Sarah Darkmagic's blog

One of the things I struggle with in building monsters is when to use conditions instead of just damage. There just isn't a ton of advice on which ones to use, how often, or anything like that. And given that one of the big design changes for MM3 is the use of more effects, and effects on a miss, understanding the severity of effects is even more important.

So here is the list as I see it, starting with the harshest penalties (the ones you'll want to use the least). When I created the list, I looked towards the fun of the players in addition to the effects the conditions had on the PCs. So the first group is little fun because basically the players get one roll per turn, their saving throw, and they are open to coup de grace.

After that are the conditions that aren't much better as they still remove the players actions but the PCs aren't as vulnerable. Dominated is particularly annoying to players because their carefully crafted character is turned against their fellow party members. Perhaps these are best saved for elites and solos and even then, only on their recharge powers. Additionally, they make good conditions after a 2nd or 3rd failed saving throw on a weaker condition.

From there we have the somewhat harsh, fair and annoyances. The first group is probably best left to recharge powers (ones that are used once or twice per encounter) or as conditions of a failed saving throw. The second group can be tricky, so you might want to limit them to recharge powers or only to the end of the next turn. The last group is pretty safe and can be used much more often.

Group 1: The Harshest

• Dying
• Unconscious
• Helpless
• Petrified

Group 2: Use with Care (removes all actions)

• Dominated
• Stunned

Group 3: Somewhat Harsh

• Dazed
• Blinded
• Restrained
• Weakened
• -5 to attack

Group 4: Fair

• Prone
• Ongoing Damage
• Immobilized / Grabbed

Group 5: Annoyances

• Slowed
• Deafened
• Forced Movement
• -2 to attack
• Marked
• Grant Combat Advantage
• -2 to defenses

So that's my list. What changes would you make?

Edit: I moved weakened to the somewhat harsh category.
Edit: At Rob's suggestion I added -5 to attack, -2 to attack and -2 to defenses, although I changed the groups for the latter two. I also added in granting combat advantage.

June was a crazy month for me, not only here with things like the unofficial monster builder manual, but I contributed to some podcasts and wrote an article for another site. I'm having a blast doing it and I want to thank all of you for making it possible.

• I have a new monthly column at Temporary Hit Points. There I'm known as the Player's Guide and I hope to demystify D&D for newer players and answer their questions about playing this great game.
• I'm part of The Fellowship of the Tweet, an online OD&D game run by @newbiedm and often including @deadorcs, @DMSamuel, @ThadeousC, @gamefiend, and @chattydm. When we can't play, we often have a conversation about D&D. We recorded our second one and posted it here.
• As of Wednesday, I am also a co-host on the new podcast 4geeks4e. So far we've released our introductory episode and hope to record another one soon. We aim to keep it at about 30 minutes and just give our take on this great hobby of ours.
• I am also a fairly regular contributor to the Tome Show. Last month I helped with the review of the Player's Strategy Guide and Amethyst.

There you have it, just a few of the things that have kept me extra busy. I'll be busy this month preparing to go to my first GenCon. There's lots to do and little time to do it in.

Greg Bilsland recently wrote an excellent post on his blog about the DM's dirty secret. Put simply, as awesome as PCs are, they are always going to be challenged. What's more, it's the DM's responsibility to make sure of it and the rules as written often can't provide that challenge.

That last bit is particularly important. My guess is that's partly why monster and encounter design is left loosely defined in the core books and why they remain a mystery to many DMs. Given the nature of D&D, the different player motivations and skill levels, it's impossible to craft monster and encounter generation rules that will challenge all groups in the same way. The DM needs to be able to make tweaks and changes that provide the type of tension and challenge that makes the game fun for the group.

The Kobold Guide to Game Design volume 3 echoes this philosophy. In the chapter "Myths and Realities of Game Balance," Monte Cook argues that the gamers' social contract is that "everyone is responsible for making the game fun for all involved" and that the players must "trust the GM to provide a fun and balanced play experience." While rules systems can provide a number of tools to make this easier on players and DMs, none of them can provide the actual balance. For that, you need the people at the table to trust one another.

Greg provides some pretty controversial methods for providing this challenge including fudging dice rolls and modifying monsters on the fly. Since players often feel like their characters live or die by their dice, I understand the hesitation and how such behavior affects trust at the table.

The second one is really only an issue at tables where a number of the players DM or are big into meta-gaming. It's a thornier issue because players are required to go by their character sheet. What often gets forgotten is that a monster stat block is a shortened character sheet with a lot of room left for modification. In addition, 4th edition is meant to allow characters, PCs and NPCs alike, to go off script. Page 42 exists in the Dungeon Master's Guide for a reason.

Personally, I roll in the open. My changes occur on the monster side, often before we even hit the table. When it comes down to it, I'm much more likely to fudge on the side of my players than not. If they are having a tough time in an encounter and the monster has a power that is likely to finish them off, I'm more likely than not to pull my punches. What I would ask for in return is that if they are totally blowing through an encounter that I thought would be harder, then I would like to recharge the dragon's breath weapon even though I rolled a 4 instead of a 5 or 6. It will provide a bit more fright but in the end, the group will be victorious and happy.

One thing that often surprises me is how much, and yet how little, we change when we create fantasy worlds. For instance, we often radically change the look and feel of the world. We add new wondrous species, awe-inspiring locales and epic legends. However, rarely do we change the fundamental underpinnings of our societal structure such as our views on gender, race, and disability. In these aspects, our worlds are more likely to mirror our reality than our desire.

Why is this? For one, we have a hard time imagining people with motivations and a world outlook different from our own. This is evident in our insistence on giving modern motivations and sensibilities to historical events and people. Given how I was raised, I can't imagine what it was like before the advent of modern medicine, when most children did not live to see adulthood. Likewise, I can't imagine being willing to sacrifice a child or to kill someone for stealing the seed grain. But yet people did those things and made those value judgments. I can write them off as monsters or acknowledge that perhaps they thought about the world in a way different than I do.

Often, these societal views are tied to fundamental issues of identity. Our race and nationality often tie us together to certain value groupings and orderings in ways that are difficult to escape, or, at the very least, lead others to group us in ways that are unfair to our individuality. Gender identity confronts us every day, from the ways we address each other to which restroom we use. Those with disabilities are often acutely aware of them because they call out our individuality, often at times when we most want to be part of the crowd. We allow these things to define us because our societies define us by them.

The fundamental nature of these rules means it's often easier to change ourselves than change the rules. We go through great lengths to "fit in" whether it's neutralizing accents, getting plastic surgery or going into debt to have the newest shiny. It's no great surprise then that we have a hard time ignoring these impulses when we design our fantasy worlds. And, when we do escape their pull, we have a habit of pointing it out, often in a jarring manner.

This underlying issue is why the lack of character diversity in D&D upsets me as much as it does. I know that there is no vast conspiracy, corporate or otherwise, to keep anyone "in their place." Rather, the problem is that we lack a bit of imagination and a willingness to reshape the rules of our existence. Even in a world where trains move by magic and people can call lightning from the sky, we often have few female adventurers, far fewer than the 50% of the population they presumably comprise, and most adventurers are healthy without a scratch on them. Our characters still conform to Western European ideals of gender and color and the virility of man.

Not every writer, DM, or player is like this, but enough are that the promise of fantasy still outweighs the reality. I'm sorry that it saddens me a bit, but I would be lying if I said otherwise. It's an incredibly hard problem to solve and, for the majority of players, often not a fun one. I wish I had some easy fix and I know it's much easier to just shrug our shoulders and ignore the issue entirely. But I'm making a resolution to think about these things in my games and, I hope, that some of you will join me.

Yesterday on Twitter I mentioned that I was trying to think up a good adventure idea for a downloadable delve. Rob Donoghue suggested using a lumber mill as a backdrop. Loving a good challenge, I decided to give it a shot. Here is my rough draft of such an adventure. I created it in less than 24 hours so there are still some rough edges. I still have to create maps, but basically, it's just a series of interconnected rooms, probably about 10 by 10 squares and a conveyor belt moving through the middle of them. Movement between the rooms can be through the conveyor belt or through doors.

Hook:

The PCs are returning to town when they come upon two huddled figures limping along the road. When they get closer, the group notices they are two teenagers, badly beaten. The youngsters tell their tale of woe. They and the some other village children were collecting firewood in the town wood when they came upon a group of gnomes cutting down trees. The gnomes noticed them before they could escape and beat the two teenagers and left them for dead. They took the rest of the children, probably for ransom or sale to slavers.

The teenagers give clear instructions to the location of the crime and, from there, the PCs are able to follow the trail without problem. It leads to a lumber mill. The PCs' experience tells them it might be easier to enter through the back, rather than try a frontal assault.

Encounter 1: Up the Conveyor

Encounter Level 1 (500 XP)

1 Bucking Saws
3 Gnome Debarkers

Setup
The first step of the manufacturing process is to remove the bark from the tree trunks and cut them into manageable sizes (bucking). This room is set up to do that, with gnomes specially trained to debark the trees and machinery hung from the ceiling to do the cuts.

When the PCs enter the room
They surprise the gnomes while they were taking a break. The gnome closest to the control panel will try to turn it on.

Tactics
The gnomes will try to engage anyone who gets near the panel.

Features of the Area:
Illumination: Brightly lit
Conveyor Belt: Creatures on the conveyor belt get 1 extra movement in the direction the belt is moving. If moving against the belt, treat it as difficult terrain. It takes an Athletics/Acrobatics check (DC 5) to get on or off the conveyor.

Encounter 2: Blades of Doom

Encounter Level 2 (625 XP)

Setup
Gnome "Saw Master"
12 Flying Buzz Saws

Rather than the normal machinery one would expect in a lumber mill, the hard work of crafting lumber from chunks of tree is done by a gnome and his mind controlled saws. He leers at the party and figures his saws will be just as good at cutting them up.

Tactics
The Saw Master will mark 2 of the PCs to start and have his blades annoy those members of the party. From there, he will attempt to provide them with combat advantage where ever possible, using his blinding pain power as soon as possible.

Features of the Area:
Illumination: Bright light.

Encounter 3: Meet the Foreman

Encounter Level 3 (800 XP)

Setup
Lumberyard Foreman
2 Gnome Finishers
1 Guard Dog
2 Lumber Piles

The missing children are in this room, being hassled by the gnome foreman and his dogs. As soon as they see the party enter, the finishers climb on top of the lumber pile. The foreman is not above bargaining with the PCs but he is very confident in his abilities (with good reason) so his initial offers will be quite high.

The lumber pile traps easily can be used against the PCs or against the finishers. The finishers like their perches, however, so will wait before using them. The guard dog is very loyal to the foreman but not the finishers.

Features of the Area:
Illumination: Brightly lit.