EL at the party per day, or else Thy Campaign Is Out Of Order." Not so. If you read onward at page 49 of the DMG, you see that the writers go on in exhaustive detail to point out that four encounters at EL per day translates to 8 encounters of lower ELs if you're minded to go with that. It doesn't mean you must throw four encounters per day at the party. And it certainly doesn't mean you throw a party-killer at the players just before sunset. That was just the baseline for their assumptions in creating EL calculations and the best guess they could give for how you're "meant" to judge the number of encounters per day. Not to mention that as 3.5 went along, "once per encounter" abilities showed up more and more - the highpoint being martial maneuvers with Warblades, Swordsages, and Crusaders, which also skews the average to some extent.

Variety isn't just the spice of life, it's actually a baked-in assumption of Encounter Level in the game, and the DMG goes on to set out in exhaustive detail the percentage of encounters in a campaign that should be at Encounter Level, above, below, and overwhelmingly over. Having variations in encounter difficulty is another way to disguise how much of the players' resources they can be confident of holding onto for the rest of the day.


If you understand how attrition plays into challenge, you understand why random encounters were put into the game. They make it trickier for the party to accurately project how many resources they'll have for later encounters. Random encounters while the party is in camp, or resting are important for similar reasons, because the logical answer to attrition is what's known as "the 15 minute adventuring day" -- where the party rests overnight after every encounter in order to regenerate all its resources for the next fight. This certainly is an issue if the party chooses to take this line, no doubt about it ... and nobody's got a complete answer to it, either, not with D&D leaving us with spells like Create Food and Water, Rope Trick, and other items that make it difficult for DMs to threaten a party while it's in camp. Unfortunately, this one is where WOTC left it to DMs to manage their campaigns, for better or worse.

Also, the other side of the CR equation is ECL, or Effective Character Level. A monster having CR 5 tells you that a level 5 party should spend 20% of its daily resources on the critter; ECL tells you whether the party is putting out the firepower of a level 5 party, or something more. ECL also allows you to handbrake XP and treasure being handed out in encounters as well. Level adjustment serves a similar purpose - because WOTC understood that, players being players, they're always going to want to play something cooler than the standard six races, and DMs needed to get an idea of what level the party really is when it's sporting a bunch of monsters as its back (or front) line.


Why worry so much about CR?
If CR was only an estimate of challenge to a party, we wouldn’t really care. The problem is that CR has mechanical consequences. A monster’s CR controls:

(1) how much XP the party gets from killing “overcoming” a single given monster. It’s right there in black, white, and beige on p. 38 of the DMG; and

(2) how much treasure a monster has on its rapidly-cooling corpse – see p. 51 of the DMG. And that’s before you get to monsters with class levels, which are different again.

A lot of beginner DMs learn by bitter experience that if you throw CR 15 opponents at a level 6 party, then assuming the party wins, then by the rules they level up quickly and acquire a lot of loot, making it harder and harder to throw interesting challenges at them.

"But doesn't the DMG allow me to award whatever XP and treasure I want?" Well, yyyyyees. The writers say CR’s a guideline, XP awards can be adjusted by the DM if he thinks fit to do so, and monster treasure is just an “average” that you can push up or down as you see fit while keeping an eye on Wealth By Level. This advice can get DMs out of awkward situations but doesn’t emphasise how the game can – or will – break if you abandon normal rates of accumulation of XP and treasure. The treasure and XP tables are written the way they are so players are appropriately challenged at each level, while still earning enough XP at each encounter to feel that they’re still progressing. There is a certain psychology intended in the wealth by level and XP tables, and one dispenses with that maybe not at some peril, but not without unintended outcomes perhaps. (Of the variety "...wait, why are we only earning 50 XP and 200gp when we literally knocked over Orcus and we're a level 8 party?") Trying to stick to CR levels while providing a challenging fight is an important part of the (meta)game, and that’s what we’re looking to do here.

So: DMs should know how monsters can be improved by RAW without markedly increasing their CR.

A DM is not being miserly or tricky by educating himself on this and using some of these measures. Players got sophisticated over the 20 years since third edition was released. There’s endless online handbooks since then on how to build a wizard that can singlehandedly wreck dungeons and do biologically improbable things to your poor Big Bad.

And if you don’t increase CR by huge amounts, the math generally works okay. All you’re getting here are tools to make things a little bit harder. Either way, you need to understand the tools.We'll get to what WOTC means by "challenge" in a moment, but the first thing to note is: this advice was written for casual DMs running casual players - not very experienced or optimised ones. Ur-Priest suggests if a single adventurer takes on a monster whose CR matches his level, the adventurer should have a 50-50 chance of dying, i.e. the party’s combined arms make the fight other than a coin flip for death, because the monster has to divide its attention between four adventurers rather than one.

Challenge versus DIFFICULTY
Although the SRD says CR gives an estimate of what would be a "moderate challenge" for a party, I would take that assertion with a big bag of salt. You should always to take a “last look” at a monster in context to see what numbers a monster will hit when going at the party. Which is to say:



CR alone does not tell you how difficult an encounter is going to be for the party. There are a myriad of other factors which can be laid on top that can take a seemingly-CR-appropriate encounter into the realm of TPK. Don't throw a significantly improved monster at a party unless you've got an idea of how hard it's going to hit and how resilient it is under the conditions the encounter's going to take place in.


This is very important if you’re using multiple monsters in the one fight, because the difficulty of the encounter changes. WOTC’s (Wizards of the Coast, i.e. the guys who wrote third edition) answer was Encounter Level, which tells you the level of a party that could handle an encounter when slapping monsters of different CRs together. But even WOTC admits the math breaks down if you include a lot of monsters. It also becomes tricky to judge CR when the monsters are designed to work well together, e.g. the anti-party that comes after the PCs and has the benefit of one mind coordinating them seamlessly (the DM. You know, you). (In passing, if you hadn’t already seen it: the SRD has an Encounter Calculator for these purposes. (http://www.d20srd.org/extras/d20encountercalculator/) )

In addition, CR is not a hard formula but a range of monsters that roughly fit within that rating. The easiest way to illustrate this is by looking at the average statistics of monsters that fall in the different CR ratings. Oh, no time to do that? No problem, someone already did: this is a table of the average stats of all MM1 monsters by Challenge Rating (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?623578-3-5-Average-Monster-Stats-UPDATED-TABLE&highlight=average+monster+AC+BAB). This at least gives you a rough benchmark of which monsters WOTC thought deserved what CR, going by the monsters' most important statistics: its hitpoints, initiative count, AC, Base Attack Bonus, and saving throws.




Another Modest Warning
Just as optimisation guides for players are of limited use to DMs, so it is important, if not vitally important, to not go out with the intent of breaking your players with improved monsters. I know I get enthusiastic about options and little rediscoveries in the library of 3.5 books, and that delight bleeds through to my recommendations and my tone in this guide.

But.

I've written elsewhere it's easy for DMs and players to get into an arms race as the levels go by, and it's not my intent to go and give you the keys to a nuclear arsenal which has to be, or even should be, used in its entirety against your party. The idea of this guide is to give you options and ways to improve your monsters, but that should not be construed as advice to always improve them. Unless you are playing a clearly stated, explicit 'DM vs Players, RAW or Die' game where everyone knows ahead of time that you'll be trying to crush the party at every turn with every literal RAW trick in the book, most of the time you don't need to massively upgrade everything. The DM's job is to supply interesting choices to the party. And, as I've said elsewhere, a party that is assured of destruction has no more actual choice to make in an encounter than a party which is assured of destroying the monsters.

Either way: you're the DM, you already have Rule Zero and I'm hoping one reason you became a DM was because you weren't interested in optimising every damn character who walks the virtual earth, you weren't interested in parading around wish-fulfilment collections of stats, you became a DM to give people a good experience. You're being given the keys to an arsenal, I trust you to use what lies within wisely.

[Saintheart]

Adding HD, Adding Class Levels, Adding Templates
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WOTC provides three major tools for changing a monster’s statistics: advancement by Hit Dice, adding levels in a character class, and applying templates. These aren’t the only ways to improve a monster, we’re going to look at others after that, but you should understand these three. Because the forum software can't take all 3 forms in one post, I've split them up into the following three posts.




Adding Hit Dice
Improving monsters by advancing (i.e. increasing) their hit dice essentially makes your monsters stronger, or able to take on the party at higher levels, without meaningfully adding extra things that they can do. This can be contrasted with adding class levels to a monster which can give it a suite of abilities that are entirely unrelated to its "biology". Adding HD is often overlooked because it’s thought to be a complicated process. I say otherwise, especially when you start realising how much benefit you can get from some creatures depending on their CR. Admittedly WOTC’s rules are not user friendly, but it’s no more complex than adding class levels; indeed the way to think about it is that adding HD is adding "levels" in a monster, with its type as the class - it's just WOTC's procedures smoosh all the classes into one table rather than separate them out as they do with PC classes.

I’ve cut the process right down to formulae, partially stolen off Oslecamo’s guide, and put it in a “change this” format.

First, decide how many HD you want to add, and get hold of the monster’s hit dice (HD) and its type, which are listed in its statblock.



If you’ve ever wondered why a monster has a weird 4d8+8 stat in front of its hitpoint count, that’s the creature’s hit dice. That little alphanumeric code is used for several purposes in monster stats – hitpoints, obviously, and therefore how durable it is in a fight, but it also has a big influence on many other things. Hit dice indirectly dictate how accurate a monster’s attacks are, how much damage it does, how potent its special abilities are, and a few other things besides. The hit dice in the statblock are sometimes called the monster’s Racial Hit Dice, to distinguish them from hit dice acquired from certain spells or taking character classes.

Generally, if you add more hit dice to a monster, it gets stronger in combat, depending on the monster’s type.



Okay, have a look at the top of a set of monster statistics. See that line that says "Size/Type:" and then lists something like "Large Plant"? That’s not just a funny descriptor, the last word tells you what type of monster it is – whether it’s Undead, a Dragon, an Outsider, a Monstrous Humanoid, an Animal, and so on. Different types of monsters have different capabilities, immunities and so on. (And then there are subtypes, which aren't relevant for this exercise, but which will be listed in brackets after the type.) Type most matters here because it tells us how quickly the monster gets stronger. As the below procedure should illustrate.

Got them? Right, now work through the following items, one by one:

Increase BAB
Increase the monster’s Base Attack Bonus (BAB), depending on its type, as follows:

+1 HD = +1 BAB to Dragons, Magical Beasts, Monstrous Humanoids and Outsiders. (i.e. the improved monster’s BAB = Its total HD).


+2 HD = +1 BAB to Fey and Undead. (i.e. the improved monster’s BAB = its total HD x 0.5)


+4 HD = +3 BAB to Aberrations, Animals, Constructs, Elementals, Giants, Humanoids, Oozes, Plants and Vermin. The first +1 to BAB never comes with the first extra HD; it always requires at least 2 HD to gain that +1. (i.e. the improved Monster’s BAB = Total HD x 0.75).


BAB is obviously important since it underlies the monster’s chance of hitting anything it swings at, and – if it gets above +5, and the monster has manufactured weapons – determines how many attacks the monster can make each round. (Don’t worry about how natural weapons work with manufactured weapons right now. We’ll get to that.)


Increase Saving Throws
Increase the monster’s base saving throws, depending on the monster’s type, as follows:

Every +2 HD = +1 to the monster’s Good saving throws.
E.g. if a monster is an Outsider, has 3 HD, and you add 2 -- thus giving a total of 5 HD -- you add +1 to the monster’s Fort, Ref, and Will saves, because Outsiders have all of them as Good.

Every +3 HD = +1 to the monster’s Bad saving throws. E.g. if a Construct monster has 7 HD and you add 3, giving a total of 10 HD, the Construct gets a +1 to its Fort, Ref, and Will saves, because Constructs have no Good saving throws.




Some monsters’ saving throws increase faster than their other saves. The faster ones are ‘Good’ saving throws. If a saving throw isn’t listed as Good, it is a Bad saving throw. These also depend on the monster’s type. The Good saving throws are in the ‘Creature Improvement by Type’ table on the SRD. Just look up its type.

Some creature types (Dragons, Outsiders) have no Bad saving throws; others (Constructs, Oozes) have no Good saving throws at all!

A Good saving throw is (the monster’s total HD/2)+2.

A Bad saving throw is the monster’s total HD/3.


Increase Feats and Ability Scores
Add a feat for every multiple of 3 HD you reach by adding HD. E.g. if a monster already has 4 HD and you add 2, thus giving it a total of 6 HD, you add a feat for when it hit the 6 HD mark.

Add +1 to an ability score for every multiple of 4 HD you reach by adding HD. E.g. if a monster has 6 HD and you add 2, thus giving it a total of 8 HD, you give +1 to one of its ability scores for when it reaches 8 HD.

Monsters get feat and ability score increases just like players do. However, for monsters, their total HD is their “level” – a monster with 11 HD (whether made up of its own HD and class levels or whatever) gets four feats like any player does, at the 1, 3, 6 and 9 HD mark (and would pick up another feat if advanced to 12 HD, just like a player does). And as a monster’s HD hit multiples of 4, they get a +1 to an ability score just like players do.



Increase Hitpoints

Each HD added also adds another dice to hitpoints, and another iteration of the monster’s CON bonus (if it’s not undead).

Monsters’ hitpoints are calculated by adding together the average of each hit dice (rounded down) and the CON bonus for each dice. The average of a dice is: the maximum possible result on the dice, plus one, divided in half. Thus: a d6 gives an average of 3.5; a d8, an average of 4.5; a d10, an average of 5.5, and so on. If we have a monster with 4d8+12 hit dice, its hitpoint total is 4x4.5 +12 = 30 hitpoints. We can tell from the hit dice (or from the statblock) that its CON bonus is +3, since it got 3 for each of its 4 hit dice. If we add a HD to this monster, its hitpoint total becomes 37: 5x4.5 (Rounded down) +15 = 37.

Undead don’t get the CON bonus for obvious reasons: they’re not alive, they don’t have a CON score. They get the biggest hit dice, d12, to compensate for that.

If a monster's hitpoints don't match these numbers, one place to look is in its feats: stuff like Toughness adds a flat +3 hitpoints to the total, which doesn't increase with each HD.

Lastly, if you want a no-increase-on-CR buff in this area, it's simple: max out the creature's hitpoints based on its hit dice. Hitpoints as calculated on default stats are expressed - repeatedly - as the average hitpoint count for a creature of this type. A 4d12 monster doesn't have to start with 26 hitpoints, it can start with 48.



Increase Skill Points

If the monster has an INT score --

Each added HD = add 2+INT skill points for Aberrations, Animals, Constructs, Elementals, Giants, Humanoids, Magical Beasts, Monstrous Humanoids, Oozes, Plants, and Vermin.

Each added HD = add 4+INT skill points for Undead.

Each added HD = add 6+INT skill points for Dragons and Fey.

Each added HD = add 8+INT skill points for Outsiders.

(Everyone gets a minimum of 1 skill point added per HD, no matter how low their INT modifier is … so long as they have an INT score at all. And of course you spend these skill points on skills!)

So obviously the number of skill points a monster gets by adding HD depends on the monster’s type. Monsters also have maximum skill ranks, locked to HD+3, just as players have their maximum skill ranks locked to character level+3. Their class skills are deemed to be those skills they have in their statblock (and you can change those skills if you see fit.) This is one of the reasons it’s very rare for a humanoid PC to be advanced by HD – because they get just as many skill points out of taking a character class level as they do another HD in their dwarf/elf/human racial hit dice.)



Increase Special Abilities

Each 2 extra HD gives +1 to the DC of its (Ex) or (Su) abilities.

That’s because the DC of an Extraordinary (Ex) or Supernatural (Su) ability is calculated using half the creature’s HD. Two HD added = +1 to the DC as a result.

And no, it doesn’t add to the DC of the monster’s Spell-like abilities (Sp). (Sp) DCs usually come from the level of the spell mimicked and the monster’s CHA bonus.

Note: some monsters can cast spells. These are occasionally listed in their statblock as a “Spells (Ex)” ability, but that does not mean their DCs get increased with extra HD as above. That’s because the SRD tells us (under Special Abilities) that spellcasting monsters in virtually all ways are treated like spellcasting characters, i.e. a spell’s DC is set up the level of the spell and the creature’s ability modifier, not by the creature’s HD.

Small Bonus Note: Many (Ex) or (Su) abilities include phrases such as "the DC is Constitution-based". That means that if you increase the monster's Constitution score, the DC for that ability also increases, same as how your melee attack and damage rolls increase the more STR you've got. Increases to DC from adding HD stack with this, so you can get a nice boost to disabling abilities like natural poisons by focusing both on boosting the appropriate ability stat and on increasing HD.


Each extra HD gives +1 to the Caster Level of some of the monster’s Spell-like Abilities (Sp).

If a monster’s spell-like ability has a Caster Level written in its statblock, that Caster Level does not change.

If a monster’s spell-like ability has no Caster Level written in its statblock, the Caster Level matches the creature’s HD. And thus, every HD you add gives a +1 to those (Sp)s (but only those).

And even here there's exceptions: True Dragons, for one. The Caster Level of their (Sp) abilities always matches their Sorcerer Caster Level, so a HD added does different funky stuff. Which is why I've got the Special Note Because Dragons Are Special further down.

Practiced Magic and Supernatural Transformation (see in the feats section below) are some of the only other ways to force a (Sp) ability’s Caster Level upward.

Don’t change Spell Resistance unless the monster’s statblock says so.

This is a very silly RAW rule, and there is a much better suggestion hidden away in Monster Manual 2: Spell Resistance on a creature that’s already got it should always be 11 + the Monster’s final CR. Spell Resistance is ‘meant’ to keep pace with players’ character levels, hence why it should track CR – as a rule of thumb, there should be a 50/50 chance of SR lolnoping a spell cast against it, ignoring players picking stuff like Spell Penetration.)

Don’t change a spellcasting monster’s Caster Level unless the monster’s statblock says so.

No, we’re not talking about a monster’s Spell-like Abilities here. Spellcasting is not a (Sp), it’s not spell-like, it’s actual spells! But this means innate spellcasting – e.g. an Aranea casting spells as a 3rd level Sorcerer – quickly becomes trivial even on advanced HD monsters. The only way to really address it by RAW is to advance a spellcasting monster by class levels, or by applying the feat Practised Spellcaster (see below). You could rule-of-thumb it that caster level advances with HD 1 for 1, but that’s just my suggestion, don’t blame me if the monster breaks.

Also, even if a monster has innate spellcasting – e.g. “casts spells as a 3rd level Sorcerer” – that’s not the same thing as having levels in a casting class if you’re looking to qualify the monster for some prestige class with that prerequisite.



Increase Size

Depending on what the “Advancement:” line in the monster’s statblock says, adding HD might cause the creature’s size to increase. We’re not going to go through this in detail since it’s covered reasonably well in the SRD (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/improvingMonsters.htm) and DMG. Just remember:

- Size increases affect STR, DEX and CON, which has knock-ons to attack bonuses, damage rolls, AC, Initiative, hitpoints, and all the skills that depend on these.
- Size incresaes sometimes mean a monster gains Natural Armor.
- Size bonuses or penalties of themselves affect attack rolls and AC, quite apart from the implications for STR, DEX, or CON.
- Size often affects a creature's Reach.
- Most significantly, size changes often raise the creature’s CR.

In some ways, size increases are the most annoying part of HD increases to calculate because many of them come out as a wash: increases in size increase your Natural Armor and CON, but nerf your DEX, or increase your STR but cut your DEX or size bonuses to AC. Unless you have something very clever in mind by gaining extra Reach, consider holding off.



Increase CR

Increase the CR as follows, depending the number of HD added and the monster type.



Aberration, construct, elemental, fey, giant, humanoid, ooze, plant, undead, vermin: +1 to CR per 4 HD added

Animal, magical beast, monstrous humanoid: +1 to CR per 3 HD added

Dragon, outsider: +1 to CR per 2 HD added


Yes, you read that right. Some monsters get their CR increased at slower rates. It’s the “stronger” creatures that tend to raise CR by smaller amounts of HD.

And yes, your realisation is right: “weaker” creature types get nice stat increases just by adding hit dice, without increasing their CR. For an increase in CR by 1, an undead-type monster gets 4 added HD, +2 BAB, +2 to Will save, +1 to Fort and Ref, +26 HP, +2 to the DC of its (Su) and (Ex) abilities, at least +4 skill points (if it has INT), +1 to an ability score, and a feat.

Adding a Fighter level to the same undead doesn’t get anywhere near the same bang for buck. You’d get +1 to BAB, +2 to Fort saves, a feat, 5 HP and some skill points which also raise its CR by 1.

Even the “stronger” monster types sneak some increases to their abilities without raising their CR. Depending on the creature’s HD prior to advancing, it might get you anything from a BAB increase at the lowest end to saving throw increases and an additional feat.

These CR increases themselves are a decent rule of thumb about how strong you’re making the monster, i.e. answering the all-important question of “but how many HD do I add?”



Special Note, Because Dragons Are Special:

True Dragons – as opposed to just “any” creature that has the dragon type – are special cases, because … well, frankly, because their name’s on the game. No, seriously, when a true dragon gets advanced by HD, they also tend to get older, i.e. their age category increases. And when a dragon flips out of pimply teenager status or into Old Man Yelling At Cloud status, it affects a raft of abilities outside the alterations set out above -- not the least of which is that dragons tend to get increases to their ability scores way out of line with the normal “+1 per 4 HD” that the rest of us mortals get. If you’re advancing a True Dragon by HD, have a careful look at its advancement entry before proceeding. But as said, this is advice relating only to True Dragons, the big, flappy things with really objectionable halitosis. It doesn’t apply to other monsters that sneak into the Dragon type, like half-dragons or kobolds. Those guys can be advanced according to the above.

Also, more generally: it seems to be the common wisdom, if not admitted to by the designers, that dragons' CR tends to be 1-2 lower than their mathematics would otherwise dictate. The reasoning for that is mainly because the designers assume that when a party takes on a dragon they prepare fully for it and know its capabilities when they step in.



Can you improve any monster by HD?

In theory, yes. In practice, it might not be such a good idea depending on the monster. Obviously, if the monster’s advanced by HD in its statblock, that’s the method WOTC suggests for improving it.

WOTC also says that a creature which is reasonably humanoid in shape “most commonly” advances by adding class levels, i.e. you’re not supposed to add HDs to your elves, dwarves, and halflings. That’s mainly because humanoids don’t tend to have funky things like large size, reach, or special abilities -- and are often better off with class levels anyway.

If you start advancing a monster by HD when it has no rules or guidelines for doing so in its statblock, expect, well, unexpected outcomes – because you’re then tinkering in a way WOTC either didn’t think of or thought was a bad idea. Even within this thread, the weedy little stirge at CR 1/2 goes wildly off its normal CR track if you try to advance it by HD. (Which is one reason why the creature's statblock doesn't have any advancement guideline, by class or HD.)

And lastly, remember that if a creature has no INT score, then it can’t be advanced by character class, it has to be advanced by HD.



I don’t wanna do the math to advance HD

Fine. There’s two decent web-based calculators that allow you to advance 3.5 monsters by HD with a push of a button. Because of the restrictions of the OGL, they don’t include any monsters from outside the SRD, but if you’re looking for a quick HD advancement tool you could do worse. (They also allow you to slap on class levels, but the stats can come out a bit wiggy).

[/url]http://www.monsteradvancer.com/send/monster/initMonsterCustomization.ma (”http://www.monsteradvancer.com/send/monster/initMonsterCustomization.ma”)

[url]https://www.dinglesgames.com/tools/MonsterGenerator/dnd35/ (”https://www.dinglesgames.com/tools/MonsterGenerator/dnd35/”)



Bang for Buck
As said, some monsters get better features for the same +1 in CR. As a quick survey, when you look at the different types, we see some patterns emerge:

Best BAB for +1 CR: Aberrations, Animals, Constructs, Elementals, Giants, Humanoids, Oozes, Plants and Vermin. +3 BAB for every +1 to CR.

Best Fortitude save increase for +1 CR: Giant, Undead. +2 to Fort saves for every +1 to CR.
Best Reflex save increase for +1 CR: Elemental, Fey. +2 to Ref saves for every +1 to CR.
Best Will save increase for +1 CR: Aberration, Fey, Undead. +2 to Will saves for every +1 to CR.

Best Feat increase for +1 CR: Animal, Magical Beast, Monstrous Humanoid. +1 to CR for every 3 HD; monsters gain 1 feat for each multiple of 3 HD they hit. (However, since feat grants are calculated on total HD, a monster that already has 2, 5, 8, 11, 14, or 17 HD would better this, since no monster type increases CR when adding 1 HD. Also, since Dragons or Outsiders gain +1 to CR for every 2 HD they gain, a Dragon or Outsider with 1, 4, 7, 10, 13, or 16 HD would also match this outcome.)

Best Ability Score increase for +1 CR: Aberration, Construct, Elemental, Fey, Giant, Humanoid, Ooze, Plant, Undead, Vermin. +1 to CR for 4 HD, and monsters gain +1 to an ability score for each multiple of 4 HD reached. As with feat increases above, a creature that is already less than 4 HD away from 4, 8, 12, 16, or 20 HD would equal or better this outcome.

Best Hitpoint increase for +1 CR: Undead. They have a d12 hit dice and gain 4 HD for each increase in CR. However, creatures with CON scores can match or better this. A d12 HD provides 6.5 hitpoints per HD, and the lowest hit dice in third edition is d6 (Fey). Since a d6 provides 3.5 hitpoints per HD, a Fey with a +3 CON modifier can at least match undead hitpoint accumulation when advanced by HD (especially since Fey increase their CR at +1 for every 4 HD, just like Undead do ... and just like aberrations, constructs, elementals, giants, humanoids, oozes, plants, and vermin.) However, animals, magical beasts, and monstrous humanoids need a CON score of at least +5 to match that hitpoint accumulation for the same CR +1, since they only have 3 HD in which to pick up the Undead's 26 hitpoints and a d8-d10 hit dice to work with. Outsiders need a massive +9 CON mod to match it for +1 to CR, and even Dragons require a +7.

Best skill point increase for +1 CR: Fey -- assuming two monsters have the same INT modifier of course. Fey pick up 6+INT skill points per HD and get 4 HD added for every +1 to CR. Anything with an INT score gets at least 1 skill point per HD, and therefore any Fey with at least a +1 in INT will pick up 28 skill points over its 4 HD before its CR increases. Dragons pick up the same 6+INT per HD, and Outsiders pick up 8+INT, but their CR increases every 2 HD. The only situation where a Fey is matched on skill point acquisition by the metric of increased CR is if you're comparing a Fey and an Outsider with INT modifiers of -4, since there they get the same number of skill points: 8 for the Fey's 4 HD, and 8 for the Outsider's 2 HD. (Also, note that Fey, like all their buddies who add 4 HD for every +1 to CR, get the highest maximum skill ranks possible for +1 CR, since they can add 4 HD for every +1 to CR ... and maximum skill ranks are capped at HD+3.)

Best special ability increase for +1 CR: Aberration, construct, elemental, fey, giant, humanoid, ooze, plant, undead, vermin. Each of these gets 4 HD for +1 to CR. This means their (Ex) and (Su) abilities get their DC raised by +2 for each +1 to CR. Spell-like abilities are too variable to put a figure on this.

Best size increase for +1 CR: No selection possible, since creatures' size increases are usually dictated by the advancement line in their statblocks.

[Saintheart]

Adding Class Levels
Now, as contrasted with adding Hit Dice, class levels can give a creature a suite of things it can do that its classless comrades never could. In particular it makes them more like player characters. The perception is that adding class levels to a monster is "wrong" or "complicated" or "has exceptions" and whatnot. As with adding hit dice, I say otherwise when you actually dig right into what WOTC says can and can't be done.

The only hard rule is this: only monsters with INT scores can have class levels added to them.

Absent that, just throw the levels on like you would when building a character. You don’t even have to worry about level adjustment, that’s the dirty players’ problems :) Monsters that have “Advancement: By Character Class” in their statblocks receive NPC gear, and all other monsters just get the treasure their CR indicates (per p. 291 of the MM1 – see more about monster equipment further down). The only question is, what is the kobold’s new CR after you’ve given him PHENOMENAL COSMIC POWER 15 levels in Wizard?

Short advice: regardless of WOTC’s text, consider that a level in a PC class always adds +1 to a monster’s CR. We’ll get to why in a second.

Longer advice: by RAW, adding a class level always increases a monster’s CR to some extent. The only question is whether it increases by 0.5 or 1, and that depends on whether the class level is “associated” or “nonassociated”.

What’s the difference between associated and nonassociated?


Associated

If a class level increases a monster’s existing strengths, it’s an associated class level. Each level taken increases the monster’s CR by 1. If you add barbarian levels to an ogre, these are associated class levels – they increase BAB and give the ogre a combat-useful rage, thus making the ogre better at its primary melee smash purpose. Ogres are CR 3, so an Ogre Fighter 1 would be CR 4: CR 3 from being an ogre, and CR +1 from the level in Fighter.


Nonassociated

If a class level doesn’t directly play to a creature’s strengths, it’s a nonassociated class level. Adding a Rogue level to an Ogre doesn’t really do much for its main abilities – it’s not much for skillmonkeying or sneaking around -- so the class level is nonassociated. (Levels in NPC classes – i.e. Adept, Aristocrat, Commoner, Expert, and Warrior – are always deemed nonassociated.)

A nonassociated class level adds 0.5 to the creature’s CR -- until it has as many nonassociated class levels as its racial hit dice. After that, the nonassociated class levels add to CR one for one.


For example, a Frost Folk (from Frostburn) is CR 2 and has 4 HD. A Frost Folk Warrior 2 would be CR 3, because Warrior levels are always nonassociated, and each level in Warrior adds 0.5 CR (CR 2 + 2x0.5 = 3). A Frost Folk Warrior 4 would be CR 4 for the same reason. But a Frost Folk Warrior 5 would be CR 5, because at that point it has more Warrior levels than it does Frost Folk hit dice, and the CR increases by 1 for each class level from then on. (CR 2 + 0.5x4 [Warrior levels 1-4] +1 [Warrior level 5] = CR 5).

Nonassociated class levels do not become associated. The CR is always calculated by the rule above: +0.5 CR for each nonassociated level, until you’ve got as many nonassociated class levels as you have monster hit dice. From then on, it’s +1 CR for each +1 nonassociated level.

Why associated vs nonassociated is trivial

The SRD calls these guidelines, and it’s worth ignoring the guideline and taking the rule of thumb that a PC class level is always an associated class level on a monster.

Why? Three reasons.


One: if you’re going to the trouble of adding a class level to a monster, you’re presumably trying to make the monster better. Under WOTC’s guidelines, that warrants a +1 to its CR no matter whether the class you’re adding is Wizard or Truenamer.


Two: D&D 3.5e might as well have been subtitled “Caster Edition.” Let’s take the RAW that an Ettin taking Sorcerer levels is gaining a nonassociated class, i.e. you only get a +1 to the creature’s CR for the first 2 Sorcerer levels. I posit that two levels of Sorcerer on a beatstick monster gives it more power than a +1 to CR implies, and certainly more power than the same CR +1 resulting from one level in Fighter. A second level Sorcerer, even at CHA 11 (and more likely CHA 12 since adding the 2 levels takes the Ettin to 12 HD, i.e. +1 to an ability score), can use wands to cast anything from Glitterdust to True Strike, even before we get to their inherent spells. The levels in Sorcerer do directly improve the monster’s strengths, and therefore justify a +1 to CR, notwithstanding the designers’ views.


Three: the moment you throw any class level on a monster which advances by Character Class, it is entitled to NPC gear. That can be a very potent addition to challenge by itself. See the “Items and Treasure” section for more on this.


Even NPC levels always being nonassociated can cause misleading CR estimates. Let’s take our CR 2 Frost Folk again as the example.

A Frost Folk Warrior 5 is CR 5. It gets 9d8 hit dice (40 hp before CON bonus), BAB +9, Fort +8, Ref +6, Will +5, and 4 feats from its HD. It also gets +1 to an ability score.

A Frost Folk Fighter 3 is also CR 5, but it has 4d8+3d10 hit dice (34 hp before CON bonus), BAB +7, Fort +7, Ref +6, Will +5, 3 feats from HD and 2 feats from Fighter. No increases to ability score (not enough HD).

Are these ‘equivalent’ challenges to justify the same CR? Maybe. Notice that both monsters can (and should) take Power Attack – hitting things in melee is the main thing Frost Folk are meant to do. But if they do, all other things being equal, the Warrior does better with Power Attack: the Warrior’s BAB is higher (Power Attack being gated by maximum BAB). And the Frost Folk Warrior 5 gets more NPC gear to play with because he has more class levels than the Fighter.

But even if they’re equivalent at CR 5, it gets wobblier with time. By RAW, a Frost Folk Warrior 10 and a Frost Folk Fighter 8 are both CR 10. And the Warrior still has a better BAB: +14 vs +12. But the Fighter 8 has 5 more feats than the Warrior. Those feats can be used on Leap Attack, Shock Trooper, Improved Trip, Improved Bull Rush, etc., etc. A competently-built Fighter is likely to be more challenging than a Warrior, even with fewer class levels, because the Fighter has more force multipliers by dint of his feats. (And mind you, that’s not even asking whether a Fighter or Warrior built like these really can be seriously considered CR 10 at all!)

Maybe all that can be said on this exercise is that CR remains a very rough guess.


Narrow, practically irrelevant exception

When you’re adding class levels to a creature with <= 1 HD, (kobolds, goblins, etc.) you drop that HD and just build the monster like you would a normal, classed character. Creatures with 1 HD or less thereby get a “cost break” on increased CR. And even then, for certain pathetic monsters there are more exceptions, set out in their stats.



Level dips for monsters

Taking a single level in a class is a time-honoured tradition for PCs. But it has more use for monsters. Monsters don’t have to worry about the ‘keeping up’ with other members of its party. Monsters can also take prestige classes without class levels since their HD advance the salient features needed for qualification in many cases. And multiclassing monsters, being single encounter folk, don’t have to worry about multiclass XP penalties. Some thoughts:


Barbarian (PHB): If you’re a beatstick, be an even better beatstick. Spirit Lion Totem Barbarian gets you Pounce if you haven’t already got it, Whirling Frenzy gets you more attacks (arguably two natural attacks at the same BAB), and you get a Rage feature that makes you better at what you do.

Cleric (PHB): It’s in Tier One for a reason. One level increases your Fort and Will saves, and gives you two domains with specific abilities, which can be easily traded out for very useful feats (Travel Devotion, Knowledge Devotion) or just retained as free feats (Improved Initiative from the Celerity domain). And that’s before you get to the divine spellcasting, which is pretty damn good for combat or preparing for combat.

Emancipated Spawn (SavSpec): Prestige Class, and for undead only, but: do you get annoyed how becoming undead often rips all your feats off you? One level in this prestige class and you get all of them back. Basically it’s free undead traits for your feat-loaded monster. The remaining two levels are even better.

Fighter (PHB): +1 to BAB, +2 to Fort save, and a bonus feat. Two bonus feats if you take two levels.

Hulking Hurler (CWar): +1 to BAB, +2 to Reflex which is handy for a big boy, and if you need to throw something like a wagon at an annoying PC, this allows you to do it at a lower penalty than normal. You must be Large, but lots of monsters are. Indeed all 3 levels of Hulking Hurler might be worth a look. For truly brainless HULK SMASH prestige classes, try War Hulk.

Rogue (PHB): easy way to pick up sneak attack, which in turn gets Craven opened to you, which in turn increases your damage per round if you have a lot of attacks … as many monsters do. Also, good palette of skills for sneaking around and ambushing people.

Marshal (MinHB): CHA-heavy monsters could do a lot worse than this, especially if they’re buffing bosses or want to call on Use Magic Device.

Fist of the Forest (CChamp): This was basically built for big beefy bois. You’re likely taking the Improved Unarmed Strike and Power Attack needed for the class, you can live with Great Fortitude, and 4 ranks in Handle Animal and Survival aren’t hard to pick up. In return, CON bonus to your AC while unarmoured (which you likely are), a feral trance that makes you more dextrous (which you likely need), and your IUS gets stronger (which you likely want).

Mindbender (CArc): The ranks involved aren’t easy to obtain, but spells or spell-like abilities involving charm person aren’t hard to find. And the reason we dip this is for the telepathy at first level … which leads to the absolutely awesome feat Mindsight.

Paladin (PHB): Don’t knock it before you try it, especially if your monster has a high CHA. 2 levels gives you a pretty good boost to saves. Also, there are some decent ACFs out there for Paladin making things a bit more useful for us: Mounts can be traded for Charging Smite, Turn Undead can be swapped for adding CHA to damage. And there are evil paladins, after all…

Sorcerer (PHB): Has best effect where you’ve got a few low-level spells you want to smash out again and again. Can also be useful for dragontouched feats out of Races of the Dragon or Dragon Magic.

Soul Eater (BoVD): This one’s a prestige class, but accessible for any evil creature that’s not a humanoid (Monstrous Humanoids are specifically included). Alertness as a prerequisite, but Weapon Focus (a natural weapon) as the other, and a BAB +5 which is fairly straightforward for full-BAB monster types like Dragons, Outsiders, and Monstrous Humanoids. The reason for dipping it? Its first level class ability, which smacks targets with a negative level on a hit. And boosts BAB by +1 and all saves by +2. This class particularly favours creatures with multiple attacks, since negative levels don't have immediate saves available and if a PC takes more negative levels than it has character levels, it dies immediately.

Warblade, Crusader, Swordsage (ToB): older optimisation forums called Tome of Battle the most dippable of the 3.5 texts, and these three classes are the main reason for that. The essential benefit, leaving aside the class abilities, are martial maneuvers: for one level, a satisfying number of tricks that can be pulled out during one fight, and you don’t have to necessarily start with level 1 maneuvers – your HD count towards determining the highest level maneuver you can pick, meaning powerful single-encounter tricks can be available for a very low cost in class levels.

Warshaper (CWar): One of the most ab/useable prestige classes out there, and far easier for you to draw upon since you qualify with any monster that’s got shapeshifting abilities. Lots of useful abilities in the five levels it takes for the full prestige class, and you’ll certainly get to know natural attacks by the end of it.

Wizard (PHB): Will save’s handy, arcane spellcasting moreso. Some Wizard ACFs allow you to swap Scribe Scroll for a bonus fighter feat – or better yet, take Abrupt Jaunt -- and the moment you have a level in this, UMD can be skipped for any spell trigger device like a wand or staff or scroll.




Adding class levels and/or advancing HD?

The monster improvement rules imply that you either advance a monster by adding class levels or advance it by adding HD, according to the monster’s statblock, and don’t mix the two methods.

This isn’t the case. MM/SRD monsters like the Aboleth Mage and Hound Archon Hero don’t follow the rule, why should you? (Aboleths and Hound Archons’ statblocks clearly say you advance them by HD. But the Mage and Hero just ignore HD advancement and just take levels in Wizard and Paladin instead).

WOTC would likely justify these approaches by saying “the Aboleth Mage has so many abilities different from a base Aboleth that it’s really a different monster altogether, hence why it gets its own statblock and why we don’t say advance the Aboleth by character class.” This is bootstrap levitation; it’s still improving a default monster and it’s still an Aboleth at the base, not a humanoid.

There’s also nothing to stop you advancing HD and sticking class levels on. WOTC itself does it. In the SRD, we have the Celestial Charger, which is a unicorn with 7 levels in cleric. It’s when you look closer you realise that the unicorn was first advanced to the end of its HD track – 8 HD -- before taking 7 cleric levels.

And, although it would be a rare and interesting case where you could squeeze a noticeable benefit out of it, there is nothing by RAW stopping you from bouncing between advancing by HD and adding class levels other than in a block, e.g. advance by 2 HD and then a level in Fighter and then advance 2 HD again. Monsters follow the rules for multiclass characters, with the monster’s racial hit dice a ‘monster class’ and always favored when working out XP penalties, which implies that you can go from one form of advancement to another; you’re not bound to advance a creature all the way by its HD before taking a character class, just as you’re not bound to take every level in a class.

Really the only forbidden is: don’t put a class level on a monster with an INT less than 3, or with no INT score at all. Leaving aside that it just kinda looks funny in game, this breaks its skill point allocations, same way that CON becomes a series of workarounds if you’ve got an undead monster.

Otherwise, the question of ‘do I add HD, or do I add class levels?’ is answered by asking yourself three more: what do I want the creature to do, what CR do I want the creature to be, and what gear do I want it to have? Because, depending on creature type, CR can go up a lot slower despite adding HD, and the moment class levels are added, the creature possibly gets NPC gear that makes a big spending spree possible. But both questions depend on whether a few extra BAB are going to help more than, say, a level in Warblade. Or Wizard.

Another thing to remember is that you have vastly fewer constraints on building than you would as a player, since the classed monster you're building usually doesn't have to 'stay relevant' for X number of levels, at best it basically has to scare the hell out of your party and then die. Which means that DMs have the chance to go for suboptimal but interesting classes or builds, and it's worth experimenting on this.

Lastly, note that, versatile and interesting as adding character classes are, they do have some drawbacks: namely, HD coming from classes don't contribute towards advancing the DC of a monster's (Ex) or (Su) abilities in particular. If you've got a monster that has that one truly awesome ability that needs to keep up with the party's saves, that might be something to keep in mind.

[Saintheart]

Adding Templates

Templates are somewhere between adding HD and adding class levels: they allow a monster to do things its unmodified companions can't, but they don't provide a clear progression of abilities like a class does. Arguably templates are the simplest way to throw some extra muscle on a monster and get a simple number telling you what its new CR is. They tell you what to change line by line, and don’t monkey with second-order calculations like BAB or skill points. They can go on monsters whether advanced or not, and whether advanced by HD or class levels. (Note: templates sometimes change how you advance the monster from that point on. Some force advancement by class level, some leave it as is.)

Of course, some will be more useful than others, and templates can’t go on everything. Most of the time, they'll be limited by the creature type they can be applied to. And while it is RAW legal to pile on several templates (assuming the monster meets the prerequisites at each point the template is applied), it's not something that WOTC particularly prepared for and subsequently could give you a monster which is a lot stronger than even its adjusted CR would suggest. So, although you can in theory throw a large number of CR +0 templates on at once, consider not doing that, or looking carefully at what the difficulty of the encounter actually is going to be.

One useful hack that Oslecamo points out: if you’ve got a template that has abilities affected (raised) by a monster’s total HD, then consider advancing the monster’s HD and then applying the template. If nothing else, you can get at least 1 or 2 more HD out of advancing by HD before it raises CR, and thus a little more bang for buck out of the template.

Notable CR +0 templates

Anarchic/Axiomatic Creature (PH): See further down.

Arctic (Ice Dweller) (Dragon #306. p. 61): A little on the cheese side, since this was rather more intended for PCs than NPCs, but gives +2 to CON, -2 to CHA, adjustments to [cold] and [fire] saves, and pick up ray of frost 1/day as a 1st level caster as a spell-like ability. No level adjustment though

Bone Creature (BoVD): Basically this turns the creature into a Skeleton, but unlike the Skeleton, the base creature doesn’t lose its special qualities, flight capability, or special attacks. And still picks up undead traits, cold immunity, some DR, and Weapon Finesse. This alone means CR +0 is very generous on monsters with a lot of special attacks and qualities. Not to mention that Bone Creature, and Skeleton templates generally also favour creatures with many limbs, since natural weapons are all considered light and therefore benefit from said Weapon Finesse. (BoVD doesn’t specify CR+0; it’s silent. The sample monster, a Bone Creature Bugbear Rogue 5 is said to be CR 7. CR 2 + 5 for 5 levels in Rogue, and thus +0 CR, right? However, if the Rogue levels are nonassociated, they’d add 3.5 to the default bugbear’s CR 2, for a total of 5 before the template is taken into account, i.e. it might be +2 CR as intended). Either way, it’s a cheap RAW CR +0 on the right monster, but look a bit closer at it before using.

Dungeonbred (Dscape): Handy template if you advanced a monster by HD until its size changed to Large, or on monsters that are already Huge. Dungeonbred creatures get their size automatically reduced down by one category, but also pick up Improved Natural Attack for each of their natural weapons -- i.e. they retain their original natural weapon damage despite the size downgrade. They also get STR and CON +4, and Endurance as a bonus feat, which frees up a slot for Steadfast Determination if you’re going that way. They also get Improved Flight for free by default because if the base creature flies, its maneuverability improves one step. (Indeed you might get a CR reduction out of this, since CR usually rises when a creature increases; if the monster drops in size, its CR presumably would be reduced as well … at least by RAW.)

Magebred (ECS): Applies only to Animals, but provides mild boosts to an animal’s abilities – physical stat abilities go up by +4/+2/+2. It also gains one of a grab bag of feats without having to meet prerequisites – notably, Improved Natural Attack, Multiattack, or Endurance (the latter being useful to save a feat slot for Steadfast Determination). Can be useful on your monsters’ mounts, or on fierce-ish monsters themselves.

Magic-Blooded (Spark) (Dragon #306): +2 CHA, -2 WIS, racial bonuses on Knowledge (Arcana) and Spellcraft, some other minor abilities.

Phrenic Creature (SRD): See below.

Primordial Giant (SoX): It’s only for Giants, and cuts their STR and CON a bit. But in return it gives them INT +4, CHA +4 … and invisibility, invisibility purge, or levitate at will.

Pseudonatural Creature (LoM): See below.

Spellwarped (MM3): See below.

Tainted Raver (HoH): This is another one where no CR is specified, so look a bit closer at it before putting it on. I think CR +0 is generous for what it does, which is allow the Raver an always-on barbarian rage while still being able to do anything that requires reasoning or concentration, including spellcasting. It also gets Fast Healing, uses CHA for Will instead of WIS, can’t be confused, and anyone making telepathic contact takes taint damage. (Which brings up the last issue: it uses taint rules from Heroes of Horror, which you may not want to include in the campaign, especially if you’ve been silly and not banned Tainted Scholar).

Tauric (MM2): Bored with centaurs and driders? Take this template that allows you to slap together any humanoid with any animal/beast/vermin with at least four legs. And it has the best of both worlds because it uses the humanoid’s mental ability scores and the quadropod’s physical ones.

Wild (Dragon #306): +2 STR, -2 INT, -2 CHA, +5 feet to base speed, 1 extra skill point each level, +2 to Listen and Spot Checks, +4 to Survival checks.


Notable CR +1 templates

Blooded One (UE): Only humanoids, but useful mainly because it grants free Combat Reflexes, +2 Natural Armor, +2 STR, +4 CON (and -2 INT admittedly). Also a minor morale bonus to attack and damage. Works nicely reflavoured as punishing training like the Spartan agoge.

Evolved Undead (LibMort): Can’t be used on mindless undead, but unlike a lot of templates can be applied more than once. Each iteration adds cumulative AC, Fast Healing, +2 STR and CHA, and another spell-like ability from a not-bad list. Also raises level adjustment by +1 each time, meaning more NPC gear becomes available.

Half-Celestial (SRD): Flight at Good maneuverability, Spell Resistance, Spell-Like Abilities dependent on HD, become an outsider (proficient with all martial weapons, for a start), boosts racial skill points and inflates most ability scores. Very solid for CR +1.

Mineral Warrior (Und): Good at the low end for beatsticks, this adds a burrow speed and a very solid DR 8/adamantine. Also, gains the Earth subtype, which can be handy with Final Strike (see feats below).

Nether Hound (Dragon #322): Despite the name, goes on any corporeal undead with an INT score and a non-Good alignment. The suite isn’t bad: +10 speed, Natural Armor +2, Fire & Acid Resistance 5, Sonic, Electrical Resistance 10, STR +4, WIS, CHA +2, (-2 DEX, INT), Improved Initiative, Run, Track, Scent, +6 - +8 on Listen, Search, Spot, Survival, Climb Checks, Natural Weapons are treated as overcoming DR/magic, Low-Light Vision, Natural Attacks hit targets with Demon Fever, and a free action Shaken effect, which means it’s viable to throw this on a pack of low-CR undead and stack fear effects.

Shadow Creature (LoM): good for stealthy types since it picks up total concealment in anything other than full daylight. Also grabs other selectable special abilities for every 4 HD it has, i.e. advance your monster first before picking up this template. They range from Mirror Image to Fast Healing 2 to Evasion to DR 5/Magic.

Spellstitched (LibMort): only for corporeal undead, but basically allows your undead to cast a small array of spells as spell-like abilities depending on their Wisdom score. The spells are only from the Necromancy, Conjuration, or Evocation schools. Also grants Spell Resistance of 15+CHA, and pumps up the base creature’s saves by +2 just because.

Vecna-Blooded (MM5): only on creatures capable of casting second level arcane spells. Most people highlight that this template grants immunity to divination spells cast to learn information about it or against it – as well as telling the monster who and where the caster was who attempted the divination. That means no scry-and-die against this creature … and better yet, no True Seeing either. For combat, its other very nice feature is that 1/day, for 1 minute (i.e. the one combat encounter it likely will need) it can flat out just force a 50/50 coin toss on each creature to be unable to attack the Vecna-Blooded in any way. Aside from the immediate benefit, this makes it very tricky for parties to coordinate against it since pure probability says only 25% of the time will two creatures be able to both act against it on the same round, and there’s only a 1 in 256 chance any round that all 4 members of a party will be able to attack it.

Notable CR +2 templates

Ghost (SRD): the classic incorporeal monster, and especially strong on monsters with high CHA, since most of its special abilities rest on it. Good array of special abilities, also look at the setting variants in the Forgotten Realms and Dungeon #130’s abilities as well. Don’t go near the Ghostwalk campaign setting version, it sucks. Small note: in general, be very careful about throwing incorporeal opponents at low level parties, mainly because it's not until parties have magic weapons at least that they even have a chance of hitting or taking down an incorporeal target. And the Ghost template generally favours creatures with spell-like abilities and passive (Su) abilities if it wants to, say, sit inside a wall and just allow its powers to radiate out from a point where it's untouchable.

Greenbound (LEoF): Greenbound Summoning is a great feat for druids, and that's mainly because they get to summon creatures with this formidable template. Good stat boosts (STR +6, DEX +2, CON +4, CHA +4), Fast Healing, DR, Tremorsense, Grapple bonuses, Entangle at will and Wall of Thorns 1/day with DC saves based on HD. These are solid battlefield control options. And if you are crazy enough to start putting class levels on this thing, its NPC gear would be frighteningly abundant: Level Adjustment +8.

Half-Dragon (SRD): LA +3 for a start, and its main benefits are big boosts to STR, racial HD, and breath weapon. Most notably, the creature type changes to dragon, meaning – per RoTD –it now qualifies for anything that takes a dragonblood creature.

Half-Fiend (SRD): Flight and some SLAs added, but the main benefit is that it adds bite and claw attacks if you don’t already have them. If your build is to spam natural attacks, then, this can be handy. However, it’s more expensive than Half-Celestial.

Lycanthrope (SRD): The classic werewolf, although it needn’t be. There’s usually some bookkeeping to this, and beyond the obvious change in form, the main thing lycanthropes get is DR 15/silver and the better of the animal and base creature’s hit dice and saves. One possibility for exploration is that while the lycanthrope’s chosen form can only be a carnivorous animal, it can be “any predator between the size of a small dog and a large bear.” For example, that would include crocodiles, certain giant insects, and several dinosaurs (Deinonychus, Megaraptor).

Monster of Legend (MM2): At CR +2 this is generous. Type changes to outsider, ridiculous STR +10, CON +10, DEX +6, CHA +4, INT/WIS +2, Natural Armor +5, Spell Resistance, better Natural Attacks, extra Supernatural Abilities, Fast Healing, permanent Spell Turning, and casting as a 5th level cleric. And that’s not everything it gets. Only on animals, magical beasts, or monstrous humanoids, but if you want a quick way to just take something low-level and keep it pretty damn relevant later, you could do a lot worse than this.

Restless Prey (Web (”https://web.archive.org/web/20140921121344/http:/archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/fw/20030531a”) ): Only applies to animals, vermin, or beasts, i.e. it’s a 3.0 template, but still really good for these categories. The creature turns undead, but the template gives them a lot of toys: doubles their speed, +6 to INT and CHA, turns their natural attacks into [force] attacks that ignore armor as touch attacks do – and can’t be DR’ed. Damage bonus changes from STR to CHA, gets Energy Drain like a Wight, Fear Aura, DR 20/+2, and adds CHA bonus to natural armor. So far not so intriguing, right? Well, hold onto your hat: a Restless Prey creature gets +2 profane bonus to CHA for each additional restless prey creature within 30 feet, which persists so long as the creatures stay within 30 feet of each other. Each of these CHA bonuses stack. 36 Medium Restless Prey animals can occupy a 30x30 square and accordingly each add 70 to their CHA, i.e. a +35 to their CHA bonuses. Which goes to each creature’s damage and natural armor. Or their saves, if they all have Evil’s Blessing. And that’s just counting across the ground, start thinking in three dimensions. You could get stupid with this very easily. At the very least it provides an interesting fight where, as the party kills (somehow) one creature, the whole pack weakens.

Vampire (SRD): Now available in Dracula, Twilight, Blade, and Lestat flavours, but if you really want more variations, get into Libris Mortis. Has a lot of options and therefore a lot of bookkeeping given what they throw these things, but best for the Big Bads rather than low-end troopers.

Notable CR >=+3 templates

Half-Golem (MM2): CR +3. Leaving aside the Construct traits, it has complete immunity to magic or supernatural effects bar one or two specific vulnerabilities depending on the type, and gets stat boosts directed toward the beatstick in quality. Nasty surprise put on a low-end default monster. For super cheese, add Incarnate Construct, and then this template again. And again. And again.

Notable templates with variable CR

Anarchic/Axiomatic Creature (PH): Essentially different sides of the same coin, but can only be added to chaotic/lawful monsters. The CR rating depends on the base creature (no increase if 3 HD or lower, CR +1 from 4-7 HD, CR +2 from 8+ HD.) There are slight differences – Anarchic grants Darkvision, DR, Fast Healing and so on; Axiomatic grants Spell Resistance -- but the biggest feature for low-HD creatures with a class level is the level adjustment: +5. With NPC levels that’s a major upgrade on gear. Also, forces INT to 3, and oozes specifically can take the templates – meaning they can be given class levels.

Brood Spawn (EldEvils): Interesting because their CR is fixed by the HD of the creature they were made from, rather than just a +1, 2, or 3. Very fast, cold-themed outsider creatures that are just meant as natural attack engines (they pick up Power Attack and Improved Critical for crying out loud), who also pick up a breath weapon and a decent array of ability bonuses.

Corrupted Creature (BoVD): CR +1 for < 3 HD, +2 for 4-7 HD, +3 for 8+ HD. You get particular value out of the lower end because the creature keeps all its special attacks, pushes the DC of all its special attacks by +4, increases their natural attacks’ damage dice by one size, Fast Healing, and deal bonus vile damage equal to half its HD – as well as increases to STR and CON of +4.

Entropic Creature (PH): CR +1 for < 3 HD, +2 for 4-7 HD, +3 for 8+ HD. This is mainly of interest for undead monsters who think they’re going to run into a lot of positive energy damage, mainly because it gets Spell Resistance to those spells. There’s also the Vivacious Creature which is the opposite.

Half-Farspawn (LoM): The CR increase depends on the creature’s HD (CR +1 at <=4 HD, CR +2 HD 5-10, CR +3, ]= 11 HD. The weaker creatures get a decent boost out of this. Gains tentacles, SLAs, stat boosts, Spell Resistance, Blindsight, and a Change Shape ability which can be useful for qualifying for Warshaper. Lastly, LA +4.

Incarnate Construct (SavSpec): Halves the base creature’s CR. Also nerfs LA by 2, which is why it frequently shows up in optimisation builds. But it loses all its special attacks and special qualities, so about the only thing this could be useful for would be high HD constructs that want to be giants or humanoids.

Living Spell (MM3): Unusual as hell because it basically makes a spell come to life and stick around persistently. Past the novelty value there’s not much to speak of, but living spells can be used to buff allies since they impart their effect on anything they hit. Their CR depends on the spell level and caster level – and better yet, the template implies multiple spells can be fused into one spell, meaning your favourite living spell could be a walking buff machine.

Multiheaded (Web (https://web.archive.org/web/20090602165952/http:/www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/mm/20020621a)): Get more heads. CR +2 for 1 head, up to 4 heads CR +3, up to 7 heads, +4 CR. For a start, each additional head grants 2 more HD, +2 CON, +1 natural armor, an additional bite or gore attack per head (if it has them), and more racial bonuses to Listen and Spot checks. And if you have something like a breath weapon or gaze attack or similar, you can use that power with each head simultaneously. So a two-headed dragon, for example, doubles its breath weapon damage for +2 to CR. So, in theory, a five-headed dragon (for a CR +3) would have five times its breath weapon, +4 to natural armor, +8 CON, and four more bite attacks. And that’s before you factor in the additional 8 HD from the heads, i.e. two more feats, +2 to an ability score, and consequent BAB increases.

Phrenic Creature (SRD): Just pick up psionic abilities useable 1/day (or 3/day on some) according to creature’s HD. Oh, and raise INT/WIS by +2 and CHA by +4, just because. CR doesn’t change for creatures up to 5 HD (and gives you precognition, force
screen, empty mind, mind thrust, body adjustment or brain lock even at 5 HD), +2 for 6-10 HD, +3 for 11 HD+. And LA +2.

Pseudonatural Creature (LoM): great for low level threats since costs no CR up to 3 HD and grants +20 insight bonus on a single attack 1/day, i.e. True Strike in a can. Also picks up the outsider type, Spell Resistance (hilariously good on HD 1 creatures), and an alternate form. CR +1 for 4-11 HD, CR +2 on 12+ HD.

Revived Fossil (LibMort): CR depends on origin creature’s HD, like brood spawn. They’re slightly tougher Skeletons in essence, and do best out of creatures that were already big bruisers.

Spellwarped (MM3): Type change to aberration if that’s your thing, and LA +3, STR/CON/INT +4, DEX +2. The signature ability is that if a spell fired at you doesn’t get past your Spell Resistance, you gain stuff like enhancement bonuses to physical stats, temporary hitpoints, speed increases and so on. No CR increase on <=3 HD, CR +1 on HD 4-10, CR +2 on 11+ HD. Again it’s a good one for low level monsters, getting less significant as you get higher. And it does have a nice image to describe to the players when their spell hits it, doesn’t do anything to it, and then seems to just make it stronger or faster.

[Saintheart]

Feats and Skills
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Feats

Monsters get them too, you know. They’re right there in the statblocks. Short advice? Change them.

Third edition’s designers had many presumptions about how people would play the game. Many of those presumptions did not pan out, and as the library of 3.5 books expanded, so did the availability of much, much better options.

If a monster has a rubbish feat, change it. Freely. Without remorse, without conscience. You are explicitly permitted to do so under the rules. You’re not going to turn a CR 1 creature into an engine of death. Quite the contrary, most feat changes just turn a monster from negatives to a net zero to allowing them to play the role that they’re meant to.

“What about those weird feats, you know, the ones that have a superscript ‘B’(like thisB) in the statblock?” That B stands for ‘breaking the rules’. Monsters get the same number of feats as players do, one at their first HD, and then one every 3 hit dice. Racial bonus feats – what they call those ‘B’ feats -- are over and above that allocation. They usually allow the monster to do something beyond what it could accomplish at its hit dice -- or without having all the feat’s prerequisites. So if you’re going to mess with those, consider why you’re doing it and what implications the change has.

What feats should I change?

Here’s a ‘most unwanted’ list:

Alertness -- +2 to Listen and Spot checks is rarely, rarely going to make a difference against the PCs. Especially if the monster is not being used in the role of sentry or scout. Especially when Masterwork Tools for these are available, granting a +2 to these skills at a very low cost. Skill Focus in one or the other gives a stronger chance than this, and therefore there’s a lot better stuff you could spend your feat slots on.

Stealthy – same issues as Alertness, only applied to Hide and Move Silently.

Dodge, Mobility, Spring Attack – or as I call them, WOTC’s Unholy Trinity. These show up again and again for no real value. Mobility and Spring Attack presume a monster can get in close, hit, and then move back beyond melee strike range. The benefits are just way too situational to use them on pretty much any monster.

Great Fortitude, Lightning Reflexes, Iron Will – another unholy trinity, useful only because they tell you the designers thought the monster had a $#!+ saving throw. A potion of Conviction in the monster’s gear frees these up, or a Martial Study (Moment of X) since Concentration keys off CON and most of your monsters have a decent CON score. Leaving aside they’re good fodder for freed-up feat slots, they’re also a good indicator of what weak spots you need to cover.

Run, Track – Run is only going to be significant in chase encounters, which are vanishingly rare. Outside that its main use will be allowing your monster to flee the battlefield screaming, which you should be handling outside combat anyway. Track is much the same; generally you want feats that affect the actual fight absent a very specific scenario where the Troll Ranger is trailing down the party through a hostile wilderness or something. Absent that or a prerequisite, ditch them.

Improved Critical – I maintain this is an absolutely garbage feat in 3.5 for the simple reason that you can’t combine it with keen. If you want the longer rationale, read my Critical Hit Handbook (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Ex0HMTfZFb8Ra8-Js-sTioUACEx1rGr3HvUXJI_MYpM/edit). Or the Sean K. Reynolds argument (https://web.archive.org/web/20190804103012/http://seankreynolds.com/rpgfiles/rants/keenimprovedcritstacking.html) on the subject. Outside having to meet a prerequisite, Improved Critical’s only worth considering on two conditions: (1) you have a minimum 18-20 base critical threat range on your monster’s weapon, and (2) your critical multiplier is x3 or above. A critical multiplier of x2 by definition means that on a critical hit, you’re doing no more damage than could be gained from two successful attack rolls since a critical confirmation involves another attack roll. Only if the multiplier gets to x3 or above can you expect any iteration of “free” damage ungated by another attack roll. Also, given it requires BAB +8 or above, there’s a hell of a lot of other mid-level or high level feats which can be prioritised over this.

Toughness – shame on you if you can’t pick up 3 hitpoints’ worth of staying power other than by blowing a feat slot. If it’s any consolation, remember the designers were enamoured of this feat enough to give it to the tarrasque six times, i.e. 18 hitpoints in an 858 hitpoint total.

Endurance – useless on single-encounter monsters except, and only except, as a prerequisite for Steadfast Determination.

Cleave, Great Cleave – shows up on big beefy bois a bit since natural attacks don’t benefit from iterative attacks. The problem is that – unlike a full attack – you can’t take a 5 foot step after dropping someone, i.e. the players have to be standing very close together for this to trigger. It looks nice to pull off and might induce a bit of PC panic if it comes off, but there are better feats or options than this. Great Cleave is especially useless; if you’re ever in the position where you can drop more than one PC in a single round with one attack, then you’ve done something hideously wrong (or hideously right).

Improved Disarm – basically it’s just going to make the fight last a bit longer if it comes off, although you could also take out the cleric’s holy symbol or the wizard’s spell pouch. If you really want to turn a player’s face white by depriving them of something, then Improved Sunder is where it’s at.

Weapon Focus – mmmmmmaybe. On one hand, a +1 to attack isn’t impressing anyone, but if you’re in a hurry or it’s a low-level opponent (or it’s needed for a prerequisite) there might be worse things out there.

What feats should I be looking at?
That depends on the monster and the role you want for it. Here’s some notable ones to consider or get you inspired.

From Core:

Ability Focus (PHB)-- A +2 to the DC of your unique special ability is the equivalent of a +4 to the score of the ability that powers it, and doesn’t give players 16,000 worth of gp to play with once the fight’s over. And it doesn't require you advancie the monster by 4 HD, since monster (Ex) and (Su) DCs increase at +1 per 2 HD. As +2 feats go this isn’t bad considering it’s not as easy to replicate a +2 to DC as it is +2 to a save.

Combat Expertise (PHB) – usually trash for PCs since it’s meant to help tanking (which doesn’t work outside Crusader builds). But it can help tying up a PC briefly while the monster’s buddies get into position. And it’s often a prerequisite for other not-bad stuff.

Combat Reflexes (PHB) – the foundation of AoO builds, and especially good teamed up with a high DEX modifier and Large size/Reach weapons. If they’re going to close with you to hurt you, make them bleed for every five foot patch of ground.

Improved Grapple (PHB) – useful to give the party wizard a non-consensual hug, though many monsters intended as grapplers have an almost-identical (Ex) ability -- Improved Grab.

Improved Initiative (PHB)– not a lot of monsters have good DEX scores, and monsters acting first at least get the chance to fire off their alpha strike before dying under a fusillade of standard actions.

Improved Natural Attack (MM1) – nice if you want a simple improvement to your claw/bite/talon damage, since it increases the damage dice by one, but it gets best value when stacked with sizing shenanigans or stuff like Greater Mighty Wallop.

Improved Sunder (PHB)– PCs don’t take it because using it destroys their loot. DMs should love it because it destroys PCs’ weapons and makes them cry. Especially if you’re a particularly evil DM and use it on a PC’s expensive magic weapons, wands, staves, spell component pouches … or spellbooks.

Improved Trip (PHB)– also known as “Why the wolf is a popular low-level monster”. Even better combined with Reach weapons.

Improved Unarmed Strike (PHB) – It’s at least one additional free attack on your monster because I.U.S. attacks can be made with any part of the body (headbutt of doom) and stack with any natural attacks the monster has. Also, an unarmed strike can have Weapon Finesse applied to it if your monster is DEX focused.

Power Attack (PHB) – highly desirable if not essential. Bear in mind that not every monster type increases their BAB as quickly as the average PC does, and not every monster carries a two-handed weapon, which gets best value out of this.

Quick Draw (PHB): Not so much of use on melee monsters since invariably you can pull a melee weapon as part of a move action, but worth considering if your monster has iterative attacks and some decent thrown weapons, especially if you've invested in Brutal Throw - since this allows you to hurl more than one head-sized rock per round.

Quicken Spell-Like Ability (MM1) – as a monster you’re likely to have spell-like abilities, this allows you to use them as a swift action and then do something else the rest of the round. Usually takes a pretty high HD to be really useful, but the action economy is king and if you have something mildly useful in the SLAs, think about this.

Skill Focus (PHB) – if the creature is particularly dependent on a particular skill like Move Silently, Jump, etc., then this is a free +3 and a better chance of looking awesome.


From everywhere else:

Allied Defense (ShinSouth) – when used by packs of minions, it makes your big bruiser in the centre of the line a lot harder to hit. Your minions sacrifice their attack accuracy while boosting the AC of all adjacent allies, which slaps multiple iterations of Combat Expertise on the guy in the centre. Reach weapons allow a second rank of allies to contribute as well. As close as you’ll get to a Roman tortoise formation.

Animal Devotion (CChamp) -- very handy little utility feat; its standout features are its capability to grant you a flight speed (as Overland Flight, without needing to be a caster at all) and/or a natural bite attack with poison.

Bind Vestige (ToM) – just be a first level Binder and pick up a power or two. Some include useful stuff like darkvision, immunity to confusion effects, or double damage to objects (lol Improved Sunder). Also consider Improved Bind Vestige and Practised Binder which further enhance this.

Brutal Throw (CAdv) – most monsters gear towards STR rather than DEX, and most monsters really need some sort of ranged attack option. This helps with both, because for thrown weapons (i.e. javelins, rocks, etc) you use your STR rather than DEX for the attack roll.

Combat Brute (CWar) – for big beefy bois interested in Improved Sunder, though you can use it for bull rushes as well.

Craven (LoD) – if your monster has sneak attack and hit dice, it should be taking this feat. Period.

Darkstalker (LoM) – because PCs will pick up all sorts of methods by which to detect you. This allows you to force them back to the world of Listen and Spot checks again.

Death Devotion (CChamp): It's basically Energy Drain in a feat. For 1 minute, a melee weapon of yours hits with negative levels if the target fails a Fort save based on CHA. Not as strong as full-scale Energy Drain abilities on higher-order undead, but still a hell of a shock to hit a PC with.

Distracting Attack (MinHB) – equip big packs of weak minions with this one; when they attack a target, whether their attack succeeds or not, all other creatures get a +1 circumstance bonus against that target until the next turn. Circumstance bonuses usually stack, especially if they’re from different sources (i.e. all your friends’ distracting attacks). Therefore, have a covey of little 1 HD minions dance around missing but powering up the big beefy boi’s attack roll when he goes last. Consider in combination with Allied Defense.

Elusive Target (CWar) – has two crap prerequisite feats (Dodge, Mobility), but it can frustrate the flanking rogue and the Power Attacking ubercharger by reason of the maneuvers. Much more of a surprise on monsters than on PCs.

Empower Supernatural Ability (ToM) – this is okay for damaging supernatural abilities, but it’s especially nice on a dragon’s breath weapon -- which is (Su). It raises most dragons’ breath weapon damage by 2 age categories. It may only be once per day, but there isn’t a metabreath feat that matches it, and it doesn’t increase the recharge time between breaths. Not to mention that it can stack with feats like Heighten Breath.

Evil’s Blessing (EldEvils) – If you have high CHA and an evil disposition there’s no reason not to have this. CHA added to all saves for 5 rounds, not substituted, added. And if you smack a goody-two-shoes, the bonus doubles. This is like the Paladin’s Divine Grace feature in a feat (and likely stacks with the feature on evil paladins!).

Extend Reach (SavSpec) – +5 feet to your reach, and the prerequisite is that your body is nonrigid or you have an attack form like a tentacle, feeler, or pseudopod. The +5 feet reach is not restricted to your floppy fwapper, it applies to all your weapons. (Please, let’s not talk about what happens when you consider Improved Unarmed Strike allows you to attack with any part of your body and whether it’s nonrigid at that time…)

Final Strike (SavSpec)– one of my favourites for DM cackles, needs an elemental subtype but functions as a fine post-death “**** you” to the party, especially when put on a red dragon. Big radius has good odds of catching a decent fraction of the PCs. Other standouts include Earthquake on [earth] subtype creatures. Or bunching up a big group of weedy little ice creatures which then cause a chain reaction of damage via ice shrapnel.

Flyby Breath (Dragonlance CS) – overlooked, but can be taken by anyone with a breath weapon and a flight speed. If you do nothing else but move in the turn, using your breath weapon is a free action. This is great for dragons or breath-equipped monsters who want to stand off and provide support.

Hold the Line (CWar) – teach the ubercharger some manners without having to do dumb things like set spears. For even better results, combine with Improved Trip.

Hidden Talent (HoH) – Gives a target a psionic power and two power points to use it with. If you’re inclined to psionics there’s lots of useful stuff out there even at lower levels.

Improved Flight (CAdv) – most monsters’ default flight maneuverabilities are atrocious. Your biggest benefit out of this feat comes if you’re starting with Average, because the upgrade to Good stops hobbling your forward movement speed (amongst a few other things). More movement is a good thing on a flyer.

Improved Paralysis (LibMort) – specific, but if you’re undead and have a paralysis special ability, this combined with its Ability Focus prerequisite raises the paralysis DC by +6. There’s a number of other feats in Libris Mortis worth looking at for undead, but too many to meaningfully list here.

Karmic Strike (CWar) – in case you hadn’t noticed, I like stuff like Final Strike, because forcing PCs to pay a price for killing you is always fun. Karmic Strike has a rubbish prerequisite (Dodge), but is hilarious on expendable monsters (e.g. mounts), especially those equipped with Combat Reflexes. It’s even more hilarious on monsters with Combat Reflexes and Improved Trip. And it’s side-splitting hilarious on monsters with levels in Crusader. It can be taken at very low levels, which puts it a smidge ahead of the similar (and maybe stackable) Robilar’s Gambit which won’t show up until well into the high levels.

Knockback (RoS) – You’re likely aware of Awesome Blow, but I think this feat is slightly better. It doesn’t leave the opponent prone, but it can be used during a full attack or attacks of opportunity, meaning you can ideally send multiple PCs skidding all over the place in one pass without moving yourself. Particularly evil is combining this with Shock Trooper and some source of Pounce.

Knock-Down (Sword and Fist) – It’s un-updated 3.0 and therefore still in play. Do 10 points of damage to an opponent in melee, and get to make a trip attack as a free action against the same target. As the levels increase and damage scales up, this gets easier to meet.

Knowledge Devotion (CChamp) – PCs have to cover a lot of Knowledge skills to get value out of this feat. You, of course, are not running a PC. Throw a skill rank at Knowledge (Local), which covers humanoids, i.e. the type most PCs come from, and earn yourself a minimum +1 to all attack and damage rolls at the outset of the fight. You’re a monster, surely you’ve learned a bit about adventuring parties by now? This feat is especially strong on monsters that do ability damage or pull out poison, since the bonus to attack and damage rolls is not, by RAW, restricted to melee or ranged attacks ... and there is actually a strong RAI argument in favour of it, too, since the whole idea is that you know a particular creature type so well that you are able to place your damage in the most vulnerable spots.

Martial Stance (ToB) – See Martial Study below, only grab a stance instead. There aren’t any stances you can pick up without first knowing a martial maneuver, so Martial Study will always come with this. In here, Thicket of Blades, Child of Shadow, Punishing Stance, Blood in the Water, and Leading the Charge are all well worth a look.

Martial Study (ToB) – grab a martial maneuver, use it for 1 encounter. Which is likely all your monster will need it for. Even better, this feat is a prerequisite for Martial Stance, which can be even more useful. There are a lot of pretty damn good maneuvers in Tome of Battle even at low levels. However, since your initiator level is half your monster’s HD, things like the godly White Raven Tactics are only going to be available on higher-levelled stuff … unless you invest in some martial adept levels. And you can only have 3 iterations of Martial Study, meaning some of the highest-end maneuvers won’t be easily available without a lot of investment.

Some notables:


Moment of Perfect Mind (Diamond Mind 1, i.e. needs 2 HD): Concentration check becomes your Will save. For the weak-minded monster with a sky-high CON score, combined with shuffled skill points, this is basically Steadfast Determination without having to spend two feats on it. There are other Diamond Mind maneuvers which do similar things to your other saves, but this is the legit best of them for melee.

Emerald Razor (Diamond Mind 2, i.e. needs 6 HD): single melee attack becomes touch attack. We usually don’t get iteratives out of our natural attacks, so why not allow ourselves to skip past pesky armor bonuses while we’re at it?

Mountain Hammer (Stone Dragon 2, i.e. needs 6 HD): ignore opponent’s DR and hardness. See Emerald Razor above, only in reference to that pesky DR the pesky player came up with today.

Wall of Blades (Iron Heart 2, i.e. needs 6 HD): make your attack roll your AC, and use it against anything including ranged touch attack, ranged touch spells, touch spells … anything that would get past your pitiful DEX and middling AC now has to contend with you literally slapping it away with your paws.

White Raven Tactics (White Raven 3, i.e. needs 10 HD): just give an ally another round of actions, instantly. Many DMs interpret this to mean including yourself.

Iron! HEART! SURGE! (Iron Heart 3, i.e. needs 10 HD): surge away all sorts of pesky conditions like, oh, being stunned, nauseated, sickened, etc., etc…


Mindsight (LoM) – if you’re running telepathic monsters against the party there is no reason to not have this gobsmackingly good feat. This is essentially radar. It gives monsters full justification to perfectly set their ambushes in deep, dark, lightless caves as if they know the players are coming (as well as estimate who the martial and magic types are, since the ability allows you to know the creature’s INT score.)

Open X Chakra (MoI): a sort of companion to Shape Soulmeld below, this expands one's ability to bind soulmelds to chakras and thus makes them more powerful. Well worth a look, especially if you're using Shape Soulmeld anyway.

Pierce Magical Concealment (CArc) – Iiiiii seeeeeee yooooouuu, the feat. Ignore concealment chance generated by magical sources, including invisibility. A little more expensive than Pierce Magical Protection, but still a nice way to make the PC mage switch his red robes for brown trousers.

Pierce Magical Protection (CArc) – make an attack that ignores the opponent’s Mage Armor or any spell that provides a bonus to AC -- and, if the attack hits, dispel every spell that grants a bonus to AC. This is especially evil against opponents getting by on Haste, Righteous Might, Sirine’s Grace, or other spells that boost things in tandem with AC. It also has a great prerequisite, Mage Slayer, which locks out wizards casting defensively too.

Practiced Magic (Dungeon #116, p.44) – your Caster Level for your Spell-Like Abilities increases by 4, but not past your total HD. This is exceptionally good if your monster has a spell-like ability with a fixed caster level – this feat helps that SLA stay relevant at higher levels. (contra: not dragons. True Dragons' (Sp) abilities have a Caster Level that always matches their sorcerer Caster Level, so this feat does nothing for them. However, Practiced Spellcaster is another story, have a look below.)

Practised Spellcaster (CArc) – +4 to your Caster Level, but can’t go higher than your HD total. If your monster has a lot of hit dice but not a lot of caster levels this assists in keeping up (i.e. dragons.)

Rapidstrike, Improved Rapidstrike (Dmicon) – Devastating on creatures with lots of different natural attack forms, for example the dragons it was originally designed for.

Scorpion’s Resolve (SStorm) -- +4 to saving throws vs. mind-affecting spells and abilities. Not just Will saves, all saves. Usually when the hapless PCs figure out they can’t smash you in melee, the resort to mind games begins. If you can’t get immunity to the scanners, consider this.

Shape Soulmeld (MoI) – Martial Study for Incarnum, grab a soulmeld from any class’s list. Even at low levels these can include poisonous touches, luck bonuses, resistance to fire, Uncanny Dodge, or bonuses to useful stuff like Hide and Move Silently checks. Indeed on a closer look - there's a handbook in the bibliography - this feat is a lot more versatile than it first appears, and that versatility is disguised only because the Incarnum system is not heavily used. Definitely worth a look for no-treasure increases in gear.

Shock Trooper (CWar) – its Heedless Charge maneuver is almost worth the price of admission; anything that allows you to preserve your attack bonus under Power Attack is good.

Staggering Strike (CAdv) – Takes sneak attack and BAB +6, but you stagger the target for 1 round. This isn’t just imposing slow, the staggered condition says that if the PC takes any standard action while staggered, they’re smashed straight to dying.

Steadfast Determination (PHB2) – It takes the feat tax of Endurance, but it allows you to use CON for your Will save, which is pretty good for the big, high-HP bruisers. That said, Martial Study (Moment of Perfect Mind) gets you much the same thing for the price of one feat and gives you Concentration skill ranks to add to it as well.

Supernatural Transformation (SavSpec) – This is arguably the best feat in Savage Species for two reasons: first, it turns a spell-like (Sp) ability into a supernatural (Su) ability, meaning Spell Resistance no longer applies; second, it makes the DC key off your HD total, rather than the level of the spell the (Sp) resembles. Making PCs’ Spell Resistance irrelevant is nice enough, but if your HD well outstrips the spell’s original level, it can be a very solid boost to the ability itself. (If the (Sp) ability has a fixed Caster Level in its statblock, this feat also makes it increase with your monster’s HD.)

Swarmfighting (CWar) – stack mobs of Small minions together for morale bonuses on attack rolls. Consider in combination with Distracting Attack and Allied Defense above.

Touchstone (SStorm) – pick a touchstone site, grab some of the base powers as spell-like abilities. Some of these are rather useful, including sizing shenanigans (Pazar), +6 to fire saves (Skysea), and so on. Also makes for a handy bit of treasure for the PCs too.

Uncanny Scent (SavSpec) – Pinpoint the location of a scent when within 20 feet. Assuming the PCs don’t have Darkstalker (and not a lot of mages take the feat) you’re going to make the invisible PC wish he’d put on some underarm deodorant that morning, since you can zero in on him easily … and direct your buddies to him as well.


And at the upper end, remember that monsters’ HD counts as their character level, i.e. epic feats can be picked up on monsters that don’t have epic CR so long as the HD is low enough.



Skills

Monsters’ skills are usually hideously assigned for what they have to do. Most are heartily irrelevant. Most of the time, you can get away with just deeming one monster’s important skill ranks to be HD+3 and scattering the rest of their points amongst other bits and pieces.


The most important quartet of skills are Spot, Listen, Hide, and Move Silently, because they determine whether your monster gets bushwhacked or does the bushwhacking. Hide and Move Silently are for the stealthy sneak attackers, Spot and Listen for the pickets the party is going to try and get past or take down unawares – i.e. everyone else.

After that it’s Balance and Jump. Balance (5 ranks is usually enough)because PCs love Grease, Ice Slick and bags of marbles, and Jump to get over said Grease, Ice Slick, etc -- or as limited flight (if the circumstances permit). (And on that point, Martial Study (Sudden Leap) can also come in handy.) Or you’ve decided to be evil and put some Leap Attack in the mix. Climb might be useful for getting over walls or getting into position, but not if your monster already has a Climb speed.

Bluff and Sense Motive can come in handy for the diplomatic-y encounters or occasionally on beating PCs’ in-combat Bluff checks.

Use Magic Device might come in handy on the more complex, boss-type monsters with lots of minions. It’s a way to throw the party’s expectations off (think being a weedy mage opponent who suddenly busts out Divine Power on a staff he’s carrying). But given the DCs that normally apply, it either takes a high CHA or some exception to the “no take 10” on UMD checks to be worthwhile, and even then there’s easier ways to get unexpected spells.

Intimidate could be handy if your monster is built to optimise the use of fear, but it’s a bit like Diplomacy or Bluff – PCs sometimes object to the idea that they have to act scared. Still, imposing a Shaken condition is handy for the condition penalties it imposes, and it’s something for monsters with no immediate targets to try out, possibly.

Knowledge (local) covers most adventurers, being humanoids, although it’s really only of use combined with Knowledge Devotion for monsters – or getting a prerequisite for Arcane Schooling.

Ride checks obviously work best for mounted monsters; at least at low levels there are feats and options giving a bit more function to the sort of monster than wants to ride a horse.

Iaijutsu Focus is a 3.0 skill that still gets some play now and then, but the conditions required to activate it don’t really crop up very often. That said, it is a CHA-based skill, and a fair few monsters have their CHA pumped to the stratosphere.


Skill Tricks

Clarity of Vision, Dismount Attack, Extreme Leap, Leaping Climber, Nimble Charge, Shrouded Dance, Spot the Weak Point, and Twisted Charge are all relevant for monsters. Well worth a look in this respect.


Flaws

Worth noting at this heading that nothing forbids you from getting more feats by accessing flaws. It isn't hard to work out a combination that doesn't materially affect your monster's efficacy which allows them to pick up the feat.

[Saintheart]

Traits, Unique Abilities, and Bloodlines
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Traits

Traits (SRD, also in Unearthed Arcana) are sometimes called half-feats, providing a mild boost to one ability while nerfing another feature in return. They are not expressly forbidden to NPCs or monsters, although the argument’s probably stronger for NPCs (i.e. classed monsters) to take them than bog-standard statblocks or advanced ones. None increase a monster’s CR.

Either way there are a few of interest to monsters:

Aggressive: +2 to initiative, -1 to AC. Handy for rear-line combatants.

Nightsighted: +10 feet to range of darkvision, -1 to Spot checks in areas of bright light.

Quick: +10 feet to a movement speed, -1 hitpoint for each HD.

Specialized: +1 to a Knowledge/Craft/Profession skill, -2 to all other Knowledge/Craft/Profession skills. Good for monsters with Knowledge Devotion and Knowledge (Local).

Spellgifted: +1 to Caster Level with 1 school, -1 to Caster Level on all the others.


Unique Abilities (DMG 2, p. 157)

These are explicitly for NPCs, and as you’d guess, designed to build unique NPCs. Therefore, don’t add them to every monster in the campaign. Some of them add to CR, but three notable CR +0s are:

Graced from Outside: cast a 2nd level cleric spell 1/week.
Guardian Spirit: +2 deflection bonus to AC.
Prodigy: +2 to an ability score, +4 to any check modifiers based on that ability.

If you’ve the room for higher CR, there are others doing stuff like granting breath weapons, limited SLAs, and so on. And note also that some provide Level Adjustment, which can add to ECL, which can be significant for gear reasons set out further down.



Bloodlines

Unearthed Arcana sets out how these work, though they’re on the SRD as well. These are so-so options for players since they invariably force you to take a level where you get no actual progression of significant class abilities other than caster level and stuff like that.

They’re more interesting for monsters since we’re usually not that worried about level progression and more about abilities that can be thrown at players right now. They come down to losing a couple HD worth of BAB, new spells, skills, etc. in return for a couple of free feats, stat increases, some small resistances, and usually some skill ranks over the totality of the creature’s levels (HD in our case). The free feats are mostly lower end – Alertness and Dodge – but there are some notable exceptions which grant Power Attack or Improved Initiative. It‘d take a specific case to really get the best benefits out of bloodlines, but they are worth thinking about if only for flavour reasons, since a hobgoblin is boring, but a hobgoblin descended from a genie usually is not.

One thing useful for our purposes? They don’t add to a monster’s CR. Insofar as they have a control, it’s that you take a full 3 levels over the life of a major bloodline. And though it’s extremely cheesy, nothing stops you from having multiple bloodlines on the same creature.



Improving Ability Scores

Elite, Nonelite, and Simple Jack Arrays

Unaltered monsters’ ability scores/stats – STR, DEX, CON, INT, WIS, and CHA – all start at 10 or 11. They then get racial modifiers to these 10s or 11s. (Any monster’s racial modifiers can be worked out by deducting 10 from an even-numbered stat, 11 from an odd-numbered stat).

The moment you start improving a monster by adding templates, advancing HD or adding class levels, you’re entitled by RAW to use an Elite Array -- 15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8 – for the monster’s starting scores, before applying any racial modifiers. An improved monster is significantly better overall than typical for its race, and its ability scores reflect that. This set of scores means one stat is hobbled by at least -2, but four other stats get a boost of between +2 and +5.

WOTC also says that if a monster’s improved using NPC classes, it’s “appropriate” to use a Nonelite Array – which is 13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8. WOTC also says this array doesn’t necessarily make the monster better than normal.

Having said that: there is a catch. Namely, if you've improved the monster by anything other than adding class levels - i.e. added a template, HD or only put the Elite Array on - then putting the Elite Array on it also increases CR by 1. When you improve a monster by class levels, it's assumed to be using the Elite Array and therefore doesn't increase the CR.



Manipulating starting age for fun and profit

The aging effects table (p. 110 PHB) is sometimes used to make a player character older than “normal”. Dragonwrought Kobold characters are the memetastic apotheosis of this feature; they don’t suffer the physical penalties of aging, so characters start out as Venerable, picking up +3 to INT, WIS, and CHA without suffering -3 to STR, DEX, and CON.

However, note we’re talking about a Dragonwrought Kobold. As in, a monster. NPCs are characters too, and therefore can utilise the same aging effects to bump mental ability scores. You don’t have to go looking for a table of when a monster is Middle Age, Old, or Venerable – just declare they are and apply the aging effects as specified. +3 to a caster stat can make the difference between casting 7th and 9th level spells.

Particularly evil is that Constructs, Undead, and Outsiders are not forbidden from getting the “benefits” of ageing, at least by RAW; their type does not exclude it, and though it’s implied they don’t age like mortals do, it doesn’t say so anywhere. Not even Libris Mortis’ material on undead player characters touches on this. (And indeed the Evolved Undead template implies that undead, at least, do benefit from sticking around a while.)

So, as with traits, there is nothing by RAW that prevents you from applying aging effects to monsters or NPCs where it’s useful. This, however, can get PHBs thrown at you, so use it sparingly or have a good justification for why – e.g. “the undead guy was Venerable before he turned undead, so he gets those bonuses.”

(Some monsters have age categories-- specifically dragons, whose abilities get stronger as they get older, and which have specific rules about PC races being dragons in Draconomicon. There are a few others that do similar things – arrowhawks, salamanders, tojanidas, and xorn from the MM for the four cardinal elements, kythons from the BoVD. However, these tend to be distinct monsters created by advancing HD rather than triggering any mechanic based on age.)



Don't forget the special abilities!

When describing monsters' special abilities or attacks, many statblocks have phrasing such as "the check DCs are Constitution-based" (or some other ability stat).

This is important because a monster's DCs are based on their default ability scores - i.e. usually the 10s and 11s a default monster comes with. So when you increase a monster's ability scores - whether by giving them the elite or nonelite array, or even by applying a template or even raising an ability score by reaching a multiple of 4 HD - it also proportionally increases the DCs of any abilities that key off that score, same way your total melee attack roll and damage bonus increases with additional STR.

For example, the Ettercap (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/ettercap.htm) has CON 13, and a Web (Ex) ability expressed like so:

Web (Ex)
An ettercap can throw a web eight times per day. This is similar to an attack with a net but has a maximum range of 50 feet, with a range increment of 10 feet, and is effective against targets of up to Medium size. The web anchors the target in place, allowing no movement.

An entangled creature can escape with a DC 13 Escape Artist check or burst the web with a DC 17 Strength check. The check DCs are Constitution-based, and the Strength check DC includes a +4 racial bonus. The web has 6 hit points, hardness 0, and takes double damage from fire.

CON 13 (an ability modifier of +1) means the Ettercap has a racial bonus of +2 to its starting CON score of 11. The Web DCs are Constitution-based, so the DC 13 Escape Artist and DC 17 Strength checks include a +1 from the CON ability modifier.

If we give the Ettercap an Elite Array, we can make its starting CON score 15 rather than 11. That means our Ettercap therefore has CON 17 (15 +2 from its racial bonus). CON 17 is a CON ability modifier of +3.

What does that mean for us? Easy: the Web's DC checks become DC 15 Escape Artist and DC 19 Strength checks. Just by changing the ability scores we added a +2 to the DCs of these attacks. In short: if you're starting with the elite array, don't just focus on the main statblock, check the monster's abilities and see if you can indirectly make it stronger there as a result.

[Saintheart]

Items and Treasure
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What do I give to monsters?
Sometimes, nothing. Not everything needs to come equipped with +5 weapons, especially the savage beast kind of creatures. But this is third edition, treasure, equipment and magic items are all but baked into the game for PCs, so monsters and NPCs get them too. By default a monster’s treasure is generated randomly, and that might be the way to go if you don’t really care that much about items.

Generally, divide your monsters into random encounters, mooks and bosses. Random encounters are more meant as ‘upset the apple cart’ occurrences or annoyances designed to just drain party resources. As such, I’d suggest you generally run them according to statblock or with some improvements via template or advancement and just hand over cash and gems. Give mooks a small number of good items, and spend more time on your bosses.

Next, consider items that give permanent benefits, and expendables, i.e. consumables. Permanent items are highly likely to wind up on PCs (or powering their next shopping trip), while the expendable items can disappear during the fight itself. Stuff to consider:



Permanent Items


Stat boosters
Raising an ability score is always a solid choice, though their cost (16,000gp for a +4 item) means you’ll be fuelling the party’s abilities and bank balances the more of these you dish out.

Cloaks and Vests
Resistance bonuses to saving throws are always useful to slow down the party’s mages.

Armor
Rarely do monsters actually wear armor, and they should wear it a lot – especially those designed to go toe-to-toe with PCs in melee. When it comes to armor for your oozes, giant worms, scorpions, or dragons, it’s a bit more complicated – see this thread (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?585673) which compiles the rules on item slots and armor for nonhumanoid characters. Failing that, Mage Armor in the form of a consumable or something should be on the table. (Indeed creating “custom” magic armor for the behir may well be a good reason to have a custom magic item which is not useable, or does not activate, for anyone but behirs – see further down about this.)

Ranged Weapons
Never forget to give your monsters ranged options. Javelins, bows, big rocks, spitballs, whatever, find something that does at least some damage and doesn’t require the monster to get up close and personal. The Tarrasque, a CR 20 monster, is a meme because it can’t hit a flying adventurer at all; it has no ranged attack. It doesn’t even have Jump skill ranks, and even when jumping to attack a target, it can’t get higher than 64 feet into the air, meaning someone floating about 90 feet off the ground and well within longbow range is completely safe from it. More obviously: PC mages don’t usually stand in the front line, and flying PCs can only really be counteracted by ranged weapons, spells, or your own flight capabilities.

Melee Weapons
There’s differences between creatures that have natural weapons already and humanoid-ish types who can wield manufactured melee weapons. If you want a monster to wield a melee weapon it generally won’t require a separate proficiency feat. Outsiders are automatically proficient with all simple and martial weapons; Undead and Monstrous Humanoids are automatically proficient with any weapon that’s already mentioned in their statblock (which you could cheese to include any weapon you stick on them, including exotic weapons.)

Anything that’s got BAB +6 or higher is usually going to pick up more than one attack per round if they’re using manufactured weapons. Natural weapons – bites, talons, slams, tail sweeps, all the rest – do not get iterative attacks. If you’ve ever been confused about why the monster has a +10 BAB but only one Bite in its full attack, that’s why. If a monster is fortunate enough to have more than one natural weapon – say, a Bite and a Claw attack – then on a full attack its Bite is untouched but the Claw attack is taken at a -5, which is called a “secondary natural attack.” Certain feats like Multiattack cut the penalty down a bit. (I’m guessing the intent was that although natural attacks don’t benefit from iteratives, a lot of monsters have more natural attacks than their BABs allow – e.g. the manticore, or the dreaded hydra. Or their single natural attack was thought to be accurate and damaging enough that more attacks would be overkill.)

When you combine an attack from a manufactured weapon (e.g. a longsword) with a natural weapon, then the longsword becomes the primary attack (and can take all its iterative attacks from BAB) while the natural weapon/s become the secondary attacks, i.e. at -5. If – as with many sneak attacking creatures – your intent is to spam more chances to hit than to pump accuracy as such, putting them together makes sense.

Improved Unarmed Strike shouldn’t be forgotten either. An IUS can be made with any part of the body, and it is not a natural weapon like a bite or talon. It’s like a manufactured weapon for the purposes of attacks, and therefore gives us at least one more attack. And iteratives if available. And it doesn’t require that you have a hairy paw or opposable thumbs to grasp a weapon.

One powerful option if you’re Large and have only a bite attack is the weapon quality Mouthpick (p 46, Lords of Madness). A weapon with this quality can be wielded freely with your mouth, in short. It even grants proficiency with the weapon, so take any old exotic weapon you like and use it with your mouth. But its biggest strength is that it explicitly replaces the monster’s bite attack and grants iterative attacks with the weapon. Leaving aside monsters with lots of class levels, Dragons, Magical Beasts, Monstrous Humanoids and Outsiders get most benefit from this, since their BAB always matches their HD. And, if you want to risk full-blown cheese and head injuries from flying PHBs, there is an argument that the weapon quality allows you to retain any manufactured weapon attack you might see fit to wield with your hands, i.e. hit them for a full iterative attack with your mouthpick weapon and then hit them for another full set of iterative attacks with your longsword.

There’s also the 3.0 weapon quality Opposable from Masters of the Wild which costs a +1 but allows a creature with limbs, proficiency, and an ability to stand without the limbs that wield the weapon, to use it even though he doesn’t have hands as such.

Boots
Boots of Flying, Speed, Stability, you name it, consider giving your guys a pair.

Masterwork Tools
An instant +2 to a given skill, which is always useful and delightfully cheap.

Otherwise, for ideas generally, visit: Bunko’s Bargain Basement (http://www.davidtanger.com/2017/01/bunkos-bargain-basement/) or Google that phrase if the site’s not working anymore. The lists within are a good, solid set of options for magical gear of all kinds at relatively cheap prices – just bear in mind it tends to be focused on players and long-term character needs.

Permanency’d spells and applications of Wish
This is clearly on the table where the monsters you’re using are humanoid or come from a race that is likely to have a complex society including spellcasters – e.g. hobgoblins, orcs, giants, beholders, etc etc.

Permanency is a fifth level spell. Getting the spell cast on you, per the SRD, is 500gp for the casting plus 5 gp per XP lost from the underlying spell. That means it’d cost one of your monsters about 3,000gp for a permanent Enlarge Person, Resistance, or Magic Fang. And notice that the Permanency spell allows the DM (you, dude!) to rule other spells can be made permanent too. Still, if you need more RAW sources, there’s this ancient thread (https://web.archive.org/web/20070330230111/http:/boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=332210) that provides the full list of non-PHB spells that can be made permanent:

Castings of Wish are obviously hardcore, but if you’re high level or have the budget for it, there’s nothing to stop you using it.

Stronghold/Lair features
This is an alternate means of spending your minions’ budget. If you’ve got the (significant) cash, some Wondrous Architecture options in the Stronghold Builder’s Guidebook make for interesting ideas to spice up a lair or even an encounter room. Most of the options you’re looking at in this category will be in the form of passive buffs or stuff that makes the environment more agreeable for you – chambers that throw the room into darkness, or frightful tapestries that cause the Frightened condition on anyone who enters, and so on.

A list of notable Wondrous Architecture from Oslecamo:


Brazier of Bright bursts, low DC, but area blindness activated by word and also raises the alarm is pretty nice.

-Cabinet of Stasis is a no-save no-anything you-lose effect, as long as team monster finds a way to make a player enter it. And it technically isn't a trap so the rogue can't even search for it. Very evil. Very nice.

-Chamber of Climbing grants spider climb to everybody inside. Cheap way of increasing minion mobility.

-Chamber of the Earthbound supresses most magical flying. Get back on the ground and fight like a man batman!

-Chamber of Guidance is dirt cheap and grants a +1 bonus on a single roll for those who know the command word.

-Chamber of Hidden Character supresses alignment detections, more useful for team monster than you may think.

-Chamber of Seeing ends invisibility effects. Stop sneaking around Batman!

-Chamber of Sloth causes slow on those who enter. Keep team monster out and lure the party in somehow.

-Chamber of Speed gives haste to those inside. Keep the party out and keep the monsters in shooting ranged attacks.

-Chamber of the Unliving is basically a permanencied Antilife Shell.

-Cloudgathering orb messes the weather around the area.

-Desecrated Shrine is a large area Desecrate.

-Engraved Circle of Protection(Alignment) is a permanent Magic Circle of Protection.

-Guardian Statue is a nice way to rise the alarm.

-Hall of Bable messes up the ability to speak, which can be devastating against batman.

-Hall of (insert spell name here) come in different styles replicating different spells.

-Hole of Hiding is a permanent Rope trick, pretty useful for hiding ambushers.

-Hurricane's eye creates a permanent Hurricane around an area. Available in weaker wind forms.

-Inscriptions of concealment hides non-living stuff from all divinations. And also vision. A must have for powerful undead organizations.

-Inscriptions of Falsehood blocks scrying and normal vision, but allows a Will save for the second.

-Inscription of Privacy just blocks scrying, but it's considerably cheaper.

-Platform of Jaunting is basically a mini-teleport pad. The greater version has unlimited range.

-Platform of Healing uses Heal on anyone stepping on it. Perfect for hit and runs.

-Platform of telekinesis. Remember those floating rooms I mentioned? Here they are. Fit them with cover and siege engines for improvised airships.

-Prison of (insert element here): rooms whose walls, ceiling and floor are covered in dangerous magic stuff. The prismatic version allows for the creator to go through safely. For the others, find a way to give your monsters immunity so they can safely pass.

-Secure chamber grants mindblank to all those inside. No Batman you can't Hodor the king or his advisors in his own throne room.

-Sigils of anti-magic is your basic dead magic zone, replicating an AMF inside.

-Sigils of Suppression duplicate the always useful Globe of Invulnerability, which stops new spells of 4th level of lower from having effect, but doesn't supresses ones already in existence. Also available in lesser version.

-Touchstone of Faith gives a deflection bonus to one creature standing over it.

-Tree of Jaunting looks like a normal tree, but replicates Tree Stride on any who enter it.
Available in greater version.

Under this category we can also put traps, which have a gp cost and therefore can be paid for out of a monster’s treasure. Some traps can be very effectively used where the monster knows the party is coming and where they will approach from. Mechanical traps aren’t bad for this (albeit hideously expensive … seriously, a camouflaged pit trap, i.e. a disguised hole in the ground, costs 1,800gp?) but magic traps are awesome, especially the ones that can reset, and even more especially the ones that summon monsters, i.e. instant reinforcements for your monsters. However, traps carry their own CR ratings, which will contribute to the overall EL of a fight if used during an encounter, so bear this in mind. Also bear in mind that traps can be combined or used for a one-two hit as well … say, a pit trap in a low corridor, with a Reverse Gravity trap at the bottom that then hurls the PC at the ceiling above the pit trap.


Customising monsters’ permanent items
The SRD allows magic items to be created which are only useable by a given race and/or alignment. Your players pick up those sparkly-looking gloves from the dead ogre’s corpse with overwhelming Conjuration aurae … only to learn they won’t function for anyone other than an ogre. Better yet, the SRD specifies that when making an item with these restrictions, it warrants significant cuts in the price (and therefore in its sale price, making players’ woes worse when they go looking to cash in the item for Something Better. “What? 16,000 for STR +4 gauntlets? Nah, mate, only ogres can use that thing, I’ll give you maybe 4,000 tops.”)

The players’ counterattack to this approach is the Use Magic Device skill, which specifically permits a player to emulate a given race or alignment. Emulating an alignment is a DC 30 check; a race, DC 25. UMD is a trained-only skill dependent on CHA. As such, you should be able to see UMD skill optimisation coming from a long way off, and unless the party is very determined and methodical, not everyone is going to be able to pull this sort of trick.

Also, if you do start running into these problems, further tactics include customising permanent items so they don’t function all day, but only for minutes at a time. Or function by activation, which necessitates a new UMD check each time the device is to be used. And if the party starts committing serious skill points or spell slots or items into meeting the UMD checks … well, what’s the real harm? That’s part of their choices when they play the game and not them ruining your fun as such. (Also, be mindful that if you use this trick to cut the sale price of monster loot, players will start asking for their own discounts on crafted magic items that can only be used by the player’s race or alignment.)


Consumables


Alchemist Fire/Acid
Touch attacks to use. Handy.

Thunderstones
Good especially at low levels, since you don’t need to hit anything but a hard surface, i.e. the ground next to a PC, i.e.e. AC 5, to activate them. Deafening effect aside, they also function as a handy way for sentries to alert monsters further back in the lair about the presence of the PCs, and I’m particularly partial to mooks performing coordinated thunderstone volleys: sure, you’ve got a Fort save, but your odds of rolling successfully against lots of saving throws is something else entirely.

Tanglefoot Bags
Sick of the druid’s level 1 battlefield control spell? Throw the same thing at them. Tanglefoot Bags, or snotbags as I call them, work against creatures up to and including Large size, which is to say, most PCs. Ranged touch attack, and no saving throw against being entangled, which at the very least halves the PC’s speed if not glues them to the ground, and certainly shuts down the ubercharger. And works great in volleys like thunderstones do.

Scrolls
For this option, your monster is a spellcaster – and may only need to pass CL checks – or it has a good UMD check. That said, versatile and any useful one-off spell can be put on it.

Poisons
Your big bois usually don’t have much trouble with noxious substances, but players certainly do. And as a bonus,poisons tend to be expensive for what they do, meaning you can chew up a monster’s gear or treasure that much easier.

Potions
The classic. Most spells up to third level, take a gulp, cast the spell on yourself. Similar applies to oils for spells which can only be applied to objects, e.g. Oil of Magic Weapon.

Wands
The even more classic. Any spell from level 1 to 4, though again you need a method of activating a spell trigger item to get them to work. The main thing players look for – and it works to keep monster budgets down too – is to have a partially charged wand, since it then is a fraction of the cost of a fully charged, working wand. If you want to avoid getting casting classes or investing in Use Magic Device, this combination should sort it: Arcane Schooling [Regional] + Prerequisite race or Knowledge (Local) ranks + Wand Chamber + Partially Charged Wand. Note that swift spells can explicitly be activated as swift actions in wands.

Tattoos
Lords of Darkness’ Tattoo Magic feat allows magic potions to be drawn on monsters. A magic tattoo can contain any spell 3rd level or lower which the tattooist knows and which targets a creature or creatures. Activating it is a standard action and something only the bearer of the tattoo can do, and the bearer is always the target of the spell. So if you have any combat-ish third level spell you want a monster to have and keep off the players, this is the way to provide it; when the monster dies, so does any capacity to activate the spell.

Runes
From Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting, runes basically are ‘touch a magical writing scribed on more or less any object, and you cast the spell in it on yourself, no UMD, no caster levels, no limits on level.’ They’re superior to potions and oils: a standard action to activate, but any divine spell of any level can be contained in them (getting arcane spells as divine spells isn’t that hard given the right circumstances either) – and the wording is wide enough to suggest multiple runes can be triggered as one standard action. They’re slotless items, meaning your monsters can have as many as they like. They also come in multiple-use, use-per-day, and permanent (limitless use) versions as well. Being fully cast as spells too, they also can incorporate metamagic in them if you’re inclined to add that too.

Bloodspikes (MoE)
Minor but interesting effects such as getting a single move action, once, at any time; a one-time dazzling effect; turning your blood acidic; and other similar bits.



What spells do I get for my potions, scrolls, runes, tattoos, wands?
The short, smart-@$$ advice is “Go and look up some handbooks.”

I’m a bit nicer than that. Also, handbooks can be misleading because they’re usually written for players, not DMs. And they invariably lean towards spells that have a lot of applicability for multiple encounters or given player roles. DMs have other considerations. If it gets to a fight, most of your monsters’ spells are going to be oriented towards combat.

Partially drawing off Oslecamo’s suggestions:


[i]Bear’s Endurance/Bull’s Strength/Cat’s Grace: if you don’t want to give your monsters that +4 to a physical ability stat, then have them cast this on themselves.

Conviction: +2 morale bonuses to saves. Heroism (below) is better, but it’s a level higher, on the arcane list, and doesn’t scale with additional caster levels.

Cure Light/Moderate/Serious Wounds: worth thinking about if you’ve got a lot of minions who can last at least a hit or two; if they seriously outnumber the party then allowing some to take the hits while the others heal up can push out a fight a bit longer.

Downdraft (SpC): one-spell solution to flying PCs. Outside Spell Resistance, anything up to 50 feet off the ground gets pancaked even if makes a Reflex save. Also knocks down anything already on the ground.

Divine Favor: +X to hit and damage based on Caster Level, always good.

Expeditious Retreat: better movement speed means you’re up in the caster’s face faster.

Fly: So you thought you were safe up there did you...?

Gust of Wind: because when the Entangles and mind-affecting spells don’t work, out comes Pyrotechnics and Cloudkill.

Haste: great all around combat buff.

Heroism: morale bonuses to attack rolls, saves, and skill checks. Good stuff, but won’t stack with a bard’s singing (if you’re so inclined).

Infallible Servant (EoE): Not really combat so much as an intel-denial tool. If the creature this is cast on is captured or slain, its body dissolves into a foul sludge. No Speak With Dead for you! And also nauseates everyone within 30 feet, too.

Inhibit (SpC): “nope”. Or at least “not yet.” Target has to delay until the next round. Will save and Spell Resistance obviously applies since it’s pure frustration if it happens to you, but this is a handy way to force the big PC with the high Fort and piddling Will save to rethink his life for a round or so.

Jump: Fly on a budget.

Invisibility: What was that sound again?

Mage Armor: +4 armor without any pesky encumbrance or slowing your movement speed.

Magic Weapon: to enchant ammunition or if the minion doesn't have enough budget for an actual magic weapon. For natural weapons, Magic Fang.

Obscuring Mist: how about a little bit of discretion for your monsters to get their bling on before engaging the enemy?

Protection from X: Works better if the party has all similar alignments, but even then, it's a cheap anti mind control tactic.

Scintillating Scales (RoTD): Add your CON mod in Deflection bonus to AC, cutting your natural armor bonus by half your CON mod. Deflection bonus is sheer joy because it contributes to your touch AC, which casters often go for. And many monsters will have a CON making this worth it.

Shield of Faith: moar deflection bonus, although it doesn't stack with other sources.

Silence: sound? What sound?

Summon Monster I-IX: demons get this as a spell-like ability, how bad can it be? More friends to do damage is good, and best of all, summoned creatures don’t add to the CR of the encounter and the party doesn’t get any XP for them. Exactly which monster to summon is one which is really, really impossible to go into detail about, but here’s a start, (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?255219-The-Summoner-s-Desk-Reference-D-amp-D-3-5) and this bit of advice: don’t worry about monsters needed for utility purposes, you won’t need them. Most monsters summoned by monsters will be for combat.

True Strike: Don’t knock it ‘til you’ve tried it. For a start, it busts clean through invisibility’s concealment chance. Also utterly negates range increment penalties on stuff you normally couldn’t throw very far, like a Tanglefoot Bag or Alchemist’s Fire. Best use is really in the round before combat, when your minions get the drop on the party. Also makes for handy interdiction being cast by your ranged attack minions and then readying ranged attacks if the PCs start to cast spells.

Willing Sacrifice (EoE): Interesting for bosses of minions, hit an ally with 1d10 damage and for round/level you get half the damage in a profane bonus to spend on attack rolls, saves, damage, ability, or skill checks. Would be better Maximised, but as a swift action at least it doesn’t take too long to cast and it makes for a nice thematic spell to cast.

Wings of Cover (RoTD): Just lolnope an attack or spell directed at you. Trickier to have ready to go since it’s an immediate action spell, but monsters holding wands of this work just fine on the principle that if a wand has a swift action spell in it, it’s a swift action to activate it. Special note for dragonblooded creatures, half-dragons, or kobolds: if they cast this spell at CL 4 or above, you can protect an adjacent ally with the one casting.


How much do I give to monsters?


As a start, memorise the two below references; you can’t find WBL or XP progression tables online for the same reasons these aren’t online, and these ones are a hell of a lot more important for DMs equipping monsters.


Treasure Values: p. 52, DMG, Table 3-3.
NPC Gear Values: p. 127, DMG, Table 4-23.

If a monster has no class levels then the Treasure Values table is all you need. Figure out the Encounter Level (the monster’s CR if it’s alone), and hurrah, there’s the budget of treasure available for the whole encounter, shared between all the hapless monsters in it. Whatever gear the monster comes with in its statblock, it can “buy” equipment from that treasure budget to use against the players. This is whether the monster is advanced by hit dice or not, whether it has a template or not.

If a monster’s statblock says it advances by HD, then p. 291 of the MM suggests it “should” be just be assigned treasure – not NPC gear – even if it has class levels.

If a monster’s statblock says it advances by Character Class, though – Commoner 1 or Wizard 20 – then on top of the loot from the Treasure Value table, it gets its own, personal budget for its gear. This budget is in the NPC Gear Values table, by “NPC Level”.

Okay, but what is NPC Level? Well, that depends on whether you follow the DMG or the Monster Manual. And it makes a big difference.

Page 52 of the DMG says you use the monster’s class levels to determine the NPC Level.

But page 290 of the Monster Manual says you use the monster’s ECL – its Effective Character Level – for the purposes of determining how much equipment it can purchase. A creature’s ECL = Creature’s Racial HD + Creature’s Class Levels +Creature’s Level Adjustment (if any).

The errata are not clear about which book prevails. Either way, weird things happen. If the DMG rule prevails, an 18 HD monster with a single level in Fighter gets 900gp to spend on gear. If the MM rule prevails, the same monster gets 170,000gp in gear when an EL 19 encounter only garners about 61,000gp in treasure.

I’m inclined – for selfish reasons, and because a preponderance of gear makes CR increases with class levels make more sense – to prefer the Monster Manual. Indeed the Monster Manual text can be read consistently with the DMG version if you remember monsters’ racial HD are “monster levels” and thus class levels of a kind.

However, this leads to another piece of advice, advice you would never follow as a player, but absolutely should follow as a DM when picking monsters for their gear: go looking for monsters that have significant Level Adjustment (as opposed to significant CR).

A bog-standard Troll is CR 5 and therefore normally gets treasure of 1,600gp. Give that same Troll a single level in Warrior and it’s entitled to NPC gear. The Troll’s ECL is 12: 6 [Racial HD] +1 [Warrior Level] +5 [Level Adjustment]. As an ECL 12 monster, it gets 27,000gp to spend on gear. Without level adjustment, we’d be getting literally a quarter of the cash – a piddling 7,200gp.

Incidentally, by RAW that Troll Warrior is still a CR 5 opponent, since NPC class levels are nonassociated.

Still not convinced? Try sticking a class level on a Hill Giant. You now have a CR 8 but ECL 17 monster: 12 [Racial Hit Dice] +1 [Class Level] +4 [Level Adjustment]. It therefore gets NPC gear worth 100,000gp. A default Hill Giant’s treasure allocation at CR 7 is 2,600gp.

“But that gives my players more stuff to use against future monsters once they kill the NPC!” Not if you’re smart and spend that massive balance on expensive but potent consumables, or on permanent improvements to the monster or the monster’s lair. Or on useful permanency’d spells. Or -- at a player level of cheesemongery -- on visiting an Otyugh Hole to pick up Iron Will (3,000 gp) and then paying a caster to Embrace the Dark Chaos (1360 gp) and then Shun the Dark Chaos (1360 gp) to thereby acquire another useful feat.

Again, you only use the NPC gear tables when a monster has class levels – not when you advance it by HD or template, and really only when the creature actually advances by character levels. Also, not every monster has level adjustment, because even WOTC didn’t contemplate you should turn every monster into a playable character. So obviously the biggest bang for buck here is from monsters with a punishingly high Level Adjustment and who advance by character class.

And ultimately, the game does specifically point out that treasure values were assigned taking characters’ Wealth By Level into account, i.e. you still have to keep an eye on the loot players get even if you assign treasure by the book.[

One compromise position that Elves suggests is:

Grant standard treasure value equal to the base creature's CR, then add NPC wealth equal to the difference in NPC wealth between an NPC of the base creature's CR and the creature's final CR.

This is a modified version of the DMG method.

Example: Take our marilith fighter. Instead of having 36,900 gp (36k treasure value for CR 17 and 900gp 1st-level NPC wealth), she has 66k gp (36k treasure value for CR 17 plus 30k, the amount an NPC would gain for advancing from 17th to 18th level). 66k as opposed to 47k for a standard CR 18 monster and 130k for an 18th-level NPC.

Meanwhile, the CR 7 creature with 3 class levels would get 11.4k as opposed to a standard CR 10 creature's 5.8k and a 10th-level NPC's 16k.

Or:

remove the idea of NPC wealth. In a system built on equivalence, there's no reason fighting NPCs should cause you to exceed the WBL curve. The PCs are simply unusual in having so much treasure, and if an NPC is going to have a lot of treasure it has to come from elsewhere in an adventure's treasure budget.

The problem with this is that PC classes are balanced around getting magic items. NPCs with standard-for-CR net worths can still approximate that through consumables, but that means PCs will actually loot less treasure off them -- so you would want to give NPCs a 'consumable stipend' that recreates NPC WBL.

[Saintheart]

Tactics
https://images2.imgbox.com/70/e7/blTHoGxb_o.jpg


“Verisimilitude” vs. "The Monsters Have Read Our Character Sheets"

One decision you’ll need to make is to what extent you’re going to proactively counter the party’s builds when you put your monsters together.

A world where every monster knows how to deal with the particular party thrown at them is one that eventually may invite complaints from the players that you’re targeting their weaknesses and that it’s “unrealistic” that every monster they meet is prepared to counterspell the mage’s opening Fireball specifically. (I have seen endless whining on forums from players who believe, rightly or wrongly, that their DM is doing this to them, so if the players don’t have the guts to make this accusation to your face, be assured it will be made anonymously online :))

Unfortunately, D&D tactical combat is set up so certain tactics will work again and again and again unless you do something to counter them specifically. Which means default monsters over time get their, uh, back ends handed to them.

How do you strike the balance of not looking like every monster in the world is telling every other monster what your players’ strengths and weaknesses are? This is something that has to be learned with experience, but some suggestions:


Drop hints that, since this is a world containing adventurers, monsters obviously adopt tactics to counter adventurers. This makes it at least a bit believable when the ogres don’t simply charge in to die against the party’s front line melee characters and instead stand off in cover hurling rocks at least to start with.


Playtest. Yeah. I know. Nobody does this. Nobody’s got time. But maybe consider doing it anyway. Savage Species has some suggestions on quick ways to assess party strength against monsters. The Angry GM’s method of playtesting is in essence: first, always test your monsters against a default fighter+rogue+cleric+mage party, not the players’ party specifically. And when you do, ask yourself how a monster would meet or get around that default party’s primary tactics. Your aim in encounters should be to make the players switch to a secondary tactic when their primary tactic is blocked or failed. Don’t work to counter the secondary tactic, because that then really is fitting up the party for a TPK.


Resolve that all you want to do with any fight is not to “challenge” the party, not to “confront” them, and certainly not to “beat” them – but give them a scenario to respond to, and provide an opportunity for the players to make interesting choices. Remembering this, keeping it forefront, keeps you out of a player-vs-DM mentality but also keeps your monsters from being Joe Q Citizens who just go down to the first Magic Missile spell.


If the party’s standard method for dealing with monsters is going to obviously work, or the monster is so powerful it’s basically invulnerable to anything the players throw at it – then you don’t have an encounter, you’ve just got a time waster, because the players have no meaningful choices to make. And a fight only remains interesting while players still have a meaningful choice to make. If the outcome of the encounter is known and apparent, it’s time to break in as the DM and end it, even if (90% of the time) it’s going to be the monsters’ resolve failing them and running like hell. When your fights are out of choices, your encounter should be done.





How strong should your monsters be?

Oslecamo’s advice on how strong you make your monsters comes down to the following:


Note players’ AC, HP, Saves , Movement Modes, Attack bonus, and Spell Save DCs.

Be able to drop one player in 2-3 rounds of attacking the player (more or less if they're minions or solo bosses respectively). This can be accomplished by extreme accuracy with low damage, extreme damage with low accuracy or something in between (like 50% chance to hit, one attack per round, deal half the total HP of the player in damage with each blow). High accuracy with low damage makes it easier to see if you're going overboard or not.

Be able to resist at least 2-3 rounds of direct attacks from the whole party (more or less depending if they're solo bosses or minions respectively). This is accomplished by a combination of high HP, saves, DR and other special defensive abilities to make sure the monster can keep going.

Monsters’ special abilities should have save DCs resulting in affecting the party around 50% of the time (except for full-disabling/insta-kill powers, you really don't want to pump those up unless you and your party enjoy TPKs).

In the same vein, make sure your monsters have some trump cards of their own so they aren't one-shotted too easily. Martial study feat or Warblade dip can do wonders here. A simple IRON HEART SURGE for example can remove that blindness/fog/maze the wizard just dropped on the monster. Feral Jump provides swift-action movement to escape entangles and greases.




Generally on tactics


Outside specific situations – zerg rushes or solo boss fights -- put enough monsters in the battle to at least equal the party, if not outnumber them two to one. The action economy is stacked against monsters anyway. Then use that advantage – not necessarily to swarm the players in melee, but in the number of actions that can be carried out per round. Not everyone needs to attack, some can hang back, some can just flat-out body block (soft cover is a +4 to AC), some can ready actions, some can perform Aid Another, some can refocus so they act first next round. Stuff that isn't economical for players becomes economical for monsters if there's enough of them.


Allow your monsters to be genre savvy and have some cunning and reason. Focus the monsters’ fire, take down obvious casters first (and it should be obvious, from the lack of armor, who the casters are or who are likely to be.) Allow monsters to coordinate, ready actions to take advantage of what one monster does (e.g. one monster trips, the other monster readies an attack for the opponent being on the ground.)


If you’ve got a decent number of monsters in the battle, don’t bunch them up on the battlefield unless they need to be next to one another for some very compelling reason. Area of Effect spells were designed for that specific reason, don’t oblige the players. At least, not every time. Monsters spread out and with ranged options can force the party to choose whether to spread out to deal with everyone at once, or focus on one at a time. And it’s the choice we are interested in.


Consider changing up encounters while they’re happening. Change the encounter’s environment or change the opposition halfway through the fight. Reinforcements. Collapsing floor. Sudden arrival of a third force. Whatever. Anything that forces the players to change their approach.


Saving throws are based on probability. If you’ve been smart and kept pace with the players’ saves, then, when forced to make enough saving throws, it is quite literally a matter of time before they fail the save. Thus volleys of thunderstones and tanglefoot bags, or area-based Dispel Magic salvos. The Persisted Spell cleric doesn’t look quite so impressive with his Divine Power pants pulled down from a few magic-ending traps or spells.


Don’t stand toe to toe with melee types if there’s another option available. Targeting a weaker party member forces the PCs to react to you and forces them to go where you want them. A party that’s responding to a crisis is a party that’s thinking about something other than the most maximally efficient way to separate your monsters from their hitpoints in one round. (Nothing prompts a Condition Red from a party quite like the monster winding up for a coup de grace against a downed PC.)


If you’ve got enough monsters, readied actions can be a viable way to break the party’s coordination. The two simplest tactics are readying a ranged attack on any PC casting, or readying a trip attack on any PC who charges you (or anyone in reach). Since a creature can only continue its action after the interrupting act if it is capable, most creatures flat on their backs can’t finish a charge. Ranged attacks, of course, might cause the caster to at least make a Concentration check and maybe lose the spell, though such an option needs a pretty good punch given Concentration tends to scale a lot faster than ranged attack damage. And just readying actions – without them actually triggering – may be a handy way to force the players to think about doing something different, if they can obviously see you loading crossbow bolts and looking expectantly down at the dude wearing the red dressing gown.


“Use the terrain” is bland, boring advice, but it works. Usually players are invading the homes and haunts of monsters that know the ground, they should be able to take advantage of it. Height elevations, for a start. Your big packs of minions shouldn’t all be reachable at ground level: they should be spread out around the field, some on higher elevations dropping arrows or worse. If possible, some can be hidden on lower elevations where they can surprise and pull party members down from foxholes or trapdoors below. Cut corridors down from Medium to Small size, where your Small monsters can fight freely but the players can’t. And remember that passages can have passages above them, i.e. you can drop stuff on players while still being in cover.


Other part of ‘use the terrain’: use the terrain rules. Cover stops attacks of opportunity dead. Soft cover gives you a +4 to AC against ranged attacks. 5 foot steps are blocked if the players are hampered by darkness or difficult terrain. Difficult terrain includes mud, swamps, scree, slick ice, shallow water, fields of entangle, fields of Impeding Stones (great spell), significant inclines. No five foot step here, and you can’t run or charge across this sort of ground. It also includes passages players have to squeeze through. It also includes anyone who’s blinded or who can’t see in darkness. It also includes where bodies of downed opponents fall, too.


As for flyers: for wind effects, flying creatures are treated as one size categorysmaller than their actual size. That means a Medium flying PC is treated as Small, meaning a Severe wind (31-50 mph) is enough to blow the flyer back 1d6x10 feet. Gust of Wind is a low level spell and its targets are hit with Severe wind. Also, take note of the PC’s maneuverability: outside of Good maneuverability, they have to keep a certain amount of their movement in reserve to stay aloft. And as said, tanglefoot bags make a flyer’s life a lot more difficult. For a cheaper option, bolas allow you to make ranged trip attacks on targets, and trip attacks against flying targets knock them to the ground.


And while we're on the subject of flying creatures: since combat can be conducted in three dimensions, you can surround a creature with a lot more attackers if some of them are in the air. And even more if they've got Reach weapons.


Incorporeal opponents plus solid walls are pure frustration for players. They're also pure death for players if the incorporeal monster has a lot of passive (Sp) abilities, especially those with Areas of Effect, so be careful how you use them. Even better are ethereal creatures or ghosts plus walls; if you want an example, test drive a bog standard phase spider. Read its statblock and in particular its action sequence; consider a phase spider that’s sitting five feet from the party - say, in the ceiling. Or the wall. Or the floor. The phase spider gets a sequence of free action appear, attack the opponent, and then shift back to ethereal as part of a move action to retreat safely back inside the wall. If used intelligently, it actually forces the party to ready actions in order to have a shot at hitting it (even attacks of opportunity can potentially take miss chances because it’s not certain whether the spider is material or not when it disappears again).


Swarms, at least for the first few levels, are also frustrating … especially when combined with having to fight said swarms while doing something inconvenient like making a chimney ascent, or swimming.


Stay out of melee contact using murder holes and constrictive corridors.


If you break line of sight, you usually break line of effect. Even humble tindertwigs can do this, but smoke and obstructions can do the same thing. Also, pairs of monsters opening and closing doors can be effective: first monster readies a standard action attack, second monster uses a move action to open a door, first monster makes its attack, second monster uses its other move action to close the door again.


Traps get around high AC. Don’t fight the party, retreat while vaulting over a pit trap or two. And inventive use of traps means they can be used for things other than just hitpoint damage. The pit trap doesn’t have to just be a hole in the ground, it can be a hole in the ground which opens into a passage leading to that pet behir the kobolds have been feeding for the past few hundred years or so.


Ability damage is more frightening than hitpoint damage, if for no other reason than that players usually have a lot more HP than they do ability scores, and each ability score usually does a bit more than tell you how much time’s left before asking the cleric for healing again. This alone is one reason poison is still a thing. And again, if you can salvo with thunderstones, you can salvo with poison-tipped arrows.


Have some monsters strive for the imposition of conditions on players, ideally stuff that takes them out of the fight for a few rounds (Slow, dazing, helpless, etc.) or stuff that knocks down their saves, making it easier for other effects to punch through. Even the measly Shaken condition imposes a -2 penalty on attack rolls, saving throws, skill checks, and ability checks. For attack rolls and saves that’s the equivalent of ripping a +4 stat-boosting item off the player.


Ranged touch attacks are king for monsters, because they neutralise big fractions of players’ AC – their armor – and they don’t force the monster to close to fighting distance.


Your monsters don’t have to stay and fight to the death once initiative is rolled. Quite the contrary, they might very well want to feel out the party’s strengths and weaknesses before committing. Provoking the barbarian to a rage and then fleeing is one less rage they have to deal with later. Attacking the party while it’s sleeping and then withdrawing breaks the mage’s all-important 8 hours of sleep. Attacking the party while the cleric is still praying for spells at the designated time of day might also keep the cleric from getting any more favours from his god for another 24 hours. Hit and run tactics wear down the party’s resources faster.


Use special terrain. It’s D&D, there’s quasi-magical features that can be drawn from all over the place. Oslecamo’s list:



Anti-teleportation zones: like already mentioned zones of great power block teleport. Basically irrelevant at low levels, quite the game changer at higher levels.

Ossra: Page 150 of serpent kingdoms has basically a poison gas clouds, they also buff serpent folk instead of damaging them.

Permanent spells: Permanency allows you to stick a wide variety of spells on an area forever. Although it only works with some spells, it still offers a wide variety.

Planar traits: From Manual of the Planes, although normally present on other planes, they can “spill” on other places trough portals and whatnot. They can empower, maximize, block or disrupt certain kinds of spells depending on alignment and magic schools. A large selection of them available, many times will benefit some kind of magic while hindering another. Or boost everything up or down. Or make stuff fly. Lots to choose from.

Wall Augmentations: from Stronghold builder's guide, those allow you to add special effects to walls, like granting SR/cover to those nearby, or hurting those nearby with blades/fire/poison or blocking special ways of travel.

Tainted locations: From Heroes of Horror, some places are so evil they slowly corrupt you by themselves by giving you taint, which then inflicts all kind of penalties. Better suited for darker campaigns If you're using them however, make sure to ban tainted scholar Prc, which is very very easily abused.

Dread Effects: Also from Heroes of Horror, a bunch of dark evil area effects. Bloodgrass hinders healing, bloodstones increase the critical threat range of everybody in the area, and charnel bog disrupts good and healing spellcasting, make characters wake up fatigued from rest and can also inflict diseases through the air. Finally Night Stone simply deals negative energy damage around it (hint: undeads are healed by negative energy damage).

Haunted Locations: Continuing the trend from Heroes of Horror, undeads can attach themselves to a location for a variety of nasty effects, including keeping to come back if destroyed, making stuff move by itself, illusions and some others.

Frostburn: This supplement gives out rules on a series of cold-related hazards, from simply extreme cold weather dealing cold damage, to chances of thin ice breaking, hypothermia, thawing, flash floods and several other hazards expected in cold environments. Sleet, slow blindness, plenty of effects to challenge the party. Aurora polaris in particular deals a whooping 20d6 electricity damage to everybody in the area! If your campaign is in a cold region, definitely check this out! Even if it's not in a cold region, heck, you can get some other reason to mess up with the weather in a region to use these rules.

Dire Weather: Also from Frostburn. As the party levels up and starts to be easily able to ignore the mundane weather problems, throw them this one!

o -Acid sleet and Razor sleet deal bigger damage.
o -Bloodsnow deals Con damage.
o -Death Hail deals Str and Con damage
o -Howl of the North are even nastier winds
o -Negation Flurry dispels stuff.
o -Rust Flurry destroys equipment.
o And several of them can leave patches of magic snow that replicate those effects even after the dire weather calms down.

Magical Terrain: More nice stuff from Frostburn,
o -Ebony Ice boosts undeads.
o -Faery Frost dazes people.
o - Lighting Pillars shoot lighting bolts to anybody nearby.
o -Snow Geysers randomly explode dealing damage to those nearby.
o -Also fields of bloodsnow, negation flurry and Rust Flurry.

Supernatural Manifestation: yet more stuff From Frostburn, Coldfire is a liquid that doesn't give a damn about gravity, meaning you can totally make walls of it, or all kind of nasty traps. It deals coldfire damage that can't be healed in cold regions. Also snowflake lichen looks like snow and deals cold and Dex damage depending on how close the party is.

Frostburn terrain: This book environment section ends up with different kinds of terrain, but what really stands out here are skybergs. Floating icebergs. Just think of the possibilities!

Sandstorm: The counterpart from Frostburn, Sandstorm focuses on hot envirnoments. Heatstrokes, hot environments, dehydration, all the kind of stuff you expect when you go into a desert, volcano or plane of fire. If your campaign is going through this kind of terrain, you want to check out this book.

Sandstorm Waste Hazards: Like Frostburn, the mundane hazards of Sandstorm are easily countered by medium-high level players, so time to throw the bigger guns!

o -Black sand sucks light creating darkness and deals negative energy damage.
o -A Devil Dune is a mountain of sand that moves on it's own to cover up people and is pretty hard to stop.
o -Flamestorm is literally a rain of fire.
o -Flaywinds deal damage, and can be combined with Black sand for even more lethal effects.
o -Furnace wind deals fire damage together with wind effects, and furnace zones simply deal fire damage without a save.
o -Leech salt makes creature get dehydrated that much faster (altough easily countered by a flask of endless water).
o -Mirror sand makes people blinded just by trying to make spot/search checks.
o -Moondust suffocates people unless they have a specific counter.
o -Plains of glass are harder to travel by, and release showers of shards when nearby explosions happen.
o -Red sea is liquid salt that deal the nasty dessication damage to both creatures and metal equipment.
o -Slipsand is a quicksand in steroids.
o -Slumber sand makes people asleep just by going over it.
o -Wailing Waste makes creature on the area go insane.

Stormwrack: The third book of the “environment” series, Stormwrack focuses on water campaigns. Honestly I have little experience with this one as I mostly do adventures on dry land, but if you like this kind of stuff, definitely check it out as it has plenty of cool water-related stuff! Also gunpowder siege weapons as already mentioned.






Monster formations

Leaving aside the specific case of the big solo monster, most monsters should enter combat with the intent of supporting one another. The rough groups that work best, courtesy of Oslecamo:

Tag Team-Simple and a good start with new DMs, a couple of monsters with opposite themes support each other, like a big brute covering for a caster, or a fast skirmisher being pimped by a slow support monster. Extra points if you make the smaller one ride the other.

Monster Party-same number of monsters as the party, with the monsters filling the iconic roles of tank, offensive caster, support caster, and skirmisher/glass cannon.

Minion Lord-big monster surrounded by minions, which the “Lord” focuses on buffing while hiding behind them and striking at the party's weak points.

Champion- the same as above, but instead of a Lord buffing the minions, you have a big tough monster charging ahead and the minions supporting it from behind while striking at the party's weak points.

Horde-lots of different minions by themselves of the same kind, supporting each other as needed.

Company-complex, but pretty fun if done right, you have one “boss” monster, then two powerful “lieutenants”, two-four “supports” and then a dozen or so of lowly minions, all supporting each other with a wide variety of powers. The best choice for “final” bosses.



Monster roles – attackers vs. defenders

Once again, cribbing a lot from Oslecamo here.
There’s the question of monsters that are on defence versus those on attack when the party runs into them.

Defenders
These are the simplest kind of monster meeting. When the party enters a place, they engage with either pointy sticks or words, depending on the monster and the party's mood.

They come in two main flavours:
Guards-Guards won't go to great lengths to hide themselves. They stand at a place and make sure nobody crosses. Thus, guards should optimize their defensive and detection capacities. They also need to hit hard, either with magic or more physical means. Mobility is expendable, as long as they can hurt enemies at range somehow. They always come in multiples backing each other up, and never sit too near of each other because they're perfectly aware the D&D world is filled with dangerous area effects. Random encounter tables combine well with guards for the chance of reinforcements appearing once the alarm is raised.

Smart guards will normally take their free time making the terrain around them more defensible. Barricades to provide cover, hard terrain to slow attackers, traps, etc, etc.

If nothing else, the guards’ dying screams will warn their allies to the presence of the party.

Ambushers-Ambushers hide in a place the players have to cross, and then jump out to try to get some bits either with magic or more physical means. Optimized hide skill+darkstalker+natural cover/invisibility/etherealness are their main tools. They also need to hit hard. Of course, give the party a chance of actually detecting the ambush if they're extra careful.

Guards and ambushers work well together, with the guards playing as bait, and then the ambushers jumping out of cover to corner the party. In this kind of situation, it works well for the ambushers to have some way to slow down the party instead of hitting hard, so the guards can reach them and gank them together.

Either way, remember again that defenders rarely don't get time for last-minute buffs, so they'll usually compensate for it by setting up the terrain around them in a favourable way, making sure it suits their special abilities.

Attackers
Sometimes, it’s the monsters coming after the party. Since they're the ones taking the initiative, they can take their sweet time buffing up, but on the other hand won't benefit from terrain defense. Like defenders, attackers come in two main varieties.

Assassin- Rely on stealth and trickery to get near the party, then start stabbing/nuking. They're basically like ambushers, but will probably need better stealth powers to get near the party instead of the party going near them.

Vanguard-Those are the dudes that charge at you head on the open and then smash you in the face. Brutes are basically like guards, except they need really good mobility to quickly close up with the party besides powerful defences, otherwise they have a really big risk of being shot to death while advancing.

Assassins and Vanguards work well together with the vanguard providing a big target to catch the party's focus while the assassins get in position and start stabbing.

Either way, remember again that attackers get to drink last-minute potions and other buffs like crazy, but need some way to track down the party and getting to them fast.

Mobile Elites
The cream of the crop, those monsters are capable of switching from defense to attack as needed. Normally have some teleportation SLA, are casters, can turn ethereal to disappear through the ground or have high speed movement.

They focus on wearing down the party, harassing them with long-range attacks, keeping a safe distance and overall making their life hell. If outgunned, they try to retreat to attack again when the party is busy with some other trouble. Dragons are an excellent example of this, with their high speed and breath weapons they can strafe the party forever, forcing them to find a creative counter against an enemy that refuses to face them head on.

And don't forget, monsters that run away are monsters that don't drop loot!



Teamwork Benefits

These are an underused mechanical resource which basically says “assign some skill ranks and a leader to the members of a group, and pick up an interesting bonus that can be used in combat.”

As with a lot of stuff by WOTC, the benefits aren’t good enough to really justify PCs taking them, but since you’re a DM with literally the entire world of NPCs and monsters to fill and draw from, it can be a different story for you. There are some mechanical restrictions – everyone needs an INT score, you can’t have more than 8 in one team, and only 1 teamwork trick for every 4 HD a team member has – but otherwise most of the requirements are somewhere between fluff-only and taking place offscreen, i.e. no real restriction at all. It can even be applied to animals with a DC 20 Handle Animal check, and can be applied to animal companions, mounts and the like.

Since you likely have a lot more feats and skill points to use on prerequisites, they can be worth it when you’re hitting the PCs with a large number of monsters.

Some notable ones:

Coordinated Awareness (FoW): Team Leader takes 4 ranks in Sense Motive and Spot, and has uncanny dodge. Team Members all need 2 ranks in Sense Motive and Spot. If one team member is flanked, but he has another team member adjacent to him, the enemy doesn’t get +2 to the attack rolls from flanking – although other elements of the flanking condition still apply. Not fantastic on its own, but nice when combined with Flanking Enhancement, below.

Crowded Charge (PHB 2): Team Leader takes 8 ranks in Jump, Team members all have 1 rank in Jump. Other team members don’t block movement for determining whether a team member can charge, though the team member still has to end their movement in an unoccupied space. Very nice for tight quarters passages, especially for a front rank of mooks with tower shields and Reach weapons masking the uberchargers behind them. (And consider in conjunction with Wall of Steel below).

Cunning Ambush (PHB 2): Team leader has 8 ranks in Hide and Listen, team members have 1 rank in Hide. If the team members get the team leader to prepare their hiding positions, he makes the Hide check to hide them. This is a very handy boost for low-level mooks supporting an ambusher ahead of the party’s arrival, especially if you rule the leader can take 20 on Hide checks.

Improved Cunning Ambush (PHB 2): Team leader’s got 12 ranks in Hide and Listen, team members have 3 ranks in Hide and the Cunning Ambush benefit. During the surprise round, any team member who’s not surprised and has been camouflaged can take a full round’s worth of actions.

Evade Incoming (FoW): Tumble 8 ranks and base Reflex +7, evasion on leader, Tumble 3 ranks and base Reflex +3 on team members. The more of you are hit with an area effect that allows a Reflex save, the higher a circumstance bonus each of you get on that Reflex save. This is a nice way to mitigate the damage coming in from common stuff like Fireball.

Fearsome Roster (HoB): Leader has Intimidate 8 ranks, team members have 1 rank Intimidate. If there’s two of you visible, the enemy takes a penalty on morale checks equal to 1 + 0.25xHD of the lowest-level member of your team. If you’re going to fear-blast and quietly slip in the morale system from Heroes of Battle then this is a hell of a way to make the job easier.

Flanking Enhancement (FoW): Leader needs 8 ranks in Sense Motive and Spot, uncanny dodge and the Coordinated Awareness teamwork ability. Members need 2 ranks in Sense Motive and Spot, and the Coordinated Awareness ability. The more flanking pairs you have attacking the same foe, the bigger the flanking benefit: two pairs of flankers on a single foe get +4 to hit, not +2, and so on. Tricky to qualify for but for a group of low level rogues (Marrulurks?) swarming the opposition, this could be pretty good.

Friendly Fire Evasion (DMG 2, HoB): Leader needs Spellcraft 4 ranks and evasion ability, members need base Reflex save +2, Spellcraft 1 rank. Get Evasion, but only for spells from your team members. If one of your dudes likes area of effect spells and you have a rogue in the party, this is good for smacking PCs in the face with AoE for once.

Improved Friendly Fire Evasion (HoB) grants Improved Evasion in place of Evasion. Can be combined with Evade Incoming for extra security.

Group Enmity (FoW): Leader needs Favored Enemy and Knowledge 8 ranks in the favored enemy’s creature type. Members need same Knowledge, 4 ranks. Everyone gets half the leader’s Favored Enemy benefits against the favored enemy. It almost warrants having a ranger among the monsters.

Heavy Cavalry (HoB): Leader needs Handle Animal 4 ranks, Ride 8 ranks, Mounted Combat, Trample. Members need 1 rank in Ride. The team member can squeeze into the same squares without penalty, opponents can’t avoid overruns, and the team’s mounts count as 1 size category larger for resolving overruns. Could be pretty loltastic in the right circumstances.

Indirect Fire (PHB 2): Leader needs Precise Shot, BAB +6; Team members need Spot 3 ranks. Cut cover bonuses in half, gain a reroll on miss chance if the target has concealment. Yes, including on invisible opponents. Very handy once the party starts doing disappearing acts.

Invisibility Sweep (DMG 2, HoB): Team Leader needs Blind-Fight, team members don’t need anything. Team members can check for presence of invisible opponents by making touch attacks into squares. If successful, everyone in earshot is considered to have pinpointed the enemy.

JOINT. BULL. RUSH. (HoB): Team Leader needs Improved Bull Rush, team members don’t need anything. If all team members ready a bull rush on the count of the member with the lowest initiative, and all move at the same time, every additional team member in the bull rush adds their STR bonus on the attempt. If you have enough people, or even just a couple of guys with good STR, this is a great way to get stuff like Shock Trooper working.

JOINT. RAM. (HoB): Basically, it’s Joint Bull Rush but using Improved Sunder. By RAW, doesn’t have to apply only to doors, i.e. get to breaking the PCs’ magic weapons by everyone wielding a portable ram or a 10 foot pole!

MASSED. CHARGE. (PHB 2): Team leader needs 5 ranks in Balance, members 1 rank. Everyone moves on the same initiative count, everyone charges and attacks the same target. Everyone gets a bonus on the attack roll equal to the number of teammates participating (above the +2 on a charge). By RAW the charges don’t have to come from the same direction, i.e. you could swarm the PC from all directions and get a very nice little boost to charge attacks. And it’s on a skill you’re likely to take anyway to avoid Grease traps.

Missile Volley (PHB 2): Leader needs Far Shot and Precise Shot, members need Point Blank Shot. If everyone with a missile weapon readies an action to fire with the team leader, everyone (including the leader) gets a bonus equal to the number of team members firing. Everyone except the team leader loses additional attacks … but the team leader doesn’t. This is a great one for a pack of low level, single-shot mooks coordinating with a higher-level archer, especially if the higher-level archer has something like Power Shot from Peerless Archer which allows him to maximise his damage on the shot.

SNAP OUT OF IT (DMG 2): Leader needs Concentration 8 ranks (or Iron Will), members need Concentration 1 rank. Adjacent team member can spend a full-round action to give a team member another save if they’re known to be under a compulsion effect. Rerolls against the PC scanners are always priceless, especially for low costs.

Spell Barrage (DMG 2): Leader needs Spellcraft 8 ranks, team members 2 ranks. When a team member casts a spell needing a Reflex save, all enemies take a -2 on subsequent Reflex saves for each subsequent Reflex save made during that round due to other team members. The benefit itself suggests cheesing this by having UMD rogues cast reflex-drawing spells from wands in order to nerf targets’ saves before the mage comes in with his big blasty spell.

Spell Onslaught (FoW): Leader needs Spellcraft 7 ranks, members 3. If you ready actions to cast offensive spells against the same target at the same instant, get bonuses to overcome Spell Resistance equal to 1 + number of spells being cast against it (maximum +5). Area effects and missed ranged attack rolls don’t count. Look, a +5 on Caster Level checks to beat PC’s Spell Resistance isn’t anything to sniff at.

Superior Flank (DMG 2, HoB): Leader needs +4d6 sneak attack, members BAB +3. Resembles Island of Blades from ToB, if 2 members of the team flank the same enemy, all members of the team can attack as if flanked. Can be handy if you can just get one opponent behind the PC…

Team Melee Tactics (PHB 2): Leader needs Combat Expertise and Dodge, members BAB +6. If a team member uses Aid Another to grant another member a bonus on attack rolls, that bonus increases by +1. One for the lower-end mooks looking to help the big bruiser in their line actually hit, although by the time this comes in it’s a bit low-ish.

Wall of Steel (PHB 2): Leader needs Tower Shield Proficiency and BAB +8, members need shield proficiency and BAB +2. As swift action, adjacent member of the team can lose his shield bonus to AC and grant it to the adjacent team member. Stacks with adjacent shield bonuses, if any. So the two-handed fighter takes the front line and a couple of guys stand behind with tower shields doing nothing but giving AC to the damage-dealer, since arguably you can grant more than one iteration of the bonus from two different sources.

[Saintheart]

Solo Monsters
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Many DMs want to throw a solo boss monster at their party,but it’s a little trickier than it first appears. That’s because a monster on its own can’t take as many actions per round as the party can.

This is true, but it doesn’t mean a solo monster is always outmatched. The issue can be mitigated by several means:

1. Present more threats than the party can counter in a single round.
2. Interrupt the party’s actions so they can’t bring their assaults to bear.
3. Be mobile such that the party can’t bring its melee capabilities to bear.
4. Have defences high enough that the party can take as many actions it wants but only a minority get through.
5. Have offensive capabilities strong enough that party members can be put out of action quickly.
6. Have more actions in a round.

Beholders, for example, use option 1, 2, and 5. They can smash out ten eye rays per round if put to it, albeit a maximum of three in any one direction. Their antimagic eye ray is a pretty good way to interrupt magical means of assaulting them. But (perhaps deliberately) beholders have a lousy touch AC and no Spell Resistance, so they’re still vulnerable.

Dragons are examples of options 3, 4, and 5. Their defences are all-round solid for their CRs, they’re highly mobile, and they have breath weapons and natural attacks that do a lot of damage to potentially multiple targets – as well as spellcasting at the higher levels. Often to make a dragon a serious solo threat it only takes selecting an older dragon of the same kind, together with some judicious selection of spells.

So some suggestions and strategies:

Start from a higher base CR
When planning a solo boss, plan for a CR 3-4 higher than the party’s average level. CR is meant to be a moderate challenge for a party of casual gamers. That won’t cut it for a solo boss fight. Your monster is going to need that advantage in probability to hold its own for a while against the party, and likely the additional abilities. Oslecamo argues that solo monsters don’t lose because they have insufficient actions, they lose because their defences are too low and their offensive capabilities are too weak. Starting at a higher CR is certainly a way to start addressing that.

Shore up the weak spot(s) in your defences
Monsters all have one – and most canny players will look for it or have a good guess what it is. Usually it’s some combination of low AC, a glaringly low ability score, a pathetic save (or saves), lack of Spell Resistance, or vulnerability to a type of damage (e.g. positive damage on undead).


With AC, the real problem is touch attacks and ranged touch attacks, which generally come from the party’s mages. DEX-boosting items help this, as does anything which grants a Deflection bonus. Wings of Cover is a very nice spell for dealing with ranged touch attacks generally, or, for a more evil option, Friendly Fire from Exemplars of Evil. For melee’rs, the low-level maneuver Wall of Blades substitutes your attack roll for your AC, which is handy for the glass cannons. Another option is to layer miss chances -- more rolls means lower probability of a successful hit. Miss chances usually do not layer on one another but two important kinds do: the concealment miss chance from inability to see the target (invisibility/darkness) and the miss chance from not being on the Material Plane at all (ethereal creatures or the Blink spell.) A Blinking target which is also invisible forces an opponent hitting it in melee – even one that rolls a natural 20 -- to make two miss chance rolls. Statistically, the attack will miss 75% of the time. Assuming it passed your AC at all.

On low ability scores, DEX crops up a lot. The reason Shivering Touch is called the dragon-killer is because it hits as a ranged touch attack, pummels DEX, and has no saving throw (but is subject to Spell Resistance, thank Gygax). This often needs to be protected or boosted.

Will tends to be a weak point on stronger monsters and at least warrants a look. Or at least consider getting stronger against mind-affecting magic, which covers a decent array of the annoying player options in this area. Reflex shows up now and then as well since WOTC believed direct-damage spells were meant to be primary ways of bringing down higher level monsters.

On Spell Resistance: get it, via item or template or whatever. There’s so many spells that are subject to it, not excluding Magic Missile. Again, Spell Resistance is generally meant to make a normal spell a 50/50 for affecting you. It is another roll the party mage has to make to hit you with a spell, let alone any saving throws that apply.

Vulnerability to types of damage are a bit tougher to get over, but can be dealt with via magic items conferring resistance to a type of energy damage, or (in the case of undead) by the spell Life Ward, which is kind of meant for this sort of thing. Or just increase your hitpoints, either within the monster’s stats or by picking up temporary hp from somewhere.

Be the sort of creature that isn’t in a spot where it can be hit. Part of dragons’ effectiveness comes from their mobility; a flight speed of 150 feet is just ridiculous at double move or Run. Even dragons with average maneuverability can make massive quasi-long jumps around the battlefield since the dragon just has to be back on the ground before its movement allowance runs out. If the party’s melee specialists can’t close with you, they usually can’t hurt you. Same principle goes for creatures with invisibility, within limits.


Raise your accuracy and damage
Being strong enough to shrug off anything the party throws at you doesn’t mean much if you can’t put some hurt on them. That requires two things: having the sort of attack options that get through party defences more than 50% of the time, and enough damage to make the players sweat (and then, hopefully, fall). Again, what we’re looking at is enough damage to lay out a PC in about 2 rounds of focused attention.

Be a spellcaster
Being a spellcaster just gives you more options, like it or not. You should be considering this and (for once) having a look at handbooks to get your best bang for buck in this area. Not every solo boss needs to be a caster, but there’s a reason most dragons older than pimply teenagers also learn how to cast and get a pretty good set of lists to draw off for those purposes.

Get more actions
There are certainly magic items and spells that help to give you more actions per round: the Belt of Battle. Celerity (ideally,with immunity to daze). Time Stop. However, things like immediate actions or swift actions by default can give you more options per round (and the opportunity to interrupt players’ actions as well). One well-known ab/use is Battle Blessing (all Paladin spells become swift actions, just like that) combined with Ruby Knight Vindicator, which allows you to trade turn undead attempts for additional swift actions per round. Indeed, White Raven Tactics is plain, low-level gold for this, since it basically gives you another round of actions. And WRT is at the low end of stuff in this area, if you’re minded to build with lots of levels in martial adept.

Other ways to get more actions? Have more heads or more attacks which can be taken as a single standard action. Rapid Shot, Splitting enhancement, flurry. The beholder, as said, is a classic for this, but at a lower level the hydra comes in fire and ice varieties and does a lot of hits per round in a similar way. So long as the attacks are something substantial against more than one target at a time, you don’t necessarily need a hundred actions in a round, you may just need one that hits multiple targets with enough accuracy and damage to hurt several PCs. At the lowest end, Pounce affords this to some degree because it allows a full attack to be taken after a charge.

Have a defence to one-shots
Any number of effects/conditions/annoyances can just turn fights trivial if they get through your defences. Slow, stun, daze, that sort of thing. It’s worth considering getting something like Iron Heart Surge, or a reroll chance at least, that gives you at least another shot at shrugging off the encounter-ender and carrying on fighting. Freedom of Movement serves a lot of good purposes in this area, don’t neglect it if you can.



Bending Rules for Solo Bosses

All that being said, sometimes these strategies just aren’t going to cut it and, in order to make the solo boss a memorable one, some cheating Rule Zero may be warranted.

Gestalt
At least it comes direct from the SRD, and nothing says a monster can’t take it. On the contrary -- Unearthed Arcana/the SRD suggests that if PCs have gestalt characters, then any class-levelled opponent in the adventure should also be gestalt since otherwise it’s not an even fight. I’ll leave you to go and look up the rules for yourself, but gestalt basically allows you to combine the abilities of two characters’ classes as one.

The simplest warning on this is that while gestalt does give you more options in a round, it doesn’t give you any more opportunity to use those options. Even if you fuse a mage and a fighter together, you’re not casting standard action spells and taking full attacks in the same round. So the first essential bit of advice with gestalt is to combine something that has a lot of passive bonuses in place at once with something that has active abilities.

Additional actions
In short, let the monster use its secondary abilities (i.e. not its primary caster or melee assault) as free actions once per round. This frees up a lot of space for the monster to get on with crushing the party.

Homebrew: two (or more) creatures as one
I’ve adapted this from an Angry GM hack of 5e’s monsters and Legendary Actions system (it’s set out here (https://theangrygm.com/return-of-the-son-of-the-dd-boss-fight-now-in-5e/) if you want to see the thinking behind it.)

This hack gives you, in effect, the abilities and actions of two monsters combined in one, only a little more effective. I’m going to call this the “Boss Monster Template”.


Boss Monster Template:

Type: Unchanged.

Hit Dice : Double the monster’s hit dice, separated into two pools. These hit dice stand alone and do not increase or alter any ability dependent on a given number of HD such as another template. (Say we have an aranea with its 3d10+6. The Boss Fight Template provides it with 6d10+12, divided into two pools of 3d10+6 each. Those 6d10 hit dice do not mean its BAB or any other features dependent on hit dice change – it is simply two pool of HD.)

Hitpoints: The creature has multiple pools of hit points, each of which is tracked separately. All damage and healing must be completely applied only to one pool of hit points. One pool of hit points must be completely reduced to zero hit points before any damage is applied to another pool. When a pool of hit points is reduced to zero, all ongoing conditions and effects affecting the creature end immediately. After a pool of hit points has been reduced to zero, it cannot receive any healing to that pool for 8 hours. If all pools of hit points have been reduced to zero hit points, the creature is killed. (Our aranea, with its default 22 hitpoints, now has 44 hitpoints – divided into the two pools. When one of those pools is knocked to zero, any spells, conditions, or effect she has ongoing on her – good or bad – are also knocked out. By the way, the hitpoints don’t have to be equal; you could give the impression the creature is tougher, or softer, than it first appears by shifting the number of HP in one pool.)

Special Abilities:
The monster gains the following special abilities:

Boss Monster Alacrity (Ex): The monster may take one complete turn in each round of combat for each hit point pool it has above zero. It also may take one swift or immediate action per round for each hit point pool it has above zero. When a pool of hit points has been reduced to zero, the monster loses one turn and one swift or immediate action each round thereafter. At the start of a fight, the creature rolls for initiative once for each of its hit point pools above zero, and taking the highest result. Each subsequent turn is inserted immediately after any one PC’s turn in the initiative order (at the monster’s choice). (So our aranea, with 2 pools of hitpoints, also gets 2 full turns of actions per round, including 2 iterations of swift actions. When her first hitpoint pool is knocked to zero, she also drops back to one turn per round. She rolls twice for initiative at the start of the fight, taking the higher result, and her second round of actions goes in immediately following any PC’s turn, i.e. she has the capability to react before the entire party has taken its turn – and indeed best choose the moment to react.)

Boss Monster Power (Ex): The monster gains one additional set of uses per day of any (Ex), (Sp), or (Su) ability it has, for each pool of hit points it has above zero. These sets of uses are tracked separately. When a pool of hit points has been reduced to zero, the monster loses one of those sets of uses of abilities, at the DM’s choice. (Araneas normally get 6 uses of their Web ability per day, and the spell allotment of a 3rd level sorcerer per day. As long as our aranea still has two hit point pools, she has 12 uses of her Web ability, and two allotments of sorcerer spells for the day. When one of those pools drops to zero, her uses of Web drop back to 6, and she loses one allotment of sorcerer spells. This obviously encourages your boss to go out hard and fast against the enemy to blow through its uses so it isn’t “wasting” any when its HP gets dropped.)

Challenge Rating: +2.
(This is consistent with WOTC’s calculations that the Encounter Level of two monsters of the same CR is usually the one monster’s CR +2. Unlike fifth edition we don’t have to recalculate the XP budget or similar -- since XP and treasure is set by CR and EL.)

Notes
It really amounts to two of the same monster combined into one creature, with some benefits and drawbacks. What we lose in being able to have different positions with two monsters, we gain back by being able to better respond to the party’s assaults on us. When one hitpoint pool is zeroed, anything horrible affecting us like being dazed, slowed, whatever, also disappears … but any of our buffs or rages also go.

This trick can be scaled up for tougher fights, too. All it takes is multiple hitpoint pools.

One variation suggested in the Angry GM blog (https://theangrygm.com/elemental-boogaloo/) was changing it so the monster gets more turns in a round as its hitpoint pools are zeroed, as a sort of desperate burst of effort. The monster isn’t able to draw on its unique abilities as much, but it’ll be able to resort to desperation and maybe even mostly-futile full attacks as its defences are brought down, giving a different feel to the back end of the fight. If that’s more your thing, replace Boss Monster Alacrity (Ex) above with the following:


Boss Monster Frenzy (Ex): The monster may take one additional turn in each round of combat for each of its hit point pools that have been reduced to zero. It also may take one additional swift or immediate action per round for each hit point pool that has been reduced to zero. Each subsequent turn the monster gains is inserted immediately after any one PC’s turn in the initiative order.

Another possibility – one I haven’t even tried to think through – is to let the Boss Monster Template’s increased HD actually count for the purposes of HD-dependent abilities, e.g. the level of damage reduction the creature gets and so on, and then have those abilities cut out as the monster’s hit point pools are cut away. This would be heavy on bookkeeping, though, and one where depending on the template, the creature’s power would be escalated well past its notional CR. The Multi-Headed template way back up the page probably comes closest to this concept since it flat-out adds HD for each ability to use a head, so you could work off that.

This same template could be used to gum two monsters of different CR together, but again it raises the complexity of the exercise: you would have to pick creatures very close if not identical in HD and CR, and then work out how to deal with their individual abilities (likely by attaching one hitpoint pool to one monster’s set of abilities, i.e. when one hitpoint pool runs out, it loses that set).

[Saintheart]

Roleplaying Monsters in Combat
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Having read all the above advice on tactics, some simulationist/realist/narrative part of you might be saying: “…but how do I justify the INT 6 giant strategizing like Erwin Rommel?” How do you avoid monsters looking like perfect objective observers in their combat, how do you avoid the sense that the battlefield is just a chessboard with the DM sitting on one side moving the monsters around like so many pawns?

There’s only a preface I can give you: first, learn tactics. Then start worrying about portraying the creature. Otherwise, only trying different things will tell you what approach works for you.

But if you’re determined to have verisimilitude in monster combat matching some mathematics, there’s the approach of Keith Ammann, who runs the blog The Monsters Know What They’re Doing (https://www.themonstersknow.com/) and who I assume has made a half-reasonable living out of selling whole books to people trying to fuse D&D combat tactics with the fluff written up for monsters. He writes a blog setting out the tactics monsters use, race by race. The problem is, he’s writing for fifth edition, so by the time you look up a given monster, read its tactics and try to translate the monster’s options into third edition terms … well, you might as well have just gone to read the monster’s statblock and tried to come up with strategies for yourself. And it may be more of a restriction than a creative boost. Especially if you want to run a monster that he hasn’t covered yet. Or you have an NPC opponent like, gosh, a normal human being.

I think this is the most useful page on his blog. (https://www.themonstersknow.com/why-these-tactics/) It contains the premises from which his tactics derive. They’re about as directly applicable to third edition as they get -- because they’re general but provide principles of combat behaviour which match basic concepts in third edition.

They basically say “Your tactics are a range of instinctive to grand strategic depending on your INT score” … and “Your WIS score determines the point to which you will break and run.” He also tries to “anthropomorphise” physical ability scores, e.g. a monster with low STR will always try to swarm an enemy with superior numbers, no matter its DEX and CON, while something with high STR and CON will try to ‘roid rage its way through a fight. He also tries on some reasoning for when a monster will use its special abilities and when it won’t, which depend somewhat on fifth edition’s mathematics. At the very least, it’s a good way to ‘get into’ a monster’s mindset. If you think the mathematics should heavily influence how a monster behaves.


I think there’s other tools that can work just fine, or at least work enough to get you through. In short, ask yourself these questions when setting up encounters which may turn into combat:


What is the monster’s objective?
It often isn’t “Kill the players and dance on their corpses.” It could be ‘protect young’. It could be ‘retain the prey we just killed’. It could be ‘make friends with the party so they can do my bidding’. It could be ‘Eat the party for lunch.’ Or ‘sacrifice a minion or two so the party will pursue me as I fake-retreat into my dragon-infested lair’. Or one of my personal favourites with wolf packs, ‘Harass the party with the objective of panicking their stupid pack animal so said pack animal bolts off at Run speed through the woods taking the party’s loot with it … allowing the wolves to withdraw and go bring it down for lunch, hahaha.’ The point is, an encounter where both sides don’t have the same goal is a more interesting encounter, because it invites the PCs to ask – if even for a moment – if there’s some way other than straight-ahead murder to resolve it.

(By the way, every random encounter table you make should come with another random table which asks “What is the monster doing when the party meets it?”. If you want verisimilitude, if you want interesting encounters, then have the players come across a monster that isn’t just waiting to kill them but is doing something entirely unrelated to the party. Monsters can be haggling for trade. Or trying to figure out how a magic item works. Or playing with their children, heh heh heh. I’ve had encounters where the players came upon a pack of girallons who were just kicking back after having literally ripped a hobgoblin patrol to pieces and eaten them … and the party halfling got to use his Wild Empathy to just saunter the party straight past, since the girallons had already fed and weren’t interested in a fight. “BuT thEY didn’T EARn The WiN!” Yes they did, a party of powerful warriors and spellcasters got to recognise that the small, rotund halfling amongst them had valuable skills to contribute. And they got to make a choice about how they handled the encounter, which is sheer gold in a RPG.)

The monsters’ objective determines what the monsters will do and when it's time to finish the encounter. Knowing the objective helps us to determine the monsters’ tactics, too, which brings us to…


What cost is the monster is willing to wear to achieve its objective?
Rarely will a living creature fight to the death to get something it wants -- even if it wants something very badly. It doesn’t take an INT score for something to figure out it stands a pretty good chance of dying and to decide that whatever it wants, it’s worth fleeing and living to fight another day. On the other hand, if the monster’s objective is to protect its young – or fight a delaying action until said young have gotten clear – or it is flat-out a mindless guardian monster like a Construct or Skeleton -- then it might well take self-destructive action to achieve its aims, whether because its passions are driving it or because it has no sense of risk at all. Costs tell you how much of its resources the monster is willing to commit, too: that pack of gnolls might figure that it’s a waste of resources to try and kidnap the party to sell them as slaves (because adventurers are a pain in the tail and just do annoying stuff like break out of prison or win gladiatorial tournaments culminating in them taking on local autocrats in single combat in the middle of packed arenas)...and so having been rumbled, either (a) run or (b) start using greathammers rather than saps. :)


What sort of combatant does it seem to be?
Look at the monster’s stats and decide broadly which of 3 categories it falls into:(1) a proactive aggressor (2) a balanced combatant or (3) a defensive monster. Feel free to justify your decision off whatever stat/s are high or low, but choose one of them. Then commit to run the creature in combat according to which of those three categories you choose. Proactives wade into confrontations directly, leading with their best abilities; Defensives avoid combat, wait for the right moment, or seek the aid of allied creatures to either shield them or help them carry out their objectives; Balanced combatants fit somewhere in between and select the best strategy that applies. There you have three different basic strategies the monster will take according to its feel, look, personality, alignment, INT, whatever. Provided your combats have the PCs are worried about their lives, a selection of 3 categories is plenty enough for a beginner or even a journeyman DM to manage in the middle of combat. If you want to get more subtle, then do so; if you want to start building teams towards combining these creatures, then do so - but practise representing these 3 different styles of combat approach in your creatures first.


What does the monster’s fluff say about how it fights?
Seriously. Sometimes the writers squeezed inspiring and even chilling stuff into the text accompanying the stats. You can disregard any of the tactical advice in there which you think is stupid, but sometimes there are gems or ideas you can get from the fluff.


What is the monster’s breaking point?
If you don’t want to deeply consider how much punishment a monster’s willing to take before it breaks, a simple morale rule,adapted from the Angry GM (https://theangrygm.com/flesh-is-willing-spirit-failed): every monster, in combat, when it’s down to 25% of its hitpoint total, has to make a DC 12 Will saving throw. If it makes the save, it holds to its original objective. If it fails that throw, it immediately turns to retreat. Or tries to surrender. Or goes berserk on everyone. Or betray its own side.

Which of those four behaviours does it choose? That’s up to you based on the monster, ideally set before the fight starts. The main point is that the creature’s behaviour has a consequence if its resolve to fight fails it. This changes the creature’s objective in the fight, and opens up more possibilities for finishing the encounter than grinding the creature down to -10. Lots of different ways you could play that out, and again it makes the combat more than a chess game.

And by the way, if you’re going to have a continuing villain, giving them clear circumstances under which they retreat is obviously a must!


When all else fails, what do the dice say?
If the party isn’t obvious about who are the spellcasters, or your monster is too dumb to know which is which, then it can sometimes be tricky to decide who to attack first. In which case, there’s two ways to pick: the closest opponent, or one completely at random.


What personality should the monster have?
I mean, this is a big part of your job too. The monsters should talk, they should be chatting, players should be able to overhear them. They should have their own mentalities, some of which Oslecamo suggests:


Mindless-”Destroy! Destroy!”- The most simple, the monster simply attacks the target untill it goes away or one of them stops moving.

Berseker-”WWWAAARRRGGHHH”-This monsters also charge ahead right on, but randomly changes targets depending on its whims. Works better if it can inflict some non-stackable nasty effect.

Mercenary-”Everybody has to earn a living”-This monster works for somebody else for the right price, but its own life is priceless, so it fights cautiously, but only retreats if things look really bad.

Honorable-”I challenge you!”-This monster seeks a worthy opponent, so it attacks the toughest-looking party member. That doesn't necessarily means he will refuse help from teammates or resort to dirty tricks, but it means it doesn't retreat without making sure its allies which can still move can also retreat, or that at least he did some lasting damage to the party.

Coward-”Don't blame me, blame the society that made me like this”-This monster hides behind other monsters, innocents, takes hostages and overall plays as dirty as possible. It strikes the weakest-looking party members, and doesn't hesitate in running at soon as things start getting sour.

Schemer-”Just as planned”-This monster plans ahead. If it retreats, it is only to come back later with a new nastier tactic. It seeks to order/manipulate its teammates around, may feign surrender, and will usually lure the party to traps, or even actually get them to do its own dirty work. Like leading them to kill the good guardian protecting super evil relic from the schemer.

Fanatic-”For the goddess!”-This monster has great faith on one of the other monster, or perhaps some idol/feature on the battlezone. It will blindly follow its orders, and do its best to protect and support it. It only seeks to retreat when the object of it's fanatism has either been destroyed, although may also just break down and surrender.

Brainwashed-”It wasn't me!” -This monster isn't exactly fighting of his own will. Lies, magic charms or unfortunate circumstances may have made it turn against the party. If they notice this and set things straight, they remove an opponent from battle and may even get an ally.

Opportunist-”I'm here just for the money”-this monster is fighting just for profit. Unlike a mercenary, it doesn't have a reputation to worry about, so retreats as soon as things get sour. If the party makes them a good counter offer may change sides during battle.

Sacrificer-”We have reserves”-This monster has minions, and doesn't hesitate to use them to cover up himself, including set of traps and area spells at their expense . May have actual abilities dependent on sacrificing others. And heck, you may actually give it unlimited reserves for the evulz! Retreats when out of minions, but it's assured to come back with more.

Of course, feel free to mix different monster mentalities!

[Saintheart]

Bibliography and Other Useful Lists, Threads, Resources
https://images2.imgbox.com/8b/98/JIWjUJPD_o.jpg



Ur-Priest’s Monstrous Handbook (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?207928-Urpriest-s-Monstrous-Monster-Handbook)


Oslecamo’s 3.5 Monsters Guide (https://storm-shelter.minmaxforum.com/index.php?topic=507.0)


d20srd Encounter Calculator: http://www.d20srd.org/extras/d20encountercalculator/

Average Stats of all MM1 monsters, by Challenge Rating (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?623578-3-5-Average-Monster-Stats-UPDATED-TABLE&highlight=average+monster+AC+BAB).

Online engines for advancing SRD creatures by HD and by (SRD) classes:

http://www.monsteradvancer.com/send/monster/initMonsterCustomization.ma (http://www.monsteradvancer.com/send/monster/initMonsterCustomization.ma)
https://www.dinglesgames.com/tools/MonsterGenerator/dnd35/ (https://www.dinglesgames.com/tools/MonsterGenerator/dnd35/)


X stat to Y bonus (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?125732) – it might not be the cure to MAD, but it makes you a lot more SAD, and it’s always a good reference to have.


Increasing Size/Effective Size/Unarmed Damage/Reach (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?127732) -- because often your melee creatures need to reach further, be bigger, harder, faster, stronger Daft Punks.


Uncle Kitty’s Guide to Template Based Shenanigans (http://minmaxforum.com/index.php?topic=12219.0) -- Comprehensive list of all templates existing under 3.5.


Templates that Don’t Increase CR (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?489470) -- built by the Great Listmaker of GITP, Thurbane. The CR +0 list above is drawn from this.


Person_Man’s Extra attacks, Natural Attacks, AoO compilation (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?127463) – if you want more attacks, and more natural attacks, then stop by right here.


Arsenic & Old Lace: The Poison Handbook -- (http://minmaxforum.com/index.php?topic=2714.0) Ye Olde Guide to optimising poison, which lots of monsters have.


Monster Manual VI (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?255219”]Summoner’s Desk Reference [/url]


weren’t [/i]published in one of the Monster Manuals (thus the VI after the MM.) You’ll need to use Wayback Machines to access many of the links, but it is well worth a look for gems and monstrosities.


Best feats of 3.5 (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?400603) -- of course this will be debated, but if you want to look deeper into feat changes than the ones mentioned above, this isn’t bad further reading.


Compiled rules on armor for nonhumanoids (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?585673)


Non-PHB spells that can be made permanent (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?144321”]List of all ways to augment attack roll -- handy for your purposes, not just players.


really [/i]ancient, this one via Wayback Machine is from when Wizards decided to delete its entire forums about 10 years back. Still a good list of options for Tome of Battle generally.


The World In One Feat: A Shape Soulmeld Handbook (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?321557-The-World-in-One-Feat-A-Shape-Soulmeld-Handbook) -- this is designed around using the Shape Soulmeld and Unlock Chakra X feats above for best advantage. Has lots of good things to use and utilise for players and DMs in this space.


Orbital Flower’s D&D 3.5 Archive (https://orbitalflower.github.io/rpg/resources/wizards-3e-archive.html) -- As you may know, WOTC recently decided to delete its archives of articles that applied to third edition. Even though they’d done it temporarily before and relented after a small protest from the fanbase, and we all should have learned our lessons … well, nobody saved much of it offline (couldn’t really mirror it online legally anyway), resulting in a giant pain in the tarrassque for many people here and elsewhere. Several semi-decent classes, prestige classes, and web enhancements for Wizards’ own books got the “nuke the site from orbit” treatment. Anyway: this list is the simplest compilation of links to where the old articles once were. Obviously not very useful on its own … but it does give you a weblink you can stick into the Wayback Machine and find a copy of the page hidden away back there.



[u]Other ‘Advice for DMs’ websites that don’t completely suck
The Angry GM (http://www.angrygm.com/) – be warned, he’s not for everyone, but he always lays out solid advice, and he’s heavily influenced by a history of third edition. Which is what we want.


The Alexandrian (http://www.thealexandrian.net) – longstanding since roughly the start of third edition, and carries a lot of ‘old school’ philosophy on DMing generally. His articles on ‘Jaquaying’ dungeons and node-based adventures are well and truly worth looking at quite apart from anything he says about monsters.


The Monsters Know What They’re Doing (http://www.themonstersknow.com/) -- as mentioned above.



List of Abbreviations

I’ve drawn from a lot of sources here, obviously, and to save space I have abbreviated all the titles of the relevant books. Those abbreviations are below. Not all sources are cited in the text, but if I do add further to them, they’ll use the following codes:


AEG = Arms and Equipment Guide (3.0)
BoED = Book of Exalted Deeds
BoVD = Book of Vile Darkness (3.0)
CArc = Complete Arcane
CAdv = Complete Adventurer
CChamp = Complete Champion
CDiv = Complete Divine
CMage = Complete Mage
CPsi = Complete Psionic
CSco = Complete Scoundrel
CWar = Complete Warrior
CoR = Champions of Ruin
CoV = Champions of Valor
CScape = Cityscape
DrCo = Dragon Compendium
DlanceCS = Dragonlance Campaign Setting
DMagic = Dragon Magic
DMG = Dungeon Master's Guide
DMG 2 = Dungeon Master's Guide 2
DoFRN = Dragons of Faerun
DotU = Drow of the Underdark
Dragon ### = Dragon Magazine Issue ###
DMicon = Draconomicon
DScape = Dungeonscape
Dungeon ### = Dungeon Magazine Issue ###
ECS = Eberron Campaign Setting
EE = Elder Evils
EoE = Exemplars of Evil
FN = Five Nations
Fburn= Frostburn
FC1 = Fiendish Codex 1
FC2 = Fiendish Codex 2
FF1 = Fiend Folio
FRCS = Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting (3.0)
FoW = Forge of War (Eberron)
F&P = Faiths and Pantheons
GWalk = Ghostwalk (3.0)
LEoF = Lost Empires of Faerun
LibMort = Libris Mortis
LoM = Lords of Madness
MinHB = Miniatures Handbook
MIC = Magic Item Compendium
MM = Monster Manual
MM2 = Monster Manual II (3.0)
MM3 = Monster Manual III
MM4 = Monster Manual IV
MM5 = Monster Manual V
MoF = Magic of Faerûn (3.0)
MoI = Magic of Incarnum
MotW = Masters of the Wild (3.0)
PGtF = Player's Guide to Faerûn
PGtE = Player's Guide to Eberron
PHB = Player's Handbook
PHB 2 = Player's Handbook 2
PlanHB = Planar Handbook
PoF = Power of Faerûn
RoD = Races of Destiny
RotD = Races of the Dragon
RoE = Races of Eberron
RoF = Races of Faerûn (3.0)
RoS = Races of Stone
RoTW = Races of the Wild
SStorm = Sandstorm
SSth = Shining South
SoS = Secrets of Sarlona
SoX = Secrets of Xen'drik
SrpKgdm = Serpent Kingdoms
SpC = Spell Compendium
S&F = Sword and Fist (3.0)
SM = Silver Marches (3.0)
SavSpec = Savage Species (3.0)
SRD = System Reference Document [All game rules from 3.5 PHB, DMG, MM, XPH and some parts of UA]


And lastly: best of luck, friend, you’ve chosen a great and satisfying job.

[Saintheart]

Example Advanced/Upgraded Monsters

Many of these are drawn from Oslecamo's Handbook, but I'll be offering my own as we go...

CR 1/4


Kobold, 1st-Level Expert
Size/Type: Small Humanoid (Reptilian)
Hit Dice: 1d6-2 (1 hp)
Initiative: +2
Speed: 40 ft. (8 squares)
Armor Class: 16 (+1 size, +2 Dex, +1 natural, +2 Leather), touch 13, flat-footed 14
Base Attack/Grapple: +0/-6
Attack: Heavy Crossbow +3 ranged (1d8/19-20x2), or Heavy Crossbow +4 ranged (1d8+1/19-20x2) if target is whitin 30 feet.
Full Attack: Heavy Crossbow +3 ranged (1d8/19-20x2), or Heavy Crossbow +4 ranged (1d8+1/19-20x2) if target is whitin 30 feet.
Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks: Entangling Ectoplasm +3 ranged touch (Entangled for 5 rounds, +4 to hit if enemy is whitin 30 feet)
Special Qualities: Darkvision 60 ft., light sensitivity
Saves: Fort +0, Ref +2, Will +1
Abilities: Str 5, Dex 15, Con 10, Int 10, Wis 8, Cha 11
Skills: Concentration +3, Craft (trapmaking) +6, Hide +9, Listen +4, Move Silently +5, Profession (miner) +2, Search +2, Spot +4
Feats: Hidden Talent (Entangling Ectoplasm), Wild Talent, Point Blank Shot
Flaws: Noncombatative, Frail
Traits: Quick

Combat:
Kobolds Scouts have better stealth and perception abilities than their brethern, detecting the enemy while remaining undetected themselves. In combat, they trap their oponents with special nets (reflufled Entangling ectoplasm) to help their allies and switch to firing their heavy crossbows if all enemies are entangled or they can't throw nets anymore.

Light Sensitivity (Ex):Kobolds are dazzled in bright sunlight or within the radius of a daylight spell.
Skills

Psionic:This kobold has 4 PP and can use the Entangling Ectoplasm power at manifester level 1.

Skills:Kobolds have a +2 racial bonus on Craft (trapmaking), Profession (miner), and Search checks.

Original stats: 9, 13, 12, 10, 8, 11

Entangling is a quite nice debuff at low levels. The kobold scout doesn't do much by itself, but combined with other kobolds it can help them greatly.


Kobold, 1st-Level Warrior
Size/Type: Small Humanoid (Reptilian)
Hit Dice: 1d8-1 (3 hp)
Initiative: +2
Speed: 40 ft. (8 squares)
Armor Class: 16 (+1 size, +2 Dex, +1 natural, +2 Leather), touch 13, flat-footed 14
Base Attack/Grapple: +1/-5
Attack: Light Crossbow +4 ranged (1d6/19-20x2), or Light Crossbow +5 ranged (1d6+1 /19-20x2) if target is whitin 30 feet or tangle
Full Attack: Light Crossbow +2/+2 ranged (1d6/19-20x2), or Light Crossbow +3/+3 ranged (1d6+1 /19-20x2) if target is whitin 30 feet.
Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks: —
Special Qualities: Darkvision 60 ft., light sensitivity
Saves: Fort +2, Ref +2, Will +0
Abilities: Str 5, Dex 15, Con 10, Int 10, Wis 10, Cha 6
Skills: Craft (trapmaking) +2, Hide +5, Listen +2, Move Silently +3, Profession (miner) +2, Search +2
Feats: Rapid Reload, Point Blank Shot, Rapid Shot
Flaws: Noncombatative, Pathetic Charisma
Traits: Quick

Combat:
Kobolds Skirmishers lay in ambush before unleashing his bolts into the enemy. They use their superior speed and fast reload to retreat into hard terrain to protect themselves from charges while they pepper the enemy with projectiles. If caught in melee, they 5-step out of their oponnent's reach and rapid fire two bolts to take advantage of point blank shot.

Light Sensitivity (Ex):Kobolds are dazzled in bright sunlight or within the radius of a daylight spell.

Skills:Kobolds have a +2 racial bonus on Craft (trapmaking), Profession (miner), and Search checks.

A basic ranged minion, able to fire light crossbow bolts at high speed. You can swap rapid shot for weapon focus(heavy crossbow) and light for heavy crossbows for less shots and mobility but extra power and accuracy.


CR 1/2


Dwarf, 1st-Level Warrior
Size/Type: Medium Humanoid
Hit Dice: 1d8+4 (4 hp)
Initiative: -6
Speed: 30 ft. (6 squares)
Armor Class: 21 (+0 size, +0 Dex, +9 Full Plate +1, +2 Heavy Wooden Shield), touch 10, flat-footed 21
Base Attack/Grapple: +1/+2
Attack: Dwarven Waraxe +2 Melee (1d10+1/x3) or Javelin +1 Ranged(1d8+1)
Full Attack: Dwarven Waraxe +2 Melee (1d10+1/x3) or Javelin +1 Ranged(1d8+1)
Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks:-
Special Qualities: Darkvision 60 ft, Dwarf traits, Binding, DR 2/Piercing.
Saves: Fort +4, Ref +0, Will +0
Abilities: Str 12, Dex 11, Con 15, Int 9, Wis 10, Cha 6
Skills:Appraise +2, Craft (blacksmithing) +2, Craft (stonemasonry) +2, Listen +2
Feats: Bind Vestige, Practiced Binder, Improved Binder
Flaws: Unreactive, Pathetic Charisma
Traits: Quick

Combat:
Dwarf Guards don the armors passed down for centuries from their ancestors (reflufled Bind Vestige). They let the enemy make the first move as they stoically watch, then charge away with their axes when they meet the enemy or hold their positions in key choke points. They change to javelins if they can't get close enough to the enemy.

Dwarf Traits (Ex): See PHB.
Dwarves can move at their base speed even when wearing medium or heavy armor or when carrying a medium or heavy load, Stonecunning,

Call Armor:As a fullround action the dwarf guard can call a suit of +1 fullplate over his body, and dismiss it as another fullround action.

Savnok's Armor:The +1 Fullplate from the dwarf guard also grants him DR 2/piercing

Improved Practised Binder: The Dwarf guard can bind vestiges as a 5th level Binder with some limitations. This stat block assumes he's already binding Savnok and already takes in acount its limitation. Consult tome of magic for other details.
Original stats: 12, 11, 13, 10, 9, 8

Comments:
With 21 AC and the bonus against spells and poisons, the dwarf guard is quite durable, and can dish out some pain in return. Quick trait makes sure it doesn't get kited too easily and also takes full advantage of the dwarf not being encumbered by heavy armor. Notice that since his fullplate +1 is a result of the binding ability, it will be gone when the party defeats him. I guess. Otherwise binders would be machines of infinite money right at 1st level. :p

Original stats: 9, 13, 12, 11, 10, 8


Water Orc, 1st-Level Warrior
Size/Type: Medium Humanoid
Hit Dice: 1d8 (4 hp)
Initiative: +1
Speed: 40 ft. (8 squares), Swim 40 ft
Armor Class: 16 (+0 size, +1 Dex, +3 Studded Leather, +2 Wooden Shield), touch 10, flat-footed 13
Base Attack/Grapple: +1/+4
Attack: Longsword +5 Melee (1d8+3/19-20x2) or Javelin +1 Ranged(1d8+3)
Full Attack: Longsword +5 Melee (1d8+3/19-20x2) or Javelin +1 Ranged(1d8+3)
Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks:-
Special Qualities:Aura of Despair, Darkvision 60 ft, Light Sensitivity, Water Race
Saves: Fort +3, Ref +1, Will -5
Abilities: Str 16, Dex 13, Con 13, Int 8, Wis 7, Cha 4
Skills:Jump+7
Feats: Bind Vestige, Improved Binding, Weapon Focus(longsword)
Flaws: Weak Will, Pathetic Charisma
Traits: Quick

Combat:Orc raiders quickly charge into melee where they strike powerful longsword blows. Such is their brutality that those who get too close feel their will to fight back abandon them.

Aura of Despair(refluffled Aura of Sadness):Those who get to close to the orc raider are overhelmed by its bloodthirst and killing intent. Creatures adjacent to the orc raider get -2 to attacks, saves and skill checks while they remain adjacent. This is a mind-affecting ability, and the orc raider can start or end it at will as a standard action. Orc raiders thus fight in disorganized ranks, never close to each other.

Light Sensitivity (Ex): Water Orcs are dazzled in bright sunlight or within the radius of a daylight spell.

Water Race: All members of water races share the following traits.

+1 racial bonus on attack rolls against creatures of the fire subtype, including extraplanar creatures from the Elemental Plane of Fire.
-2 penalty on all saving throws against spells, spell-like abilities, and supernatural abilities with the fire subtype or used by creatures of the fire subtype, including extraplanar creatures from the Elemental Plane of Fire.
Natural Swimmers: Members of water races have a swim speed equal to their base land speed. (If the creature already has a swim speed, it improves by 10 feet.) A water creature can move through water at its swim speed without making Swim checks. It has a +8 racial bonus on any Swim check to perform some special action or avoid a hazard. A water creature can always choose to take 10 on a Swim check, even if distracted or endangered. It can use the run action while swimming, provided it swims in a straight line.

Improved Practised Binder: The orc raider can bind vestiges as a 5th level Binder with some limitations. This stat block assumes he's already binding Focalor and already takes in acount its limitation. Consult tome of magic for other details.

Original stats: 12, 11, 13, 10, 9, 8

Comments: The main advantage of the orc is his great strength that makes it a melee powerhouse, but all the remaining penalties mean it can't really do anything else. Quick helps geting into melee better. Aura of Sadness is a nice area debuff and gives a justification for the orcs to fight in disorganized ranks, but you can make the orc bind other vestiges as well. Savnok for example would result in an heavily armored but slow orc.

Against higher level players, ditch change longswords for greatswords (the weapon focus too) to dish out more damage. You can also do it at low levels if your group likes riskier games, as the orc can easily drop a new PC with one lucky blow from a greatsword.



CR 1


Wild(DR 305) Arctic(DR 305) Wood Elf Archivist 1
Neutral Humanoid (Elf)
Init +2; Senses Low-Light Vision, Listen +3, Spot +3
Languages Common, Elven

AC 14 touch 11 flat-footed 12 (+3 armour, +2 dex, -1 flaw)
Hp 5 (1HD)
Fort +4, Ref +2, Will +1
Speed 35ft (7 squares)
Melee Longspear +2 (1d8+6/x2, reach)
Ranged Long-Range Dragonbone Composite Longbow (+4 strength rating) +2 (1d8+4/x3, 150ft)
Space 5ft.; Reach 5ft., reach
Base Atk +0; Grp +4
Atk options Plunging Shot (+1d6 damage if 30ft above target)
Combat Gear Weapons plus 20 serpentstongue arrows or star arrows or smoke arrows

Abilities: Str 18, Dex 15, Con 14, Int 11, Wis 8, Cha 6
SQ Elf Traits, +1 saves vs. cold
Feats Sudden Extend, Point Blank Shot, Plunging Shot; Noncombatant + Vulnerable Flaws
Skills Concentration +6, Heal +3, Spot +3, Listen +3, Survival +5
Possessions Combat gear plusStudded Leather armour

Spells Per Day 3/2(CL 1): Cure Minor Wounds x3, True Strike, Hunter's Mercy
Spells Known All 0-level plus Cure Light Wounds, Obscuring Mist, True Strike(Elf Domain), Hunter's Mercy(Ranger 1,SpC)
Metamagic: Sudden Extend 1/day

Combat:
It uses Archivist to cast True Strike, then Hunter's Mercy from SpC, using the sudden extend feat on one. Then on the third turn, it fires with a +22 to hit that is an auto-crit if it hits for an average of 36 damage if you position them 30ft up for plunging shot. The maximum potential damage is 54! It only works once, at which point they just become weak archers, but they can still use star arrows to illuminate the battlefield, smoke arrows to screen allies, and serpentstongue arrows to cut ropes and trigger traps! Stick them 150ft away for best results, but 300ft away means they still get +20 to hit.


Lizardfolk, 2hd humanoid
Size/Type: Humanoid (Reptillian)
Hit Dice: 2d8 (9 hp)
Initiative: +0
Speed: 30 ft. (6 squares)
Armor Class: 17 (+5 natural, +2 Heavy Shield), touch 10, flat-footed 17
Base Attack/Grapple: +1/+2
Attack: Club +2 melee (1d6+1) or Javelin +1 Ranged (1d6+1)
Full Attack: Club +2 melee (1d6+1) and Bite -3 melee (1d4) or Javelin +1 Ranged (1d6+1)
Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks: -
Special Qualities: Hold Breath, Aura of Sadness
Saves: Fort +1, Ref +3, Will +0
Abilities: Str 13, Dex 10, Con 13, Int 9, Wis 10, Cha 10
Skills: Swim + 2, Jump +5, Balance +4
Feats: Bind Vestige (Focalor), Improved Bind Vestige
Flaws: Frail

COMBAT: Lizardfolk stagger out to attack foes, spreading their aura of sadness out to as many enemies as possible, they attack the weakest looking first as if they were hunting prey, usually come in groups of 2. Survivors after a battle will bury the dead of both friend and foe alike, mourning the loss of life.

Notes of import: It is a daily ritual at the rising sun to reaffirm their pact with Focalor, and they willingly fail their binder checks and tend to weep throughout the day, the depressing view on life makes the things they love more precious to them, think of it like a religious thing.


Lizardfolk, 2hd humanoid
Size/Type: Humanoid (Reptillian)
Hit Dice: 2d8 (9 hp)
Initiative: +0
Speed: 30 ft. (6 squares)
Armor Class: 12 (+5 natural, -2 Punishing Stance, -1 Flaw), touch 7, flat-footed 12
Base Attack/Grapple: +1/+2
Attack: Spiked Chain +2 melee (2d4 + 1 + 1d6)
Full Attack: Spiked Chain +2 melee (2d4 + 1 + 1d6) and Bite -3 melee (1d4)
Space/Reach: 5 ft./10 ft.
Special Attacks: Steel Wind - Tome of Battle Page
Special Qualities: Hold Breath, Punishing Stance
Saves: Fort +1, Ref +3, Will +0
Abilities: Str 13, Dex 10, Con 13, Int 9, Wis 10, Cha 10
Skills: Swim + 6, Jump +7, Balance +6
Feats: Martial Study (Steel Wind), Martial Stance (Punishing Stance), Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Spiked Chain)
Flaws: Vulnerable, Frail

COMBAT: Being elite warriors they have been trained to attack fast and hard at the edge of their chain weapon, they will trip if an enemy provokes an attack of opportunity and always aim for the strongest looking targets first, comes alone or with a ritualist.



CR 2


Size/Type: Tiny Aberration (Extraplanar)
Hit Dice: 1d10+4 (9 hp)
Initiative: +6
Speed: 15 ft (2 squares), fly 60 ft. (good)
Armor Class: 20 (+2 size, +6 Dex +2 Natural Armor), touch 18, flat-footed 14 (NB Shadow Blend gives total concealment in all but full daylight).
Base Attack/Grapple: +1/-8 (+4 when attached)
Attack: Touch +9 melee (attach)
Full Attack: Touch +9 melee (attach)
Space/Reach: 2½ ft./0 ft.
Special Attacks: Attach, blood drain
Special Qualities: Darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision, Spell Resistance 12, Spell Absorption, Resist Cold 5, Shadow Blend, Fast Healing 2
Saves: Fort +6, Ref +8, Will +1
Abilities: Str 10(+0), Dex 23(+6), Con 18(+4), Int 8(-1), Wis 10(+0), Cha 6(-2)
Skills: Hide +17, Listen +2, Spot +2
Feats: Improved Flight (CAdv), Weapon FinesseB
Environment: Plane of Shadow
Organization: Colony (2-4), flock (5-8), or storm (9-14)
Challenge Rating: 2
Treasure: None
Alignment: Usually neutral evil
Advancement: —
Level Adjustment: +3

Combat
A stirge attacks by landing on a victim, finding a vulnerable spot, and plunging its proboscis into the flesh. This is a touch attack and can target only Small or larger creatures.

Attach (Ex)
If a stirge hits with a touch attack, it uses its eight pincers to latch onto the opponent’s body. An attached stirge is effectively grappling its prey. The stirge loses its Dexterity bonus to AC and has an AC of 14, but holds on with great tenacity. Stirges have a +12 racial bonus on grapple checks (already figured into the Base Attack/Grapple entry above).

An attached stirge can be struck with a weapon or grappled itself. To remove an attached stirge through grappling, the opponent must achieve a pin against the stirge.

Blood Drain (Ex)
A stirge drains blood, dealing 1d4 points of Constitution damage in any round when it begins its turn attached to a victim. Once it has dealt 4 points of Constitution damage, it detaches and flies off to digest the meal. If its victim dies before the stirge’s appetite has been sated, the stirge detaches and seeks a new target.

Shadow Blend (Su): Anything other than full daylight, a shadow creature has total concealment.

Spell Absorption (Su): Whenever a spell fails to penetrate a spellwarped creature's spell resistance, the creature gains one of the following benefits, chosen at the time that the spell resolves.
Might: The spellwarped creature gains a +4 enhancement bonus to Strength for 1 minute.
Agility: The spellwarped creature gains a +4 enhancement bonus to Dexterity for 1 minute.
Endurance: The spellwarped creature gains a +4 enhancement bonus to Constitution for 1 minute.
Life: The spellwarped creature gains temporary hit points equal to 5 x the level of the failed spell.
Speed: The spellwarped creature's base speed increases by a number of feet equal to 5 x the level of the failed spell.
Resistance: The spellwarped creature gains resistance 10 to one energy type (acid, cold, electricity, fire, or sonic).

The default stirge isn't much of a threat outside CR 1/2, but this gives it hovering, better stats, and much more survivability due to Shadow Blend - a 50% concealment chance even when it's grappling. It got one feat swapped (Alertness for Improved Flight), the Elite Array, the Spellwarped template for sweet spell resistance and stat boosts, and Shadow Creature for the concealment chance and Fast Healing 2.


CR 3


Arctic kobold Barbarian 1/Fighter (exoticistDr330) 1/Cleric (Time, War) 1
Feats: 1: Mad Foam Rager (PHB2), 3: Divine Justice (PHB2)
Bonus feats (cleric): Improved Initiative, Weapon Focus (poison ring)
Bonus feats (fighter): Karmic StrikeCW
Bonus feats (flaws): Combat Expertise, Dodge
Flaws: Frail, Vulnerable
Traits: Aggressive
Equipment: Mwk poison ringDrComp


For use in groups against high-level PCs. When a raging kobold is attacked by a PC they can delay the damage for 1 round with Mad Foam Rager, then use Divine Justice to counterattack with equal power. True, their to-hit bonus is low, but poison ring attacks are touch attacks.



CR 4

male grimlock Crusader 3
CE medium monstrous humanoid (grimlock)
Init +2; Senses blindsight 40 ft.; Listen +3, Spot -2
Languages: Common, Grimlock
AC 19, touch 11, flat-footed 18
HP 44 (2d8+3d10+15)
Fort +7, Ref +5, Will +2; zealous surge
Speed 30 Feet (6 squares)
Melee +1 Scythe +11 (2d4+8/x4)
Base Atk +5; Grp +10
Atk Options furious counterstrike, steely resolve 5, death devotion
Combat Gear Potion of Cure Light Wounds (CL 1)
Maneuvers and Stances Readied (IL 4th):
Maneuvers: Crusader's Strike, Charging Minotaur, Foehammer, Leading the Attack, Vanguard Strike
Stance: Martial Spirit, Leading the Charge
Abilities: Str 20, Dex 12, Con 16, Int 12, Wis 6, Cha 9
Feats: Death DevotionComplete Champion, Chosen FoeDrow of the Underdark
Skills: Listen +3, Climb +6, Hide +2*, Intimidate +4, Balance +2, Jump +6 (ACP Applied)
Possessions +1 Scythe, Scale Mail, Potion of Cure Light Wounds
Death Devotion: Once per day, as a swift action, he can cause one of his melee weapons to radiate negative energy for 1 minute. When you make a successful attack with this weapon, the target must succeed on a Fortitude save (DC 11) or gain a negative level. He cannot bestow more than 1 negative level per person.
Blindsight (Ex): Grimlocks can sense all foes within 40 feet as a sighted creature would. Beyond that range, they treat all targets as having total concealment. Grimlocks are susceptible to sound- and scent-based attacks, however, and are affected normally by loud noises and sonic spells (such as ghost sound or silence) and overpowering odors (such as stinking cloud or incense-heavy air). Negating a grimlock’s sense of smell or hearing reduces this ability to normal Blind-Fight (as the feat). If both these senses are negated, a grimlock is effectively blinded.
Tactics: The chieftain is a simple, brutal warrior and a bully at heart. He seeks out the weakest-looking character and charges him in melee, ignoring other targets and even taking attacks of opportunity to pursue his chosen victim.



CR 5


Size/Type:Large Animal
Hit Dice:7d8+18 (84 hp)
Initiative:+2
Speed:40 ft. (12 squares)
Armor Class:24 (-1 size, +2 Dex, +8 natural +5 armor), touch 11, flat-footed 22
Base Attack/Grapple:+5/+16
Attack:Bite +14 melee (2d6+2d6 acid+12)
Full Attack:Bite +14 melee (2d6+2d6 acid+12)
Space/Reach:10 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks:Trip +14 if hit with Bite free trip attempt


Special Qualities:Low-light vision, scent, immunity to acid,
Saves:Fort +12, Ref +7, Will +7
Abilities:Str 28, Dex 15, Con 24, Int 2, Wis 14, Cha 10
Skills:Hide +0, Listen +7, Move Silently +4, Spot +7, Survival +2*
Feats:Alertness, Run, Track, Weapon Focus (bite), improved natural attacks
Environment:Temperate forests
Organization:Solitary or pack (5-8)
Challenge Rating:5
Treasure:Animal Chainmail (300)
Alignment:Neutral Evil



Wood Woad Warblade 1
N Medium Plant
Init +6; Senses Listen +2, Spot +2
Languages

AC 22 touch 13 flat-footed 19, Block Arrows
(+4 natural, +3 dex, +2 shield, +3 armor) +2 with movement
Hp 87(9HD)
Fort +13, Ref +9, Will +5

Speed 40ft
Melee Mwk Trident +14/+9 (1d8+7)
Melee Mwk Spiked Heavy Shield +14/+9 (1d6+7)
Ranged Mwk Trident +14 (1d8+7)
Space 5ft.; Reach 5ft.
Base Atk +7; Grp +16
Atk options Shield Charge, Shield Slam
Special Actions Wood Warp, Treestride
Combat Gear weapons plus two extra tridents, 2 smokesticks,

Abilities: Str 22, Dex 16, Con 20, Int 6, Wis 14, Cha 4
SQ Plant Traits
Feats Lightning Reflexes, Improved Initiative, Improved Shield Bash, Shield Charge, Shield Slam, Brutal Throw, Block Arrow; Murky-Eyed and Pathetic (Charisma) flaws
Skills Balance +6, Hide +7(11), Climb +15
Possessions Combat gear plusMwk Wood Armour

Martial Manoeuvres (IL 5)
Strikes Flesh Ripper, Bone Crusher, Disarming Strike
Stances Absolute Steel

... and that's it, guys, take it away! (I know there are formatting issues all through this massive slab of a thing. I am fixing them as I go. Suggestions are worthwhile, in particular sample upgunned/advanced creatures of your devising!)

[Fizban]

Overall this seems like a thorough explanation of various published ways to improve monsters and some general advice for designing and running encounters.

You will find most of my complaints with presentation and tone, with some organization, and basic logic.


But Ur-Priest suggests if a single adventurer takes on a monster whose CR matches his level, the adventurer should have a 50-50 chance of dying. It is the party’s combined arms that make the fight other than a coin flip for death, because the monster has to divide its attention between four adventurers rather than one.
They may suggest it, but that doesn't mean the "formula" is actually reversible, and it is equally reasonable to take a reading where a solo adventurer should have a 100% chance of dying against a CR matching their level (and if they don't, the non-solo game has failed to mechanically justify adventuring parties). Still, this presentation is not directly stating such an equivalency and almost hedges enough to put some doubt in it, if someone was already so inclined. But even so, I find any mention of the "50/50 duel" inherently destructive to actually evaluating pretty much anything about monsters or encounter design for any game that isn't already a solo game.

If you're going to start by talking about CR, I think you should take the time to talk about the definitions given rather than just directing people to review it themselves, particularly considering how many people treat online srds (which lack that entire section) as sufficient without ever cracking a DMG. You've made no mention of resource expenditure or chance of lethality, instead simply repeating the (frankly useless) phrases such as "good challenge" or "moderate difficulty." There's also no mention of XP/difficulty changes for things such as favorable terrain, inability to retreat, or monster closets- things that are often thrown in for "free" by monster-op'ing DMs (I had a particular word I was using to refer to these and now I can't remember it :smallfrown:).

Some discussion of the DM's role in deciding what those difficulty definitions actually mean is also relevant, as different people will interpret "resources" and "threat" vs "might very well die" differently. Later on discussing bosses you make the usual suggestion of +3-4 CR, which itself comes with either the expectation that either a PC might very well die, or the DM has changed what they expect from CR +3-4. You might think it obvious that a "boss" fight should have a high chance of PC death, but some people, particularly coming from newer editions with far softer death and dying rules, might very well expect that a normal boss should still never result in a PC death.

I also didn't catch, though I may have missed it, a single mention of comparing a monster you're working on to a monster that you know forms a decent benchmark against your party, or re-comparing it to the party after your totally RAW no-adjustment adjustments.

And I should note that while yes, you are intending this guide for DMs that already need to start powering up their monsters to match their PCs, that does not mean that people won't read and immediately start using it before such a need occurs, the same way plenty of people are first introduced to the game by being sent to char-op handbooks and try to show up with (insert build up to and including Pun-Pun). More emphasis on responsible changes rather than "just do it the numbers don't matter" is warranted, unless you want to start training all new DMs to be just as monster-op happy as no-context optimization threads. And as someone said recently in a different thread, in DM vs Player arms races everyone loses.


DMs should know how monsters can be improved by RAW without markedly increasing their CR.
{Scrubbed} If you improved something with a correct CR without changing the CR, it was by definition a minor improvement, else it would have increased the CR.

What I expect you're really saying/trying to say, is that most monsters can have their power increased by methods that don't officially have CR increases attached to them, {Scrubbed} And while this might make the DM feel good about "following the rules" the same way the players are when building their characters, the results are no more or less true because they were achieved via methods which have no RAW CR change.

A slightly more charitable reading is that you mean that so many monsters are under-CR'd it is safe to improve almost any monster, expecting it to merely get closer to the incorrectly marked CR. Which is only true if most monsters are actually under-CR'd compared to your party, a presumption that you are clearly writing the guide for {Scrubbed} or the fact that people will absolutely use optimization guides without actually comparing to their group. Any line that says "you can do X" on its own, can and will be taken as a license to ignore responsibility. Using such a line so early on is not a great move.

Edit: Actually upon review, I now think what you're trying to say is that you can make a number of minor adjustments without grossly exceeding published CR (see next section).

Really, the whole point of the guide needs a giant asterisk that it's playing in its own restrictions. PCs have to be optimized within what the DM allows. The DM only has to follow rules regarding monsters if they decide that they do- and whether or not you follow the written guidelines does not mean it will automatically work or absolve you of responsibility.


And in its defence, if you don’t increase CR by huge amounts, the math generally works okay. All you’re getting here are tools to make things a little bit harder. Either way, you need to understand the tools.
Either the grammar is wrong, or you're using CR wrong. I believe what you mean to say is that if you're making relatively small adjustments, the CRs remain mostly accurate. With a presumed but unstated "adjustments similar in magnitude to those of your PCs," which should be outright stated. And many of the tools you're suggesting are far from small.

{Scrubbed} Just like any optimization treatise, you emphatically suggest various power moves expressly based on their "cost"/benefit evaluations, and following these will, just like any optimization handbook, eventually (and even quite quickly) break the CR system.

Edit: And for lack of a better place to put it- there are also the monsters that have already been char-op'd to consider: As I mention below, some monsters very clearly lack certain feats they could have "taken" already. But some monsters, particularly in the flat-out higher power monster books, already have all those feats, making it far more difficult to make a small adjustment. And for that matter, one should probably also mention the vast jump in power between some books, and the existence of various outlier monsters real or perceived, when discussing the roughness of CR.


[Class Levels and such]
This should probably also include a discussion of how the various ways people generate PCs and NPCs in their games are also going to massively affect just how much actual power results from giving out class levels. If you link a class level to a free upgrade to Elite stats, or an even more powerful rolling method, or if it just grants some non-elite array variation, etc.


Third edition’s designers had many presumptions about how people would play the game. Many of those presumptions did not pan out, and as the library of 3.5 books expanded, so did the availability of much, much better options.

If a monster has a rubbish feat, change it. Freely. Without remorse, without conscience. You are explicitly permitted to do so under the rules. You’re not going to turn a CR 1 creature into an engine of death. Quite the contrary, most feat changes just turn a monster from negatives to a net zero to allowing them to play the role that they’re meant to.
And there's exactly the line I was expecting. The rest of the guide, at a skim, seems mostly a description of how to apply various existing advancement and alteration rules, but those all have costs (and thus advice on how to get the most out of those "costs"). Sure you're not going to turn a CR 1 monster into an engine of death, because CR 1 monsters can barely threaten 1st level characters, that's not news.

The phrase "turn a monster from negatives" reveals a general contempt for most monsters, presuming that they have no justification for being written the way they are, but when there are MM1 monsters clearly lacking feats they could have "taken" and instead having Toughness x3, that clearly shows there was a choice being made. That there is some justification. You can change it, but doing so is not saving the monster from some negative state it was cursed to- you're intentionally making it more powerful{Scrubbed}. Heck, you mention Altertness, which was specifically added to a bunch of things (primarily animals but I suspect quite possibly more) during the 3.5 update because the update added more feats, and they needed a feat that wouldn't make them more powerful to fill in the extra slots created by streamlining base rules. And if anything, I get the feeling that a lot of older monsters were intentionally written such that the monster feats were for advancement, not the base monster, so there was room to actually improve a monster aside from just hit dice when adding hit dice.

Meanwhile there are absolutely some single feats that can make monsters originally written without them far more dangerous. There's a 3rd party feat I have listed for potential Animal Companion use that if I applied it to say, a T-Rex, would give it two attacks instead of one. That's not some consequence free decision. There's a feat from Dragonlance that can be used to give anything the ability to move before full attacking, gee that doesn't seem huge does it? Improved Flight completely changes how many fliers work. Maximize Breath turns many breath weapons into save-or-die if you're not otherwise protected. People love their Quicken Spell combos, adding Quicken SLA to let a monster instantly do a combo it couldn't have before should have obviously, intentionally outsized ramifications.

Again, it's the attitude here that I find most offensive. In some sections you might be moderate and thoroughly describe consequences, and in others it's suddenly "this is 100% legal and you should to it without thought or remorse because reasons." Feats are one of the lowest-impact and sometimes most effective ways to adjust a monster ("within the rules," rather than fiat of course), but I really hate the way people walk around acting like they're "free." If I took a PC with a bunch of crap feats and switched them to Ubercharging or Divine Metamagic, would that be a totally fair zero-sum change? No, obviously not. The original either was already appropriate, or it was not, and after the change it either ends up appropriate, or it does not. Changing one or more feats can make a PC fit in a given game better. Changing one or more feats can make a monster fit better. This does not mean you should replace any and every feat you feel like just because it's "free."


Not if you’re smart and spend that massive balance on expensive but potent consumables
I would have expected some reminder of the incredibly drastic change between X, and X loaded up with a bunch of consumable effects, making any CR, RAW or re-imagined, worthless, but I see pretense has been abandoned in favor of full max-op or bust vibes.



Note players’ AC, HP, Saves , Movement Modes, Attack bonus, and Spell Save DCs.
Be able to drop one player in 2-3 rounds of attacking the player (more or less if they're minions or solo bosses respectively). This can be accomplished by extreme accuracy with low damage, extreme damage with low accuracy or something in between (like 50% chance to hit, one attack per round, deal half the total HP of the player in damage with each blow). High accuracy with low damage makes it easier to see if you're going overboard or not.
Be able to resist at least 2-3 rounds of direct attacks from the whole party (more or less depending if they're solo bosses or minions respectively). This is accomplished by a combination of high HP, saves, DR and other special defensive abilities to make sure the monster can keep going.
Monsters’ special abilities should have save DCs resulting in affecting the party around 50% of the time (except for full-disabling/insta-kill powers, you really don't want to pump those up unless you and your party enjoy TPKs).
In the same vein, make sure your monsters have some trump cards of their own so they aren't one-shotted too easily. Martial study feat or Warblade dip can do wonders here. A simple IRON HEART SURGE for example can remove that blindness/fog/maze the wizard just dropped on the monster. Feral Jump provides swift-action movement to escape entangles and greases.

These are some reasonable enough goals- and ought to have been at the top of the document (along with some stuff from the previous bullet list), rather than not appearing until after you've jazzed people up with all the RAW ways they should be powering up their monsters. Without the goals upfront (and repeatedly re-)stated, all that char-op will naturally be read as outright endorsement of as much of itself as you can cram in, for its own sake.

And I would note that if the monster can survive the whole party for 2-3 rounds, and kill a PC in 2-3 rounds, a solo PC ought to take 8-12 rounds to kill it. Which means a solo fight at equal CR under these goals should result in a 100% kill rate, not a 50/50. Thus proving my previous statement.

This can be different if we judge including asymetrical party roles and expected tactical variations rather than just numbers in a void, hint hint (the actual practical result of most "50/50 duels" should be a forgone conclusion, different based on character types, unless the party are all homogenized).

Actually, you haven't stated that advice is for equal CR either, which becomes mighty important with the next bit-

Generally on tactics:
You're recommending equal to double the PC's number in foes for every fight, but have neglected to mention the CR- at equal CR these should be EL +4 or higher fights, otherwise you're using many monsters of lower CRs. Which I believe was the traditional standard, but without stating it up front in both the CR section and again down here, you're not fully setting expectations, leading to either every fight is a boss fight, questions of why each individual foe is so weak, or even an attempt to char-op each lower CR foe until it hits those 2-3 round goals within RAW methods so that an "equal" EL fight is actually +4 higher.

Further down we have the expected "use all sorts of terrain and other modifiers," going so far as to mention murder holes and arrow slits, without a note that such advantages normally warrant an acknowledgment in difficulty increase and commensurate rewards. (And if you needed extra stuff over and above the basics for the monsters to work, you have acknowledged they were under CR'd,)

And you mention monsters running away, but this is another thing that should be mentioned way back at the beginning, because it's a massive fundamental assumption regarding challenge. If monsters are defeated when they run away, and they run away with sufficient hp to avoid dying, their effective hit points are less than what's in the statblock. Is this expected? For some foes but not others? Seriously important questions that need to be answered before you can start calibrating.


Ambushers
You seem to have implied, though I would have stated it more directly, that ambush monsters are meant to get their ambush (unless the party has gone over and above enough to prevent it). However, there is more evaluation to be done: ambushers are expected to be overall weaker- less tough and less damaging, than other monsters, because they are supposed to get that ambush. In particular, while a higher CR monster might have a standing full attack capable of a 1-round kill against much of the party*, and ambush or pounce monster with such damage is rather unfair.

*In violation of your previous 2-3 round rate of damage, but reasonable at levels where instant death abilities exist, and an example of how such an example goal could use more mention of variety.


CR is meant to be a moderate challenge for a party of casual gamers.
Should be published/written/etc CR, also ignoring the use of "moderate" since that discussion should have appeared back in the CR section. The term casual gamers, as incredibly imprecise as it is, however, is pretty apt yes. If you want to make a point that the standard CRs are so bad that any optimization in the party excuses the DM to do the same, you ought to mention the statblocks in Enemies and Allies which truly show how not-forum-op the game is meant to work with (though those builds were probably piloted by people who knew and used the base rules/tactics/etc far better than some people that can only see numbers on paper)



In the end, it is no surprise that a game full of char-op possibilities will naturally have participants running the monsters wanting to do the same thing, with their monsters. And indeed choosing the changes they make from within the published guidelines first is a useful, casual limit and shortcut, rather than slapping arbitary numbers/abilities/whatever together and manually re-checking everything against the party every time. But treating the published guidelines for DMs to easily modify monsters as a hard set of rules that they can totally RAW optimize within, the same way PCs are optimized within the campaign's limits, and training people to do so, quickly courts disaster. Because those "rules" for modifying monsters are, just like custom magic items, just like everything else in the game, guidelines that the DM is supposed to use with caution and a goal of maintaining balance within the game. Such a guide should begin with ample warnings that the DM is not here to char-op monsters for their own sake, forcing the PCs to git gud or git dead (unless of course the players have all explicitly agreed to this), that they must have a firm grasp on where they are and where they're going before changing more than even just a couple of things at a time.

And in particular, should never use language suggesting the DM has a pre-approved carte blanche for anything. A responsible DM knows that nothing is "free." If you make a change to make something more powerful, it's because your PCs were strong enough the monster could afford it- not because feat substitutions or assigned "treasure" or limited nova capabilities or something else was simply a "free" DM choice that didn't officially change the RAW CR.

[Biggus]

Thank you for doing this. I haven't read it all so far, but I will.



Monsters that have “Advancement: By Character Class” in their statblocks receive NPC gear, and all other monsters just get the treasure their CR indicates (per p. 291 of the DMG – see more about monster equipment further down).

I can't find this on p.291 of the DMG, is there a typo here?

Edit: ah, it appears you meant MM p.291.

[Saintheart]

Thank you for doing this. I haven't read it all so far, but I will.



I can't find this on p.291 of the DMG, is there a typo here?

Edit: ah, it appears you meant MM p.291.

Yep, my mistake. I'll fix that very shortly.

[Thurbane]

Love the guide and concept, look forward to having time for a through read through.

[Saintheart]

Love the guide and concept, look forward to having time for a through read through.

Thanks man, some of your lists got a mention! :)

[Beni-Kujaku]

That seems great, and I will take the time to read it fully.

A few minuscule things that may bear notice:

- Might want to say something in the Ghost template about low-level parties. You already said that CR is a rough estimate, but a ghost can be straight unbeatable depending on the party at low level, and CR+2 doesn't really reflect that. Also mention that incorporeal templates favor heavily creatures with SLAs and passive (Su) while Bone creature and skeletons favor creatures with many limbs. A bone anthropomorphic octopus has 6 claw attacks and might not be worth its CR 2.
- True dragon SLAs CL are the same as their sorcerer caster level, which makes Practiced Magic almost useless to them, they get much better value from Practiced Spellcaster. That said, obligatory mention of Dragons of Eberron's sovereign archetypes if you want to improve your dragons.
- Your example for nonassociated class levels with the wizard bugbear falls a bit flat, considering a bugbear with 10 Int cannot cast any spell above cantrips. You could mention that such a bugbear would probably put its ability score increase in intelligence and end up with 11, though.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by Thurbane
Love the guide and concept, look forward to having time for a through read through.

Seconded.


Originally Posted by Saintheart
…I'm still debating whether to include sample upgunned/advanced creatures in here or not.

As a harried DM who’s better at story and RP than mechanical tinkering, sample creatures would really help.

[Saintheart]

That seems great, and I will take the time to read it fully.

A few minuscule things that may bear notice:

- Might want to say something in the Ghost template about low-level parties. You already said that CR is a rough estimate, but a ghost can be straight unbeatable depending on the party at low level, and CR+2 doesn't really reflect that. Also mention that incorporeal templates favor heavily creatures with SLAs and passive (Su) while Bone creature and skeletons favor creatures with many limbs. A bone anthropomorphic octopus has 6 claw attacks and might not be worth its CR 2.
- True dragon SLAs CL are the same as their sorcerer caster level, which makes Practiced Magic almost useless to them, they get much better value from Practiced Spellcaster. That said, obligatory mention of Dragons of Eberron's sovereign archetypes if you want to improve your dragons.
- Your example for nonassociated class levels with the wizard bugbear falls a bit flat, considering a bugbear with 10 Int cannot cast any spell above cantrips. You could mention that such a bugbear would probably put its ability score increase in intelligence and end up with 11, though.

Thanks for the suggestions - I will get them in there one way or the other ASAP!


As a harried DM who’s better at story and RP than mechanical tinkering, sample creatures would really help.

Okay, I'll get some together. There's a pack over from Oslecamo's thread I'll bring back up or maybe come up with a few of my own.

[Elves]

I don't think you should write a guide to help DMs make NPCs only to casually throw out one of the key ways building NPCs differs from building PCs, nonassociated class levels.

The nonassociated class levels rule shouldn't be thrown out, on the contrary it's a useful and accurate tool that only breaks down at the extremes.

And I actually think your own argument shows that it's not unreasonable even in some fairly extreme examples. For example, a stone giant wizard 14 only has +1 CR compared to a human wizard 14, even though it has 14 extra HD! But in a way, this makes sense exactly because "casters are king" -- the NPC's spells as a high-level wizard are the overwhelming part of its power, regardless of its RHD, and are the same in each case.

It doesn't have to be balanced like a player option, because it isn't one. A player would use the giant wizard's ECL which would be much higher. What matters is its threat level to the party. Say we ignore the nonassociated levels rule and compare that 14th level human wizard to a stone giant wizard 6. The human is so much stronger it isn't funny. We can see that while neither method is perfect, even at this extreme, the nonassociated levels rule is providing a more accurate result.

Finally, note that in book examples, nonassociated levels are only used in cases where the monster is in no way predisposed to the class. Even a high racial bonus to a caster class's ability score can be enough to treat the class as associated.

[pabelfly]

This is great work, thanks for your efforts.

[Saintheart]

I don't think you should write a guide to help DMs make NPCs only to casually throw out one of the key ways building NPCs differs from building PCs, nonassociated class levels.

The nonassociated class levels rule shouldn't be thrown out, on the contrary it's a useful and accurate tool that only breaks down at the extremes.

And I actually think your own argument shows that it's not unreasonable even in some fairly extreme examples. For example, a stone giant wizard 14 only has +1 CR compared to a human wizard 14, even though it has 14 extra HD! But in a way, this makes sense exactly because "casters are king" -- the NPC's spells as a high-level wizard are the overwhelming part of its power, regardless of its RHD, and are the same in each case.

It doesn't have to be balanced like a player option, because it isn't one. A player would use the giant wizard's ECL which would be much higher. What matters is its threat level to the party. Say we ignore the nonassociated levels rule and compare that 14th level human wizard to a stone giant wizard 6. The human is so much stronger it isn't funny. We can see that while neither method is perfect, even at this extreme, the nonassociated levels rule is providing a more accurate result.

Finally, note that in book examples, nonassociated levels are only used in cases where the monster is in no way predisposed to the class. Even a high racial bonus to a caster class's ability score can be enough to treat the class as associated.

I understand your view, and my resort is back to rationale #1 for why I take that rule of thumb: if you're not increasing the monster's strengths, then why are you adding a class level to it at all? Point is, if you're taking the time to add a class level to it, presumably you're doing so because you think the monster in its unaltered form is not a sufficient challenge at its current CR for the entire party. And you've presumably added a class level because the level does something for the monster's combat/encounter-based abilities. You are, by definition, seeking to build on the monster's strengths. On WOTC's own guidelines, that warrants a +1 to CR.

As I've also said in the guide, adding class levels to a monster - if you follow the Monster Manual on equipment purchases for them - also has a big impact on the gear it's got available, which might warrant an increase in CR just on the shift in gear alone. The Stone Giant, unaltered, is CR 8, and gets Treasure of a CR 8 creature: 3,400gp.

A Stone Giant Wizard 14 is an ECL 30 creature: 12 HD + 4 LA + 14 Wizard levels. That gives it 570,000gp in NPC gear on the Monster Manual (and the EPH, since we're in epic levels territory). I grant you a Wizard 14 is strong, but there's a lot of ground the stone giant could make up in custom items or gear -- or at least that'd be my view compared with the 14th level Wizard's WBL of 56,653gp (DMG p.54).

[Elves]

You are, by definition, seeking to build on the monster's strengths. On WOTC's own guidelines, that warrants a +1 to CR.
I don’t think the system assumes that. The system is a machine that gives you formulas to make any combination that’s possible. It tells you that, for example, a level of samurai isn’t going to make a willowisp +1 CR, but two could. Just as adding two RHD to an undead won’t, but four could.

+ you’re taking the strongest classes, primary casters, and using that to justify the change. All the classes that are weaker get shafted.


A Stone Giant Wizard 14 is an ECL 30 creature: 12 HD + 4 LA + 14 Wizard levels. That gives it 570,000gp in NPC gear on the Monster Manual (and the EPH, since we're in epic levels territory).
Don’t think that’s right (which is obvious since this is a CR 14 encounter). My understanding is you would add the WBL of a 14th level NPC to the treasure value of the base stone giant.

[Saintheart]

Don’t think that’s right (which is obvious since this is a CR 14 encounter). My understanding is you would add the WBL of a 14th level NPC to the treasure value of the base stone giant.

And that's a subject I talk about in the "Items and Treasure" section, because the DMG and the MM have different rules on this. So you have to make some decisions about which one you're going to follow.

The DMG does basically say what you're indicating: if a NPC has class levels, then under (EDIT: p.127 of the DMG, not p. 52) it gets NPC Gear at the NPC Level, i.e. level 14. I don't think it indicates WBL, it speaks of NPC Gear specifically.

Page 291 of the MM, top left corner, though, says differently:


If you choose to equip a monster with gear, use its ECL as its character level for purposes of determining how much equipment it can purchase. Generally, only monsters with an Advancement entry of "By character class" receive NPC Gear; other creatures adding character levels should be treated as monsters of the appropriate CR and assigned treasure, not equipment.

Stone Giants, specifically, advance by character class. ECL, per p. 290 of the MM, is RHD + Class Levels + LA.

[Fero]

Fantastic guide. I will recommend this to my DMs. The only thing I would suggest is more discussion of Incarnum. I find MiC to be very useful to Monsters because you can add a host of special effects to monsters through two feats (Shape Soulmeld and Open Chakra X). A good guide to the topic is at https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?321557-The-World-in-One-Feat-A-Shape-Soulmeld-Handbook .

[Saintheart]

Fantastic guide. I will recommend this to my DMs. The only thing I would suggest is more discussion of Incarnum. I find MiC to be very useful to Monsters because you can add a host of special effects to monsters through two feats (Shape Soulmeld and Open Chakra X). A good guide to the topic is at https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?321557-The-World-in-One-Feat-A-Shape-Soulmeld-Handbook .

I confess I haven't had a lot to do with Incarnum, but this gives me a good signpost and starting point for further reading. Appreciated!

[zlefin]

A well written guide; I'd recommend making a clear distinction about high-op vs low-op ways of improving monsters, as the guide feels like it veers towards higher op suggestions without factoring in that that might not be good fit for some tables; and mention how certain combinations are prone to being far deadlier than the listed CR guidelines. Maybe that was in there though and I missed it.

[Saintheart]

A well written guide; I'd recommend making a clear distinction about high-op vs low-op ways of improving monsters, as the guide feels like it veers towards higher op suggestions without factoring in that that might not be good fit for some tables; and mention how certain combinations are prone to being far deadlier than the listed CR guidelines. Maybe that was in there though and I missed it.

No, you didn't miss it and it could probably use some of that. I'll give some thought to it and try and insert some material on the subject.

[Elves]

Page 291 of the MM, top left corner, though, says differently:
This quote mentions level adjustment, which isn't relevant to NPCs, and would result in absurd conclusions like what we just mentioned (a CR 14 NPC with 560,000 gp of treasure), so vis-a-vis NPCs it can safely be discounted in favor of the DMG quote. That would be useful to point out in the guide.

[King of Nowhere]

while your guide is very thorough and looks well made (I only skimmed it), I think it has some flawed premises. namely, that the dm answer to an optimizing party is to optimize monsters without altering their CR.
don't get me wrong, it works to some extent. however, there's only so much you can do by optimizing some feats and giving a couple extra hd. let's face it, most monsters are designed to never, ever be a real danger. they rarely have any significant offensive capability. and while they tend to have big hit points, they are also normally easy to hit for a party of appropriate power. they are made to not be too challenging even for a low optimization party of casual players who would play a rogue-wizard multiclass.
and so, as the optimization level of the party increases, a few feats and better teamplay aren't going to help the monsters. you mention ideally a monster would survive 2-3 turns against the party attacking it; at my table, only the tankiest bosses have a hope of surviving two rounds against the party focusing them. Three is out of the question, barring some luck or the party trying to conserve their resources. this is a natural outgrowth of optimization level; I even tried to ban stuff and homebrew other stuff to favor defence, but the end result is that you can generally survive a full attack/spell combo from one opponent. Two if you're tanky. surviving the full party? hard pass.
if you want to achieve that goal, you need monsters with a lot higher numbers. more defences, more hit points, more ac. this means higher cr for sure.
you mentioned that if you use higher cr monsters you need to give more xp, leveling up too quickly ("a cr 15 monster against a level 6 party"). but that's just not true, because you are the one giving out xp. and as far as I can tell, very, very few dm give out xp based on the cr of encounters defeated. even if you are one of the few that does, counting the party as two (or three, or five) levels higher because of their optimization level is something perfectly reasonable. especially if the alternatives are having pushover encounters, or leveling up at every combat.
so this is the major flawed premise I see: you don't have to try and stick to a cr. because cr is, at best, a rough estimate. ultimately, you decide what's a proper challenge for the party, and you shouldn't let yourself be straightjacketed by some numbers adjusted by eyeballing and taken out of context.

that said, to avoid sounding contrary I want to reiterate that i find your guide very well written. and useful; because while challenging a high-op party requires higher numbers, you still need to optimize your monsters strategies and tricks - unless you want to go into really ridiculous numbers, which has its own problems.

[Saintheart]

while your guide is very thorough and looks well made (I only skimmed it), I think it has some flawed premises. namely, that the dm answer to an optimizing party is to optimize monsters without altering their CR.
don't get me wrong, it works to some extent. however, there's only so much you can do by optimizing some feats and giving a couple extra hd. let's face it, most monsters are designed to never, ever be a real danger. they rarely have any significant offensive capability. and while they tend to have big hit points, they are also normally easy to hit for a party of appropriate power. they are made to not be too challenging even for a low optimization party of casual players who would play a rogue-wizard multiclass.
and so, as the optimization level of the party increases, a few feats and better teamplay aren't going to help the monsters. you mention ideally a monster would survive 2-3 turns against the party attacking it; at my table, only the tankiest bosses have a hope of surviving two rounds against the party focusing them. Three is out of the question, barring some luck or the party trying to conserve their resources. this is a natural outgrowth of optimization level; I even tried to ban stuff and homebrew other stuff to favor defence, but the end result is that you can generally survive a full attack/spell combo from one opponent. Two if you're tanky. surviving the full party? hard pass.
if you want to achieve that goal, you need monsters with a lot higher numbers. more defences, more hit points, more ac. this means higher cr for sure.
you mentioned that if you use higher cr monsters you need to give more xp, leveling up too quickly ("a cr 15 monster against a level 6 party"). but that's just not true, because you are the one giving out xp. and as far as I can tell, very, very few dm give out xp based on the cr of encounters defeated. even if you are one of the few that does, counting the party as two (or three, or five) levels higher because of their optimization level is something perfectly reasonable. especially if the alternatives are having pushover encounters, or leveling up at every combat.
so this is the major flawed premise I see: you don't have to try and stick to a cr. because cr is, at best, a rough estimate. ultimately, you decide what's a proper challenge for the party, and you shouldn't let yourself be straightjacketed by some numbers adjusted by eyeballing and taken out of context.

that said, to avoid sounding contrary I want to reiterate that i find your guide very well written. and useful; because while challenging a high-op party requires higher numbers, you still need to optimize your monsters strategies and tricks - unless you want to go into really ridiculous numbers, which has its own problems.

I appreciate the comments and the spirit they're given in; I wasn't particularly trying to say that an optimising party was to be met with these tactics by a DM, but I will review the thread and see if adjustments are needed as a result.

[Fero]

I appreciate the comments and the spirit they're given in; I wasn't particularly trying to say that an optimising party was to be met with these tactics by a DM, but I will review the thread and see if adjustments are needed as a result.

I did not get the impression that you were trying to suggesting improving monsters as a cure to optimization. To the contrary, the guide seems more generically useful to any DM who wants to improve monsters. That said, different people can read one thing different ways. Whatever the interpretation, great job again.

[Saintheart]

So as much for my own amusement as serving as any sort of example, I thought I’d try out some of this stuff on a monster and see where it gets me. Thus, I present a few different takes on how I’d improve an oversized mosquito, er, the stirge.


Stirge
Size/Type: Tiny Magical Beast
Hit Dice: 1d10 (5 hp)
Initiative: +4
Speed: 10 ft (2 squares), fly 40 ft. (average)
Armor Class: 16 (+2 size, +4 Dex), touch 16, flat-footed 12
Base Attack/Grapple: +1/-11 (+1 when attached)
Attack: Touch +7 melee (attach)
Full Attack: Touch +7 melee (attach)
Space/Reach: 2½ ft./0 ft.
Special Attacks: Attach, blood drain
Special Qualities: Darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision
Saves: Fort +2, Ref +6, Will +1
Abilities: Str 3 (-4), Dex 19 (+4), Con 10 (+0), Int 1(-5), Wis 12(+1), Cha 6(-2)
Skills: Hide +14, Listen +4, Spot +4
Feats: Alertness, Weapon FinesseB
Environment: Warm marshes
Organization: Colony (2-4), flock (5-8), or storm (9-14)
Challenge Rating: ½
Treasure: None
Alignment: Always neutral
Advancement: —
Level Adjustment: —

Combat
A stirge attacks by landing on a victim, finding a vulnerable spot, and plunging its proboscis into the flesh. This is a touch attack and can target only Small or larger creatures.

Attach (Ex)
If a stirge hits with a touch attack, it uses its eight pincers to latch onto the opponent’s body. An attached stirge is effectively grappling its prey. The stirge loses its Dexterity bonus to AC and has an AC of 12, but holds on with great tenacity. Stirges have a +12 racial bonus on grapple checks (already figured into the Base Attack/Grapple entry above).

An attached stirge can be struck with a weapon or grappled itself. To remove an attached stirge through grappling, the opponent must achieve a pin against the stirge.

Blood Drain (Ex)
A stirge drains blood, dealing 1d4 points of Constitution damage in any round when it begins its turn attached to a victim. Once it has dealt 4 points of Constitution damage, it detaches and flies off to digest the meal. If its victim dies before the stirge’s appetite has been sated, the stirge detaches and seeks a new target.

Discussion:
Stirges are a bit unusual in that they’re one of the few creatures that has no suggested path of advancement – whether by HD or by character class. This would seem to suggest that WOTC tried both methods but wound up with a monster that just didn’t end up any stronger (or overly strong) for what it did. Whilst in theory maybe you could do one, or either, or both, we’re going to leave that to one side and instead see if we can do anything satisfying with templates and other methods for improvement.

And the first question being: well, what are we trying to improve? The stirge is actually not that bad besides looking very pathetic as the oversized mosquito it is; because it clearly sucked (haha) under 3.5 on gripping targets, i.e. grappling, it’s been given a whopping +12 racial bonus on Grapple checks to offset its miserable Strength and Tiny size hampering it. But it’s been given a touch attack and Weapon Finesse and a CON-damaging ability. We can work with this.



Spellwarped Stirge

Size/Type: Tiny Aberration
Hit Dice: 1d10+2 (7 hp)
Initiative: +5
Speed: 10 ft (2 squares), fly 40 ft. (good)
Armor Class: 19 (+2 size, +5 Dex +2 Natural Armor), touch 17, flat-footed 14
Base Attack/Grapple: +1/-9 (+3 when attached)
Attack: Touch +8 melee (attach)
Full Attack: Touch +8 melee (attach)
Space/Reach: 2½ ft./0 ft.
Special Attacks: Attach, blood drain
Special Qualities: Darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision, Spell Resistance 12, Spell Absorption
Saves: Fort +4, Ref +7, Will +1
Abilities: Str 7(-1), Dex 21(+5), Con 14(+2), Int 5(-3), Wis 12, Cha 6
Skills: Hide +16, Listen +2, Spot +2
Feats: Improved Flight (RoTW), Weapon FinesseB
Environment: Warm marshes
Organization: Colony (2-4), flock (5-8), or storm (9-14)
Challenge Rating: ½
Treasure: None
Alignment: Always neutral
Advancement: —
Level Adjustment: +3

Combat
A stirge attacks by landing on a victim, finding a vulnerable spot, and plunging its proboscis into the flesh. This is a touch attack and can target only Small or larger creatures.

Attach (Ex)
If a stirge hits with a touch attack, it uses its eight pincers to latch onto the opponent’s body. An attached stirge is effectively grappling its prey. The stirge loses its Dexterity bonus to AC and has an AC of 14, but holds on with great tenacity. Stirges have a +12 racial bonus on grapple checks (already figured into the Base Attack/Grapple entry above).

An attached stirge can be struck with a weapon or grappled itself. To remove an attached stirge through grappling, the opponent must achieve a pin against the stirge.

Blood Drain (Ex)
A stirge drains blood, dealing 1d4 points of Constitution damage in any round when it begins its turn attached to a victim. Once it has dealt 4 points of Constitution damage, it detaches and flies off to digest the meal. If its victim dies before the stirge’s appetite has been sated, the stirge detaches and seeks a new target.

Spell Absorption (Su): Whenever a spell fails to penetrate a spellwarped creature's spell resistance, the creature gains one of the following benefits, chosen at the time that the spell resolves.
Might: The spellwarped creature gains a +4 enhancement bonus to Strength for 1 minute.
Agility: The spellwarped creature gains a +4 enhancement bonus to Dexterity for 1 minute.
Endurance: The spellwarped creature gains a +4 enhancement bonus to Constitution for 1 minute.
Life: The spellwarped creature gains temporary hit points equal to 5 x the level of the failed spell.
Speed: The spellwarped creature's base speed increases by a number of feet equal to 5 x the level of the failed spell.
Resistance: The spellwarped creature gains resistance 10 to one energy type (acid, cold, electricity, fire, or sonic).



Discussion:
There were only two changes made here: applying the Spellwarped template and replacing the Alertness feat with Improved Flight. The CR does not change because the stirge only has 1 HD, leaving this as a 1/2 rating.

Improved Flight provides the simplest and possibly the most useful enhancement. Moving from average to good maneuverability, we can now Hover, which makes attacking things a lot easier, and we don’t have to constantly stumble about holding half our movement in reserve to maintain level flight. We can get in and out of strike range faster if we have to. At these levels – bearing in mind the stirge is “meant” for a CR ½ party – we are a lot less vulnerable to spells, too, because we’ve got Spell Resistance at a level where the mage’s spell is slightly above a 50/50 to not affect us at all … even Magic Missile, which is our bane and our big problem down here. And worse still for the party is that if a spell doesn’t affect us, we’re going to get stronger in some way.

Our physical ability scores are also raised, with a nice knock-on to AC, attack rolls and Initiative from the DEX and Natural Armor increases, and our saving throws got a tweak from the stats as well. We’re still more or less dead on one hit, but we are a slightly more interesting encounter for the first level party.


Shadow Creature Spellwarped Stirge

Size/Type: Tiny Aberration (Extraplanar)
Hit Dice: 1d10+4 (9 hp)
Initiative: +6
Speed: 15 ft (2 squares), fly 60 ft. (good)
Armor Class: 20 (+2 size, +6 Dex +2 Natural Armor), touch 18, flat-footed 14 (NB Shadow Blend gives total concealment in all but full daylight).
Base Attack/Grapple: +1/-8 (+4 when attached)
Attack: Touch +9 melee (attach)
Full Attack: Touch +9 melee (attach)
Space/Reach: 2½ ft./0 ft.
Special Attacks: Attach, blood drain
Special Qualities: Darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision, Spell Resistance 12, Spell Absorption, Resist Cold 5, Shadow Blend, Fast Healing 2
Saves: Fort +6, Ref +8, Will +1
Abilities: Str 10(+0), Dex 23(+6), Con 18(+4), Int 8(-1), Wis 10(+0), Cha 6(-2)
Skills: Hide +17, Listen +2, Spot +2
Feats: Improved Flight (CAdv), Weapon FinesseB
Environment: Plane of Shadow
Organization: Colony (2-4), flock (5-8), or storm (9-14)
Challenge Rating: 2
Treasure: None
Alignment: Usually neutral evil
Advancement: —
Level Adjustment: +3

Combat
A stirge attacks by landing on a victim, finding a vulnerable spot, and plunging its proboscis into the flesh. This is a touch attack and can target only Small or larger creatures.

Attach (Ex)
If a stirge hits with a touch attack, it uses its eight pincers to latch onto the opponent’s body. An attached stirge is effectively grappling its prey. The stirge loses its Dexterity bonus to AC and has an AC of 14, but holds on with great tenacity. Stirges have a +12 racial bonus on grapple checks (already figured into the Base Attack/Grapple entry above).

An attached stirge can be struck with a weapon or grappled itself. To remove an attached stirge through grappling, the opponent must achieve a pin against the stirge.

Blood Drain (Ex)
A stirge drains blood, dealing 1d4 points of Constitution damage in any round when it begins its turn attached to a victim. Once it has dealt 4 points of Constitution damage, it detaches and flies off to digest the meal. If its victim dies before the stirge’s appetite has been sated, the stirge detaches and seeks a new target.

Shadow Blend (Su): Anything other than full daylight, a shadow creature has total concealment.

Spell Absorption (Su): Whenever a spell fails to penetrate a spellwarped creature's spell resistance, the creature gains one of the following benefits, chosen at the time that the spell resolves.
Might: The spellwarped creature gains a +4 enhancement bonus to Strength for 1 minute.
Agility: The spellwarped creature gains a +4 enhancement bonus to Dexterity for 1 minute.
Endurance: The spellwarped creature gains a +4 enhancement bonus to Constitution for 1 minute.
Life: The spellwarped creature gains temporary hit points equal to 5 x the level of the failed spell.
Speed: The spellwarped creature's base speed increases by a number of feet equal to 5 x the level of the failed spell.
Resistance: The spellwarped creature gains resistance 10 to one energy type (acid, cold, electricity, fire, or sonic).


Discussion:
Here the following changes were made on top:
(1) Added the Shadow Creature template
(2) Gave the monster an Elite Array.

Why Shadow Creature? Leaving aside the Fast Healing 2 which is nice (and which can be refluffed as the lifeforce that the little bloodsucker gets when it’s had a drink of the target’s blood maybe), we chose this template because of one lovely little feature: it grants total concealment in anything but full daylight. This is a good upgrade for this creature since its main problem is that once it’s latched onto you and sucking your blood, it’s crucially vulnerable since it’s basically grappling and loses DEX bonus to AC. Concealment at least gives you a second chance at not getting squashed since it would apply to any attack roll made against you, and indirectly amounts to additional hitpoints for the creature since it (statistically) doubles the number of attack rolls the creature can theoretically survive. There’s not much we can do to enhance the grappling at this level, but the elite array at least allows us to get out of the STR negatives and boost our DEX a little higher. (EDIT: That also increases the CR by 1, resulting in CR 2.)



Shadow Creature Spellwarped Stirge

Size/Type: Tiny Aberration (Extraplanar)
Hit Dice: 1d10+4 -1 (8 hp)
Initiative: +6
Speed: 15 ft (2 squares), fly 70 ft. (good)
Armor Class: 20 (+2 size, +6 Dex +2 Natural Armor), touch 18, flat-footed 14 (NB Shadow Blend gives total concealment in all but full daylight).
Base Attack/Grapple: +1/-8 (+4 when attached)
Attack: Touch +9 melee (attach)
Full Attack: Touch +9 melee (attach)
Space/Reach: 2½ ft./0 ft.
Special Attacks: Attach, blood drain
Special Qualities: Darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision, Spell Resistance 12, Spell Absorption, Resist Cold 5, Shadow Blend, Fast Healing 2
Saves: Fort +4, Ref +8, Will +1
Abilities: Str 10(+0), Dex 23(+6), Con 18(+4), Int 8(-1), Wis 10(+0), Cha 6(-2)
Skills: Hide +15, Listen +2, Spot +2
Feats: Improved Flight (CAdv), Weapon FinesseB, Trickery Devotion, Distracting Attack
Flaws: Murky-Eyed, Shaky
Traits: Quick
Environment: Plane of Shadow
Organization: Colony (2-4), flock (5-8), or storm (9-14)
Challenge Rating: 2
Treasure: None
Alignment: Usually neutral evil
Advancement: —
Level Adjustment: +3

Combat
A stirge attacks by landing on a victim, finding a vulnerable spot, and plunging its proboscis into the flesh. This is a touch attack and can target only Small or larger creatures.

Attach (Ex)
If a stirge hits with a touch attack, it uses its eight pincers to latch onto the opponent’s body. An attached stirge is effectively grappling its prey. The stirge loses its Dexterity bonus to AC and has an AC of 14, but holds on with great tenacity. Stirges have a +12 racial bonus on grapple checks (already figured into the Base Attack/Grapple entry above).

An attached stirge can be struck with a weapon or grappled itself. To remove an attached stirge through grappling, the opponent must achieve a pin against the stirge.

Blood Drain (Ex)
A stirge drains blood, dealing 1d4 points of Constitution damage in any round when it begins its turn attached to a victim. Once it has dealt 4 points of Constitution damage, it detaches and flies off to digest the meal. If its victim dies before the stirge’s appetite has been sated, the stirge detaches and seeks a new target.

Shadow Blend (Su): In anything other than full daylight, a shadow creature has total concealment. (This would also include any attack made on the stirge while it’s attached to a creature).

Spell Absorption (Su): Whenever a spell fails to penetrate a spellwarped creature's spell resistance, the creature gains one of the following benefits, chosen at the time that the spell resolves.
Might: The spellwarped creature gains a +4 enhancement bonus to Strength for 1 minute.
Agility: The spellwarped creature gains a +4 enhancement bonus to Dexterity for 1 minute.
Endurance: The spellwarped creature gains a +4 enhancement bonus to Constitution for 1 minute.
Life: The spellwarped creature gains temporary hit points equal to 5 x the level of the failed spell.
Speed: The spellwarped creature's base speed increases by a number of feet equal to 5 x the level of the failed spell.
Resistance: The spellwarped creature gains resistance 10 to one energy type (acid, cold, electricity, fire, or sonic).


Discussion:
So here we’ve made the following changes, which are probably about as far you’d want to stretch this without it getting stupid:
(1) Added 2 flaws, thus gaining 2 feats: Distracting Attack and Trickery Devotion.
(2) Added a Trait: Quick, +10 feet, -1 hp.

Distracting Attack is a great resource for swarming enemies like stirges since it has a chaining effect as you add more opponents: more attacks mean more likelihood of success. Our attack roll is already a touch attack at +9 thanks to DEX, Size and Weapon Finesse, but this potentially raises it much higher depending on how many stirges you want to hit one target. It’s also a satisfying addition from a fluff perspective, in that it’s surely kind of distracting to have lots of buzzing oversized mosquitoes all trying to drink your blood at once.

Trickery Devotion is another useful resource mainly because it allows the stirge a chance to close from a distance, or at least concern the party about the problem. The simulacrum’s capability to function as an Unseen Servant may come in handy as well, e.g. closing doors or similar.

The Quick trait loses us a hitpoint which isn’t great, but 10 feet more of movement is always useful if we want to position better.

Another alternative, if you’re minded to stretch things a tiny bit, is Swarmfighting: in this context a big group of stirges can pull an additional +6 morale bonus to their attack rolls. The only reason it’s slightly non-RAW to use it is because stirges are Tiny, not the Small size that’s required by the Complete Warrior version of the feat. (The Races of Faerun version of the feat arguably stretches this to “Small size or smaller”). Only Savage Species is explicit that prerequisites like these are minimum requirements.

What we’re left with at this level is a creature that sits above average for most of its crucial stats compared to all other CR 1 SRD monsters. It doesn’t exceed the maxima, but it’s a bit more of a satisfying challenge and mechanically integrated than its default version. (EDIT: Well, it's actually a CR 2 creature. And still compares more or less favourably on that score too; it comes in reasonably close to the average stats of CR 2 creatures.)

[Elves]

elite array makes it cr 2 fyi

[Saintheart]

elite array makes it cr 2 fyi

Huh. Learn something new every day, I'll have to go back and make some amendments.

[Elves]

I personally avoid flaws/traits for monsters without PC class levels. Flaws are something players can choose, and NPCs are said to be built the way a PC is, so for them it's presumably legal. But not sure it would be legal for monsters, in addition to which it just feels like a kind of cheap way to amp them up.



My biggest advice to GMs who are comfortable with the 3e rules is to fall in love with this line:


Adding Special Abilities: You can add any sort of spell-like, supernatural, or extraordinary ability to a creature.

Diving through indexes to find the exact right template or whatever can become a time-wasting process that turns monster building from a creative activity into something that stifles your creativity. The rules are there to help you, not to turn you into a notary.

For example, the spellwarped stirge. You know what would be cool? If it could suck out magic instead of blood! Give it a spell drain ability that it can use instead of blood drain, which works like a spellthief's spell steal. While this is an additional ability, it's an alternative option and not a direct extra, so it probably doesn't increase the stirge's CR.

And hey -- what if, when a spellwarped stirge drains a spell, instead of casting the spell it can choose to absorb it to trigger spell absorption (but perhaps only for 1 round per level of the spell)?

When you engage with it this way, improving a monster becomes just as fun as building a new one.

[Saintheart]

In passing, and looking at it a bit closer, it's a bit of a pity WOTC didn't specify a HD advancement track for the poor old stirge.

Magical Beasts if improved by added HD can withstand 2 HD added before their CR increases. So, if we were allowed to improve by added HD, that'd leave the stirge with...

Size/Type: Tiny Magical Beast
Hit Dice: 3d10 (16 hp)
Initiative: +4
Speed: 10 ft (2 squares), fly 40 ft. (average)
Armor Class: 16 (+2 size, +4 Dex), touch 16, flat-footed 12
Base Attack/Grapple: +3/-9 (+3 when attached)
Attack: Touch +9 melee (attach)
Full Attack: Touch +9 melee (attach)
Space/Reach: 2½ ft./0 ft.
Special Attacks: Attach, blood drain
Special Qualities: Darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision
Saves: Fort +3, Ref +7, Will +1
Abilities: Str 3, Dex 19, Con 10, Int 1, Wis 12, Cha 6
Skills: Hide +14, Listen +4, Spot +4, 2 skill points to spend from 2 HD increase)
Feats: Alertness, Weapon Finesse B, (3 HD feat)
Environment: Warm marshes
Organization: Colony (2-4), flock (5-8), or storm (9-14)
Challenge Rating: ½
Treasure: None
Alignment: Always neutral

... +2 BAB, +1 to Fort and Ref, 2 skill points, about 11 extra hitpoints, and an extra feat. I guess they thought with the massive DEX and Weapon Finesse they'd thrown on it, and 11 hitpoints, and the saving throw boosts, that it just went beyond the maximum for a CR 1/2 and they couldn't figure out a way to better scale it (and admittedly advanced to 3HD like that it'd be right up the top of SRD MM1 monster stats at that CR.)

[Elves]

It would probably be best if CR advances were fractional to a quarter.

This way, instead of playing silly games to max out a monster by advancing just enough HD to not trigger a CR increase, or dipping NPC classes to get a benefit with no CR increase, we can just be straightforward. Advancing a monster adds +1/2, +1/3, or +1/4 CR depending on type. NPC classes add 1/2 CR except for commoner which adds 1/4th.

However, it should be a rule that all monsters with CR 1 or higher must have full number CR values -- fractionals are for templates and advancement only.

There are some +1/2 CR variants in Libris Mortis and I'm not sure what to make of that since fractional CR isn't otherwise present above 1.

[zlefin]

For some reason I thought that when adding HD to a monster, the first HD added is the one that triggers the CR increase; but I don't see any rules support fro that. Probably I'm just used to reading the various forum contests which use that as a rule.

I do agree that trying to finagle things by doing something that technically doesn't increase CR even though it clearly makes the monster better is the kind of optimization I was talking about earlier. CR is supposed to be a guide, not a number to optimize around to make a monster more 'efficient', except insofar as you're matching PC optimization levels to ensure balance.

I also note that since the CR system supports adding fractions at the lowest levels, there's no need to round at all. So you should just directly add 2/3 to the CR.

[Zombimode]

... +2 BAB, +1 to Fort and Ref, 2 skill points, about 11 extra hitpoints, and an extra feat. I guess they thought with the massive DEX and Weapon Finesse they'd thrown on it, and 11 hitpoints, and the saving throw boosts, that it just went beyond the maximum for a CR 1/2 and they couldn't figure out a way to better scale it (and admittedly advanced to 3HD like that it'd be right up the top of SRD MM1 monster stats at that CR.)

I'm really not sure what the purpose of this is.
You're increasing the challenge this monster presents but rules-lawyer it in a way that the rewards for overcomming this challange don't increase.

...why?

[Elves]

I do agree that trying to finagle things by doing something that technically doesn't increase CR even though it clearly makes the monster better is the kind of optimization I was talking about earlier. CR is supposed to be a guide, not a number to optimize around to make a monster more 'efficient', except insofar as you're matching PC optimization levels to ensure balance.
Well, D&D is not referee vs. players. At the same time, it's clearly a competitive game. But it's about whether the players as a whole win or lose, not whether the referee wins or the players do.

The referee creates challenges within generally, if not strictly, defined parameters (in 3e, for example, per DMG, something more than 4 CRs above party is unfair).

If the party optimizes to exceed expected power curve, one route is simply to give them higher-level encounters.

But another approach, which is not just valid (all ways of playing are "valid") but reasonable, is to say that if PCs will be optimized, so will NPCs. And NPC optimization involves things that aren't available to players, like HD advancement and unplayable templates.

But fractional CR advancement is better because then it becomes about actually optimizing the creature, taking exactly what you need for whatever purpose, rather than just trying to cram free stuff on it.

[Saintheart]

I'm really not sure what the purpose of this is.
You're increasing the challenge this monster presents but rules-lawyer it in a way that the rewards for overcomming this challange don't increase.

...why?

Take a look at the average and maximum statistics of CR 1/2 MM1 creatures. They're over here. (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?623578-3-5-Average-Monster-Stats-UPDATED-TABLE&highlight=average+monster+AC+BAB)

CR is not a single set of stats. It's a range of stats, so much of a range that an average and even a maximum can be established within that CR. I have tinkered a little with the stats to massage them to the higher end of the range, but it still falls within the definition of CR 1/2, both on WOTC's rules and on the statistics given. No creature in that CR rating gets a higher XP or treasure sum than any other. They all get the treasure and XP that CR 1/2 dictates they do, even if their stats are different.

In short: respectfully, I don't accept the premise of your assertion that I've increased "the challenge" but haven't increased the rewards. I've not left the band of CR 1/2. This, on WOTC's rules-guidelines-principles-suggestions-whatever, does not warrant an increased reward of XP or treasure. If you say otherwise, well, it's your campaign, who's going to tell you you're wrong?

As for why: because I'm interested in where the limits lie, and interested in why WOTC didn't give an advancement line for the stirge. At this point it looks they did so because they didn't think the stirge had a solid fit outside CR 1/2 with the additional hitpoints in particular.

[Zombimode]

Take a look at the average and maximum statistics of CR 1/2 MM1 creatures. They're over here. (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?623578-3-5-Average-Monster-Stats-UPDATED-TABLE&highlight=average+monster+AC+BAB)

CR is not a single set of stats. It's a range of stats, so much of a range that an average and even a maximum can be established within that CR. I have tinkered a little with the stats to massage them to the higher end of the range, but it still falls within the definition of CR 1/2, both on WOTC's rules and on the statistics given.

All the stats of your Advanced Stirge are higher (or equal) than the average of CR 1 in that table with the exception of flat-footed AC.
And while the table does not give a full picture of a creatures capabilities, the Advanced Stirge comes with a good movement mode, a good attack bonus and a threatening attack.

By looking at the numbers, how do you conclude that the Advanced Stirge is a CR 1/2 instead of CR 1?

[Elves]

I'm really not sure what the purpose of this is.
You're increasing the challenge this monster presents but rules-lawyer it in a way that the rewards for overcomming this challange don't increase.

...why?

You could say the same thing about player optimization. PCs also optimize their characters to increase their power without increasing their level. Why? To perform better.

In response, the GM improves the monsters to perform better so they can keep up.

If this results in equilibrium, is it pointless? No, it's people playing a strategy game. If two chess GMs playing each other have a 50% winrate, and two novices playing each other also have a 50% winrate, does that mean it was pointless for the GMs to improve?

[Zombimode]

You could say the same thing about player optimization. PCs also optimize their characters to increase their power without increasing their level. Why? To perform better.

In response, the GM improves the monsters to perform better so they can keep up.

Sounds like playing the Oblivion level scaling game to me :smalltongue:

This might really be a preference but I would rather keep the expected strength of monsters static and use higher CR enemies than just inflate the numbers artifically.
Also, CR is something applied to after the fact. Look at the creature at a whole, compare it to comparable creatures near the supposed CR and then make the final judgement. Just like your supposed to with custom magic items.

Doing that with the Advanced Stirge it comes out at CR 1, and the linked table supports this.

Under this view, optimizing CR is useless. The monster improvement rules just give you a first estimate, but the GM has to make the final judgement. And if something looks like CR X it IS CR X, regardless of what the rules for monster improvements have forecasted.

[Saintheart]

All the stats of your Advanced Stirge are higher (or equal) than the average of CR 1 in that table with the exception of flat-footed AC.
And while the table does not give a full picture of a creatures capabilities, the Advanced Stirge comes with a good movement mode, a good attack bonus and a threatening attack.

By looking at the numbers, how do you conclude that the Advanced Stirge is a CR 1/2 instead of CR 1?

... probably because I was looking at the maximum stats for CR 1/2 and had thought the Advanced Stirge was on-par with them albeit not below them. My mistake. And that would, it seems, go part of the way to explaining why they didn't include an Advancement line on the default stirge - because you can really only add 1 HD to it for it to stay plausibly in CR 1/2 (so what's the point), adding 2 HD gives it stats well above average for CR 1, and if you do add 3 HD for its +1 to CR from HD increases, its stats are then basically in line with the average numbers of CR 2 creatures, not CR 1.

So, yeah, I take the point ... and that seems to explain why they didn't advance it by HD: because if you try, the stirge's most "significant" statistics just do not follow what we expect when adding HD to Magical Beasts to such a point that CR changes. Add 3 HD to a CR 1/2 Magical Beast and you should wind up with a CR 1.5, or CR 1 rounded down, but the stirge's "improved" stats are smack-bang in average CR 2. The boosts they gave to the stirge to make it do what it does at CR 1/2 make it ... well, not capable of scaling via HD. It just doesn't fit with normal CR progression, so they don't "let" you try.

And I can see why they would've passed over Advancement: By Character Class as well, because while it technically can take a class because it has an INT score, it has INT 1 and would only be capable of picking up 1 skill point per level. Guess that's my lesson that WOTC did, in fact, think this stuff through in some instances.

EDIT: My point and reminder being - I was just wondering why WOTC didn't include an "Advancement:" entry (HD or by character class) for the stirge. Guess I got my answer for why now. You're not supposed to add HD or classes to the stirge anyway.

[Elves]

Sounds like playing the Oblivion level scaling game to me :smalltongue:
Number scaling to create an illusion of progress is different from actually getting better at a game. Two peers at any skill level will have similar winrates, but that doesn't mean they're still playing the same way. The play of two chess GMs is deeper than the play of two novices, even though they both may have the same 50% winrate.



This might really be a preference but I would rather keep the expected strength of monsters static and use higher CR enemies than just inflate the numbers artifically.

Here's where I think the disconnect may be. There's a viewpoint that optimization for a GM is meaningless because he can just increase the challenge infinitely -- however strong the players get the GM can just plop another monster down on the board.

But if you instead say "actually, I'm going to give level appropriate encounters, but I'm going to optimize them to try and match the players", suddenly, that's no longer true. The GM doesn't have infinite resources -- he has a CR budget that he has to make the best of.

This is why I think that approach is actually more meaningful than the one you mention, where the opponents are a static "yardstick".

The yardstick approach is basically playing in hiscore mode -- we're just going to optimize as much as possible and see how far up the ladder we can get, how many above-CR monsters we can kill before we have to run away or the GM has to stop adding monsters.

The counter-optimization approach, OTOH, is playing in victory mode. There's a fixed challenge (based on DMG p49), and the GM is going to optimize it to make it as nasty as possible, but it's a limited and finite amount, and if we beat it, we win.

The second one is about achieving a goal while the first is about getting a highscore you can compare to other people (or to the benchmark performance average).


Also, CR is something applied to after the fact. Look at the creature at a whole, compare it to comparable creatures near the supposed CR and then make the final judgement. ... Under this view, optimizing CR is useless.
That's not a "view", it's a houserule. Starting creature CR is basically eyeballed, but advancement through HD and templates has hard rules.

[Elves]

Re: NPC WBL, the reality is neither the MM nor DMG route work.

- As we've talked about, the MM method delivers absurd results in cases of nonassociated class advancement and level adjustment.
- The DMG method is also flawed, because it means creatures can actually get less wealth than if they had increased via standard treasure value. For example, a CR 10 creature has 5.8k gp, while a CR 7 creature with 3 class levels would have 5.1k gp with this method.

- An obvious route would giving NPC wealth equivalent to final creature's CR, not ECL. But this also is flawed because it results in excessive treasure value -- say you want to add one fighter level to a marilith, suddenly you can't do that without also radically increasing her wealth, as she suddenly gets the wealth of an 18th-level NPC. This makes it impossible to frequently use NPCs with class levels without radically exceeding expected player WBL.


The solution: Grant standard treasure value equal to the base creature's CR, then add NPC wealth equal to the difference in NPC wealth between an NPC of the base creature's CR and the creature's final CR.

This is a modified version of the DMG method.

Example: Take our marilith fighter. Instead of having 36,900 gp (36k treasure value for CR 17 and 900gp 1st-level NPC wealth), she has 66k gp (36k treasure value for CR 17 plus 30k, the amount an NPC would gain for advancing from 17th to 18th level). 66k as opposed to 47k for a standard CR 18 monster and 130k for an 18th-level NPC.

Meanwhile, the CR 7 creature with 3 class levels would get 11.4k as opposed to a standard CR 10 creature's 5.8k and a 10th-level NPC's 16k.


This is the best way to do NPC wealth and is now the official method. But there's a simpler and arguably better approach: remove the idea of NPC wealth. In a system built on equivalence, there's no reason fighting NPCs should cause you to exceed the WBL curve. The PCs are simply unusual in having so much treasure, and if an NPC is going to have a lot of treasure it has to come from elsewhere in an adventure's treasure budget.

The problem with this is that PC classes are balanced around getting magic items. NPCs with standard-for-CR net worths can still approximate that through consumables, but that means PCs will actually loot less treasure off them -- so you would want to give NPCs a 'consumable stipend' that recreates NPC WBL. So I think this is another finger pointed at 3.5's baked in assumption of magic item number creep (although 5e's 'solution' of making magic items entirely over-the-curve is a cop-out, not an answer).

[martixy]

I've yet to read the whole handbook, but it's something right up my alley.

I've been perusing the replies tho, and there seems to be an unnatural fixation on CR. I'm not sure what the aim is there. To squeeze out the maximum versatility while remaining within the constraints of the system? As a DM you'd generally have freedom to fudge things. Elves already brought up one explicit piece of advice about special abilities. And zlevin summed up my thoughts on the matter.

CR is supposed to be a guide, not a number to optimize around to make a monster more 'efficient', except insofar as you're matching PC optimization levels to ensure balance.



I did however read the whole tactics section, because clever tactics are an oft underestimated tool. Gratuitous abuse of teamwork benefits is one of my favourite ones. The biggest limiting factor is that teams can be a maximum of 8 members. But as the DM you can fudge in a new feat like say "Army training" or "Military discipline" that raises the cap.

But you can do a lot more to leverage a numbers advantage. Actually it's one of the tools almost exclusive to the DM side. It's not used often, because the system naturally steers you away from this approach because of the difficulty of managing significant amounts of actors once initiative is called. But there's plenty of shortcuts you can take.

For example many actions that are not very economical for players to do make a lot more sense for mooks. Aid another, various ready actions. Cheeky stuff like body-blocking. A medium creature can be surrounded by 8 other mediums. At around which point you can see the power of probability and statistics taking over. Even with a low individual chance, make enough attacks, and a few will hit. Then you can get creative about how many mooks you can surround someone with. Flying can give you 17 surrounders. Or 26 for a mid-air target. Another line of attackers with reach weapons behind them can do 24 in 2D and more than a hundred in 3D in the game's cube reality.
At that point you're kind of doing DIY swarms. Actually, take the stirge from above. Find a way to give it 5 ft. reach (1 feat slot be enough) and you can surround a medium creature on the ground with up to 72 of them. It basically guarantees a decent chunk of Con damage each round. It's actually surprisingly challenging to calculate the expected value, due to the opposed check and how grappling works. (Not doing that now, but might be fun to try later. Math nerds, feel free to help out.)
It's much easier to do for a creature with a normal attack though. Say it does 1d6 damage and hits on a 19-20. Basic arithmetic gives you an average of 25 dmg per round (72*0.1*3.5) and makes it super easy to play. Or be fancy and calculate the binomial distribution and roll a percentile die to see how many attacks hit, then roll as many d6's.

[Saintheart]

Diving through indexes to find the exact right template or whatever can become a time-wasting process that turns monster building from a creative activity into something that stifles your creativity. The rules are there to help you, not to turn you into a notary.

For example, the spellwarped stirge. You know what would be cool? If it could suck out magic instead of blood! Give it a spell drain ability that it can use instead of blood drain, which works like a spellthief's spell steal. While this is an additional ability, it's an alternative option and not a direct extra, so it probably doesn't increase the stirge's CR.

And hey -- what if, when a spellwarped stirge drains a spell, instead of casting the spell it can choose to absorb it to trigger spell absorption (but perhaps only for 1 round per level of the spell)?

When you engage with it this way, improving a monster becomes just as fun as building a new one.

I appreciate all your comments, Elves, and indeed I shoehorned your fix for NPC Wealth into that section of the guide. That said, I did want to address this subject in case people were thinking I was outright ignoring it. I am not putting this forward as an argument for whether one way of judging CR or assigning it is right or wrong, only to set out my underlying principles for why the guide is what it is:

I believe you can't improvise well until you have a grounding of how the system is meant to work. By "meant" I am not saying that there is A Single Objective Universal Campaign that can come out of 3e's rules, I am only saying that the mechanics we have are there to give DMs a solid idea of what constitute bigger or smaller challenges for a party. Absent the writers publishing all their statistical analyses and thinking that underlie the CR system -- which they never would because it's akin to a trade secret -- then CR and the writers' statements for when it's meant to increase are the main indicators for what the writers strongly suggest should be thrown at what parties and when. Sure, we can reverse-engineer some of it - thus the average MM1 CR tables which are really, really handy for those purposes - and we can learn by feel and experience for how far to push a monster's abilities, but I really feel WOTC's "XP, treasure, CR, it's all up to you, play with it as you like" has a strong whiff of cop-out to it -- even with the quiet coughs in the DMG that the game is predicated on players having a given amount of WBL, even with the tables there. Or maybe it's just that the guideline to "adjust CR, XP, or treasure as you see fit" can be too easily taken as an indication that the rules and ratings can just be fully thrown out and you just eyeball everything.

I think I got that pretty strongly when I went and tried adding HD to the stirge when the monster has no advancement method. Big mistake by me. I went in with a certain level of arrogance thinking "surely you can just add some HD and the little sucker will still be within CR." Turns out that was entirely wrong, and looking at it I can see why: because, no matter how much we can chuckle over erroneous CR ratings, there was a logic to the underlying mechanics. Stirges don't advance by HD because when you do add HD to them as a Magical Beast, their stats increase way out of line with what the CR of a Magical Beast should be given added HD. The math simply does not work for them, so WOTC did entirely the sober and prudent thing and didn't give players the option of doing that.

And when I say one can't improvise well, I am not saying it's impossible to throw some CRs together and still have a good time. I'm just saying I think knowing each of these techniques does not hurt and only invites people to dip deeper into the underlying mechanics. And better understanding how CR compares to statistics, how far you can push a monster's stats before they clearly fall outside the expected challenge at a given CR, is good to know for DMs. It helps us design our encounters better.

Again, I don't have any philosophical objections to people just eyeballing CR. Sure, you can do it as much as you want. But equally if the vast majority of the CR system had been thrown out and we'd just had that "CR +1 for something mildly powerful, CR +2 for something more powerful you want to slap on a creature" would have been a lot less helpful and wouldn't have provided the direction we've got. It's one thing to say to an experienced painter "Here's a palette of colours, mix them as you like" and say to a beginner or even journeyman painter "Here's a palette of colours, mix them as you like."

The 3.5 system needs more DMs. Simple as that. Many 3.5 DMs are already experienced painters, simply because we've been doing it for a long time. 3.5 needs more beginners. 3.5 needs more journeymen. And you get more beginners and more journeymen by giving them another hand up the ladder rung of DMing than just leaving them with WOTC's miserable, piecemeal, fragmentary way of building monsters and encounters, or having to negotiate their way between player handbooks and a sometimes-ab/usive attitude on the Internet towards DMs as a group.

In passing, let me fanboy for a moment and say your competition thread for building encounters is not only good to see, it's not only commendable, I believe it's essential if the 3.5 DMing community is going to thrive - here or elsewhere. I cannot think of anywhere else dealing with 3.5 that such a competition exists, and GITP is one of the few standing 3.5 communities left that has a reach wide enough to be read by them.

It's a vital service, especially in light of a parent company that, whether overtly or not, would rather people forgets any edition of D&D exists except Current Book - example #A being nuking the 3.5 Archives in their entirety.



I did however read the whole tactics section, because clever tactics are an oft underestimated tool. Gratuitous abuse of teamwork benefits is one of my favourite ones. The biggest limiting factor is that teams can be a maximum of 8 members. But as the DM you can fudge in a new feat like say "Army training" or "Military discipline" that raises the cap.

But you can do a lot more to leverage a numbers advantage. Actually it's one of the tools almost exclusive to the DM side. It's not used often, because the system naturally steers you away from this approach because of the difficulty of managing significant amounts of actors once initiative is called. But there's plenty of shortcuts you can take.

For example many actions that are not very economical for players to do make a lot more sense for mooks. Aid another, various ready actions. Cheeky stuff like body-blocking. A medium creature can be surrounded by 8 other mediums. At around which point you can see the power of probability and statistics taking over. Even with a low individual chance, make enough attacks, and a few will hit. Then you can get creative about how many mooks you can surround someone with. Flying can give you 17 surrounders. Or 26 for a mid-air target. Another line of attackers with reach weapons behind them can do 24 in 2D and more than a hundred in 3D in the game's cube reality.
At that point you're kind of doing DIY swarms. Actually, take the stirge from above. Find a way to give it 5 ft. reach (1 feat slot be enough) and you can surround a medium creature on the ground with up to 72 of them. It basically guarantees a decent chunk of Con damage each round. It's actually surprisingly challenging to calculate the expected value, due to the opposed check and how grappling works. (Not doing that now, but might be fun to try later. Math nerds, feel free to help out.)
It's much easier to do for a creature with a normal attack though. Say it does 1d6 damage and hits on a 19-20. Basic arithmetic gives you an average of 25 dmg per round (72*0.1*3.5) and makes it super easy to play. Or be fancy and calculate the binomial distribution and roll a percentile die to see how many attacks hit, then roll as many d6's.

Appreciated, martixy, I've massaged some of the handbook to that effect.

[Elves]

I never said to eyeball it. Having a system is great. It’s RAW that you can add whatever special abilities you want, with significant additions giving +1 CR, minor additions not adding CR, and very significant additions giving +2 CR (I would only add this for very major things like bodak death gaze).

Based on my experience building with only existing material, I think it’s essential to embrace this.

- Building with only existing material takes more time.

- It results in cluttered, overcomplicated NPCs — to get one particular ability, you often have to take a class or template that grants additional features and abilities beyond those you want to add.

- It’s asking the wrong question. A player’s question is how to work within the system to optimize their play — to play the game. Your question is how to create the most interesting challenge — to design the game experience. To spend effort jumping through the same hoops a player must is orthogonal to what your actual role is (and therefore not just unnecessary but counterproductive because that effort could be redirected to something relevant to your role).

- It takes away your creativity. All these monsters were designed by fiat, and once you have a grasp of the system there’s no reason you should enjoy less liberty than the developers.

Conclusion: I’m not saying PC-NPC monster parity is bad. I’m saying the idea that you must be bound to building NPCs using printed options only is fake, a self inflicted mental chain— it’s RAW that you can add whatever you want! See the printed options as tools, not limits.

The free interchange of NPC-PC parity with ad hoc customization results in a better, funner system than either strict parity (like some people think 3e is) or pure ad hocness (5e).

—

Glad you like the encounter contest! Go check out the thread (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?648591-Encounter-Contest-2-Curse-of-the-Mummy-s-Tomb/page2), the results are in.

[martixy]

I have now read the guide. It makes sense that it was written with the newbie DM in mind. We need more of those that rely less game jargon or worse, community jargon like TDC or DCFS or Tippyverse.


Comments/suggestions by section:

1. Adding HD: Perhaps it could be useful to include metrics for "Most HP per CR", "Most BAB per CR", etc., as a reference. For example most of the +1/3 HD and +1/4 HD types have +3 BAB per CR. But not all. For context, I often look for ways to boost certain characteristics of a monster while not affecting other stats as much. I might want tons of feats, but not an obscene amount of HP or BAB, or I might want a high BAB, with little HP.

2. Adding Class Levels: As a DM I myself have broken most of the guidelines you recommend breaking. And even occasionally put fighter levels on animal or construct creatures. (Though I generally agree with the one hard rule - no int, no class - because it makes logical sense.) One thing I think you should mention is that being a DM is your chance to experiment with all those dumb classes and PrCs you'd never put on your player character.

3. Feats: The link to the Sean K. Reynolds argument is broken (well site's broken), might be a good idea to link to the web archive. Here's my conspiracy theory on Toughness: I'm pretty sure it is the designated null feat for this edition. Like saying, look - the tarrasque has 6 placeholder feats you can fill if you need to.

4. Traits, etc: Nothing says you can't create your own arrays either. Or roll like the players do. Maybe you have a "paragon" or "boss" or "mook" array.

5. Solo monsters: This perhaps goes more towards encounter design, but I've had tons of success with Solo monster + enviromental threats, even against optimized parties. I've never felt the need to resort to too much rule-bending. And the boss template feels particularly gimmicky to me in its current iteration, though it evokes "This isn't even my final form" vibes that I'd like to try at some point.

6. Monster RP: There is a trope known as "Reality is unrealistic" (https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RealityIsUnrealistic)(you know where that link goes, take care). And many DMs likely fall victim to it. Otherwise this is probably the most important section. Books give you all the numbers and rules, but few try to teach how to roleplay.

[Saintheart]

I have now read the guide. It makes sense that it was written with the newbie DM in mind. We need more of those that rely less game jargon or worse, community jargon like TDC or DCFS or Tippyverse.


Comments/suggestions by section:

1. Adding HD: Perhaps it could be useful to include metrics for "Most HP per CR", "Most BAB per CR", etc., as a reference. For example most of the +1/3 HD and +1/4 HD types have +3 BAB per CR. But not all. For context, I often look for ways to boost certain characteristics of a monster while not affecting other stats as much. I might want tons of feats, but not an obscene amount of HP or BAB, or I might want a high BAB, with little HP.

2. Adding Class Levels: As a DM I myself have broken most of the guidelines you recommend breaking. And even occasionally put fighter levels on animal or construct creatures. (Though I generally agree with the one hard rule - no int, no class - because it makes logical sense.) One thing I think you should mention is that being a DM is your chance to experiment with all those dumb classes and PrCs you'd never put on your player character.

3. Feats: The link to the Sean K. Reynolds argument is broken (well site's broken), might be a good idea to link to the web archive. Here's my conspiracy theory on Toughness: I'm pretty sure it is the designated null feat for this edition. Like saying, look - the tarrasque has 6 placeholder feats you can fill if you need to.

4. Traits, etc: Nothing says you can't create your own arrays either. Or roll like the players do. Maybe you have a "paragon" or "boss" or "mook" array.

5. Solo monsters: This perhaps goes more towards encounter design, but I've had tons of success with Solo monster + enviromental threats, even against optimized parties. I've never felt the need to resort to too much rule-bending. And the boss template feels particularly gimmicky to me in its current iteration, though it evokes "This isn't even my final form" vibes that I'd like to try at some point.

6. Monster RP: There is a trope known as "Reality is unrealistic" (https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RealityIsUnrealistic)(you know where that link goes, take care). And many DMs likely fall victim to it. Otherwise this is probably the most important section. Books give you all the numbers and rules, but few try to teach how to roleplay.

All of that is very appreciated, xy - I will be looking into those and making adjustments accordingly.

[Saintheart]

More musing on the tools provided, I decided to tinker with the poor old ettercap a bit ...

Base Ettercap Stats (CR 3)

Size/Type: Medium Aberration
Hit Dice: 5d8+5 (27 hp)
Initiative: +3
Speed: 30 ft. (6 squares), climb 30 ft.
Armor Class: 14 (+3 Dex, +1 natural), touch 13, flat-footed 11
Base Attack/Grapple: +3/+5
Attack: Bite +5 melee (1d8+2 plus poison)
Full Attack: Bite +5 melee (1d8+2 plus poison) and 2 claws +3 melee (1d3+1)
Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks: Poison, web
Special Qualities: Low-light vision
Saves: Fort +4, Ref +4, Will +6
Abilities: Str 14(+2), Dex 17(+3), Con 13(+1), Int 6(-2), Wis 15(+2), Cha 8 (-1)
Skills: Climb +10, Craft (trapmaking) +4, Hide +9, Listen +4, Spot +8
Feats: Great Fortitude, Multiattack
Environment: Warm forests
Organization: Solitary, pair, or troupe (1-2 plus 2-4 Medium monstrous spiders)
Challenge Rating: 3
Treasure: Standard
Alignment: Usually neutral evil
Advancement: 6-7 HD (Medium); 8-15 HD (Large)
Level Adjustment: +4


Ettercaps are not brave creatures, but their cunning traps often ensure that the enemy never draws a weapon. When an ettercap does engage its enemies, it attacks with its keen-edged claws and venomous bite. It usually will not come within melee reach of any foe that is still able to move.

Poison (Ex)
Injury, Fortitude DC 15, initial damage 1d6 Dex, secondary damage 2d6 Dex. The save DC is Constitution based and includes a +2 racial bonus.

Web (Ex)
An ettercap can throw a web eight times per day. This is similar to an attack with a net but has a maximum range of 50 feet, with a range increment of 10 feet, and is effective against targets of up to Medium size. The web anchors the target in place, allowing no movement.

An entangled creature can escape with a DC 13 Escape Artist check or burst the web with a DC 17 Strength check. The check DCs are Constitution-based, and the Strength check DC includes a +4 racial bonus. The web has 6 hit points, hardness 0, and takes double damage from fire.

Ettercaps can also create sheets of sticky webbing from 5 to 60 feet square. They usually position these to snare flying creatures but can also try to trap prey on the ground. Approaching creatures must succeed on a DC 20 Spot check to notice a web, or they stumble into it and become trapped as though by a successful web attack. Attempts to escape or burst the webbing receive a +5 bonus if the trapped creature has something to walk on or grab while pulling free. Each 5-foot-square section has 6 hit points, hardness 0, and takes double damage from fire.

An ettercap can move across its own sheet web at its climb speed and can determine the exact location of any creature touching the web.

Skills
Ettercaps have a +4 racial bonus on Craft (trapmaking), Hide, and Spot checks. They have a +8 racial bonus on Climb checks and can always choose to take 10 on Climb checks, even if rushed or threatened.



HD-Advanced Ettercap (CR 5):
Size/Type: Large Aberration
Hit Dice: 9d8+36 (81 hp)
Initiative: +2 [DEX]
Speed: 30 ft. (6 squares), climb 30 ft.
Armor Class: 14 (+2 Dex, +3 natural -1 Size), touch 11, flat-footed 12
Base Attack/Grapple: +6/+16
Attack: Bite +12 melee (2d6+6 plus poison)
Full Attack: Bite +12 melee (2d6+6 plus poison) and 2 claws +10 melee (1d4+3)
Space/Reach: 10 ft./10 ft.
Special Attacks: Poison, web
Special Qualities: Low-light vision
Saves: Fort +9, Ref +3, Will +8
Abilities: Str 22(+6), Dex 15(+2), Con 18(+4), Int 6(-2), Wis 15(+2), Cha 8(-1)
Skills: Climb +14, Craft (trapmaking) +4, Hide +8, Listen +4, Spot +8
Feats: Great Fortitude, Multiattack, Virulent Poison, Improved Web
Environment: Warm forests
Organization: Solitary, pair, or troupe (1-2 plus 2-4 Medium monstrous spiders)
Challenge Rating: 5
Treasure: Standard
Alignment: Usually neutral evil
Advancement: 8-15 HD (Large)
Level Adjustment: +4

Ettercaps are not brave creatures, but their cunning traps often ensure that the enemy never draws a weapon. When an ettercap does engage its enemies, it attacks with its keen-edged claws and venomous bite. It usually will not come within melee reach of any foe that is still able to move.

Poison (Ex)
Injury, Fortitude DC 22, initial damage 1d6 Dex, secondary damage 2d6 Dex. The save DC is Constitution based and includes a +2 racial bonus.

Web (Ex)
An ettercap can throw a web eight times per day. This is similar to an attack with a net but has a maximum range of 50 feet, with a range increment of 10 feet, and is effective against targets of up to Medium size. The web anchors the target in place, allowing no movement.

An entangled creature can escape with a DC 20 Escape Artist check or burst the web with a DC 24 Strength check. The check DCs are Constitution-based, and the Strength check DC includes a +4 racial bonus. The web has 6 hit points, hardness 0, and takes double damage from fire.

Ettercaps can also create sheets of sticky webbing from 5 to 60 feet square. They usually position these to snare flying creatures but can also try to trap prey on the ground. Approaching creatures must succeed on a DC 20 Spot check to notice a web, or they stumble into it and become trapped as though by a successful web attack. Attempts to escape or burst the webbing receive a +5 bonus if the trapped creature has something to walk on or grab while pulling free. Each 5-foot-square section has 6 hit points, hardness 0, and takes double damage from fire.

An ettercap can move across its own sheet web at its climb speed and can determine the exact location of any creature touching the web.

Skills
Ettercaps have a +4 racial bonus on Craft (trapmaking), Hide, and Spot checks. They have a +8 racial bonus on Climb checks and can always choose to take 10 on Climb checks, even if rushed or threatened.

Discussion:
This is only adding 4 HD, bringing it up to a total of 9. Under WOTC’s rules, the creature’s CR increases by 1, bringing it to CR 4. Unfortunately, because that also increases the creature’s size, its CR goes up by another 1, making it CR 5. A +1 went to its CON, bringing it to a total of 18 after size increases were applied. Skill points went to Hide, so it’s a wash when we take its size penalty into account on that score.

I kept its two additional feats (at 6 HD and 9 HD) simple, both from Savage Species. Virulent Poison raises the Ettercap’s poison DC by 2. Improved Web raises the web’s Escape Artist and STR break checks by 2 each as well as allowing some useful capacity to hit three targets in one full round action with the web (if I didn’t want to use the ‘web sheet’ option the Ettercap already has.)

Great Fortitude really could go whether replaced by equipment or not even replaced at all. Maybe swap it for Lightning Reflexes if I had to in order to do something about that appalling Reflex save, which is definitely the weak spot here.

Some of the ettercap’s features get a double boost by virtue of added CON due to size – the saves for the Web and Poison attacks are CON-based, meaning that an enhancement to CON raises those DCs accordingly. However, because they’re (Ex) abilities, for every 2 HD added, they also get a +1 to the DC of those abilities from there. We added 4 HD. We now have DCs in the 20-24 at CR 5. At a quick glance, a Good saving throw at level 5 would be about +4 base, so these are well above fifty-fifty odds of catching a PC in the net or doing some nice DEX damage, even with a substantial CON score.

One tempting addition is Brutal Throw, if it were ruled as applying to the Ettercap’s Web. The Web is said to be “like” a net attack, i.e. a thrown weapon which works on a ranged touch attack roll. Because of size bonuses we’re a lot better using STR for the touch attack roll than our DEX, especially since our DEX got nerfed by size increase.

However, in terms of averages, our Ettercap is still mostly at or below the average stats of a CR 5 creature going by HP, AC, BAB, and saves. Nothing wrong with WOTC’s math on this one.



HD-Advanced, Dungeonbred, Mineral Warrior Ettercap (CR 5):
Size/Type: Medium Aberration (Earth)
Hit Dice: 9d8+63 (103 hp)
Initiative: +3[DEX]
Speed: 30 ft. (6 squares), climb 30 ft, burrow 15 feet.
Armor Class: 17 (+3 Dex +4 natural), touch 13, flat-footed 14
Base Attack/Grapple: +6/+8
Attack: Bite +11 melee (2d6+5 plus poison)
Full Attack: Bite +11 melee (2d6+5 plus poison) and 2 claws +10 melee (1d4+2)
Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks: Poison, web, Earth Strike (1/day, +7 to attack roll, +9 damage).
Special Qualities: Low-light vision, Darkvision 60 feet, DR 8/adamantine, Easy Maintenance, Hardy, Prodigy (DMG 2, p. 157)
Saves: Fort +10, Ref +6, Will +7
Abilities: Str 20(+5), Dex 17(+3), Con 24(+7), Int 8(-3), Wis 13(+1), Cha 6(-2)
Skills: Climb +13, Craft (trapmaking) +4, Hide +13, Listen +4, Spot +8
Feats: Multiattack, Virulent Poison, Improved Web, Endurance, Improved Natural Attack (Bite), Improved Natural Attack (Claws), Deadly Poison
Environment: Warm forests, Underground
Organization: Solitary, pair, or troupe (1-2 plus 2-4 Medium monstrous spiders)
Challenge Rating: 5
Treasure: Standard
Alignment: Usually neutral evil
Advancement: 8-15 HD (Large)
Level Adjustment: +5


Ettercaps are not brave creatures, but their cunning traps often ensure that the enemy never draws a weapon. When an ettercap does engage its enemies, it attacks with its keen-edged claws and venomous bite. It usually will not come within melee reach of any foe that is still able to move.

Poison (Ex)
Injury, Fortitude DC 26, initial damage 1d6 Dex, secondary damage 4d6 Dex. The save DC is Constitution based and includes a +2 racial bonus.

Web (Ex)
An ettercap can throw a web eight times per day. This is similar to an attack with a net but has a maximum range of 50 feet, with a range increment of 10 feet, and is effective against targets of up to Medium size. The web anchors the target in place, allowing no movement.

An entangled creature can escape with a DC 24 Escape Artist check or burst the web with a DC 28 Strength check. The check DCs are Constitution-based, and the Strength check DC includes a +4 racial bonus. The web has 6 hit points, hardness 0, and takes double damage from fire.

Ettercaps can also create sheets of sticky webbing from 5 to 60 feet square. They usually position these to snare flying creatures but can also try to trap prey on the ground. Approaching creatures must succeed on a DC 20 Spot check to notice a web, or they stumble into it and become trapped as though by a successful web attack. Attempts to escape or burst the webbing receive a +5 bonus if the trapped creature has something to walk on or grab while pulling free. Each 5-foot-square section has 6 hit points, hardness 0, and takes double damage from fire.

An ettercap can move across its own sheet web at its climb speed and can determine the exact location of any creature touching the web.

Hardy(Ex): +2 racial bonus to saves vs. disease and poison

Earth Strike: 1/day, add CON bonus to attack roll, deal +1 damage per Racial Hit Dice.

Prodigy: +2 to CON, +4 to CON-based checks.

Skills
Ettercaps have a +4 racial bonus on Craft (trapmaking), Hide, and Spot checks. They have a +8 racial bonus on Climb checks and can always choose to take 10 on Climb checks, even if rushed or threatened.

Discussion:
Different direction this time, though still coming out at CR 5. This time we take our Advanced Ettercap and apply the Dungeonbred template, and then Mineral Warrior, and lastly applying the Prodigy unique ability from DMG 2. Our STR is a little less and we don’t have the Reach of a Large monster, but our CON is higher and therefore the save DCs of the Ettercap’s abilities are stronger. And we’d like the poison in particular to hit: we switched out Great Fortitude for Deadly Poison, giving us a truly nasty poison – a total of 5d6 DEX damage, better odds than Shivering Touch of paralysis. This Ettercap also has more hitpoints and DR 8/adamantine, and thus can more sustainably go with a hit-and-run option, attacking and taking out one partymember at a time with paralysis before retreating by burrowing into the ground to wait.

[Friend]

This was a very enjoyable guide to read, thankyou. I don't have anything concrete to add or note, other than I'll need to come back and reread this again.

One thing I was wondering about, in both your comments on monster tactics and the reference to 'the monsters know what they're doing'. That's an interesting blog, but focused unfortunately on 5e skills/feats/abilities etc. Has there been any community interest in doing something similar based more specifically on 3.5e monsters/abilities? Also curious if there's been an attempt to review/correct CR ratings as you say that presently they're a stab in the dark.

[Saintheart]

This was a very enjoyable guide to read, thankyou. I don't have anything concrete to add or note, other than I'll need to come back and reread this again.

One thing I was wondering about, in both your comments on monster tactics and the reference to 'the monsters know what they're doing'. That's an interesting blog, but focused unfortunately on 5e skills/feats/abilities etc. Has there been any community interest in doing something similar based more specifically on 3.5e monsters/abilities? Also curious if there's been an attempt to review/correct CR ratings as you say that presently they're a stab in the dark.

As far as I know there isn't a specific blog or attempt at going monster-by-monster based off third edition, but the system's 20 years old and there might be some bits and pieces somewhere out there on forums.

On correcting CR ratings - the only really focused attempt I've seen at fixing the most egregious ratings, those in the MM2, is over here.... (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?187046-That-s-ONLY-CR-9-Let-s-Read-The-Monster-Manual-II)

There's also a few takes for other books here (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?645772-%93True-CR%94-list&highlight=That%27s+CR+9%3F+MM).

[Elves]

One tip is you can give a monster hp anywhere within the legal range without changing CR

For example if you want to make a solo monster, consider giving it max hp

[PoeticallyPsyco]

'Preciate this. Even just the list of useful feats for monsters is great; I'd never heard of many of them, and they'd also be useful for several of the char-op competitions.

This might be beyond the scope of the thread/guide, but it may be worth adding a subsection on the weird templates and not-technically-templates that walk the line between improving a monster and creating an entirely different encounter. Symbiotic Creature template, haunting presence undead, and fiends capable of possession are the three big ones off the top of my head.

[Saintheart]

One tip is you can give a monster hp anywhere within the legal range without changing CR

For example if you want to make a solo monster, consider giving it max hp

Thanks Elves - I included that in the adding HD section.


'Preciate this. Even just the list of useful feats for monsters is great; I'd never heard of many of them, and they'd also be useful for several of the char-op competitions.

This might be beyond the scope of the thread/guide, but it may be worth adding a subsection on the weird templates and not-technically-templates that walk the line between improving a monster and creating an entirely different encounter. Symbiotic Creature template, haunting presence undead, and fiends capable of possession are the three big ones off the top of my head.

Appreciated, P-P. I'll give some thought to adding that in on the template section, because it's an intriguing thought and seems at least a little in scope. Happy to hear any other suggestions for additions.