DiscipleofBob
2008-07-02, 05:29 PM
I for one, love 4th Edition, at least from a DM's point of view. I haven't gotten a chance to actually play in a 4th Edition game, so I can't give an opinion on the player's point of view.
I could go into a long list of reasons why I like DMing a 4th edition game as opposed to 3.5, but there are more than enough threads on that controversy and I'd just like to focus on one thing.
One recurring complaint I keep seeing revolves around monsters. Usually these revolve around "What if I want to use goblins above level 5?" or "Why are my options for level 1 monsters so limited?"
Now, this may just be me, but the solution to both of these problems seems very obvious and not nearly as convoluted as attempting something like this in 3.5 would be.
In 3.5, the solution to any of these problems would be to spend hours trying to give the monsters class levels or advancing the Hit Die, trying to figure out what to include, what to add, what not to add, what the ECL was, whether or not you could get rid of that Alertness feat for Power Attack, etc. It really was a nightmare planning for a single encounter, especially when you had to give those NPC's ridiculous equipment to make them a viable challenge, which the PC's could then loot and become even more ridiculously powerful.
Now, let's see what we have to do with these in 4th Edition. First, let's try to make an interesting level 1 encounter with goblins (because that's what our plot calls for). Now, the level 1 goblins involve the Goblin Cutter (Minion), the Goblin Warrior (Skirmisher), and the Goblin Blackblade (Lurker). We have minions, which can make up the bulk of the force, but they won't be an interesting encounter alone. We have the Warrior, who initially sounds like a good front-liner, but on closer inspection of his stats, he's much more adept at ranged attacks with his javelin. Heck, his backup weapon is reach as well. He's going to want to stay behind the front lines and play more of an artillery hit-and-run type role, especially when he gets better damage when he runs around rather than standing still. What about the Blackblade? If he's any good at his job, he'll be completely hidden at the start of combat. He also won't last long, even if a few Cutters are backing him up. The good news is that the goblin's racial power makes flanking and positioning a lot easier.
These three types of goblins alone? Won't cut it. The Blackblade(s) won't enter the battle until late and most PC's are going to be able to close the distance to shut down the Warrior(s) before they can get more damage in. Granted, this is a level 1 encounter, maybe you should go easy on the PC's while they get used to new rules and their new characters. But we can get around this.
You could try having the Warrior(s) standing behind a well-covered pit to trap any rushing defenders, or other obstacles in the goblins' favor, but more likely you'll just want some other types in there.
Reasonably, for a level 1 encounter, you could throw in level 2's, 3's, or even a level 4 if you're feeling particularly nasty. Let's see what that nets us:
We get the level 2 Goblin Sharpshooters, which make excellent snipers as they can miss and still remain hidden.
We get the level 3 Goblin Hexer which has some nasty side-effects and high damage. Just make sure you keep some minions or a couple brutes around to help it survive longer.
There's the level 3 Skullcleaver fills that needed Brute slot, but this may be pushing it for fresh characters, especially if you put more than one in an encounter. They have good damage, and even better when bloodied.
Finally, we have the Underboss, a level 4 Elite Controller Leader. Impressive hit points, but mediocre damage and only works well when a bunch of other goblins are backing him up.
Now, we could make several doozies of encounters with this. Particularly if we take advantage of terrain and such, which as a DM you should have goblins always do. Have the Sharpshooters find high places with concealment so they can pick off enemies from far away while the other goblins hide behind cover and ambush adventurers when they rush forward to pick off the Sharpshooters. Or use the Hexer's various curses and Vexing Cloud to blind your enemies, give your Lurkers combat advantage, and your minions concealment to increase their survivability.
We can also add some goblin pets to this: scorpions, dire rats, guard drakes, all work pretty well.
But let's add some more fun to this: How about some different options for Artillery? Well, let's take that Halfling or Kobold Slinger, change the name to Goblin Slinger, add the Goblin Tactics power, and voila! You have a level 1 goblin artillery! Kobolds already get something very, very similar to the Goblin Tactics power so you really only need to change the name. So now, instead of the (starts counting) 7 options for goblins in an encounter (plus whatever pets or other enemies you want to include), you now have the entire Kobold list, the entire Halfling list, and so much more. Since small vs medium size isn't nearly as much of a difference as before, you can throw in Hobgoblins, Bugbears, Humans, Elves, Orcs, whatever, and simply change the name and appearance and call them goblins. This works for pretty much everything and works very well. Just pick a monster stat block with the role and somewhat close to what you're looking for, add what you want, take away what you don't want, change the name and appearance and you have yourself a homebrewed encounter to keep your players guessing.
But let's address the other problem: Higher level goblins. Well, you could always just make goblins with class levels using the stats in the back of the monster manual, and even that's easier than in 3.5, but there's an easier solution: use the same principle as above.
Let's try... a level 10 encounter. What could possibly work...
Snaketongue Assassin, level 9 Lurker. The only thing that might be out-of-place is that Snakeform ability, but the Crowd Shield works perfectly. Remove the Snakeform ability and the Resist 10 poison, add Goblin Tactics and a few d6 damage during Combat Advantage and you have a valid level 9 goblin lurker. Heck, you could keep the Snakeform ability and simply give the goblin a really cool transformation type flavor.
Orc Warrior, level 9 minion, add Goblin Tactics, call it a day.
Quickling Runner, level 9 Skirmisher, the Fey Step could be reflavored or completely removed, your choice, but otherwise we have another near-perfect fit.
Foulspawn Berserker, level 9 Soldier, seems to be reaching, but take away the berserker aura and the crazy mental backlash and you have a valid Goblin berserker.
Sahuagin Baron, level 10 Elite Brute Leader, the Blood Aura and Blood Frenzy type stuff is more Sahuagin stuff so you could remove it, but it does fit the flavor of a berserker.
Other you could reflavor include the Dark Stalker (Level 10 Lurker), Oni Mage (Level 10 Elite Lurker), Dragonborn Gladiator (Level 10 Soldier), Minotaur Warrior (Level 10 Soldier). Those were just the obvious ones. Really you could take any statblock and rearrange it to your needs.
I could go into a long list of reasons why I like DMing a 4th edition game as opposed to 3.5, but there are more than enough threads on that controversy and I'd just like to focus on one thing.
One recurring complaint I keep seeing revolves around monsters. Usually these revolve around "What if I want to use goblins above level 5?" or "Why are my options for level 1 monsters so limited?"
Now, this may just be me, but the solution to both of these problems seems very obvious and not nearly as convoluted as attempting something like this in 3.5 would be.
In 3.5, the solution to any of these problems would be to spend hours trying to give the monsters class levels or advancing the Hit Die, trying to figure out what to include, what to add, what not to add, what the ECL was, whether or not you could get rid of that Alertness feat for Power Attack, etc. It really was a nightmare planning for a single encounter, especially when you had to give those NPC's ridiculous equipment to make them a viable challenge, which the PC's could then loot and become even more ridiculously powerful.
Now, let's see what we have to do with these in 4th Edition. First, let's try to make an interesting level 1 encounter with goblins (because that's what our plot calls for). Now, the level 1 goblins involve the Goblin Cutter (Minion), the Goblin Warrior (Skirmisher), and the Goblin Blackblade (Lurker). We have minions, which can make up the bulk of the force, but they won't be an interesting encounter alone. We have the Warrior, who initially sounds like a good front-liner, but on closer inspection of his stats, he's much more adept at ranged attacks with his javelin. Heck, his backup weapon is reach as well. He's going to want to stay behind the front lines and play more of an artillery hit-and-run type role, especially when he gets better damage when he runs around rather than standing still. What about the Blackblade? If he's any good at his job, he'll be completely hidden at the start of combat. He also won't last long, even if a few Cutters are backing him up. The good news is that the goblin's racial power makes flanking and positioning a lot easier.
These three types of goblins alone? Won't cut it. The Blackblade(s) won't enter the battle until late and most PC's are going to be able to close the distance to shut down the Warrior(s) before they can get more damage in. Granted, this is a level 1 encounter, maybe you should go easy on the PC's while they get used to new rules and their new characters. But we can get around this.
You could try having the Warrior(s) standing behind a well-covered pit to trap any rushing defenders, or other obstacles in the goblins' favor, but more likely you'll just want some other types in there.
Reasonably, for a level 1 encounter, you could throw in level 2's, 3's, or even a level 4 if you're feeling particularly nasty. Let's see what that nets us:
We get the level 2 Goblin Sharpshooters, which make excellent snipers as they can miss and still remain hidden.
We get the level 3 Goblin Hexer which has some nasty side-effects and high damage. Just make sure you keep some minions or a couple brutes around to help it survive longer.
There's the level 3 Skullcleaver fills that needed Brute slot, but this may be pushing it for fresh characters, especially if you put more than one in an encounter. They have good damage, and even better when bloodied.
Finally, we have the Underboss, a level 4 Elite Controller Leader. Impressive hit points, but mediocre damage and only works well when a bunch of other goblins are backing him up.
Now, we could make several doozies of encounters with this. Particularly if we take advantage of terrain and such, which as a DM you should have goblins always do. Have the Sharpshooters find high places with concealment so they can pick off enemies from far away while the other goblins hide behind cover and ambush adventurers when they rush forward to pick off the Sharpshooters. Or use the Hexer's various curses and Vexing Cloud to blind your enemies, give your Lurkers combat advantage, and your minions concealment to increase their survivability.
We can also add some goblin pets to this: scorpions, dire rats, guard drakes, all work pretty well.
But let's add some more fun to this: How about some different options for Artillery? Well, let's take that Halfling or Kobold Slinger, change the name to Goblin Slinger, add the Goblin Tactics power, and voila! You have a level 1 goblin artillery! Kobolds already get something very, very similar to the Goblin Tactics power so you really only need to change the name. So now, instead of the (starts counting) 7 options for goblins in an encounter (plus whatever pets or other enemies you want to include), you now have the entire Kobold list, the entire Halfling list, and so much more. Since small vs medium size isn't nearly as much of a difference as before, you can throw in Hobgoblins, Bugbears, Humans, Elves, Orcs, whatever, and simply change the name and appearance and call them goblins. This works for pretty much everything and works very well. Just pick a monster stat block with the role and somewhat close to what you're looking for, add what you want, take away what you don't want, change the name and appearance and you have yourself a homebrewed encounter to keep your players guessing.
But let's address the other problem: Higher level goblins. Well, you could always just make goblins with class levels using the stats in the back of the monster manual, and even that's easier than in 3.5, but there's an easier solution: use the same principle as above.
Let's try... a level 10 encounter. What could possibly work...
Snaketongue Assassin, level 9 Lurker. The only thing that might be out-of-place is that Snakeform ability, but the Crowd Shield works perfectly. Remove the Snakeform ability and the Resist 10 poison, add Goblin Tactics and a few d6 damage during Combat Advantage and you have a valid level 9 goblin lurker. Heck, you could keep the Snakeform ability and simply give the goblin a really cool transformation type flavor.
Orc Warrior, level 9 minion, add Goblin Tactics, call it a day.
Quickling Runner, level 9 Skirmisher, the Fey Step could be reflavored or completely removed, your choice, but otherwise we have another near-perfect fit.
Foulspawn Berserker, level 9 Soldier, seems to be reaching, but take away the berserker aura and the crazy mental backlash and you have a valid Goblin berserker.
Sahuagin Baron, level 10 Elite Brute Leader, the Blood Aura and Blood Frenzy type stuff is more Sahuagin stuff so you could remove it, but it does fit the flavor of a berserker.
Other you could reflavor include the Dark Stalker (Level 10 Lurker), Oni Mage (Level 10 Elite Lurker), Dragonborn Gladiator (Level 10 Soldier), Minotaur Warrior (Level 10 Soldier). Those were just the obvious ones. Really you could take any statblock and rearrange it to your needs.