Guidelines for monsters (Creatures)

Harkker
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Playing nwn since Balder's Gate

Posts: 948

Guidelines for monsters (Creatures) Sept 4, 2013 2:42:30 GMT

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Post by Harkker on Sept 4, 2013 2:42:30 GMT

Well the first thing to understand about creatures is what they look like in the toolset and explain somethings you may not know.

First name, Last Name - The Name of course

... Box - when you see the box with three dots you can click on it and it will allow you to edit that thing in a bigger box.

Tag - a tag is a unique identifier that the game will use to identify that object.

Race - where you would select the race... it is usually better to stay with the 1st 20 instead of the prc races, also this must be set to undead if you want the creature to be turnable.

Appearance - The look which determines the size of a creature

phenotype Phenotypes are basically different animations of the same model unless the creature has a player race it won't do much

Gender cosmetic

Description what you want to have written upon examination

challenge Rating - Challenge Rating determines how much xp a pc will get for killing the creature. Four pcs of a level equal to the cr is considered a moderate challenge for them.

portrait the portrait shown in co
conversation The name of the conversation file that the creature will use.

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Last Edit: Sept 4, 2013 22:28:05 GMT by Harkker

Harkker
Administrator

Playing nwn since Balder's Gate

Posts: 948

Guidelines for monsters (Creatures) Sept 4, 2013 2:44:52 GMT

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Post by Harkker on Sept 4, 2013 2:44:52 GMT

The Appearance tab
Ok for dynamic ceatures you can adjust things like head or forearms etc... there are some different types hidden in the phenotypes as well..

a lot of creatures can use tailes and/ or wings and some of these are visual effects

The Advanced tab... ok there is a lot of good stuff in here.

The blueprint resrefernce is called when creating things in a script, and also what you use when sending an erf.
interface Lots of boxes to check each with a different feature
Disarmable- should be checked unless there is a very valid reason why a creature could not be disarmed... like if it was a ghost.
plot- plot creatures can not be hurt under any circumstance... and often ignore attacks outright although they can be taunted and if so will attack with out dying which is bad for players.
Leaves lootable corpse- checking this means that the body doesn't disappear and leave a loot bag but instead leaves the body... this should be checked almost all the time for creatures used.
No permanent Death - this means that the creature can be killed and brough back to life with a raise dead spell..however if you loot said creature the option is lost.
Immortal- checking this means the creature can never be killed but can be brought down to 1 hit point.... used for trolls and some other reasons where a scrript can uncheck this.

Faction- do not create your own, it can not be sent.

Special
subrace and deity are not really used but could be apply template will modify the creature with a pre existing bioware template.

Challenge Rating
CR determines the amount of xp that a player will get as well as what will spawn during an encounter.

Sound set choose something other than ASSimar... back in the day it set to Assimar by default and you will still find creatures with that voice... please choose something or nothing.

Perception range - always set to Long, unless the creature is suppose to be blind. Monsters in D&D always see further than the adventurers.

Varibles. Perhaps the most important thing here. you can set strings (phrases) and int (number values to different. If you have used the hit and have set a varible...dm_setvarint looks 32 that is where you would do it in the toolset.
of key notes with vaibles... a list of spawn varibles which will affect the creature when they are created is found here

karador.freeforums.net/thread/44/varible-list

The Classes Tab

Alignment - where you set the alignment... important to make sure it is right...
Classes where you can see what classes that the creature has and what levels they are... including monster races...
Default package for level shows how the creature will level up if given a chance.

Level up wizard... this is how you should level up a creature as they will get the feats and powers they should... just raising the class level in the classes tab will not chnage anything but the level up wizard will give hit points.

Last Edit: Oct 23, 2013 17:53:34 GMT by Harkker

Harkker Administrator Playing nwn since Balder's Gate Posts: 948	Guidelines for monsters (Creatures) Sept 4, 2013 2:45:57 GMT Quote Select Post Deselect Post Link to Post Member Give Gift Back to Top Post by Harkker on Sept 4, 2013 2:45:57 GMT words Attachments:

Harkker Administrator Playing nwn since Balder's Gate Posts: 948	Guidelines for monsters (Creatures) Sept 4, 2013 2:47:31 GMT Quote Select Post Deselect Post Link to Post Member Give Gift Back to Top Post by Harkker on Sept 4, 2013 2:47:31 GMT words words Attachments:

Harkker
Administrator

Playing nwn since Balder's Gate

Posts: 948

Guidelines for monsters (Creatures) Oct 23, 2013 23:48:40 GMT

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Post by Harkker on Oct 23, 2013 23:48:40 GMT

.

Lets take a moment and look at what makes a good challenge for players. I can only tell what the formula is that I use... and it may not fit all.

First we have to look at what level your players are likely to be. You can look at this mostly like a math problem. You need to figure out what type of ac hit points and to hit your creatures need.

Cr equals what would be an ok but not deadly challenge for a party of 4.

IN d&d there are three basic character types... fighter types with a base attack of +1 per level, wizards who have a +0.5 attack bonus per level and cleric level types .75 attack bonus level.

so if you have a 10th level fighter... he will have a base attack of +10, +7 for cleric rogue type, and +5 for wizards. Really wizards and the like are weak and fighters should excel so when building you should focus on the middle one. In fact when planning your monsters Druids are what you should base most monsters on. A druid is inbetween on his attack .75 per level, ac (medium armor with shields) and spell capacity.

you can assmue that a player will get magic weapons at +1/4 levels.
stats increase about 1 /4 levels on average but you can assume the average is 14 +1 for ever 4 levels

So if you had an 8th level druid you could assume that he would have medium armor.. 4/4 that would be magic +2 with a +2 ac dex bonus and +2 protection ring +2 medium shield or about 24 ac

a +2 weapon a +2 strength (16 or so)+6 base +3 due to str +2 weapon so a +11 to attack

80 hit points (most people max out)

24 ac +11/+6 to attack 80 hit points. for 8th

for a level 4 druid 21 ac, +6 to attack 40 hp

likewise a level 12 druid will be +15/+10 attack 27 ac 120 hits

ok so the idela I shoot for is that a monster has to have between 25- 50% chance to hit the base druid, making wizard types easier for the monster to hit and fighter types harder.

so because the average roll to hit is 10.5 a fourth level character would need an enemy who would have at most +6 to +11
an 8th level character the monster should have +9-+14
a 12th level character would need a +13-+17 to hit to be a challenge...

for the monsters ac you will want the ac to be easier for the pc to hit... with character hitting 60-75%
or add 5-8 to what the players attack bonus is... 11- 14 for level 4 16-19 ac for level 8 20 -23 ac for level 12

Now here is the deal if you race the monsters ac lower something else... like hits or attack bonus. if all of these are low raise the spell or special abilities... I will edit these later so they are more readable.

Guidelines for monsters (Creatures)

Post by Harkker on Sept 4, 2013 2:42:30 GMT

Post by Harkker on Sept 4, 2013 2:44:52 GMT

Post by Harkker on Sept 4, 2013 2:45:57 GMT

Post by Harkker on Sept 4, 2013 2:47:31 GMT

Post by Harkker on Oct 23, 2013 23:48:40 GMT