fbmf wrote:So...are these monster classes a 4e thing?
The Monster Classes like Brute, Soldier, and Skirmisher were 4e things, yes. As many things in 4e, the initial pitch was solid looking, and the "ah fuckit" design work of the writers turned it to ash. The "Lurker" class sets a monster's to-hit bonus, hit points, and defenses to a rather narrow range bassed on level, but that is ultimately not that interesting or helpful because it
doesn't define the creatures'
abilities, which are about 100% of what matters. Also, they didn't bother setting
which defenses monsters of different classes were good at or against, meaning that the effect they actually had on tactics was essentially nonexistent. Oh, and the numbers were completely fucked, especially at high level.
But the
concept of having a monster class be "Artillery", indicating that it was weak in melee and dangerous at range; or "Brute", indicating that it was dangerous in melee but weak to trickery or kiting was a really great concept. They just didn't actually deliver that concept. At all. I mean, this was pretty solid:
4e DMG, page 54 wrote:Artillery monsters excel at ranged combat. These creatures rain arrows, explosive fireballs, and similar attacks on the party from a distance. They’re well protected against ranged attacks, but more vulnerable in melee. They often spread damage out over multiple characters in an area.
But by not having an actual list of Artillery
abilities that were appropriate for any particular level (or at all, for that matter), there was zero support for that. The Artillery class ended up telling you less about what a monster was good or bad at than the Magical Beast class did. At least Magical Beasts came with shitty Will saves!
I've never heard of them, but I like the idea. Is there a 3e conversion? Is that even possible?
Game On,
fbmf
I probably wouldn't bother with a 3e conversion, because 3e already has like 7 monster books. But if you were going to ground up the monsters, you'd obviously want to start with role-based monster classes.
fbmf wrote:I don't 4e. Can someone give me a rundown of each monster class? Not the whole write up, but just a sentence or two for each.
The whole list is:
- Artillery - Ranged Attackers
- Brute - Tough dumb Melee fighters
- Controller - Battlefield control and/or debuff specialist
- Lurker - Submarine-type creatures who have large ambush-style attacks
- Minion - worthless but simple horde monster
- Skirmisher - Mobile tactical creature
- Soldier - lightning rods that defend other creatures on their team
- Leader - buff specialist, bizarrely not actually defined as a role, but like a sub-role that other classes would have stapled onto them, because 4e.
I would have a different list, but most of those are decent enough as a place to start. The normal caveats apply as regards the actual implementation in 4e. Soldiers don't inherently have any actual ability to defend their compatriots, but they are also way better than other monsters of their level because their chassis comes with higher accuracy which is worth more than what any of the other class types actually get.
My list, by the way, is:
- Blaster - creature which can trade mobility for more devastating ranged attacks.
- Ravager - creature which becomes more dangerous as they fight and get injured.
- Controller - Battlefield control and/or Debuff
- Harrier - creature which needs to disengage in order to refresh their stunlocks
- Leader - provides bonuses to allies
- Lurker - has activatable "trap cards"
- Soldier - has defenses and inflicts damage
-Username17
