Author Topic: Unearthed Arcana: The art of the filler  (Read 2509 times)

Offline Wilb

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Unearthed Arcana: The art of the filler
« on: October 10, 2016, 11:50:23 AM »
Enjoy your filler, guys!

EDIT: Encounter building guidelines.
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Offline awaken_D_M_golem

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Re: Unearthed Arcana: The art of the filler
« Reply #1 on: October 10, 2016, 04:43:40 PM »
{ ... insert as neutral as possible smiley face (?) ... }


Table look-up is easier than basic math, some of the time.
And faster.  Print out, put leafs in dmg.  Eyeball expediency.

Curious, the tables aren't "smooth", rather with some lumpyness.

I suppose a Hard-Math-er could run the numbers on these
on the ~similarity of the look-up v dmg, to each other.
And maybe back infer some of the game maths via the tables.
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Offline Nunkuruji

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Re: Unearthed Arcana: The art of the filler
« Reply #2 on: October 11, 2016, 03:35:06 PM »
Yeah, that's nice.

What I really need are 5e rules clever snippets of things like

-Pair these monsters together because complimentary reason X: 3e Medusa, Grimlock(blind)
-Put this kind of trap in a room like this, or an encounter with these monsters

Need meaty 5e DM content, less time to adapt things lately.

Offline Garryl

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Re: Unearthed Arcana: The art of the filler
« Reply #3 on: October 11, 2016, 04:44:07 PM »
Any idea why solo monster recommended levels skip up 2 levels between character level 4 and 5 parties? There's a similar jump in the multiple monster encounter ratios.

Offline awaken_D_M_golem

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Re: Unearthed Arcana: The art of the filler
« Reply #4 on: October 11, 2016, 04:48:54 PM »
Some of the "tiers" crossover stuff, is lumpy.


**

(this isn't a mathHammer, more a resource management easy button)

Noticed the table for level 5 goes :
1/4 cr = 1:8
1/2 cr = 1:4
1 cr = 1:2
2 cr = 1:1
... straightforward enough.

So then you look up a Druid 5 spell, Conjure Animals level 3 :
http://www.5esrd.com/spellcasting/all-spells/c/conjure-animals

Or say Cleric 5 Destroy Undead.

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Offline TenaciousJ

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Re: Unearthed Arcana: The art of the filler
« Reply #5 on: October 12, 2016, 11:04:36 AM »
Any idea why solo monster recommended levels skip up 2 levels between character level 4 and 5 parties? There's a similar jump in the multiple monster encounter ratios.

My best guess is level 5 is a big power jump for every class.  Cantrips get stronger, most martials get extra attack, monks get stunning strike, level 3 spells are a big jump in power from level 2, and proficiency bonus increases to 3.

e: The most useful part of the whole thing for me is mapping out where a PC is in relationship to monster CR.  Monsters with dominate abilities are much easier to gauge now if they're intelligent enough to avoid detection in an encounter while influencing a PC to attack his allies.
« Last Edit: October 12, 2016, 11:08:20 AM by TenaciousJ »
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Offline TenaciousJ

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Re: Unearthed Arcana: The art of the filler
« Reply #6 on: October 12, 2016, 11:28:50 AM »
Yeah, that's nice.

What I really need are 5e rules clever snippets of things like

-Pair these monsters together because complimentary reason X: 3e Medusa, Grimlock(blind)
-Put this kind of trap in a room like this, or an encounter with these monsters

Need meaty 5e DM content, less time to adapt things lately.

Flameskulls are really good minions for anything immune to fire and/or evasive  They're basically animated hand-grenades.  They maintain usefulness against high level adventures since their CR is low enough to use them in a great enough number that a couple fireballs going off in the first round will challenge a level 12+ group, and after the initial explosion, magic missile is guaranteed damage.  Flight and shield can make them difficult to hit, but their low HP makes them manageable when focused on.

Intellect Devourers with Mind Flayers are a bit of a gimme, and very lethal for their CR.

Xorns are amazing bloodhounds for anything that could be expected to control an earth elemental.  Treasure sense means they can track adventurers easily.

Onis with their at-will darkness are great with devils since most devils can see through magical darkness.

The Helmed Horror is an amazing minion to anything you want to use that has a mass control effect and/or spell-based area damage due its long and customizable list of immunities.

Flesh golems heal from lightning damage, so pair them with things that aren't afraid to toss lightning bolt/chain lightning/call lightning around.  Or make a blue dragon necromancer via the innate spellcasting variant for dragons.

It might not be RAI, but RAW a dryad can move between a treant's animated trees, and the treant can stay still to avoid revealing itself even as the animated trees attack.

Any crappy low CR minion can still use the help action to give advantage to its stronger master.
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